of the land, reserving the great northward march for
the spring of 1894. He is pushing forward his preparations quietly and
quickly, and, as he does not ask for public money, he does not feel it
necessary to publish any of the details of his intended mode of life.
It is difficult to forecast the result of his expedition. From the
little we know about Franz-Josef Land, it appears certain that with a
favorable season much good work could be done, and there is more
satisfaction in contemplating an expedition in which pluck and
endurance count than the mere passive submission to the laws of
physical geography, on which Nansen depends. In two years he hopes to
prove that Franz-Josef Land is or is not a practicable road to the
pole.

We have no data to make a comparison between the two brave men, nor
any wish to do so. But Nansen is Nansen, and Jackson has yet to win
his spurs; to him therefore would be the greater glory if success
attend him.

For our part, we heartily desire that Nansen, Peary, and Jackson may
meet simultaneously at the pole, and return betimes to tell their
story and share the honors. The aggravating thing is, that the
expeditions may never reach their proper starting point. Many a good
ship has knocked about for a whole season in the Kara Sea without
getting a lead through the ice; the effort to reach Franz-Josef Land
has not been often made, and it is a sinister omen that the
"Tegetthof," which discovered that region, arrived there after
eighteen months of drifting fast in the floes. But we shall see.

LIEUTENANT PEARY'S EXPEDITION.

BY CLEVELAND MOFFETT.

Before the end of June, Civil Engineer Robert E. Peary of the United
States Navy will have sailed on another expedition for the Arctic
regions. The party will go by the way of Newfoundland, Baffin's Bay,
and Whale Sound, to Inglefield Gulf, which lies just southeast of
Smith Sound and south of the promontory containing the great Humboldt
glacier. The winter camp will be established at the head of Bowdoin
Bay, some forty miles to the east of Redcliffe House, where Lieutenant
Peary passed the winter of '91, '92.

[Illustration: ROBERT E. PEARY.]

The programme of the expedition may be briefly summarized as follows:

The party will be absent about two years and a half, a three years'
leave of absence having been accorded Lieutenant Peary by the Navy
Department. They expect to be in camp, as indicated, by the last week
in July, when the