Commander R. E. Peary is the most persevering and the most daring of all Arctic explorers. He tells how he was induced to take an active interest in Arctic exploration. An old book-store in Washington was a favourite haunt of his, and one evening he there came across a paper on the Inland Ice of Greenland, and found the subject so interesting that he followed it up. He consulted various authorities, but found very conflicting statements. He therefore determined to visit Greenland and investigate the matter himself. He was then a lieutenant in the United States Navy.
The Navy Department having granted his application for leave, he made the necessary arrangements, and left Sydney on the steam-whaler Eagle in May 1886.
Arriving at Godhavn on 6th June, he left the whaler, and made preparations to explore the Inland Ice from the neighbourhood of Disco Bay. He was delayed two weeks at Godhavn by the ice before he could embark for Ritenbenk, at the head of the bay.
On the 23rd June he left Ritenbenk with Christian Maigaard, who was Assistant-Governor there, and eight natives, and made for Pakitsok Fiord. The head of the fiord was reached on the 25th, and on the 28th everything had been carried up to the ice-cap.
Peary’s sledging equipment had been made under his own supervision. He had two 9-foot sledges, 13 inches wide, made of hickory, steel, and hide, on a modified Hudson Bay pattern. With drag-ropes and lashings each weighed 23 lb. He carried jacketed alcohol-stoves, 9-foot double-ended ash alpenstocks with steel point and chisel, rubber creepers, snow-shoes, and ski. His rations consisted of tea, sugar, condensed milk, hard bread, pemmican, cranberry jam, baked beans, Liebig extract, and an experimental mixture of meat, biscuit, and desiccated potato.
The natives left the party at the edge of the ice-cap. On the 29th June, Peary and Maigaard started due east. A few hours after setting out, a furious storm came on, and it was deemed advisable to return to the head of the fiord and wait there till the weather improved.
On the 5th July the storm abated, and Peary and Maigaard set out once more. They reached the sledges, dug them out of the snow, and started due east again.
After crossing a network of crevasses, they encountered a series of lakes which were not frozen hard enough to support them. They had frequently to wade through a morass of saturated snow.
On the 15th July another storm compelled them to lie up four days at an elevation of 7525 feet above the sea. This camp was 100 miles from the margin of the ice-cap, and was the farthest point reached. Only six days’ provisions were left, and Peary decided to return.
The return journey was made rapidly, but they had several exciting experiences. On one occasion Maigaard was nearly lost in a crevasse, and on another Peary was swept away in a glacier stream.