| Top & bottom pages for expedition and personal notes | |||||||||
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| Peary wrote this narrative at days end inside his igloo. | |||||||||
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Peary began the diary when he went "on the ice" March 2.
This was the 9th day since he had left the ship Roosevelt.
Each day he recorded this "days from ship" number to the right of the day date.
(lower illustration) When he reached the end of the booklet he needed a few more pages so he went back to the beginning and wrote on the top pages (shown at right. The top pages are simply the back side of each page when it is flipped up. Peary normally reserved these for personal notes, ideas & drawings not necessarily related to the expedition. Topics range from plans to sell his literary works, designs for tools, sledges, his own burial tomb, and even plans for an expedition to Antarctica. This is his personal diary, not the complete scientific record. The ocean depth soundings, sextant readings, etc. were jotted down in the field, sometimes on scraps of paper, and kept separately—it was not possible to take one's gloves off and write neatly in a small pocket diary. In the arctic exposed skin can freeze solid in minutes. |
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| © 2002 by Douglas R. Davies. All rights reserved. No text or images may be used without written permission from Douglas R. Davies. Email request | |||||||||
