he grit and stamina of his moral and physical make-up. As
his ship, the _Kite_, was working its way through the ice fields off the
Greenland shore, a cake of ice became wedged in the rudder, causing the
wheel to reverse. One of the spokes jammed Peary's leg against the
casement, making it impossible to extricate himself until both bones of
the leg were broken. The party urged him to return to the United States
for the winter and to resume his exploration the following year. But
Peary insisted on being landed as originally planned at McCormick Bay,
stating that the money of his friends had been invested in the project
and that he must "make good" to them. The assiduous nursing of Mrs.
Peary, aided by the bracing air, so speedily restored his strength that
at the ensuing Christmas festivities which he arranged for the Eskimos,
he out-raced on snowshoes all the natives and his own men!

In the following May, with one companion, Astrup, he ascended to the
summit of the great ice cap which covers the interior of Greenland, 5000
to 8000 feet in elevation, and pushed northward for 500 miles over a
region where the foot of man had never trod before, in temperatures
ranging from 10 deg. to 50 deg. below zero, to Independence Bay, which he
discovered and named, July 4, 1892. Imagine his surprise on descending
from the tableland to enter a little valley radiant with gorgeous
flowers and alive with murmuring bees, where musk oxen were lazily
browsing.

This sledding journey, which he duplicated by another equally remarkable
crossing of the ice cap three years later, defined the northern
extension of Greenland and conclusively proved that it is an island
instead of a continent extending to the Pole. In boldness of conception
and brilliancy of results these two crossings of Greenland are
unsurpassed in arctic history. The magnitude of Peary's feat is better
appreciated when it is recalled that Nansen's historic crossing of the
island was below the Arctic Circle, 1000 miles south of Peary's
latitude, where Greenland is some 250 miles wide.

Peary now turned his attention to the Pole, which lay 396 geographical
miles farther north than any man had penetrated on the western
hemisphere. To get there by the American route he must break a virgin
trail every mile north from Greely's 83 deg. 24'. No one had pioneered so
great a distance northward. Markham and others had attained enduring
fame by advancing the flag considerably less than 10