MY ARCTIC JOURNAL A YEAR AMONG ICE-FIELDS AND ESKIMOS BY JOSEPHINE
DIEBITSCH-PEARY WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE GREAT WHITE JOURNEY ACROSS
GREENLAND BY ROBERT E. PEARY CIVIL ENGINEER, U S. NAVY THE
CONTEMPORARY PUBLISHING COMPANY NEW YORK AND PHILADELPHIA 1893
Copyright, 1893. THE CONTEMPORARY PUBLISHINO COMPANY. TAKING ON AN
ESKIMO PILOT. INTRODUCTORY NOTE On Jime 6, iSpi, the steam-whaler
Kite which was to bear t ie expedition of the Philadelphia Academy
of Natural Sciences northward, set sail from the port of New-York,
her destination being Whale Sound, on the northwest coast of Green
land, where it had been determined to pass the winter, prelimi nary
to the long traverse of the inland ice which was to solve the
question of tlie extension of Greenland in the direction of the
Pole. Ttie members of the expedition numbered but five besides the
commander, Mr. Peary, and his wife. They were Dr. F. A. Cook,
Messrs. Langdon Gibson, Eivind Astrup, and John T. Verhoeff, and
Mr. Pearys faithful colored attendant in his surveying labors in
Nicaragua, Matthew Henson. This was the smallest number that had
ever been banded together for extended explorations in the high
Arctic zone. A year and a quarter after their departure y with the
aid of a relief expedi tion conducted by Professor Angelo Heilprin,
Mr. Peary s party, lacking one of its members, the unfortunate Mr.
Verhoeff, re turned to the American shore. The explorer had
traversed northern Greenland from coast to coast, and had added a
remarkable chapter to the history of Arctic exploration. The main
results of Mr. Peary s journey were The determination of the rapid
convergence of the shores of Greenland above the 7 8th parallel of
latittide, andconsequently the practical demonstration of the
insularity of this great land-mass 2 MY ARCTIC JOURNAL The
discovery of the existence of ice-free land-masses to the northward
of Greenland and The delineation of the northward extension of the
great Greenland ice-cap. In the following pages Mrs. Peary recounts
her experiences of a full twelvemonth spent on the shores of
McCormick Bay, midway between tJie Arctic Circle and the North
Pole. The Eskimos with whom she came in contact belong to a little
tribe of about three hundred and fifty individuals, completely
isolated from the rest of tJte world. They are separated by
hundreds of miles from their nearest neighbors, with whom they have
no intercourse whatever. TJiese people had never seen a white
woman, and some of them had never beheld a civilized being. The
opportunities which Mrs. Peary had of observing their manners and
mode of life have enabled her to make a valuable contribution to
ethnological learning. THE PUBLISHERS. PREFACE This plain and
simple narrative of a year spent by a re fined woman in the realm
of the dreaded Frost King has been written only after persistent
and urgent pressure from friends, by one who shrank from publicity,
and who reluc tantly yielded to the idea that her experiences might
be of interest to others besides her immediate friends. I have been
requested to write a few words of introduc tion and while there may
be some to whom it might occur that I was too much interested to
perform this task properly, it must nevertheless be admitted that
there is probably no one better fitted than myself to do it.
Little, indeed, need be said. The feeling that led Mrs. Peary
through these experiences was first andforemost a desire to be by
my side, coupled with the conviction that she was fitted physically
as well as other wise to share with me a portion at least of the
fatigues and hardships of the work. I fully concurred in this
feeling, and yet, in spite of my oft-expressed view that the
dangers of life and work in the Arctic regions have been greatly
exaggerated, I cannot but admire her courage...
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