two experiences without a thrill of pride and admiration for her pluck. In reading the pages of this narrative it should be remembered that within sixty miles of where Kane and his little party endured such untold sufferings, within eighty miles of where Greely's men one by one starved to death, and within less than fifty miles of where Hayes and his party and one portion of the "Polaris" party underwent their Arctic trials and tribulations, this tenderly nurtured woman lived for a year in safety and comfort: in the summer-time climbed over the lichen-covered rocks, picking flowers and singing familiar home songs, shot deer, ptarmigan, and ducks in the valleys and lakes, and even tried her hand at seal, walrus, and narwhal in the bays; and through the long, dark winter night, with her nimble fingers and ready woman's insight, was of inestimable assistance in devising and perfecting the details of the costumes which enabled Astrup and myself to make our journey across the great ice-cap in actual comfort. Perhaps no greater or more convincing proof than this could be desired of what great improvements have been made in Arctic methods. That neither Mrs. Peary nor myself regret her Arctic experiences, or consider them ill-advised, may be inferred from the fact that she is once more by my side in my effort to throw more light on the great Arctic mystery. R. E. PEARY, FALCON HARBOR, BOWDOIN Bay, GREENLAND, August 20, 1893. Civil Engineer, U. S. N. CHAPTER I NORTHWARD BOUND First Sight of Greenland-Frederikshaab Glacier-Across the Arctic CirclePerpetual Daylight—Sunlit Disko-The Climb to the Ice-cap— Dinner at Inspector Anderssen's — A Native Dance - From Disko to Upernavik — Upernavik-The Governor and his Wife - The Duck Islands -Gathering Eggs and Eider-down and Shooting Ducks. Wednesday, June 24. We have sailed and tossed, have broken through the ice-barriers of Belle Isle Straits, and once more ride the rolling swells of the broad Atlantic. Our three days' jam in the ice has given us a foretaste of Arctic navigation, but the good little "Kite" speeds northward with a confidence which inspires a feeling of security that not even the famed "greyhounds of the ocean. afford. Genial Captain Pike is on the bridge and off the bridge, and his keen eye is casting for the land. When I came on deck to-day I found the bold, wild coast of Greenland on the right. It was a grand sight the steep, black cliffs, some of them descending almost vertically to the sea, their tops covered with dazzling snow, and the inland ice flowing through the depressions between their summits; at the foot of the cliffs gleamed bergs of various sizes and shapes, some of them a beautiful blue, others white as snow. The feature of the day was the |
