The Portland daily press., 1893-08-17
pEARWs sLEDeE JOURNEY
Reasons For Considering 1t Most se-
markable Performance

Reasons For Considering IL "
markable Performance
To the Editor Of The Sun:
S1R-In your issue of this morning you speak
of Lieutenant Penry's famous sio 70 ~, ~ on
being the longest ever performer w w "o, le
with dog team. Is not this an or 49,
w. H. elders trip across SlDeri "as seAl
longer. and understand from nun
1900 miles Of it were accomplished with only Inc
aid of single native. | do not write 70 as
parage Peary, but certainly Caesar sho o nave
his own. DAVID "a ooNfis.
Our correspondent has un1ntentlonally
misquoted The Sun. Wedid not say That
Peary's sledge trip was the longest ever
performed" What The Sun SAID was.
ssHe made the greatest sledge Journey
ever performed by two men with team
of dogs. travelling on the ice cap as far
as from this city to Omaha without
single advance cache Of supplies.
This of course is matter OF opinion.
It is an opinion. however, that IS sup
ported by leading authorities IN arctic
matters. as was shown, for instance, In
the recent session of the Berlin Geograph-
ical society. when one Of the honors OF
the society was conferred upon Lieuten-
ant Peary.
His performance did not equal that OF
Glider or of several other sledge parties,
notably during the Franklin search
either in distance covered or in average
rate per day, as The Sun showed months
ago. 1t is, hAwever, the conditions IN
der which such journey is made that
fix its relative position among similar
performances.
In the first place, his journey was made
many hundreds of miles north OF every
other sledge route that is particularly
conspicuous both for distance covered
and for average rate attained.
Some Of the conditions were wholly
new. Itwas the first time, for instance,
that an explorer had handled a team Of
Eskimo dogs on the inland ice.
Peary did not have a single advance
cache from which to replenish his sup
plies. Many other sledge parties were
able to establish such caches, or at least
there was the probability that they could
secure some game to feed their dogs if
dogs instead Of men were in the traces.
Peary had to face the probability that
he would not be able to obtain a pound
of fresh meat, and he therefore had to
drag every ounce of supplies for man
and beast that he expected to USE
All previous sledge work had been
done at or near the sea level. Peary's
sledge work was done throughout at a
height above the sea of mile to mile
and three-fifths. For two weeks at a
height of over 5000 feet he advanced
among clouds SO dense that from the
rear of his sledges he could hardly see
his dog teams. For two weeks he was
utterly unable to steer a course except
by taking the compass direction of the
wind and stopping every Is minutes to
see if the wind had not veered a point
or two.
Under these and other equally unique,
untried and remarkable conditions Peary
made record which in point of distance
covered and average daily rate ranks
among the conspicuous arctic sledge
journeys, and the conditions under
which these results were attained make
the journey the most remarkable of
sledging exploits If two men have
matched it elsewhere, it would be inter-
esting to know it.-New York Sun.