The North Pole

The North Pole, by Robert E. Peary

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The North Pole, by Robert E. Peary This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: The North Pole Its Discovery in 1909 under the auspices of the Peary Arctic Club
Author: Robert E. Peary
Release Date: August 3, 2006 [EBook #18975]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE NORTH POLE ***

Produced by Suzanne Lybarger, Brian Janes, Emmy and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

THE NORTH POLE
COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
[Illustration: THE FIVE FLAGS AT THE POLE
LEFT TO RIGHT
1. Navy League--Ooqueah 2. D. K. E. Fraternity--Ootah 3. Polar Flag Carried 15 Years--Henson 4. D. A. R. Peace Flag--Egingwah 5. Red Cross Flag--Seegloo]

THE NORTH POLE
ITS DISCOVERY IN 1909 UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE PEARY ARCTIC CLUB
BY
ROBERT E. PEARY
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY THEODORE ROOSEVELT
AND A FOREWORD BY GILBERT H. GROSVENOR DIRECTOR AND EDITOR, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
[Illustration]
GREENWOOD PRESS, PUBLISHERS NEW YORK
Originally published in 1910 by Frederick A. Stokes Co.
First Greenwood Reprinting, 1968
Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number: 68-55210
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
TO MY WIFE

INTRODUCTION
SOME years ago I met at a dinner in Washington the famous Norwegian arctic explorer, Nansen, himself one of the heroes of polar adventure; and he remarked to me, "Peary is your best man; in fact I think he is on the whole the best of the men now trying to reach the Pole, and there is a good chance that he will be the one to succeed." I cannot give the exact words; but they were to the above effect; and they made a strong impression on me. I thought of them when in the summer of 1908 I, as President of the United States, went aboard Peary's ship to bid him Godspeed on the eve of what proved to be his final effort to reach the Pole. A year later, when I was camped on the northern foothills of Mt. Kenia, directly under the equator, I received by a native runner the news that he had succeeded, and that thanks to him the discovery of the North Pole was to go on the honor roll of those feats in which we take a peculiar pride because they have been performed by our fellow countrymen.
Probably few outsiders realize the well-nigh incredible toil and hardship entailed in such an achievement as Peary's; and fewer still understand how many years of careful training and preparation there must be before the feat can be even attempted with any chance of success. A "dash for the pole" can be successful only if there have been many preliminary years of painstaking, patient toil. Great physical hardihood and endurance, an iron will and unflinching courage, the power of command, the thirst for adventure, and a keen and farsighted intelligence--all these must go to the make-up of the successful arctic explorer; and these, and more than these, have gone to the make-up of the chief of successful arctic explorers, of the man who succeeded where hitherto even the best and the bravest had failed.
Commander Peary has made all dwellers in the civilized world his debtors; but, above all, we, his fellow Americans, are his debtors. He has performed one of the great feats of our time; he has won high honor for himself and for his country; and we welcome his own story of the triumph which he won in the immense solitudes of the wintry North.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT. THE WHITE NILE, March 12, 1910.

COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF ROBERT E. PEARY, IN HIS ACTUAL NORTH POLE COSTUME]

CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
INTRODUCTION vii FOREWORD xv I THE PLAN 1 II PREPARATIONS 11 III THE START 25 IV UP TO CAPE YORK 34 V WELCOME FROM THE ESKIMOS 42 VI AN ARCTIC OASIS 53 VII ODD CUSTOMS OF AN ODD PEOPLE 63 VIII GETTING RECRUITS 72 IX A WALRUS HUNT 79 X KNOCKING AT THE GATEWAY TO THE POLE 88 XI CLOSE QUARTERS WITH THE ICE 97 XII THE ICE FIGHT GOES ON 106 XIII CAPE SHERIDAN AT LAST 117 XIV IN WINTER QUARTERS 126 XV THE AUTUMN WORK 134 XVI THE BIGGEST GAME IN THE ARCTIC 143 XVII MUSK-OXEN AT LAST 151 XVIII THE LONG NIGHT 162 XIX THE Roosevelt's NARROW ESCAPE 172 XX CHRISTMAS ON THE Roosevelt 182 XXI ARCTIC ICE SLEDGING AS IT REALLY IS 193 XXII ESSENTIALS THAT BROUGHT SUCCESS 201 XXIII OFF ACROSS THE FROZEN SEA 213 XXIV THE FIRST OPEN WATER 221 XXV SOME OF MY ESKIMOS LOSE THEIR NERVE 230 XXVI BORUP'S FARTHEST NORTH 240 XXVII GOOD-BY TO MARVIN 248 XXVIII WE BREAK ALL RECORDS 255 XXIX