THE NORTH POLE.* COMMANDER PEARY tells again a story which
has been often told before, but with not a few important variations and wit It a different ending. Every one knows the essential conditions of the problem to be solved. The explorer has to start in July, to spend the winter as far north as may conveniently be, and make the final effort early in the new year. The first struggle is the battling through the ice, and here the long experience of the traveller in Arctic voyaging—his first expedition took place in 1891—was made to serve. The 'Roosevelt' was specially adapted for the purpose; its frame was hardly "resistless," as Mr. Grosvenor puts it in his "Foreword," for more than once it was in imminnat danger, but it had advantages over all its predecessors. Then there were most careful and well-considered prepara- tions in the way of provisions, clothing, sledges, dogs, and dog-harness—it was a great thing to provide a harness which the wearer could not eat—and most important of all, of human helpers. Commander Peary had excellent sub- ordinates, to whom he does full justice ; but the men who helped him to reach the Pole were Eskimos. And here too the time spent in Arctic regions had been a necessary pre- paration. He had come to know the people, and they had come to know him. He could pick the fittest individuals, and
these were ready to do anything for him. There is nothing in the volume more generally interesting than what it tells us about these dwellers in the Arctic. We know of no scheme of human life which seems to take them in. It is impossible, we are told, to Christianise them. To bring them into different conditions of life would mean their destruction. After many fierce struggles with the ice Cape Sheridan was reached on September 5th. This was the first record established. The 'Roosevelt' had got further north "than any vessel had ever reached under her own steam." Here more than five months were spent, broken by occa- sional expeditions and by hunting, the chief prey being bears, deer, musk-oxen, all important creatures,—twice before had the explorer and his party been saved by their timely appearance. All this time the Eskimo women—for there was a regular colony with the expedition—were busy making garments, more expertly, we are told, than any civilised furrier. There was no monotony in the winter life, if for no other reason than for the constant pressure of various cares. The dogs, for instance, gave much anxiety. Two hundred and forty-six had been brought up, but they died so rapidly " The North Pole. By Robert E. Peary. London: Hodder and Stoughton. [25a. net.1
that it seemed doubtful whether there would be enough for the important journey. The food, whale-meat, was ineffioient, but when pork was substituted the mortality was
increased. The animal seems, indeed, to have a precarious hold on life.- It will undergo the severest toil and privation without apparent injury, and dies without visible cause when all surroundings gre favourable. The daily ration is a pound of pemmican.
• The -final effort was commenced on February 15th, when Captain Bartlett, who was, so to speak, second in command, started with an advance party. Commander Peary himself left the ship on the 22nd of the same month,—by a felicitous Coincidence, Washington's birthday. Not a few difficulties had to be overcome. The temperature rose, and the way was barred by open water. Some of the Eskimos became terrified, and showed signs of the strange nervous diseases to which they are liable. We cannot pretend to give here the details of the journey. The general plan is thus described :—
" I hoped that with good weather Borup might get beyond 85° Marvin beyond 88°, and Bartlett beyond 87°. At the end of each five march section I should send back the poorest dogs, the least effective Eskimos, and the worst damaged sledges This programme was carried out without a hitch."
On March 26th Marvin, the naturalist, turned back, to perish by an accident a few days afterwards ; on the 31st Bartlett returned. The party was now reduced to the Commander,
Henson, his negro attendant, and the four Eskimos, Ouqueah, Oota.h, Egingwah, and Seegloo. There were five sledges and forty dogs, the pick of the two hundred and forty-six which had been collected for the work. On April 6th the
goal -was reached. It was a situation full of strangeness. "Every breeze which could possibly blow upon us must be a South wind. One day and one night constituted a year ; a hundred such days and nights constituted a century." Never, we may safely say, was a great achievement reached by worthier means and more thoroughly deserved. And it was an American achievement. Commander Peary is very positive about that, though he would not deny that his country has gathered the fruit for which others have laboured, and gathered it not without the help of others, for Captain Bartlett is a Newfoundlander, "a first cousin," as Commander Peary calls him. Who would question the relationship ?
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