THE CONQUEST OF THE POLES

BY
REAR ADMIRAL ROBERT E. PEARY
Discoverer of the North Pole

FRIDTJOF NANSEN · SIR ERNEST H. SHACKLETON
DUKE OF THE ABRUZZI · ROALD AMUNDSEN
ROBERT E. PEARY · ROBERT FALCON SCOTT

Ten years ago many, perhaps the majority, of intelligent people doubted if the Poles of the earth would ever be reached by man. From east to west, and west to east, the world seemed small. Jules Verne’s “Round the World in Eighty Days” dream of not so many years ago had been cut in two; but from north to south the world still stretched in apparently unattainable infinity.

Within the last four years the two Poles have been reached three times, and in their attainment the globe has shrunk to commonplace dimensions. With the attainment of the Poles the climax of polar discovery has been reached, the last of the splendid series of great world voyages and mighty adventures has been finished. But while the glamour, the mystery, the speculation, as to what exists at the ends of the earth are gone, the work of detailed explo­ra­tion, of continuous scientific observations and investigations, will continue until to the scientist and geographer the polar regions will be as well known as the more favored regions of the earth.