Author's Note.—I have never attempted to disprove Mr. Peary's claim to having reached the North Pole. I prefer to believe that Mr. Peary reached the North Pole.
So avid have been my enemies, however, to cast discredit upon my own achievement, by such trivial and petty charges, that it seems curious they have never noticed or have remained silent about many striking and staggering discrepancies in Mr. Peary's own published account of his journey.
In Mr. Peary's book, entitled "The North Pole; Its Discovery, 1909," published by Frederick A. Stokes Company, on page 302, appears the following:
"We turned our backs upon the Pole at about four o'clock of the afternoon of April 7."
According to a statement made on page 304, Mr. Peary took time on his return trip to take a sounding of the sea five miles from the Pole.
On page 305, Mr. Peary says: "Friday, April 9, was a wild day. All day long the wind blew strong from the north-northeast, increasing finally to a gale." And on page 306: "We camped that night at 87° 47ʹ."
Mr. Peary thus claims to have traveled from the Pole to this point, a distance of 133 nautical miles, or 153 statute miles, in a little over two days. This would average 76½ statute miles a day. Could a pedestrian make such speed? During this time Mr. Peary camped twice, to make tea, eat lunch, feed the dogs, and rest—several hours in each camp.
Why I should never have gone out of sight of land for more than two days, as he has charged, when such miraculous speed can be made on the circumpolar sea, is something Mr. Peary might find interesting reasons to explain.
On page 310, Mr. Peary says: "We were coming down the North Pole hill in fine shape now, and another double march, April 16-17, brought us to our eleventh upward camp at 85° 8ʹ, one hundred and twenty-one miles from Cape Columbia."
According to this, Mr. Peary covered the distance from 87° 47ʹ, on April 9, to 85° 8ʹ, on April 17—a distance of 159 nautical miles in eight day. This averaged twenty miles a day.