LIKE SAILOR'S YARNS TO HIM.
Lieut. Landis Finds It's Difficult to
Believe Some Peary Stories.
"The marvelous has bloomed out continually in the tales of the travels of Dr. Cook and Commander Peary to the North Pole and back again, but I do not doubt that over-zealous press correspondents have wrought greater wonders on the true statements of the explorers," said Lieut. I. F. Landis, who is in charge of the local naval recruiting station.
"To my mind the most irregular story which has come floating down from the land of snow and ice is that of Peary making a mistake in planting his flag the first night, and correcting it fifty feet twenty-four hours later.
"The facts are that the location of the pole was up to the sextant, a little mechanism as well known to seamen as the compass is to landsmen. Because the sextant reckons latitude on the horizon, the sky line is never the same in two localities, it is more or less an inaccurate machine, and old navigators say it is never accurate to the half mile mark. With conditions as unfavorable as they must be in the vicinity of the poles, it is doubtful if the best regulated and equipped sextant could do more than locate the top o' the world within a radius of six miles."
According to naval rating Peary is a lieutenant on special service, ranking third among the civil engineers of the navy. In the Navy and Marine Corps List and Directory he is mentioned in the alphabetical list as follows:
"Peary, Robt. E., civil engineer. On duty under Coast and Geodetic Survey, making tidal observations on the coast of Grant Land and Greenland."
