The Washington herald., 1907-12-08
DR.. COOK IS MISSING
Wife Of Explorer Ignorant
of His Whereabouts.
MAY NOT BE SEEKING POLE
Possible That the Scientist Is After
Valuable Furs of WaIrus, or in
Search of Land on Northwest End
of GrantIand. First seen by Com
mander Penry on Last Trip.

New York. Dec. Unable TO explain
the long absence Of her explorer husband
in the Tar north. and vaialy waiting day
by day his return from the arctic regions
or for some message explaining his failure
to return. tho wife OF Dr. Frederick A
Cook. The Brooklyn surgeon and scientist.
has spent months on a farm outside Of
Sydney, Cape Breton, and at last reports
was still there. in ignorance Of the ex-
plorers whereabouts.
Meanwhile. the deepest mystery has
gathered about the object OF Dr. Cook $
trip 10 the far north. and the condition
Of suspense IS augmented by the belief
that the Brooklyn surgeon did not mean
what he said when he wrote home in
August that ne intended 10 reach the
north pole from Etah by new route
via Buchanan Bay. Euesmere Land, and
Nansen Strait. but that he had another
programme entirely.
On Edge of Real Polar Ice
Etah is $50 miles from the edge Of the
real polar ice. and over SEQ miles from
the pole. Members Of various arctic
clubs heve dismissed as ridiculous the
idea that DR.. Cook had any notion of
seeking the pole when he left Etah. but
they are completely at a loss TO formu-
late a satisfactory substitute theory.
Or. Cook left Sydney last June in the
NAlnerican auxiliary schooner John r.
Bradley. which landed him al Smiths
Sound. John r. Bradley. of Manhattan.
made the trip as far as Smiths Sound, but
returned TO Sydney on the yacht October
]. Mr.. Bradley brought back with him a
letter TO Herbert L. Bridgman from DR..
Cook. stating that he had hit upon" a
new route 10 the pole. and the following:
1t seems TO me TO be a very good route.
There Will be game 20 the SD degree. and
here tat Etah) are natives and dogs for
that task. SO here's for the pole"
Amo9g the conjectures made. by those
familiar with DR. Cook and arctic life. in
an effort TO divine the real object of the
trip, when IL is assumed that a dash 10
the pole is out o. the question, is that the
medical explorer is after the valuable
furs Of the walrus. which animal is 20 be
found in unusually large numbers about
seventy-five miles from Etah
May BE Seeking Land.
Another and more widely accepted con-
lecture is that Or. Cook is seeking new
! land off the northwest end of Grantland.
the land which Commander Peary discov-
cred when north on his last trip
When the Roosevelt was in winter
quarters at Cape Sheridan. at the north
end of Grantland, Peary on a side trip
succeeded in penetrating 30 the Tooth de-
gree OF west meridian. A great gale com
| PEELED him 10 retreat at that point, but
| before the storm broke he saw in the
distance. forty or more miles away. land
whose presence on the chart was I'M
known. This land was quite extensive and
/ sloped 10 the Southwest as far as the eye
| reached.
] On the trip back TO the Roosevelt after
discovering the new land Peary was
caught in the slushy ice several tilies and
nearly drowned. He frequently had 10
swim across wide leads. II is thought
that DR.. Cook was privately informed OF
/ the fact that Peary had made land be-
yond the Tooth degree of west longitude
and that he has gone with few Eski-
mos from Etah to invade this new land
which Peary saw In the distance. But
even that conjecture is weakened by the
/ presence of Mrs Cook at sydney for
months awaiting her husbands return.
Mrs Cook was formerly Mary Eidell
Hunt. DR. Cook was surgeon of the Peary
exhibition IA 1872 and was surgeon of the
Belgium antarctic expedition in 1878.
Whatever may De the explorers mis-
sion north. his trip is arousing deep in
terest among experts on arctic explora-
tion.