elcome them in the name of the Peary Arctic Club. The Roosevelt
party remained on board about an hour; the President inspected every
part of the ship, shook hands with every member of the expedition
present, including the crew, and even made the acquaintance of my Eskimo
dogs, North Star and the others, which had been brought down from one of
my islands in Casco Bay, on the coast of Maine. As he was going over the
rail, I said to him: "Mr. President, I shall put into this effort
everything there is in me--physical, mental, and moral." And he replied,
"I believe in you, Peary, and I believe in your success--if it is within
the possibility of man."

The _Roosevelt_ stopped at New Bedford for the whale-boats, and also
made a short stop at Eagle Island, our summer home on the coast of
Maine, to take aboard the massive, steel-bound spare rudder, which we
carried as a precaution against disaster in the coming battle royal with
the ice. On the former expedition, when we had no extra rudder, we could
have used two. But, as things turned out this time, when we had the
extra rudder we had no occasion to use it.

Our departure from Eagle Island was timed so that Mrs. Peary and I
should arrive by train at Sydney, Cape Breton, the same day as the ship.
I have a very tender feeling for the picturesque little town of Sydney.
Eight times have I headed north from there on my arctic quest. My
recollections of the town date back to 1886, when I went there with
Captain Jackman in the whaler _Eagle_, and lay at the coal wharves for a
day or two filling the ship with coal for my very first northern voyage,
the summer cruise to Greenland, during which journey the "arctic fever"
got a grip upon me from which I have never recovered.

Since that time the town has grown from a little settlement of one
decent hotel and a few houses, to a prosperous city with seventeen
thousand inhabitants, many industries, and one of the largest steel
plants in the western hemisphere. My reason for choosing Sydney as a
starting point was because of the coal mines there. It is the place
nearest to the arctic regions where a ship can fill with coal.

My feelings, on leaving Sydney this last time, though difficult to
describe, were different from those at the start of any previous
expedition. I felt no uneasiness once the lines were cast off, for I
knew that everything had been done which could be done to insure
success, and that every essential item of supplies w