where the largest fleet can lie safely. Reservations for a firstclass naval station have been secured, as also for a military reservation on the slopes of the mountain range in the rear. General Schofield after an inspection of Pearl Harbor in 1872 reported that “it could be completely defended by inexpensive batteries on either or both shores, firing across a narrow channel of entrance. Its waters are deep enough for the largest vessels of war and its lochs are spacious enough for a large number of vessels to ride at anchor in perfect security against all storms.” See Hawaii.
Pear′sons, Daniel Kimball, an American philanthropist, was born at Bedford, Vt., April 14, 1820. He graduated in medicine at Woodstock, Vt., and practiced in Chicopee, Mass., until 1857. He became a farmer in Ogle County, Ill., in 1857, but in 1860 removed to Chicago, where he rapidly accumulated a large fortune in real estate. For some years he served the city as alderman, and assisted in managing its financial budgets. He was best known through his large gifts to educational eleemosynary institutions, the Presbyterian Hospital of Chicago and Chicago Theological Seminary (Congregational) being especially favored. There are few of the smaller colleges to which he did not give from $25,000 to $250,000, and his gifts run well up into the millions. He died April 27, 1912.
Peary, Rear Admiral, Robert Edwin, discoverer of the North Pole, was born at Cresson, Pa., May 6, 1856. He graduated from Bowdoin College in 1877. He entered the U. S. Navy as a civil engineer Oct. 26, 1881. For several years he was engaged in surveys connected with the Nicaragua Ship Canal, but in 1886 made a trip to Greenland (q. v.). In 1891-2 his crossing of Greenland's northeastern corner was one of the most remarkable sledge-journeys ever made. He showed that the eastern and western coasts meet; discovered Melville and Heilprin Lands; made a second expedition to North Greenland, 1893-95; Arctic summer voyages, 1896, 1897; discovered and secured the Cape York meteorities, the largest in the world; in 1900 determined Greenland's northern limit by rounding it; demonstrated that for a considerable distance northward and northeastward there is no land and showed the origin of floebergs and paleocrystic ice. During his 1905-6 expedition he left his ship at 82°27′ N., and made a sledge-trip to 87°6′ N., 200.36 miles from the pole, the most northerly point yet reached. Sailing from New York in July 1908 he wintered at Cape Sheridan, Grant Land. Feb. 15, 1909 he started with a sledge train for the pole. On April 6, the pole was reached, the crowning triumph of twenty-three years of heroic effort. Returning he reached Indiana Harbor, Sept. 6, and announced by wireless “Stars and Stripes nailed to North Pole.” He was made rear admiral and received the thanks of congress. In 1913 he was made grand officer of the Legion d'Honneur, by the president of France.
Peary wrote Northward Over the Great Ice, Nearest the Pole, The North Pole, and Snowland Folk.
His wife wrote, My Arctic Journal, The Snow Baby, and Children of the Arctic. (See Polar Exploration.)
Peasants' War, an insurrection of the German peasantry, which broke out in 1524, against the oppressions they were suffering at the hands of the nobility and clergy. For a short time it seemed that the peasants would carry everything before them, as they defeated the army sent against them by Archduke Ferdinand, under the command of Von Waldburg; and a number of princes and knights concluded treaties with them, conceding their principal demands. But, unfortunately, the conduct of the insurgents did not accord with the moderation of their demands, as they destroyed convents and castles (more than 1,000 in all), murdered, pillaged and committed other great excesses. In May and June, 1525, they sustained a number of crushing defeats, and were soon after completely overthrown. Multitudes were hanged in the streets, and others were put to death with the most terrible tortures. It is estimated that 150,000 lives were lost during the short period of the Peasants' War.
Peat, a substance formed by the decomposition of plants in marshes and morasses; it is also sometimes described as a kind of soil formed by the remains of mosses and other marsh-plants. The remains of plants are often so well-preserved in peat that their species can be easily determined; but in the northern parts of the world it is chiefly formed from certain kinds or species of bog-moss. These mosses grow in very wet places, and throw out new shoots from their upper parts, while their lower parts are decaying and forming peat, so that shallow pools are gradually changed into bogs. Moist peat is a decided and powerful antiseptic, as is shown in the preservation not only of ancient trees, leaves and fruits but of animal bodies. It is claimed that in some instances human bodies have been found preserved in peat after the lapse of centuries. Peat is formed only in the colder regions of the world, as in warmer regions vegetable substances decompose too rapidly. Peat is largely used for fuel in Holland, Denmark, Scotland, Ireland and other European countries, and efforts have been made to bring it into more general use by compressing its bulk, but although numerous machines have been invented and patented for this purpose, the enterprise has not yet proved a complete success.
