Thousands of years before Peary and his expeditions arrived, as far back as 2000 BC, a group of people had been thriving in the harsh polar environment. The Inuit, Aleut and the Eurasian Arctic cultures are defined by uniformity of practices and customs, and not geography. In the Western Arctic, the region where Peary explored, the Inuit speak Inuktitut which is written with special characters called syllabics.
Inuit clothing, made from seal, caribou and
other fur bearing animals, is ideally suited for the Arctic. The finest
and warmest garments placed two layers of fur back to back, thus fur was
on the outside and the inside of the garment next to the wearer's skin.
The air trapped between the skins, as well as the air between the fur creates
great insulation. The success of many polar expeditions came from adopting
the "native ways."
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