New-York tribune., 1905-07-16
WILL PEARY GET THERBs

In estimating the measure of success which
will probably attend Commander Peary's latest
effort to reach the Pole, it is necessary to take
note of the two principal stages of his under
taking. He wants, first to take his ship up
along the west coast of Greenland to the So
called "Open" polar sea, shift his course to
the nOrthwestward and westward until he is
in the vicinity of Cape Hecla, the northernmost
point of Grant Land, and establish his winter
quarters there The second feature of the pro-
gramme will not be carried out before early
spring 1t is proposed then to push out from
the mainland with dogs and sledges over the
icy covering Of the Arctic Ocean. Hitherto his
inability to accomplish the first of these objects
has hampered him unspeakaby in beginning
the second part of his campaign. Neither his
own ship nor any Of the supply ships that CO.
operated with him was able to go further north
than the neighborhOod of Cape Sabine. Hence,
the rations for his men and dogs were landed
there and transported nearly three hundred
miles further on four separate occasions, as a
preliminary to the venture on the ice itself.
Three times Peary stayed well south over win
ter and conducted this transportation In Feb
ru6ry or March, Fort Conger being the point
at which those laborious Journeys terminated.
Once he sledged his supplies up to that sta
ton in the fall, and stayed there over winter.
Even then he was obliged TO travel by a cir
Il
attempting to go out on the ice If the Roose-
velt reaches the vicinity of Cape Hecla by the
middle of September, an enormous advantage
will be secured. The explorer. the few men
who accompany him in his final venture and
the dogs which draw the sledges ought to be in
vastly better physical condition for their work
than has hitherto been possible.
Navigation should not be attended with any
special difficulties south of the 18th parallel
of latitude Above that limit the channel will
be full of floating ice, more or less closely
packed The highway alternately widens and
narrows for about four degrees thereafter, and
then opens out on the polar sea, the coast
line on one side trendng to the northeastward
and on the other to the northwestward. With
Peary's last ship, the Windward, it was not
feasible to force a passage above latitude TO-
because her engines were too weak. The great
recommendation of the new vessel is that she has
greater power at her command than any other
ship ever built for similar service. Hall, in
1871, took the Polaris to a point further north
than latitude 81. Sir George went even further
with the Alert In 1875, and there is no reason
to believe that either of them had engines at
all comparable to those of the Roosevelt Along
that part of Peary's route which is beset with
the chief emharrassments just as in other parts
of the world one winter differs from another
in severity. The density of the ice pack which
is encountered is greater one year than another
II the cold over Grant Land and Northwestern
Greenland was as abnormal last winter as it
was in NewYork City, perhaps the ice bar
rier in the adjacent waters will be correspond
ingy formidable 1t is worth remembering
however, that temperature deficiencies in one
quarter of the globe usually offset by tenn
perature excesses in another. 1t is quite as
ratiOna. 20 hope that the conditions which the
Roosevelt viii be called upon to face IN the
next few weeks will be better than the aver
age as ii is 10 fear that they will be worse.
Cape Hecls is about seven degrees (420 naut-
cal miles from the Pole in a beellne. Nan
sens experience lends encouragement to the
view that If Peary could once get fairly out
on the Ice pack beyond the continent he might
be able TO follow "A reasonably straight course
northRard. On previous occasions he has found
appalling ridges and open leaps or canals in
HIS way at the beginning Of this second part
Of his undertaking. These compelled him to
deviate TO the right ana 10 the left in a most
yexatious fashion. To make seVenty-fve or
eighty miles of real progress from Cape Hecla
in 1902 he was forced to travel three or four
times as far, and he spent fifteen days (from
April to April 2D in achieving so much.