The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1909-10-22
DENIES ALL CLAIM
PEARY ouTSPOkEN IN REGARD
TO COOKS JOURNEY
Naval Officer Insists That the Doctor
Did Not and Could Not Reach
the North Pole, as He
Says He Did.

entered according to Act of Congress
In the year 1909 by the Peary Arctic club
In the office of the Librarian of Congress
at Washington. D. CO
New York. Oct. 12-The following
statement of Commander Robert E
Peary. which he submitted to the
Peary Arctic club in support of his
contention that DR.. Cook did not
reach the north pole, is now made
public for the first time. The state
ment has been copyrighted by the
Peary Arctic club.
INTRODUCTION BY PEARY.
Some of my reasons for saying that
DR.. Cook did not go to the north pole
will be understood by those who read
the following statements of the two
Eskimo boys who went with him, and
who told me and others of my party
where he did go. Several Eskimos
who started with DR.. Cook from An
oratok in February, 1908, were at
Etah when | arrived there in August,
1908. They told me that DR.. Cook had
with him, after they left, two Eskimo
boys, or young men, two sledges and
some twenty dogs. The boys were
I-toolI and Ah.pelah. l had
knowa them from their childhood
One was about eighteen and the other
about nineteen years of age.
On my return from Cape Sheridan
and at the very first settlement
touched (Nerke, near Cape Chalon) in
Reaching Etah. the Eskimos told me,
In a general way, where Dr. Cook had
been; that he had wintered in Jones
Sound. and that he had told the white
meu at Etah that he had been long
way uorth, but that the boys who were
with him, I-took-a-shoo and Ah-pe-lah,
said that this was not so. The Eski-
mos laughed at DR.. Cooks story. On
reaching Etah. | talked with the Es-
kimOS there and with the two boys
and asked them to describe DR.. Cooks
Journey to members of my party and
myself This they did In the manner
stated below
(Sigued) r. E. PEARY.
Signed Statement Of Peary, Bartlett,
Mcmillan, Borup and Henson, in Re-
gard to Testimony of Cooks Two
Eskimo Boys.
The two Eskimo boys, I-took-a-shoo
and Ah-pe-lah, who accompanied DR..
Cook while he was away from Anora-
tok in 1908 and 1909. were questioned
separately and independently, and
were corroborated by Panikpah, the
father of one of them Q-took-a-shoo),
who was personally familiar with the
first third and the last third of their
Journey, and who said that the route
for the remaining third, as shown by
them. was as described to him by his
son after his return with DR.. Cook
The narrative of these Eskimos is
as follows:
They, with Dr. Cook, Francke and
nine other Eskimos, left Anoratok,
crossed Smiths Sound to Cape Sabine,
slept in Commander Peary's old house
in Payer Harbor. then went through
Rice strait to Buchanan bay. After a
few marches Francke and three Eski-
mos returned to Anoratok.
DR.. Cook. with the others, then pro-
ceedad UP Flagler bay, a branch of
Buchanan bay. and crossed Files
mere Land through the valley pass at
the head of Flagler bay, indicated by
Commander Peary in 1898, and utilized
by Syerdrup in 1899, to the head of
SyeUdrup's Bay Ford" on the west
side Of Ellesmere Land.
Their route then lay out through
this ford, thence north through Sver-
drup's "Heuerka Sound" and hansen
strait.
On their way they killed musk oxen
and bear, and made caches, arriving
eventually at a point on the west side
of Nansen strait (sbore of Axel Hell
berg Land of Sverdrup), south of
Cape Thomas Hubbard.
A cache was formed here and the
four Eskimos did not go beyond this
point. Two others. Koolootingwah and
Inughito, went on one more march
with DIR. Cook and the two boys,
helped to build the snow igloo then
returned without sleeping.
After being informed of the boys
narrative thus far, Commander Peary
suggested a series of questions to be
put TO the boys in regard TO this trip
from the land out and back to it.
These questions and answers were
as follows:
Did they cross many open lands or
much open water. during this time?
Ans. None.
Did they make any caches out on
the ice? Ans. No.
Did they kill any bear or seal while
out on the ice north of Cape Thomas
Husbard2 Ans. No.
Did they kill or lose. any Of their
dogs while out on tal ice? Ans. No.
NhnNf