Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 07.djvu/206

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FEABL HARBOR 154 PEARY to relieve itself from the irritation so caused, may coat the foreign substance with pearl. PEARL HARBOR, a United States coaling station at the island of Oahu, Hawaii ; acquired prior to the annexation of the islands. The harbor has been strongly fortified, and is a United States naval station. It was an important point during the World War, PEARLY NAUTILUS, the Nautilus po7npilius; common in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, especially toward the Moluccas. It is believed to inhabit both deep and shallow water. Its fine mother- of-pearl is much in request with cabinet makers and jewelers. The smallest and most excavated partitions are used to make pendants for the ear. By remov- ing the external layer of the shell which is not nacreous, drinking vessels of great brilliancy are made in the East, as they formerly were also in Europe. PEARSON, SIR (CYRIL) ARTHUR, English newspaper proprietor. He was born at Wookey, England, in 1866, and began his newspaper career on Sir George Newnes' "Tit-Bits," which enjoyed a cir- culation till that time unknown in Eng- land. He later started "Pearson's Weekly" on the same lines, following this with similar journals. In 1900 he started the "Daily Express" in imitation of the "Daily Mail," which had then an enormous circulation. Like Harmsworth, later Lord Northcliffe, he came into ownership of many journals. Later he lost his eyesight, and has since devoted himself to philanthropic work among the blind. He was made baronet in 1916, and in 1919 wrote "Victory Over Blind- ness." PEARSON, KARL, an English physi- cist. He was born in 1857 and studied at Cambridge, Heidelberg, and Berlin, being admitted to the bar in 1882. He taught mathematics in University Col- lege, London, and became Galton profes- sor of eugenics in London University. His works include : "History of the The- ory of Elasticity and Strength of Mate- rials"; "Ethic of Freethought"; "Gram- m.ar of Science"; "The Chances of Death"; "National Life from the Stand- point of Science"; "The Life, Letters and Labors of Francis Galton." PEARY LAND, an area along the most northern coast of Greenland, dis- covered in 1882 by Lockwood and Brain- ard and later further explored by Pearv in 1892. PEARY, ROBERT EDWIN, an Arc- tic explorer and civil engineer in the United States navy; born in Cresson, Pa., May 6, 1856; was graduated at Bow- doin College, and in 1885 became a civil engineer in the United States navy, with the rank of lieutenant. In 1886 he made a journey of reconnoisance to Greenland^ advancing for over 100 miles on the in- terior ice. In 1891 and 1893 he made other trips to the Polar regions, in which he was accompanied, as far as the win- ter quarters, by his wife, Josephine Diebitseh Peary, author of "My Arctic Journey." In these expeditions he made excursions on a sledge along the coast of Greenland, and traversed the inland ice from McCormick Bay to the N. E. angle Wi^mi^^ ROBERT E. PEARY of Greenland (Independence Bay). He proved the convergence of the E. and W. coasts of northern Greenland, and al- most with positiveness the insularity of the mainland. He discovered new lands (Melville Land and Heilprin Land), and named many glaciers. In May, 1896, Lieutenant Peary made a successful ex- pedition to Greenland for the purpose of collecting specimens in natural history. He returned to Cape Breton, September 27. In 1897 he was given leave of ab- sence by the government for the purpose of continuing his explorations, and to establish a station in the far N. of Greenland, which should be provisioned and supplied and made the basis of a series of annual expeditions into the Polar regions. He went N. in the sum- mer of 1897 to take the necessary pre- liminary measures, such as securing the aid of the Eskimos, fixing the site of a station, etc. He returned in October of that year, bringing with him an immense mass of meteoric iron, or what is sup- posed to be such, from Cape York,