Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1906-11-16


OF Far North To Ills Credit-Hi. For
ner Achievements.
In reaching the latitude Of - de
grees 6 minutes Commander Robert l.
.'e4ry. the intrepid arctic explorer. ap
proachei t. w,lAlu -n56 statute miles
yf The north pole. says the New lorA
sun. All The highest records have
years. Here g., the list. The Duke Of
The Abruzz., 1870. -5al5 statute miles
tgom The pose, Na4>eu. lsJI, III miles;
he FRAN. l>5J during yer dr.it after
Nanse4 lett hes ->o.5J miles. Feagy,
1901. G,67J miles; Lockwood, l,y-..
$500 rallies
Ii : the most successful attempt on
The pole yet uade, not only because
Pe4ry has made ,Ae nearest approach
10 the pole yet achieved, bat also be
by far the shortest time after leaving
for the arc,c AL expeditions except
M those OF the Duke of the AbruzZi
and Peary THAI have been conspicuous
TOR high nor,4.l- made were in tie
arctic TWO years or more before attain
tug their highest north. FeIry sailed
from New York July Is. 1906 He does
not give the date OF his highest north,
but it seems evident tu4t he was with
in 10 miles Of tue north pole some
eight or nine months after he left New
YorA.
The Duke ot the AbruzZ! came near
est 10 emu.arnz reavy IN this respect,
His work was regarded a uuexampled
in tie fact that only year after he was
reported 10 have reached the south
coast Of Franz Josef Land. over 40
miles south os tie -heSt point he at
tained. he was III open water, bound
for home, and the telegraph had al
ready flashed the news of his success
aud his return all over tie world.
The facts gwen IN his dispatch show
that Peary made a terrific struggle to
reach the pole. His feat Of sledgng
over the Ice Of the polar ocean will
stand il class by itself. Nothing
like It has hitherto been achieved We
may get some idea OF the work he di
when the fact is mentioned that from
his last land base at cape Colombia TO
his most northern point he advanced
more than 400 miles toward the pole.
His journey may have been Il great
deal longer, as his course was detected
by ice ridges to the right or left OF a
/ straight line, but what he did was TO
make a uortLiEg OF over 400 miles from
the promoutory Of Grant Land. where
lie struck out on the ice. II may be
said without any further details that
there is nothing TO compare with this
attainment over the hummocky ice Of
the north polar sea in arctic annals.
The fact that his journey was de
layed by open water after he had pass
I ed the highest northing ever made in
the American arctic in ii surprising
T circumstance. Open water has been
seen along the southern border OF this
part of the Arctic ocean and to the
north of Robeson channel The Greely
party found reaches of open water in
this sea along the Greenland coast. but
no explorers who have been north on
this sea ice have ever before met wa
ter. Considering the great distance
Peary made from his land base. it is
not ct all unlikely that if he had found
ice all the way to the pole, as he had
good reNsOn 70 expect, he would have
reached his goal
AS near as can be judged, the ex-
plorer must have been at least 2Oe
miles from land when the whole pack
was disrupted by a gale, and he drift
ed east to the coast Of Greenland, at
least about 200 miles to the northeast
of the winter quarters Of the Roose-
velr. His caches had been destroyed
he reached land by eating his dogs,
and his party were castaways on this
bleak coast Peary's knowledge Of this
coast undoubtedly gave him confidence
that he would meet musk oxen there.
He did. and they saved his life again
as on his second trip TO the north OF
Greenland over the inland ice, when
musk OK meat was the only resource
that enabled him to retrace his steps
Goo miles to his camp on 1ngleheld