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Show uu DOCTOR COOK IS IN Sill LAKE SALT LAKE, March 3. Dr. Frederick Frede-rick A Cook, tho widely famed, much discussed Arctic explorer is with us. Ho arrived in this city yostexday afternoon aft-ernoon and tonight he lectured at tho Salt Lake theater on "The North Pole and After." Tho press reports nnd magazines havo sp distorted the picture of him in tho public mind tliat one Is astonished to soo on unassuming kindly-featured. Intellectual looking man of gentle mlon In him who has ueen tho subject sub-ject of such abuse as has been poured out upon no man in greater quantities quanti-ties during the past century. To see and talk with him ana then to believe him a liar, cheat and impostor is Impossible Im-possible "I have never said that I did not reach the north pole, nor have I over said it is probablo that T did not reach it," said Dr. Cook yeateraay afternoon. "I do say that I did reach it and that the world will know tho truth In duo time. On April 21, 190S, I reached the Boreal center, my position at the north pole was determined as accurately accu-rately as It Is possible to determine with usual instruments and unavoidable unavoid-able conditions "Men who have had actual experience experi-ence In exploring the Arctic regions aro among my adheronts They differ dif-fer from the arm chair geographers who cannot know of tho peculiar conditions con-ditions existing there Such men as Can. W. A Grcely of Uio Greely expedition. ex-pedition. Admiral Schley, Roald Admunson and Capt. Evelyn Baldwin hnvo always maintained that I was snorrRBfnl Copenhagen University. "I havo no complaint to make against the University of Copenhagen. Its decision was merely Uiat of 'not proven;' that tho evidence T submitted was not sufficient This verdict was honest On the other hnnd the examination ex-amination at Washington by a board of the National Geographic society was based and prejudiced and history will show that this was dishonest On that board were no men of experience In polar regions and thoy were all friends of Peary. Even Gen Greely was not asked to be a member of the board. To tho 'Arctic Trust' may also be attributed the statements that I did not reach tho summit of Mt Mc-Klnley. Mc-Klnley. Dollars caused the men who accompanied me to reverse the statements state-ments mado in public by them previous pre-vious to this north po:e controversy that they did actually lcnow that I reached the summit Tho ML Mc-Kinley Mc-Kinley charge is a bribery which I am ready to lino up to the door of Mr. Peary. "Is there any positive proof for this problem of reaching the pole7 In every direction that region presents a hopeless desert of floating shlftln? vrystaj. We aro deprived of landmarks. land-marks. Tho effort to furnish proof is like trying to fix a point In mid-Atlantic with this exception; the only object at the north polo by which can be determined the position of a manl is the sun. You know that longitude and latitude are determined by the sun, tho stars, time, the magnetic needle, etc. All these are available in mid-Atlantic but In tho polar region there is no night, consequently no stars. No correct time can be carried there by an explorer, hence the magnetic mag-netic needle is of no avail. And furthermore, fur-thermore, tho sun there does not travel trav-el up and over but in a sort of spiral ascent, nearly on a parallel with the horlxou Now, to use a sextant which every sea captain uses to determine his position, it is necessarv to catch tho sun at Its highest point; and right hero lies tho difficulty in the polar region known only to tnose who have been there. "The sextant catches the sun beam and upon thiB it sololy relies to de- I tormlne the altitude of tho sun, the degrees of altitude at the highest point of tho sun. All refractions and deflections de-flections of sunbeams must be reckoned reck-oned with and long years of experience experi-ence has taught this to sea captnlns, but In the polar basin there is no experience ex-perience to guide. The air is filled with a crystal mist even on clear days. The region is one of optical illusions where a hummock 25 feet high may loolc like a monntain a short distance off So that oW in taking an observation to determine position by this deflection of sunbeam may ml8s bis calculation by a full degree which means CO miles, or by a minute, which moans ono mllo. Arm Chair Decisions. "Thus It will be understood that fixing position there is not to bo reckoned reck-oned by geographers sitting in an arm chair who have never been there. My twenty long years of experience in that neighborhood have been discounted discount-ed by many of these arm chair gentlemen gentle-men and I have been called a liar, a cheat and an impostor." "I took my observations when the Bun was about at an anglo of 12 degrees de-grees above tho horizon. Peary took his at an angle of less than 7 degrees, de-grees, T defy any man to get even In a temperate clime a clear cut observation obser-vation of the sun at the lutter angle Especially from au Imagluarv horizon which is the only one to be had in the polar region. "Why did I disappear when the attacks at-tacks upon me grew so thick' Because Be-cause the whole affair was becoming nothing but a cat and dog fight Mv Ions exposure in tho far north added to tho mental anguish and anxiety caused by thQ fight was fnst making a wreck of me. body and mind. I decided de-cided to take a year from the presence pres-ence of the hent of this contention for nothing eould bo gained whllo such a condition existed. I was not in a, scoro of places I was reported to ho In. I was In South America and Germany. |