358 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS Oceanic Canal Survey. Here he acquired experience in deal- ing with half -civilized men and in taking care of himself in hostile environments, both of which were invaluable later on. One evening, in 1885, while visiting an old book store in Washington he found a paper on the Inland Ice of Greenland. He was intensely interested and read all he could on the sub- ject. He was impressed by the conflicting experiences of the various explorers and felt that he must see for himself what the truth was of this mysterious place. In 1886 he obtained a short leave of absence from the navy and went to Greenland. It was during this cruise Peary says, ^^I caught the Arctic fever, from which I have never recov- ered. ' * Although his stay in Greenland was brief he succeed- ed in penetrating the real interior plateau farther than any white man had gone before. His report of the cruise attracted the attention of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, and this organization paid a part of the expenses of a second trip in 1891-92. In 1888 Robert E. Peary married Josephine Diebitsch of Washington, D. C, a woman wonderfully well adapted for the wife of an explorer. On his second voyage to Greenland, in 1891, Mrs. Peary accompanied him. Mr. Peary says: ** Pos- sessed of health, youth, energy and enthusiastic interest in the work, she saw no reason why she could not endure condi- tions and environment similar to those in which Danish wives in Greenland pass years of their lives. I concurred in this opinion, and believed that in many ways her presence and assistance would contribute to the valuable results of the ex- pedition, as they were invaluable to me in the preparation. Events proved the entire correctness of this belief.*' Peary remained in Northern Greenland thirteen months during whidi time he made a twelve-hundred-mile sledge trip across the great ice cap, discovered Independence Bay, attained 81** 37' North latitude, and determined the insularity of Greenland. In 1893, Peary went north again and remained twenty-five months. Mrs. Peary accompanied him on this trip also, and during their sojourn in Greenland their eldest child was bom, Marie Ahnighito, the famous *^snow baby," the most north-
