Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1905-05-19
COMMANDER PEARvs LECTURE.
In Which He Expects to Reach the
North Pole.

Plans OutttHed for HIS Nesst Expedition.
In Which He Expects to Reach the
North Pole.
Two good sized audiences greeted Com
mander Robert l.. Peary in the Au-
ditorium Wednesday afternoon and even
ing, when the famous Arctic explorer,
under the auspices of the Congregational
club, told of his plans for reaching the
North Pole and Of some of his experiences
in former expeditions. The lecture was
delightful and instructive. Commander
Peary was introduced by George l.. Dun
ham. The explorer wasted no words in
preliminaries, but at once began a de-
scription of what he expects 10 find at
the geographical axis of the world. He
does not expect to find anything abnor-
NAL there. There are reasons deduced
from ocean currents which lead scientists
to believe that there is a considerable
area of land there, and If that is true it's
vegetation may be new to science. 1t is
not likely that human beings live there.
Commander Peary said he should leave
New York early in July, following the
coast of Sidney, c. B., across the Gulf OF
ST. Lawrence, through the straits of
Belle Isle, thence by the most direct
route to Cape York, where he will take
on EsquimauX, dogs and walrus meat.
From there he will proceed up Whale
depot At Cape Sabine he will leave all
but 20 EsquimauX as a relief party and
will push forward through Smith sound
to the farthest point of navigation, the
north shore OF Grant Land, which he eX-
poets to reach in September. There the
ship will remain through winter, and
the dash for the pole will not be made
until the first light days of spring appear.
The sledge journey will be 400 miles long,
and as fast the sledges are relieved
Of their provisions they will be sent back
after more. A supply sufficient for three
Years will be taken.
After outlining his course the lecturer
showed views of ships used by various
explorers. coming finally to 1.-THE Roose-
welt" with which he will make his jour
ney. She Is first of all a powerful
steamer, although full rugged. All others
have been sailing vessels with steam as
a secondary consideration. THE Roose-
velt' is the first Arctic ship ever built
in this hemisphere.
The undiscovered Arctic area is 3,000 =
900 square miles in extent. an area as
large as the United States or the CONT
nent of Australia. 1t would mean national
prestige to plant the American flag in
the centre. For 400 years men of all
civilized nations have tried to reach the
Pole. Some of Commander Peary's rea-
sons for thinking he can succeed in this
effort are these: His ship is particularly
adapted for the work; an entire tribe of
EsquimauX is at his command; he will
have a wireless telegraph outfit with
which he will be able to communicate
with his base of supplies without having
to traverse a stretch of 800 miles; he has
had more experience than any other man,
and he already has made sledge journeys
which, If he had started from the point
where he now intends to leave his ship
would have carried him 100 miles beyond
the Pole and back again.
At this point Commander Peary showed
a beautiful series of colored dissolving
Views, which were graphic in showing the
tremendous odds against which the ex-
plorer must fight. The Esquimaux, the
dogs, the sledges, the camps in the snow,
the immense icebergs and the cairn of
stones topped by the silk flag made by
OF land known in the world, Cape Morris
X. Jessup, made an intensely interesting
exhibition.
The speaker mentioned the awfulness
Of the long Arctic night, that drives some
men mad with it's black monotony, and
the incessant hiss of the wind and rumb-
ling ice. He spoke also of the hunger,
not the hunger of the man slowly starv-
ing, but of the strong man, who has
worked for weeks on half rations or less
until there was nothing left but bone and
sinew 1t is then that the man becomes
primitive and when the musk OK drops
he falls on him and takes his fill of warm
raw delicious meat and feels in his soul
the sympathy only he can know, with the
half-starved wolf of the bowling pack
that kills the first living thing it can run
down.