Commander Peary's reasons for declaring that Dr. Cook did not
reach the North Pole were issued on Tuesday night by the Peary Arctic Club in New York. The document is accompanied by a chart on which the two Eskimos who Dr. Cook alleges went with him to the Pole traced the actual journey. Commander Peary says that the two Eskimos, who are aged eighteen and nineteen, laughed at Dr. Cook's claim. The reproduction of their narrative is signed by Commander Peary, Captain Bartlett, Professor Macmillan, Mr. Bornp, and Henson, but most of the statements were made in Commander Peary's absence, in order to avoid the charge of undue influence. The account of the journey covers the period in which Dr. Cook asserts that he travelled to the Pole and returned, and therefore, if it is true, it finally disposes of Dr. Cook's claim. Dr. Cook, however, declares that the Eskimos promised to give no information to Commander Peary and that in misleading him they have only fulfilled their promise. At this rate the Polar controversy is likely to drag on till some authoritative statement is made on the subject by men of science who hare examined whatever papers Dr. Cook may have. Meanwhile the gravest charge yet launched against Dr. Cook's veracity WAS published on Thursday, when the Explorers' Club in New York issued an affidavit by Mr. Edward Barrille, the guide who accompanied Dr. Cook on his Mount McKinley expedition. Mr. Barrille swears that Dr. Cook induced him to falsify his diary; that they were never within twenty miles of the summit of Mount McKinley ; and that the peak photographed as the summit was not higher than eight thousand feet.
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