St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1893-09-21
9llis1rllatiu,
PEARY IN HIS ARCTIC HOME.

in the celebrity with which he reached
the site of his winter camp, after h
had once struck Greenland waters
and in the progress he madein a yer,
few days toward putting things t.
rights and securing large supply o
fresh meat for men and dogs. No
an untoward incident occurred OF
the way; every day was one o
large achievement, and the prospects
were as bright as they could b.
when the Falcon sailed for home.
The only thing that could be wish
ed otherwise is the fact that The
Falcon brings no word OF hope fol
Mr.. Verhoef's friends. Some o
Lieut. Peary's party last year had q
little suspicion that, after all, Yer
hoeff might have been in hiding and
that this years expedition would
find him safe and sound. Peary did
not share this illusion, and never
doubted that this week OF thorough
search would have brought Verhoefl
to light if he had been alive. The
event proves that Peary was right.
Natives who fingered long around
the scene of Pearys old camp last
fall, and who lived all last winter
near Mccormick bay, saw and
heard nothing of the missing man.
There can be no doubt now, that
Verhoeff lost his life in August last
year, probably by falling into a
crevasse while crossing glacier.
Lieut.. Peary had arranged with
the Danish authorities to have a
supply of fur clothing all ready for
him at Godhavn, and the agreement
was fulfilled. He will doubtless
supplement this stock with fur gar
ments cut out by the men OF his
party and sewed by native seam
stresses. For some time in the
winter of 1912, from two to four
native women were almost inces-
sanity at work plying their needles
and threads, slowed away against
the wall under tier OF hunks in
Peary's house. The explorer found
that the reindeer-skin clothing made
from skins procured at Mccormick
bay by his hunters more effectually
protected his men against Arctic cold
than the clothing of Norway reindeer
skins which he had taken with him.
A few weeks ago, when idiotic
dispatches from St. Johns predicted
the failure of the expedition because
Peary would reach Melville bay a
month later than in 1891, the Sun
said he would reach the bay when
it was almost certain to be nearly
free Of ice, and that he would prob
ably make quick passage across
to his winter camp. He made, in
fact, the quickest transit, with one
exception, ever made of this bay,
which, a month or two earlier, was
doubtless packed with ice. 1t took
him three weeks in July, 1891, to
cross this stretch of water, but on
July 81 of this year he crossed it in
just fifty minutes more than day.
The quickest previous passages of
the bay were made by Hayes, late in
August, in fifty-four hours; by Hall,
on the Polaris, late in August, in
twenty hours and forty-6ve minutes,
the best time on record; by the
Mares expedition, late in July, in
thirty-four hours; and by Greedy, on
July 30-31, in thirty-six hours.
Peary's good luck is worth mention
ing, for passages across Melville bay
like these are of a rare occurrence.
Even under apparently favorable
circumstances, vessels are likely to
be beset by rapidly closing ice foes
and imprisoned for months, as Sir
Leopold McClintock was for all of
one winter.
Lieut.. Peary arrived in Bowdoin
bay with four times as many dogs
as he obtained during his entire
sojourn in north Greenland in 1891
90. He has not yet drawn at all
upon the resources of the native
friends among whom he is now living,
and who supplied all his draught
animals. No Smith Sound explorer
ever got so many dogs together as
Peary now has at command; and
never had one such good luck in
securing, by a few days work, a
supply of dog food for an entire
winter. Two years ago he killed
four walruses in his first water hunt.
This year, on the same grounds in
Whale Sound, he captured twenty
four in an afternoon. When darkness
came, in the middle of November
two years ago, Peary's hunters had
bagged a little over thirty reindeer
This year seventeen reindeer reward.
ed one nights hunt. In September
two years ago, his men made two
vain attempts to struggle far up on
the inland ice, to make cache o.
supplies for the spring sledgt
journey. This year the inland ice
is comparatively easy Of access, from
the more favorably situated camp
and, before the Falcon lett, many o
the stores for the trip north had al
ready been placed on the ice cap
and it was expected to complete tn,
work by Sept. 1, If Peary's coming
discoveries are in proportion to hi
remarkable success thus far, grea