The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1909-09-25

COOK Mr whitney lntroduced him
self to me at Annotok, when reached
there, but / did not catch his name
and had to ask II the next day."
"Then how came you to have such
confidence in him 2" was the rejoind-
or.
Knew Him by Reputation.
"Oh, 1 had heard of MIR. Whitney,
and knew him by reputation as q
sportsman and a gentleman. Besides,
circumstances arose while 1 was with
him that justified my confidence.
gave him my Instruments to bring
back because thought they would be
less liable to injury on board his ves-
sci than IL took them across tho
glaciers and rough ice 1 had to cross
on the way down to Upernavia
Did you know that Peary was
on his way to the Pole them"
mo, l did not. The last had
heard of Peary was in 1906, when he
lad raised only a few thousand dol.
lars for his proposed expedition. But
of course, l heard afterward that he
had gone north, when / reached Etah
and found Peary's men, Pritchard
and Murphy, there
"Will you tell MS che circumstances
which led you to have such confidence
in Whitney,"
II cannot do that. Mr.. Whitney is
at liberty to tell everything he
pleases, to write such letters, as he
wishes and to explain everything. He
is an unbiased witness and the only
injunction on him was that he was
not to let the news reach Peary till
had chance to get back to civil.
zation."
Did you kill any bear or seal or
make any catches of pr visions after
your start from the folc from the
last land point?'
mo. we did not"
what instruments did you have
with you from Cape Thomas Hub
bard and back?"
Had One Scxtant, Three Watches.
"A seXtant, an artificial horizon,
three chronometer watches, thermom-
cters and barometers and u pedomet-
err"
The doctor then explained in tech
nical words the nature of his instru.
ments He had Il liquid and u sur
veying compass and one with an ALL
muth attachment to enable him to
determine the mas,etic variation. Hls
artificial horizon was OF glass and he
had no transit or theodoifte.
what compass course did you lay
from Cape Hubbard north?"
"Well. II changed every day; my
fmap shows the compass course.
"Did you, take observations of the
polar star at the North Pole to ver-
ify your position?"
DR.. Cook laughed outright at this
question before he answered 1t:
"Now, how are you going to take
observations of the Pole star when
YOU have a continuous sun? There is
, no night In the summer there; you
do not see any stars, there is no dark
ness"
"Then all your observations were
based on all the suns altitude?"
Certainly, there was nothing else
to see. We made the regular astron-
omical observations, the simple naut-
ical observations that q captain would
make aboard his ship to determine
his exact position"
"Will you describe in detail any
single observations taken by you at
the North Pole. with the exact fig
ures of the results and the corrections
applled?"
The explorer shifted his position
and thought q mc"eut, then he shook
his head in satisfied way and an
swcred.
No Details at Present.
mo not at the present moment
We will describe every one of them
| In detail when they go to the Univers-
lty of Copenhagen. They will go
there within two months. The en-
tire records will be delivered to the
University and after that they VIII be
open and available to any one that
| wants to examine them"
your first despatch tells of seeing
| the midnight sun swing across the
horizon for the first time ON April 4,
was the next question. ASTRONOMERS
say that YOU should have been able to
Dee 1t several days before that II your
position was correctly stated. Can you
explain thls?"
II do not think l said 1t was the
| first time, but 1t Is my impression thal
the horizon had been too hazy ano
| obscure with the smoke from the
| omen leads to enable us to see the
midnight sun. Anyway we were no.
taking observations every midnight
/ what did you mean by having
opened up 10000 square miles OF th'
| terrestrial unknown, as you SAID IL
your first despatch .
| Had "a Horizon of Thirty Miles,
simply that We had covered
| course beyond any previous nortl
which, calculating our horizon at ~
teen miles either side of us. made
strip thirty miles wide and thou
sand miles long. or 10000 square
miles"
But the limitations of the curva
ture of the earth would require yol
to be at an elevation of 15O feet Il
have horizon of fifteen miles" re
torted the questoiner."
"Well. If there lis any land up ther'
IL Is always at considerable alti
tude-at least 1,oo0 feet-and Ger
tainly we would have seen any sucl
elevation within n horizon OF hftee'
miles. We saw none" replied Cook
plainly parrying and anxious to &c
away from the 10000 square mile
question,
,rhe next question was Tor an eN
planation of his two statements; tn
FIRST that they had started from Giou