Page:Famous Living Americans, with Portraits.djvu/393

 370 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS carrying Mrs. Peary and the children to meet the hero. Far- ther down the bay they met a flotilla of boats, gay with bunt ing and resounding with music. As they neared the city, the water front was alive with people cheering the Roosevelt as she came back, flying at her mast-head, beside the Stars and Stripes and the Ensign of their Canadian hosts, a flag which had never before entered any port in history, the North Pole flag. What has the world gained by the discovery of the Poles t It marks the completion of man's conquest of the surface of the earth. The splendid series of ventures and voyages began with the flrst pushing out of the Phoenician navigators into the fearful terrors of the great Atlantic and the crossing of the equator where the sun's furnace heat was supposed to scorch men black. It has ended with the attainment of the North and South Poles. Ended are the many strange conceptions of the shape and character of the world. The earth has been girdled from East to West and spanned from North to South. Through the quest of the Poles has come valuable scientiflc knowledge re- garding the globe on which we live. Meteorology, geology, zoology and ethnology have all received beneflt, and both mag- netic and tidal phenomena are better understood. The name of Robert Edwin Peary will forever stand among the most eminent discoverers. He gave twenty-three of the best years of his life to his work. He planned with the utmost care and thoroughness; every detail and contingency were anticipated and met. By painstaking care, unusual thorough- ness, good judgment, and indomitable will he reached his goal He has received many marks of recognition for his discov- eries. One, and perhaps the one he values most, was bestowed by his native land : a formal act of Congress tendering thanks for his Arctic explorations resulting in reaching the North Pole. Congress has also shown the honor of bestowing upon him the rank of Rear Admiral, with the retired pay of tiiat grade. The President of the French Republic bestowed upon him the Legion of Honor, with the rank of Grand Officer.