The North Pole / by Robert E. Peary ; with an introduction by Theodore Roosevelt.

  • Robert Peary
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The North Pole / by Robert E. Peary ; with an introduction by Theodore Roosevelt. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    THE NORTH POLE CHAPTER I THE PLAN IT may not be inapt to liken the attainment of the North Pole to the winning of a game of chess, in which all the various moves leading to a favourable conclusion had been planned in advance, long before the actual game began. It was an old game for me—a game which I had been playing for twenty-three years, with varying fortunes. Always, it is true, I had been beaten, but with every defeat came fresh knowledge of the game, its intricacies, its difficulties, its subtleties, and with every fresh attempt success came a trifle nearer; what had before appeared either impossible, or, at the best, extremely dubious, began to take on an aspect of possibility, and, at last, even of probability. Every defeat was analysed as to its causes in all their bearings, until it became possible to believe that those causes could in future be guarded against and that, with a fair amount of good fortune, the losing game of nearly a quarter of a century could be turned into one final, complete success. It is true that with this conclusion many well-informed and inteUigent persons saw fit to differ. But many others shared my views and gave without stint their sympathy and their help, and now, in the end, one of my greatest unalloyed pleasures is to know that their confidence, subjected as it was
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