A Renter's telegram announced on Tuesday the relief of Lieutenant
Peary's expedition to Greenland. Lieutenant Peary, who left America last year accompanied by his wife and five men, hoped to reach the North Pole by crossing the interior of Greenland. Though he did not succeed in his main object, he travelled 1,300 miles northward from M'Cormick Bay, and traversed a great tract of unknown country. During this part of the expedition he took with him only one companion and a sledge drawn by fourteen dogs. The most northerly point reached was in latitude 81° 37' and longitude 34°. Here he found a great bay, which he named Independence Bay. The land was of a red colour, and free from snow, and flowers, insects, and musk oxen were abundant, and hares, foxes, and ptarmigan were seen. This comparative mildness of climate in a spot so far north certainly seems to suggest that, after all, the notion of an open Polar Sea may be well founded. In any case, the mapping of the Arctic Ocean has made an advance. What we now want to know is,—Does the coast-line which Mr. Peary saw stretching eastward from Independence Bay again trend to the north, or is Greenland an island P Soon, no doubt, this problem will be solved, and thus, step by step, the death-guarded secret of the Pole will be revealed. If, however, Mr. Maxim's flying-machine is a practical success, the Pole may be won by a short cut.
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