My Arctic Journal - A Year Among Ice-Fields And Eskimos (Paperback)

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...