Nearest the Pole: a narrative of the polar expedition of the Peary Arctic Club in the S.S. Roosevelt, 1905-1906Peary, Robert E. (Robert Edwin)
History
Nearest the Pole: a narrative of the polar expedition of the Peary Arctic Club in the S.S. Roosevelt, 1905-1906
Peary, Robert E. (Robert Edwin)
Arctic regions
Examined from our elevation with the glass, we saw that there were six.
We went away after these, and I secured five (one bull, two cows, one
two-year-old heifer, and a two-year-old bull) with five shots. One bull
had separated from the rest before we arrived, and I did not go after
him.
These cows had whiter backs than the bulls, and a pronounced white spot
between the horns. We skinned the animals, cut them up, fed the dogs on
the refuse, and brought the meat and skins out to where I had killed the
single bull. Then we had a grand feed. Numerous hare, sandpipers,
snow-buntings, and bluebottle flies, also several caterpillars were seen
here. We camped on the bare dry gravel near the musk-ox and found it a
great relief from the blinding glare of the ice. Plenty of water nearby.
Again I quote from my Journal:
_Cape Nares, June 8th._—To-day has seen the accomplishment of what I
planned last fall, almost as soon as the _Roosevelt_ reached Cape
Sheridan: the building of a cairn, the display of the Stars and Stripes
and the placing of my record and a piece of the flag, on the summit of
Cape Columbia, the northern extremity of North America.
Caching the meat and getting the musk-ox skins stretched to dry in the
sun took some time, and we did not get under way till 10:30 P. M. of the
7th, the fine weather continuing, though a fresh breeze from the west,
heavy clouds over the land to the southwest and a bank of clouds to the
north threatened a change.
At 12:30 this morning, I stopped the sledges at the foot of the northern
twin peak of Columbia, and began the ascent with two Eskimos, leaving
one to look after the dogs.
The peak is a steep conical pile of loose stones, and though only 1,800
feet high, it took us two hours to make the ascent. I am very much below
par, even more than I thought, no wind and no strength. Obliged to stop
every little way and rest. Arrived at the top we built a cairn about
five feet high and four to five feet in diameter, with an ash pole in
the centre, hoisted my flag, took some photos, placed a record and piece
of the flag in a tin inside the cairn, then made the descent down a
steep snow-bank, plunging rapidly and making fast time, though at the
expense of my stumps.
The weather was now growing more threatening, and two or three times
banks of fog had momentarily enveloped us.
We started west again and came on to Cape Nares where we camped on a
patch of bare gravel near two conical mounds (similar to those on the
ice-cap of Greenland) a few hundred yards out from the base of the
cliffs. We found abundant water close by. The wind was now increasing,
the sky entirely overcast and there was every indication of a storm.
Before midnight the wind was blowing, the snow driving in horizontal
lines against the tent, which was flapping and complaining loudly.
This has continued ever since but appears to be moderating now.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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