"I will find a way, or make one." That was Peary's motto. And he needed it during his long years of exploration in the Arctic.

First, Peary's goal was to cross the great Greenland ice cap; next, to be the first man to reach the North Pole. Peary found treacherous ice, bitter cold and cruel storms. He saw his sled dogs die, his supplies lost in the show, his men turn back. He froze his feet and lost several of his toes.

But Peary never gave up. His belief that the Eskimos had much to teach him proved invaluable. His boyhood skill with a rifle saved him from starvation. As a child, Peary had loved to map and measure, to find things out for himself. Now he mapped and measured his way north to fame.

Erick Berry has written other books about the North, among them Garrard's Leif the Lucky: Discoverer of America.

From the dust jacket