PEA'RY, ROBERT EDWIN ( 1856—) . An Ameri can Arctic explorer and civil engineer in the United States Navy, born at Cresson, Pa., May' 6, 1856. He was graduated from Bowdoin Col lege, Maine, in 1877, became a civil engineer in ' the navy in 1881. and in 1S84-85, under Govern ment orders. he was assistant engineer on the route of the proposed Nicaragua Ship Canal. In 1887-88 he was of the Nicaragua Canal survey. He had made a reconnaissance in 1886 of the Greenland inland ice-eap east of s Disco Bay. in latitude 70° N. From this time until he sailed in 1891 on his first expedition to Northwest Greenland] all his leisure was given to the most minute studies and preparations for his participation in Arctic research. During his first expedition (June. 1891-September, 1892) lie made a brilliant record of achievements; not the least of which were the results of his studies and minute experimentation in the field cover ing every phase of the equipment for Arctic work. Idis journey over the inland ice, from 5000 to 8000 feet above the sea, from McCormick Bay to the northeast angle of Greenland (Independence Bay, latitude 81° 37' N.), a round trip of 1300 miles including land travel on the northeast coast, was one of the most brilliant feats of polar sledge work ever accomplished. He proved that the northern extension of the great interior ice cap ends below latitude 82' N. He also estab lished the insularity of Greenland and ascertained the existence of detached ice-free land masses north of the mainland and the fact that the east and west coasts rapidly converge north of the seventy-eighth parallel. His ethnological work among the Eskimos known as the Arctic High landers (from Cape York to Smith Sound) was the most thorough and noteworthy that has been done in that region. The auxiliary expeditions in which well-known men of science participated gave opportunity for fruitful researches as to glacial and other Arctic phenomena. In 1893-95
he made another voyage to the same region, com pleted his study of the Arctic Highlanders, made another journey across the icecap to Independ ence Bay. and discovered the famous meteorites of the Eskimos near the coast of Melville Bay. They were later removed to New York, and one of them, weighing 90 tons, is the largest known to exist. After summer voyages to the Melville Bay regions in 1896 and 1897, he started north again in ISOS for the purpose of outlining the northern exte»-don of the land masses above Greenland and of reaching the North Pole, if possible. Ili; work covered four years, during which he made resnrveys of a considerable ex tent of coast line in the neighborhood of Smith Sound, surveyed new coast lines on the west side of Grinnell Land and north of the Greenland mainland. and made a number of notable and very difficult sledge journeys along the northern channels leading to Lincoln Sea. Passing Lock wood's Farthest, he traced the northern limit of the land masses north of Greenland to its highest point, 83° 39' N.. and then followed the southerly trend of the coast for many miles to ward Independence Bay on the east coast.
in the spring of 1902 he started over the frozen Arctic Ocean from Cape Hecla. on the north coast of Grant Land, in his attempt to reach the North Pole. Each day's march was very arduous on account of the broken condition of the ice and the vast pressure ridges crossing his path. His course was deflected to the west by the character of the ice. At his far thest camp in latitude 84° 17' N. the polar pack became impracticable and further efforts to ad vance were given up. He had attained the nearest approach to the pole in the American Arctic. Commander Peary was elected president of the American Geographical Society in Decem ber, 1902.