The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-09-05


 met this evening at the Hotel Phoenix. pr. Cook. at the request of the corre- spondents, consented to answer all questions. First, he was asked whetn- CT or not the first account of his dis covery of the pole could be accepted as entirely his own work. He replied in the affirmative, except for the obvi- ous errors in transmission. He then explained the doubt about 30. 900 square miles discovered. saying that he meant they were able to see fifteen miles on each side during their journey to the pole and that therefore. hitherto unknown territory of 30.000 square miles were not discovered.
 Describes Observations.
 Dr. Cook proceeded to show that he was fully competent to take all ob- servations. though saying that on pre-. lyious exploring expeditions he did very little observation work, which usually was divided among the mem bers of the party. This time, ne continued, i've had started out to reachs, the pole. and everything else was A secondary consideration. It was not possible to carry certain appa- ratus and 1t was impossible also to study the deep sea or take soundings. We carried all necessary simple instru- ments for astronomical observations and we were lucky to obtain observations virtually every day. The positions noted must have been nearly correct. We had three thermometers, one watch. compass and pedometers. All were carefully controlled by each other from time to time. The watch, however, got out of order.
 I've had all the modern instruments which explorers have mad. including thermometers, barometers and sextants of the latest models. It Is possible that our observations were better than those of earlier days, but I do not as-. sert that am perfectly familiar with making astronomical observations, especially in the Polar regions. think. however, that all explorers will be sat- isfied with my data.
 sWhy should sit down and invent observationsy' he exclaimed. T did not do this thing for anything but sport and because take a real interest In the problem. It would nor do me any good to invent these things. The only certainly, but in all Polar expeditions observations have been made by one man. I regard the Eskimo as much more intelligent in finding positions than the white man in the Arctic. These people, as a rule. are not aoso- uitely ignorant.
 Help Fina aBig Naii.v
 'They know that the earth is round. They have a name for the pole, which they call the Big Nall They appre- cfate the work of the explorers when participating therein. I think Ras- mussen has obtained some information regarding my expeditions from the Es- kimos who have learned 1t from the two with us. Rasmussen was there much later and his information will he published shortly. possibly tomorrow.
 "Concerning the ice around the pole. so far as I could see. 1t was slightly more active there than at one or two degrees south. It drifted somewhat more to the south and east. Its gen- erai character is not very different from that at other places. We stayed around the pole for two days. making many observations. do not claim to have put my finger on the exact spot; do not claim to have put my foot on 1t. but personally fthink we have been at the spot When the observations have been figured out again 1t Is pos- sibie that there will be found slight errors and differences, but I am cer- tain that gun shot fired from where we were would have passed over the pole.
 .ws planted the Stars and Stripes at what we believed to be the pole, but did not leave the nag with stan. In- stead. placed small silk flag in a cylinder with my card and the record DR the journey with the date. The drift ice may carry the flag away, but to me that is a matter of Indifference. should have been very. glad to have found land there.
 T am quite prepared to place my ob- Bervations before any geographical so- ciety in the world. think there is no doubt about my obtaining authori- tative recognition. I have already re- reived telegrams from the geographi- cal societies of< Sweden. Norway. Den., mark, Belgium and other countriea which congratulated me, while Amund- sen, Nordenskjold. Cagnf and Lecointa have acknowledged my work. I offer my observations to science the same as other men have done. and I accent the responsibility as to the temperature at the pole; 1t was minus sS. took ! about 4oo photographs. one of which shows the American flag flying. These as yet have not been deyei. oped."
 Explain Great speed.
 Questioned regarding his great speed
 "The daily distance covered on the Northward trip was slightly less than fifteen miles; on the Southward trip 1t was ten miles. This is moi an abnormal distance for Eskimos on inc ice. They often travel fifty or sixty miles with dogs One of the greatest advantages of our trip was that I did not take famine route. We had game for long time, perhaps for d hundred miles. We fed our dogs well throughout the winter in Greenland and ran them 4oQ miles, giving them fresh meat every day. Thus we brought them to the Polar sea fat and well. We had the best men and the best dogs.
 We lived entirely on dried meat and beef tallow, reducing the food problem to a science. The last trace of animals we saw was a bear track at SS degrees. Afterwards we did not see life even in the water. except algae. The drift of the ice during the entire Southern trip was slightly South of West. We found several of Sver. drups old camps. The reason we uti- lized silk tents on some occasions Mas that we were so exhausted that we had not strength to build a snow shed. We had carefully figured and planned everything. so that there was no surplus weight to carry. We did not run short except when we went astray
 During the expedition we ate all kinds of meat I like musk OK best but we would eat bear of fox if the other was not obtainable. Everything tastes good when one Is starving. We brought ten dogs back with us. the others having been eaten by their com panions. We used the lasso traps ana bows and arrows to catch game. It took two months to learn how to trap a moose. One of the men shot au cider duck with arrows"
 pr. Cook concluded his observations with a reference to the kind way he