thanks to him the discovery of the
North Pole was to go on the honor roll of those feats in which we take a
peculiar pride because they have been performed by our fellow
countrymen.

Probably few outsiders realize the well-nigh incredible toil and
hardship entailed in such an achievement as Peary's; and fewer still
understand how many years of careful training and preparation there must
be before the feat can be even attempted with any chance of success. A
"dash for the pole" can be successful only if there have been many
preliminary years of painstaking, patient toil. Great physical hardihood
and endurance, an iron will and unflinching courage, the power of
command, the thirst for adventure, and a keen and farsighted
intelligence--all these must go to the make-up of the successful arctic
explorer; and these, and more than these, have gone to the make-up of
the chief of successful arctic explorers, of the man who succeeded where
hitherto even the best and the bravest had failed.

Commander Peary has made all dwellers in the civilized world his
debtors; but, above all, we, his fellow Americans, are his debtors. He
has performed one of the great feats of our time; he has won high honor
for himself and for his country; and we welcome his own story of the
triumph which he won in the immense solitudes of the wintry North._

THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
THE WHITE NILE, _March_ 12, 1910.

COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY

[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF ROBERT E. PEARY, IN HIS ACTUAL NORTH POLE
COSTUME]

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE
INTRODUCTION vii
FOREWORD xv
I THE PLAN 1
II PREPARATIONS 11
III THE START 25
IV UP TO CAPE YORK 34
V WELCOME FROM THE ESKIMOS 42
VI AN ARCTIC OASIS 53
VII ODD CUSTOMS OF AN ODD PEOPLE 63
VIII GETTING RECRUITS 72
IX A WALRUS HUNT 79
X KNOCKING AT THE GATEWAY TO THE POLE 88
XI CLOSE QUARTERS WITH THE ICE