Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1893-02-17
LIEUT.. ROBERT E. PEARY,
THE ARCTIC EXPLORER,
Who will Lecture in BrattlebOrO,
,April Il.

"Details of the Second Expedition to the
Frozen North which He VIII Under
take the Coming summer.
Lieut.. Robert Z. Peary, who is to lecture
in Brattleboro on the evening of April II,
is of right the most prominent and the
most sought-for man now on the lecture
platform in this country. His journey of
exploration within the Arctic circle was
unique in what it attempted and in what it
accomplished. Accompanied by Mrs. Peary
and a small party of picked men, he sailed
from Brooklyn, n. Y, in June, 1891.
When, the following month, he reached the
point on Inglefield gulf, on the coast of
Greenland, where he was to build his win
ter camp, he was suffering from a broken
leg, caused by slipping on the deck of the
vessel, but this did not deter him from re-
naming and pushing forward the work in
view. A house, "Redcliff," was built
against a precipitous cliff of stone, whose
color gave the camp its name. Here the
winter was spent, and after the return of
the sun and the great spring breakup the
northward journey across the snow and ice
was begun and successfully prosecuted.
Lieut.. and Mrs. Peary made themselves
friends among the Eskimos in a more init
mate way than any other Arctic explorers
have done. A large number of photo
graphs were taken, both of the natives and
of the Arctic scenery, and from these two
sources much of the popular interest of
Lieut.. Peary's lecture is derived.
1t is of interest TO know that the money
received from these lectures is to be used by
Lieut.. Peary to pay the expenses of anoth-
er Arctic expedition, to be undertaken the
coming summer. 4 writer in the Boston
Herald of last Sunday says that the details
of this expedition are already well perfect
ed. II will leave this country the last of
June in a St. Johns whaler which has been
engaged for the purpose. The winter
camp will be made in North Greenland, a
little to the east of where last winter was
spent. Lieut.. Peary hopes to reach this
place the last of July. AS soon as the ice
is in condition for fall sledging he will set
several enterprises on foot, the most i'm
portant of which will be to send party
inland with lot of provisions TO be cached
at the most northerly point reached, ready
to be picked up by Peary' own party when
it reaches the cache in its journey in the
spring of 1894. When he starts on that
inland journey, he proposes to try a novel
experiment in Arctic exploration. 1t is
well known that pack horses have been
successfully used in Alaska, and that ponies
shod with rough snow shoes are used in
portions of Norway. Mr.. Glave and others
have succeeded in fitting snow shoes to the
animals, which prevent them from break
ing through the snow, and enable them to
do very fair work. Before Peary knew, on
his return, of Glave's successful work, he
had conceived the idea of utilizing these
ponies, and Glave's success has convinced
him of the practicability of the plan. He
now proposes to take with him on the in
land ice cap a number of donkeys or
ponies, for the purpose of supplementing
his dog teams If the experiment succeeds
the explorer believes that his progress will
be considerably facilitated.
The purpose of the expedition is to de-
termine the extent and nature of the
northern archipelago which Peary has
found to lie north of the mainland; also to
survey the wholly unknown coast between
Independence bay and Cape Bismarck, the
most northern point on the east coast of
which we have knowledge. BY carrying
out this survey Peary will complete the
outlining of the entire northern and north
eastern coasts of Greenland Whether or
not Peary himself will be compelled to
camp during the winter of lS94-95 at or
near the northern terminus of Greenland
depends on circumstances. 1t is very
probable that he will spend the winter
farther north than white men ever lived
before.
1t is the belief of many whose opinions
are worthy of respect that the north pole
problem is more likely to be solved by the
coming Peary expedition than by any other
project of exploration now proposed. The
explorer has very little to say of the posi-
BILE extension of his work, so as to include
a reconnaissance over the Arctic sea toward
or to the north pole, but it is certainly
within the range of possibility that We shall
hear from Peary in the fall of 1895 that he
visited the neighborhood of the mysterious
northern apex of the world which has thus
far batiied the curiosity and energy of
every explorer who has attempted it.
This expedition is to cost from $4,000
to S25, 600, and the explorer proposes to
pay for the discoveries he makes with the
money he earns. His lecture season ends
about May l, when he will go to Europe
on the invitation of the leading geograph-
zeal societies to address them upon the
splendid results of his work last spring.
when he determined the northern extern
sion of Greenland. He will make his first
appearance at the Royal Geographical soci-
ETY. in London, and his engagements will
take him to Edinburgh, Paris, Bremen and
other geographical centres of Germany,
Vienna, and probably as far east as St.
Petersburg. Mrs. Peary will accompany
her husband TO Europe, but it is yet unde-
termined whether she will be a member of
the next Arctic expedition.
| I'VE are indebted to the New York Trib-
une for the portrait which we publish with
this article