The true story of the Cook and Peary discovery of the North pole, including an account of all other polar expeditions and stories of life among the Eskimos ... illustrated with a large number of superb engravings and photographs of exciting scenes in the polar world

Front matter

Class QjQ/^O

Book_

Copyrightlsi?^

Dedication

To those intrepid men who, at the risk of their

lives, with pluek, courage and endurance,

through toilsome and perilous journeys

Foreword

The North Pole has been discovered.

It has been left for the year 1909 to bring forth what men of ages past have striven for in vain. Two American explorers, men whom neither nature's terrors nor self-interest could sway, have gone into the far north and have returned with news that their feet have rested upon the apex of the globe. Both have their supporters. The friends of the one will not believe in the achievements of the other. Probably as long as human beings can think for themselves, or at least until more fortunate men can thoroughly traverse the ice-covered seas of the pole, there will be question of the deeds of either Cook or Peary.

Such glory as has fallen to their lot is not easy to apportion.

Dr. Cook ventured into the mysterious north and returned by way of Greenland to Denmark, where he arrived worn, weary and haggard to make the first claim of having discovered the pole. Commander Peary, of the United States navy, returned by a western path, skirted Canada, and from Labrador sent his message of victory — not a week behind his predecessor. Both were given a welcome befitting conquerors. Both were called upon for proofs, and gave them. They were rivals such as never contended before for the honor of their fellows. They brought news that stirred the imaginations of even the dullest. The fact of their almost simultaneous announcement of triumph forms one of the most startling coincidences in all history.

The purpose of this volume is not to discuss the rival claims of these modern vikings; not to present anew the arguments strung out ad nauseam by warring bands of scientists; not to detract in the least from the credit due to either man. This book aims simply to present, from the records available, and from the statements made by the explorers themselves, a complete and impartial account of what they saw and did.

Whatever Peary may say of Cook, or Cook of Peary, the fact remains that the pole was discovered. It is preposterous to think that two men could perpetrate such a gigantic falsehood upon their fellow-creatures. It is, indeed, preposterous to suggest that either of these brave souls would utter the greatest lie in history. — for such would this lie be. It is more in accord with the spirit of fair-minded Americanism to assume that both are telling the truth ; that both found their way to the most lonely spot on the globe; that both are entitled to a share of the honor.

Peary and Cook !

Let the two names be linked together in the crowning marvel of a marvelous age.

Let there be found room under the Stars and Stripes for both these stalwarts; these noble Americans who took the flag of their country to the pole.

In this book will be found a complete and authentic account of the journeys of Commander Robert E. Peary and Dr. Frederick A. Cook ; of what they discovered; of how they were received on their return to civilization; and of what they had done before their careers reached the present glorious fruition. For the better understanding of their achievements there will be presented also an account of the work of previous Arctic explorers, — the men who blazed the way, and whose bones, in many cases, lie there in the far north, swallowed up by the forces against which they strove.

The Author.

DR. FREDERICK COOK IN ARCTIC DRESS.

MAP OF SOUTH POLE CONTINENT.

Chapter I. The North Pole Found

"I have found the Nortli Pole," the epoch-making message of Dr. Frederick A. Cook- Success where men had failed for centuries — The impossible accomplished — Civilization astounded, and the eyes of all mankind turned toward the north — Description by a great scientist of what it means to find the axis of the globe — Will United States claim the new territory ? 41

Chapter II. How Cook Started

Secret preparation for the dash to the pole — The long journey the sequel to a fishing trip

— Cook's vessel only a fishing schooner — Start for the polar regions 51

Chapter III

DR. COOK'S OWN STORY.

Standing on the top of the world — The great dash across the ice — Eskimos' patience exhausted— A vast excursion into the terrestrial unknown 5'J

Chapter IV. The Explorer's Return To Civilization

Explorers freezing in their idleness — What Cook saw when he reached the pole — A vast expanse of purple snows— No life, no land, nothing but ice — Privations of Hie return journey — Shooting walrus for food 71

Chapter V. A Nation's Homage To A Hero

Arrival of Dr. Cook at Copenhagen — Greeted on shipboard by the crown prince of Denmark— Escorted ashore, and followed through the streets by a dense, cheering crowd, which tore the clothing of the explorer and his escort — Guest of a scientific society — Honored at a banquet — Given private audience by the king of Denmark — The gaunt, bedraggled traveler back once more among friends 77

Chapter VI. Cook's Preparation For His Great Task

A birthday passed in a lonely land — Dr. Cook always adventurous, and an explorer from youth — His first work with Peary — Goes to the antarctic as physician for a party of Belgian scientists — Climbs Mount McKinley, a feat never before performed — Tribute of a companion on that expedition 87

Chapter VII. Peary Finds The Pole

The unbelievable message that came to a news agency in New York — "I have nailed the Stars and Stripes to the pole" — Credulity stretched to the breaking point — Peary convinces all — His dispatches to official sources and to his wife — Reception of the news by Mrs. Peary and by the daughter who was born in the arctic 93

Chapter VIII, Peary's Successful Voyage

The steamer Roosevelt starts north, and is given God-speed by President Roosevelt — -The voyage to Greenland — Peary describes preparations for the dash to the pole — Getting supplies, and shooting the formidable game of the region — High hopes for success after a life-time of effort 99

Chapter IX. Early Life Of Peary

Fired as boy and man with the love of adventure — Reads of prowess of polar travelers, and achieves ambition to follow in their steps — First work in the line of exploration — Various trips in quest of the pole touched on briefly — Peary's wife and family. . . . 108

Chapter X. Peary's Story Of The Dash To The Pole

Leaving Greenland with dogs and sledges — Long days' journeys over the ice — Terrific toil of lifting the sledge over ice-hummocks, and breaking a path — Despair of Peary's followers, and his own fortitude — The long-sought goal in sight — The last lap and the final dash — Victory ! Ill

Chapter XI. The Battle Of The Heroes

Controversies likely to attend great success — Peary challenges Cook's work — Calm reply of the man being feted in Denmark — Countercharges are made, and friends of both men take sides 124

Chapter XII. Peary's First Voyage

"Getting his sea-legs" as a polar traveler — Goes north and studies Eskimos — Mrs. Peary as a companion of her husband in the frozen land — Life among the Eskimos — Accomplishment of first expedition 133

Chapter XIII. Peary's Later Voyages

Pushing farther north each time — Journeys of 1896 and later — Achievement of the record of 87 degrees north latitude — Lands explored and geographic observations made — Hope always of at last achieving the pole 143

Chapter XIV. Troubles Of The Polar Explorer

Dangers the lure of the adventurous — Habits of Eskimo dogs — An exciting and humorous description of the crankiness of these arctic animals — Explorers assailed by hunger and weariness — Shooting game for food — Thrilling experiences of a party of starving hunters 148

Chapter XV. The Earliest Polar Explorations

North Pole a hire of mankind for many centuries — Was it once peopled with a race hardier than ours? — The ancient explorers and their crude theories — Commercial advance the first incentive of search — Sporting blood inspires the chase of the earth's axis 105

Chapter XVI. Tragedy Of Sir John Franklin

The brave English officer who determined to find the pole — Sets out with two ships and a large party of men — Ostensible aim to find the north passage, but secret ambition to discover the pole — The long silence following entry of the ships into the ice-bound north — Searching parties find proof that Franklin and all his companions perished.. 177

Chapter XVII. Kane, The Model Of Peary

Expedition to the far north in 1853 — Battle with ice and storm in Melville Bay — Long hours without water or food — Frozen into sleeping-bags — Rescue and return to Greenland — I treat value of discoveries 101

Chapter XVIII

GEN. GREELY'S EPOCH-MAKING TRIPS.

Envoy of United States government to try for farthest north — Passes through the perils and sufferings that fell to the lot of all — Reaches far northern point, but is forced to turn back 200

Chapter XIX. Rescue Of The Greely Party

Valuable scientific discoveries of the Greely expedition — His name enrolled among those

of the bravest and most reliable of polar travelers 200

Chapter XX. Fridtjof Nansen, The Modern Viking

Xansen. the hardy Norseman, determines to find the pole — Fitting up of the Fram, one of the sturdiest ships that had battled with ice-bound seas — Start of a drifting voyage through the polar ocean — Beset by huge bergs and hummocks — Party forced to subsist on poor food, and facing starvation — Turns back, after attaining "farthest north," before Peary 210

Chapter XXI. Two Balloonists Who Failed

Wellman conceives the idea of sailing to the pole in a dirigible balloon — His two attempts,

ending in failure of the airship to proceed more than a few miles 221

Chapter XXII. Life Among The Eskimos

Little-known facts about a hardy people — Are they intelligent, or the reverse? — Their means of getting food — Their cunning devices against the rigors of frost — What it means to live in a below-zero climate the vear round 224

Chapter XXIII. Shackleton's "farthest South."

Disadvantages of journeying south compared with the northern route — The great antarctic even less known than the arctic — Early journeys south — The record -breaking trip of Lieut. Shackleton 235

Chapter XXIV. The South Pole Will Be Found

Only glory now left to explorers — Plans of Peary, Cook, and others, to seek the south pole — Honor awaiting the discoverer — Will an American be first at the "bottom of the world V" 240

Chapter XXV

DR. COOK IN THE ANTARCTIC.

ITow the explorer sailed south with a party from Antwerp. Belgium — Cruises in the ice fastnesses of the extreme antarctic — The vessel caught in the ice— A 2.000-mile drift amid ice floes — The Belgica buffeted by the winds, and ground by huge masses of ice — Howling gales and creaking timbers, with every moment fateful with tragedy — Typical experiences of voyagers under such circumstances — The dreadful perils of the ship Investigator 243

MARVELS OF THE YEAR 1909.

North pole discovery only one of many wonderful discoveries and achievements — Ocean record broken by the Mairretania — Aerial navigation vastly improved — Records of Wright and Curtiss 209

Chapter XXXII. Amundsen's Discovery Of The Northwest Passage

Norwegian sailor sets out in footsteps of the vikings and of Nansen — Sails along in region where Franklin perished and others failed — Navigates little ship through narrow and dangerous passages — Success at last 306

Chapter XXXIII. Henry Hudson Honored In New York

Xorth Pole attempt ranks him with many who ventured north in early days — Discoverer

of Hudson Bay and Hudson River — Mysterious and romantic career of sea adventurer —

Both his origin and his death veiled in mystery — New York honors his memory with

pageantry and ceremony 313

Chapter XXXIV. How Latitude Is Reckoned

Uses of the sextant and artificial horizon scientifically described — The method of applying delicate instruments under adverse conditions — Discovery of the compass, the mariner's mainstay, and little known facts about the origin of this device 335

Chapter XXXV. The Story Of Harry Whitney

Young New Haven sportsman becomes an important witness in the great polar controversy — Story of how he received Dr. Cook's records, tried to take them aboard Peary's ship, and was refused permission — Rival explorers emit broadsides of argument 333

Chapter XXXVI. Wonders Of The Antarctic World

Further discoveries of Shackleton and companions — 5.000 feet of vertical ice — Story of how a monster volcano was explored — Types of animal life found at ''the bottom of the world" 341

Chapter XXXVII. How The Duke Of Abruzzi, Who Nearly Found The North Pole

CLIMBED THE HIMALAYAS.

Italian nobleman who achieved far northern record achieves greatest mountaineering feat of the year 1909 — Starts out with large expedition and conquers a mighty peak 34,500 feet above the sea — Thrilling experiences in crossing wide valleys and ascending difficult steeps 351

Chapter Xxxviii. Marvels Of The North, As Told By Nansen

Norwegian explorer among most picturesque of writers — He describes with poetic enthusiasm the varied glories of the north — Marvelous aurora, borealis, painting the sky in thrilling colors — A great, white, lonely world 359

Chapter XXXIX

DR. NANSEN AS A MIGHTY NIMROD.

Prowess of the explorer greater than that of his companions — Pursuit o_ the elusive reindeer described — Methods of bagging the clumsy walrus — Adventures of intrepid hunters in bringing down polar bears 370

Chapter XL

DR. HAYES' TERRIBLE BOAT JOURNEY.

Surgeon of Kane expedition tells how his companions set out in small craft to get supplies — Buffeted by storms and adrift on ice — Drenched by freezing water and exhausted by battle with elements, they reach land 379

Chapter XLI

FURTHER EXPERIENCES OF DR. HAYES.

Facing winter, the broken-down travelers build a hut — Drifting snow almost buries them from sight — One of party, making a relief trip, is nearly murdered bj' Eskimos — Latter at length prove to be friends in need, and Hayes and his men are able to rejoin Dr. Kane " 391

Chapter XLII. Arctic And Antarctic Regions

Extent of the polar regions, difficulties of exploring — South Pole regions unlike the northern

regions — Number of lives lost on different polar expeditions from 1553 to 1910 401

Chapter XLIII. Remarkable Discoveries Of A Young Army Officer

Youthful graduate of West Point finds overland route from the Pacific Ocean to gold

country near Nome, Alaska — Meet great obstacles in an unknown country — Deserted

by Indian guides, deprived of transportation, and hampered by scarcity of food before

success is attained 407

Chapter XLIV. Fulton-hudson Celebration Mixed With The Cook-peary Controversy

Vast army of officials and representatives of nations join in the celebration — Cook appears

on the scene and the controversy with Peary waxes strong 412

COOK'S SLED JACKED READY FOE THE DASH TO THE POLE.

PEARY'S WINTER QUARTERS— THE LOOKOUT WATCHING THE RETURN OF THE SLEDGE PARTY.

TRAINING ESKIMO DOGS FOB THE PEABY EXPEDITION.

l&Ye"l

PEABY'S ESKIMO FEEDING HIS DOGS IN THE ARCTIC.

TELT" FAST IN THE ICE.

ENTERTATNTNCr' PENGUINS WITH A PHONOGRAPH.

Chapter I. The North Pole Found

"I have found the North Pole."

From the deck of a Danish steamer as it touched at the Shetland Isles, Dr. Frederick A. Cook sent this message over the world September I, 1909. It meant that an American explorer had reached at once the summit of his ambition and the summit of the world. It meant that a dozen other explorers saw their hopes blasted. It meant that a goal striven for since the sixteenth century, a lure that had caused human bones and the wreckage of ships to be strewn amid the ice of the desolate arctic, had been gained.

More than a year had passed since Dr. Cook sailed from a point of communication with the civilized world. Not a word had come from the lone explorer who had plunged across the snows to possible doom. Then, on that first day of September, the captain of the steamer Hans Egede. a Danish craft, 'sent to the colonial office of his government this world-startling telegram :

"We have on board the American traveler. Dr. Cook, who reached the North Pole April 21, 1908. Dr. Cook arrived at Upernivik (the northernmost Danish settlement in Greenland, on an island off the west coast) in May of 1909 from Cape York (in the northwest part of Greenland, on Baffin Bay).

"The- Eskimos of Cape York confirm Dr. Cook's story of his journey."

That was all. Not a word to tell whether the explorer was well and sane, or whether, after his terrible journey northward and southward, he might not lie in his bunk, a raving maniac. But Dr. Cook's friends were speedily to be reassured. There was another message, this time to a friend in New York. It said :

"Successful. Well. Address Copenhagen.

(Signed) Fred."

The friend, Mrs. Robert Pier Davidson, of 693 Bushwick avenue. Brooklyn, was the intimate associate of Mrs Cook, wife of the explorer. From

'6G THE NORTH TOLE FOUND

Brooklyn the joyous news, not only of success, but of health, was forwarded with all speed to the explorer's wife, who was passing part of the summer in Maine. The two words, "successful" and "well," were all she needed to know. The one told her that her husband had achieved what no man had achieved before. The other contained the (for her) even more heartening news that he had returned from the awful solitudes of the pole with health and strength.

Before the day was over still another message reached the world. It was clearer and more conclusive than the others. It was addressed to the director of the observatory at Brussels, Belgium, M. Lecointe, an old friend and fellow- worker of Cook. It said :

"I reached the North Pole on April 21, 1908. I discovered land far north. I return to Copenhagen by steamer."

And so it had been done. A man had stood on "the top of the world" and had gazed upon expanses never before glimpsed by human eyes; perhaps, indeed, never seen by the eye of any living creature. More than kings and princes of the mythical world, more than navigators of the new world in the fifteenth century, has this tall, well built man who used to live at 670 Bushwick avenue, Brooklyn, N. Y., found a new thing under the sun.

On that hour in April, T908, that this man stopped his dog sledges, pulled out his sextant, and with mittened fingers fixed the instrument on the north star, shining out of the arctic night, he found himself — if the world will credit his statement — at latitude 90 and longitude anything he pleased.

He found that by shifting the position of his feet on the tip of the world he could throw himself across a span of longitudinal lines that swiftest train and steamer could not cover in forty days.

Perhaps in a whimsical moment this Brooklyn explorer balanced himself on the toe of one bearskin boot and whirled from right to left. Presto ! he had added a day to his life.

It took Dr. Cook months to work his way back from the region into which he had penetrated. It took only a few hours for his deed to become known in every city, every village, every spot on earth where civilized men hold communication with one another. And the world gasped and smiled, and cried out the questions :

Who is Cook? How did he do it? What good is it ? What does it mean to the world of the future?

HEAD OF WALRUS, WITH'ESQUIMEAU METHOD OF HUNTING.

WALRUSES AND THEIR HABITS.

Thousands of men seized thousands of maps and searched for the spot whose attainment had caused all this uproar. They found ragged lines showing where continents had been traced by voyagers of former years; and then they found a blank — a blank indicating the spaces never penetrated. They found a circle, the imaginary line tracing the realm of the arctic, and other circles showing 80 degrees north latitude, and 85 degrees north latitude, and in the center of it all, that blank. Some now drew a dotted line from Greenland to the middle of this vacant spot, and they began to understand what Dr. Cook had done.

\\ hat he did was to enter one of the few fastnesses of the earth, to explore one of the two spots thus far left unexplored, — one the North Pole, and the oilier the South Pole. He had been to the axis of the globe, the center around which it whirls. He had been to a place where, says Sir Robert Ball, the noted English astronomer, "the sun rises and sets only once a year — six months daylight, six months night, mitigated only by a little twilight at the beginning and end of a period of awful gloom, broken by occasional moonlight or aurora.

"The pole is truly a unique spot on the globe. Cook, standing there, faced due south, whichever way he looked. He was more than twenty miles nearer the center of the earth than if he stood at the equator. His weight was greater than anywhere else on the surface of the globe. A plumbline in his hand pointed vertically upward to the pole of the heavens, around which all stars revolve.

"Half of the stars he could never see; the other half never went below his horizon and would have been visible throughout the six months of night. The famous constellation Orion ever circled around and around this horizon. The pole star stood directly over his head."

In summing up the meaning of what Dr. Cook did, Herbert L. Bridgman, secretary of the Peary Arctic club of New York, used these telling words :

"The question naturally arises. What is the value of this achievement? Viewing the matter from viewpoints of the general public — as a great triumph of man over nature, as the achievement of a daring physical feat of the first magnitude — the news from Copenhagen makes Dr. Cook deservedly one of the great figures of the decade. He is the Columbus of the Arctic. What he has done no one can ever excel. There is no point further north — nothing .left for any rival explorer to accomplish which can outdo his performance."

HEAD OF MUSK-OX OF THE ARCTIC REGION.

POLAR BEAU, VERY VALUABLE FOB FUR,

Scientists the world over joined in the bedlam of discussion over the significance of the discovery. Dr. George Titmann, superintendent of the coast and goedetic survey at Washington, declared that the chief immediate

From the Washington Star.

value would be the actual geographical information obtained by Dr. Cook of the route over which he passed.

Dr. Titmann also believed that the discovery will have great effect in stimulating elaborately equipped scientific expeditions for the collection of more technical data that will be of great value.

VALUABLE FUR SEAL OF THE ARCTIC REGION.

-m l'OLAR REAR GATHEKING FISH FOR FOUR.

As to the lay of the land, the set of the currents, the rise and fall of tides, the location of other islands or the expanse of water and its depth, Dr. Titmann concluded Dr. Cook must have secured valuable information. That it will be much easier in future to reach the pole there can be no doubt, in Dr. Titmann's opinion.

Dr. Titraann suggested that if Dr. Cook had the proper equipment he might have taken pendulum experiments that would develop interesting additional data as to the figure of the earth.

In general Dr. Titmann, while greeting the alleged discovery with delight as opening up a valuable field for scientific investigation, concluded that the discoveries made by Dr. Cook, or hereafter to be made by scientists following his lead, would be for the most part of further details about subjects already known in part.

Dr. Titmann doubted, however, that any of these discoveries could have any great immediate practical importance. Navigation as a science will gain nothing, nor will meteorology. But in the verifying of what heretofore necessarily has remained in the status of theories Dr. Titmann said much will be gained. In the matter of pendulum experiments regarding the mass and figure of the earth he said all civilized nations are now making experiments, and experiments taken at the pole would add to their fund of information.

Prof. William H. Brewer, of Yale University, said :

"There are really no scientific theories as to what is immediately around the pole. There are some theorists who think there is an open sea and some who believe that a fertile spot is there. Scientific men are inclined to think that there may be little difference in immediate conditions close to the pole from those in the Arctic regions miles from there.

"The discovery of the North Pole ranks as a great achievement. Before men began to climb mountains we didn't know much about mountains, but men have climbed mountains till there are few left unclimbed. Xow when a man climbs a mountain for the first time it's a great achievement, but we have learned so much about mountains that his act may not aid much to the scientific knowledge about mountains. Just so with the scientific value of the discovery of the North Pole.

"All reports from the Arctic seas indicate that last year was unusually severe, making it possible for Dr. Cook to proceed rapidly over the ice. Climbing over the ice and icebergs toward the North Pole is like climbing through a city without streets. You have to climb over the houses. The

From the Washington Star.

THE MODERN COLUMBUS DISCOVERING THE NORTH POLE.

4G THE NORTH POLE FOUND

fact that the year was so cold kept the ice floes together more compactly and added an element of rare good luck to his splendid courage."

The Matin, a great newspaper of Paris, had this to say:

"The dawn of a new century has seen marvelous discoveries, not the least of which is that brought to us over the telegraph that the North Pole had been discovered and that an American explorer attained that point of the globe which is wrapped in mysterious legend and always has been deemed inaccessible.

"For the last five centuries the efforts of explorers have tended toward the pole ; for five centuries explorers have rushed to the Arctic extremity of the world. All peoples had tried to pierce the mystery of the polar ice and reach the exact spot where is the pole, and it is America which emerges triumphant in this heroic journey.

"One thing is certain, a great feat has been accomplished and a marvelous victory has been won by the courage and tenacity of man over the savage brutality and relentless resistance of matter, and none will seek to stint to young America the enthusiasm which the glorious conquest merits; none will refuse her the tribute of admiration, well earned by one of her sons for the triumph which he has achieved for civilization."

Discussion also arose over the value to the United States of the newly discovered lands.

State department officials were of the opinion that it was of little consequence to the United States what lands Dr. Cook has discovered on his way to the North Pole so far as actual territorial possession is concerned.

It was recalled by the department officials that ever since 1828 American explorers in both the Arctic and Antartic have discovered vast areas of land to which no claims ever were made. Admiral Wilkes found in the Antartic a territory of more than 100.000 square miles in area, and Dr. Kane made large discoveries in the Arctic, but no effort ever has been made by the United States to assert its right to them. Gen. Greely some years ago located lands which never before were known to exist.

Many of the world's greatest navigators have from time to time made discoveries to which no claim ever was made. The principal reason for this, however, is said to be that these lands in everv instance were almost inaccessible and absolutely of no value.

The islands of Spitzbergen, which were discovered many years ago, still are without a recognized owner. On the maps these islands are designated as belonging to Russia, but her claim, if ever asserted, has never been recognized.

These islands are not only accessible, but have developed some thriving industries, and only within the last few years has any effort been made to exercise over them any jurisdiction or authority.

Recently, however, a conference was suggested of representatives of countries having interests in them to provide some sort of an administration for their government. The United States probably will be represented by reason of the fact that the only important coal mines in the territory are operated by Americans.

As to the particular territory which Dr. Cook discovered the statement was made that it was quite probable that these lands would be found to be an extension of the mainland of Greenland, and, if so, they belong to Denmark. At any rate, it was held to be extremely improbable that the United States would attempt to assert sovereignty over them.

But this was something for the future. It was enough, for the time, to know that Cook was an American. The United States could claim sovereignty over him.

GENERAL A. W. GREELY, Commander of the Lady Franklin Bay Arctic expedition in 1884, which reached latitude 83 degrees 24 minutes, 455 miles from the North Pole, breaking all previous records.

DR. FREDERICK A. COOK, Discoverer of the North Pole, as he appeared on arrival home.

Chapter II. How Cook Started For The North Pole

Dr. Cook's dash for the pole, like most of the great actions of history, was as secretly conceived as it was heroically carried out.

Few even of the explorer's most intimate friends suspected he was about to undertake the most difficult journey within the reach of man. The discovery of the North Pole was the termination of a voyage that started ostensibly as a fishing-trip.

On July 3, 1907, Dr. Cook was the guest of John R. Bradley on board his schooner yacht, the John R. Bradley, which left Gloucester, Mass., to go on a fishing trip up the Labrador coast. Mr. Bradley is a New York man of wealth, interested in sports, and has followed Dr. Cook's polar aspirations closely.

Mr. Bradley invited Dr. Cook to go on the fishing trip, never dreaming that it would end in the Brooklyn man's making a dash for the pole. Aboard the schooner were half a dozen Newfoundlanders who were thoroughly familiar with the coast of Labrador and who were to act as guides.