The Garland globe. [volume] (Garland, Utah) 1906-191?, 1909-09-18


supplies.
On his expedition Of 19O5-O6 he tried
hard to force the Roosevelt a good
distance to the west of Cape Sheridan,
but the ice baffled him. For one rea-
son or another on the edge OF the arc
tic winter last year he did not or
could not take his vessel along the
northern coast of Grant Land, and so
IL spent last winter not so far from It's
old berth in the ice in the winter or
1905-6.
SIedge Party Starts In Dark.
The sledge expedition left the Roose.
welt on February Is, while it was still
practically dark in that latitude. The
sun scarcely begins to peer above the
hills for a few minutes a day, even
several hundred miles to the south OF
the coast where the Roosevelt was
wintering. 1t comes into view little
later in that more northern latitude,
and the party made slow time to the
west as 1t felt its way along.
The northern Grant Land coast Is
likely to be exceedingly difficult to
traverse, especially in the early spring
on account of the masses of sea Ice
that have been pressed on the shore
or broken into great blocks and
stranded along the sea edge.
sowness Of Trip Expected.
It Is no wonder that 1t took the par
ty Is days to travel westward as far
as Cape Columbia. 1t Is likely, how
ever, that Commander Peary succeed
ed, before winter set in, in cacheing
supplies TO the westward so as to &C.
celerate little the westward move
ment OF the sled.yc party Lcfcre II
struck out northward over the sea-
Arriving at Cape Columbia on
March Is the sledges turned to the
north on the sea Ice. The explorer had
laid much stress upon the fact that he
intended to travel much further to tho
west than on his trip in 1906. His dis
patch shows, however, that he did not
take to the sea any further to the west
than he did on his earlier trip II,
therefore, his route was really much
further west than that which he had
traversed earlier, he must have trav-
eled q considerable distance to the
northwest over the sea Ice.
Commander Peary says nothing In
his report of being detained by pres
sure ridges or hummocks, and It Is
certain that he met with no impedi.
ment Of this sort such as made his at.
tempt to reach the pole IN 1912 con-
tinuous and terrible struggle.
Evades Open Water Lanes.
A great obstacle and the one that
undoubtedly prevented him from
reaching the pole in 1906 was the wide
water lanes or leads of water, some
of them so long that he could not get
around them. One of them kept his
party idle in camp for a week, and
the total delay from this cause was
fatal to his plans.
Conditions were different last spring,
though he was held up by leads on
the northern march abotu two weeks
He seems to have derived two great
advantages from his early start. In
the first place 1t would not be unit,
much later In the season that the
water lanes would develop so far as to
threaten him with defeat, and then his
early start gave him all the more time
to carry out his work before the wide
spread breakup of the sea ice would
make sledging impossible on the polar
ocean.
Records Show Good Speed.
Peary's summary seems to show that
he was a little over thirty-five days
on the journey from the land to the
north pole. In this time he was delay
ed about fourteen days by water leads.
leaving a little more than three weeks
for the actual sledging work.
We may get a good idea Of the av-
erage rate of travel by taking the first
sea and the north pole records. He
passed the British Record on March
2, and reached the pole on April 6.
The distance between them is AGO stat
ute miles, and the time In making
the Journey was "a days including the
time of detention by water leads. This
Is an average OF little less than twelve
miles a day, which Is the best record
ever attained for long route sledging
on the open polar sea.
Records Of Other Men.
The Italian, Cagni, OF the duke OF the
Abruzzi expedition, who made the high.
est record till Peary beat 1t In 1906,
made an average of only about seven
miles day on his great journey. and
In ten days on account of deep snow.
they covered only 43 1-2 miles to the
north of their ship. Cagni expressed
the wish before he started that he
might make ten miles a day, but said
he knew this was impossible.
Peary has not only reached the pole,
but he has attained 1t at an earlier date
in the year than any OF the other high
records in the Arctic have been made.
He was at the pole one day earlier than
hansen reached sc degrees, five min.
utes, 10 days earlier than Cangi.
reached sc degrees, "a minutes, and 81
1duys- earlier = than --LeelIwnnd and
Brainard reached 83 degrees. "a min.
utes.
This is significant of the SURPRISING
achievement in sledge work that Peary