Full of enthusiasm for further adventure in the land of desolation, where the wild vivid poppy flourishes in sheltered nooks, near eternal glaciers; where a lifeless desert of perpetual snow, from five thousand to ten thousand feet above the level of the sea, extends over an area of some twelve hundred miles in length and five hundred in width,—a glistening shroud,—covering the mighty rocks of ages, the buried summits of high mountains thousands of feet below,—Peary returned to the United States and in a newspaper article attracted the attention of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, which offered to defray part of the expense of his second expedition.
Peary left, June 6, 1891, in the Kite, and with his party, including Mrs. Peary; Langdon Gibson, ornithologist and hunter; Dr. Frederick A. Cook, surgeon; Eivind Astrup, a Norwegian; John M. Verhoeff, mineralogist and meteorologist; and Matthew Henson, a coloured man, landed at M’Cormick Bay in August. An unfortunate accident aboard the Kite, which resulted in a broken leg, caused Peary disappointment and delay in carrying out his autumn plans. However, “Red Cliff House” was erected, communications with the natives established, and such work carried on as Peary’s unfortunate condition would permit. In April, 1892, Peary, being fully restored to health, left Red Cliff House and explored Inglefield Gulf; his next move was to establish caches of provisions to be used on his sledge journey across the ice-cap.
This journey was undertaken in May; four sledges, to which were harnessed sixteen dogs, carried the provisions and equipment. A supporting party advanced with Peary to a point about one hundred miles from M’Cormick Bay. The explorer, with one companion, Astrup, proceeded over the great ice at an elevation of about five thousand feet, and by May 31 looked down into Peterman Fjord. “Here,” says Peary, “we were on the ice-bluffs forming the limit of the great glacier basin, just as we had been at Humboldt, but a trifle less fortunate here than at Humboldt. I found it necessary to deflect some ten miles to the eastward, to avoid the inequalities of the glacier basin, and the great crevasses which cut the ice-bluffs encircling it.”
Peary’s object now was to make the east coast of Greenland, following the edge of the ice-cap, beset with crevasses, slippery ice, hummocks, drifting snow and fogs, and the journey was continued until July 4, 1892, when they reached Independence Bay, 81° 37´ north latitude. An ascent of Navy Cliff revealed a magnificent panorama of rugged, majestic, ice-free country to the north, and the broad expanse of the East Greenland Ocean.
Strange it seemed that in this remote country in sheltered nooks the flowers bloomed; the hum of bees, the drone of flies, fell upon the ear; the snow-bunting, the sandpiper, a Greenland falcon, and a pair of ravens greeted the adventurers. Musk-ox fed upon the patches of greensward, and no less than five fell to Peary’s rifle and supplied men and dogs with abundant meat.
The return journey back to M’Cormick Bay, a distance of some four hundred and fifty miles, was made over the ice-cap in the face of violent storms and wind, through drifts and fog, with diminished provisions and failing dogs.
A joyful meeting with Professor Heilprin and party, who had come north a month before with the Kite, took place on the Inland Ice, at the head of M’Cormick Bay, and a happy return was made to Red Cliff House.
DISCOVERS MELVILLE LAND
The results of Peary’s second voyage to the Arctic, embracing the great twelve-hundred-mile journey, determined the northern extension and insularity of Greenland; made the discovery of detached ice-free land-masses of less extent to the northward, and established the rapid convergence of the Greenland shores above the 78th parallel. It also included the discovery of Melville Land and Heilprin Land, and the accumulation of most valuable scientific data, besides laying the foundation for Peary’s comprehensive study of the Greenland Highlanders, or native Eskimo.
Immediately upon his return to the United States, Peary devoted his energies to a lecture tour from which he hoped to derive the necessary funds to promote a more extended exploration of Northeast Greenland.