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life." Chapter V WAS THE NORTH POLE REALLY DISCOVERED? On April 21, 1808, Dr. Frederick A. Cook announced that he had reached the North Pole. His announcement was followed a few days later by one from Rear Admiral Robert E. Peary, who claimed to reach the North Pole on April 6, 1909. Both men hurled accusations against the other, claiming that they discovered the North Pole and that the other did not. Cook accused Peary, saying that he had appropriated some of his reports on his return from the Pole. But Cook failed to have any written record that he had made of his trip, and this made his reports seem suspicious. Though Cook claimed to be the first to reach the North Pole, Peary is generally given credit to have been the first to discover it. Cook's claim was discredited because the sun's altitude was only a few degrees above the horizon and was so low at the time that observations of it as proof of his position were worthless. Peary reached, or claimed he reached, the North Pole in April, fifteen days earlier in the season, and hence under more adverse solar conditions. His calculations Also, Cook has no witnesses that he found the North Pole, other than Eskimos. The same is true of Peary, who lacked witnesses through choice, having ordered the men on the expedition to remain behind, while he went on alone with one Eskimo companion to the Pole. While Cook was doubted when he claimed to make 15 miles a day, Peary claimed to have made over 20 miles. The argument whether Cook or Peary, or neither, discovered the North Pole is still not perfectly settled. There is one factor in Peary's dash to the Pole that casts suspicion on his claim to have reached it. This was the remarkable speed at which he claimed to travel, or would have had to travel to reach the North Pole and return during the time he did. When he neared the 88th parallel north latitude, he decided to attempt a final dash to the Pole in five days. He made 25 miles the first day; 20 miles on the second day; 20 miles on the third day; 25 miles on the fourth; and 40 miles on the fifth. His five-day average was 26 miles a day. Can a man walk that fast under the incredibly difficult conditions of the North Pole area, supposedly an ice- terrain described by the men in the atomic submarine "Skate" as fantastically jumbled and jagged? And yet, further south, with presumably better conditions of travel, he was able to average only 20 miles a day. are therefore more open to suspicion than Cook's.