Page:Famous Living Americans, with Portraits.djvu/382

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ROBERT E. PEARY 359 erly bom of all white children. During this expedition he took a second twelve-hundred-mile sledge journey, made a thor- ough study of the Whale Sound natives, made a detailed sur- vey of that region, and discovered the famous Cape-York meteorites, two of which he brought home with him. The persistent question of money has been a serious hand- icap to Peary's work. He furnished most of it himself until the necessary amounts were beyond the savings of a naval officer's pay. The department could grant him leave of ab- sence but not ships nor tons of food and other equipment. Most of the work of raising funds has been done by the ex- plorer himself. When he still lacked a few thousand for the expedition of 1893 he took the lecture platform and delivered one hundred and sixty-eight lectures in ninety-six days, mak- ing about $13,000. The arctic region has not been his only field of hard work. In 1896-97 Peary made another voyage to Greenland and brought back the greatest of the Cape-York meteorites, which was named Ahnighito. This meteorite weighs ninety tons and the transfer from its frozen bed to the hold of his ship, the Hope^ was a piece of great engineering labor. The great mass now rests in the Museum of Natural History in New York City. Peary's next Northern expedition embraced the four years from 1898 to 1902. This journey was made chiefly for the attainment of the North Pole. It was the first expedition of the Peary Arctic Club, whose president, Morris K. Jessup, and others contributed a large amount of the necessary funds. Through the persistent effort of friends the Navy Department granted Peary a five years' leave of absence to carry out his plans. It was on this expedition that in January, 1899, both of Peary's feet were frozen and the amputation of seven toes was necessary. In 1900 he discovered the northernmost land in the world and named it for the president of the Peary Arctic Club, Cape Morris K. Jessup. In 1901 he started for the Pole but was oompelled to turn back on account of the poor condition of his men and dogs. In 1902 he started again, reaching 84"" and