NEAREST THE POLE THE GEOGRAPHICAL LIBRARY The Opening of Tibet, _By Perceval Landon_ Flashlights in the Jungle, _By C. G. Schillings_ The Passing of Korea, _By Homer B. Hulbert_ Fighting the Polar Ice, _By Anthony Fiala_ Nearest the Pole, _By R. E. Peary, U. S. N._ [Illustration: “NEAREST THE POLE” COMMANDER ROBERT E. PEARY PLANTING THE AMERICAN FLAG LATITUDE 87° 6′, APRIL 21, 1906 Painted by Albert Operti, from photographs ] Nearest the Pole A Narrative of the Polar Expedition of the Peary Arctic Club in the S. S. Roosevelt, 1905–1906 By R. E. PEARY, U. S. N. _With ninety-five photographs by the author, two maps and a frontispiece in colour by Albert Operti_ [Illustration] New York Doubleday, Page & Company 1907 COPYRIGHT, 1907, BY DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY PUBLISHED, APRIL, 1907 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN TO HER WHO HAS BEEN MY CONSTANT AID AND INSPIRATION AND HAS BORNE THE BRUNT OF IT ALL [Illustration: NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY INCORPORATED A.D. 1888] INTRODUCTION The Address of President Roosevelt on his presentation of the Hubbard Medal of the National Geographic Society to Commander Robert E. Peary, at the annual banquet of the Society, December 15, 1906. _I count myself fortunate in having been asked to be present this evening at such a gathering and on behalf of such a society to pay a tribute of honour to an American who emphatically deserves well of the commonwealth. Civilised people usually live under conditions of life so easy that there is a certain tendency to atrophy of the hardier virtues. And it is a relief to pay signal honour to a man who by his achievements makes it evident that in some of the race, at least, there has been no loss of hardy virtue._ _I said some loss of the hardier virtues. We will do well to recollect that the very word virtue, in itself, originally signifies courage and hardihood. When the Roman spoke of virtue he meant that sum of qualities that we characterise as manliness._