The Meridian times. (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938, 1909-09-17
PEARY TELLS OF HIS VOYAGE
First Authentic Account of the Won
derful Expedition, Related
by Explorer.

in the story; not only Of Peary's Jour
ney 70 the north pole, but also OF
remarkably fast sledge trip over the
Ice OF the open polar sea.
The dispatch says that the Roose.
yeit passed the winter OF 190S-1909 at
Cape Sheridan, on the coast OF Grant
Land. The vessel had threaded the
comparatively narrow channels, sew
eral hundreds Of miles in length, lead
ing from Cape Sabine to the Arctic
ocean
This journey is apt to- be difficult
and sometimes impossible, but the
conditions were evidently favorable.
The ship that disappeared in the fog
while the crew of Peary's auxiliary
steamer Erik we're watching its de-
parture from Etah made good pas
sage through the long channels, and
arrived safely on the shores of the
sea, where the explorer was to start
Oh his sledges for the north pole.
But at Cape Sheridan Peary was not
as far west as he probably had hoped
to be. He had announced his inten-
ton, In the previous year, Of making
his sledge route to the pole along
some meridian much further to the
west of his route in 1906, when he
made the highest north attained up
to that time-S7 d. 6 m.
On that occasion he was greatly i'm
peded by the rapid drift of the Ice to
the east which little retarded his
progress north, and worse still, car
ried him so far 60 the east that he had
to make his landing on the coast Of
North Greenland, many days march
from the Roosevelt, his base of sup
plies. . ...... .....
On his expedition of 1905-06 he tried
hard to force the Roosevelt good dis
lance to the west of Cape Sheridan,
but the ice baffied 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 to the west of Cape
Sheridan, and so 1t spent last winter
not so far from its old berth in the
ice In the winter of 1866.
It is no wonder that it took the par.
ty Is days to travel westward as far
as Cape Columbia. It is likely, how
ever, that Commander Peary succeed
ed, before winter set in, in cacheing
supplies to the westward so as to ac-
celerate a little the westward move
ment of the sledge party before it
struck out ncrthward over the sea.
Arriving at Cape Columbia on
March 10 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 the
west than on his trip in 1906. His dis
patch shows, however, that he did
not take to the sea any farther to the
west than he did on his earlier trip.
Commander Peary says nothing in
his report of being detained by pres
sure ridges or hummocks, and it ts
certain that he met with no impedi-
ment of this sort such as made his at
tempt to reach the pole in 1902 a con-
tinuous and terrible struggle.
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.
Peary's summary seems to show
that he was a little over thirty-flve
days on the journey from the land to
the north pole. In this time he was
delayed about fourteen days by water
leads, leaving little more than three
weeks for the actual sledging work.