Polar Pathways: Robert E. Peary's Arctic Expeditions

The 1895 Sledge Voyage- Leaving the Lodge

peary arctic expedition 1893 1895 lodge moraine
Peary's Lodge

After several fiascos caused by the burros (a failed experiment Peary conducted) and a lost cache (a cache is a storage place where explorers hide supplies), Peary and his team finally set out from their camp towards the "Great Ice."

“This was on Monday morning, April 1, 1895. From the moraine, Tooktoo and Lodge Valleys… lay below us like a pictured map. Lee led the caravan, setting the course, he not being in condition to handle his big sledge with the frequent stops and starts inevitable on the steep upgrades of the landward slopes of the ice-cap. After him came three of the Eskimos with their sledges, then Matt with the catamaran, or tent sledge, then Nooktah with the Josephine (my sledge). I, with Lee’s sledge, brought up the rear where I could note the behavior of each team.” - Robert E. Peary in Northward over the “Great Ice”, published in 1898

"The Lodge in Winter"by Robert E. Peary, Northward over the “Great Ice” Vol. I and II. Frederick a. Stokes Company: New York, 1898.

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