THE NORTH POLE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9997, 18 March 1910, Page 3

THE NORTH POLE.

COMMANDER PEARY'S STORY OF HIS VOYAGE.

The first instalment of Commander Peary's story of the discovery of the North Fole is published in the current issue of ', Nash's Magaiziie." The article deals principally with the preparations for and the equipment of the expedition, and mentions various incidents of the early stages of the voyage of the Roosevelt, up to the departure from Cape York on Aug - ust Ist, 1908. We give the following passages from the story: — My most impelling desire, when I knew for a certainty that I had reached my goal, was for a little rest; but after two or three hours of absolutely fatigue-impelled sleep, a state of mental exaltation made further rest impossible. For more than a score of years that mathematical point on the earth's surface had been the object of ray every

effort. To attain it I had dedicated my

whole being, physical, mental, and moral; hai risked my life a hundred times and the lives of those who had been glad to take the chances with me; had given all my own money and the money of my friends. That last journey was my eighth into the Arctic. I had spent in these regions eighteen years out of the' twentythree between my thirtieth and my fifty third year, . and the live years which I had spent in civilisation during that period had been mainly occupied with preparations for Arctic journeys. WHERE IT IS ALWAYS DAYLIGHT. We arrived at 90deg. north at ten o'clock in the morning |of April 6th, and we left there about four o'clock in the afternoon of April 7th. Only by our watches, of course, could we distinguish the morning from the afternoon, as the sun ac that point swings round and round the heavens at a certain altitude, and it is always daylight at that season of the year. During those thirty hours at the pole I made the necessary observations for position, went ssme ten miles beyond our camp and some eight miles to the right of it, planted my flags, deposited my records, took photographs, studied the horizon through my telescope for possible land, and sought for a suitable place to make a sounding. The other happenings at those thirty hours will be covered in detail at the appropriate place in the narrative which follows.

SOME NOVEL SUGGESTIONS. Commander Feary had intended to go north in the summer of 1907, but the "diabolical delays of ship contractors" had not entered into his scheme of reckoning, and he was compelled to spend most of the winter of 1907 waiting for another summer and trying to possess his soul in patience.

During ail this waiting time, he says, I was constantly in receipt of crank letters from people all over the country, in face from all over the world, presenting ideas or devices which in the opinion of the writers would absolutely insure my reaching the Pole. Among those letters can be found offers of everything in the line of flying mechines, motors, submarine boats; portable sawmills to be installed on the shores of the Central .Polar Sea, for the purpose pf shaping lamber with which to construct enclosed woDleti tunnels projecting ever th 3 sarxaca ot the Polar Sea; soup lines to be conveyed through hose transported on hose carriages, so that the outlying parties could be warmed and invigorated with hot soup from tha central station; and one device, the secret of which the inventor would not divulge, but which apparently amounted to this: If I could get the mac-

hine up toere, at>d could get it. pointed in the right'.direction, and could hold on long it would shoot me to the Pole without fail.

Many friends of the expedition who could not send cash sent useful articles of equipment, tor the comfort or amusement of the men. Among such articles were a bililard table, various games, and innumerable books. A member of the expedition having said to a newspaper man a short time before tha Roosevelt sailed that we had not much reading matter, the ship was deluged with books, magazines, and newspapers, which came literally in waggon-loads. They were strewn in every cabin, in every tocker, on the meas-tables, on the deck—everywhere. Finally, in order to made room for ourselves, we had to feed some oi the literature to the boilers. But the generosity of the public was very gratifying, and there was much

good reading among the books and : magazines. . j When the time came for the Koose- \ velt to sail, we had everything which we absolutely needed in the . way of equipment, including boxes of Christmas candy. A TOUCHING FAREWELL. After paying a high tribute to various members of the expedition. Commander Peary gives particulars of the supplies taken by the expedition. The essentials needed in a serious Artcic siedge journey, he says, are four: Pemmic3n, tea, ships" biscuit, and condensed milk. For meat he always dep3nded on the country itself. After describing the departure of the Roosevelt from New York, he says: We got away from North Sydney about half-past three in the afternoon of June 17, in glittering, golden sunshine. As we passed the signal statioD they signalled us, "Good-bye and a prosperous voyage;" we replied'. "Thank you," and dipped our colours.

A little tug which we had chartered to take our guests back to Sydney followed the Roosevelt as far as Low Point Light, outside the harbour; there she ran alongside, and Mrs Peary and the chiluren and Colonel Borup, with two or three other friends, transferred to her. As my five year old son, Robert, jun., kissed me good-bye, ha said, "Come back soon, dad." With reluctant eyes I watched the little tug grow smaller and smaller in the blue distance.

Another farewell—and bad been so many! Brave, noble little woman! You have born with me the brunt of all my Arctic work. But, somehow, this parting was less sad than any which had gone before. I think we both felt that it was the •last.

By the time the stars came cut the last items of supplies taken on at North Sydney were stowed, and the decks at least were unusually free for an Arctic ship just starting northwards—- all but the quarter-deck, which was piled high with bags of coal.

As we steamed steadil} northward ihe nights grew shorter and shorter, and lighter, lighter, and lighter, 30 that when we crossed the Arctic Circle, soon after midnight on July 26, we were in perpetual daylight. I have crossed the Circle some twentyljtimes, going out and coming, so the fine edge of that experience has been somewhat dulled for me; but the Arctic "tenderfeet" among mv party, Drs Godsell. McMillan and Borup, were appropriately |impressed. They felt as one feels -n crossing the the first time — that it is an event.

ARRIVAL AT CAPE YORK. - We reached Cape York on the first day of August. Cape York is the bold bluff headland which marks the soutLern point of the 'stretch [of Ajrctic coast inhabited by my Esquimaux, the most northerly human beings of the world. It is the headland whose snowy cap I have seen so many times rising in the distance above the horizon line of Melville Bay, as my ships have steamed north.

As we aDnroached Cape York, the headland was encircled ana guarded by an enormous squadron of floating icebergs, which made it difficult for the Roosevelt to get near the shore; but long before we reached these bergs the hunters of the settlement were seen putting out to meet us in their'tiny skin canoes or kayaks. It was with a peculiar feeling of satisfaction that I saw the men putting out to meet me in their tiny craft, like black specks on the water, and I realised that IJwas once more in contact with these faithful [dwellers of the north, who had been my constant companions tor so many years, through all the varying circumstances and fortunes of my Arctic work, and from whom I was again to select the pick and flower hunters of the whole tribe, extending from Cape York to Etah, to assist me in this last decermined effort to win the prize.

1 know every man, woman, and i c ild in the tribe, from Cape York to ! Etah, and there are between two hundred and twenty and two hundred and thirty of them now. Prior to 1892 they had never been fart 1 er north tVan their own habitat. I w nt to these people yearsJ"ago, and my first work was from their country as a base. From these Esquimaux at Cape York. I learned everything which had happened in the tribe since I had seen them last, two years before; who had died, in what families children had been born, where this family and that family were then living—that is, the distribution of the tribe for that I'S.rtkul.ir summer. I thus learned where I could find the other men I wanted.

THE DASH FOR THE POLE. At Capf Y >rk I was on the threshold of the actual work. I had on board the ship when I arrived there all the equipment and asfistance which the civilised world could yeild. Beginning there, I was to take on the tools, the material,»tbe personne that the Arctic regions themselves were to furnish for their own conquest. Cape York, or Melville Say, is the dividing line between the civilised world on the one side and the Arctic world on the other —the Arctic world with its equipment of Esquimaux, dogs, walrus, seal, fur c'othing, and abori Inal experience.

I felt, as we steamed northward from Cape York on the first day of August, 1908. that I was at last face to face with my own destiny, which was no,w to have the final word with me; I felt that all my years of work and all my former expeditions were merely preparations for this last and supreme effort. It has been said that well directed labour toward a given end is the best kind of prayer for its attainment. But no man can live for years surrounded by the great white mysttry of the Arctic without feeling that within and behind it is an Intelligence—watchful and responsive. And it, standing there with my back to the world and my face toward that Mystery, I dared to ask of It the boon for which I had laboured so long, can any man wonder that 1 say so?