The Portland daily press., 1892-09-13

southeast, the land still extending SOuGn-
east and east, 1 made direct for it, to-
| ward large opening in the mountains,
visible over the nearer submits, and
| landed July 1st.
Gully 4, after three days travel over
| lat SO 81, long. $40, opening out east
and northeast. l named this
Independence Bay,
in honor of the day, and the great glacier
| flowing north into it Academy glacier.
Preached inland ice again July 7, with
footgear cut to pieces, and selves and
dogs exhausted and dead lame from the
hard climbing over sharp stones and fire.
quent falls.
'Th1s land, red brown and almost eu-
tirely free of snow, is covered with
glacial debris and sharp stones of all
sizes. Flowers, insects and musk oxen
are abundant, five of the latter being
shot. There are numbers of birds,
traces of foxes, hares, ptarmigan and
possibly wolves. The surface of the bay
covered with winters still unbroken ice,
prisoned:the bergs.
From the great glacier, July9 we
started on the return, taking cousre
more inland. In seven days we were
struggling through the soft snow and
wrapped in the snow clouds of the great
interior plateau over 5000 feet above sea
level, We remained in the clouds some
IA days, when we descended from them
east of the Humboldt glacier. Then,
with dogs and selves trained down to
hard pan, we covered over 80 miles per
day for seven days, till our eyes were
gladdened by the deep green iceberg
dotted waters of Mccormick bay.
ssOn the last day, as / came over the
| summit of the first ice dome lying be-
| tween the border of the true inland ice
and the heads of the bay, | saw moving
figures a mile or two ahead
On the Next Ice Dome.
From these burst almost instantly a
| cheer, and it was not long before was
clasping hands with Prof. Heilprin and
his party, who were out on recon-
| noisance preparatory to going in toward
Humboldt to meet me. A few hours
| later climbed over the side of the Kite
anchored at the head of Mccormick bay,
| and the 1900 miles journey was at an end.
1.-THE convergency of the Greenland
coasts above the 18th parallel. the deflec-
tion of the main divide to the northwest
|
alton of the continental ice cap below
| Victoria inlet and the existence of large
glaciers in all the great northern fjords
are among the discoveries.
''The expedition brings back much
chronological material including tents,
costumes, sledges, kayaks and dogs of
| the northern Eskimos, meteorological
and tidal observations, and a large num-
| Der of photographs of natives, dwellings
and costumes and, Arctic scenery"
THE PEARY PARTY.
Members Composing 1t, Their Plans of OPP
Grafton and Conditions of Living.
1t was late Saturday afternoon, June
| 7, 1891, that Lieutenant Robert E. Peary
and his party of explorers left New York
harbor in the whaling steamer Kite, Cap
tain Pike, bound for the Arctic Ocean
and the exploration of Northern Green
land. Lieutenant Peary was himself a
young man, graduate of Portland High
School in the class of '73, and of Bowdoin
College in the class of III; and those with
| him were young men also, and like him
we'll educated.
John M. Verhoeff, of Louisville. KY,
was young man of rs, educated in an
Eastern university, a mineralogist, and
though somewhat below the average in
stature had magnificent lung develop
ment and record for endurance and
cross-country walking. Mr.. Verhoeff
contributed generously to the expenses
of the expedition.
DR.. Frederick A. Cook, the surgeon of
the expedition, was an able young physi-
clan and surgeon, a native of New York
State, graduate Of the College of Physi-
clans and Surgeons, and of the Univer-
sity of the City of New York, and had
been in practice in New York city fol-
several years. He was 26 years old,
strongly built, height 5 feet, nine inches,
weight $50 pounds, lung expansion 5
inches.
| Langdon Gibson, of Flushing, l.. l.,
was stalwart young fellow of 26, and
one of the many active and enthusiastic
members of the American Ornithologists'
Union. He was one of the Brown-Stan-
ton party in the memorable Colorado
canon survey of 1SS9-90, and knew what
arduous work was. He was six feet tall
weighed 17S pounds, and had an excep
tionally fine lung development.
Eivind Astrup, of Christiana, Norway
was stalwart young fellow, who had
but recently come to this country. He
was the son of the commander of the
Royal Civil Guard of Christiana a first
class graduate of the Christiana CONNER
cial College and a winner of numerous
prizes in athletic sports, especially skier
running. He was feet inches in
height. weighed 1877 pounds and had
lung expansion of inches.
Matthew Henson was hardy young
colored man, native of Virginia, %
years old. His intelligence and faithful
ness, combined with more than average
pluck and endurance, were shown during
several years that he, through varying
experiences, some of them in Nicaragua
was with Peary.
Last, but not least, should be men