The age-herald., 1900-03-18

l this winter, and thus have escaped all the
 l hardships incident to a winter march over
 1 such a stretch, but by falling back to Etah
 l he was able to assume the personal dire2- | ton of the preliminary work among the
 | natives He had several tons of supplies
 l landed from the Windward and Diana last | season, and they killed 119 walruses for
 l him before they left for home
 l All these stores Peary intends to carry
 | across the sound this month on the ice and 1 then convey them up to Conger by | stage. As a provision against possible dis | aster, and to be last resort in case Of 1 extremity he has provided caches of stores | already at Capes Sabine, Durville Napo- | leon, Fraser, Shaw and Lawrence, tho | most prominent headands along the route l At Fort Conger too he has three tons or | stores, besides the remainder of the Greely | outfit and he has also a boat there and l one at Durville.
 | These oahes will not be disturbed by | Peary if lre can avoid doing He will | depend for tine sustenance of himself and | party as well as of the Eskimo colony l which accompanies Ihfm, upon the stores | they bring and upon the musk OK they can l secure along the route. That these are | lfairy plentiful is instaneed by the fact l that last winter Peary and those with him | secured twenty-eight If the weather fla
 vors him Peary should have all his sup l plies stored at Conger lby the end of March l and be able to advance into the unknown l in Arril.
 l Much will depend upon the condition of | the Eskimo dogs and the number of them | available, as hast winter a distemper killed | off many and left the remainder unfit for | the work in hand. Peary will make due | allowance flor such contingency this | and an extra trip or two will not disarrange | his plans. If he is able to set down his 1 native allies and aid the impediments of | the expedition at Conger by the end of this l mCnth hArWi1l haUp dOna wa nm | among the several families ile will select | ten or twelve whose heads are strong, | sturdy woremen, dog drivers and itraveling | experts, and with these and all the avail
 able dogs he will p1ahs cn to Cape Joseph | Henry, at iBhe northern extremity of hand, | so far as is known, in that section of the | Polar circle, where ahe will establish an l advance basis set up camps for the women and children and storeup supplies for their use and that of the selected party who
 msa make up line personnel of the Pole l attacking expedition.
 | These will consist of Peary and his two | assistants, DedeIfck and Henson, and ten | picked natives, each man driving a team of | elght to twelve dogs, the sledges being laden with stores for fifty to fifty-five days | The trip will be somewhat like that of Nan l sen and Johannsen, the principle underlying l it-that of reaching the Pole by sledge | fravel-befng the same, though the Nor | Wegian's experience has enabled Peary to l improve upon their plans.
 | That improvement is chiefly found in the | employment of the Eskimos. They are the
 l best dog drivers in the world and can get | almost half as much more work out of the | animals as could be obtained by those un- | familiar with them. The advantage too is | next found in the size of the party Nansen l and his companions met with many difficult | ties which they could not surmount for lack l of physical strength. Being but two they
 tod .1 | be possible for Pearys larger party to 1 make headway, especially as the instinctive l ingenuity of the natives would be available l in the latter's behalf. Tn the multitudinous | difficulties of a trip over the broken, piled 1 with great masses of rafted ice, scanned | with giant crevasses. and at times present. 1 ing hilocks as difficult to attack as fortii- | cations, the native resources of the Es- | lomos will be found valuable in the ex- treme.
 i Equally striking and effective is the ex l plorer's plan for reducing the numbers of | the party as the provisions give out. On | leaving the camp at Cape Joseph Henry, all in the party will begin to eat off one
 sledge the contents of the others being | kept untouched. When that is exhausted. all the best dogs in the team will be taken | from it and distributed among the other | relays, and the Eskimo will be started | homeward with enough stores to carry him | there. and couple of the poorest dogs to | haul his empty sledge.
 | second sledge will then be attacked for
 | the commissariat, and when it is empty
 | like process will be adopted. And so on
 | until only three sledges, with the very best
 | dogs in the whole pack remain any of the l animals which weaken being killed and | their comrades fed with the flesh. Having l advanced, as he hopes, some hundreds of | miles by this time, and sent home his last
 | Eskimo Peary will divide all the remaining
 | stores among the three sledges, and the
 | three Americans will then grapple with the
 l final stages of the journey, that of making | record for the "farthest north" even if | unfortunate enough to be unable to reach | the pole. From Cape Joseph Henry to the l pole is about 300 miles.
 The severe affiiction of frostbiting which | Peary suffered last winter, and which cost | him seven of his ten toes. besides portions | of his heels, will tell most hardly upon | him. depriving him. as it necessarily must, of the activity in movement formerly | chara cteristic of his expedition.
 l The next disadvantage Is his well known l disregard of the ordinary. precautions | which prudence would suggest in the l launching out of such an expedition. Trust | ing to Providence, chance lucky star, 1 Peary has always set out a trip, no l matter how small, with insufficient sup | plies, hoping to make up the deficiency by | game killed on ~the way.
 To those who would condemn this appar- | ent foolheardiness the explanation should be made that the reduction of weights to | at minimum is the chief problem that be- sets every arctic explorer. In region | where all the supplies have to be carried | on dog sedges an extra lading may mean | the loss of the goal of ones ambition. A Gentleman's Smoke