The Norfolk weekly news-journal., 1909-09-24
Left Etah Aug. II.

TO steam north some time tonight.
PEARY.
Left Etah Aug. II.
A second dispatch, forwarded by the
same route. also received by Secretary
Bridgman from Captain Samuel W..
Bartlett. told of the steamer Erik hav-
ing collided with an iceberg and hav-
ing sustained serious damage. Cap
tain Bartlett In the same message also
reported that Peary's steamer, the
Roosevelt. left Etah Aug. IT, His dis
patch follows:
Collided iceberg Monday night Dam
age serious. Proceeding along shore
Roosevelt left Etah Aug. II. Prospects Of
success good.
What Peary Feared Most.
Peary went prepared to encounter
much open water. That was a handi-
cap he greatly feared. as dogs and
sledges cannot cross and have to make
long detours around the open water
after the vessel is left behind.
On his present expedition Mr.. Peary
announced that he would take a route
from Grant Land more to the west and
not so directly north as that of his
former attempt, heading almost as far
as the eightieth meridian of longitude
and thus compensating for the east
ward ice drift. He planned to estab,
lish his last base on newly found is
land northwest of Grant Land. Peary
based great hopes on the results to be
obtained by following the arctic cur
rents.
The advantage of this route is that it
allows base of supplies approximate
ly a hundred miles nearer the goal
than the Spitzbergen base, which has
been it's chief rival
Peary's friends for several weeks
past had been expressing a belief that
he had already reached his goal.
Before he set out some one asked
Peary what the discovery of the pole
would mean. He gave with charac-
teristic enthusiasm this answer:
1T is to open up 100000 square
miles of absolutely unknown regions.
The race is both sentimental and
moral, and If we win we will be vic
tOriouS In the greatest contest ever en-
gagged in by nations wherein there
was no jealousy"
Although the figures given by DR..
Cook make his discovery of the pole
antedate thai of Peary by nearly q
year, apparently Commander Peary
will he the first to land on American
soil and receive the plaudits of his
countrymen. If the commander comes
on at once he should reach New York
by rail from Sydney in few days.
DR.. Cook does not plan to sail from
Copenhagen till Sept. %. He will in
that case not reach New York till
nearly month after his rival.
Career of Commander Peary.
Commander Peary has made several
arduous trips into the arctic ice.
He was born at Cresson Springs, Pa,
In May, 1856 He entered the navy in
1881. His first polar experience was
acquired in 1885, when he made rec
onnoissance of the Greenland inland
Ice. In June. 1891, he sailed from New
York on the Kite and, making his
headquarters at Mccormick bay, on
the west coast of Greenland, penetrat-
ed as far north as latitude 80. In
1910 he reached the seventy eighth
parallel on the west Greenland coast.
In 1859 he went to between the sew
enty-ninth and eightieth parallels on
the east coast of Ellesmere Land. In
1900 he reached the eighty-second par
allel on the east coast of Grinnell
Land. In 1866 he skirted the north
coast Of Grinnell Land and made an
attack on the pole from Cape Moss.
This was the expedition which reached
what was at that time "farthest
north" 81 degrees minutes.
He reached that point on April 81.
Comparatively smooth travelling he
then found until he reached latitude
SO degrees II minutes. There he en-
countered terrific storm, which held
him prisoner. while the Ice drift car
ried him seventy miles to the east.
These handicaps and the constantly
widening lanes of water and increas-
Ing roughness of the ice. together with
n threatened failure of supplies, forced
Peary to turn back on April 81.
Railroad Rumors.
Gregory Advocate: There is great
activity among the railroads to see
which will get into Trip county first,
and if all reports are true the North
western will be there before snow
flies. For number of weeks past a
party of Milwaukee surveyors have
been running from Oacoma, in Lyman
county, to Roseland, one of the new
4 In, IL a. - a.