National Geographic : 1893 Feb 08
followed, but unfavorable ice and enormous crevasses obliged frequent detours eastward. On June 26, still at an elevation of 6,000 feet, the course was northeastward, but land appearing in that course, a detour east ward was again necessary, which led to a comparatively flat, round-topped, ice-clad land. Skirting the edge of the inland ice parallel with the land, they reached their highest northing on the 82d parallel. Here there was land to the northwest, northward and northeast. Of its character Lieutenant Peary says: " Dark-brown and red cliffs looked down into a grand, vertical-walled canyon reaching up toward our camp; and every where, to the northwest, north and east, black and dark-red precipices, deep valleys, mountains capped with cloud-shadowed domes of ice, stretched away in a wild panorama." From this point Lieutenant Peary was obliged to travel toward the south east parallel with the edge of the inland ice and the shore land. On July 1 a wide opening between high vertical cliffs allowed Lieutenant Peary to travel northeastward and quit the summit of the inland ice, then 5,000 feet above sea level. Following down a steep gradient toward the red-brown land, rivers and lakes became visible along the margin of the ice, and the party finally reached the highest point of a moraine after wading many streams and floundering through much melting snow. Leaving Astrup and his team at this point, Lieutenant Peary started northeastward to climb a cliff which apparently com manded a view of the coast and seemed to be only five miles away. The mountain appeared to recede as he advanced, and after eight hours' work to reach the summit, it proved that interven ing hills shut out a full view of the coast. By this time Lieu tenant Peary's foot-gear was practically worn out and his feet injured from the broken sharp rocks, and it was only by im provising foot-gear from his sealskin mittens and cap that he was able to return to camp. On July 3 with Astrup he de scended to the shore and kept along the crest of rock-strewn mountains. Finally, on July 4, they reached the summit of a rocky plateau with a sheer face rising 4,000 feet above the bay, which was named Independence bay from the day of its discovery. On the east was a great ice stream named Academy glacier, beyond which rose a yet higher vertical cliff, on a portion of which rested a great projecting tongue of inland ice. 204 Notes.
1893 Feb 20
1892 May 15