Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1891-10-02
In Very Great Peril, and Fears of
Disaster Entertained by
its Friends.
The Danish Government Refuses
Assistance, and the Game Re-
lied on Fails.
Many Perils on the Ice Caps Which
the Explorers did not An
ticipate.

| meeting the unhappy tate OF the brave TEL
lows who composed the Greedy party, and
OF whom only fraction were Aaved from
perlshing?
Now that the ice ship Kite has returned
from her adventurous onslaught on the
frozen north, after deposlting Lieutenant
Peary, his wife and his five associates in
Mccormack Bay North Greenland, people
acquainted with arctic travel have received
information that gives them an opportu-
nifty of weighing the Peary expedition in
the balance, and there is strong feeling
among them that there may be a sad ad-
dltlon to the already too crowded volume
of polar suffering.
| A chapter sadder than any yet written,
since 1t concerns the fate of a Young and
beautiful American woman who aCcomDa-
MED her husband with no thought or
| knowledge of what an Arctic winter
| means.
From the start the expedition, it is al
legged, was based on misconception and
transformation. Peary some cars ago
made a trip to Godhaven, on Disco island,
where he penetrated long distance into
the interior of Greenland over the ice cap
In which that country is buried. This
gave him the idea of taking similar ex-
curslon over the ice Cap to more remote
region with a view to determine the
northern extremity of Greenland, the po-
sitlon of which has never been asCertained.
Some scientists think that Greenland ex-
tends to about IS degrees north; others
are convinced that it reaches $50 miles
further, or to the pole itself Peary went
north to find out which partY is right, his
own opinion being that about IS degrees
north is It's extreme limit.
Peary took his scheme to the Academy
Of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, an
institute IN which backed the Arctic ex-
plorcr Kane, ana which has gLways been
liberal in raising funds for the settlement
of scientific problems. 70 them he ar
gued that if his party could reach Whale
Sound, in about latitude n deg. 30 min.
north, a trip over the ice cap in the fol-
! lowing spring and a subsequent retreat to
| Danish Greenland in whale boats would
| be easy All he wanted was some backing
for the equipment and transportation
north Of his party. Once there the ex-
| ploration and the return would take care
Of themselves.
The experiences of the Kite convinced
all on board that Peary somehow or other
| had got the thing wrong and foremost,
| and that after all his troubles are to be
the same as those of all other northern ex-
plorers, who have found that getting back
is the hardest part of it.
At present the Peary expedition stands
in this position They are enCamped in
desolate and almost inaccessible region
with the task before them of making a
trip next spring four hundred miles north
into region also probably inaccessible,
and then coming back and finding them
selves no better off than they were before.
In other words, they have calmly under
taken to do in a few short months two
| tasks, either one of which ordinary people
would consider Impossible. If they take
| the northern trip over the ice cap and
can { get back starvation awaits them. If
they do get back and then fail at making
the trip south to civilization the same fate
may be theirs.
The point where the party are camped
to-day is FIVE hundred miles north of civil
izltion, term which for the sake of
courtesy may be applied to the Danish
settlement of Upernavlk, which, at least,
has communication by vessel with Den
mark. Between Mccormick Bay and
| Upernavik, however, is Melville Bay, the
most impossible of Arctic waters 10y rea.
son of its immense accumulat on of ice
bergs and ice foes.
The steamship Kite, when jammed in
The ice in this bay, took twenty-one days
to make one hundred miles. Peary, in
his proposition to the PhiIadel phia Acad-
envy, declared that he would 90 through
| this in the whaeboatS This thing was
done by Captain Pike, who commanded
! the Proteus when she was lost while going
to the relief of Greedy but Pike had good
boats and large supply of men. Peary
has neither. Captain Pike openly ex,
presses the opinion that Peary's whale.
boats are not strong enough to go through
ice or be hauled over it, and that Peary's
whole party does not constitute a crew
competent to take even one of the whale
boats through Melville Bay.
STARTLED QUAKEBs.
A very lively time is expected in the
academy when it is discovered that the
| Quaker institution has placed seven per-
sons in so perilous a position. Many
| friends of the academy - and the expedi
I on was financially backed 10y them in
their individual capacity were averse to
assisting an Arctic expedition anyhow on
account of the terrible loss of life which
has gone hand in hand with northern ex-
| ploration. 1t was only the representations
of Peary of the summer picnic like nature
of the whole business that induced them
| to give their moral and other support.
| Professor Heilprin, curator OF the acade-
my, who accompanied the expedition, is
far too level headed a man not to perceive
the unhappy position of the Peary party,
and i'll his report to the academy he cannot
fail to tell the facts as they appearance
ly, that Peary will in all human probabih-
! ty be unable to return unaided and that
some one will have to get a relief expedi-
ton to bring him back.
Thus far it is argued that the Peary trip
was colossal biunder, Peary himself had
NJ idea of what a journey through Mel
willie Bay meant Before that awful region
was encountered he is reported to have
spoken quite sharply to member of the
party who suggested to him the advisable
Ity of relief expedition next year When
he saw that the place was like, however,
he changed his mind somewhat, and IN his
report to the academy he says "since the
matter has been talked OF on the Kite he
would suggest certain facts With relation