The San Francisco call., 1897-02-07
THE POLE CAN BE REACHED.
Peary's Project Pronounced Thoroughly
Practicable.

Peary's PROF ject Pronounced Thoroughly
Practicable.
No writer of authority on the polor re-
gions will dispute the soundness of Mr.,
Peary's plan for reaching the north pole.
His scheme could not have been devised
until now with any assurance that it was
the best. But We know at last that the
essential land basis for an attack upon the
polar problem cannot be found on the
Asian side. We know that the archipelago
which Peary saw stretching away to the
north of Greenland is in all pro ba bility by
far the nearest land approach to the pole.
1t is certainly the only land approach &C.
cessible by navigabie seas and known
coast line.
1t is not enough to say that the West
Greenland route best fulflls the desired
conditions. We now know that it is the
only route that comes anything near full
filling them. 1t is the route TO the pole a
route that is impossible at times, difficult
in some years, and wholly practicable in
others. The man who follows it to the
northern apex must be on the ground with
his equipment, and there await, if need be,
favorable season; and it is the only route
because il offers land base that is nearest
the pole, where supplies may be laid down
Wy SAI tHSu duHduCtu py SlSGRe 10
the most northern land, whence a dash
may be made across the ice to the pole
when the first favorable season comes.
Suppose we had known all this in the
days when Mares Alert lay off the shore
OF the Polar Sea, or Lockwood and Brain
ard struggled TO their highest north.
There is little likelihood that they. even
with this knowledge, could have reached
the pole. The methods of living and
working in the Arctic regions have been
simply revolutionized since their time
The new ideas are those that made posi-
bic the brilliant success of Peary's sledge
journey. and Of Nansen's Ice march and
winter camp; and these ideas, approved
as they now are by Arctic authorities,
were chiefly originated by Civil Engineer
Peary, and he was the pioneer who first
tested them in practice.
Peary maintained before he started for
North Greenland in 1891 that explorers
who should achieve most in Arctic regions
would be those who mastered the art per-
fected by the Eskimos, OF working and
thriving amid their environment; and
during his three years among those Arctic
highlanders he learned all the lessons
they could teach. He wore the skins and
furs they had found adapted for each sea-
son, and they made his garments. He
drove his dogs after their fashion, and
their ideas helped him to model his
SleuSeS ne SDeHI MANY nlSnL IN t0elr
huts, and they were his comrades on the
hunt, on numerous journeys and for
scores of miles on the inland ice. He
learned thoroughly to know them and
their ways; he was their friend and they
his helpmeets; and to-day be is the only
explorer who, landing in North Green
and, could from the first hour avail him
self of every advantage that native meth
DDS and cooperation can give.
The brilliant work of Peary and Nansen
has e ,tablished the fact to the satisfac tion
OF all experts that the pole can be reached,
and pointed out the route and the
methods. There is not particle of doubt
now that this long elusive object will be
attained. We do not know VINO will set
himself this task; but If the north pole is
to be reached in our day the man who is
best equipped for the work, bes qualified
by experience to take advantage of every
favoring circumstance, Is the American
Peary, who received on last Tuesday mig ht
the highest honor the American Geo.
graphical Society could confer upon a
great explorer.-New York Sun.
The shark is the oldest type of fish.