The record-union., 1891-09-21
NEWS FROM THE PEARY EXPE-
DTTION.

DITION.
Wesome time ago gave an account ofthe
proposed Greenland expedition Of Lieu
tenant Peary and subsequently related the
scenes of his departure upon a perilous
journey. He and his small band of less
than dozen were taken as far north as
possible in the little vessel, the Kite,
under the auspices of a party of scien-
lists accompanying from the Academy of
Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. The
news is now at hand in detail from the
New York Herald correspondent, who
went up with the scientists, of the return
of the scientific section, they reaching
Baltimore about week ago.
Since so small a party as Peary's never
before has attempted arctic exploration,
nor has one ever before sailed that car
ried with it a woman, and as there never
has been one started to go by land to the
extreme north end of Greenland, great
deal of interest centers in the expedi-
ton, the more so as it is regarded as of
the most hazardous character.
The Kite reached Upernavik, on the
north border of Danish Greenland, July
1st, going thence to Melville Bay, where
Lieutenant Peary expected to begin the
real battle of his expedition with the ice.
The people on board celebrated the
Fourth of July with the ship fast bound
in the ice just in sight of the DEVILS
Thumb, a column of rock 2,347 feet high,
worn into its present form by the grind
ing of glaciers. After a fierce battle
with the ice jam, the ship made thirty
five miles and again was tied up in an
ice pack that drifted north over the exact
line upon which Peary expects to retreat
from Whale Sound in two whale boats
next year, and in which perilous chance
his courageous wife will be with him, as
she is now. Captain Pike of the Kite
does not believe that Peary's party of
seven men can drag these boats over the
ice; they may manage one at a time. If
Captain Pike is correct in his judgment,
Il
sad mistake in taking so small force
with him, and If so, it is possible that his
experience may be that of many another
lost Arctic explorer.
So long was the Kite ice-Iocked in Mel
vile Bay that it was feared she would
have to winter there, and for which she
was not prepared. On the 1lth of July
the accident happened to Lieutenant
Peary, in which he broke his leg, by
slipping and colliding with the tiller as
it flew to place by a sudden lurch of the
ship when retreating from an effort to
crush an ice pack 1t was believed that
in eight weeks he would be put upon
crutches, but six months will be needed
TO make him fully serviceable again.
The courageous man refused, however, to
abandon the expedition, but announced
that some of the contemplated prelimi-
nary observations would have to be
given up. The cabin had to be now
yielded for hospital except at meal
times, and the party, already crowded
into small space, had to pack into the
deckIhouse.
On the 18th of July the Kite barely es-
capped being crushed between two enor-
nous cakes of ice. On the 10th the ship
was in latitude 750 L and again wedged
between ice fields, from which peril she
escaped only by blasting, just as the ice
crashed together and piled up in great
nights. July 10Th the ship reached Cape
York, at the head of Melville Bay, 760 q.
On the 23d the ice opened and the Kite
was free, opposite Wolstenholme Island,
after rtwenty-onedays ofcaptivityin theice.
Thelong delay is by all the party charged
to the account of Lieutenant Peary, who
insisted, with his own inexperience.
against the policy of Captain Pike, an
old-time Arctic navigator. That night
the Esquimeaux greeted the party at
Ittiblu, Mccormick Bay. No white men
had visited the village since Greedy
landed there. The villagers belong to
the race of Arctic highlanders, of whom
little is known. At this point the Peary
party made its first settlement, erecting
house twenty by twelve feet, with
hunks like ships and small room for
Mrs. Peary.
Here the Kite left the explorer and his
little party, and with the Academy of
Natural Science section started on the
return home. Lieutenant Peary sends
word that this fall he will dispatch a party
to Humboldt Glacier. In April or MAY
next another will set out for the objec-
tive point, the most northern attainable
point Of land in Greenland, which he
thinks is in $50. Depots of provisions
will'be made at Humboldt Glacier, Peter
man Fiord and at point little south OF