The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-05-31

In the June Hampton's Peary gets down to the meat of his story of his Discovery of the North Pole," and in the course of the article makes plain to the reader why his own ex- petition was successful, and why no other expedition, especially a sport ing party could hope to accomplish the work. Peary makes no mention of Dr. Cook, but his statement of the reasons for his success make plain the only basis on which an expedi- ton could be successful. Peary says:
 "Fortitude and endurance alone are not enough in themselves to carry a man to the North Pole. Only with years of experience in travelling those rarty also experienced in that char acter of work, only with the knowl- edge of Arctic detail and the equip ment necessary to prepare himself and his party for any and every emergency, is it possible for a man to reach that long-sought goal and return.
 ''The reason of our success was carefully planned system, mathemati- cally demonstrated. Everything that could be controlled was controlled, and the indeterminate factors storms, open leads and accidents to men, dogs and sledges-were taken into consideration in the percentage of probabilities and provided for as far as possible. Sledges would break and dogs would fall by the way, of course, but we could generally make one sledge out of two broken ones, and the gradual depletion of our dogs was involved in our calculations.
 "The difficulties and hardships of a journey to the North Pole are too complex to be summed up in par agraph. Briefly stated, the worst of them are:. The ragged and noun tainous ice over which we must trav- el with our heavily loaded sledges; the often terrific wind, having the impact of wall of water, which we intense cold, sometimes as low as 60 degrees below zero, through which we must-by fur clothing and con- stant activity-keep our flesh from freezing; the difficulty of dragging cut and back over the ragged and Head" broken trail enough pemmi- can, biscuit, tea, condensed milk and liquid fuel to keep sufficient strength in our bodies for travelling. It was so cold much of the time that the brandy was frozen solid, the petroleum was white and viscid, and the dogs could hardly be seen for the steam of their breath.
 The minor discomfort of building every night our narrow and uncom- fortable snow houses, and the cold bed platform of the igloo on which we must snatch such hours of rest as the exigencies of our desperate enterprise permitted us, seem hardly worth mentioning in comparison with the difficulties of the main proposi- tion itself
 At times we marched all day long facing a binding snowstorm, with the bitter wind searching every opening in our clothing. Those among my readers who have ever been obliged to walk for even an hour against a blizzard, with the temperature 10 de- grees or 20 degrees above zero, prob ably have keen memory of the ex- perience. Probably they also remem- Der how welcome was the warm fire side of home at the end of their tourney. But let them imagine tramp ing through such a storm all day long, over jagged and uneven ice, with the temperature between 15 degrees and 30 degrees below zero, and no shell ter to look forward to at the end of the days march, except a narrow and cold snow house which they would themselves be obliged to build in that very storm before they could eat or rest.
 "In order that the reader may un- derstand this journey over the ice of the Polar Sea, it is necessary that the theory and practice of pioneer and supporting parties should be fully understood.
 ''The use of relay parties in Arctic work is not new, but the idea was carried further in the last expedition of the Peary Arctic Club than ever before.
 Without this system it would be a physical impossibility for any man to reach the North Pole and return to tell the tale.
 First, because a single division, comprising either small or a large number of men and dogs, could not possibly drag all the way to the Pole and back (some nine hundred milesl as much food and liquid fuel as the men and dogs of that division would consume during the many weeks of the journey.
 "Second, it is absolutely necessary that the arduous work of trail-break- ing for the first two-thirds of the distance should be done by one divi- sion after another, in succession, in crder to save the strength of the main party for it's final dash alone.
 ..Third, when the supplies of one sledge after another have been con- sumed, the drivers of these sledges