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Page 7
There are six Esquimaux in the party brought back on the _Hope_--three
men, a woman, a boy, and a girl. They, men and women alike, wear
trousers of polar-bear skins, sealskin coats, moccasins made from tanned
sealskins, and fur hoods.
To make them more comfortable, Lieutenant Peary had allowed them to
pitch a tent for themselves on the deck, and here the family was
established, in company with their four favorite dogs, from whom they
could not bear to be parted. These dogs are very useful in the polar
regions. They can draw sledges over the ice, and are used by the natives
much as the people of warmer climates use horses.
Lieutenant Peary also brought back with him some relics of the
unfortunate Greely expedition which went to the Arctic regions in 1881,
to establish an observation station for our Government. Owing to the
non-arrival of expected supplies, the Greely party suffered the most
terrible hardships, and was eventually rescued at Cape Sabine in Grinnel
Land in 1883, after eighteen of the party had perished from cold and
hunger.
Greely established the station, and, after his rescue, was raised to the
rank of general, and was given a special government appointment for his
services.
When Lieutenant Peary arrived in New York, he was asked whether he
thought that Andr�e had been able to reach the Pole in his balloon.
He said that he feared it had not been possible for him to do so.
According to all he could hear, the winds had been unfavorable all
summer, and the chances were that the adventurer had been carried in an
opposite direction to the one he had intended to take.
In regard to his being rescued and ever reaching the land of the living
again, Lieutenant Peary said he feared the chances were very slight. It
all depended on the place where the balloon had descended.
If it had fallen north of Spitzbergen, it seemed unlikely that he would
ever be heard of again; if, however, the winds had carried it southward,
he might have taken refuge on an ice-pack, and would be floated
southward with it, and eventually rescued.
Dr. Nansen, in his recent famous voyage, proved that there is a strong
current flowing across the Polar Sea. By following this, a ship could be
carried from one side of the Arctic Ocean to the other.
When Dr. Nansen went north it was his hope to get his ship, the _Fram_,
into the pack, or rough ice that was being carried along in this
current, and drift with it across the Pole.
He did not succeed in reaching the Pole, but his ship did drift across
the Polar Sea exactly as he had supposed it would do.
It is Mr. Peary's belief that if Andr�e gets on to the pack-ice, he may
drift southward as Nansen did. Mr. Peary does not believe that any of
the pigeons carried by Andr�e could live in the Arctic cold, and be able
to fly southward with a message.
* * * * *
The fastest ocean voyage on record has just been made by the magnificent
North German Lloyd steamer, _Kaiser Wilhelm the Great_.
The speed record has hitherto been held by the _Lucania_, which made the
trip from Queenstown to Sandy Hook in five days and seven hours, but
that great record has now been beaten. At the rate at which the new
German steamer travels, she can make the trip in four days and
twenty-one hours.
The _Kaiser Wilhelm_ does not, however, travel over the shorter route
from Queenstown, but comes the longer way, from Southampton. She made
this trip in five days and twenty hours, beating the _St. Paul_ by two
hours all but five minutes, and on her return trip beat her own record
by thirteen hours.
Boat-builders are very enthusiastic over the speed of the new steamer,
and declare that it is only a matter of time when boats will be built
which will make the trip across the ocean in four days.
The _Kaiser Wilhelm_, besides being such a fleet vessel, is beautifully
arranged for the comfort of passengers, and is considered a model ship
in every respect.
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