For his services Peary received the medal of the Royal Geographical Society, and an admiral's commission from the United States Government.
In spite of the desolation that pervades polar regions, the resources are considerable and have attracted much commercial activity. For many years whale oil was about the only illuminating oil used by most of the world, and the chief supply was obtained from the whales slaughtered in north polar regions.
Holland sent whaling ships to the arctic as early as 1613, and for two centuries whaling fleets of different nations frequented these seas. During the early part of the seventeenth century—the most profitable period—upward of three hundred Dutch ships and fifteen thousand men annually visited Spitzbergen. It is estimated that in two centuries America, England, and Holland obtained from the arctic regions products amounting to one thousand million dollars, the greatest items by far being whale oil and whalebone. Great quantities of fossil ivory have been obtained from the New Siberian Island, the very soil of which seems in great part to be made up of the bones and tusks of the extinct mammoth.
Much valuable scientific information has been gained by meteorological and magnetic observations. The north magnetic pole, toward which the north-seeking end of the compass needle points, has been located on the west side of Boothia Peninsula. At this place the dipping needle stands vertical. It must be borne in mind that the north pole of the earth and the north magnetic pole are two entirely different points. As a matter of fact, if the mariner be in the arctic waters north of Boothia Peninsula his compass points south.
The arctic currents have been carefully studied with valuable results, and it has been found that the drift of the polar ice-floe is constantly to the eastward. Snow-white arctic reindeer in considerable numbers have been recently found; and Peary found seals within two hundred miles of the north pole. The Greenland seal seems to enjoy seas filled with ice, spending part of the time in the water and part on the ice-floe.
Musk ox
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It is now known that Greenland is an ice-capped island very sparsely inhabited along the coast by Eskimos. A few hundred of these hardy people live along the Greenland coast from Cape York up to latitude seventy-eight degrees, cut off by the surrounding ice-cap from the rest of the world. They are the most northern known inhabitants.
Peary found the northern coast of Greenland well stocked with both animal and vegetable life. Bears, wolves, hares, and musk oxen were seen in considerable numbers.