Show SCIENTIST EXPLAINS MESSAGE i 4 BY CYRUS C ADAMS A member lember of Amer ienn geographical society copyright 1909 by new york times new york special tho the foregoing dispatch though condensed tells clearly the leading facts in the story not only of peares journey to the north pole but also ot of a remarkably fast sledge trip over the lee ice of the open polar seas dispatch says that the roosevelt etho ethe passed the winter of 1908 1909 at I 1 cape sheridan on the coast of grant land the vessel had threaded th aliu comparatively narrow channels several hundred miles in length leading from cape sabine to tho the arctic ocean this journey is apt to be difficult and sometimes impossible but tile tho condi conditions timis were evidently favorable tho the ship that disappeared in the fog while the crew of peares auxiliary steamer erik eelk were watching its departure from eluh made a good passage through the long channels and arrived safely on the shores of tho the 8 sea ea where the explorer was to start on his sledges for the north polo too far to eastward but at cape sheridan peary was not as far west as he probably had hoped to be ho had announced his intention in the previous year of making his sledge route to the polo pola along some me vierl dien much further to the west of his route in ili 1906 when ho he made the highest north attained up to that time 87 d 6 m on that occasion ho he was greatly impeded by the rapid drift of the lee ice to the past which a little retarded his hid anro ress north and worse still car alea him so BO far to the east that jio he had to make his landing on the coast of north Greeni greenland and many days march from tho the roosevelt his base of supplies on his expedition of 1905 OG he tried hard to force the roosevelt a good distance to the west of cape sheridan but tho the lee ice baffled him for ono one reason or another on the edge of the arctic winter last year he did not or could not take his vessel along the northern coast of grant land and so it spent last winter not so far from its old berth in the ice in the winter of sledge party starts in dark the sledge expedition expedit on left the roosevelt on february 15 whilo it was still practically dark in that latitude the sun scarcely begins to peer above the hills for a few minutes a day even several hundred miles to tho the south or of tho the coast whore the roosevelt was wintering Ant ering it cornea comes into view a little later in that more northern latitude and the party made slow time to the west as it folt felt its way along the northern grant land coast Is likely ely to be exceedingly difficult to traverse especially in the early spring on account of the masses of sea ice that have boon been pressed on the shore or broken into great blocks and stranded along the sea edge slowness of trip expected it Is no wonder that it took the party 15 days to travel westward as far as an cape columba it Is likely however that commander peary succeeded before winter set in in ca cachel cheing ng supplies to the westward so eo as to accelerate cel ce IL a ittle the westward move m mant nt of I 1 the be ald aldo 0 o liany lefere it struck out northward over the sea arriving at cape columbia on march 15 tho the sledges turned to tho the north on the sea ice the explorer had laid much stress upon the fact that he intended to travel much further to the west than on his trip in 1906 his dispatch shows however that he did not take to the sea any further to the west than he did on his earlier trip if therefore his route was really much further west than that which lie he had traversed earlier he must have traveled a considerable distance to the northwest over the sea ice commander peary says nothing in his report of being detained detal ned by pressure ridges or hummocks and it Is certain that ho he met with no impediment of this sort sori such as made his attempt tempt t to reach the pole in 1902 a continuous sinuous and terrible struggle evades open water lanes A great obstacle and the one that undoubtedly prevented him from f rom reaching the pole in 1906 was the wide water lanes or leads of water some of them so long that he could not got get around them one of efthem them kept kepf hla hig pirty idle in n camp tor for a week and the total delay from this CRUSO cause was fatal to hla his plans conditions were different last spring though lie ho was hold held up by leads on oil the northern march abatti two he seems to have derived two great advantages from his early start until I 1 in the first place it would not be antl 1 much later in the season that tho water lanes would develop so far as tc threaten him with defeat and then hl hi early start gave him all no the more tinie time to carry out his work before the wido firc spread td 1 breakup of the sea ice woul nalice sledging impossible on an the ocean show good speed f peares summary seems to show that lie he was a little over thirty five daya capi on the journey from the land to tho north pole in this time lie was delayed about fourteen days by water leads leaving a little more than three weeks fa for r the actual sledging work we may get a good idea of the average rate of travel by taking the first sea and the north pole records he ha passed the british record on march arch 2 and reached the pole on april 6 the distance between them Is statute miles and the time in making the journey was 34 days including the time of detention by water leads this Is an average average of little less than twelve miles a day jhb h is the best record over attained for long route sledging on the open polar sea records of other men the italian cagat of the duke of the abruzzi expedition who made the high est cst record tin till peary beat it in 1900 made an average of only about seven miles a day on his great journey and in ten days on account of deep snow they covered only 43 12 1 2 miles to tho the north of their ship cagni expressed the wish before he be started that he might make ten miles a day but said he knew this was impossible peary has not only reached the pole but he has attained it at an earlier date in the year than any of the other high records in ili the arctic have been made he was at the pole one day earlier than nansen reached ag degree degre ej five min utes 19 days earlier than cangi reached SG degrees 34 minutes at and 37 lays days earlier than lockwood and brainard alnard Br reached 83 degrees 24 minutes this Is significant of the surpassing achievement in sledge work that peary has accomplished because all such endeavor do avor Is rim necessarily marily limited on one alde side as far as sea journeys aro are concerned by the time of sunrise |