Transcriber’s Note
Cover created by Transcriber and placed in the Public Domain.
THE MENTOR
SERIAL NUMBER 37
THE CONQUEST OF THE POLES
BY
REAR ADMIRAL ROBERT E. PEARY
Discoverer of the North Pole
FRIDTJOF NANSEN · SIR ERNEST H. SHACKLETON
DUKE OF THE ABRUZZI · ROALD AMUNDSEN
ROBERT E. PEARY · ROBERT FALCON SCOTT
Ten years ago many, perhaps the majority, of intelligent peopledoubted if the Poles of the earth would ever be reached by man.From east to west, and west to east, the world seemed small. JulesVerne’s “Round the World in Eighty Days” dream of not so many yearsago had been cut in two; but from north to south the world still stretchedin apparently unattainable infinity.
Within the last four years the two Poles have been reached threetimes, and in their attainment the globe has shrunk to commonplace dimensions.With the attainment of the Poles the climax of polar discoveryhas been reached, the last of the splendid series of great world voyagesand mighty adventures has been finished. But while the glamour, themystery, the speculation, as to what exists at the ends of the earth aregone, the work of detailed exploration, of continuous scientific observationsand investigations, will continue until to the scientist and geographer thepolar regions will be as well known as the more favored regions of the earth.
EARLY POLAR EXPLORATION
It is nearly four hundred years (1526) since the first recorded expeditionwent forth to seek the North Pole under the initiative of England.
Trade, the great prize of the commerce of the opulent East, landlust, and the spirit of adventure in turn played their part as incentivesfor the earlier expeditions. It seems to be generally accepted that nothinghad a more powerful influence on the work than England’s determinationto have a trade route of her own to the riches of the East, independentof the southern routes controlled by Spain and Portugal. It was2this determination that made the terms Northeast Passage and NorthwestPassage historic, and brought about years of search that, thoughlatterly scientific, have been largely the acme of adventure and sentiment.
TRAVELING IN THE FAR NORTH
Dog sledges used by Peary on his expedition to the North Pole.
From the misty date of Pytheas (325 B.C.) down through the succeedingcenturies, the record of polar exploration contains much of interest,of mystery, of superstition, followed by some of the grandest epics,most heroic efforts and sacrifices, and somberest catastrophes and tragediesin all the wide field of exploration. Briton and Scandinavian,Teuton and Latin, Slav and Magyar, and American, have enteredthe lists and struggled for the prize.