to the long list of
fatalities from disease, frost, shipwreck, and starvation which in the
popular mind has made the word arctic synonymous with tragedy and death.

Thus Robert E. Peary has crowned a life devoted to the exploration of
the icy north and to the advancement of science by the hard-won
discovery of the North Pole. The prize of four centuries of striving
yielded at last to the most persistent and scientific attack ever waged
against it. Peary's success was made possible by long experience, which
gave him a thorough knowledge of the difficulties to be overcome, and by
an unusual combination of mental and physical power--a resourcefulness
which enabled him to find a way to surmount all obstacles, a tenacity
and courage which knew no defeat, and a physical endowment such as
nature gives to few men.

It has been well said that the glory of Peary's achievement belongs to
the world and is shared by all mankind. But we, his fellow-countrymen,
who have known how he has struggled these many years against
discouragement and scoffing and how he has persevered under financial
burdens that would have crushed less stalwart shoulders, specially
rejoice that he has "made good at last," and that an American has become
the peer of Hudson, Magellan, and Columbus.

GILBERT H. GROSVENOR.

National Geographic Society,
Washington, D. C., U. S. A.
August 30, 1910.

[Illustration: STELLAR PROJECTION, SHOWING THE RELATION OF THE POLAR SEA
TO THE VARIOUS CONTINENTS]

THE NORTH POLE

CHAPTER I

THE PLAN

It may not be inapt to liken the attainment of the North Pole to the
winning of a game of chess, in which all the various moves leading to a
favorable conclusion had been planned in advance, long before the actual
game began. It was an old game for me--a game which I had been playing
for twenty-three years, with varying fortunes. Always, it is true, I had
been beaten, but with every defeat came fresh knowledge of the game, its
intricacies, its difficulties, its subtleties, and with every fresh
attempt success came a trifle nearer; what had before appeared either
impossible, or, at the best, extremely dubious, began to take on an
aspect of possibility, and, at last, even of probability. Every defeat
was analyzed as to its causes in all their bearings, until it became
possible to believe that those causes could in future be gua