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+Project Gutenberg's My Attainment of the Pole, by Frederick A. Cook
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: My Attainment of the Pole
+
+Author: Frederick A. Cook
+
+Release Date: August 3, 2011 [EBook #36962]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY ATTAINMENT OF THE POLE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Greg Bergquist and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration: Frederick A. Cook]
+
+
+
+
+  _Press Edition_
+
+  MY ATTAINMENT
+  OF THE POLE
+
+
+  _Being the Record of the Expedition that First Reached the Boreal
+  Center, 1907-1909. With the Final Summary of the Polar Controversy_
+
+
+  _By_
+
+  DR. FREDERICK A. COOK
+
+
+  THIRD PRINTING, 60TH THOUSAND
+
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+
+  NEW YORK AND LONDON
+  MITCHELL KENNERLEY
+  MCMXIII
+
+  By Special arrangements this edition is marketed by
+  The Polar Publishing Co., 601 Steinway Hall, Chicago
+
+
+
+  COPYRIGHT 1913
+  BY
+  DR. FREDERICK A. COOK
+
+
+
+
+_OTHER BOOKS BY DR. COOK_
+
+
+  Through the First Antarctic Night
+    A Narrative of the Belgian South Polar Expedition.
+
+  To the Top of the Continent
+    Exploration in Sub-Arctic Alaska--The First Ascent of Mt. McKinley
+
+  My Attainment of the Pole
+    Edition de Luxe
+
+
+  Each of above series will be sent post paid for $5.00. All to one
+  address for $14.00.
+
+  Address: THE POLAR PUBLISHING CO.
+  601 Steinway Hall, Chicago
+
+
+
+
+_To the Pathfinders_
+
+
+  To the Indian who invented pemmican and snowshoes;
+  To the Eskimo who gave the art of sled traveling;
+  To this twin family of wild folk who have no flag
+  Goes the first credit.
+  To the forgotten trail makers whose book of experience has been a
+    guide;
+  To the fallen victors whose bleached bones mark steps in the ascent
+    of the ladder of latitudes;
+  To these, the pathfinders--past, present and future--I inscribe the
+    first page.
+  In the ultimate success there is glory enough
+  To go to the graves of the dead and to the heads of the living.
+
+
+
+
+THE PRESENT STATUS OF THE POLAR CONTROVERSY
+
+
+DR. COOK IS VINDICATED. HIS DISCOVERY OF THE NORTH POLE IS ENDORSED BY
+THE EXPLORERS OF ALL THE WORLD.
+
+In placing Dr. Cook on the Chautauqua platform as a lecturer, we have
+been compelled to study the statements issued for and against the rival
+polar claims with special reference to the facts bearing upon the
+present status of the Polar Controversy.
+
+Though the question has been argued during four years, we find that it
+is almost the unanimous opinion of arctic explorers today, that Dr. Cook
+reached the North Pole on April 21, 1909.
+
+With officer Peary's first announcement he chose to force a press
+campaign to deny Dr. Cook's success and to proclaim himself as the sole
+Polar Victor. Peary aimed to be retired as a Rear-Admiral on a pension
+of $6,000 per year. This ambition was granted; but the American Congress
+rejected his claim for priority by eliminating from the pension bill the
+words "Discovery of the Pole." The European geographical societies,
+forced under diplomatic pressure to honor Peary, have also refused him
+the title of "Discoverer." By a final verdict of the American government
+and of the highest European authorities, Peary is therefore denied the
+assumption of being the discoverer of the Pole, though his claim as a
+re-discoverer is allowed. The evasive inscriptions on the Peary medals
+prove this statement.
+
+Following the acute excitement of the first announcement, it seemed to
+be desirable to bring the question to a focus by submitting to some
+authoritative body for decision. Such an institution, however, did not
+exist. Previously, explorers had been rated by the slow process of
+historic digestion and assimilation of the facts offered, but it was
+thought that an academic examination would meet the demands. Officer
+Peary first submitted his case to a commission appointed by the National
+Geographical Society of Washington, D. C. This jury promptly said that
+in their "opinion" Peary reached the Pole on April 6, 1909; but a year
+later in congress the same men unwillingly admitted that in the Peary
+proofs there was no positive proof.
+
+Dr. Cook's data was sent to a commission appointed by the University of
+Copenhagen. The Danes reported that the material presented was
+incomplete and did not constitute positive proof. This verdict, however,
+did not carry the interpretation that the Pole had not been reached. The
+Danes have never said, as they have been quoted by the press, that Dr.
+Cook did not reach the Pole; quite to the contrary, the University of
+Copenhagen conferred the degree of Ph. D. and the Royal Danish
+Geographical Society gave a gold medal, both in recognition of the
+merits of the Polar effort.
+
+This early examination was based mostly upon the nautical calculations
+for position, and both verdicts when analyzed gave the version that in
+such observations there was no positive proof. The Washington jury
+ventured an opinion. The Danes refused to give an opinion, but showed
+their belief in Dr. Cook's success by conferring honorary degrees.
+
+It is the unfair interpretation of the respective verdicts by the
+newspapers which has precipitated the turbulent air of distrust which
+previously rested over the entire Polar achievement. All this, however,
+has now been cleared by the final word of fifty of the foremost Polar
+explorers and scientific experts.
+
+In so far as they were able to judge from all the data presented in the
+final books of both claimants the following experts have given it as
+their opinion that Dr. Cook reached the Pole, and that officer Peary's
+similar report coming later is supplementary proof of the first victory:
+
+General A. W. Greely, U. S. A., commander of the Lady Franklin Bay
+Expedition, who spent four years in the region under discussion.
+
+Rear Admiral W. S. Schley, U. S. N., commander of the Greely Relief
+Expedition.
+
+Capt. Otto Sverdrup, discoverer of the land over which Dr. Cook's route
+was forced.
+
+Capt. J. E. Bernier, commanding the Canadian Arctic Expeditions.
+
+Prof. G. Frederick Wright, author of the "Ice Age of North America."
+
+Capt. E. B. Baldwin, commanding the Baldwin-Ziegler Expedition.
+
+Prof. W. H. Brewer for 16 years president of the Arctic Club of America.
+
+Prof. Julius Payer of the Weyprecht-Payer Expedition.
+
+Prof. L. L. Dyche, member of various Peary and Cook Expeditions.
+
+Mr. Maurice Connell, Greely Expedition, and U. S. Weather Bureau.
+
+Capt. O. C. Hamlet, U. S. A. Arctic Revenue Service.
+
+Capt. E. A. Haven, Baldwin-Ziegler Expedition.
+
+Mr. Andrew J. Stone, Explorer of North Coast of America.
+
+Mr. Dillon Wallace, Labrador Explorer.
+
+Mr. Edwin Swift Balch, author of "The North Pole and Bradley Land."
+
+Captains Johan Menander, B. S. Osbon and Thomas F. Hall.
+
+Messrs. Henry Biederbeck, Frederick B. Wright, F. F. Taylor, Ralph H.
+Cairns, Theodore Lerner, M. Van Ryssellberghe, J. Knowles Hare, Chas. E.
+Rilliet, Homer Rogers, R. C. Bates, E. C. Rost, L. C. Bement, Clarence
+Wychoff, Alfred Church, Archibald Dickinson, Robert Stein, J. S.
+Warmbath, Geo. B. Butland, Ralph Shainwald, Henry Johnson, S. J.
+Entrikin, Clark Brown, W. F. Armbruster, John R. Bradley, Harry Whitney
+and Rudolph Franke.
+
+Drs. T. F. Dedrick, Middleton Smith, J. G. Knowlton, H. J. Egbert, W. H.
+Axtell, A. H. Cordier and Henry Schwartz.
+
+Judge Jules Leclercq, and Prof. Georges Lecointe, Secretary of the
+International Bureau of Polar Research.
+
+Thus endorsed by practically all Polar Explorers, Dr. Cook's attainment
+of the Pole and his earlier work of discovery and exploration is farther
+established by the following honorary pledges of recognition. (These are
+now in the possession of Dr. Cook, the press reports to the contrary
+being untrue).
+
+By the King of Belgium, decorated as Knight of the Order of Leopold.
+
+By the University of Copenhagen in conferring the degree of Ph. D.
+
+By the Royal Danish Geographical Society, presentation of a gold medal.
+
+By the Arctic Club of America, presentation of a gold medal.
+
+By the Royal Geographical Society of Belgium, presentation of a gold
+medal.
+
+By the Municipality of the City of Brussels, presentation of a gold
+medal.
+
+By the Municipality of the City of New York, with the ceremony of
+presenting the keys and offering the freedom of the city.
+
+Without denying officer Peary's success, we note that his case rests
+upon the opinion of three of his official associates in Washington.
+Three men acting for a society financially interested--three men who
+have never seen a piece of Polar ice--have given it as their "opinion"
+that Mr. Peary (a year later than Dr. Cook) reached the Pole. By many
+this was accepted as a final verdict of experts for Peary. But are such
+men dependable experts?
+
+Dr. Cook now offers in substantiation of his work the support and the
+final verdict of fifty of the foremost explorers and scientific experts.
+Each in his own way has during the past four years examined the polar
+problem and pronounced in favor of Dr. Cook.
+
+He is therefore vindicated of the propaganda of insinuation and distrust
+which his enemies forced, and his success in reaching the Pole is
+conceded and endorsed by his own peers.
+
+In his book, "My Attainment of the Pole," Dr. Cook offers with thrilling
+vividness a most remarkable series of adventures in the enraptured
+wilderness at the top of the globe. And in his lectures he takes his
+audience step by step over the haunts of northernmost man and beyond to
+the sparkling sea of death at the pole. Above all he leaves in the
+hearts of his listeners the thrills of a fresh vigor and a new
+inspiration, which opens the way for other worlds to conquer. By his
+books and by his lectures, Dr. Cook seeks justice at the bar of public
+opinion, and three million people have applauded his effort on the
+platform. One hundred thousand people will read his book during the
+coming year. We are inclined to agree with Capt. E. B. Baldwin and other
+Arctic explorers who say--"Putting aside the academic and idle argument
+of pin-point accuracy, the North Pole has been honestly reached by Dr.
+Cook, three hundred and fifty days before any one else claimed to have
+been there."
+
+  May 22, 1913.
+
+                           THE CHAUTAUQUA MANAGERS' ASSOCIATION,
+                                        ORCHESTRA BUILDING, CHICAGO.
+
+  Chas. W. Ferguson, Pres.                       A. L. Flude, Sec'y.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+This narrative has been prepared as a general outline of my conquest of
+the North Pole. In it the scientific data, the observations, every phase
+of the pioneer work with its drain of human energy has been presented in
+its proper relation to a strange cycle of events. The camera has been
+used whenever possible to illustrate the progress of the expedition as
+well as the wonders and mysteries of the Arctic wilds. Herein, with due
+after-thought and the better perspective afforded by time, the rough
+field notes, the disconnected daily tabulations and the records of
+instrumental observations, every fact, every optical and mental
+impression, has been re-examined and re-arranged to make a concise
+record of successive stages of progress to the boreal center. If I have
+thus worked out an understandable panorama of our environment, then the
+mission of this book has served its purpose.
+
+Much has been said about absolute geographic proof of an explorer's
+work. History demonstrates that the book which gives the final
+authoritative narrative is the test of an explorer's claims. By it every
+traveler has been measured. From the time of the discovery of America to
+the piercing of darkest Africa and the opening of Thibet, men who have
+sought the truth of the claims of discovery have sought, not abstract
+figures, but the continuity of the narrative in the pages of the
+traveler's final book. In such a narrative, after due digestion and
+assimilation, there is to be found either the proof or the disproof of
+the claims of a discoverer.
+
+In such narratives as the one herewith presented, subsequent travelers
+and other experts, with no other interests to serve except those of fair
+play, have critically examined the material. With the lapse of time
+accordingly, when partisanship feelings have been merged in calm and
+conscientious judgment, history has always finally pronounced a fair and
+equitable verdict.
+
+In a similar way my claim of being first to reach the North Pole will
+rest upon the data presented between the covers of this book.
+
+In working out the destiny of this Expedition, and this book which
+records its doings, I have to acknowledge my gratitude for the
+assistance of many people. First among those to whom I am deeply
+indebted is John R. Bradley. By his liberal hand this Expedition was
+given life, and by his loyal support and helpfulness I was enabled to
+get to my base of operations at Annoatok. By his liberal donations of
+food we were enabled to live comfortably during the first year. To John
+R. Bradley, therefore, belong the first fruits of the Polar conquest.
+
+A tribute of praise must be placed on record for Rudolph Francke. After
+the yacht returned, he was my sole civilized helper and companion. The
+faithful manner in which he performed the difficult duties assigned to
+him, and his unruffled cheerfulness during the trying weeks of the long
+night, reflect a large measure of credit.
+
+The band of little people of the Farthest North furnished without pay
+the vital force and the primitive ingenuity without which the quest of
+the Pole would be a hopeless task. These boreal pigmies with golden
+skins, with muscles of steel, and hearts as finely human as those of the
+highest order of man, performed a task that cannot be too highly
+commended. The two boys, Ah-we-lah and E-tuk-i-shook, deserve a place on
+the tablet of fame. They followed me with a perseverance which
+demonstrates one of the finest qualities of savage life. They shared
+with me the long run of hardship; they endured without complaint the
+unsatisfied hunger, the unquenched thirst, and the maddening isolation,
+with no thought of reward except that which comes from an unselfish
+desire to follow one whom they chose to regard as a friend. If a noble
+deed was ever accomplished, these boys did it, and history should record
+their heroic effort with indelible ink.
+
+At the request of Mrs. Cook, the Canadian Government sent its ship, the
+"Arctic," under Captain Bernier, with supplementary supplies for me, to
+Etah. These were left under the charge of Mr. Harry Whitney. The return
+to civilization was made in comfort, by the splendid manner in which
+this difficult problem was carried out. To each and all in this
+combination I am deeply indebted.
+
+With sweet memories of the warm hospitality of Danes in Greenland, I
+here subscribe my never-to-be-forgotten appreciation. I am also indebted
+to the Royal Greenland Trading Company and to the United S. S. Company
+for many favors; and, above all, am I grateful to the Danes as a nation,
+for the whole-souled demonstrations of friendship and appreciation at
+Copenhagen.
+
+In the making of this book, I was relieved of much routine editorial
+work by Mr. T. Everett Harry, associate editor of Hampton's Magazine,
+who rearranged much of my material, and by whose handling of certain
+purely adventure matter a book of better literary workmanship has been
+made.
+
+I am closing the pages of this book with a good deal of regret, for, in
+the effort to make the price of this volume so low that it can go into
+every home, the need for brevity has dictated the number of pages. My
+last word to all--to friends and enemies--is, if you must pass judgment,
+study the problem carefully. You are as capable of forming a correct
+judgment as the self-appointed experts. One of Peary's captains has said
+"that he knew, but never would admit, that Peary did not reach the
+Pole." Rear Admiral Chester has said the same about me, but he "admits"
+it in big, flaming type. With due respect to these men, in justice to
+the cause, I am bound to say that these, and others of their kind, who
+necessarily have a blinding bias, are not better able to judge than the
+average American citizen.
+
+If you have read this book, then read Mr. Peary's "North Pole." Put the
+two books side by side. When making comparisons, remember that my
+attainment of the Pole was one year earlier than Mr. Peary's claim; that
+my narrative was written and printed months before that of Mr. Peary;
+that the Peary narrative is such that Rear Admiral Schley has
+said--"After reading the published accounts daily and critically of
+both claimants, I was forced to the conclusion from their striking
+similarity that each of you was the eye-witness of the other's success.
+Without collusion, it would have been impossible to have written
+accounts so similar."
+
+This opinion, coming as it does from one of the highest Arctic and Naval
+authorities, is endorsed by practically all Arctic explorers. Captain E.
+B. Baldwin goes even further, and proves my claim from the pages of
+Peary's own book. Governor Brown of Georgia, after a critical
+examination of the two reports, says, "If it is true, as Peary would
+like us to believe, that Cook has given us a gold brick, then Peary has
+offered a paste diamond."
+
+Since my account was written and printed first, the striking analogy
+apparent in the Peary pages either proves my position at the Pole or it
+convicts Peary of using my data to fill out and impart verisimilitude to
+his own story of a second victory.
+
+Much against my will I find myself compelled to uncover the dark pages
+of the selfish unfairness of rival interests. In doing so my aim is not
+to throw doubt and distrust on Mr. Peary's success, but to show his
+incentive and his methods in attempting to leave the sting of discredit
+upon me. I would prefer to close my eye to a long series of wrong doings
+as I have done in the passing years, but the Polar controversy cannot be
+understood unless we get the perspective of the man who has forced it.
+Heretofore I have allowed others to expend their argumentative
+ammunition. The questions which I have raised are minor points. On the
+main question of Polar attainment there is not now room for doubt. The
+Pole has been honestly reached--the American Eagle has spread its wings
+of glory over the world's top. Whether there is room for one or two or
+more under those wings, I am content to let the future decide.
+
+                                                  FREDERICK A. COOK.
+
+The Waldorf-Astoria,
+
+    New York, June 15, 1911.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+TABLE OF CONTENTS
+
+
+                                                                  PAGE
+  I THE POLAR FIGHT                                                  1
+
+  II INTO THE BOREAL WILDS                                          23
+
+    THE YACHT BRADLEY LEAVES GLOUCESTER--INVADES THE MAGIC WATERS
+    OF THE ARCTIC SEAS--RECOLLECTIONS OF BOYHOOD AMBITIONS--BEYOND
+    THE ARCTIC CIRCLE--THE WEAVING OF THE POLAR SPELL
+
+  III THE DRIVING SPUR OF THE POLAR QUEST                           42
+
+    ON THE FRIGID PATHWAY OF THREE CENTURIES OF HEROIC MARTYRS--
+    MEETING THE STRANGE PEOPLE OF THE FARTHEST NORTH--THE LIFE
+    OF THE STONE AGE--ON THE CHASE WITH THE ESKIMOS--MANEE AND
+    SPARTAN ESKIMO COURAGE
+
+  IV TO THE LIMITS OF NAVIGATION                                    62
+
+    EXCITING HUNTS FOR GAME WITH THE ESKIMOS--ARRIVAL AT ETAH--
+    SPEEDY TRIP TO ANNOATOK, THE WINDY PLACE, WHERE SUPPLIES ARE
+    FOUND IN ABUNDANCE--EVERYTHING AUSPICIOUS FOR DASH TO THE
+    POLE--DETERMINATION TO ESSAY THE EFFORT--BRADLEY INFORMED--
+    DEBARK FOR THE POLE--THE YACHT RETURNS
+
+  V PREPARATIONS FOR THE POLAR DASH                                 73
+
+    AN ENTIRE TRIBE BREATHLESSLY AND FEVERISHLY AT WORK--MAPPING
+    OUT THE POLAR CAMPAIGN
+
+  VI THE CURTAIN OF NIGHT DROPS                                     81
+
+    TRIBE OF TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY NATIVES BUSILY BEGIN
+    PREPARATIONS FOR THE POLAR DASH--EXCITING HUNTS FOR THE
+    UNICORN AND OTHER GAME FROM ANNOATOK TO CAPE YORK--EVERY
+    ANIMAL CAUGHT BEARING UPON THE SUCCESS OF THE VENTURE--THE
+    GRAY-GREEN GLOOM OF TWILIGHT IN WHICH THE ESKIMO WOMEN
+    COMMUNICATE WITH THE SOULS OF THE DEAD
+
+  VII FIRST WEEK OF THE LONG NIGHT                                  99
+
+    HUNTING IN THE ARCTIC TWILIGHT--PURSUING BEAR, CARIBOU AND
+    SMALLER GAME IN SEMI-GLOOM
+
+  VIII THE MOONLIGHT QUEST OF THE WALRUS                           114
+
+    DESPERATE AND DANGEROUS HUNTING, IN ORDER TO SECURE ADEQUATE
+    SUPPLIES FOR THE POLAR DASH--A THRILLING AND ADVENTUROUS
+    RACE IS MADE OVER FROZEN SEAS AND ICY MOUNTAINS TO THE WALRUS
+    GROUNDS--TERRIFIC EXPLOSION OF THE ICE ON WHICH THE PARTY
+    HUNTS--SUCCESS IN SECURING OVER SEVEN SLED-LOADS OF BLUBBER
+    MAKES THE POLE SEEM NEARER--AN ARCTIC TRAGEDY
+
+  IX MIDNIGHT AND MID-WINTER                                       130
+
+    THE EQUIPMENT AND ITS PROBLEMS--NEW ART IN THE MAKING OF
+    SLEDGES COMBINING LIGHTNESS--PROGRESS OF THE PREPARATIONS--
+    CHRISTMAS WITH ITS GLAD TIDINGS AND AUGURIES FOR SUCCESS
+    IN QUEST OF THE POLE
+
+  X EN ROUTE FOR THE POLE                                          149
+
+    THE CAMPAIGN OPENS--LAST WEEKS OF THE POLAR NIGHT--ADVANCE
+    PARTIES SENT OUT--AWAITING THE DAWN
+
+  XI EXPLORING A NEW PASS OVER ACPOHON                             162
+
+    FROM THE ATLANTIC WATERS AT FLAGLER BAY TO THE PACIFIC WATERS
+    AT BAY FIORD--THE MECCA OF THE MUSK OX--BATTLES WITH THE
+    BOVINE MONSTERS OF THE ARCTIC--SUNRISE AND THE GLORY OF SUNSET
+
+  XII IN GAME TRAILS TO LAND'S END                                 176
+
+    SVERDRUP'S NEW WONDERLAND--FEASTING ON GAME EN ROUTE TO
+    SVARTEVOEG--FIRST SHADOW OBSERVATIONS--FIGHTS WITH WOLVES AND
+    BEARS--THE JOYS OF ZERO'S LOWEST--THRESHOLD OF THE UNKNOWN
+
+  XIII THE TRANS-BOREAL DASH BEGINS                                194
+
+    BY FORCED EFFORTS AND THE USE OF AXES SPEED IS MADE OVER
+    THE LAND-ADHERING PACK ICE OF POLAR SEA--THE MOST DIFFICULT
+    TRAVEL OF THE PROPOSED JOURNEY SUCCESSFULLY ACCOMPLISHED--
+    REGRETFUL PARTING WITH THE ESKIMOS
+
+  XIV OVER THE POLAR SEA TO THE BIG LEAD                           208
+
+    WITH TWO ESKIMO COMPANIONS, THE RACE POLEWARD CONTINUES OVER
+    ROUGH AND DIFFICULT ICE--THE LAST LAND FADES BEHIND--MIRAGES
+    LEAP INTO BEING AND WEAVE A MYSTIC SPELL--A SWIRLING SCENE OF
+    MOVING ICE AND FANTASTIC EFFECTS--STANDING ON A HILL OF ICE,
+    A BLACK, WRITHING, SNAKY CUT APPEARS IN THE ICE BEYOND--THE
+    BIG LEAD--A NIGHT OF ANXIETY--FIVE HUNDRED MILES ALREADY
+    COVERED--FOUR HUNDRED TO THE POLE
+
+  XV CROSSING MOVING SEAS OF ICE                                   221
+
+    CROSSING THE LEAD--THE THIN ICE HEAVES LIKE A SHEET OF
+    RUBBER--CREEPING FORWARD CAUTIOUSLY, THE TWO DANGEROUS MILES
+    ARE COVERED--BOUNDING PROGRESS MADE OVER IMPROVING ICE--THE
+    FIRST HURRICANE--DOGS BURIED AND FROZEN INTO MASSES IN DRIFTS
+    OF SNOW--THE ICE PARTS THROUGH THE IGLOO--WAKING TO FIND
+    ONE'S SELF FALLING INTO THE COLD SEA
+
+  XVI LAND DISCOVERED                                              232
+
+    FIGHTING PROGRESS THROUGH CUTTING COLD AND TERRIFIC STORMS--
+    LIFE BECOMES A MONOTONOUS ROUTINE OF HARDSHIP--THE POLE
+    INSPIRES WITH ITS RESISTLESS LURE--NEW LAND DISCOVERED BEYOND
+    THE EIGHTY-FOURTH PARALLEL--MORE THAN TWO HUNDRED MILES FROM
+    SVARTEVOEG--THE FIRST SIX HUNDRED MILES COVERED
+
+  XVII BEYOND THE RANGE OF LIFE                                    248
+
+    WITH A NEW SPRING TO WEARY LEGS BRADLEY LAND IS LEFT BEHIND--
+    FEELING THE ACHING VASTNESS OF THE WORLD BEFORE MAN WAS MADE--
+    CURIOUS GRIMACES OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN--SUFFERINGS INCREASE--BY
+    PERSISTENT AND LABORIOUS PROGRESS ANOTHER HUNDRED MILES IS
+    COVERED
+
+  XVIII OVER POLAR SEAS OF MYSTERY                                 260
+
+    THE MADDENING TORTURES OF A WORLD WHERE ICE WATER SEEMS HOT,
+    AND COLD KNIVES BURN ONE'S HANDS--ANGUISHED PROGRESS ON THE
+    LAST STRETCH OF TWO HUNDRED MILES OVER ANCHORED LAND ICE--
+    DAYS OF SUFFERING AND GLOOM--THE TIME OF DESPAIR--"IT IS
+    WELL TO DIE," SAYS AH-WE-LAH; "BEYOND IS IMPOSSIBLE"
+
+  XIX TO THE POLE--LAST HUNDRED MILES                              269
+
+    OVER PLAINS OF GOLD AND SEAS OF PALPITATING COLOR THE DOG
+    TEAMS, WITH NOSES DOWN, TAILS ERECT, DASH SPIRITEDLY LIKE
+    CHARIOT HORSES--CHANTING LOVE SONGS THE ESKIMOS FOLLOW WITH
+    SWINGING STEP--TIRED EYES OPEN TO NEW GLORY--STEP BY STEP,
+    WITH THUMPING HEARTS THE EARTH'S APEX IS NEARED--AT LAST!
+    THE GOAL IS REACHED! THE STARS AND STRIPES ARE FLUNG TO THE
+    FRIGID BREEZES OF THE NORTH POLE!
+
+  XX AT THE NORTH POLE                                             286
+
+    OBSERVATIONS AT THE POLE--METEOROLOGICAL AND ASTRONOMICAL
+    PHENOMENA--SINGULAR STABILITY AND UNIFORMITY OF THE
+    THERMOMETER AND BAROMETER--A SPOT WHERE ONE'S SHADOW IS THE
+    SAME LENGTH EACH HOUR OF THE TWENTY-FOUR--EIGHT POLAR
+    ALTITUDES OF THE SUN
+
+  XXI THE RETURN--A BATTLE FOR LIFE                                314
+
+    TURNED BACKS TO THE POLE AND TO THE SUN--THE DOGS, SEEMINGLY
+    GLAD AND SEEMINGLY SENSIBLE THAT THEIR NOSES WERE POINTED
+    HOMEWARD, BARKED SHRILLY--SUFFERING FROM INTENSE DEPRESSION--
+    THE DANGERS OF MOVING ICE, OF STORMS AND SLOW STARVATION--THE
+    THOUGHT OF FIVE HUNDRED AND TWENTY MILES TO LAND CAUSES
+    DESPAIR
+
+  XXII BACK TO LIFE AND BACK TO LAND                               326
+
+    THE RETURN--DELUDED BY DRIFT AND FOG--CARRIED ASTRAY OVER
+    AN UNSEEN DEEP--TRAVEL FOR TWENTY DAYS IN A WORLD OF MISTS,
+    WITH THE TERROR OF DEATH--AWAKENED FROM SLEEP BY A HEAVENLY
+    SONG--THE FIRST BIRD--FOLLOWING THE WINGED HARBINGER--WE
+    REACH LAND--A BLEAK, BARREN ISLAND POSSESSING THE CHARM OF
+    PARADISE--AFTER DAYS VERGING ON STARVATION, WE ENJOY A FEAST
+    OF UNCOOKED GAME
+
+  XXIII OVERLAND TO JONES SOUND                                    341
+
+    HOURS OF ICY TORTURE--A FRIGID SUMMER STORM IN THE BERG-DRIVEN
+    ARCTIC SEA--A PERILOUS DASH THROUGH TWISTING LANES OF OPENING
+    WATER IN A CANVAS CANOE--THE DRIVE OF HUNGER
+
+  XXIV UNDER THE WHIP OF FAMINE                                    355
+
+    BY BOAT AND SLEDGE, OVER THE DRIFTING ICE AND STORMY SEAS OF
+    JONES SOUND--FROM ROCK TO ROCK IN QUEST OF FOOD--MAKING NEW
+    WEAPONS
+
+  XXV BEAR FIGHTS AND WALRUS BATTLES                               365
+
+    DANGEROUS ADVENTURES IN A CANVAS BOAT--ON THE VERGE OF
+    STARVATION, A MASSIVE BRUTE, WEIGHING THREE THOUSAND POUNDS,
+    IS CAPTURED AFTER A FIFTEEN-HOUR STRUGGLE--ROBBED OF PRECIOUS
+    FOOD BY HUNGRY BEARS
+
+  XXVI BULL FIGHTS WITH THE MUSK OX                                378
+
+    AN ANCIENT CAVE EXPLORED FOR SHELTER--DEATH BY STARVATION
+    AVERTED BY HAND-TO-HAND ENCOUNTERS WITH WILD ANIMALS
+
+  XXVII A NEW ART OF CHASE                                         393
+
+    THREE WEEKS BEFORE THE SUNSET OF 1908--REVELLING IN AN EDEN
+    OF GAME--PECULIARITIES OF ANIMALS OF THE ARCTIC--HOW NATURE
+    DICTATES ANIMAL COLOR--THE QUEST OF SMALL LIFE
+
+  XXVIII A HUNDRED NIGHTS IN AN UNDERGROUND DEN                    406
+
+    LIVING LIKE MEN OF THE STONE AGE--THE DESOLATION OF THE LONG
+    NIGHT--LIFE ABOUT CAPE SPARBO--PREPARING EQUIPMENT FOR THE
+    RETURN TO GREENLAND--SUNRISE, FEBRUARY 11, 1909
+
+  XXIX HOMEWARD WITH A HALF SLEDGE AND HALF-FILLED STOMACHS        425
+
+    THREE HUNDRED MILES THROUGH STORM AND SNOW AND UPLIFTED
+    MOUNTAINS OF ICE TROUBLES--DISCOVER TWO ISLANDS--ANNOATOK IS
+    REACHED--MEETING HARRY WHITNEY--NEWS OF PEARY'S SEIZURE OF
+    SUPPLIES
+
+  XXX ANNOATOK TO UPERNAVIK                                        447
+
+    ELEVEN HUNDRED MILES SOUTHWARD OVER SEA AND LAND--AT ETAH--
+    OVERLAND TO THE WALRUS GROUNDS--ESKIMO COMEDIES AND TRAGEDIES--
+    A RECORD RUN OVER MELVILLE BAY--FIRST NEWS FROM PASSING SHIPS--
+    THE ECLIPSE OF THE SUN--SOUTHWARD BY STEAMER GODTHAAB
+
+  XXXI FROM GREENLAND TO COPENHAGEN                                463
+
+    FOREWARNING OF THE POLAR CONTROVERSY--BANQUET AT
+    EGGEDESMINDE--ON BOARD THE HANS EGEDE--CABLEGRAMS SENT FROM
+    LERWICK--THE OVATION AT COPENHAGEN--BEWILDERED AMIDST THE
+    GENERAL ENTHUSIASM--PEARY'S FIRST MESSAGES--EMBARK ON OSCAR
+    II FOR NEW YORK
+
+  XXXII COPENHAGEN TO THE UNITED STATES                            476
+
+    ACROSS THE ATLANTIC--RECEPTION IN NEW YORK--BEWILDERING
+    CYCLONE OF EVENTS--INSIDE NEWS OF THE PEARY ATTACK--HOW
+    THE WEB OF SHAME WAS WOVEN
+
+  XXXIII THE KEY TO THE CONTROVERSY                                507
+
+    PEARY AND HIS PAST--HIS DEALING WITH RIVAL EXPLORERS--THE
+    DEATH OF ASTRUP--THE THEFT OF THE "GREAT IRON STONE," THE
+    NATIVES' SOLE SOURCE OF IRON
+
+  XXXIV THE MT. MCKINLEY BRIBERY                                   521
+
+    THE BRIBED, FAKED AND FORGED NEWS ITEMS--THE PRO-PEARY
+    MONEY POWERS ENCOURAGE PERJURY--MT. MCKINLEY HONESTLY
+    CLIMBED--HOW, FOR PEARY, A SIMILAR PEAK WAS FAKED
+
+  XXXV THE DUNKLE-LOOSE FORGERY                                    535
+
+    ITS PRO-PEARY MAKING
+
+  XXXVI HOW A GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY PROSTITUTED ITS NAME              541
+
+    THE WASHINGTON VERDICT--THE COPENHAGEN VERDICT
+
+
+  RETROSPECT      557
+
+  THE PRESENT STATUS OF THE POLAR CONTROVERSY (Preceding Preface)  (a)
+
+    Dr. Cook Vindicated--His Discovery of the North Pole Endorsed
+    by the Explorers of all the World.
+
+  THE PEARY-PARKER-BROWN HUMBUG UP TO DATE (To Finish Page)        534
+
+    Parker contradicts former Statement--Says he climbed Mt.
+    McKinley by Northeast Ridge.--The Ridge used by Dr. Cook.
+
+  VERDICT OF THE GEOGRAPHIC HISTORIAN (By Edwin Swift Balch)       595
+
+    Dr. Cook's Record is Accurate--It is Certified--It is
+    Corroborated--He is the Discoverer of the North Pole.
+
+  A REQUEST FOR A NATIONAL INVESTIGATION (By Dr. Frederick A.
+  Cook)                                                            600
+
+    Nation should decide--Congress Should Investigate Rival
+    Claims--Letter to the President.
+
+  CAN THE GOVERNMENT ESCAPE THE RESPONSIBILITY (By Fred High,
+  Editor of the Platform)                                          605
+
+    Cook Should Have a Fair Deal--An Unbiased Comparison--Letters
+    to and from Prominent Men.
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+  FREDERICK A. COOK                                     _Frontispiece_
+
+                                                           FACING PAGE
+  RUDOLPH FRANCKE IN ARCTIC COSTUME                                 12
+
+  MIDNIGHT--"A PANORAMA OF BLACK LACQUER AND SILVER"                13
+
+  ON THE CHASE FOR BEAR--THE BOX-HOUSE AT ANNOATOK AND ITS
+  WINTER ENVIRONMENT                                                76
+
+  MAN'S PREY OF THE ARCTIC SEA--WALRUS ASLEEP                       77
+
+  THE HELPERS--NORTHERNMOST MAN AND HIS WIFE                       108
+
+  A MECCA OF MUSK OX ALONG EUREKA SOUND--A NATIVE
+  HELPER--AH-WE-LAH'S PROSPECTIVE WIFE                             109
+
+  THE CAPTURE OF A BEAR--ROUNDING UP A HERD OF MUSK OXEN           140
+
+  SVARTEVOEG--CAMPING 500 MILES FROM THE POLE                      141
+
+  "THE IGLOO BUILT, WE PREPARE FOR OUR DAILY CAMP"                 172
+
+  CAMPING TO EAT AND TAKE OBSERVATIONS--ON AGAIN                   173
+
+  DASHING FORWARD EN ROUTE TO THE POLE                             204
+
+  DEPARTURE OF SUPPORTING PARTY--A BREATHING SPELL--POLEWARD       205
+
+  BRADLEY LAND DISCOVERED--SUBMERGED ISLAND OF POLAR
+  SEA--GOING BEYOND THE BOUNDS OF LIFE                             236
+
+  SWIFT PROGRESS OVER SMOOTH ICE--BUILDING AN IGLOO--A
+  LIFELESS WORLD OF COLD AND ICE                                   237
+
+  "TOO WEARY TO BUILD IGLOOS, WE USED THE SILK TENT"
+  "ACROSS SEAS OF CRYSTAL GLORY TO THE BOREAL CENTRE"              268
+
+  MENDING NEAR THE POLE                                            269
+
+  FIRST CAMP AT THE POLE, APRIL 21, 1908                           300
+
+  AT THE POLE--"WE WERE THE ONLY PULSATING CREATURES IN A
+  DEAD WORLD OF ICE"                                               301
+
+  "WITH EAGER EYES WE SEARCHED THE DUSKY PLAINS OF CRYSTAL, BUT
+  THERE WAS NO LAND, NO LIFE, TO RELIEVE THE PURPLE RUN OF DEATH"  332
+
+  RECORD LEFT IN BRASS TUBE AT NORTH POLE                          333
+
+  OBSERVATION DETERMINING THE POLE--PHOTOGRAPH FROM ORIGINAL NOTE  364
+
+  BACK TO LAND AND BACK TO LIFE--AWAKENED BY A WINGED HARBINGER    365
+
+  E-TUK-I-SHOOK WAITING FOR A SEAL AT A BLOW HOLE                  396
+
+  TOWARD CAPE SPARBO IN CANVAS BOAT--WALRUS--(PRIZE OF 15-HOUR
+  BATTLE) 4,000 LBS. OF MEAT AND FAT                               397
+
+  PUNCTURED CANVAS BOAT IN WHICH WE PADDLED 1,000 MILES--FAMINE
+  DAYS, WHEN ONLY STRAY BIRDS PREVENTED STARVATION--DEN IN WHICH
+  WE SPENT 100 DOUBLE NIGHTS                                       428
+
+  BULL FIGHTS WITH THE MUSK OX ABOUT CAPE SPARBO                   429
+
+  SAVED FROM STARVATION--THE RESULT OF ONE OF OUR LAST CARTRIDGES  460
+
+  "MILES AND MILES OF DESOLATION"--HOMEWARD BOUND                  461
+
+  GOVERNOR KRAUL IN HIS STUDY--ARRIVAL AT UPERNAVIK                492
+
+  POLAR TRAGEDY--A DESERTED CHILD OF THE SULTAN OF THE NORTH AND
+  ITS MOTHER                                                       493
+
+
+
+
+My Attainment of the Pole
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+THE POLAR FIGHT
+
+
+On April 21, 1908, I reached a spot on the silver-shining desert of
+boreal ice whereat a wild wave of joy filled my heart. I can remember
+the scene distinctly--it will remain one of those comparatively few
+mental pictures which are photographed with a terribly vivid
+distinctness of detail, because of their emotional effect, during
+everyone's existence, and which reassert themselves in the brain like
+lightning flashes in stresses of intense emotion, in dreams, in the
+delirium of sickness, and possibly in the hour of death.
+
+I can see the sun lying low above the horizon, which glittered here and
+there in shafts of light like the tip of a long, circular, silver blade.
+The globe of fire, veiled occasionally by purplish, silver-shot mists,
+was tinged with a faint, burning lilac. Through opening cracks in the
+constantly moving field of ice, cold strata of air rose, deflecting the
+sun's rays in every direction, and changing the vision of distant ice
+irregularities with a deceptive perspective, as an oar blade seen in the
+depth of still water.
+
+Huge phantom-shapes took form about me; they were nebulous, their color
+purplish. About the horizon moved what my imagination pictured as the
+ghosts of dead armies--strange, gigantic, wraith-like shapes whose heads
+rose above the horizon as the heads of a giant army appearing over the
+summits of a far-away mountain. They moved forward, retreated,
+diminished in size, and titanically reappeared again. Above them, in the
+purple mists and darker clouds, shifted scintillantly waving flashes of
+light, orange and crimson, the ghosts of their earthly battle banners,
+wind-tossed, golden and bloodstained.
+
+I stood gazing with wonder, half-appalled, forgetting that these were
+mirages produced by cold air and deflected light rays, and feeling only
+as though I were beholding some vague revelation of victorious hosts,
+beings of that other world which in olden times, it is said, were
+conjured at Endor. It seemed fitting that they should march and remarch
+about me; that the low beating of the wind should suddenly swell into
+throbbing martial music. For that moment I was intoxicated. I stood
+alone, apart from my two Eskimo companions, a shifting waste of purple
+ice on every side, alone in a dead world--a world of angry winds,
+eternal cold, and desolate for hundreds of miles in every direction as
+the planet before man was made.
+
+I felt in my heart the thrill which any man must feel when an almost
+impossible but dearly desired work is attained--the thrill of
+accomplishment with which a poet must regard his greatest masterpiece,
+which a sculptor must feel when he puts the finishing touch to inanimate
+matter wherein he has expressed consummately a living thought, which a
+conqueror must feel when he has mastered a formidable alien army.
+Standing on this spot, I felt that I, a human being, with all of
+humanity's frailties, had conquered cold, evaded famine, endured an
+inhuman battling with a rigorous, infuriated Nature in a soul-racking,
+body-sapping journey such as no man perhaps had ever made. I had proved
+myself to myself, with no thought at the time of any worldy applause.
+Only the ghosts about me, which my dazzled imagination evoked,
+celebrated the glorious thing with me--a thing in which no human being
+could have shared. Over and over again I repeated to myself that I had
+reached the North Pole, and the thought thrilled through my nerves and
+veins like the shivering sound of silver bells.
+
+That was my hour of victory. It was the climacteric hour of my life. The
+vision and the thrill, despite all that has passed since then, remain,
+and will remain with me as long as life lasts, as the vision and the
+thrill of an honest, actual accomplishment.
+
+That I stood at the time on the very pivotal pin-point of the earth I do
+not and never did claim; I may have, I may not. In that moving world of
+ice, of constantly rising mists, with a low-lying sun whose rays are
+always deflected, such an ascertainment of actual position, even with
+instruments in the best workable condition, is, as all scientists will
+agree, impossible. That I reached the North Pole approximately, and
+ascertained my location as accurately, as painstakingly, as the
+terrestrial and celestial conditions and the best instruments would
+allow; that I thrilled with victory, and made my claim on as honest, as
+careful, as scientific a basis of observations and calculations as any
+human being could, I do emphatically assert. That any man, in reaching
+this region, could do more than I did to ascertain definitely the
+mathematical Pole, and that any more voluminous display of figures could
+substantiate a claim of greater accuracy, I do deny. I believe still
+what I told the world when I returned, that I am the first white man to
+reach that spot known as the North Pole as far as it is, or ever will
+be, humanly possible to ascertain the location of that spot.
+
+Few men in all history, I am inclined to believe, have ever been made
+the subject of such vicious attacks, of such malevolent assailing of
+character, of such a series of perjured and forged charges, of such a
+widespread and relentless press persecution, as I; and few men, I feel
+sure, have ever been made to suffer so bitterly and so inexpressibly as
+I because of the assertion of my achievement. So persistent, so
+egregious, so overwhelming were the attacks made upon me that for a time
+my spirit was broken, and in the bitterness of my soul I even felt
+desirous of disappearing to some remote corner of the earth, to be
+forgotten. I knew that envy was the incentive to all the unkind abuses
+heaped upon me, and I knew also that in due time, when the public
+agitation subsided and a better perspective followed, the justice of my
+claim would force itself to the inevitable light of truth.
+
+With this confidence in the future, I withdrew from the envious,
+money-waged strife to the calm and restfulness of my own family circle.
+The campaign of infamy raged and spent its force. The press lined up
+with this dishonest movement by printing bribed, faked and forged news
+items, deliberately manufactured by my enemies to feed a newspaper
+hunger for sensation. In going away for a rest it did not seem prudent
+to take the press into my confidence, a course which resulted in the
+mean slurs that I had abandoned my cause. This again was used by my
+enemies to blacken my character. In reality, I had tried to keep the
+ungracious Polar controversy within the bounds of decent, gentlemanly
+conduct; but indecency had become the keynote, and against this, mild
+methods served no good purpose. I preferred, therefore, to go away and
+allow the atmosphere to clear of the stench stirred up by rival
+interest; but while I was away, my enemies were watched, and I am here
+now to uncover the darkest campaign of bribery and conspiracy ever
+forged in a strife for honor.
+
+Now that my disappointment, my bitterness has passed, that my hurt has
+partly healed, I have determined to tell the whole truth about myself,
+about the charges made against me, and about those by whom the charges
+were made. Herein, FOR THE FIRST TIME, I will tell how and why I
+believed I reached the North Pole, and give fully the record upon which
+this claim is based. Only upon such a complete account of day-by-day
+traveling and such observations, can any claim rest.
+
+Despite the hullabaloo of voluminous so-called proofs offered by a
+rival, I am certain that the unprejudiced reader will herein find as
+complete a story, and as valuable figures as those ever offered by
+anyone for any such achievement in exploration as mine. Herein, for the
+first time, shall I answer _in toto_ all charges made against me, and
+this because the entire truth concerning these same charges I have not
+succeeded in giving the world through other channels. Because of the
+power of those who arrayed themselves against me, I found the columns of
+the press closed to much that I wished to say; articles which I wrote
+for publication underwent editorial excision, and absolutely necessary
+explanations, which in themselves attacked my assailants, were
+eliminated.
+
+Only by reading my own story, as fully set down herein, can anyone judge
+of the relative value of my claim and that of my rival claimant; only by
+so doing can anyone get at the truth of the plot made to discredit me;
+only by doing so can one learn the reason for all of my actions, for my
+failure to meet charges at the time they were made, for my disappearing
+at a time when such action was unfairly made to confirm the worst
+charges of my detractors. That I have been too charitable with those who
+attempted to steal the justly deserved honors of my achievement, I am
+now convinced; when desirable, I shall now, having felt the smarting
+sting of the world's whip, and in order to justify myself, use the
+knife. I shall tell the truth even though it hurts. I have not been
+spared, and I shall spare no one in telling the unadorned and unpleasant
+story of a man who has been bitterly wronged, whose character has been
+assailed by bought and perjured affidavits, whose life before he
+returned from the famine-land of ice and cold--the world of his
+conquest--was endangered, designedly or not, by a dishonest
+appropriation of food supplies by one who afterwards endeavored
+to steal from him his honor, which is more dear than life.
+
+To be doubted, and to have one's honesty assailed, has been the
+experience of many explorers throughout history. The discoverer of our
+own continent, Christopher Columbus, was thrown into prison, and
+another, Amerigo Vespucci, was given the honor, his name to this day
+marking the land which was reached only through the intrepidity and
+single-hearted, single-sustained confidence of a man whose vision his
+own people doubted. Even in my own time have explorers been assailed,
+among them Stanley, whose name for a time was shrouded with suspicion,
+and others who since have joined the ranks of my assailants.
+Unfortunately, in such cases the matter of proof and the reliability of
+any claim, basicly, must rest entirely upon the intangible evidence of a
+man's own word; there can be no such thing as a palpable and indubitable
+proof. And in the case when a man's good faith is aspersed and his
+character assailed, the world's decision must rest either upon his own
+word or that of his detractors.
+
+Returning from the North, exhausted both in body and brain by a savage
+and excruciating struggle against famine and cold, yet thrilling with
+the glorious conviction of a personal attainment, I was tossed to the
+zenith of worldly honor on a wave of enthusiasm, a world-madness, which
+startled and bewildered me. In that swift, sudden, lightning-flash
+ascension to glory, which I had not expected, and in which I was as a
+bit of helpless drift in the thundering tossing of an ocean storm, I was
+decorated with unasked-for honors, the laudations of the press of the
+world rang in my ears, the most notable of living men hailed me as one
+great among them. I found myself the unwilling and uncomfortable guest
+of princes, and I was led forward to receive the gracious hand of a
+King.
+
+Returning to my own country, still marveling that such honors should be
+given because I had accomplished what seemed, and still seems, a merely
+personal achievement, and of little importance to anyone save to him who
+throbs with the gratification of a personal success, I was greeted with
+mad cheers and hooting whistles, with bursting guns and blaring bands. I
+was led through streets filled with applauding men and singing children
+and arched with triumphal flowers. In a dizzy whirl about the
+country--which now seems like a delirious dream--I experienced what I am
+told was an ovation unparalleled of its kind.
+
+Coincident with my return to civilization, and while the world was
+ringing with congratulations, there came stinging through the cold air
+from the North, by wireless electric flashes, word from Mr. Peary that
+he had reached the North Pole and that, in asserting such a claim
+myself, I was a liar. I did not then doubt the good faith of Peary's
+claim; having reached the boreal center myself, under extremely
+favorable weather conditions, I felt that he, with everything in his
+favor, could do as much a year later, as he claimed. I replied with all
+candor what I felt, that there was glory enough for two. But I did, of
+course, feel the sting of my rival's unwarranted and virulent attacks.
+In the stress of any great crisis, the average human mind is apt to be
+carried away by unwise impulses.
+
+Following Mr. Peary's return, I found myself the object of a campaign to
+discredit me in which, I believe, as an explorer, I stand the most
+shamefully abused man in the history of exploration. Deliberately
+planned, inspired at first, and at first directed, by Mr. Peary from
+the wireless stations of Labrador, this campaign was consistently and
+persistently worked out by a powerful and affluent organization, with
+unlimited money at its command, which has had as its allies dishonest
+pseudo-scientists, financially and otherwise interested in the success
+of Mr. Peary's expedition. With a chain of powerful newspapers, a
+financial backer of Peary led a campaign to destroy confidence in me. I
+found myself in due time, before I realized the importance of underhand
+attacks, in a quandary which baffled and bewildered me. Without any
+organization behind me, without any wires to pull, without, at the time,
+any appreciable amount of money for defence, I felt what anyone who is
+not superhuman would have felt, a sickening sense of helplessness, a
+disgust at the human duplicity which permitted such things, a sense of
+the futility of the very thing I had done and its little worth compared
+to the web of shame my enemies were endeavoring to weave about me.
+
+One of the remarkable things about modern journalism is that, by
+persistent repetition, it can create as a fact in the public mind a
+thing which is purely immaterial or untrue. Taking the cue from Peary,
+there was at the beginning a widespread and unprecedented call for
+"proofs," which in some vague way were to consist of unreduced
+reckonings. Mr. Peary had his own--he had buried part of mine. I did not
+at the time instantly produce these vague and obscure proofs, knowing,
+as all scientists know, that figures must inevitably be inadequate and
+that any convincing proof that can exist is to be found only in the
+narrative account of such a quest. I did not appreciate that in the
+public mind, because of the newspapers' criticisms, there was growing a
+demand for this vague something. For this reason, I did not consider an
+explanation of the absurdity of this exaggerated position necessary.
+
+Nor did I appreciate the relative effect of the National Geographic
+Society's "acceptance" of Mr. Peary's so-called "proofs" while mine were
+not forthcoming. I did not know at the time, what has since been brought
+out in the testimony given before the Naval Committee in Washington,
+that the National Geographic Society's verdict was based upon an
+indifferent examination of worthless observations and a few seconds'
+casual observation of Mr. Peary's instruments by several members of the
+Society in the Pennsylvania Railroad Station at Washington. With many
+lecture engagements, I considered that I was right in doing what every
+other explorer, including Mr. Peary himself, had done before me; that
+is, to fulfill my lecture and immediate literary opportunities while
+there was a great public interest aroused, and to offer a narrative of
+greater length, with field observations and extensive scientific data,
+later.
+
+Following the exaggerated call for proofs, there began a series of
+persistently planned attacks. So petty and insignificant did many of
+them seem to me that I gave them little thought. My speed limits were
+questioned, this charge being dropped when it was found that Mr. Peary's
+had exceeded mine. The use by the newspaper running my narrative story
+of photographs of Arctic scenes--which never change in character--that
+had been taken by me on previous trips, was held up as visible evidence
+that I was a faker! Errors which crept into my newspaper account
+because of hasty preparation, and which were not corrected because there
+was no time to read proofs, were eagerly seized upon, and long, abstruse
+and impressive mathematical dissertations were made on these to prove
+how unscrupulous and unreliable I was.
+
+The photograph of the flag at the Pole was put forth by one of Mr.
+Peary's friends to prove on _prima facie_ evidence that I had faked.
+Inasmuch as the original negative was vague because of the non-actinic
+light in the North, the newspaper photographers retouched the print and
+painted on it a shadow as being cast from the flag and snow igloos. This
+shadow was seized upon avidly, and after long and learned calculations,
+was cited as showing that the picture was taken some five hundred miles
+from the Pole.
+
+A formidable appearing statement, signed by various members of his
+expedition, and copyrighted by the clique of honor-blind boosters, was
+issued by Mr. Peary. In this he gave statements of my two Eskimo
+companions to the effect that I had not gotten out of sight of land for
+more than one or two "sleeps" on my trip. I knew that I had encouraged
+the delusion of my Eskimos that the mirages and low-lying clouds which
+appeared almost daily were signs of land. In their ignorance and their
+eagerness to be near land, they believed this, and by this innocent
+deception I prevented the panic which seizes every Arctic savage when he
+finds himself upon the circumpolar sea out of sight of land. I have
+since learned that Mr. Peary's Eskimos became panic-stricken near the
+Big Lead on his last journey and that it was only by the
+life-threatening announcement to them of his determination to leave
+them alone on the ice (to get back to land as best they might or starve
+to death) that he compelled them to accompany him.
+
+In any case, I did not consider as important any testimony of the
+Eskimos which Mr. Peary might cite, knowing as well as he did that one
+can get any sort of desired reply from these natives by certain adroit
+questioning, and knowing also that the alleged route on his map which he
+said they drew was valueless, inasmuch as an Eskimo out of sight of land
+and in an unfamiliar region has no sense of location. I felt the whole
+statement to be what it was, a trumped-up document in which my helpers,
+perhaps unwittingly, had been adroitly led to affirm what Mr. Peary by
+jesuitical and equivocal questioning planned to have them say, and that
+it was therefore unworthy of a reply.
+
+I had left my instruments and part of the unreduced reckonings with Mr.
+Harry Whitney, a fact which Mr. Whitney himself confirmed in published
+press interviews when he first arrived--in the heat of the controversy
+and after I left Copenhagen--in Sidney. When interviews came from Mr.
+Peary insinuating that I had left no instruments in the North, this
+becoming a definite charge which was taken up with great hue and cry,
+I bitterly felt this to be a deliberate untruth on Mr. Peary's part.
+I have since learned that one of Mr. Peary's officers cross-questioned
+my Eskimos, and that by showing them Mr. Peary's own instruments he
+discovered just what instruments I had had with me on my trip, and that
+by describing the method of using these instruments to E-tuk-i-shook
+and Ah-we-lah, Bartlett learned from them that I did take observations.
+This information he conveyed to Mr. Peary before his expedition left
+Etah for America, and this knowledge Mr. Peary and his party,
+deliberately and with malicious intent, concealed on their return. At
+the time I had no means of refuting this insinuation; it was simply my
+word or Mr. Peary's.
+
+[Illustration: RUDOLPH FRANCKE IN ARCTIC COSTUME]
+
+[Illustration: MIDNIGHT--"A PANORAMA OF BLACK LACQUER AND SILVER."]
+
+I had no extraordinary proofs to offer, but, such as they were, I now
+know, by comparison with the published reports of Mr. Peary himself,
+they were as good as any offered by anyone. I was perhaps unfortunate in
+not having, as Mr. Peary had, a confederate body of financially
+interested friends to back me up, as was the National Geographic
+Society.
+
+Not satisfied with unjustly attacking my claim, Mr. Peary's associates
+proceeded to assail my past career, and I was next confronted by an
+affidavit made by my guide, Barrill, to the effect that I had not scaled
+Mt. McKinley, an affidavit which, as I later secured evidence, had been
+bought. A widely heralded "investigation" was announced by a body of
+"explorers" of which Peary was president. One of Colonel Mann's
+muck-rakers was secretary, while its moving spirit was Mr. Peary's press
+agent, Herbert L. Bridgman. In a desperate effort to help Peary, a
+cowardly side issue was forced through Professor Herschell Parker, who
+had been with me on the Mt. McKinley trip but who had turned back after
+becoming panic-stricken in the crossing of mountain torrents. Mr. Parker
+expressed doubt of my achievements because he differed with me as to the
+value of the particular instrument to ascertain altitude which I, with
+many other mountain climbers, used. I had offered all possible proofs
+as to having climbed the mountain, as full and adequate proofs as any
+mountaineer could, or ever has offered.
+
+I resented the meddlesomeness of this pro-Peary group of kitchen
+explorers, not one of whom knew the first principles of mountaineering.
+From such an investigation, started to help Peary in his black-hand
+effort to force the dagger, with the money power easing men's
+conscience--as was evident at the time everywhere--no fair result could
+be expected. And as to the widely printed Barrill affidavit--this
+carried on its face the story of pro-Peary bribery and conspiracy. I
+have since learned that for it $1,500 and other considerations were
+paid. Here was a self-confessed liar. I did not think that a sane public
+therefore could take this underhanded pro-Peary charge as to the climb
+of Mt. McKinley seriously. Indeed, I paid little attention to it, but by
+using the cutting power of the press my enemies succeeded in inflicting
+a wound in my side.
+
+I was thus plunged into the bewildering chaos which friends and enemies
+created, and swept for three months through a cyclone of events which I
+believe no human being could have stood. Before returning, I felt
+weakened mentally and physically by the rigors of the North, where for a
+year I barely withstood starvation. I was now whirled about the country,
+daily delivering lectures, greeting thousands of people, buffeted by
+mobs of well-meaning beings, and compelled to attend dinners and
+receptions numbering two hundred in sixty days. The air hissed about me
+with the odious charges which came from every direction. I was alone,
+helpless, without a single wise counsellor, under the charge of the
+enemies' press, mud-charged guns fired from every point of the compass.
+Unlimited funds were being consumed in the infamous mill of bribery.
+
+I had not the money nor the nature to fight in this kind of battle--so I
+withdrew. At once, howls of execration gleefully rose from the ranks of
+my enemies; my departure was heralded gloriously as a confession of
+imposture. Advantage was taken of my absence and new, perjured, forged
+charges were made to blacken my name. Far from my home and unable to
+defend myself, Dunkle and Loose swore falsely to having manufactured
+figures and observations under my direction. When I learned of this,
+much as it hurt me, I knew that the report which I had sent to
+Copenhagen would, if it did anything, disprove by the very figures in it
+the malicious lying document published in the New York _Times_. This,
+combined with the verdict rendered by the University of Copenhagen--a
+neutral verdict which carried no implication of the non-attainment of
+the Pole, but which was interpreted as a rejection--helped to stamp me
+in the minds of many people as the most monumental impostor the world
+has ever seen.
+
+I fully realized that under the circumstances the only verdict of an
+unprejudiced body on any such proofs to such a claim must be favorable
+or neutral. The members of the University of Copenhagen who examined my
+papers were neither personal friends nor members of a body financially
+interested in my quest. Their verdict was honest. Mr. Peary's Washington
+verdict was dishonest, for two members of the jury admitted a year later
+in Congress, under pressure, that in the Peary data there was no
+absolute proof.
+
+By the time I determined to return to my native country and state my
+case, I had been placed, I am certain, in a position of undeserved
+discredit unparalleled in history. No epithet was too vile to couple
+with my name. I was declared a brazen cheat who had concocted the most
+colossal lie of ages whereby to hoax an entire world for gain. I was
+made the subject of cheap jokes. My name in antagonistic newspapers had
+become a synonym for cheap faking. I was compelled to see myself held up
+gleefully as an impostor, a liar, a fraud, an unscrupulous scoundrel,
+one who had tried to steal honors from another, and who, to escape
+exposure, had fled to obscurity.
+
+All the scientific work which scientists themselves had accepted as
+valuable, all the necessary hardships and the inevitable agonies of my
+last Arctic journey were forgotten; I was coupled with the most
+notorious characters in history in a press which panders to the lowest
+of human emotions and delights in men's shame. When I realized how
+egregious, how frightful, how undeserved was all this, my soul writhed;
+when I saw clearly, with the perspective which only time can give, how
+I, stepping aside, in errors of confused judgment which were purely
+human, had seemingly contributed to my unhappy plight, I felt the sting
+of ignominy greater than that which has broken stronger men's hearts.
+
+For the glory which the world gives to such an accomplishment as the
+discovery of the North Pole, I care very little, but when the very
+result of such a victory is used as a whip to inflict cuts that mark my
+future destiny, I have a right to call a halt. I have claimed no
+national honors, want no medals or money. My feet stepped over the
+Polar wastes with a will fired only by a personal ambition to succeed in
+a task where all the higher human powers were put to the test of
+fitness. That victory was honestly won. All that the achievement ever
+meant to me--the lure of it before I achieved it, the only satisfaction
+that remains since--is that it is a personal accomplishment of brain and
+muscle over hitherto unconquered forces, a thought in which I have
+pride. From the tremendous ovations that greeted me when I returned to
+civilization I got not a single thrill. I did thrill with the handclasp
+of confident, kindly people. I still thrill with the handclasp of my
+countrymen.
+
+Insofar as the earthly glory and applause are concerned, I should be
+only too glad to share them, with all material accruements, to any
+honest, manly rivals--those of the past and those of the future. But
+against the unjust charges which have been made against me, against the
+aspersions on my personal integrity, against the ignominy with which my
+name has been besmirched, I will fight until the public gets a normal
+perspective.
+
+I have never hoaxed a mythical achievement. Everything I have ever
+claimed was won by hard labor, by tremendous physical fortitude and
+endurance, and by such personal sacrifice as only I, and my immediate
+family, will ever know.
+
+For this reason, I returned to my country in the latter part of 1910, as
+I always intended to do, after a year's rest. By this time I knew that
+my enemies would have said all that was possible about me; the
+excitement of the controversy would have quieted, and I should have the
+advantage of the last word.
+
+In the heat of the controversy, only just returned in a weakened
+condition from the North, and mentally bewildered by the unexpected
+maelstrom of events, I should not have been able, with justice to
+myself, to have met all the charges, criminal and silly, which were made
+against me. Even what I did say was misquoted and distorted by a
+sensational press which found it profitable to add fuel to the
+controversy. Sometimes I feel that no man ever born has been so
+variedly, so persistently lied about, misrepresented, made the butt of
+such countless untruths as myself. When I consider the lies, great and
+small, which for more than a year, throughout the entire world, have
+been printed about me, I am filled almost with hopelessness. And
+sometimes, when I think how I have been unjustly dubbed as the most
+colossal liar of history, I am filled with a sort of sardonic humor.
+
+Returning to my country, determined to state my case freely and frankly,
+and making the honest admission that any claim to the definite, actual
+attainment of the North Pole--the mathematical pin-point on which the
+earth spins--must rest upon assumptions, because of the impossibility of
+accuracy in observations, I found that this admission, which every
+explorer would have to make, which Mr. Peary was unwillingly forced to
+make at the Congressional investigation, was construed throughout the
+country and widely heralded as a "confession," that garbled extracts
+were lifted from the context of my magazine story and their meaning
+distorted. In hundreds of newspapers I was represented as confessing to
+a fraudulent claim or as making a plea of insanity. A full answer to the
+charges made against me, necessary in order to justly cover my case,
+because of the controversial nature of certain statements which
+involved Mr. Peary, was prohibited by the contract I found it necessary
+to sign in order to get any statement of a comparatively ungarbled sort
+before a public which had read Mr. Peary's own account of his journey.
+
+I found the columns of the press of my country closed to the publication
+of statements which involved my enemies, because of the unfounded
+prejudice created against me during my absence and because of the power
+of Mr. Peary's friends. It is almost impossible in any condition for
+anyone to secure a refutation for an unfounded attack in the American
+papers. With the entire press of the country printing misstatements, I
+was almost helpless. The justice, kindliness and generous spirit of fair
+dealing of the American people, however, was extended to me--I found the
+American people glad--nay, eager--to listen.
+
+It is this spirit which has encouraged me, after the shameful campaign
+of opprobrium which well-nigh broke my spirit, to tell the entire and
+unalterable truth about myself and an achievement in which I still
+believe--in fairness to myself, in order to clear myself, in order that
+the truth about the discovery of the North Pole may be known by my
+people and in order that history may record its verdict upon a full,
+free and frank exposition. I do not address myself to any clique of
+geographers or scientists, but to the great public of the world, and
+herein, for the first time, shall I give fully whatever proofs there may
+be of my conquest. Upon these records must conviction rest.
+
+Did I actually reach the North Pole? When I returned to civilization and
+reported that the boreal center had been attained, I believed that I
+had reached the spot toward which valiant men had strained for more than
+three hundred years. I still believe that I reached the boreal center as
+far as it is possible for any human being to ascertain it. If I was
+mistaken in approximately placing my feet upon the pin-point about which
+this controversy has raged, I maintain that it is the inevitable mistake
+any man must make. To touch that spot would be an accident. That any
+other man has more accurately determined the Pole I do deny. That Mr.
+Peary reached the North Pole--or its environs--with as fair accuracy as
+was possible, I have never denied. That Mr. Peary was better fitted to
+reach the Pole, and better equipped to locate this mythical spot, I do
+not admit. In fact, I believe that, inasmuch as the purely scientific
+ascertainment is a comparatively simple matter, I stood a better chance
+of more scientifically and more accurately marking the actual spot than
+Mr. Peary. I reached my goal when the sun was twelve degrees above the
+horizon, and was therefore better able to mark a mathematical position
+than Mr. Peary could have with the sun at less than seven degrees. Mr.
+Peary's case rests upon three observations of sun altitude so low that,
+as proof of a position, they are worthless.
+
+Besides taking observations, which, as I shall explain in due course in
+my narrative, cannot be adequate, I also ascertained what I believed to
+be my approximate position at the boreal center and en route by
+measuring the shadows each hour of the long day. Inasmuch as one's
+shadow decreases or increases in length as the sun rises toward the
+meridian or descends, at the boreal center, where the sun circles the
+entire horizon at practically the same height during the entire day,
+one's shadow in this region of mystery is of the same length. In this
+observation, which is so simple that a child may understand it, is a
+sure and certain means of approximately ascertaining the North Pole. I
+took advantage of this method, which does not seem to have occurred to
+any other Arctic traveler, and this helped to bring conviction.
+
+I shall in this volume present with detail the story of my Arctic
+journey--I shall tell how it was possible for me to reach my goal, why I
+believe I attained that goal; and upon this record must the decision of
+my people rest. I shall herein tell the story of an unfair and unworthy
+plot to ruin the reputation of an innocent man because of an achievement
+the full and prior credit of which was desired by a brutally selfish,
+brutally unscrupulous rival. I shall tell of a tragedy compared with
+which the North Pole and any glory accruing to its discoverer pales into
+insignificance--the tragedy of a spirit that was almost broken, of a man
+whose honor and pride was cut with knives in unclean hands.
+
+When you have read all this, then, and only then, in fairness to
+yourself and in fairness to me, do I ask you to form your opinion. Only
+by reading this can you learn the full truth about me, about my claim
+and about the plot to discredit me, of the charges made against me, and
+the reason for all of my own actions. So persistent, so world-wide has
+been the press campaign made by my enemies, and so egregious have the
+charges seemed against me, so multitudinous have the lies, fake stories,
+fake interviews, fake confessions been, so blatant have rung the
+hideous cries of liar, impostor, cheat and fraud, that the task to right
+myself, explain myself, and bring the truth into clean relief has seemed
+colossal.
+
+To return to my country and face the people in view of all that was
+being said, with my enemies exultant, with antagonistic press men
+awaiting me as some beast to be devoured, required a determined gritting
+of the teeth and a reserve temperament to prevent an undignified battle.
+
+For against such things nature dictates the tactics of the tiger. I
+faced my people, I found them fair and kindly. I accused my enemies of
+their lies, and they have remained silent. Titanic as is this effort of
+forcing fair play where biased abuse has reigned so long, I am confident
+of success. I am confident of the honesty and justice of my people; of
+their ability spiritually to sense, psychically to appreciate the
+earmarks of a clean, true effort--a worthy ambition and a real
+attainment.
+
+
+
+
+INTO THE BOREAL WILDS
+
+THE YACHT BRADLEY LEAVES GLOUCESTER--INVADES THE MAGIC OF THE WATERS
+OF THE ARCTIC SEAS--RECOLLECTION OF BOYHOOD AMBITIONS--BEYOND THE
+ARCTIC CIRCLE--THE WEAVING OF THE POLAR SPELL
+
+II
+
+OVER THE ARCTIC CIRCLE
+
+
+On July 3, 1907, between seven and eight o'clock in the evening, the
+yacht, which had been renamed the _John B. Bradley_, quietly withdrew
+from the pier at Gloucester, Massachusetts, and, turning her prow
+oceanward, slowly, quietly started on her historic journey to the Arctic
+seas.
+
+In the tawny glow of sunset, which was fading in the western sky, she
+looked, with her new sails unfurled, her entire body newly painted a
+spotless white, like some huge silver bird alighting upon the sunshot
+waters of the bay. On board, all was quiet. I stood alone, gazing back
+upon the picturesque fishing village with a tender throb at my heart,
+for it was the last village of my country which I might see for years,
+or perhaps ever.
+
+Along the water's edge straggled tiny ramshackle boat houses,
+dun-colored sheds where fish are dried, and the humble miniature homes
+of the fisherfolk, in the windows of which lights soon after appeared.
+On the bay about us, fishing boats were lazily bobbing up and down; in
+some, old bearded fishermen with broad hats, smoking clay and corncob
+pipes, were drying their seines. Other boats went by, laden with
+wriggling, silver-scaled fish; along the shore I could still see tons of
+fish being unloaded from scores of boats. Through the rosy twilight,
+voices came over the water, murmurous sounds from the shore, cries from
+the sea mixed with the quaint oaths of fisherfolk at work. Ashore, the
+boys of the village were testing their firecrackers for the morrow;
+sputtering explosions cracked through the air. Occasionally a faint fire
+rocket scaled the sky. But no whistles tooted after our departure. No
+visiting crowds of curiosity-seekers ashore were frenziedly waving us
+good-bye.
+
+An Arctic expedition had been born without the usual clamor. Prepared in
+one month, and financed by a sportsman whose only mission was to hunt
+game animals in the North, no press campaign heralded our project, no
+government aid had been asked, nor had large contributions been sought
+from private individuals to purchase luxuries for a Pullman jaunt of a
+large party Poleward. For, although I secretly cherished the ambition,
+there was no definite plan to essay the North Pole.
+
+At the Holland House in New York, a compact was made between John R.
+Bradley and myself to launch an Arctic expedition. Because of my
+experience, Mr. Bradley delegated to me the outfitting of the
+expedition, and had turned over to me money enough to pay the costs of
+the hunting trip. A Gloucester fishing schooner had been purchased by
+me and was refitted, covered and strengthened for ice navigation. To
+save fuel space and to gain the advantage of a steamer, I had a Lozier
+gasoline motor installed. There had been put on board everything of
+possible use and comfort in the boreal wild. As it is always possible
+that a summer cruising ship is likely to be lost or delayed a year,
+common prudence dictated a preparation for the worst emergencies.
+
+So far as the needs of my own personal expedition were concerned, I had
+with me on the yacht plenty of hard hickory wood for the making of
+sledges, instruments, clothing and other apparatus gathered with much
+economy during my former years of exploration, and about one thousand
+pounds of pemmican. These supplies, necessary to offset the danger of
+shipwreck and detention by ice, were also all that would be required for
+a Polar trip. When, later, I finally decided on a Polar campaign, extra
+ship supplies, contributed from the boat, were stored at Annoatok.
+There, also, my supply of pemmican was amplified by the stores of walrus
+meat and fat prepared during the long winter by myself, Rudolph Francke
+and the Eskimos.
+
+As the yacht slowly soared toward the ocean, and night descended over
+the fishing village with its home lights glimmering cheerfully as the
+stars one by one flecked the firmament with dots of fire, I felt that at
+last I had embarked upon my destiny. Whether I should be able to follow
+my heart's desire I did not know; I did not dare hazard a guess. But I
+was leaving my country, now on the eve of celebrating its freedom,
+behind me; I had elected to live in a world of ice and cold, of hunger
+and death, which lay before me--thousands of miles to the North.
+
+Day by day passed monotonously; we only occasionally saw writhing curves
+of land to the west of us; about us was the illimitable sea. That I had
+started on a journey which might result in my starting for the Pole,
+that my final chance had come, vaguely thrilled me. Yet the full purport
+of my hope seemed beyond me. On the journey to Sydney my mind was full.
+I thought of the early days of my childhood, of the strange ambition
+which grew upon me, of my struggles, and the chance which favored me in
+the present expedition.
+
+In the early days of my childhood, of which I now had only indistinct
+glimmerings, I remembered a restless surge in my little bosom, a
+yearning for something that was vague and undefined. This was, I
+suppose, that nebulous desire which sometimes manifests itself in early
+youth and later is asserted in strivings toward some splendid, sometimes
+spectacular aim. My boyhood was not happy. As a tiny child I was
+discontented, and from the earliest days of consciousness I felt the
+burden of two things which accompanied me through later life--an innate
+and abnormal desire for exploration, then the manifestation of my
+yearning, and the constant struggle to make ends meet, that sting of
+poverty, which, while it tantalizes one with its horrid grind, sometimes
+drives men by reason of the strength developed in overcoming its
+concomitant obstacles to some extraordinary accomplishment.
+
+As a very small boy, I remember being fascinated by the lure of a
+forbidden swimming pool. One day, when but little over five, I, impelled
+to test the depth, plunged to the center, where the water was above my
+head, and nearly lost my life. I shall never forget that struggle, and
+though I nearly gave out, in that short time I learned to swim. It seems
+to me now I have been swimming and struggling ever since.
+
+Abject poverty and hard work marked my school days. When quite a boy,
+after the death of my father, I came to New York. I sold fruit at one of
+the markets. I saved my money. I enjoyed no luxuries. These days vividly
+occur in my mind. Later I engaged in a dairy business in Brooklyn, and
+on the meager profits undertook to study medicine.
+
+At that time the ambition which beset me was undirected; it was only
+later that I found, almost by accident, what became its focusing point.
+I graduated from the University of New York in 1890. I felt (as what
+young man does not?) that I possessed unusual qualifications and
+exceptional ability. An office was fitted up, and my anxiety over the
+disappearing pennies was eased by the conviction that I had but to hang
+out my shingle and the place would be thronged with patients. Six months
+passed. There had been about three patients.
+
+I recall sitting alone one gloomy winter day. Opening a paper, I read
+that Peary was preparing his 1891 expedition to the Arctic. I cannot
+explain my sensations. It was as if a door to a prison cell had opened.
+I felt the first indomitable, commanding call of the Northland. To
+invade the Unknown, to assail the fastness of the white, frozen
+North--all that was latent in me, the impetus of that ambition born in
+childhood, perhaps before birth, and which had been stifled and starved,
+surged up tumultuously within me.
+
+I volunteered, and accompanied Peary, on this, the expedition of
+1891-92, as surgeon. Whatever merit my work possessed has been cited by
+others.
+
+Unless one has been in the Arctic, I suppose it is impossible to
+understand its fascination--a fascination which makes men risk their
+lives and endure inconceivable hardships for, as I view it now, no
+profitable personal purpose of any kind. The spell was upon me then. It
+was upon me as I recalled those early days on the _Bradley_ going
+Northward. With a feeling of sadness I realize that the glamor is all
+gone now.
+
+On the Peary and all my subsequent expeditions I served without pay.
+
+On my return from that trip I managed to make ends meet by meager
+earnings from medicine. I was nearly always desperately hard pressed for
+money. I tried to organize several coöperative expeditions to the
+Arctic. These failed. I then tried to arouse interest in Antarctic
+exploration, but without success. Then came the opportunity to join the
+Belgian Antarctic Expedition, again without pay.
+
+On my return I dreamed of a plan to attain the South Pole, and for a
+long time worked on a contrivance for that end--an automobile arranged
+to travel over ice. Financial failure again confronted me.
+Disappointment only added to my ambition; it scourged me to a
+determination, a conviction that--I want you to remember this, to bear
+in mind the mental conviction which buoyed me--I must and should
+succeed. It is always this innate conviction which encourages men to
+exceptional feats, to tremendous failures or splendid, single-handed
+success.
+
+A summer in the Arctic followed my Antarctic trip, and I returned to
+invade the Alaskan wilds. I succeeded in scaling Mt. McKinley. After my
+Alaskan expeditions, the routine of my Brooklyn office work seemed like
+the confinement of prison. I fretted and chafed at the thought. Let me
+have a chance, and I would succeed. This thought always filled my mind.
+I convinced myself that in some way the attainment of one of the
+Poles--the effort on which I had spent sixteen years--would become
+possible.
+
+I had no money. My work in exploration had netted me nothing, and all my
+professional income was soon spent. Unless you have felt the goading,
+devilish grind of poverty hindering you, dogging you, you cannot know
+the mental fury into which I was lashed.
+
+I waited, and fortune favored me in that I met Mr. John R. Bradley. We
+planned the Arctic expedition on which I was now embarked. Mr. Bradley's
+interest in the trip was that of a great sportsman, eager to seek big
+game in the Arctic. My immediate purpose was to return again to the
+frozen North. The least the journey would give me was an opportunity to
+complete the study of the Eskimos which I had started in 1891.
+
+Mr. Bradley and I had talked, of course, of the Pole; but it was not an
+important incentive to the journey. Back in my brain, barely above the
+subconscious realm, was the feeling that this, however, might offer
+opportunity in the preparation for a final future determination. I,
+therefore, without any conscious purpose, and with my last penny, paid
+out of my purse for extra supplies for a personal expedition should I
+leave the ship.[1]
+
+Aboard the _Bradley_, going northward, my plans were not at all
+definite. Even had I known before leaving New York that I should try for
+the Pole, I should not have sought any geographical license from some
+vague and unknown authority. Though much has since been made by critics
+of our quiet departure, I always felt the quest of the Pole a personal
+ambition[2], a crazy hunger I had to satisfy.
+
+Fair weather followed us to Sydney, Cape Breton.
+
+From this point we sailed over the Gulf of St. Lawrence, then entered
+the Straits of Belle Isle at a lively speed. On a cold, cheerless day in
+the middle of July we arrived at Battle Harbor, a little town at the
+southeastern point of Labrador, where Mr. Bradley joined us. He had
+preceded us north, by rail and coasting vessels, after watching a part
+of the work of outfitting the schooner.
+
+On the morning of July 16 we left the rockbound coast of North America
+and steered straight for Greenland. In this region a dense and heavy fog
+almost always lies upon the sea. Then nothing is visible but
+slow-swaying gray masses, which veil all objects in a shroud of ghostly
+dreariness. Through the fog can be heard the sound of fisher-boat horns,
+often the very voices of the fishermen themselves, while their crafts
+are absolutely hidden from view. On this trip, however, from time to
+time, great fragments of fog slowly lifted, and we saw, emerging out of
+the gray mistiness, islands, bleak and black and weathertorn, and
+patches of ocean dotted with scores of Newfoundland boats, which invade
+this region to fish for cod. We entered the Arctic current, and
+breasting its stream, a fancy came that perhaps this current, flowing
+down from out of the mysterious unknown, came from the very Pole itself.
+
+Continuing, we entered Davis Straits, where we encountered headwinds
+that piled up the water in great waves. It was a good test of the
+sailing qualities of the _Bradley_, and well did the small craft
+respond.
+
+Long before the actual coast line of Greenland could be seen we had a
+first glimpse of the beauties that these northern regions can show.
+Like great sapphires, blue ice floated in a golden sea; towering masses
+of crystal rose gloriously, dazzling the eye and gladdening the heart
+with their superb beauty. The schooner sailed into this wonderful yellow
+sea, which soon became a broad and gleaming surface of molten silver.
+Although this striking beauty of the North, which it often is so chary
+of displaying, possesses a splendor of color equal to the gloriousness
+of tropical seas, it always impresses one with a steely hardness of
+quality suggestive of the steely hardness of the heart of the North. And
+it somehow seemed, curiously enough, as if all this wonderful glitter
+was a shimmering reflection from the ice-covered mountains of the
+Greenland interior, although the mountains themselves were still
+invisible.
+
+We swung from side to side, dodging icebergs. We steered cautiously
+around low-floating masses, watching to see that the keel was not caught
+by some treacherous jutting spur just beneath the water-line. Through
+this fairyland of light and color we sailed slowly into a region rich in
+animal life, a curious and striking sight. Seals floundered in the
+sunbeams or slumbered on masses of ice, for even in this Northland there
+is a strange commingling and contrast of heat and cold. Gulls and
+petrels darted and fluttered about us in every direction, porpoises were
+making swift and curving leaps, even a few whales added to the magic and
+apparent unreality of it all.
+
+At length the coast showed dimly upon the horizon, veiled in a glow of
+purple and gold. The wind freshened, the sails filled, and the speed of
+the schooner increased. We were gradually nearing Holsteinborg, and the
+course was set a point more in towards shore. The land was thrown into
+bold relief by the brilliancy of lights and shadows, and in the
+remarkably clear air it seemed as if it could be reached in an hour. But
+this was an atmospheric deception, of the kind familiar to those who
+know the pure air of the Rocky Mountains, for, although the land seemed
+near, it was at least forty miles away. The general color of the land
+was a frosty blue, and there were deep valleys to be seen, gashes cut by
+the slow movement of centuries of glaciers, with rocky headlands leaping
+forward, bleak and cold. It appeared to be a land of sublime desolation.
+
+The course was set still another point nearer the coast; the wind
+continued fair and strong; and, with every possible stitch of canvas
+spread, the schooner went rapidly onward.
+
+We saw rocky islands, drenched by clouds of spray and battered by
+drifting masses of ice. There the eider duck builds its nest and spends
+the brief summer of the Arctic. We saw dismal cliffs, terra cotta and
+buff in color, in the crevasses of which millions of birds made their
+homes, and from which they rose, frightened, in dense clouds, giving
+vent to a great volume of clamorous hoarseness.
+
+Through our glasses we could see a surprising sight in such a
+land--little patches of vegetation, seal brown or even emerald green.
+Yet, so slight were these patches of green that one could not but wonder
+what freak of imagination led the piratical Eric the Red, one thousand
+years ago, to give to this coast a name so suggestive of luxuriant
+forests and shrubs and general lushness of growth as "Greenland." Never,
+surely, was there a greater misnomer, unless one chooses to regard the
+old-time Eric as a practical joker.
+
+Between the tall headlands there were fiords cutting far into the
+interior; arms of the sea, these, winding and twisting back for miles.
+Along these quiet land-locked waters the Eskimos love to hunt and fish,
+just as their forefathers have done for centuries. Shaggy looking
+fellows are these Eskimos, clothed in the skins of animals, relieved by
+dashes of color of Danish fabric, most of them still using spears, and
+thus, to outward appearance, in the arts of life almost like those that
+Eric saw.
+
+Although this rugged coast, with its low-lying islands, its icebergs and
+floating icefields, its bleak headlands, its picturesque scenes of
+animal life, is a continuous delight, it presents the worst possible
+dangers to navigation, not only from reefs and under-water ice, but
+because there are no lighthouses to mark permanent danger spots and
+because signs of impending storm are ever on the horizon. While
+navigating the coast, our officers spent sleepless nights of anxiety;
+but the shortening of the nights and lengthening of the days, the daily
+night brightening resulting from the northerly movement, combined with
+an occasional flash of the aurora, gradually relieved the tension of the
+situation.
+
+By the time the island of Disco rose splendidly out of the northern
+blue, the Arctic Circle had been crossed, and a sort of celestial
+light-house brightened the path of the schooner. Remaining on deck until
+after midnight, we were rewarded by a sight of the sun magnified to many
+times its normal size, glowing above the rim of the frosty sea. A light
+wind blew gently from the coast, the sea ran in swells of gold, and the
+sky was streaked with topaz and crimson.
+
+Bathed in an indescribable glow, the towering sides of the greatest
+icebergs showed a medley of ever-changing, iridescent colors. The
+jutting pinnacles of others seemed like oriental minarets of alabaster
+fretted with old gold. Here and there, as though flung by an invisible
+hand from the zenith, straggled long cloud ribbons of flossy crimson and
+silver. Gradually, imperially, the sun rose higher and flushed sky and
+sea with deeper orange, more burning crimson, and the bergs into vivid
+ruby, chalcedony and chrysophase walls. This suddenly-changing,
+kaleidoscopic whirl of color was rendered more effective because, in its
+midst, the cliffs of Disco rose frowningly, a great patch of blackness
+in artistic contrast. A pearly vapor now began to creep over the
+horizon, and gradually spread over the waters, imparting a gentle and
+restful tone of blue. This gradually darkened into irregular shadows;
+the brilliant color glories faded away. Finally we retired to sleep with
+a feeling that sailing Poleward was merely a joyous pleasure journey
+over wonderful and magic waters. This, the first glorious vision of the
+midnight sun, glowed in my dreams--the augury of success in that for
+which my heart yearned. The glow never faded, and the weird lure
+unconsciously began to weave its spell.
+
+Next morning, when we went on deck, the schooner was racing eastward
+through heavy seas. The terraced cliffs of Disco, relieved by freshly
+fallen snow, were but a few miles off. The cry of gulls and guillemots
+echoed from rock to rock. Everything was divested of the glory of the
+day before. The sun was slowly rising among mouse-colored clouds. The
+bergs were of an ugly blue, and the sea ran in gloomy lines of ebony.
+Although the sea was high, there was little wind, but we felt that a
+storm was gathering and sought to hasten to shelter in Godhaven--a name
+which speaks eloquently of the dangers of this coast and the precious
+value of such a harbor.
+
+As we entered the narrow channel, which turns among low, polished rocks
+and opens into the harbor, two Eskimos in kayaks came out to act as
+pilots. Taking them aboard, we soon found a snug anchorage, secure from
+wind and sea. The launch was lowered, and in it we left the schooner for
+a visit to the Governor.
+
+Coming up to a little pier, we were cordially greeted by Governor
+Fenker, who escorted us to his home, where his wife, a cultivated young
+Danish woman, offered us sincere hospitality.
+
+The little town itself was keenly alive. All the inhabitants, and all
+the dogs as well, were jumping about on the rocks, eagerly gazing at our
+schooner. The houses of the Governor and the Inspector were the most
+important of the town. They were built of wood imported from Denmark,
+and were covered with tarred paper. Though quite moderate in size, the
+houses seemed too large and out of place in their setting of
+ice-polished rocks. Beyond them were twenty Eskimo huts, nearly square
+in shape, constructed of wood and stone, the cracks of which were filled
+tightly with moss.
+
+We deferred our visit to the native huts, and invited Governor Fenker
+and his wife to dine aboard the schooner. The surprise of the evening
+for these two guests was the playing of our phonograph, the tunes of
+which brought tears of homesickness to the eyes of the Governor's gentle
+wife.
+
+Anywhere on the coast of Greenland, the coming of a ship is always one
+of the prime events of the season. So uneventful is life in these
+out-of-the-way places that such an arrival is the greatest possible
+social enlivener. The instant that the approach of our schooner had been
+noted, the Eskimo girls--queer little maids in queer little
+trousers--decided upon having a dance, and word was brought us that
+everyone was invited to take part. The sailors eagerly responded, and
+tumbled ashore as soon as they were permitted, leaving merely enough for
+a watch on board ship. Then, to the sound of savage music, the dance was
+continued until long after midnight. A curious kind of midnight dance it
+was, with the sun brightly shining in a night unveiled of glitter and
+color glory. The sailors certainly found pleasure in whirling about,
+their arms encircling fat and clumsy waists. They did admit, however,
+when back on board the schooner, that the smell of the furs within which
+the maidens had spent the past winter was less agreeable than the savor
+of fish. The name of this scattered settlement of huts, Godhaven, comes,
+clearly enough, from its offering fortunate refuge from storms; that the
+place is also known as Lively is not in the least to be wondered at, if
+one has watched a midnight dance of the little population and their
+visitors.
+
+Before hauling in anchor in the harbor of Godhaven, we made some
+necessary repairs to the yacht and filled our tanks with water. With a
+free wind speeding onward to the west of Disco, we passed the narrow
+strait known as the Vaigat early the following morning. As I stood on
+deck and viewed the passing of icebergs, glittering in the limpid,
+silvery light of morning like monstrous diamonds, there began to grow
+within me a feeling--that throbbed in pulsation with the onward movement
+of the boat--that every minute, every mile, meant a nearing to that
+mysterious center, on the attaining of which I had set my heart, and
+which, even now, seemed unlikely, improbable. Yet the thought gave me a
+thrill.
+
+Before noon we reached the mouth of Umanak Fiord, into the delightful
+waters of which we were tempted to enter. The lure of the farther North
+decided us against this, and soon the striking Svarten Huk (Black Hook),
+a great rock cliff, loomed upon the horizon. Beyond it, gradually
+appeared a long chain of those islands among which lies Upernavik, where
+the last traces of civilized or semi-civilized life are found. The wind
+increased in force but the horizon remained remarkably clear. Over a
+bounding sea we sped rapidly along to the west, into the labyrinth of
+islands that are sprinkled along the southern shore of Melville Bay.[3]
+Beyond, we were to come into the true boreal wilderness of ice, where
+there were only a few savage aborigines, its sole inhabitants.
+
+On the following day, with reduced sail and the help of the auxiliary
+engine, we pushed far up into Melville Bay, where we ran into fields of
+pack-ice. Here we decided to hunt for game. With this purpose it was
+necessary to keep close to land. Here also came our first realistic
+experience with the great forces of the North. The pack-ice floated
+close around us, young ice cemented the broken masses together, and for
+several days we were thus closely imprisoned in frozen seas.
+
+These days of enforced delay were days of great pleasure, for the bears
+and seals on the ice afforded considerable sport. The constant danger of
+our position, however, required a close watch for the safety of the
+schooner. The Devil's Thumb, a high rock shaped like a dark thumb
+pointing at the sky, loomed darkly and beckoningly before us. A biting
+wind descended from the interior.
+
+The ice groaned; the eiderducks, guillemots and gulls uttered shrill and
+disturbing cries, seemingly sensing the coming of a storm.
+
+For three days we were held in the grip of the relentless pack; then the
+glimmer of the land ice changed to an ugly gray, the pack around us
+began to crack threateningly, and the sky darkened to the southward.
+
+The wind ominously died away. The air thickened rapidly. A general
+feeling of anxiety came over us, although my familiarity with storms in
+the North made it possible for me to explain that heavy seas are seldom
+felt within the zone of a large ice-pack, for the reason that the
+icebergs, the flat ice masses, and even the small floating fragments,
+ordinarily hold down the swells. Even when the pack begins to break, the
+lanes of water between the fragments thicken under the lower temperature
+like an oiled surface, and offer an easy sea. Furthermore, a really
+severe wind would be sure to release the schooner, and it would then be
+possible to trust it to its staunch qualities in free water.
+
+Hardly had we finished dinner when we heard the sound of a brisk wind
+rushing through the rigging. Hurrying to the deck, we saw coils of what
+looked like smoky vapor rising in the south as if belched from some
+great volcano. The gloom on the horizon was rapidly growing deeper. The
+sound of the wind changed to a threatening, sinister hiss. In the
+piercing steel-gray light we saw the ice heave awesomely, like moving
+hills, above the blackening water. The bergs swayed and rocked, and the
+massed ice gave forth strange, troublous sounds.
+
+Suddenly a channel began to open through the ice in front of us. The
+trisail was quickly set, the other sails being left tightly furled, and
+with the engine helping to push us in the desired direction, we drew
+deep breaths of relief as we moved out into the free water to the
+westward.
+
+We felt a sense of safety now, although, clear of the ice, the sea rose
+about us with a sickening suddenness. Black as night, the water seemed
+far more dangerous because the waves were everywhere dashing angrily
+against walls of ice. Already strong, the wind veered slightly and
+increased to a fierce, persistent gale. Like rubber balls, the bergs
+bounded and rolled in the sea. The sound of the storm was now a thunder
+suggestive of constantly exploding cannons. But, fortunately, we were
+snug aboard, and, keeping the westerly course, soon escaped the dangers
+of ensnaring ice.
+
+We were still in a heavy storm, and had we not had full confidence in
+the ship, built as she was to withstand the storms of the Grand Banks,
+we should still have felt anxiety, for the schooner rolled and pitched
+and the masts dipped from side to side until they almost touched the
+water.
+
+Icy water swept the deck. A rain began to fall, and quickly sheathed the
+masts and ropes in ice. Snow followed, giving a surface as of sandpaper
+to the slippery, icy decks. The temperature was not low, but the cutting
+wind pierced one to the very marrow. Our men were drenched with spray
+and heavily coated with ice. Although suffering severely, the sailors
+maintained their courage and appeared even abnormally happy. Gradually
+we progressed into the open sea. In the course of four hours the storm
+began to abate, and, under a double-reefed foresail, at last we
+gleefully rode out the finish of the storm in safety.
+
+
+
+
+THE DRIVING SPUR OF THE POLAR QUEST
+
+ON THE FRIGID PATHWAY OF THREE CENTURIES OF HEROIC MARTYRS--MEETING THE
+STRANGE PEOPLE OF THE FARTHEST NORTH--THE LIFE OF THE STONE AGE--ON THE
+CHASE WITH THE ESKIMOS--MANEE AND SPARTAN ESKIMO COURAGE
+
+III
+
+STRANGE TRAITS OF NORTHERNMOST MAN
+
+
+I have often wondered of late about the dazzling white, eerie glamor
+with which the Northland weaves its spell about the heart of a man. I
+know of nothing on earth so strange, so wonderful, withal so sad.
+Pursuing our course through Melville Bay, I felt the fatal magic of it
+enthralling my very soul. For hours I stood on deck alone, the midnight
+sun, like some monstrous perpetual light to some implacable
+frozen-hearted deity, burning blindingly upon the horizon and setting
+the sea aflame. The golden colors suffused my mind, and I swam in a sea
+of molten glitter.
+
+I was consumed for hours by but one yearning--a yearning that filled and
+intoxicated me--to go on, and on, and ever onward, where no man had ever
+been. Perhaps it is the human desire to excel others, to prove, because
+of the innate egotism of the human unit, that one possesses qualities of
+brain and muscle which no other possesses, that has crazed men to
+perform this, the most difficult physical test in the world. The lure of
+the thing is unexplainable.
+
+During those dizzy hours on deck I thought of those who had preceded me;
+of heroic men who for three centuries had braved suffering, cold and
+famine, who had sacrificed the comforts of civilization, their families
+and friends, who had given their own lives in the pursuit of this
+mysterious, yea, fruitless quest. I remembered reading the thrilling
+tales of those who returned--tales which had flushed me with excitement
+and inspired me with the same mad ambition. I thought of the noble,
+indefatigable efforts of these men, of the heart-sickening failures, in
+which I too had shared. And I felt the indomitable, swift surge of their
+awful, goading determination within me--to subdue the forces of nature,
+to cover as Icarus did the air those icy spaces, to reach the
+silver-shining vacantness which men called the North Pole.
+
+As we cut the shimmering waters, I felt, as it were, the wierd, unseen
+presence of those who had died there--died horribly--men whose bodies
+had withered, with slow suffering, in frigid blasts and famine, who
+possibly had prolonged their suffering by feeding upon their own doomed
+companions--and of others who had perished swiftly in the sudden yawning
+of the leprous white mouth of the hungry frozen sea. It is said by some
+that souls live only after death by the energy of great emotions, great
+loves, or great ambitions generated throughout life. It seemed to me, in
+those hours of intoxication, that I could feel the implacable,
+unsatisfied desire of these disembodied things, who had vibrated with
+one aim and still yearned in the spirit for what now they were
+physically unable to attain. It seemed that my brain was fired with the
+intensity of all these dead men's ambition, that my heart in sympathy
+beat more turbulently with the throb of their dead hearts; I felt
+growing within me, irresistibly, what I did not dare, for fear it might
+not be possible, to confide to Bradley--a determination, even in the
+face of peril, to essay the Pole!
+
+From this time onward, and until I turned my back upon the fruitless
+silver-shining place of desolation at the apex of the world, I felt the
+intoxication, the intangible lure of the thing exhilarating, buoying me
+gladsomely, beating in my heart with a singing rhythm. I recall it now
+with marveling, and am filled with the pathos of it. Yet, despite all
+that I have suffered since because of it, I regret not those enraptured
+hours of perpetual glitter of midnight suns.
+
+One morning we reached the northern shore of Melville Bay, and the bold
+cliffs of Cape York were dimly outlined through a gray mist. Strong
+southern winds had carried such great masses of ice against the coast
+that it was impossible to make a near approach, and as a strong wind
+continued, there was such a heavy sea along the bobbing line of outer
+ice as to make it quite impossible to land and thence proceed toward the
+shore.
+
+We were desirous of meeting the natives of Cape York, but these ice
+conditions forced us to proceed without touching here, and so we set our
+course for the next of the northernmost villages, at North Star Bay. By
+noon the mist had vanished, and we saw clearly the steep slopes and warm
+color of crimson cliffs rising precipitously out of the water. The coast
+line is about two thousand feet high, evidently the remains of an old
+tableland which extends a considerable distance northward. Here and
+there were short glaciers which had worn the cliffs away in their
+ceaseless effort to reach the sea. The air was full of countless gulls,
+guillemots, little auks and eider-ducks.
+
+As the eye followed the long and lofty line of crimson cliffs, there
+came into sight a towering, conical rock, a well-known guidepost for the
+navigator. Continuing, we caught sight of the long ice wall of Petowik
+Glacier, and behind this, extending far to the eastward, the
+scintillating, white expanse of the overland-ice which blankets the
+interior of all Greenland.
+
+The small and widely scattered villages of the Eskimos of this region
+are hemmed in by the ice walls of Melville Bay on the southward, the
+stupendous cliffs of Humboldt Glacier on the north, an arm of the sea to
+the westward, and the hopelessly desolate Greenland interior toward the
+east.
+
+There is really no reason why many Eskimos should not live here, for
+there is abundant food in both sea and air, and even considerable game
+on land. Blue and white foxes are everywhere to be seen. There is the
+seal, the walrus, the narwhal, and the white whale. There is the white
+bear, monarch of the Polar wilds, who roams in every direction over his
+kingdom. The principal reason why the population remains so small lies
+in the hazardous conditions of life. Children are highly prized, and a
+marriageable woman or girl who has one or more of them is much more
+valuable as a match than one who is childless.
+
+The coast line here is paradoxically curious, for although the coast
+exceeds but barely more than two hundred miles of latitude it presents
+in reality a sea line of about four thousand miles when the great
+indentations of Wolstenholm Sound, Inglefield Gulf, and other bays,
+sounds and fiords are measured.
+
+We sailed cautiously now about Cape Atholl, which we were to circle; a
+fog lay upon the waters, almost entirely hiding the innumerable
+icebergs, and making it difficult to pick our course among the dangerous
+rocks in this vicinity.
+
+Rounding Cape Atholl, we sailed into Wolstenholm Sound and turned our
+prow toward the Eskimo village on North Star Bay.
+
+North Star Bay is guarded by a promontory expressively named Table
+Mountain, "Oomanaq." As we neared this headland, many natives came out
+in kayaks to meet us. Inasmuch as I knew most of them personally, I felt
+a singular thrill of pleasure in seeing them. Years before, I learned
+their simple-hearted faithfulness. Knud Rasmussen, a Danish writer,
+living as a native among the Eskimos, apparently for the sake of getting
+local color, was in one of the canoes and came aboard the ship.
+
+As it was necessary to make slight repairs to the schooner, we here had
+to follow the primitive method of docking by preliminary beaching her.
+This was done at high tide when the propeller, which had been bent--the
+principal damage to the ship--was straightened. At the same time we gave
+the yacht a general looking-over, and righted a universal joint whose
+loosening had disabled the engine.
+
+Meanwhile the launch kept busy scurrying to and fro, our quest being
+occasionally rewarded with eider-ducks or other game. Late at night, a
+visit was made to the village of Oomanooi. It could hardly be called a
+village, for it consisted merely of seven triangular sealskin tents,
+conveniently placed on picturesque rocks. Gathered about these in large
+numbers, were men, women and children, shivering in the midnight chill.
+
+These were odd-looking specimens of humanity. In height, the men
+averaged but five feet, two inches, and the women four feet, ten. All
+had broad, fat faces, heavy bodies and well-rounded limbs. Their skin
+was slightly bronzed; both men and women had coal-black hair and brown
+eyes. Their noses were short, and their hands and feet short, but thick.
+
+A genial woman was found at every tent opening, ready to receive
+visitors in due form. We entered and had a short chat with each family.
+Subjects of conversation were necessarily limited, but after all, they
+were about the same as they would have been in a civilized region. We
+conversed as to whether or not all of us had been well, of deaths,
+marriages and births. Then we talked of the luck of the chase, which
+meant prosperity or need of food. Even had it been a civilized
+community, there would have been little questioning regarding national
+or international affairs, because, in such case, everyone reads the
+papers. Here there was no comment on such subjects simply because nobody
+cares anything about them or has any papers to read.
+
+That a prominent Eskimo named My-ah had disposed of a few surplus wives
+to gain the means whereby to acquire a few more dogs, was probably the
+most important single item of information conveyed. I was also informed
+that at the present time there happened to be only one other man with
+two wives.
+
+Marriage, among these folk, is a rather free and easy institution. It
+is, indeed, not much more than a temporary tie of possession. Men
+exchange partners with each other much in the manner that men in other
+countries swap horses. And yet, the position of women is not so humble
+as this custom might seem to indicate, for they themselves are
+permitted, not infrequently, to choose new partners. These exceedingly
+primitive ideas work out surprisingly well in practice in these isolated
+regions, for such exchanges, when made, are seemingly to the advantage
+and satisfaction of all parties; no regrets are expressed, and the feuds
+of divorce courts, of alimony proceedings, of damages for alienation of
+affection, which prevail in so-called civilization, are unknown.
+
+It is certainly a curious thing that these simple but intelligent people
+are able to control their own destinies with a comfortable degree of
+success, although they are without laws or literature and without any
+fixed custom to regulate the matrimonial bond.
+
+It would seem as if there ought to be a large population, for there is
+an average of about three fat, clever children for each family, the
+youngest as a rule picturesquely resting in a pocket on the mother's
+back. But the hardships of life in this region are such that accidents
+and deaths keep down the population.
+
+Each tent has a raised platform, upon which all sleep. The edge of this
+makes a seat, and on each side are placed stone lamps in which blubber
+is burned, with moss as a wick. Over this is a drying rack, also a few
+sticks, but there is no other furniture. Their dress of furs gives the
+Eskimos a look of savage fierceness which their kindly faces and easy
+temperament do not warrant.
+
+On board the yacht were busy days of barter. Furs and ivory were
+gathered in heaps in exchange for guns, knives and needles. Every
+seaman, from cabin boy to captain, suddenly got rich in the gamble of
+trade for prized blue-fox skins and narwhal tusks.
+
+The Eskimos were equally elated with their part of the bargain. For a
+beautiful fox skin, of less use to a native than a dog pelt, he could
+secure a pocket knife that would serve him half a lifetime!
+
+A woman exchanged her fur pants, worth a hundred dollars, for a red
+pocket handkerchief with which she would decorate her head or her igloo
+for years to come.
+
+Another gave her bearskin mits for a few needles, and she conveyed the
+idea that she had the long end of the trade! A fat youth with a fatuous
+smile displayed with glee two bright tin cups, one for himself and one
+for his prospective bride. He was positively happy in having obtained
+nine cents' worth of tin for only an ivory tusk worth ninety dollars!
+
+With the coming of the midnight tide we lifted the schooner to an even
+keel from the makeshift dry-dock on the beach. She was then towed out
+into the bay by the launch and two dories, and anchored.
+
+Our first walrus adventures began in Wolstenholm Sound during the
+beautiful nightless days of mid-August. The local environment was
+fascinating. The schooner was anchored in North Star Bay, a lake of
+glitter in which wild men in skin canoes darted after seals and
+eider-ducks. On grassy shores were sealskin tents, about which fur-clad
+women and children vied with wolf-dogs for favorite positions to see the
+queer doings of white men. A remarkable landmark made the place
+conspicuous. A great table-topped rock rose suddenly out of a low
+foreland to an altitude of about six hundred feet. About this giant
+cliff, gulls, guillemots and ravens talked and winged uproariously. The
+rock bore the native name of Oomanaq. With the unique Eskimo manner of
+name-coining, the village was called Oomanooi.
+
+Wolstenholm Sound is a large land-locked body of water, with arms
+reaching to the narrow gorges of the overland sea of ice, from which
+icebergs tumble ceaslessly. The sparkling water reflected the
+surroundings in many shades of blue and brown, relieved by strong
+contrasts of white and black. On the western sky line were the chiseled
+walls of Acponie and other islands, and beyond a steel-gray mist in
+which was wrapped the frozen sea of the Polar gateway. Fleets of
+icebergs moved to and fro, dragging tails of drift bejeweled with blue
+crystal.
+
+Far out--ten miles from our outlook--there was a meeting of the
+currents. Here, small pieces of sea-ice slowly circled in an eddy, and
+upon them were herds of walruses. We did not see them, but their shrill
+voices rang through the icy air like a wireless message. This was a
+call to action which Mr. Bradley could not resist, and preparations were
+begun for the combat.
+
+The motor boat--the most important factor in the chase--had been
+especially built for just such an encounter. Covered with a folding
+whale-back top entirely painted white to resemble ice, we had hoped to
+hunt walrus under suitable Arctic cover.
+
+Taking a white dory in tow, two Eskimo harpooners were invited to
+follow. The natives in kayaks soon discovered to their surprise that
+their best speed was not equal to ours--for the first time they were
+beaten in their own element. For ages the Eskimos had rested secure in
+the belief that the kayak was the fastest thing afloat. They had been
+beaten by big ships, of course, but these had spiritual wings and did
+not count in the race of man's craft. This little launch, however, with
+its rapid-fire gas explosions, made their eyes bulge to a wondering,
+wide-open, seal-like curiosity. They begged to be taken aboard to watch
+the loading of the engines; they thought we fed it with cartridges.
+
+After a delightful run of an hour, a pan of ice was sighted with black
+hummocks on it. "_Ahwek! Ahwek!_" the Eskimos shouted. A similar sound
+floated over the oily waters from many walrus throats. The walruses were
+about three miles to the southwest. At a slower speed we advanced two
+miles more. In the meantime Mr. Bradley cleared the deck for action. The
+direction of the hunting tactics was now turned over to My-ah. The mate
+was at the wheel. I pushed the levers of the gasoline kicker. Our line
+of attack was ordered at right angles to the wind. As we neared the
+game, the engines were stopped.
+
+Looking through glasses, the sight of the gregarious herd made our
+hearts quicken. They were all males of tremendous size, with glistening
+tusks with which they horned one another in efforts for favorable
+positions. Some were asleep, others basked in the sun with heads turning
+lazily from side to side. Now and then, they uttered sleepy, low grunts.
+They were quivering in a gluttonous slumber, while the organs piled up
+their bank account of fat to pay the costs of the gamble of the coming
+winter night.
+
+With muffled paddles the launch was now silently propelled forward,
+while the kayaks stealthily advanced to deliver the harpoons. The Eskimo
+reason for this mode of procedure is based on a careful study of the
+walrus' habits. Its nose in sleep is always pointed windwards. Its ears
+are at all times sensitive to noises from every direction, while the
+eyes during wakeful moments sweep the horizon. But its horizon is very
+narrow. Only the nose and the ear sense the distant alarm. We advanced
+very slowly and cautiously, and that only when all heads were down. Our
+boat slowly got within three hundred yards of the herd. Preparing their
+implements to strike, the Eskimos had advanced to within fifty feet. The
+moment was tense. Of a sudden, a tumultuous floundering sound smote the
+air. The sleeping creatures awoke, and with a start leaped into the sea.
+Turning their kayaks, the Eskimos paddled a wild retreat and sought the
+security of the launch. The sport of that herd was lost to us. Although
+they darted about under water in a threatening manner, they only rose to
+the surface at a safe distance.
+
+Scanning the surroundings with our glasses, about two miles to the
+south another group was sighted. This time Bradley, as the chief nimrod,
+assumed direction. The kayaks and the Eskimos were placed in the dory.
+Tactics were reversed. Instead of creeping up slowly, a sudden rush was
+planned. No heed was taken of noise or wind. The carburetor was opened,
+the spark lever of the magneto was advanced to its limit, and we shot
+through the waters like a torpedo boat. As we neared the herd, the dory,
+with its Eskimos, was freed from the launch. The Eskimos were given no
+instructions, and they wisely chose to keep out of the battle.
+
+As we got to within two hundred yards, the canvas top of the launch fell
+and a heavy gun bombardment began. The walruses had not had time to
+wake; the suddenness of the onslaught completely dazed them. One after
+another dropped his ponderous head with a sudden jerk as a prize to the
+marksmen, while the launch, at reduced speed, encircled the
+walrus-encumbered pan. Few escaped. There were heads and meat and skins
+enough to satisfy all wants for a long time to follow. But the game was
+too easy--the advantage of an up-to-date sportsman had been carried to
+its highest degree of perfection. It was otherwise, however, in the
+walrus battles that followed later--battles on the success of which
+depended the possibility of my being able to assail the northern ice
+desert, in an effort to reach the Polar goal.
+
+Oomanooi was but one of six villages among which the tribe had divided
+its two hundred and fifty people for the current season. To study these
+interesting folk, to continue the traffic and barter, and to enjoy for a
+short time the rare sport of sailing and hunting in this wild region,
+we decided to visit as many of the villages as possible.
+
+In the morning the anchor was raised and we set sail in a light wind
+headed for more northern villages. It was a gray day, with a quiet sea.
+The speed of the yacht was not fast enough to be exciting, so Mr.
+Bradley suggested lowering the launch for a crack at ducks, or a chase
+at walrus or a drive at anything that happened to cut the waters. His
+harpoon gun was taken, as it was hoped that a whale might come our way,
+but the gun proved unsatisfactory and did not contribute much to our
+sport. In the fleet launch we were able to run all around the schooner
+as she slowly sailed over Wolstenholm Sound.
+
+Ducks were secured in abundance. Seals were given chase, but they were
+able to escape us. Nearing Saunders Island, a herd of walruses was seen
+on a pan of drift ice far ahead. The magneto was pushed, the carburetor
+opened, and out we rushed after the shouting beasts. Two, with splendid
+tusks, were obtained, and two tons of meat and blubber were turned over
+to our Eskimo allies.
+
+The days of hunting proved quite strenuous, and in the evening we were
+glad to seek the comfort of our cosy cabin, after dining on eider-ducks
+and other game delicacies.
+
+A few Eskimos had asked permission to accompany us to a point farther
+north. Among them was a widow, to whom, for herself and her children, we
+had offered a large bed, with straw in it, between decks, but which,
+savage as she was, she had refused, saying she preferred the open air on
+deck. There she arranged a den among the anchor chains, under a shelter
+of seal skins.
+
+In tears, she told us the story of her life, a story which offered a
+peep into the tragedy and at the same time the essential comedy of
+Eskimo existence. It came in response to a question from me as to how
+the world had used her, for I had known her years before. At my simple
+question, she buried her face in her hands and for a time could only
+mutter rapidly and unintelligibly to her two little boys. Then, between
+sobs, she told me her story.
+
+Ma-nee--such was her name--was a descendant of the Eskimos of the
+American side. A foreign belle, and, although thin, fair to look upon,
+as Eskimo beauty goes, her hand was sought early by the ardent youths of
+the tribe, who, truth to tell, look upon utility as more desirable than
+beauty in a wife. The heart of Ma-nee throbbed to the pleadings of one
+Ik-wa, a youth lithe and brave, with brawn and sinews as resilient as
+rubber and strong as steel, handsome, dark, with flashing eyes, yet with
+a heart as cruel as the relentless wind and cold sea of the North.
+Ma-nee married Ik-wa and bore to him several children. These, which
+meant wealth of the most valuable kind (children even exceeding in value
+dogs, tusks and skins), meant the attainment of Ik-wa's selfish purpose.
+Ma-nee was fair, but her hands were not adroit with the needle, nor was
+she fair in the plump fashion desirable in wives.
+
+Ik-wa met Ah-tah, a good seamstress, capable of much toil, not
+beautiful, but round and plump. Whereupon, Ik-wa took Ah-tah to wife,
+and leading Ma-nee to the door of their igloo, ordered her to leave.
+Cruel as can be these natives, they also possess a persistence and a
+tenderness that manifest themselves in strange, dramatic ways. Ma-nee,
+disconsolate but brave, departed. There being at the time a scarcity of
+marriageable women in the village, Ma-nee was soon wooed by another, an
+aged Eskimo, whose muscles had begun to wither, whose eyes no longer
+flashed as did Ik-wa's, but whose heart was kind. To him Ma-nee bore two
+children, those which she had with her on deck. To them, unfortunately,
+descended the heritage of their father's frailities; one--now
+eight--being the only deaf and dumb Eskimo in all the land; the other,
+the younger, aged three, a weakling with a pinched and pallid face and
+thin, gaunt arms. Ma-nee's husband was not a good hunter, for age and
+cold had sapped his vigor. Their home was peaceful if not prosperous;
+the two loved one another, and, because of their defects, Ma-nee grew to
+love her little ones unwontedly.
+
+Just before the beginning of the long winter night, the old father,
+anxious to provide food and deer skins for the coming months of
+continuous darkness, ventured alone in search of game among the
+mountains of the interior. Day after day, while the gloom descended,
+Ma-nee, dry eyed waited. The aged father never came back. Returning
+hunters finally brought news that he had perished alone, from a gun
+accident, in the icy wilderness, and they had found him, his frozen,
+mummied face peeping anxiously from the mantle of snow. Ma-nee wept
+broken-heartedly.
+
+Ma-nee gazed into the faces of the two children with a wild, tragic
+wistfulness. By the stern and inviolable law of the Eskimos, Ma-nee knew
+her two beloved ones were condemned to die. In this land, where food is
+at a premium, and where every helpless and dependent life means a
+sensible drain upon the tribe's resources, they have evolved that
+Spartan law which results in the survival of only the fittest. The one
+child, because of its insufficient senses, the other because it was
+still on its mother's back and under three at the time its father died,
+and with no father to support them, were doomed. Kind-hearted as the
+Eskimos naturally are, they can at times, in the working out of that
+code which means continued existence, be terribly brutal. Their fierce
+struggle with the elements for very existence has developed in them an
+elemental fierceness. From probable experience in long-past losses of
+life from contagion, they instinctively destroy every igloo in which a
+native dies, or, at times, to save the igloo, they heartlessly seize the
+dying, and dragging him through the low door, cast him, ere breath has
+ceased, into the life-stilling outer world.
+
+This inviolable custom of ages Ma-nee, with a Spartan courage,
+determined to break. During the long night which had just passed,
+friends had been kind to Ma-nee, but now that she was defying Eskimo
+usage, she could expect no assistance. Brutal as he had been to her,
+hopeless as seemed such prospects, Ma-nee thought of the cruel Ik-wa and
+determined to go to him, with the two defective children of her second
+husband, beg him to accept them as his own and to take her, as a
+secondary wife, a servant--a position of humiliation and hard labor. In
+this determination, which can be appreciated only by those who know how
+implacable and heartless the natives can be, Ma-nee was showing one of
+their marvellous traits, that indomitable courage, persistence and
+dogged hopefulness which, in my two later companions, E-tuk-i-shook and
+Ah-we-lah, enabled them, with me, to reach the Pole.
+
+I admired the spirit of Ma-nee, and promised to help her, although the
+mission of reuniting the two seemed dubious.
+
+Ma-nee was not going to Ik-wa entirely empty-handed, however, for she
+possessed some positive wealth in the shape of several dogs, and three
+bundles of skins and sticks which comprised her household furniture.
+
+We soon reached the village where Ma-nee was to be put ashore. Very
+humbly, the heroic mother and her two frail children went to Ik-wa's
+tent. Ik-wa was absent hunting, and his wife, who had supplanted Ma-nee,
+a fat, unsociable creature, appeared. Weeping, Ma-nee told of her plight
+and begged for shelter. The woman stolidly listened; then, without a
+word, turned her back on the forlorn mother and entered her tent. For
+the unintentional part we had played she gave us exceedingly cold,
+frowning looks which were quite expressive.
+
+Ma-nee now went to the other villagers. They listened to her plans, and
+their primitive faces lighted with sympathy. I soon saw them serving a
+pot of steaming oil meat in her honor--a feast in which we were urgently
+invited to partake, but which we, fortunately, found some good excuse
+for avoiding. Although she had violated a custom of the tribe, these
+people, both stern-hearted and tender, recognized the greatness of a
+mother-love which had braved an unwritten law of ages, and they took her
+in. Several months later, on a return to the village, I saw Ik-wa
+himself. Although he did not thank me for the unwitting part I had
+played in their reunion, he had taken Ma-nee back, and near his own
+house was a new igloo in which the mother lived with her children.
+
+Resuming our journey, a snow squall soon frosted the deck of the yacht,
+and to escape the icy air we retired early to our berths. During the
+night the speed of the yacht increased, and when we appeared on deck
+again, at four o'clock in the morning, the rays of the August sun seemed
+actually warm.
+
+We passed the ice-battered and storm-swept cliffs of Cape Parry and
+entered Whale Sound. On a sea of gold, strewn with ice islands of
+ultramarine and alabaster, whales spouted and walrus shouted. Large
+flocks of little auks rushed rapidly by.
+
+The wind was light, but the engine took us along at a pace just fast
+enough to allow us to enjoy the superb surroundings. In the afternoon we
+were well into Inglefield Gulf, and near Itiblu. There was a strong head
+wind, and enough ice about to make us cautious in our prospect.
+
+We aimed here to secure Eskimo guides and with them seek caribou in
+Olrik's Bay. While the schooner was tacking for a favorable berth in the
+drift off Kanga, the launch was lowered, and we sought to interview the
+Eskimos of Itiblu. The ride was a wet one, for a short, choppy sea
+poured icy spray over us and tumbled us about.
+
+There were only one woman, a few children, and about a score of dogs at
+the place. The woman was a remarkably fast talker, long out of practice.
+She told us that her husband and the other men were absent on a caribou
+hunt, and then, with a remarkably rapid articulation and without a
+single question from us, plunged incessantly on through all the news of
+the tribe for a year. After gasping for breath like a smothered seal,
+she then began with news of previous years and a history of forgotten
+ages. We started back for the launch, and she invited herself to the
+pleasure of our company to the beach.
+
+We had gone only a few steps before it occurred to her that she was in
+need of something. Would we not get her a few boxes of matches in
+exchange for a narwhal tusk? We should be delighted, and a handful of
+sweets went with the bargain. Her boy brought down two ivory tusks, each
+eight feet in length, the two being worth one hundred and fifty dollars.
+Had we a knife to spare? Yes; and a tin spoon was also given, just to
+show that we were liberal.
+
+The yacht was headed northward, across Inglefield Gulf. With a fair
+wind, we cut tumbling seas of ebony with a racing dash. Though the wind
+was strong, the air was remarkably clear.
+
+The great chiselled cliffs of Cape Auckland rose in terraced grandeur
+under the midnight sun. The distance was twelve miles, and it was twelve
+miles of submerged rocks and shallow water.
+
+It was necessary to give Karnah a wide berth. There were bergs enough
+about to hold the water down, though an occasional sea rose with a
+sickening thump. At Karnah we went ashore. There was not a man in town,
+all being absent on a distant hunting campaign. But, though there were
+no men, the place was far from being deserted, for five women, fifteen
+children and forty-five dogs came out to meet us.
+
+Here we saw five sealskin tents pitched among the bowlders of a glacial
+stream. An immense quantity of narwhal meat was lying on the rocks and
+stones to dry. Skins were stretched on the grass, and a general air of
+thrift was evidenced about the place. Bundles of seal-skins, packages of
+pelts and much ivory were brought out to trade and establish friendly
+intercourse. We gave the natives sugar, tobacco and ammunition in
+quantities to suit their own estimate of value.
+
+Would we not place ourselves at ease and stay for a day or two, as their
+husbands would soon return? We were forced to decline their hospitality,
+for without the harbor there was too much wind to keep the schooner
+waiting. Eskimos have no salutation except a greeting smile or a parting
+look of regret. We got both at the same time as we stepped into the
+launch and shouted good-bye.
+
+The captain was told to proceed to Cape Robertson. The wind eased, and a
+descending fog soon blotted out part of the landscape, horizon and sky.
+It hung like a gray pall a thousand feet above us, leaving the air below
+this bright and startlingly clear.
+
+
+
+
+TO THE LIMITS OF NAVIGATION
+
+EXCITING HUNTS FOR GAME WITH THE ESKIMOS--ARRIVAL AT ETAH--SPEEDY
+TRIP TO ANNOATOK, THE WINDY PLACE, WHERE SUPPLIES ARE FOUND IN
+ABUNDANCE--EVERYTHING AUSPICIOUS FOR DASH TO THE POLE--DETERMINATION
+TO ESSAY THE EFFORT--BRADLEY INFORMED--DEBARK FOR THE POLE--THE
+YACHT RETURNS
+
+IV
+
+ALONE WITH OUR DESTINY, SEVEN HUNDRED MILES FROM THE POLE
+
+
+We awoke off Cape Robertson early on August 13, and went ashore before
+breakfast. The picturesque coast here rises suddenly to an altitude of
+about two thousand feet, and is crowned with a gleaming, silver ice cap.
+Large bays, blue glacial walls and prominent headlands give a pleasing
+variety. It is much like the coast of all Greenland. On its southern
+exposure the eroded Huronian rocks provide shelter for millions of
+little auks. They dart incessantly from cliff to sea in a chattering
+cloud of wings. Rather rich and grassy verdure offers an oasis for the
+Arctic hare, while the blue fox finds life easy here, for he can fill
+his winter den with the fat feathered creatures which teem by millions.
+
+The Eskimos profit by the combination, and pitch their camp at the foot
+of the cliffs, for the chase on sea is nearly as good here as in other
+places, while land creatures literally tumble into the larder.
+
+As we approached the shore, ten men, nine women, thirty-one children and
+one hundred and six dogs came out to meet us. I count the children and
+dogs for they are equally important in Eskimo economy. The latter are by
+far the most important to the average Caucasian in the Arctic.
+
+Only small game had fallen to the Eskimos' lot, and they were eager to
+venture out with us after big game. Mr. Bradley gathered a suitable
+retinue of native guides, and we were not long in arranging a compact.
+
+Free passage, the good graces of the cook, and a knife each were to be
+their pay. A caribou hunt was not sufficiently novel to merit a return
+to Olrik's Bay, where intelligent hunting is always rewarded, but it was
+hoped we might get a hunt at Kookaan, near the head of Robertson Bay.[4]
+
+Although hunting in the bay was not successful from a practical
+standpoint, it afforded exciting pleasure in perilous waters. Even
+during these hours of sport, my mind was busy with tentative plans for a
+Polar journey. Whenever I aimed my gun at a snorting walrus, or at some
+white-winged Arctic bird, I felt a thrill in the thought that upon the
+skill of my arms, of my aim, and upon that of the natives we were later
+to join, would depend the getting of food sufficient to enable me to
+embark upon my dream. Everything I did now began to have some bearing
+upon this glorious, intoxicating prospect; it colored my life, day and
+night. I realized how easily I might fail even should conditions be
+favorable enough to warrant the journey; for this reason, because of the
+unwelcome doubt which at times chilled my enthusiasm, I did not yet
+confide to Bradley my growing ambition.
+
+Returning to the settlement, we paid our hunting guides, made presents
+to the women and children, and set sail for Etah. An offshore breeze
+filled the big wings of the canvas. As borne on the back of some great
+white bird, we soared northward into a limpid molten sea. From below
+came the music of our phonograph, curiously shouting its tunes, classic
+and popular, in that grim, golden region of glory and death.
+
+It is curious how ambition sets the brain on fire, and quickens the
+heart throbs. As we sped over the magical waters, the wild golden air
+electric about me, I believe I felt an ecstasy of desire such as mystics
+achieved from fasting and prayer. It was the surge of an ambition which
+began to grow mightily within me, which I felt no obstacle could
+withstand, and which, later, I believe carried me forward with its wings
+of faith when my body well nigh refused to move. We passed Cape
+Alexander and entered Smith Sound. We sped by storm-chiselled cliffs,
+whereupon the hand of nature had written a history, unintelligible to
+humans, as with a pen of iron. The sun was low. Great bergs loomed up in
+the radiant distance, and reflecting silver-shimmering halos, seemed to
+me as the silver-winged ghosts of those who died in this region and who
+were borne alone on the wind and air.
+
+Nature seemed to sing with exultation. Approaching a highland of emerald
+green and seal brown, I heard the wild shouting of hawks from the
+summit, and from below the shrill chattering of millions of auks with
+baby families. And nearer, from the life enraptured waters, the minor
+note of softly cooing ducks and mating guillemots. From the interior
+land of ice, rising above the low booming of a sapphire glacier moving
+majestically to the sea, rang the bark of foxes, the shrill notes of the
+ptarmigan, and from an invisible farther distance the raucous wolf howl
+of Eskimo dogs.
+
+Before us, at times, would come a burst of spouting spray, and a whale
+would rise to the surface of the sea. Nearby, on a floating island of
+ice, mother walrus would soothingly murmur to her babies. From invisible
+places came the paternal voices of the oogzook, and as we went forward,
+seals, white whales and unicorns appeared, speaking perhaps the sign
+language of the animal deaf and dumb in the blue submarine.
+
+Occasionally, there was an explosion, when thunder as from a hundred
+cannons echoed from cliff to cliff. A berg was shattered to ruins.
+Following this would rise the frightened voices of every animal above
+water. Now and then, from ultramarine grottoes issued weird, echoing
+sounds, and almost continually rising to ringing peals and shuddering
+into silence, reiterant, incessant, came nature's bugle-calls--calls of
+the wind, of sundering glaciers, of sudden rushes of ice rivers, of
+exploding gases and of disintegrating bergs. With those sounds pealing
+in our ears clarion-like, we entered the "Gates of Hades," the Polar
+gateway, bound for the harbor where the last fringe of the world's
+humanity straggles finally up on the globe.
+
+As we entered Foulke Fiord, half a gale came from the sea. We steered
+for the settlement of Etah. A tiny settlement it was, for it was
+composed of precisely four tents, which for this season, had been
+pitched beside a small stream, just inside of the first projecting point
+on the north shore. Inside this point there was sheltered water for the
+Eskimo's kayaks, and it also made a good harbor for the schooner. It is
+possible in favorable seasons to push through Smith Sound, over Kane
+Basin, into Kennedy Channel, but the experiment is always at the risk of
+the vessel.
+
+So, as there was no special reasons for us to hazard life in making this
+attempt, we decided to prepare the schooner here for the return voyage.
+
+These preparations would occupy several days. We determined to spend as
+much of this time as possible in sport, since much game abounded in this
+region. Before we landed we watched the Eskimos harpoon a white whale.
+There were no unexplored spots in this immediate vicinity, as both
+Doctor Kane and Doctor Hayes, in the middle of the last century, had
+been thoroughly over the ground. The little auks kept us busy for a day
+after our arrival, while hares, tumbling like snowballs over
+wind-polished, Archæan rocks, gave another day of gun recreation. Far
+beyond, along the inland ice, were caribou, but we preferred to confine
+our hunting to the seashore. The bay waters were alive with eider-ducks
+and guillemots, while, just outside, walruses dared us to venture in
+open contest on the wind-swept water.
+
+After satisfying our desire for the hunt, we prepared to start for
+Annoatok, twenty-five miles to the northward. This is the northernmost
+settlement of the globe, a place beyond which even the hardy Eskimos
+attempt nothing but brief hunting excursions, and where, curiously,
+money is useless because it has no value.
+
+We decided to go in the motor boat, so the tanks were filled with
+gasoline and suitable food and camp equipment were loaded. On the
+morning of August 24, we started for Annoatok.
+
+It was a beautiful day. The sun glowed in a sky of Italian blue. A light
+air crossed the sea, which glowed dully, like ground glass. Passing
+inside of Littleton Island, we searched for relics along Lifeboat Cove.
+There the _Polaris_ was stranded in a sinking condition in 1872, with
+fourteen men on board. The desolate cliffs of Cape Hatherton were a
+midsummer blaze of color and light that contrasted strongly with the
+cold blue of the many towering bergs.
+
+As we went swiftly past the series of wind-swept headlands, the sea and
+air became alive with seals, walruses and birds. We did little shooting
+as we were eagerly bent on reaching Annoatok.
+
+As we passed the sharp rocks of Cairn Point, we saw a cluster of nine
+tents on a small bay under Cape Inglefield.
+
+"Look, look! There is Annoatok!" cried Tung-we, our native guide.
+Looking farther, we saw that the entire channel beyond was blocked with
+a jam of ice. Fortunately we were able to take our boat as far as we
+desired. A perpendicular cliff served as a pier to which to fasten it.
+Here it could rise and fall with the tide, and in little danger from
+drifting ice.
+
+Ordinarily, Annoatok is a town of only a single family or perhaps two,
+but we found it unusually large and populous, for the best hunters had
+gathered here for the winter bear hunt. Their summer game catch had been
+very lucky. Immense quantities of meat were strewn along the shore,
+under mounds of stone. More than a hundred dogs, the standard by which
+Eskimo prosperity is measured, yelped a greeting, and twelve
+long-haired, wild men came out to meet us as friends.
+
+It came strongly to me that this was the spot to make the base for a
+Polar dash. Here were Eskimo helpers, strong, hefty natives from whom I
+could select the best to accompany me; here, by a fortunate chance, were
+the best dog teams; here were plenty of furs for clothing; and here was
+unlimited food. These supplies, combined with supplies on the schooner,
+would give all that was needed for the campaign. Nothing could have been
+more ideal.
+
+For the past several days, having realized the abundance of game and the
+auspicious weather, I had thought more definitely of making a dash for
+the Pole. With all conditions in my favor, might I not, by one powerful
+effort, achieve the thing that had haunted me for years? My former
+failures dogged me. If I did not try now, it was a question if an
+opportunity should ever again come to me.
+
+Now every condition was auspicious for the effort. I confess the task
+seemed audacious almost to the verge of impossibility. But, with all
+these advantages so fortunately placed in my hands, it took on a new and
+almost weird fascination. My many years of schooling in both Polar zones
+and in mountaineering would now be put to their highest test.
+
+Yes, I would try, I told myself; I believed I should succeed. I informed
+Mr. Bradley of my determination. He was not over-optimistic about
+success, but he shook my hand and wished me luck. From his yacht he
+volunteered food, fuel, and other supplies, for local camp use and
+trading, for which I have been thankful.
+
+"Annoatok" means "a windy place." There is really nothing there to be
+called a harbor; but we now planned to bring the schooner to this point
+and unload her on the rocky shore, a task not unattended with danger.
+However, the base had to be made somewhere hereabout, as Etah itself is
+still more windy than Annoatok. Moreover, at Etah the landing is more
+difficult, and it was not nearly so convenient for my purpose as a base.
+
+Besides, there were gathered at Annoatok, as I have described, with
+needed food and furs in abundance, the best Eskimos[5] in all Greenland,
+from whom, by reason of the rewards from civilization which I could
+give them, such as knives, guns, ammunition, old iron, needles and
+matches, I could select a party more efficient, because of their
+persistence, tough fibre, courage and familiarity with Arctic traveling,
+than any party of white men could be.
+
+The possible combination of liberal supplies and valiant natives left
+absolutely nothing to be desired to insure success, so far as
+preliminaries were concerned. It was only necessary that good health,
+endurable weather and workable ice should follow. The expenditure of a
+million dollars could not have placed an expedition at a better
+advantage. The opportunity was too good to be lost. We therefore
+returned to Etah to prepare for the quest.
+
+At Etah, practically everything that was to be landed at Annoatok was
+placed on deck, so that the dangerous stop beside the rocks of Annoatok
+could be made a brief one. The ship was prepared for the contingency of
+a storm.
+
+Late in the evening of August 26, the entire population of Etah was
+taken aboard, the anchor was tripped, and soon the _Bradley's_ bow put
+out on the waters of Smith Sound for Annoatok. The night was cold and
+clear, brightened by the charm of color. The sun had just begun to dip
+under the northern horizon, which marks the end of the summer double
+days of splendor and begins the period of storms leading into the long
+night. Early in the morning we were off Annoatok.
+
+The launch and all the dories were lowered and filled. Eskimo boats were
+pressed into service and loaded. The boats were towed ashore. Only a few
+reached Annoatok itself, for the wind increased and a troublesome sea
+made haste a matter of great importance. Things were pitched ashore
+anywhere on the rocks where a landing could be found for the boats.
+
+The splendid efficiency of the launch proved equal to the emergency, and
+in the course of about thirteen hours all was safely put on shore in
+spite of dangerous winds and forbidding seas. That the goods were spread
+along the shore for a distance of several miles did not much matter, for
+the Eskimos willingly and promptly carried them to the required points.
+
+Now the time had come for the return of the schooner to the United
+States. Unsafe to remain longer at Annoatok at this advanced stage of
+the season, it was also imperative that it go right on with barely a
+halt at any other place. The departure meant a complete severance
+between the civilized world and myself. But I do not believe, looking
+back upon it, that the situation seemed as awesome as might be supposed.
+Other explorers had been left alone in the Northland, and I had been
+through the experience before.
+
+The party, so far as civilized men were concerned, was to be an
+unusually small one. That, however, was not from lack of volunteers, for
+when I had announced my determination many of the crew had volunteered
+to accompany me. Captain Bartlett himself wished to go along, but
+generously said that if it seemed necessary for him to go back with the
+schooner, he would need only a cook and engineer, leaving the other men
+with me.
+
+I wanted only one white companion, however, for I knew that no group of
+white men could possibly match the Eskimos in their own element. I had
+the willing help of all the natives, too, at my disposal. More than that
+was not required. I made an agreement with them for their assistance
+throughout the winter in getting ready, and then for as many as I wanted
+to start with me toward the uttermost North. For my white companion I
+selected Rudolph Francke, now one of the Arctic enthusiasts on the
+yacht. He had shipped for the experience of an Arctic trip. He was a
+cultivated young German with a good scientific schooling. He was strong,
+goodnatured, and his heart was in the prospective work. These were the
+qualities which made him a very useful man as my sole companion.
+
+Early on the morning of September 3, I bade farewell to Mr. Bradley, and
+not long afterward the yacht moved slowly southward and faded gradually
+into the distant southern horizon. I was left alone with my destiny,
+seven hundred miles from the Pole.
+
+
+
+
+BEGINNING PREPARATIONS FOR THE POLAR DASH
+
+THE ARCTIC SOLITUDE--RETROSPECTION AND INTROSPECTION--THE DETERMINATION
+TO ACHIEVE--PLANNING OUT THE DETAILS OF THE CAMPAIGN--AN ENTIRE TRIBE
+BUSILY AT WORK
+
+V
+
+THE POLE, THE ROUTE, AND THE INCENTIVE
+
+
+When the yacht disappeared I felt a poignant pang at my heart. After it
+had faded, I stood gazing blankly at the sky, and I felt the lure of the
+old world. The yacht was going home--to the land of my family and
+friends. I was now alone, and, with the exception of Francke, there was
+no white man among this tribe of wild people with whom to converse
+during the long Arctic night that was approaching. I knew I should not
+be lonely, for there was a tremendous lot of work to do, although I had
+unstinted assistance. In every detail, the entire six months of labor
+including the catching of animals, the drying of meat, the making of
+such clothes and sledges as would be necessary, and the testing of them,
+would have to be managed by myself. Turning from the rocky highland
+where I stood, a wild thrill stirred my heart. The hour of my
+opportunity had come. After years of unavailing hopes and depressing
+defeats my final chance was presented! In the determination to succeed,
+every drop of blood in my body, every fibre of me responded.
+
+Why did I desire so ardently to reach the North Pole? What did I hope to
+gain? What, if successful, did I expect to reap as the result of my
+dreams? These questions since have been asked by many. I have searched
+the chambers of my memory and have tried to resolve replies to myself.
+The attaining of the North Pole meant at the time simply the
+accomplishing of a splendid, unprecedented feat--a feat of brain and
+muscle in which I should, if successful, signally surpass other men. In
+this I was not any more inordinately vain or seekful of glory than one
+who seeks pre-eminence in baseball, running tournaments, or any other
+form of athletics or sport.
+
+At the time, any applause which the world might give, should I succeed,
+did not concern me; I knew that this might come, but it did not enter
+into my speculations.
+
+For years I had felt the lure of the silver glamor of the North, and I
+can explain this no more than the reason why a poet is driven to express
+himself in verse, or why one child preternaturally develops amazing
+proficiency in mathematics and another in music. Certain desires are
+born or unconsciously developed in us. I, with others before me, found
+my life ambition in the conquest of the Pole. To reach it would mean, I
+knew, an exultation which nothing else in life could give.
+
+This imaginary spot held for me the revealing of no great scientific
+secrets. I never regarded the feat as of any great scientific value.
+The real victory would lie, not in reaching the goal itself, but in
+overcoming the obstacles which exist in the way of it. In the battle
+with these I knew there would be excitement, danger, necessary
+expedients to tax the brain and heroic feats to tax the muscles, the
+ever constant incentive which the subduing of one difficulty after
+another excites.
+
+During the first day at Annoatok, after the yacht left, I thought of the
+world toward which it was going, of the continents to the south of me,
+of the cities with their teeming millions, and of the men with their
+multitudinous, conflicting ambitions. I could see, in my mind, the
+gigantic globe of my world swinging in cloud-swept emerald spaces, and
+far in the remote, vast, white regions in the north of it, far from the
+haunts of men, thousands of miles from its populous cities, beyond the
+raging of its blue-green seas, myself, alone, a wee, small atom on its
+vast surface, striving to reach its hitherto unattained goal. I felt, as
+I thought of my anticipation and lonely quest, a sense of the terrible
+overwhelming hugeness of the earth, and the poignant loneliness any soul
+must feel when it embarks upon some splendid solitary destiny.
+
+Beyond and above me I visioned the unimaginable, blinding white regions
+of ice and cold, about which, like a golden-crowned sentinel, with face
+of flame, the circling midnight sun kept guard. Upon this desolate,
+awe-inspiring stage--unchanged since the days of its designing--I saw
+myself attempting to win in the most spectacular and difficult marathon
+for the testing of human strength, courage and perseverance, of body and
+brain, which God has offered to man. I could see myself, in my fancy
+pictures, invading those roaring regions, struggling over icy lands in
+the dismal twilight of the Arctic morning, and venturing, with a few
+companions, upon the lifeless, wind-swept Polar sea. A black mite, I saw
+myself slowly piercing those white and terrible spaces, braving terrific
+storms, assailing green, adamantine barriers of ice, crossing the
+swift-flowing, black rivers of those ice fields, and stoutly persisting
+until, successful, I stood alone, a victor, upon the world's pinnacle!
+
+This thought gave me wild joy. That I, one white man, might alone
+succeed in this quest gave me an impetus which only single-handed effort
+and the prospect of single-handed success can give. There was pleasure
+in the thought that, in this effort, I was indebted to no one; no one
+had expended money for me or my trip; no white men were to risk their
+lives with me. Whether it resulted in success or defeat, I alone should
+exult or I alone should suffer. I was the mascot of no clique of
+friends, nor the pawn of scientists who might find a suppositious and
+mythical glory in the reflected light of another's achievement. The
+quest was personal; the pleasure of success must be personal.
+
+Yet, I want you to understand this thing was no casual jaunt with me.
+All my life hinged about it, my hopes were bent upon it; the doing of it
+was part of me. My plans of action were not haphazard and hair-brained.
+Logically and clearly, I mapped out a campaign. It was based upon
+experience in known conditions, experience gathered after years of
+discouragement and failure.
+
+At Annoatok we erected a house of packing boxes.[6] The building of the
+house, which was to be both storehouse and workshop, was a simple
+matter. The walls were made of the packing boxes, especially selected of
+uniform size for this purpose.
+
+[Illustration: ON THE CHASE FOR BEAR
+
+THE BOX-HOUSE AT ANNOATOK AND ITS WINTER ENVIRONMENT]
+
+[Illustration: MAN'S PREY OF THE ARCTIC SEA--WALRUS ASLEEP]
+
+Enclosing a space thirteen by sixteen feet, the cases were quickly piled
+up. The walls were held together by strips of wood, the joints sealed
+with pasted paper, with the addition of a few long boards. A really good
+roof was made by using the covers of the boxes as shingles. A blanket of
+turf over this confined the heat and permitted, at the same time,
+healthful circulation of air.
+
+We slept under our own roof at the end of the first day. Our new house
+had the great advantage of containing within it all our possessions
+within easy reach at all times. When anything was needed in the way of
+supplies, all we had to do was to open a box in the wall.
+
+The house completed, we immediately began the work of building sledges,
+and the equally important work, at which a large proportion of the
+Eskimos were at once set, of making up furs into clothing. According to
+my plans, each one of us embarking in the Polar journey would have to
+carry two suits of fur clothing. In the Arctic regions, especially when
+men are marching to the limit of their strength every day, the bodily
+heat puts the clothing into such condition that the only safe way, if
+health is to be preserved, is to change suits frequently, while the
+perspiration-soaked furs are laid out to dry.
+
+The Eskimos had also to prepare for winter. Tents of sealskin are
+inhabitable only in the summer time. For the coming period of darkness
+and bitter cold, they made igloos of stone and snow.
+
+Meanwhile, they were not in the least averse to agreeable relaxation. I
+had with me a good supply of tea, and was in the habit of drinking a cup
+of it with Francke about four o'clock every afternoon. Observing this,
+the Eskimos at once began to present themselves at the tea hour.
+Fortunately, tea was one of the supplies of which I had brought a good
+deal for the sake of pleasing the natives, and it was not long before I
+had a very large and gossipy afternoon tea party every day, in this
+northernmost human settlement of the globe.
+
+I planned to superintend every detail of progress, as far as it
+concerned our journey. I could watch the men, too, and see which ones
+promised to be the best to accompany me. And, what was a most important
+point, I could also perfect my final plans for the advance right at my
+final base.
+
+I aimed to reach the top of the globe in the angle between Alaska and
+Greenland, a promising route through a new and lonesome region which had
+not been tried, abandoning what has come to be called the "American
+Route." I should strike westward and then northward, working new trails.
+With Annoatok as a base of operations, I planned to carry sufficient
+supplies over Schley Land and along the west coast of the game lands,
+trusting that the game along this region would furnish sufficient
+supplies en route to the shores of the Polar sea. This journey to land's
+end would also afford a test of every article of equipment needed in the
+field work, and would enable us to choose finally from a selected
+number of Eskimos those most able to endure the rigors of the unlimited
+journey which lay before us.
+
+I sent out a few hunters along the intended line to seek for haunts of
+game, but I was not surprised that their searching in the dark was
+practically unsuccessful, and it merely meant that I must depend upon my
+previous knowledge of conditions. I knew from the general reports of the
+natives, and from the explorations of Sverdrup, that the beginning of
+the intended route offered abundant game, and the indications were that
+further food would likewise be found as we advanced. The readiness with
+which the Eskimos declared themselves ready to trust to the food supply
+of the unknown region was highly encouraging.
+
+To start from my base with men and dogs in superb condition, with their
+bodies nourished with wholesome fresh meat instead of the nauseating
+laboratory stuff too often given to men in the North, was of vital
+importance; and if the men and dogs could afterwards be supported in
+great measure by the game of the region through which we were to pass,
+it would be of an importance more vital still. If my information was
+well founded and my general conjectures correct, I should have
+advantages which had not been possessed by any other leader of a Polar
+expedition. The new route seemed to promise, also, immunity from the
+highly disturbing effects of certain North Greenland currents. In all,
+the chances seemed not unfavorable.
+
+With busy people hard at work about me, I knew that the months of the
+long night would pass rapidly by. There was much to do, and with the
+earliest dawn of the morning of the next year we must be ready to start
+for the Pole.
+
+
+
+
+THE CURTAIN OF NIGHT DROPS
+
+TRIBE OF TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY NATIVES BUSILY BEGIN PREPARATIONS FOR THE
+POLAR DASH--EXCITING HUNTS FOR THE UNICORN AND OTHER GAME FROM ANNOATOK
+TO CAPE YORK--EVERY ANIMAL CAUGHT BEARING UPON THE SUCCESS OF THE
+VENTURE--THE GREY-GREEN GLOOM OF TWILIGHT IN WHICH THE ESKIMO WOMEN
+COMMUNICATE WITH THE SOULS OF THE DEAD
+
+VI
+
+THE SUNSET OF 1907
+
+
+Winter, long-lasting, dark and dismal, approached. To me it was to be a
+season of feverish labor in which every hand at work and every hour
+employed counted in the problem of success. While the hands of the
+entire tribe would be busy, and while I should direct and help in the
+making of sleds, catching of game, preparing of meat, I knew that my
+mind would find continual excitement in dreams of my quest, in
+anticipating and solving its difficulties, in feeling the bounding pulse
+of the dash over the ice of the Polar sea, with dogs joyously barking,
+whips cracking the air, and the reappearing sun paving our pathway with
+liquid gold. In the labor of the long winter which I began to map out I
+knew I should find ceaseless zest, for the pursuit of every narwhal,
+every walrus, every fox I should regard with abated suspense, each one
+bearing upon my chances; in the employment of every pair of hands I
+should hang with an eager interest, the expediency and excellence of the
+work making for success or failure. From this time onward everything of
+my life, every native, every occurrence began to have some bearing upon
+the dominating task to which I had set myself.
+
+With the advance of winter, storms of frightful ferocity began to arise.
+Inasmuch as we had stored meat and blubber in large quantities about our
+camp, it was not necessary at these times to venture out to dig up
+supplies from great depths of snow drift. During these periods hands
+were employed busily inside the igloos. Although a large quantity of
+animals and furs had been gathered by the hunters before our arrival, we
+now unexpectedly discovered that the supply was inadequate. According to
+my plans, a large party of picked natives would accompany me to land's
+end and somewhat beyond on the Polar sea when I started for my dash in
+the coming spring. As spring is the best hunting season, it was
+therefore imperative to secure sufficient advance provisions for the
+families of these men in addition to preparing requisites for my
+expedition. So the early days of the winter would have to be busily
+occupied by the men in a ceaseless hunt for game, and later, even when
+the darkness had fully fallen, the moonlight days and nights would thus
+have to be utilized also.
+
+In the Polar cycle of the seasons there are peculiar conditions which
+apply to circumstances and movements. As the word, seasons, is
+ordinarily understood, there are but two, a winter season and a summer
+season--a winter season of nine months and a summer of three months.
+
+But, for more convenient division of the yearly periods, it is best to
+retain the usual cycle of four seasons. Eskimos call the winter
+"ookiah," which also means year, and the summer "onsah." Days are
+"sleeps." The months are moons, and the periods are named in accord with
+the movements of various creatures of the chase.
+
+In early September at Annoatok the sun dips considerably under the
+northern horizon. There is no night. At sunset and at sunrise storm
+clouds hide the bursts of color which are the glory of twilight, and the
+electric afterglow is generally lost in a dull gray.
+
+The gloom of the coming winter night now thickens. The splendor of the
+summer day has gone. A day of six months and a night of six months is
+often ascribed to the Polar regions as a whole, but this is only true of
+a very small area about the Pole.
+
+As we come south, the sun slips under the horizon for an ever-increasing
+part of each twenty-four hours. Preceding and following the night, as we
+come from the Pole, there is a period of day and night which lengthens
+with the descent of latitude.
+
+It is this period which enables us to retain the names of the usual
+seasons--summer for the double days, fall for the period of the setting
+sun. This season begins when the sun first dips under the ice at
+midnight for a few moments. These moments increase rapidly, yet one
+hardly appreciates that the sun is departing until day and night are of
+equal length, for the night remains light, though not cheerful. Then the
+day rapidly shortens and darkens, and the sun sinks until at last there
+is but a mere glimmer of the glory of day. Winter is limited to the
+long night, and spring applies to the days of the rising sun, a period
+corresponding to the autumn days of the setting sun.
+
+At Annoatok the midnight sun is first seen on April 23. It dips in the
+sea on August 19. It thus encircles the horizon, giving summer and
+continuous day for one hundred and eighteen days. It sets at midday on
+October 24, and is absent a period of prolonged night corresponding to
+the day, and it rises on February 19. The Arctic air, with its low
+temperature and its charge of frosted humidity, so distorts the sun's
+rays that when low it is frequently lifted one or two diameters;
+therefore, the exact day or hour for sunrise or sunset does not
+correspond to mathematical calculations. Then follow days of spring.
+
+In the fall, when the harmonizing influence of the sun is withdrawn,
+there begins a battle of the elements which continues until stilled by
+the hopeless frost of early night.
+
+At this time, although field work was painful, the needs of our venture
+forced us to persistent action in the chase of walrus, seal, narwhal and
+white whale. We thus harvested food and fuel.
+
+Before winter ice spread over the sea, ptarmigan, hare and reindeer were
+sought on land to supply the table during the long night with
+delicacies, while bear and fox pleased the palates of the Eskimos, and
+their pelts clothed all.
+
+Many long journeys were undertaken to secure an important supply of
+grass to pad boots and mittens and also to secure moss, which serves as
+wick for the Eskimo lamp. During the months of September and October,
+along the entire Greenland coast, the Eskimos were engaged in a feverish
+quest for reserve supplies. Shortly after my arrival, word had been
+carried from village to village that I was at Annoatok, and, intending
+to make a dash for the "Big Nail," desired the help of the entire tribe.
+Intense and spontaneous activity followed. Knowing the demands of the
+North, and of such work as I planned, the natives, without specific
+instructions from me and with only a brief outline of the planned Polar
+campaign which was sent from village to village, immediately got busy
+gathering the needed things. They knew better than I where to go for
+certain game, and where certain desirable things were obtainable. This
+relieved me of a great responsibility. Each local group of natives was
+to perform some important duty, suited to its available resources, in
+gathering the tremendous amount of material required for our trip. Each
+village had its peculiar game advantages.
+
+In some places foxes and hares, the skins of which were necessary for
+coats and stockings, were abundant, and the Eskimos must not only gather
+the greatest number possible, but prepare the skins and make them into
+properly fitting garments. In other places reindeer were plentiful. The
+skin of these was needed for sleeping bags, while the sinew was required
+for thread. In still other places seal was the luck of the chase; its
+skin was one of our most important needs. Of it boots were made, and an
+immense amount of line and lashings prepared.
+
+Thus, in one way or another, every man and woman and most of the
+children of this tribe of two hundred and fifty people were kept busy in
+the service of the expedition. The work was well done, and with much
+better knowledge of the fitness of things than could have been possessed
+by any possible gathering of alien white men.
+
+The quest of the walrus and the narwhal came in our own immediate plan
+of adventure, although the narwhal, called by whale fishers the unicorn,
+does not often come under the eye of the white man. It afforded for a
+brief spell good results in sport and useful material. Its blubber is
+the pride of every housekeeper, for it gives a long, hot flame to the
+lamp, with no smoke to spot the igloo finery. The skin is regarded as
+quite a delicacy. Cut into squares, it looks and tastes like scallops,
+with only a slight aroma of train oil. The meat dries easily, and is
+thus prized as an appetizer or as a lunch to be eaten en route in sled
+or kayak. In this shape it was an extremely useful thing for us, for it
+took the place of pemmican on our less urgent journeys.
+
+Narwhals played in schools, far off shore, and usually along the edges
+of some large ice field, their long ivory tusks rising under spouts of
+breath and spray. Whenever this glad sight was noted, every kayak about
+camp was manned, and the skin canoes went flittering like birds over the
+water. Some of the Eskimos climbed to the ice fields and delivered their
+harpoons from a secure footing. Others hid behind floating fragments of
+heavy ice and made a sudden rush as the animals passed. Still others
+came up in the rear, for the narwhal cannot easily see backward, and
+does not often turn to watch its enemies, its speed being so fast that
+it can easily keep ahead of them.
+
+In these exciting hunts I participated with eager delight, and by proxy
+mentally engaged in every encounter. For, in this sea game, existed
+food supplies which, instead of entirely confining myself to pemmican, I
+planned also to use on my Polar journey. As the skin boats, like bugs,
+sped over the water, I felt the movement of them surge in my brain; with
+the upraising of each swift-darting native's arm I felt, as it were, my
+heart stop with bated suspense. With every failure I experienced a throb
+of dismay. With the hauling in of each slimy beast I felt, as it were,
+nearer my goal.
+
+Narwhal hunting, in itself, and without the added spur of personal
+interest, which I had, is brimful of thrilling sport. The harpoon is
+always delivered at close range. Whenever the dragging float marks the
+end of the line in tow of the frightened creature, the line of skin
+canoes follows. Timid by nature and fearing to rise for breath, the
+narwhal plunges along until nearly strangled. When he does come up,
+there are likely to be several Eskimos near with drawn lances, which
+inflict deep gashes.
+
+Again the narwhal plunges deep down, with but one breath, and hurries
+along as best it can. But its speed slackens and a line of crimson marks
+its hidden path. Loss of blood and want of air do not give it a chance
+to fight. Again it comes up with a spout. Again the lances are hurled.
+
+The battle continues for several hours, with many exciting adventures,
+but in the end the narwhal always succumbs, offering a prize of several
+thousands of pounds of meat and blubber. Victory as a rule is not gained
+until the hunters are far from home, and also far from the shore line.
+But the Eskimo is a courageous hunter and an intelligent seaman.
+
+To the huge carcass frail kayaks are hitched in a long line. Towing is
+slow, wind and sea combining to make the task difficult and dangerous.
+One sees nothing of the narwhal and very little of the kayak, for
+dashing seas wash over the little craft, but the double-bladed paddles
+see-saw with the regularity of a pendulum. Homecoming takes many hours
+and demands a prodigious amount of hard work, but there is energy to
+spare, for a wealth of meat and fat is the culmination of all Eskimo
+ambition.
+
+Seven of these ponderous animals were brought in during five days,
+making a heap of more than forty thousand pounds of food and fuel. The
+sight of this tremulous, blubbering mass filled my heart with joy. Our
+success was not too soon, for now the narwhals suddenly disappeared, and
+we saw no more of them. About this time three white whales were also
+obtained at Etah by a similar method of hunting.
+
+With the advent of actual winter, storms swept over the land and sea
+with such fury that it was no longer safe to venture out on the water in
+kayaks. After the catching of several walruses from boats, sea hunting
+now was confined to the quest of seal through young ice. As such hunting
+would soon be limited to only a few open spaces near prominent
+headlands, an industrious pursuit was feverishly engaged in at every
+village from Annoatok to Cape York, and hour by hour, day by day, until
+the hunt of necessity changed from sea to land, the husky natives
+engaged in seal catching. As yet we had no caribou meat, and the little
+auks, which had been gathered in nets during the summer, with the
+eider-duck bagged later, soon disappeared as a steady diet. We must now
+procure such available land game as hare, ptarmigan and reindeer, for we
+had not yet learned to eat with a relish the fishy, liver-like substance
+which is characteristic of all marine mammals.
+
+Guns and ammunition were now distributed, and when the winds were easy
+enough to allow one to venture out, every Eskimo sought the neighboring
+hills. Francke also took his exercise with a gun on his shoulder.
+
+The combined efforts resulted in a long line of ptarmigan, two reindeer
+and sixteen hares. As snow covered the upper slopes, the game was forced
+down near the sea, where we could still hope to hunt in the feeble light
+of the early part of the night.
+
+With a larder fairly stocked and good prospects for other tasty meats,
+we were spared the anxiety of a winter without supplies. Francke was an
+ideal chef in the preparation of this game to good effect, for he had a
+delightful way of making our primitive provisions quite appetizing.
+
+In the middle of October fox skins were prime, and then new steel traps
+were distributed and set near the many caches. By this time all the
+Eskimos had abandoned their sealskin tents and were snugly settled in
+their winter igloos. The ground was covered with snow, and the sea was
+almost entirely frozen.
+
+Everybody was busy preparing for the coming cold and night. The
+temperature was about 20° below zero. Severe storms were becoming less
+frequent, and the air, though colder, was less humid and less
+disagreeable. An ice-foot was formed by the tides along shore, and over
+this the winter sledging was begun by short excursions to bait the fox
+traps and gather the foxes.
+
+Our life now resolved itself into a systematic routine of work, which
+was practically followed throughout the succeeding long winter night.
+About the box-house in which Francke and I lived were igloos housing
+eight to twelve families. The tribe of two hundred and fifty was
+distributed in a range of villages along the coast, an average of four
+families constituting a community. Early each morning Koo-loo-ting-wah
+would bang at my door, enter, and I would drowsily awaken while he
+freshened the fire. Rising, we would prepare hot coffee and partake of
+breakfast with biscuits. By seven o'clock--according to our standard of
+time--five or six of the natives would arrive, and, after a liberal
+libation of coffee, begin work. I taught them to help me in the making
+of my hickory sleds. Some I taught to use modern carpentering
+instruments, which I had with me. Another group was schooled in bending
+the resilient but tough hickory. This was done by wrapping old cloths
+about the wood and steeping it in hot water. Others engaged, as the days
+went by, in making dog harness, articles of winter clothing, and drying
+meat. Not an hour was lost during the day. At noon we paused for a bite
+of frozen meat and hot tea. Then we fell to work again without respite
+until five or six o'clock.
+
+Meanwhile, beginning in the early morning of our steadily darkening
+days, other male members of the tribe pursued game. Others again
+followed a routine of scouring of the villages and collecting all the
+furs and game which had been caught. The women of the tribe, in almost
+every dimly lighted igloo, were no less industrious. To them fell the
+task of assisting in drying the fur skins, preparing dried meat and
+making our clothing. Throughout the entire days they sat in their snow
+and stone houses, masses of ill-smelling furs before them, cutting the
+skins and sewing them into serviceable garments. This work I often
+watched, passing from igloo to igloo, with an interest that verged on
+anxiety; for upon the strength, thickness and durability of these
+depended my life, and that of the companions I should choose, on the
+frigid days which would inevitably come on my journey Poleward. But
+these broad-faced, patient women did their work well. Their skill is
+quite remarkable. They took my measurements, for instance, by roughly
+sizing up my old garments and by measuring me by sight. Garments were
+made to fit snugly after the preliminary making by cutting out or
+inserting patches of fur. Needles among the natives are indeed precious.
+So valuable are they that if a point or eye is broken, with infinite
+skill and patience the broken end is heated and flattened, and by means
+of a bow drill a new eye is bored. A new point is with equal skill
+shaped on local stones. With marvelous patience they make their own
+thread by drying and stripping caribou or narwhale sinews.
+
+Were it not for their extraordinary eyesight, such work, under such
+conditions, would be impossible. But in the dark the natives can espy
+things invisible to white men. This owl-sight enables them to hunt, if
+necessary, in almost pitch darkness, and to perform tedious feats of
+hand skill which, in such dim light, an alien would bungle. I noticed,
+with much curiosity, that when the natives inspected any photograph or
+object which I gave them they always held it upside down. All objects,
+as is well known, are reflected in the retina thus, and it is our
+familiarity with the size and comparative relations of things which
+enables the brain to visualize an object or scene at its proper angle.
+This strange, instinctive act of the natives might form an interesting
+chapter in optics.
+
+Meanwhile, busy and interested in the beginning of our various pursuits,
+the great crust which was to hold down the sea for so many months,
+closed and thickened.
+
+During the last days of brief sunshine the weather cleared, and at noon
+on October 24 everybody sought the open for a last glimpse of the dying
+day. There was a charm of color and glitter, but no one seemed quite
+happy as the sun sank under the southern ice, for it was not to rise
+again for one hundred and eighteen days.
+
+Just prior to the falling of darkness, with that instinctive and forced
+hilarity with which aboriginal beings seek to ward off an impending
+calamity, the Eskimos engaged in their annual sporting event. It is a
+curious sight, indeed, to behold a number of excited, laughing Eskimos
+gathering about two champion dogs which are to fight. Although the zest
+of betting is unknown, the natives regard dog fights with much the same
+eager excitement as a certain type of sporting man does a cock
+encounter. Sometimes the dogs do not fight fairly, a number of the
+animals bunching together and attacking a single dog. Dogs selected for
+the fight are, of course, the best of the teams. A dog which maintains
+his fighting supremacy becomes a king dog, and when beaten becomes a
+first lieutenant to the king.
+
+After the forced enthusiasm of this brief period of excitement, the
+Eskimos begin to succumb to the inevitable melancholia of nature, when
+the sun, the source of natural life, disappears and darkness descends.
+A gloom descends heavily upon their spirits. A subtle sadness tinctures
+their life, and they are possessed by an impulse to weep. At this
+season, hour by hour, the darkness thickens; the cold increases and
+chills their igloos; the wind, exultant while the sun shines, now whines
+and sobs dolorously--there is something gruesome, uncanny, supernatural,
+in its siren sorrow. Outside, the snow falls, the sea closes. Its
+clamant beat of waves is silenced. Sea animals mostly disappear; land
+animals are rare. Their source of physical supply vanished, the Eskimos
+unconsciously feel the grim hand of want, of starvation, which means
+death, upon them. The psychology of this period of depression partly
+lies, undoubtedly, in this instinctive dread of death from lack of food
+and the natural depression of unrelieved gloom. Moreover, there is a
+grief, born of the native superstition that, when the sea freezes, the
+souls of all who have perished in the waters are imprisoned during the
+long night. Too fierce is the struggle of these people with the
+elemental forces to permit them, like many other aboriginal peoples to
+be obsessed greatly with superstitions. Although their religion is a
+very primitive and native one, it is usually only at the inception of
+night that they feel the appalling nearness of a world that is
+supernatural. As the last rim of the sun sank over the southern ice, the
+natives entered upon a formal period of melancholy, during which the
+bereavements of each family, and the discomforts and disasters of the
+year, were memoralized.
+
+I shall never forget that long, sad evening, which lasted many normal
+days. The sun had descended. A sepulchral, gray-green curtain of gloom
+hung over the chilled earth. In the dim semi-darkness could be vaguely
+seen the outlines of the igloos, of the heaving curvatures of
+snow-covered land, and the blacker, snake-like twistings of open lanes
+of water, where the sea had not yet frozen. Sitting in my box-house, I
+was startled suddenly by a sound that made my flesh for the instant
+creep. I walked to the door and threw it open. Over the bluish,
+snow-covered land, formed by the indentures and hollows, stretched
+dark-purplish shapes--Titan shadows, sepulchral and ominous, some with
+shrouded heads, others with spectral arms threateningly upraised.
+Nebulous and gruesome shreds of blue-fog like wraiths shifted over the
+sea. Out of the sombre, heavy air began to issue a sound as of many
+women sobbing. From the indistinct distance came moaning, crooning
+voices. Sometimes hysterical wails of anguish rent the air, and now and
+then frantic choruses shrieked some heart-aching despair. My impression
+was that I was in a land of the sorrowful dead, some mid-strata of the
+spirit world, where, in this gray-green twilight, formless things in the
+distance moved to and fro.
+
+There is, I believe, in the heart of every man, an instinctive respect
+for sorrow. With muffled steps, I left the igloo and paced the
+dreariness of ice, treading slowly, lest, in the darkness, I slip into
+some unseen crevasse of the open sea. A strange and eerie sight
+confronted me. Along the seashore, bending over the lapping black water,
+or standing here and there by inky, open leads in the severed ice, many
+Eskimo women were gathered. Some stood in groups of two or three. Bowed
+and disconsolate, her arms about them, with almost every hundred steps,
+I saw a weeping mother and her children. Standing rigid and stark,
+motionless graven images of despair, or frantically writhing to and fro,
+others stood far apart in desolate places, alone.
+
+The dull, opaque air was tinged with a strange phosphorescent green,
+suggestive of a place of dead things; and now, like the flutterings of
+huge death-lamps, along the horizon, where the sun had sunk, gashes of
+crimson here and there fitfully glowed blood-red in the pall-like sky.
+
+To the left, as I walked along, I recognized Tung-wingwah, with a child
+on her back and a bag of moss in her hand. She stood behind a cheerless
+rock, with her face toward the faint red flushes of the sun. She stood
+motionless. Big tears rolled from her eyes, but not a sound was uttered.
+To my low queries she made no response. I invited her to the camp to
+have a cup of tea, thinking to change her sad thoughts and loosen her
+tongue. But still her eyes did not leave that last distant line of open
+water. From another, I later learned that in the previous April her
+daughter of five, while playing on the ice-foot, slipped and was lost in
+the sea. The mother now mourned because the ice would bury her little
+one's soul.
+
+A little farther along was Al-leek-ah, a woman of middle age, with two
+young children by her side. She was hysterical in her grief, now
+laughing with a weird giggle, now crying and groaning as if in great
+pain, and again dancing with emotions of madness. I learned her story
+from a chatter that ran through all her anguish. Towanah, her first
+husband, had been drawn under the ice, by the harpoon line, twenty years
+ago. And though she had been married three times since, she was trying
+to keep alive the memory of her first love. I went on, marveling at a
+primitive fidelity so long enduring.
+
+Still farther along towards the steep slopes of the main coast, I saw
+Ahwynet, all alone in the gloomy shadow of great cliffs. Her story was
+told in chants and moans. Her husband and all her children had been
+swept by an avalanche into the stormy seas. There was a kind of wild
+poetry in the song of her bereavement. Tears came to my eyes. The rush
+of the avalanche, the hiss of the wind, the pounding of the seas, were
+all indicated. And then, in heart-breaking tones, came "blood of her
+blood, flesh of her flesh, under the frozen waters," and other
+sentiments which I could not catch in the undertone of sobs.
+
+Cold shivers began to run up my spine, and I turned to retreat to camp.
+Here was a scene that perhaps a Dante might adequately write about. I
+cannot. I felt that I, an alien, was intruding into the realm of some
+strange and mystic sorrow. I felt the sombre thrill of a borderland
+world not human. These women were communicating with the souls of their
+dead. To those who had perished in the sea they were telling, ere the
+gates of ice closed above them, all the news of the past year--things of
+interest and personal, and even of years before, as far back as they
+could remember. Almost every family each year loses someone in the sea;
+almost every family was represented by these weeping women, overburdened
+with their own naive sorrow, and who yet strangely sought to cheer the
+souls of the disconsolate and desolate dead.
+
+Meanwhile, while the women were weeping and giving their parting
+messages to the dead, the male members of the tribe, in chants and
+dramatic dances, were celebrating, in the igloos, the important events
+of the past year.
+
+Inside, the igloos were dimly lighted with stone blubber lamps. These,
+during the entire winter, furnish light and heat. The lamp consists of a
+crescent-shaped stone with a concavity, in which there is animal oil and
+a line of crushed moss as a wick. Lighted early in the season, for an
+entire winter, these lamps cast a faint, perpetual, flickering light.
+Shadows dance grotesquely about on the rounded walls. An oily stench
+pervades the unventilated enclosure. In this weird, yellow-blackish
+radiance the men engage in their fantastic dances. Moving the central
+parts of their bodies to and fro, they utter weird sing-song chants.
+They recite, in jerky, curious singing, the history of the big events of
+the year; of successful chases; of notable storms; of everything that
+means much in their simple lives. As they dance, their voices rise to a
+high pitch of excitement. Their eyes flash like smoldering coals. Their
+arms move frantically. Some begin to sob uncontrollably. A hysteria of
+laughter seizes others. Finally the dance ends; exhausted, they pass
+into a brief lethargy, from which they revive, their melancholia
+departed. The women return from the shores of the sea; they wipe their
+tears, and, with native spontaneity, forget their depression and smile
+again.
+
+While I was interested in the curious spectacles presented, the sunset
+of 1907 to me was inspiration for the final work in directing the
+completion of the outfit with which to begin the conquest of the Pole at
+sunrise of 1908. Fortunately, I was not handicapped by the company of
+the usual novices taken on Polar expeditions. There were only two of us
+white men, and white men, at the best, must be regarded as amateurs
+compared with the expert efficiency of Eskimos in their own environment.
+Our food supply contained only the prime factors of primitive
+nourishment. Special foods and laboratory concoctions and canned
+delicacies did not fill an important space in our larder. Nor had we
+balloons, automobiles, motor sleds or other freak devices. We did,
+however, I have said, have what was of utmost importance, an abundance
+of the best hickory and metal for the making of the sleds upon which our
+destinies were vitally to depend.
+
+
+
+
+FIRST WEEK OF THE LONG NIGHT
+
+HUNTING IN THE ARCTIC TWILIGHT--PURSUING BEAR, CARIBOU AND SMALLER GAME
+IN SEMI-GLOOM
+
+VII
+
+THE GLORY OF THE AURORA
+
+
+The sun had dropped below the horizon. The gloom continued steadily to
+thicken. Each twenty-four hours, at the approximate approach of what was
+the noon hour when the sun had been above the horizon, the sky to the
+south of us glowed with marvelous, subdued sunset hues. By this time our
+work had gone ahead by progressive stages. Furs, to protect us from the
+cold of the uttermost North on my prospective trip, had been prepared
+and were being made into clothing; meat and fat, for food and fuel, were
+being dried and stored in numerous caches about Annoatok; several of the
+sledges and part of the equipment were ready.
+
+We still had need of large quantities of supplies, and, while some of
+the natives were busy with their routine work, we planned that as many
+others as possible should use the twilight days pursuing bear, caribou,
+fox, hare and other game far beyond the usual Eskimo haunts. Before the
+dawn of the sun's afterglow, on the morning of October 26, seven sledges
+with sixty dogs were on the ice-foot near our camp, ready to start for
+hunting grounds near Humboldt Glacier, a distance of one hundred miles
+northward.[7]
+
+While the teamsters waited for the final password the dogs chafed
+fiercely. I could barely see the outlines of my companions in the gloom,
+and it was difficult, in the irregular snow and tide-lifted ice
+descending to sea level, to find footing.
+
+The word to start was given. My companions took up the cry.
+
+"_Huk! Huk! Huk!_" (Go! Go!) they shouted.
+
+The dogs responded in leaps and howls.
+
+"_Howah! Howah!_" (Right! Right!) "_Egh! Egh!_" (Stop! Stop!)
+"_Aureti!_" (Behave!) came echoingly along the line of teams. Finally
+the wild dash slackened, the dogs regulated their paces to an easy trot,
+and we swept steadily along the frozen highway of the tide-made shelf of
+the ice-foot. The sledges dodged stones and ice-blocks, edged along
+dangerous precipices, in the depths of which I heard the swish of water,
+and glided miraculously over crevices and along deep gorges. Jumping
+about the sledges, guiding, pushing, or retarding their speed, cracking
+their whips in the air, the natives, with that art which only aborigines
+seem to have, picked the way and controlled the dogs, but a few
+generations removed from their wolf progenitors, with amazing dexterity.
+
+A low wind blew down the slopes and froze our breath in lines of frost
+about our heads. The temperature was 35° below zero. To the left of us
+was Kane Basin, recalling its history of human strife northward. It was
+filled with serried ranges of crushed ice, a berg here and there, all in
+the light of the kindling sky, aglow with purple and blue. To the far
+west I saw the dim outline of Ellesmere, my promised land, over which I
+hoped to force a new route to the Pole; upon its snowy highlands was
+poured a soft creamy light from encouraging skies. To the right was the
+rugged coast of Greenland, its huge, ice-chiselled cliffs leaping
+portentously forward in the gloom. Thrilling with the race, we made a
+run of twenty miles and reached Rensselaer Harbor, where Dr. Kane had
+spent his long nights of misfortune.
+
+We pitched camp at the ice-foot at the head of the bay. Although we
+found traces of hare and fox, it was too dark to venture on the chase.
+The temperature had fallen to -40°, the wind pierced with a sharp sting.
+For my shelter I erected a new tent which I had invented, and the
+efficiency of which I desired to test. Taking the sledge frame work as a
+platform, a folding top of strong canvas was fastened, and spread
+between two bars of hickory from each end. The entrance was in front.
+Inside was a space eight feet long and three and one-half feet wide,
+with a round whaleback top. Inside this a supplementary wall was
+constructed of light blankets, offering an air space of an inch between
+the outer wall as a non-conductor to confine the little heat generated
+within. As there was ample room for only two persons, Koo-loo-ting-wah,
+my leading man, was invited to share the tent. The natives had not
+provided themselves with shelter of any kind. They had counted on either
+building an igloo or seeking the shelter of the snows, as do the
+creatures of the wilds.
+
+Inside my tent I prepared a meal on the little German stove, burning the
+vapor of alcohol. The meal consisted of a pail of hot corn meal, fried
+bacon and a liberal all-round supply of steaming tea. To accomplish
+this, which included melting the snow, heating the water, and cooking
+everything separately, required about two hours. As I considered eating
+outside with any degree of comfort impossible, my companions were
+invited to crowd inside the tent. The vapor of their breath and that of
+the cooking soon condensed into snow, and a miniature snowstorm covered
+everything within. After this was swept out, the Eskimos were invited to
+enter again. All partook of the meal ravenously, and then emerged to
+reconnoiter the surroundings. Tracks of ptarmigan, hare and foxes were
+found, and as we moved about with seeking, owl eyes, ravens shouted
+notes of welcome.
+
+We then retired to rest. As there was no snow about that was
+sufficiently hard to cut blocks with which to erect snow houses, the
+natives placed themselves in semi-reclining positions on their sledges
+and slept in their traveling clothes. After a few hours they awoke and
+partook of chopped frozen meat and blubber; two hours later, they made a
+fire in a tin can, with moss and blubber as fuel, and over this prepared
+a pot of parboiled meat. A crescent-shaped wall of snow was built to
+break the wind; in the shelter of this they sat, grinning delightedly,
+and eating savagely, with much smacking of the lips, the steaming broth
+and walrus meat. All this I studied with intense interest. I desired on
+this trip not only to test my tent, but to learn more of the native
+arts of the Eskimo, knowing that I, on my Polar trip, must, if I would
+be successful, adapt myself to just such methods of living.
+
+This was my first winter experience of camping out in the night season
+for this year, and, with only a diet of meal and bacon, I was miserably
+cold. I was now testing also for the first time the new winter clothing
+with which I and all my companions were dressed. Our shirts were made of
+bird skins. Over these were coats of blue fox or caribou skins; our
+trousers were of bear, our boots of seal, and our stockings of hare
+skins. This was the usual native winter costume, but under it I had
+added a suit of underwear.
+
+Retiring again for rest, I left instructions to be called for an early
+start. It seemed that I had hardly settled comfortably in my sleeping
+bag when the call for action came.
+
+We hastily partook of tea and biscuits, harnessed our teams and started
+through the dark. The Eskimos, having eaten their fill of fat and frozen
+meat, to which I must yet accustom myself, were thoroughly comfortable.
+I was miserably cold.
+
+By running behind my sledge I produced sufficient bodily heat after
+awhile to feel comfortable. My face suffered severely from the cutting
+slant of the winds. We passed the perpendicular walls of Cape Seiper at
+dawn. We ran along the long, straight coast into Bancroft Bay during the
+six hours of twilight. The journey was continued to Dallas Bay by a
+forced march of fifty miles before we halted.
+
+The scene displayed the rare glory of twilight charms as it had the day
+before, but the snow was deeper, the temperature lower. The wind
+steadily increased and veered northward. We made several efforts to
+cross the bay ice, but cracked ice, huge uplifted blocks and deep snows
+compelled a retreat to the ice-foot.
+
+The ice-foot along Smith Sound is a superb highway, where otherwise
+sledge travel would be quite impossible along the coast.
+
+Along Dallas Bay we found a great deal of grass-covered land in
+undulating valleys and on low hills, which offered grazing for caribou
+and hare. The preceding glimmer of the new moon, which was to rise a few
+days hence, offered sufficient light to search for game.
+
+We now fed our dogs for the first time since leaving Annoatok. After a
+liberal drink of snow water, we started to seek our luck in the chase.
+In the course of an hour my companions returned with four hares which,
+when dressed, weighed about forty-eight pounds. Two of these were
+cached. The others were eaten later.
+
+Before dawn of the day-long twilight the wind increased to a full gale.
+The sky to the north, smoky all night, now blackened as with soot. The
+wind came with a howl that brought to mind the despairing cries of the
+dying explorers whose bleached bones were strewn along the shore. The
+gloomy outline of the coast remained visible for awhile; but soon the
+air thickened and came weighted with snow that piled up in huge drifts.
+
+The Eskimos took a few of their favorite dogs and sought shelter to the
+lee of the tent, where drift covered their blankets with snow. Breathing
+holes were kept open over their faces. Buried in snow drifts, they were
+imprisoned for twenty-eight hours. But this tent sled sheltered
+Koo-loo-ting-wah and myself. When the rush of the storm had abated we
+began digging our way out. In this effort we dug up men and dogs like
+potatoes from a patch. The northern sky had paled, the south was
+brightening. The pack was lined with long lines beyond each hummock; the
+snow was covered with a strong crust. But the ice-foot was a hopeless
+line of drifts which made travel over it quite impossible.
+
+The work of pounding snow from the dogs and freeing the sledges brought
+to our faces beads of perspiration which rolled off and froze in lines
+of ice on our furs. We were none the worse as a result of the storm, and
+although hungry as wolves, time was too precious to stop for a full
+meal.
+
+We now pushed out of the bay, on to the sea ice. At this point the dogs
+scented a bear and soon crossed its track. Rested and hungry, they were
+in condition for a desperate chase. Their sharp noses pointed keenly
+into the huge bear foot-prints, their little ears quivered, while, with
+howls, they started onward in a mad rush.
+
+Neither our voices nor the whips made an impression on their wild speed.
+We crossed banks and ridges of snow and swirled about slopes of ice,
+gripping sledges violently. Now we were thrown to one side, again to the
+other, dragging resistlessly beside the sleds. Rising, we gripped the
+rear upstanders with fierce determination.
+
+Just how we escaped broken limbs, and our sledges utter destruction, is
+a mystery to me. After a run of an hour we sighted the bear. The animal
+had evidently sighted us, for he was galloping for the open water
+toward the northwest. We cut the fleetest dogs loose from each team.
+Freed, they rushed over the snow like race-horses. But the bear had an
+advantage. As the first dog nipped his haunches he plunged into the
+black waters. We advanced and waited for him to rise. But this bruin had
+sense enough to emerge on the opposite shore, where he shook off the
+freezing waters vigorously, and then sat down as if to have a laugh at
+us.
+
+I knew that to plunge into the waters would have been fatal to dog or
+man and equally fatal to a boat, as ice, in the intense cold, would form
+about it so rapidly that it could not be propelled.
+
+The dogs sat down and howled a chorus of sad disappointment. For miles
+about, the men sought fruitlessly for a way to cross. Outwitted, we
+returned to continue our journey Northward.
+
+Advance Bay and its islands were in sight. Among these, we aimed to
+place our central camp. The light was fading fast, and a cold wind came
+from Humboldt Glacier, which at this time was located by a slight
+darkening of the sky. Many grounded icebergs were about, and the sea ice
+was much crossed. The hummocks and the snow were not as troublesome as
+farther south.
+
+Two ravens followed us, their shrill cries echoing from berg to berg.
+The Eskimos inferred from their presence that bears were near, but we
+saw no tracks.
+
+The cries of the ravens were nearly as provoking to the dogs as the bear
+tracks, and we moved along rapidly to Brook's Island. This was rather
+high, with a plateau and sharp cliffs. Bonsall Island near by was
+rounded by glacial action. Between them we found a place to camp
+somewhat sheltered from the wind.
+
+While eating our ration of corn meal and bacon, howls of the dogs rose
+to a fierce crescendo. I supposed they were saluting the coming of the
+moon, as is their custom, but the howls changed to tones of increasing
+excitement. We went out to inquire, but saw nothing. It was so dark that
+I could not see the dogs twenty feet away, and the cold wind made
+breathing difficult.
+
+"_Nan nook_" (Bear), the Eskimos said in an undertone. I looked around
+for some position of defense. But the dense night-blackness rendered
+this hopeless, so we took our position behind the tent, rifles in hand.
+The bear, of an inquisitive turn of mind, deliberately advanced upon us.
+"_Taokoo! taokoo! igloo dia oo-ah-tonie!_" (Look! look! beyond the
+iceberg!) said the Eskimos. Neither the iceberg nor the bear was
+visible. After a cold and exciting wait, the bear turned and hid behind
+another iceberg. We separated a few of the best bear dogs from each
+other. Bounding off, they disappeared quietly in the darkness. The other
+dogs were fastened to the sledges, and away we started.
+
+I sat on To-ti-o's sledge, as he had the largest team. We jumped
+crevasses, and occasionally dipped in open water.
+
+The track of the bear wound about huge bergs which looked in the
+darkness like nebulous shadows. The dogs, of themselves, followed the
+invisible line of tracks.
+
+Soon the wolfish dogs ahead began to shout the chorus of their battle.
+We left the track in an air-line course for the dark mystery out of
+which the noise came. To-ti-o took the lead. As we neared the noise,
+all but two dogs of his sledge were cut loose. The sledge overturned, I
+under it. As Koo-loo-ting-wah came along, he freed all his dogs. I
+passed him my new take-down Winchester.
+
+Hurrying after To-ti-o, he had advanced only a few steps when To-ti-o
+fired. Koo-loo-ting-wah, noting an effort of the bear to rise, fired the
+new rifle.
+
+A flash of fire lit the darkness. Koo-loo-ting-wah rushed to me, asking
+for the folding lantern. The smokeless powder had broken the new gun.
+To-ti-o had no more cartridges. The bear, however, was quiet. We
+advanced, lances in hand.
+
+The dogs danced wildly about the bear, but he managed to throw out his
+feet with sufficient force to keep the canine fangs disengaged. The
+other Eskimos now came, with rushing dogs in advance. To-ti-o dashed
+forward and delivered the lance under the bear's shoulder. The bear was
+his. He thereby not only gained the prize for the expedition, but, by
+the addition of the bear to his game list, completed his retinue of
+accomplishments whereby he could claim the full privileges of manhood.
+
+Among other things, it gave him the right to marry. He had already
+secured a bride of twelve, but, without this bear conquest, the match
+would not have been permanent. He danced with the romantic joy of a
+young lover. We drove the dogs off from the victim with lashes, and fell
+to and skinned and dressed the carcass. A taste was given to each dog.
+The balance was placed on the sledges. Soon we were to camp, waiting for
+the sled loads of bear meat.
+
+[Illustration: THE HELPERS--NORTHERNMOST MAN AND HIS WIFE]
+
+[Illustration: A MECCA OF MUSK OX ALONG EUREKA SOUND
+
+A NATIVE HELPER
+
+AH-WE-LAH'S PROSPECTIVE WIFE]
+
+On the day following we started to hunt caribou. The sky was beautifully
+clear; the glacial wind was lost as we left the ice. The party scattered
+among numerous old bergs of the glacier. Koo-loo-ting-wah accompanied
+me. We aimed to rise to a small tableland from which I might make a
+study of the surroundings.
+
+We had not gone inland more than a mile when we saw numerous fresh
+caribou tracks. Following these, we moved along a steep slope to the
+tableland above at an altitude of about one thousand feet. We peeped
+over the crest. Below us were two reindeer digging under the snow for
+food. The light was good, and they were in gun range. An Eskimo,
+however, gets very near his game before he chances a shot, so, winding
+about under the crest of a cliff or a snow-covered shelf of rocks, we
+got to their range and fired.
+
+The creatures fell. They were nearly white, young, and possessed long
+fur and thick skins, which we needed badly for sleeping bags. With
+pocket knives, the natives skinned the animals and divided the meat in
+three packs while I examined the surroundings.
+
+Part of the face of Humboldt Glacier, which extends sixty miles north,
+was clearly visible in cliffs of a dark blue color. The interior ice ran
+in waves like the surface of stormy seas, perfectly free of snow, with
+many crevasses. An odd purplish-blue light upon it was reflected to the
+skies, resembling to some extent a water sky. The snow of the sea ice
+below was of a delicate lilac. Otherwise, sky and land were flooded with
+the usual dominant purple of the Arctic twilight.
+
+This glacier, the largest in Arctic America, had at one time extended
+very much farther south. All the islands, including Brook's, had at one
+time been under its grinding influence. As a picture it was a charming
+study in purple and blue, but the temperature was too low and the light
+too nearly spent to venture a further investigation.
+
+The Eskimos fixed for me an extremely light pack. This was comfortably
+placed on my back, with a bundle of thongs over the forehead. The
+natives took their huge bundles, and, together, we started for camp. At
+every rest we cut off slices of caribou tallow. I was surprised to find
+that I had acquired a taste for a new delicacy. At camp we found the
+natives, all in good humor, awaiting us beside heaps of meat and skins.
+All had been successful in securing from one to two animals each in
+regions nearer by. In a further search they had failed to find promising
+tracks, so we proposed to return on the morrow, hoping to meet bears en
+route.
+
+With the stupor of the gluttony of reindeer meat and the fatigue of the
+long chase, we slept late. Awaking, we partook each of a cup of tea, and
+packed and loaded the meat. Drawing heavy loads, the dogs gladly leaped
+forward. The twilight flush already suffused the sky with incandescence.
+Against the southeastern sky, glowing with rose, the great glaciers of
+Humboldt loomed in walls of violet, while the sea displayed many shades
+of rose and lilac, according to the direction of the light on the slope
+of the drifts.
+
+Knowing that their noses pointed to a land of walrus, the dogs kept up a
+lively pace. Not a breath of air was stirring. The temperature was -42°.
+Aiming to make Annoatok in two marches, we ran behind the sledges to
+save dog energy as much as possible. The cold enforced vigorous
+exercise. But, weighted down by furs, the comfort of the sledges was
+often sought to escape the tortures of perspiration. The source of light
+slowly shifted along shadowed mountains under the frozen sea. Our path
+glowed with electric, multi-colored splendor.
+
+By degrees, the rose-colored sky assumed the hue of old gold, the violet
+embroideries of clouds changed to purple. The gold, in running bands,
+darkened; the purple thickened. Soon new celestial torches lighted the
+changing sheen of the snows. Into the dome of heaven swam stars of
+burning intensity, each of which rivalled the sun in a miniature way. In
+this new illumination the twilight fires lost flame and color. Cold
+white incandescence electrically suffused the frigid sky.
+
+I strode onward, in that white, blazing air, the joy and beauty of it
+enthralling my soul. I felt as though I were walking in a world of
+heatless fire, a half supernatural realm such as that wherein reigned
+the gods of ancient peoples. I felt as an old Norseman must have felt
+when the glory of Valhalla burst upon him. For a long time I was
+unconscious of the fatigue which was growing upon me. Finally, overcome
+by the long forced march, I sank on my sled. The Eskimos, chanting
+songs, loomed ahead, their forms magnified in the unearthly light.
+Slowly a subtle change appeared along the horizon. Silent and impressed,
+I watched the changing scenes and evolving lights as if all were some
+divine and awe-inspiring stage arranged by God for some heroic drama of
+man.
+
+New and warm with shimmering veils of color, attended by four radiant
+satellites, the golden face of the moon rose majestically over the
+sparkling pinnacles of the Greenland glaciers. Below, the lovely
+planet-deflected images formed rainbow curves like rubied necklaces
+about her invisible neck. As the moon ascended in a spiral course the
+rose hues paled, the white light from the stars softened to a rich,
+creamy glow.
+
+We continued our course, the Eskimos singing, the dogs occasionally
+barking. Hours passed. Then we all suddenly became silent. The last, the
+supreme, glory of the North flamed over earth and frozen sea. The divine
+fingers of the aurora,[8] that unseen and intangible thing of flame, who
+comes from her mysterious throne to smile upon a benighted world, began
+to touch the sky with glittering, quivering lines of glowing silver.
+With skeins of running, liquid fire she wove over the sky a shimmering
+panorama of blazing beauty. Forms of fire, indistinct and unhuman, took
+shape and vanished. From horizon to zenith, cascades of milk-colored
+fire ascended and fell, as must the magical fountains of heaven.
+
+In the glory of this other-world light I felt the insignificance of
+self, a human unit; and, withal I became more intensely conscious than
+ever of the transfiguring influence of the sublime ideal to which I had
+set myself. I exulted in the thrill of an indomitable determination,
+that determination of human beings to essay great things--that human
+purpose which, throughout history, has resulted in the great deeds, the
+great art, of the world, and which lifts men above themselves.
+Spiritually intoxicated, I rode onward. The aurora faded. But its glow
+remained in my soul.
+
+We arrived at camp late on November 1.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+THE MOONLIGHT QUEST OF THE WALRUS
+
+DESPERATE AND DANGEROUS HUNTING, IN ORDER TO SECURE ADEQUATE SUPPLIES
+FOR THE POLAR DASH--A THRILLING AND ADVENTUROUS RACE IS MADE OVER FROZEN
+SEAS AND ICY MOUNTAINS TO THE WALRUS GROUNDS--TERRIFIC EXPLOSION OF THE
+ICE ON WHICH THE PARTY HUNTS--SUCCESS IN SECURING OVER SEVEN SLED-LOADS
+OF BLUBBER MAKES THE POLE SEEM NEARER--AN ARCTIC TRAGEDY
+
+VIII
+
+FIVE HUNDRED MILES THROUGH NIGHT AND STORM
+
+
+The early days of November were devoted to routine work about Annoatok.
+Meat was gathered and dried in strips by Francke; a full force of men
+were put to the work of devising equipment; the women were making
+clothing and dressing skins; and then a traveling party was organized to
+go south to gather an additional harvest of meat and skins and furs. For
+this purpose we planned to take advantage of the November moon. Thus, in
+the first week of the month, we were ready for a five-hundred-mile run
+to the southern villages and to the night-hunting grounds for walrus.
+
+A crack of whips explosively cut the taut, cold air. The raucous, weird
+and hungry howl of the wolf-dogs replied: "_Ah-u-oo, Ah-u-oo,
+Ah-u-oo!_" rolled over the ice; "_Huk-huk!_" the Eskimos shouted. There
+was a sudden tightening of the traces of our seven sledges; fifty lithe,
+strong bodies leaped forward; and, holding the upstanders, the rear
+upright framework of the native sledges, I and my six companions were
+off. In a few moments the igloos of the village, with lights shining
+through windows where animal membranes served as glass, had sped by us.
+The cheering of the natives behind was soon lost in the grind of our
+sledges on the irregular ice and the joyous, unrestrained barking of the
+leaping, tearing, restless dog-teams.
+
+To the south of us, a misty orange flush suffused the dun-colored sky.
+The sun, which we had not seen for an entire month, now late in November
+far below the horizon, sent to us the dim radiance of a far-away smile.
+After its setting it had, about noon time of each day, set the sky
+faintly aglow, this radiance decreasing until it was lost in the
+brightness of the midday moon. Rising above the horizon, a suspended
+lamp of frosty, pearl-colored glass, the moon for ten days of
+twenty-four hours, each month, encircled about us, now lost behind
+ice-sheeted mountains, again subdued under colored films of frost
+clouds, but always relieving the night of its gloom, and permitting,
+when the wind was not too turbulent, outside activity.
+
+A wonderful animal is the sea-horse, or whale-horse, as the Icelanders
+and Dutch (from whom we have borrowed "walrus") call it. In the summer
+its life is easy and its time is spent in almost perpetual sunny dreams,
+but in winter it would be difficult to conceive of a harder existence
+than its own. Finding food in shallow Polar seas, it comes to permanent
+open water, or to the crevasses of an active pack for breath. With but a
+few minutes' rest on a storm-swept surface, it explores, without other
+relief for weeks, the double-night darkness of unknown depths under the
+frozen sea. At last, when no longer able to move its huge web feet, it
+rises on the ice or seeks ice-locked waters for a needed rest. In
+winter, the thump of its ponderous head keeps the young ice from closing
+its breathing place. If on ice, its thick skin, its blanket of blubber,
+and an automatic shiver, keep its blood from hardening. This is man's
+opportunity to secure meat and fuel, but the quest involves a task to
+which no unaided paleface is equal. The night hunt of the walrus is
+Eskimo sport, but it is nevertheless sport of a most engaging and
+exciting order.
+
+So that I might not be compelled to start on my dash stintedly equipped,
+we now prepared for such an adventure by moonlight. Before this time
+there had not been sufficient atmospheric stability and ice continuity
+to promise comparative safety. My heart exulted as I heard the crack of
+the whips in the electric air and felt the earth rush giddily under my
+feet as I leaped behind the speeding teams. The fever of the quest was
+in my veins; its very danger lent an indescribable thrill, for success
+now meant more to me than perhaps hunting had ever meant to any man.
+
+Not long after we started, darkness descended. The moon slowly passed
+behind an impenetrable curtain of inky clouds; the orange glow of the
+sun faded; and we were surrounded on every side by a blackness so thick
+that it was almost palpable.
+
+As I now recall that mad race I marvel how we escaped smashing sledges,
+breaking our limbs, crushing our heads. We tumbled and jumped in a
+frantic race over the broken, irregular pack-ice from Annoatok to Cape
+Alexander, a distance of thirty miles as the raven moves, but more than
+forty miles as we follow the sledge trail. Here the ice became thin; we
+felt cold mist rising from open water; and now and then, in an
+occasional breaking of the darkness, we could discern vast sheets or
+snaky leads of open sea ahead of us.
+
+To reach the southern waters where the walrus were to be found, we now
+had to seek an overland route, which would take us over the frozen
+Greenland mountains and lead us through the murky clouds, a route of
+twisting detours, gashed glaciers, upturned barriers of rock and ice,
+swept by blinding winds, unmarked by any trail, and which writhed
+painfully beyond us for forty-seven miles.
+
+Arriving at the limit of traversable sea-ice, we now paused before
+sloping cliffs of glacial land-ice which we had to climb. Picture to
+yourself a vast glacier rising precipitously, like a gigantic wall,
+thousands of feet above you, and creeping tortuously up its glassy,
+purple face, if such that surface could be called, formed by the piling
+of one glacial formation upon the other in the descent through the
+valleys, a twisting, retreating road of jagged ice strata, of earth and
+stone, blocked here and there by apparently impassable impediments,
+pausing at almost unscalable, frozen cliffs, and at times no wider than
+a few yards. Imagine yourself pausing, as we suddenly did, and viewing
+the perilous ascent, the only way open to us, revealed in the passing
+glimmer of the pale, circling moon, despair, fear and hope tugging at
+your heart. Whipped across the sky by the lashing winds, the torn
+clouds, passing the face of the moon, cast magnified and grotesquely
+gesticulating shadows on the glistening face of the icy Gibraltar before
+us. Some of these misty shapes seemed to threaten, others shook their
+rag-like arms, beckoning forward. Upon the face of the towering,
+perpendicular ice-wall, great hummocks like the gnarled black limbs of a
+huge tree twisted upwards.
+
+I realized that the frightful ascent must be made. The goal of my single
+aim suddenly robbed the climb of its terrors. I dropped my whip. Six
+other whips cracked through the air. Koo-loo-ting-wah said, "_Kah-Kah!_"
+(Come, come!) But Sotia said, "_Iodaria-Iodaria!_" (Impossible,
+impossible!) The dogs emitted shrill howls. Holding the rear upstanders
+of the sledges, we helped to push them forward.
+
+Before us, the fifty dogs climbed like cats through narrow apertures of
+the ice, or took long leaps over the serried battlements that barred our
+way. We stumbled after, sometimes we fell. Again we had to lift the
+sledges after the dogs.
+
+From the top of the glacier a furious wind brushed us backwards. We felt
+the steaming breath of the laboring dogs in our faces. My heart thumped
+painfully. Now and then the moon disappeared; we followed the unfailing
+instinct of the animals. I realized that a misstep might plunge me to a
+horrible death in the ice abysm below. With a howl of joy from drivers,
+the dogs finally leaped to the naked surface of the wind-swept glacier.
+Panting in indescribable relief, we followed. But the worst part of the
+journey lay before us. The sable clouds, like the curtain of some
+cyclopean stage, seemed suddenly drawn aside as if by an invisible hand.
+
+Upon the illimitable stretch of ice rising before us like the slopes of
+a glass mountain, the full rays of the moon poured liquid silver. Only
+in dreams had such a scene as this been revealed to me--in dreams of the
+enchanted North--which did not now equal reality. The spectacle filled
+me with both awed delight and a sense of terror.
+
+Beyond the fan-shaped teams of dogs the eyes ran over fields of
+night-blackened blue, gashed and broken by bottomless canyons which
+twisted like purple serpents in every direction. Vast expanses of smooth
+surface, polished by the constant winds, reflected the glow of the moon
+and gleamed like isles of silver in a motionless, deep, sapphire sea;
+but all was covered with the air of night. In the moonlight, the jagged
+irregular contours of the broken ice became touched with a burning gilt.
+A constant effect like running quicksilver played about us as the moon
+sailed around the heavens.
+
+Above us the ice pinnacles were lost in the clouds, huge billowy masses
+that were blown in the wind troublously, like the heavy black tresses of
+some Titan woman. I thrilled with the beauty of the magical spectacle,
+yet, when I viewed the perilous pathway, I felt the grip of terror again
+at my heart.
+
+I was aroused from my brief reverie by the familiar "_Huk-huk! Ah-gah!
+Ah-gah!_" of the Eskimos, and placing our hands upon the sledges, we
+leaped forward into the purple-gashed sea, with its blinding sheets of
+silver. I seemed carried through a world such as the old Norsemen sang
+of in the sagas.
+
+Of a sudden, as though extinguished, the moonlight faded, huge shadows
+leaped onto the ice before us, frenziedly waved their arms and melted
+into the pitch-black darkness which descended. I had read imaginative
+tales of wanderings in the nether region of the dead, but only now did I
+have a faint glimmering of the terror (with its certain, exultant
+intoxication) which lost souls must feel when they wander in a darkness
+beset with invisible horrors.
+
+Over the ice, cut with innumerable chasms and neck-breaking
+irregularities, we rushed in the dark. The wind moaned down from the
+despairing cloud-enfolded heights above; it tore through the bottomless
+gullies on every side with a hungry roar. Beads of perspiration rolled
+down my face and froze into icicles on my chin and furs. The temperature
+was 48° below zero.
+
+Occasionally we stopped a moment to gasp for breath. I could hear the
+panting of my companions, the labor of the dogs. A few seconds' inaction
+was followed by convulsive shivering; the pain of stopping was more
+excruciating than that of climbing. In the darkness, the calls of the
+invisible Eskimos to the dogs seemed like the weird appeals of
+disembodied things. I felt each moment the imminent danger of a
+frightful death; yet the dogs with their marvelous intuition, twisting
+this way and that, and sometimes retreating, sensed the open leads ahead
+and rushed forward safely.
+
+At times I felt the yawning depth of ice canyons immediately by my
+side--that a step might plunge me into the depths. Desperately I held
+on to the sledges, and was dragged along. Such an experience might well
+turn the hair of the most expert Alpinist white in one night; yet I did
+not have time to dwell fully upon the dangers, and I was carried over a
+trip more perilous than, later, proved the actual journey on sea-ice to
+the Pole.
+
+Occasionally the moon peered forth from its clouds and brightened the
+gloom. In its light the ice fields swam dizzily by us, as a landscape
+seen from the window of a train; the open gashed gullies writhed like
+snakes, pinnacles dancing like silver spears. By alternate running and
+riding we managed to keep from freezing and sweating. We finally reached
+an altitude of inland ice exceeding two thousand feet. Silver fog crept
+under our feet. We were traveling now in a world of clouds.
+
+We paced twelve miles at a rapid speed. In the light of the moon-burned
+clouds which rolled about our heads, I could see the forms of my
+companions only indistinctly. The dogs ahead were veiled in the argent,
+tremulous mists; the ice sped under me; I was no longer conscious of an
+earthly footing; I might have been soaring in space.
+
+We began to descend. Suddenly the dogs started in leaps to fly through
+the air. Our sleds were jerked into clouds of cutting snow. We jabbed
+our feet into the drift to check the mad speed. On each side we saw a
+huge mountain, seemingly thousands of feet above us, but ahead was
+nothing but the void of empty space. Soon the sledges shot beyond the
+dogs. We threw ourselves off to check the momentum. With dog
+intelligence and savage strength judiciously expended, we reached the
+sea level by flying flights over dangerous slopes, and, like cats, we
+landed on nimble feet in Sontag Bay.
+
+A bivouac was arranged under a dome of snow-blocks, and exhausted by the
+mad journey, a sleep of twenty-four hours was indulged in.
+
+Now, for a time, our task was easier. A course was set along the land,
+southward. Each of the native settlements was visited. The season's
+gossip was exchanged. Presents went into each household, and a return of
+furs and useful products filled our sledges. Thus the time was occupied
+in profitable visits during the feeble light of the November moon. With
+the December moon we returned northward to Ser-wah-ding-wah.
+
+Then our struggle began anew for the walrus grounds. The Polar drift,
+forcing through Smith Sound, left an open space of water about ten miles
+south of Cape Alexander. This disturbed area was our destination. It was
+marked by a dark cloud, a "water-sky"--against the pearly glow of the
+southern heavens. The ice surface was smooth. We did not encounter the
+crushed heaps of ice of the northern route, but there were frequent
+crevasses which, though cemented with new ice, gave us considerable
+anxiety, for I realized that if a northwesterly storm should suddenly
+strike the pack we might be carried helplessly adrift.
+
+The urgency of our mission to secure dog food, however, left no
+alternative. It was better to brave death now, I thought, than to perish
+from scant supplies on the Polar trip. We had not gone far before the
+ever-keen canine noses detected bear tracks on the ice. These we shot
+over the pack surface in true battle spirit. As the bears were evidently
+bound for the same hunting grounds, this course was accepted as good
+enough for us. Although the trail was laid in a circuitous route, it
+avoided the most difficult pressure angles. We traveled until late in
+the day. The moon was low, and the dark purple hue of the night
+blackened the snows.
+
+Of a sudden we paused. From a distance came a low call of walrus bulls.
+The bass, nasal bellow was muffled by the low temperature, and did not
+thump the ear drums with the force of the cry in sunny summer. My six
+companions shouted with glee, and became almost hysterical with
+excitement. The dogs, hearing the call, howled and jumped to jerk the
+sledges. We dropped our whips, and they responded with all their brute
+force in one bound. It was difficult to hold to the sledges as we shot
+over the blackening snows.
+
+The ice-fields became smaller as we advanced; dangerous thin ice
+intervened; but the owl-eyes of the Eskimos knew just where to find safe
+ice. The sounds increased as we approached. We descended from the
+snow-covered ice to thin, black ice and for a time I felt as if we were
+flying over the open surface of the deep. With a low call, the dogs were
+stopped. They were detached from the sledges and tied to holes drilled
+with a knife in ice boulders.
+
+Pushing the sledges upon which rested the harpoon, the lance, the gun
+and knives, each one of us advanced at some distance from his neighbor.
+Soon, lines of mist told of dangerous breaks, and the ice was carefully
+tested with the spiked shaft before venturing farther. I was behind
+Koo-loo-ting-wah's sledge. While he was creeping up to the water's edge,
+there came the rush of a spouting breath so near that we seemed to feel
+the crystal spray. I took his place and pushed the sledge along.
+
+Taking the harpoon, with stealthy strides Koo-loo-ting-wah moved to the
+water's edge and waited for the next spout. We heard other spouts in
+various directions, and in the dark water, slightly lighted by the
+declining moon, we saw other dark spots of spray. Suddenly a burst of
+steam startled me. It was near the ice where Koo-loo-ting-wah lay. I was
+about to shout, but the Eskimo turned, held up his hand and whispered
+"_Ouit-ou._" (Wait.)
+
+Then, very slowly, he lowered his body, spread out his form on the ice,
+and startlingly imitated the walrus call. His voice preternaturally
+bellowed through the night. Out of the inky water, a walrus lifted its
+head. I saw its long, white, spiral, ivory tusk and two phosphorescent
+eyes. Koo-loo-ting-wah did not stir. I shivered with cold and
+impatience. Why did he not strike? Our prey seemed within our hands. I
+uttered an exclamation of vexed disappointment when, with a splash, the
+head disappeared, leaving on the water a line of algae fire.
+
+For several minutes I stood gazing seaward. Far away on the black ocean,
+to my amazement, I saw lights appearing like distant lighthouse signals,
+or the mast lanterns on passing ships. They flashed and suddenly faded,
+these strange will-o'-the wisps of the Arctic sea. In a moment I
+realized that the lights were caused by distant icebergs crashing
+against one another. On the bergs as on the surface of the sea, as it
+happened now, were coatings of a teeming germ life, the same which
+causes phosphorescence in the trail of an ocean ship. The effect was
+indescribably weird.
+
+Suddenly I jumped backward, appalled by a noise that reverberated
+shudderingly under the ice on which I stood. The ice shook as if with an
+earthquake. I hastily retreated, but Koo-loo-ting-wah, lying by the
+water's edge, never stirred. A dead man could not have been less
+responsive. While I was wondering as to the cause of the upheaval, the
+ice, within a few feet of Koo-loo-ting-wah, was suddenly torn asunder as
+if by a submarine explosion. Koo-loo-ting-wah leaped into the air and
+descended apparently toward the distending space of turbulent open
+water. I saw him raise his arm and deliver a harpoon with amazing
+dexterity; at the same instant I had seen also the white tusk and
+phosphorescent eyes of a walrus appear for a moment in the black water
+and then sink.
+
+The harpoon had gone home; the line was run out; a spiked lance shaft
+was driven into the ice through a loop in the end of the line, and the
+line was thus fastened. We knew the wounded beast would have to rise for
+air. With rifle and lance ready, we waited, intending, each time a spout
+of water arose, to drive holes into the tough armor of skin until the
+beast's vitals were tapped. By feeling the line, I could sense the
+struggles of the wild creature below in the depths of the sea. Then the
+line would slacken, a spout of steam would rise from the water,
+Koo-loo-ting-wah would drive a spear, I a shot from my gun. The air
+would become oppressive with the creature's frightful bellowing. Then
+would come an interval of silence.
+
+For about two hours we kept up the battle. Then the line slackened,
+Koo-loo-ting-wah called the others, and together we drew the huge
+carcass, steaming with blood, to the surface of the ice. Smelling the
+odorous wet blood, the dogs exultantly howled.
+
+Falling upon the animal, the natives, trained in the art, with sharp
+knives had soon dressed the thick meat and blubber from the bones and
+lashed the weltering mass on a sledge. This done, with quick despatch,
+they separated, dashed along the edge of the ice, casting harpoons
+whenever the small geysers appeared on the water. We were in excellent
+luck. One walrus after another was dragged lumberingly on the ice, and
+in the course of several hours the seven sledges were heavily loaded
+with the precious supplies which would now enable me, liberally
+equipped, to start Poleward. We gave our dogs a light meal, and started
+landward, leaving great piles of walrus meat behind us on the ice.
+
+Although we were tired on reaching land, we began to build several
+snow-houses in which to sleep. Not far away was an Eskimo village.
+Summoning the natives to help us bring in the spoils of the hunt which
+had been left on the ice, we first indulged in a gluttonous feast of
+uncooked meat, in which the dogs ravenously joined. The meat tasted like
+train-oil. The work of bringing in the meat and blubber and caching it
+for subsequent gathering was hardly finished when, from the ominous,
+glacial-covered highlands, a winter blast suddenly began to come with
+terrific and increasing fury.
+
+Blinding gusts of snow whipped the frozen earth. The wind shrieked
+fiendishly. Above its roar, not three hours after our last trip on the
+ice, a resounding, crashing noise rose above the storm. Braving the
+blasts, I went outside the igloo. Through the darkness I could see white
+curvatures of piling sea-ice. I could hear the rush and crashing of huge
+floes and glaciers being carried seaward. Had we waited another day, had
+we been out on the ice seeking walrus just twenty-four hours after our
+successful hunt, we should have been carried away in the sudden roaring
+gale, and hopelessly perished in the wind-swept deep.
+
+During the night, or hours usually allotted to rest, the noise continued
+unabated. I failed to sleep. Now and then, a crashing noise shivered
+through the storm. An igloo from the nearby settlement was swept into
+the sea. During the gale many of the natives who had retired with their
+clothes hung out to dry, awoke to find that the wind had robbed them of
+their valuable winter furs.
+
+Some time along in the course of the night, I heard outside excited
+Eskimos shouting. There was terror in the voices. Arising and dressing
+hastily, I rushed into the teeth of the storm. Not far away were a
+number of natives rushing along the land some twenty feet beneath which
+the sea lapped the land-ice with furious tongues. They had cast lines
+into the sea and were shouting, it seemed, to someone who was struggling
+in the hopeless, frigid tumult of water.
+
+I soon learned of the dreadful catastrophe. Ky-un-a, an old and cautious
+native, awakened by the storm a brief while before, after dressing
+himself, ventured outside his stone house to secure articles which he
+had left there. As was learned later, he had just tied his sledge to a
+rock when a gust of wind resistlessly rushed seaward, lifted the aged
+man from his feet, and dropped him into the sea. Through the storm, his
+dreadful cries attracted his companions. Some who were now tugging at
+the lines, were barely covered with fur rugs which they had thrown about
+them, and their limbs were partly bare. Now and then, a blinding gust of
+wind, filled with freezing snow crystals, almost lifted us from our
+feet. The sea lapped its tongues sickeningly below us.
+
+Finally a limp body, ice-sheeted, dripping with water, yet clinging with
+its mummied frozen hands to the line, was hauled up on the ice. Ky-un-a,
+unconscious, was carried to his house about five hundred feet away.
+There, after wrapping him in furs, in a brave effort to save his life,
+the natives cut open his fur garments. The fur, frozen solid by the
+frigid blasts in the brief period which had elapsed since his being
+lifted from the water, took with it, in parting from his body, long
+patches of skin, leaving the quivering raw flesh exposed as though by a
+burn. For three days the aged man lay dying, suffering excruciating
+tortures, the victim of merely a common accident, which at any time may
+happen to anyone of these Spartan people. I shall never forget the
+harrowing moans of the suffering man piercing the storm. Perhaps it had
+been merciful to let him perish in the sea.
+
+Ky-un-a's old home was some forty miles distant. To it, that he might
+die there, he desired to go. On the fourth day after the accident, he
+was placed in a litter, covered with warm furs, and borne over the
+smooth icefields. I shall never forget that dismal and solemn
+procession. A benign calm prevailed over land and sea. The orange glow
+of a luxurious moon set the ice coldly aflame. Long shadows, like
+spectral mourners, robed in purple, loomed before the tiny procession.
+Now and then, as they dwindled in the distance, I saw them, like black
+dots, crossing areas of polished ice which glowed like mirror lakes of
+silver. From the distance, softly shuddered the decreasing moans of the
+dying man; then there was silence. I marvelled again upon the lure of
+this eerily, weirdly beautiful land, where, always imminent, death can
+be so terrible.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+MIDNIGHT AND MID-WINTER
+
+THE EQUIPMENT AND ITS PROBLEMS--NEW ART IN THE MAKING OF SLEDGES
+COMBINING LIGHTNESS--PROGRESS OF THE PREPARATIONS--CHRISTMAS, WITH
+ITS GLAD TIDINGS AND AUGURIES FOR SUCCESS IN QUEST OF THE POLE
+
+IX
+
+THE COMING OF THE ESKIMO STORK
+
+
+In planning for the Polar dash I appreciated fully the vital importance
+of sledges. These, I realized, must possess, to an ultimate degree, the
+combined strength of steel with the lightness and elasticity of the
+strongest wood. The sledge must neither be flimsy nor bulky; nor should
+it be heavy or rigid. After a careful study of the art of
+sledge-traveling from the earliest time to the present day, after years
+of sledging and sledge observation in Greenland, the Antarctic and
+Alaska, I came to the conclusion that success was dependent, not upon
+any one type of sledge, but upon local fitness.
+
+All natives of the frigid wilds have devised sledges, traveling and camp
+equipment to fit their local needs. The collective lessons of ages are
+to be read in this development of primitive sledge traveling. If these
+wild people had been provided with the best material from which to work
+out their hard problems of life, then it is probable that their methods
+could not be improved. But neither the Indian nor the Eskimo was ever in
+possession of either the tools or the raw material to fit their
+inventive genius for making the best equipment. Therefore, I had studied
+first the accumulated results of the sledge of primitive man and from
+this tried to construct a sledge with its accessories in which were
+included the advantages of up-to-date mechanics with the use of the most
+durable material which a search of the entire globe had afforded me.[9]
+
+The McClintock sledges, made of bent wood with wide runners, had been
+adopted by nearly all explorers, under different names and with
+considerable modifications, for fifty years. This sledge is still the
+best type for deep soft snow conditions, for which it was originally
+intended. But such snow is not often found on the ice of the Polar sea.
+The native sledge which Peary copied, although well adapted to local use
+along the ice-foot and the land-adhering pack, is not the best sledge
+for a trans-boreal run. This is because it is too heavy and too easily
+broken, and breakable in such a way that it cannot be quickly repaired.
+
+For the Arctic pack, a sledge must be of a moderate length, with
+considerable width. Narrow runners offer less friction and generally
+give sufficient bearing surface. The other qualities vital to quick
+movement and durability are lightness, elasticity and interchangeability
+of parts. All of these conditions I planned to meet in a new pattern of
+sledge which should combine the durability of the Eskimo sledges and the
+lightness of the Yukon sledge of Alaska.
+
+The making of a suitable sledge caused me a good deal of concern. Before
+leaving New York I had taken the precaution of selecting an abundance of
+the best hickory wood in approximately correct sizes for sledge
+construction. Suitable tools had also been provided. Now, as the long
+winter with its months of darkness curtailed the time of outside
+movement, the box-house was refitted as a workshop. From eight to ten
+men were at the benches, eight hours each day, shaping and bending
+runners, fitting and lashing interchangeable cross bars and posts, and
+riveting the iron shoes. Thus the sledge parts were manufactured to
+possess the same facilities to fit not only all other sledges, but also
+other parts of the same sledge. If, therefore, part of a sledge should
+be broken, other parts of a discarded sledge could offer repair sections
+easily.
+
+The general construction of this new sledge is easily understood from
+the various photographs presented. All joints were made elastic by
+seal-thong lashings. The sledges were twelve feet long and thirty inches
+wide; the runners had a width of an inch and an eighth. Each part and
+each completed sledge was thoroughly tested before it was finally loaded
+for the long run. For dog harness, the Greenland Eskimo pattern was
+adopted. But canine habits are such that when rations are reduced to
+minimum limits the leather strips disappear as food. To obviate this
+disaster, the shoulder straps were made of folds of strong canvas, while
+the traces were cut from cotton log line.
+
+A boat is an important adjunct to every sledge expedition which hopes to
+venture far from its base of operations. It is a matter of necessity,
+even when following a coast line, as was shown by the mishap of Mylius
+Erickson, for if he had had a boat he would himself have returned to
+tell the story of the Danish Expedition to East Greenland.
+
+Need for a boat comes with the changing conditions of the advancing
+season. Things must be carried for several months for a chance use in
+the last stages of the return. But since food supplies are necessarily
+limited, delay is fatal, and therefore, when open water prevents
+advance, a boat is so vitally necessary as to become a life preserver.
+Foolish indeed is the explorer who pays slight attention to this
+important problem.
+
+The transportation of a boat, however, offers many serious difficulties.
+Nansen introduced the kayak, and most explorers since have followed his
+example. The Eskimo canoe serves the purpose very well, but to carry it
+for three months without hopeless destruction requires so tremendous an
+amount of energy as to make the task practically impossible.
+
+Sectional boats, aluminum boats, skin floats and other devices had been
+tried, but to all there is the same fatal objection on a Polar trip, of
+impossible transportation. But it seems odd that the ordinary folding
+canvas boat has not been pressed into this service.
+
+We found such a canoe boat to fit the situation exactly, and selected a
+twelve-foot Eureka-shaped boat with wooden frame. The slats, spreaders
+and floor-pieces were utilized as parts of sledges. The canvas cover
+served as a floor cloth for our sleeping bags. Thus the boat did useful
+service for a hundred days and never seemed needlessly cumbersome. When
+the craft was finally spread for use as a boat, in it we carried the
+sledge, in it we sought game for food, and in it or under it we camped.
+Without it we could never have returned.
+
+Even more vital than the choice of sledges, more vital than anything
+else, I knew, in such a trip as I proposed, is the care of the stomach.
+From the published accounts of Arctic traveling it is impossible to
+learn a fitting ration, and I hasten to add that I well realized that
+our own experience may not solve the problem for future expeditions. The
+gastronomic need differs with every man. It differs with every
+expedition, and it is radically different with every nation. Thus, when
+De Gerlache, with good intentions, forced Norwegian food into French
+stomachs, he learned that there is a nationality in gastronomics. Nor is
+it safe to listen to scientific advice, for the stomach is arbitrary,
+and stands as autocrat over every human sense and passion and will not
+easily yield to dictates.
+
+In this respect, as in others, I was helped very much by the natives.
+The Eskimo is ever hungry, but his taste is normal. Things of doubtful
+value in nutrition form no part in his dietary. Animal food, consisting
+of meat and fat, is entirely satisfactory as a steady diet without other
+adjuncts. His food requires neither salt nor sugar, nor is cooking a
+matter of necessity.
+
+Quantity is important, but quality applies only to the relative
+proportion of fat. With this key to gastronomics, pemmican was selected
+as the staple food, and it would also serve equally well for the dogs.
+
+We had an ample supply of pemmican, which was made of pounded dried
+beef, sprinkled with a few raisins and some currants, and slightly
+sweetened with sugar. This mixture was cemented together with heated
+beef tallow and run into tin cans containing six pounds each.
+
+This combination was invented by the American Indian, and the supply for
+this expedition was made by Armour of Chicago after a formula furnished
+by Captain Evelyn B. Baldwin. Pemmican had been used before as part of
+the long list of foodstuffs for Arctic expeditions, but with us there
+was the important difference that it was to be almost entirely the whole
+bill of fare when away from game haunts. The palate surprises in our
+store were few.
+
+By the time Christmas approached I had reason indeed for rejoicing.
+Although this happy season meant little to me as a holiday of
+gift-giving and feasting, it came with auguries for success in the thing
+my heart most dearly desired, and compared to which earth had nothing
+more alluring to give.
+
+Our equipment was now about complete. In the box house were tiers of new
+sledges, rows of boxes and piles of bags filled with clothing, canned
+supplies, dried meat, and sets of strong dog harness. The food, fuel
+and camp equipment for the Polar dash were ready. Everything had been
+thoroughly tested and put aside for a final examination. Elated by our
+success, and filled with gratitude to the faithful natives, I declared a
+week of holidays, with rejoicing and feasting. Feasting was at this time
+especially desirable, for we had now to fatten up for the anticipated
+race.
+
+Christmas day in the Arctic does not dawn with the glow which children
+in waking early to seek their bedecked tree, view outside their windows
+in more southern lands. Both Christmas day and Christmas night are
+black. Only the stars keep their endless watch in the cold skies.
+
+Standing outside my igloo on the happy night, I gazed at the Pole Star,
+the guardian of the goal I sought, and I remembered with a thrill the
+story of that mysterious star the Wise Men had followed, of the wonders
+to which it led them, and I felt an awed reverence for the Power that
+set these unfaltering beacons above the earth and had written in their
+golden traces, with a burning pen, veiled and unrevealed destinies which
+men for ages have tried to learn.
+
+I retired to sleep with thoughts of home. I thought of my children, and
+the bated expectancy with which they were now going to bed, of their
+hopefulness of the morrow, and the unbounded joy they would have in
+gifts to which I could not contribute. I think tears that night wet my
+pillow of furs. But I would give them, if I did not fail, the gift of a
+father's achievement, of which, with a glow, I felt they should be
+proud.
+
+The next morning the natives arrived at the box house early. It had
+been cleared of seamstresses and workmen the day before, and put in
+comparatively spick and span order. I had told the natives they were to
+feed to repletion during the week of holiday, an injunction to the
+keeping of which they did not need much urging.
+
+Early Christmas morning, men and women began working overtime on the two
+festive meals which were to begin that day and continue daily.
+
+About this time, the most important duty of our working force had been
+to uncover caches and dig up piles of frozen meat and blubber. Of this,
+which possesses the flavor and odor of Limburger cheese, and also the
+advantage, if such it be, of intoxicating them, the natives are
+particularly fond. While a woman held a native torch of moss dipped in
+oils and pierced with a stick, the men, by means of iron bars and picks,
+dug up boulders of meat just as coal is forced from mines.
+
+A weird spectacle was this, the soft light of the blubber lamp dancing
+on the spotless snows, the soot-covered faces of the natives grinning
+while they worked. The blubber was taken close to their igloos and
+placed on raised platforms of snow, so as to be out of reach of the
+dogs. Of this meat and blubber, which was served raw, partially thawed,
+cooked and also frozen, the natives partook during most of their waking
+hours. They enjoyed it, indeed, as much as turkey was being relished in
+my far-away home.
+
+Moreover they had, what was an important delicacy, native ice cream.
+This would not, of course, please the palate of those accustomed to the
+American delicacy, but to the Eskimo maiden it possesses all the lure
+of creams, sherberts or ice cream sodas. With us, sugar in the process
+of digestion turns into fat, and fat into body fuel. The Eskimo, having
+no sugar, yearns for fat, and it comes with the taste of sweets.
+
+The making of native ice cream is quite a task. I watched the process of
+making it Christmas day with amused interest. The native women must have
+a mixture of oils from the seal, walrus and narwhal. Walrus and seal
+blubber is frozen, cut into strips, and pounded with great force so as
+to break the fat cells. This mass is now placed in a stone pot and
+heated to the temperature of the igloo, when the oil slowly separates
+from the fibrous pork-like mass. Now, tallow from the suet of the
+reindeer or musk ox is secured, cut into blocks and given by the good
+housewife to her daughters, who sit in the igloo industriously chewing
+it until the fat cells are crushed. This masticated mass is placed in a
+long stone pot over the oil flame, and the tallow reduced from it is run
+into the fishy oil of the walrus or seal previously prepared.
+
+This forms the body of native ice cream. For flavoring, the housewife
+has now a variety from which to select. This usually consists of bits of
+cooked meat, moss flowers and grass. Anticipating the absence of moss
+and grass in the winter, the natives, during the hunting season, take
+from the stomachs of reindeer and musk oxen which are shot, masses of
+partly digested grass which is preserved for winter use. This, which has
+been frozen, is now chipped in fragments, thawed, and, with bits of
+cooked meats, is added to the mixed fats. It all forms a paste the color
+of pistache, with occasional spots like crushed fruit.
+
+The mixture is lowered to the floor of the igloo, which, in winter, is
+always below the freezing point, and into it is stirred snow water. The
+churned composite gradually brightens and freezes as it is beaten. When
+completed, it looks very much like ice cream, but it has the flavor of
+cod liver oil, with a similar odor. Nevertheless, it has nutritive
+qualities vastly superior to our ice cream, and stomach pains rarely
+follow an engorgement.
+
+With much glee, the natives finished their Christmas repast with this
+so-called delicacy. For myself a tremendous feast was prepared,
+consisting of food left by the yacht and the choicest meat from the
+caches. My menu consisted of green turtle soup, dried vegetables, caviar
+on toast, olives, Alaskan salmon, crystallized potatoes, reindeer steak,
+buttered rice, French peas, apricots, raisins, corn bread, Huntley and
+Palmer biscuits, cheese and coffee.
+
+As I sat eating, I thought with much humor of the curious combinations
+of caviar and reindeer steak, of the absurd contradiction in eating
+green turtle soup beyond the Arctic circle. I ate heartily, with more
+gusto than I ever partook of delicious food in the Waldorf Astoria in my
+far-away home city. After dinner I took a long stroll on snow shoes. As
+I looked at the star-lamps swung in heaven, I thought of Broadway, with
+its purple-pale strings of lights, and its laughing merry-makers on this
+festive evening.
+
+I did not, I confess, feel lonely. I seemed to be getting something so
+much more wholesome, so much more genuine from the vast expanse of snow
+and the unhidden heavens which, in New York, are seldom seen. Returning
+to the box-house, I ended Christmas evening with Edgar Allen Poe and
+Shakespeare as companions.
+
+The box-house in which I lived was amply comfortable. It did not possess
+the luxury of a civilized house, but in the Arctic it was palatial. The
+interior fittings had changed somewhat from time to time, but now things
+were arranged in a permanent setting. The little stove was close to the
+door. The floor measured sixteen feet in length and twelve feet in
+width. On one side the empty boxes of the wall made a pantry, on the
+other side were cabinets of tools, and unfinished sledge and camp
+material.
+
+With a step we rose to the next floor. On each side was a bunk resting
+on a bench. The bench was used as a bed, a work bench and seat. The long
+rear bench was utilized as a sewing table for the seamstresses and also
+for additional seating capacity. In the center was a table arranged
+around a post which supported the roof. Sliding shelves from the bunks
+formed table seats. A yacht lamp fixed to the post furnished ample
+light. There was no other furniture. All of our needs were conveniently
+placed in the open boxes of the wall.
+
+The closet room therefore was unlimited. In the boxes near the floor, in
+which things froze hard, the perishable supplies were kept. In the next
+tier there was alternate freezing and thawing. Here we stored lashings
+and skins that had to be kept moist. The tiers above, usually warm and
+dry under the roof, were used for various purposes. There, fresh meat in
+strips, dried crisp in three days. Taking advantage of this, we had made
+twelve hundred pounds of dog pemmican from walrus meat. In the gable we
+placed furs and instruments.
+
+[Illustration: THE CAPTURE OF A BEAR ROUNDING UP A HERD OF MUSK OXEN]
+
+[Illustration: SVARTEVOEG--CAMPING FIVE HUNDRED MILES FROM THE POLE]
+
+The temperature changed remarkably as the thermometer was lifted. On the
+floor in the lower boxes, it fell as low as -20°. Under the bunks on the
+floor, it was usually -10°. The middle floor space was above the
+freezing point. At the level of the bunk the temperature was +48°. At
+the head, standing, +70°, and under the roof, -105°.
+
+We contrived to keep perfectly comfortable. Our feet and legs were
+always dressed for low temperature, while the other portions of our body
+were lightly clad. There was not the usual accumulation of moisture
+except in the lower boxes, where it reinforced the foundation of the
+structure and did no harm. From the hygienic standpoint, with the
+material at hand, we could not have improved the arrangement. The
+ventilation was by small openings, mostly along the corners, which thus
+drew heat to remote angles. The value of the long stove pipe was made
+evident by the interior accumulation of ice. If we did not remove the
+ice every three or four days the draft was closed by atmospheric
+humidity condensed from the draft drawn through the fire. From within,
+the pipe was also a splendid supplementary heater, as it led by a
+circuitous route about the vestibule before the open air was reached,
+thus keeping the workshop somewhat warm. Two Eskimo lamps gave the added
+heat and light for the sledge builders.
+
+From Christmas Day until New Year's there were daily feasts for the
+natives. I luxuriated in a long rest, spending my time taking walks and
+reading. I got a sort of pleasure by proxy in watching the delight of
+these primal people in real food, food which, although to us horribly
+unpalatable, never gives indigestion. This period was one of real
+Christmas rejoicing in many snow homes, and the spirit, although these
+people had never heard of the Christ child, was more truly in keeping
+with this holiday than it often is in lands where, in ostentatious
+celebration, the real meaning is lost.
+
+Wandering from igloo to igloo, to extend greetings and thanks for their
+faithful work, I was often touched by the sounds of thin, plaintive
+voices in the darkness. Each time a pang touched my heart, and I
+remembered the time when I first heard my own baby girl's wee voice. The
+little ones had begun to arrive. The Eskimo stork, at igloo after igloo,
+was leaving its Christmas gift.
+
+For some time before Christmas, Cla-you, easily our best seamstress, had
+not come for her assignment of sewing. To her had been given the
+delicate task of making hare skin stockings; but she had lost interest
+in needle-work and complained of not feeling well. E-ve-lue (Mrs. Sinue)
+was completing her task. Ac-po-di-soa (the big bird), Cla-you's husband,
+whom we called Bismark, had also deserted the bench where he had been
+making sledges. For his absence there was no explanation, for neither he
+nor his wife had ever shirked duties before. To solve the mystery I went
+to his igloo during Christmas week. There I first got news from the
+stork world. The boreal stork comes at a special season of the year,
+usually a few weeks after midnight when there is little else to interest
+the people. This season comes nine months after the days of budding
+passions in April, the first Arctic month of the year when all the
+world is happy. In the little underground home, the anticipated days of
+the stork visit were made interesting by a long line of preparations.
+
+A prospective mother is busy as a bee in a charming effort to make
+everything new for the coming little one. All things about must be
+absolutely new if possible. Even a new house must be built. This places
+the work of preparation quite as much on the father as on the mother.
+There is in all this a splendid lesson in primitive hygiene.
+
+To examine, first, the general home environment; there is a little girl
+four years old still taking nature's substitute for the bottle. She
+looks about for a meaning of all the changes about the home, but does
+not understand. You enter the new house on hands and knees through an
+entrance twelve or fifteen feet long, crowding upwards into an ever-open
+door just large enough to pass the shoulders. You rise into a dungeon
+oblong in shape. The rear two-thirds of this is raised about fifteen
+inches and paved with flat-rock. Upon this the furs are spread for a
+bed. The forward edge forms a seat. The space ahead of this is large
+enough for three people to stand at once. On each side there is a
+semi-circular bulge. In these are placed the crescent-shaped stone
+dishes, in which moss serves as a wick to burn blubber. Over this
+blubber flame, there is a long stone pot in which snow is melted for
+water and meats are occasionally cooked. Over this there is a drying
+rack for boots and furs. There is no other furniture. This house
+represents the home of the Eskimo family at its best. Do what she will,
+the best housewife cannot free it of oil and soot. It is not, indeed, a
+fit place for the immaculate stork to come.
+
+For months, the finest furs have been gathered to prepare a new suit for
+the mother. Slowly one article of apparel after another has been
+completed and put aside. The boots, called _kamik_, are of sealskin,
+bleached to a spotless cream color. They reach halfway up the thigh. The
+inner boot, called _atesha_, of soft caribou fur, is of the same length;
+along its upper edge there is a decorative run of white bear fur. The
+silky fur pads protect the tender skin of limb and foot, for no
+stockings are used. Above these, there are dainty little pants of white
+and blue fox, to protect the body to a point under the hips, and for
+protection above that there is a shirt of birdskins or _aht-tee_. This
+is the most delicate of all garments. Hundreds of little auk skins are
+gathered, chewed and prepared, and as the night comes the garment is
+built blouse-shaped, with hood attached. It fits loosely. There are no
+buttons or openings. For the little one, the hood is enlarged and
+extended down the back, as the pocket for its future abode. The coat of
+fine blue fox skins, or _amoyt_, is of the same shape, but fits loosely
+over all.
+
+The word _amoyt_, or _amoyt docsoa_, in its application, also covers the
+entire range of the art and function of pregnancy. This is regarded as
+an institution of the first order, second only to the art of the chase.
+All being ready for the mother, for the baby only a hood is provided,
+while bird-skins and grass are provided to take the place of absorbent
+cotton. For the first year, the child has absolutely no other wrap or
+cover but its little hood.
+
+The Eskimo loves children. If the stork does not come in due time, he is
+likely to change his life partner. For this reason he looks forward to
+the Christmas season with eager anticipation. Seeking the wilds far and
+near for needed furs, in bitter winds and driving snows, he endures all
+kinds of hardships during the night of months for the sake of the
+expected child. Brave, good little man of iron, he fears nothing.
+
+From a near-by bank of hard snow he cuts blocks for a new igloo. In
+darkness and wind he transports them to a point near the house. When
+enough have been gathered, he walls a dome like a bee-hive. The interior
+arrangement is like the winter underground home. The light is put into
+it. By this he can see the open cracks between snow blocks. These are
+filled in to keep wind and snow out. When all is completed, he cuts a
+door and enters. The bed of snow is flattened.
+
+Then he seeks for miles about for suitable grass to cover the cheerless
+ice floor. To get this grass, he must dig under fields of hardened snow.
+Even then he is not always rewarded with success. The sledge, loaded
+with frozen grass, is brought to the little snow dome. The grass is
+carefully laid on the bed of leveled snow. Over it new reindeer skins
+are spread. Now the new house of snow blocks in which the stork is to
+come is ready.
+
+As the stork's coming is announced the mother's tears give the signal.
+She goes to the new snowhouse alone. The father is frightened and looks
+serious. But she must tear herself away. With her new garments, she
+enters the dark chamber of the snowhouse, strikes a fire, lights the
+lamp. The spotless walls of snow are cheerful. The new things about
+give womanly pride. But life is hard for her. A soul-stirring battle
+follows in that den of ice.
+
+There is a little cry. But there is no doctor, no nurse, no one, not a
+kindly hand to help. A piece of glass is used as a surgical knife. Then
+all is over. There is no soap, no water. The methods of a mother cat are
+this mother's. Then, in the cold, cheerless chamber of ice, she fondly
+examines the little one. Its eyes are blue, but they turn brown at once
+when opened. Its hair is coal black, its skin is golden. It is turned
+over and over in the search for marks or blemishes. The mother's eyes
+run down along the tiny spine. At its end there is a blue shield-shaped
+blot like a tattoo mark. This is the Eskimo guarantee of a well-bred
+child. If it is there, the mother is happy, if not, there are doubts of
+the child's future, and of the purity of the parents. Now the father and
+the grandmother come. All rejoice.
+
+If misfortune at the time of birth befalls a mother, as is not
+infrequent, the snow mound becomes her grave; it is not opened for a
+long time.
+
+After a long sleep, into which the mother falls after her first joy, she
+awakes, turns over, drinks some ice-water, eats a little half-cooked
+meat, and then, shaking the frozen breath from the covers, she wraps
+herself and her babe snugly in furs. Again she sleeps, perhaps
+twenty-four hours, seemingly in perfect comfort, while the life-stilling
+winter winds drive over the feeble wall of snow which shelters her from
+the chilly death outside.
+
+One day during Christmas week there was a knock at our door. The proud
+Ac-po-di-soa walked in, followed by his smiling wife, with the sleeping
+stork gift on her back. The child had been born less than five days
+before. We walked over and admired the little one. It suddenly opened
+its brown eyes, screwed up its little blubber nose, and wrinkled its
+chin for a cry. The mother grabbed her, plunged out of the door, pulled
+the undressed infant out, and in the wind and cold served the little
+one's want.
+
+New Year's Day came starlit and cold. The year had dawned in which I was
+to essay the task to which I had set myself, the year which would mean
+success or failure to me. The past year had been gracious and bountiful,
+so, in celebration, Francke prepared a feast of which we both ate to
+gluttonous repletion. This consisted of ox-tail soup, creamed boneless
+cod, pickles, scrambled duck eggs with chipped smoked beef, roast
+eider-duck, fresh biscuits, crystallized potatoes, creamed onions, Bayo
+beans and bacon, Malaga grapes, (canned), peach-pie, blanc-mange, raisin
+cake, Nabisco biscuits and steaming chocolate.
+
+The day was spent in making calls among the Eskimos. In the evening
+several families were given a feast which was followed by songs and
+dances. This hilarity was protracted to the early hours of morning and
+ended in an epidemic of night hysteria. When thus afflicted the victims
+dance and sing and fall into a trance, the combination of symptoms
+resembling insanity.
+
+In taking account of our stock we found that our baking powder was about
+exhausted. This was sad news, for a breakfast of fresh biscuits, butter
+and coffee was one of the few delights that remained for me in life. We
+had bicarbonate of soda, but no cream of tartar. I wondered whether we
+could not substitute for cream of tartar some other substance.
+
+Curious experiments followed. The juice of sauerkraut was tried with
+good results. But the flavor, as a steady breakfast food, was not
+desirable. Francke had fermented raisins with which to make wine. As a
+wine it was a failure, but as a fruit acid it enabled us to make soda
+biscuits with a new and delicate flavor. Milk, we found, would also
+ferment. From the unsweetened condensed milk, biscuits were made that
+would please the palate of any epicure. My breakfast pleasure therefore
+was still assured for many days to come.
+
+
+
+
+EN ROUTE FOR THE POLE
+
+THE CAMPAIGN OPENS--LAST WEEKS OF THE POLAR NIGHT--ADVANCE PARTIES SENT
+OUT--AWAITING THE DAWN
+
+X
+
+THE START WITH SUNRISE OF 1908
+
+
+Two weeks of final tests and re-examination of clothing, sledges and
+general equipment followed the New Year's festivities. On January 14
+there was almost an hour of feeble twilight at midday. The moon offered
+light enough to travel. Now we were finally ready to fire the first guns
+of the Polar battle. Scouts were outside, waiting for the signal to
+proceed. They were going, not only to examine the ice field for the main
+advance, but to offer succor to a shipwrecked crew, which the natives
+believed was at Cape Sabine.
+
+The smoke of a ship had been seen late in the fall, and much wood from a
+wrecked ship had been found. The pack was, therefore, loaded with
+expedition supplies, with instructions to offer help to anyone in want
+that might be found.
+
+I had just finished a note to be left at Cape Sabine, telling of our
+headquarters, our caches and our willingness to give assistance. This
+was handed to Koo-loo-ting-wah, standing before his restless dogs, whip
+in hand, as were his three companions, who volunteered as scouts. They
+jumped on the sledges, and soon the dogs were rushing toward the Polar
+pack of Smith Sound.
+
+It was a beautiful day. A fold of the curtain of night had been lifted
+for a brief spell. A strong mixed light, without shadows, rested on the
+snow. It changed in quality and color with the changing mystery of the
+aurora. One might call it blue, or purple, or violet, or no color at
+all, according to the color perception of the observer.
+
+In the south the heavens glowed with the heralds of the advancing sun.
+The light was exaggerated by the blink of the ice over which the light
+was sent, for the brightness of the heavens was out of proportion to its
+illuminating effect upon the surface snows. In the north, the half-spent
+moon dispelled the usual blackness Poleward, while the zenith was
+lighted with stars of the first and second magnitude.
+
+The temperature was -41° F. The weather was perfectly calm--all that
+could be expected for the important event of opening the campaign.
+
+In the course of a few hours the cheerful light faded, the snows
+darkened to earthy fields, and out of the north came a smoky tempest.
+The snow soon piled up in tremendous drifts, making it difficult to
+leave the house without climbing new hills. The dogs tied about were
+buried in snow. Only the light passing through the membrane of
+intestines, which was spread over the ports to make windows for the
+native houses, relieved the fierce blackness.
+
+The run to Cape Sabine, under fine conditions, was about forty miles,
+and could be made in one day, but Smith Sound seldom offers a fair
+chance. Insufficient light, impossible winds or ice make the crossing
+hazardous at best. The Eskimos cross every year, but they are out so
+much after bears that they have a good knowledge of the ice before they
+start to reach the other shores.
+
+Coming from the north, with a low temperature and blowing snow, the wind
+would not only stop our scouts, but force the ice south, leaving open
+spaces of water. A resulting disruption of the pack might greatly delay
+our start with heavy sledges. Furthermore, there was real danger at hand
+for the advance. If the party had been composed of white men there
+surely would have been a calamity. But the Eskimo approaches the
+ventures of the wild with splendid endurance. Moreover, he has a weather
+intelligence which seldom finds him unprepared.
+
+At midnight of the second night the party returned. They were none the
+worse for the storm. The main intent of their mission had failed. The
+storm had forced them into snow embankments, and before it was quite
+spent a bear began to nose about their shelter places. The dogs were so
+buried with drift that they were not on watch until the bear had
+destroyed much of their food. Then their mad voices aroused the Eskimos.
+
+As they dug out of their shelter, the bear took a big walrus leg and
+walked off, man-like, holding the meat in his forepaws. In their haste
+to free the dogs, they cut their harness to pieces, for snow and ice
+cemented the creatures. Oo-tah ran out in the excitement to head off the
+bear--not to make an attack, but simply to stop his progress. The bear
+dropped the meat and grabbed Oo-tah by the seat of his trousers. The
+dogs, fortunately, came along in time to save Oo-tah's life, but he had
+received a severe leg wound, which required immediate surgical
+attention.
+
+The bear was captured, and with loads of bear meat and the wounded scout
+the party returned as quickly as possible. In the retreat it was noticed
+that the ice was very much broken.
+
+In the wreck of an Arctic storm there is always a subsequent profit for
+someone. The snow becomes crusted and hardened, making sledge travel
+easy. The breaking of the ice, which was a great hindrance to our
+advance, offered open water for walrus and bear hunting. At this time we
+went to Serwahdingwah for the last chase. Some of the Eskimos took their
+families, so Annoatok became depopulated for a while. But on our return,
+visitors came in numbers too numerous for our comfort.
+
+Dogs and skins, bargained for earlier in the season, were now delivered.
+Each corps of excursionists required some attention, for they had done
+noble work for the expedition. We gave them dinners and allowed them to
+sit about our stove with picture-books in hand.
+
+Another storm came, with still more violent force, a week later. This
+caused us much anxiety, for we counted on our people being scattered on
+the ice along the shores of Cape Alexander. In a storm this would
+probably be swept from the land and carried seaward. There was nothing
+that could be done except wait for news. Messengers of trouble were not
+long in reaching headquarters after the storm. None of the men were on
+the ice, but a hurricane from the land had wrecked the camps.
+
+Our men suffered little, but many of the natives in neighboring villages
+were left without clothing or sleeping furs. In the rush of the storm
+the ice left the land, and the snowhouses were swept into the sea. Men
+and women, without clothing, barely escaped with their lives. Two of our
+new sledges, some dogs, and three suits of winter furs were lost. A
+rescue party with furs had to be sent to the destitute people.
+Fortunately, our people were well supplied with bed-furs, out of which
+new suits were made.
+
+Sledge loads of our furs were also coming north, and instructions were
+sent to use these for the urgent needs of the sufferers. Other things
+were sent from Annoatok, with returning excursionists, and in the course
+of a week the damage was replaced. But the loss was all on the
+expedition, and deprived many of the men in their northern journey of
+suitable sleeping-furs. Walruses were obtained after the storm, and the
+natives now had no fear of a famine of meat or fat.
+
+By the end of January most of the natives had returned, and new
+preparations were made for a second effort to cross the Sound. Francke
+asked to join the party, and prepared for his first camp outing. Four
+sledges were loaded with two hundred pounds each of expedition advance
+supplies. Four good drivers volunteered to move the sledges to the
+American side.
+
+The light had gradually brightened, and the storms passed off and left a
+keen, cold air, which was as clear as crystal. But at best the light was
+still feeble, and could be used for only about four hours of each
+twenty-four. If, however, the sky remained clear, the moon and stars
+would furnish enough illumination for a full day's travel. There was a
+little flush of color in the southern skies, and the snows were a pale
+purple as the sledges groaned in their rush over the frosty surface.
+
+The second party started off as auspiciously as the first, and news of
+its luck was eagerly awaited.
+
+They reached Cape Sabine after a long run of twenty hours, making a
+considerable detour to the north. The ice offered good traveling, but
+the cold was bitter, the temperature being -52° F., with light,
+extremely humid and piercing winds.
+
+Along the land and within the bays the snow was found to be deep, and a
+bitter wind came from the west. Two of the party could not be persuaded
+to go farther, but Francke, with two companions, pushed on for another
+day along the shore to Cape Veile. Beyond, the snow was too deep to
+proceed. The supplies were cached in a snowhouse, while those at Cape
+Sabine were left in the old camp. The party returned at the end of four
+days with their object accomplished. Nothing was seen of the rumored
+shipwrecked crew.
+
+The next party, of eight sledges, led by Es-se-you, Kud-la, and Me-tek,
+started on February 5. The object was to carry advance supplies to the
+head of Flagler Bay, and hunt musk ox to feed the sledge teams as they
+moved overland. We were to meet this party at an appointed place in the
+bay.
+
+The light was still too uncertain to risk the fortunes of the entire
+force. With a hundred dogs, a delay of a day would be an expensive loss,
+for if fed upon the carefully guarded food of the advance stores, a
+rapid reduction in supplies would follow, which could not be replaced,
+even if abundant game were secured later. It was, therefore, desirable
+to await the rising sun.
+
+We made our last arrangements, fastened our last packs, and waited
+impatiently for the sunrise, here at this northernmost outpost of human
+life, just seven hundred miles from the Pole. And this was the problem
+that now insistently and definitely confronted us after the months of
+planning and preparation: Seven hundred miles of advance, almost a
+thousand miles as our route was planned; one thousand miles of return;
+two thousand miles in all; allowing for detours (for the line to be
+followed could not be precisely straight), more than two thousand miles
+of struggling travel across icy and unknown and uninhabitable wastes of
+moving ice.
+
+On the morning of February 19, 1908, I started on my trip to the North
+Pole.
+
+Early, as the first real day of the year dawned, eleven sledges were
+brought to the door of our box-house and lashed with supplies for the
+boreal dash. There were four thousand pounds of supplies for use on the
+Polar sea, and two thousands pounds of walrus skin and fat for use
+before securing the fresh game we anticipated. The eleven sledges were
+to be driven by Francke, nine Eskimos, and myself. They were drawn by
+one hundred and three dogs, each in prime condition. The dogs had been
+abundantly fed with walrus skin and meat for several weeks, and would
+now be fed only every second day on fresh supplies.
+
+My heart was high. I was about to start on the quest which had inspired
+me for many years! The natives were naturally excited. The dogs caught
+the contagious enthusiasm, and barked joyously. At eight o'clock in the
+morning our whips snapped, the spans of dog teams leaped forward, and we
+were off.
+
+My Polar quest had begun!
+
+Most of the tribe had seemed willing to go with me, and to take all
+their dogs, but the men and the dogs finally selected were the pick of
+the lot. All were in superb physical condition, this matter of condition
+being something that I had carefully looked out for during the winter
+months. I regard this as having been highly advantageous to me, that
+I have always been able to win the friendship and confidence of the
+Eskimos; for thus I found them extremely ready to follow my advice
+and instructions, and to do in general anything I desired. That
+I could speak Eskimo fairly well--well enough to hold ordinary
+conversations--was also a strong asset in my favor.
+
+When we started, a few stars were seen between thin clouds, but the
+light was good. A soft wind came from the south; the temperature was
+-36° F. The Greenland ice-cap was outlined; a belt of orange in the
+south heralded the rising sun. The snow still retained the purple of
+twilight. The ice was covered with about three inches of soft snow over
+a hard crust, which made speed difficult. Before noon the sky was gray,
+but the light remained good enough for traveling until 4 P. M. A course
+was made about northwest, because a more direct line was still
+impractical.
+
+A water sky to the west and south denoted open water. At 3 P. M. we ran
+into bear tracks, and the sledges bounced along as if empty. The tracks
+were making a good course for us, so the dogs were encouraged. By four
+o'clock the feeble light made it dangerous to proceed. Two hunters still
+followed the bear tracks, while the others built three snowhouses for
+camp. Nothing was seen of the bears.
+
+The dogs were tied to holes cut in the ice, and we crept into our
+snow-mounds, tired, hungry and sleepy. The night was extremely
+uncomfortable--the first nights from camp always are.
+
+The next day brought a still air with a temperature of -42° F., and
+brilliant light at eight o'clock. We had made twenty miles through the
+air-line distance from Annoatok, and Cape Sabine was but thirty miles
+away. We had been forced so far north that we still had thirty miles
+before us to the Cape. The dogs, however, were in better trim, and we
+had no doubt about reaching the off-shores for the next camp. We
+followed the edge of ice which had been made in a wide open space in
+December. Here the traveling was fairly level, but above was a hopeless
+jungle of mountains and ridges of ice. We made about three miles an
+hour, and were able to ride occasionally.
+
+At noon of February 20th we stopped, and coffee was served from our
+ever-hot coffee box. A can had been placed in a box, and so protected by
+reindeer skins that the heat was retained for twelve hours during the
+worst weather. This proved a great luxury.
+
+While we sat regaling ourselves, a great ball of fire rose along the icy
+horizon. Our hearts were glad. The weather was bitterly cold; the
+temperature was 51° F.: but the sun had risen; the long night was at
+end. There was little else to mark the glory of sunrise. The light was
+no brighter than it had been for two hours. The sky remained a purple
+blue, with a slight grayness in the south, darkening toward the horizon.
+The snows were purple, with just a few dashes of red in the road before
+us. This unpretentious burst of the sun opened our spirits to new
+delights. Even the dogs sat in graceful rows and sounded a chorus of
+welcome to the coming of the day.
+
+Although Cape Sabine, on February 20, was in sight, we still headed for
+Bache Peninsula. Impossible ice and open water pushed us farther and
+farther north. It was three o'clock before the Cape was seen over the
+dogs' tails. Soon after four the light failed, the land colored to
+purple and gold toward the rim of the horizon, and we were left to guess
+the direction of our course. But Eskimos are somewhat better than
+Yankees at guessing, for we got into no troubles until 9 P. M., when we
+tried to scale the rafted ice against Cape Sabine. With only the camp
+equipment and dog food, the dogs crept up and down in the black hills of
+ice, while we followed like mountain-sheep.
+
+Here had been the camp of the ill-fated Greely expedition. It recurred
+to me that it was a curious whim of fate that this ill-starred camp of
+famine and death, in earlier days, should have marked the very outset of
+our modern effort to reach the Pole. But later we were to learn that
+under similar conditions a modern expedition can meet the same fate as
+that of the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition.
+
+We turned about, took the advance supplies, and picked a course through
+Rice Strait, to avoid the rough ice northward. Here the surface was
+good, but a light wind, with a temperature of -52° F., came with great
+bitterness. The dogs refused to face the wind, and required someone to
+lead the way. The men buried their faces in the fur mittens, leaned on
+the upstanders, and ran along.
+
+Passing Cape Rutherford on February 22, we followed the coast. Here the
+wind came from the right, caught the tip of the nose, burning with a
+bleaching effect, which, in camp later, turned black. At Cape Veile the
+cache igloo was sighted, and there camp was pitched.
+
+In the morning the minimum thermometer registered -58° F. We were
+evidently passing from the storms and open water of Smith Sound, from
+warm, moist air to a still, dry climate, with very low temperature. The
+day opened beautifully with a glow of rose to the south, which colored
+the snows in warm tones. At noon the sun showed half of its face over
+the cliffs as we crossed the bay and sought better ice along Bache
+Peninsula. That night we camped near the Weyprecht Islands. The day,
+although bright, proved severe, for most of the natives had frostbites
+about the face. Along Bache Peninsula we saw hares staring at us. Four
+were secured for our evening meal. In the very low temperature of -64°
+F. the hunters suffered from injuries like burns, due to the blistering
+cold metal of their guns.
+
+Dog food had also to be prepared. In efforts to divide the walrus skin,
+two hatchets were broken. The Eskimo dog is a tough creature, but he
+cannot be expected to eat food which breaks an axe. Petroleum and
+alcohol were used liberally, and during the night the skin was
+sufficiently softened by the heat to be cut with the hatchets. This
+skin seems to be good food for the dogs. It is about one inch thick, and
+contains little water, the skin fibre being a kind of condensed
+nutriment, small quantities of which satisfy the dogs. It digests
+slowly, and therefore has lasting qualities.
+
+The lamps, burning at full force, made the igloos comfortable. The
+temperature fell to -68° F. It was the first satisfying sleep of the
+journey for me. The economy of the blue fire stoves is beyond
+conception. Burning but three pounds of oil all night, the almost liquid
+air was reduced to a normal temperature of freezing point.
+
+Francke used alcohol stoves, with a double consumption of fuel. The
+natives, in their three igloos, used the copper lamp, shaped after the
+stone devices, but they did no cooking.
+
+In the morning of the 23d we heard sounds to the south, which at first
+we thought to be walrus. But after a time the noise was interpreted as
+that of the dogs of the advance party. They were camped a few miles
+beyond, and came to our igloos at breakfast. One musk ox and eleven
+hares had been secured. The valley had been thoroughly hunted, but no
+other game was sighted.
+
+The ground was nearly bare, and made sledge travel impossible. They were
+bound for Annoatok at once. This was sad news for us. We had counted on
+game with which to feed the dog train en route to the Polar sea. If
+animals were not secured, our project would fail at the very start, and
+this route would be impossible. To push overland rapidly to the west
+coast was our only chance, but the report of insufficient snow seemed to
+forbid this. Something, however, must be tried. We could not give up
+without a stronger fight. The strong probability of our failing to find
+musk ox, and extending the expedition for another year, over another
+route, made it necessary to send Francke back to headquarters to guard
+our supplies. There was no objection to the return of most of the other
+party, but we took their best dogs and sledges, with some exchange of
+drivers.
+
+With this change in the arrangements, and the advance supplies from Cape
+Sabine and Cape Viele, each sledge now carried eight hundred pounds.
+Beyond, in Flagler Bay, the ice luckily became smooth and almost free of
+snow. An increased number of dogs, with good traveling, enabled us to
+make satisfactory progress, despite the steadily falling temperature.
+
+The head of Flagler Bay was reached late at night, after an exhausting
+march of twenty-five miles. A hard wind, with a temperature of -60° F.,
+had almost paralyzed the dogs, and the men were kept alive only by
+running with the dogs. Comfortable houses were built and preparations
+made for a day of rest. On the morrow we aimed to explore the land for
+an auspicious route. Many new frostbites were again noted in camp. One
+of the dogs died of the cold.
+
+The party was by no means discouraged, however. We were as enthusiastic
+as soldiers on the eve of a longed-for battle. The reduced numbers of
+the return party gave us extra rations to use in times of need, and the
+land did not seem as hopeless as pictured by the returning natives. A
+cache was made here of needful things for use on the return. Other
+things, which we had found useless, were also left here.
+
+
+
+
+EXPLORING A NEW PASS OVER ACPOHON
+
+FROM THE ATLANTIC WATERS AT FLAGLER BAY TO THE PACIFIC WATERS AT BAY
+FIORD--THE MECCA OF THE MUSK OX--BATTLES WITH THE BOVINE MONSTERS OF
+THE ARCTIC--SUNRISE AND THE GLORY OF SUNSET
+
+XI
+
+BREAKING A TRAIL BEYOND THE HAUNTS OF MAN
+
+
+Early in the morning of February 25 the dogs were spanned to sledges
+with heavy loads, and we pushed into the valley of mystery ahead. Our
+purpose was to cross the inland ice and descend into Cannon Bay. The
+spread of the rush of glacial waters in summer had dug out a wide
+central plain, now imperfectly covered with ice and snow. Over this we
+lined a trail.
+
+On each side of us were gradual slopes rising to cliffs, above which I
+noted the blue wall of the overland sea of ice, at an altitude of about
+two thousand feet. Nowhere did this offer a safe slope for an ascent. We
+now explored the picturesque valley, for I knew that our only hope was
+to push overland to Bay Fiord. The easy slopes were enlivened with
+darting, downy hares. Some sat motionless, with their long ears erect,
+while they drank the first golden air of sunrise and watched the coming
+of new life. Others danced about in frisky play.
+
+As we pushed along, the ascent of the slope was gradual. The necessity
+for crossing from side to side to find ice or snow lengthened our
+journey. Only the partially bare earth gave us trouble. The temperature
+was -62° F., but there was no wind. The upper slopes glittered with
+bright sunshine. Winding with a stream, we advanced twenty miles. Beyond
+there was the same general topography. The valley looked like a pass.
+Clouds of a different kind were seen through the gorges. At various
+places we noted old musk ox paths. I knew that where game trails are
+well marked on mountains one is certain to find a good crossing. This
+rule is equally good in the Arctic as elsewhere. At any rate, there was
+no alternative. The tortures of the top had to be risked. Pushing
+onward, we found no fresh signs of musk ox. A few bear tracks were seen,
+and a white fox followed us to camp. We shot sixteen hares, and for the
+evening meal unlimited quantities of savory hare meat made an appetizing
+broth.
+
+On the day following, everything was advanced to this point. A prolonged
+search for musk ox was made, with negative results.
+
+On the morning of the 27th, full loads were taken on our sledges. With
+slow progress we advanced on the rising bed of the stream, the valley
+moved, and the river ice was found in one channel, making better travel.
+Hare and fox tracks increased in number. The side slopes were grassy,
+and mostly swept bare of snow by strong winter winds. Sand dunes and
+gravel lines were also piled up, while huge drifts of pressed snow
+indicated a dangerous atmospheric agitation. Here, I knew, were
+excellent feeding grounds for musk ox and caribou. But a careful
+scrutiny gave no results for a long time.
+
+To us the musk ox was now of vital importance. The shorter way, over
+Schley Land and northward through Nansen Sound, was possible only if
+game in abundance was secured en route. If the product of the chase gave
+us no reward, then our Polar venture was doomed at the outset.
+
+One day, with a temperature of -100° below the freezing point, and with
+a light but sharp Arctic wind driving needles of frost to the very bone,
+we searched the rising slopes of ice-capped lands in the hope of
+spotting life.
+
+For three days the dogs had not been fed. They sniffed the air, searched
+the horizon, and ranged the wilds with all the eagerness of their wolf
+progenitors. The hare and the fox were aroused from their winter's
+sleep, but such game was not what we now desired. Only meat and fat in
+heaps could satisfy the wants of over a hundred empty stomachs.
+
+After a hard pull, ascending miniature, ice-covered hills, winding about
+big, polished boulders, we entered a wider section of the narrow
+gorge-like valley. Here the silurian rocks had broken down, and by the
+influence of glacier streams and glaciers, now receding, a good deal of
+rolling, grass-covered land spread from cliff to cliff. Strong winter
+gales had bared the ground. We sat down to rest. The dogs did likewise.
+
+All searched the new lands with eager eyes. The dog noses pointed to a
+series of steep slopes to the north. They were scenting something, but
+were too tired to display the usual animation of the chase. Soon we
+detected three dark, moving objects on a snowy sun-flushed hill, under a
+huge cliff, about a thousand feet above us. _"Ah-ming-mah!"_ shouted
+E-tuk-i-shook. The dogs jumped; the men grasped glasses; in a second the
+sledge train was in disorder.
+
+Fifty dogs were hitched to three sledges. Rushing up three different
+gulches, the sledges, with tumbling human forms as freight, advanced to
+battle. The musk oxen, with heads pointed to the attacking forces,
+quietly awaited the onrush.
+
+Within an hour three huge, fat carcasses were down in the river bed. A
+temporary camp was made, and before the meat froze most of it had passed
+palates tantalized by many days of gastronomic want.
+
+Continuing our course, we crossed the divide in a storm. Beyond, in a
+canyon, the wind was more uncomfortable than in the open. Something must
+be done. We could not long breathe that maddening air, weighted by frost
+and thickened by snows. The snow-bank gave no shelter whatever, and a
+rush of snow came over, which quickly buried the investigators. But it
+was our only hope.
+
+"Dig a hole," said Koo-loo-ting-wah.
+
+Now, to try to dig a hole without a shovel, and with snow coming more
+rapidly than any power of man could remove, seemed a waste of needed
+vital force. But I had faith in the intelligence of my savage
+companions, and ordered all hands to work. They gathered at one corner
+of the bank, and began to talk and shout, while I allowed myself to be
+buried in a pocket of the cliffs to keep my tender skin from turning to
+ice. Every few minutes someone came along to see if I was safe.
+
+The igloo was progressing. Two men were now inside. In the course of
+another hour they reported four men inside; in another hour seven men
+were inside, and the others were piling up the blocks, cut with knives
+from the interior. A kind of vestibule was made to allow the wind to
+shoot over the entrance. Inside, the men were sweating.
+
+Soon afterward I was told that the igloo was completed. I lost no time
+in seeking its shelter. A square hole had been cut, large enough for the
+entire party if packed like sardines. Our fur clothing was removed, and
+beaten with sticks and stones.
+
+The lamps sang cheerily of steaming musk ox steaks. The dogs were
+brought into the canyon. A more comfortable night was impossible. We
+were fifty feet under the snow. The noise of the driving storm was lost.
+The blinding drift about the entrance was effectually shut out by a
+block of snow as a door. Two holes afforded ventilation, and the
+tremendous difference between the exterior and the interior air assured
+a circulation.
+
+When we emerged in the morning the sky was clear. A light wind came from
+the west, with a temperature of -78° F. Two dogs had frozen during the
+storm. All were buried in the edge of a drift that was piled fifteen
+feet. An exploration of the canyon showed other falls and boulders
+impossible for sledge travel.
+
+A trail was picked over the hills to the side. The day was severe. How
+we escaped broken legs and smashed sleds was miraculous. But somehow, in
+our plunges down the avalanches, we always landed in a soft bed of snow.
+We advanced about ten miles, and made a descent of five hundred feet,
+first camping upon a glacial lake.
+
+The temperature now was -79° F., and although there were about nine
+hours of good light, including twilight, we had continued our efforts
+too long, and were forced to build igloos by moonlight. Glad were we,
+indeed, when the candle was placed in the dome of snow, to show the last
+cracks to be stuffed.
+
+In the searchlight of the frigid dawn I noticed that our advance was
+blocked by a large glacier, which tumbled barriers of ice boulders into
+the only available line for a path. A way would have to be cut into this
+barrier of icebergs for about a mile. This required the full energy of
+all the men for the day. I took advantage of the halt to explore the
+country through which we were forcing a pass. The valley was cut by
+ancient glaciers and more modern creeks along the meeting line of two
+distinct geological formations. To the north were silurian and
+cambro-silurian rocks; to the south were great archæan cliffs.
+
+With the camera, the field-glass, and other instruments in the sack, I
+climbed into a gorge and rose to the level of the mountains of the
+northern slopes. The ground was here absolutely destitute of vegetation,
+and only old musk ox trails indicated living creatures. The snow had all
+been swept into the ditches of the lowlands. Climbing over
+frost-sharpened stones, I found footing difficult.
+
+The average height of the mountains proved to be nineteen hundred feet.
+To the northeast there was land extending a few miles further, with a
+gradual rising slope. Beyond was the blue edge of the inland ice. To
+the northwest, the land continued in rolling hills, beyond which no
+land-ice was seen. The cliffs to the south were of about the same
+height, but they were fitted to the crest with an ice-cap. The overflow
+of perpetual snows descended into the gorges, making five overhanging
+glaciers.
+
+The first was at the divide, furnishing in summer the waters which
+started the vigorous stream to the Atlantic slopes. It was a huge stream
+of ice, about a mile wide, and it is marked by giant cliffs, separated
+by wide gaps, indicating the roughness of the surface over which it
+pushes its frozen height. To the stream to which it gives birth, flowing
+eastward from the divide, I will give the name of Schley River, in honor
+of Rear-Admiral Schley.
+
+The stream starting westward from the divide, through picturesque rocks,
+tumbles in icy falls into a huge canyon, down to the Pacific waters at
+Bay Fiord. To this I will give, in honor of General A. W. Greely, the
+name Greely River.
+
+The second and third glaciers were overhanging masses about a half-mile
+wide, which gave volume in summer time to Greely River.
+
+The fourth was a powerful glacier, with a discharging face of blue three
+miles long, closing up a valley and damming up a lake about four miles
+long and one mile wide. The lake was beyond the most precipitous of the
+descending slopes. The upper cliffs of the walled valley to Flagler Bay
+were still visible, while to the west was seen a line of mountains and
+cliffs which marked the head of Bay Fiord, under which was seen the ice
+covering the first water of the Pacific upon which our future fortunes
+would be told. To this sea level there was an easy descent of four
+hundred feet on the river ice and snowdrifts, making, with good luck, a
+day's run of twenty miles.
+
+Returning, at camp I was informed that not only had a trail been cut,
+but many of the sledges had been advanced to the good ice beyond. Two of
+the sledges, however, had been badly broken, and must be mended at dawn
+before starting.
+
+The day was beautiful. For the first time I felt the heat of the sun. It
+came through the thick fur of my shoulders with the tenderness of a warm
+human hand. The mere thought of the genial sunbeams brought a glow of
+healthful warmth, but at the same time the thermometer was very low,
+-78½° F. One's sense of cold, under normal conditions, is a correct
+instrument in its bearing upon animal functions, but as an instrument of
+physics it makes an unreliable thermometer. If I had been asked to guess
+the temperature of the day I should have placed it at -25° F.
+
+The night air had just a smart of bitterness. The igloo failed to become
+warm, so we fed our internal fires liberally with warming courses,
+coming in easy stages. We partook of superheated coffee, thickened with
+sugar, and biscuits, and later took butter chopped in squares, which was
+eaten as cheese with musk ox meat chopped by our axes into splinters.
+Delicious hare loins and hams, cooked in pea soup, served as dessert.
+
+The amount of sugar and fat which we now consumed was quite remarkable.
+Fortunately, during the journey to the edge of the Polar sea, there was
+no urgent limit to transportation, and we were well supplied with the
+luxury of sugar and civilized foods, most of which later were to be
+abandoned.
+
+In this very low temperature I found considerable difficulty in jotting
+down the brief notes of our day's doings. The paper was so cold that the
+pencil barely left a mark. A few moments had to be spent warming each
+page and pencil before beginning to write. With the same operation, the
+fingers were also sufficiently warmed to hold the pencil. All had to be
+done by the light and heat of a candle.
+
+To economize fuel, the fires later were extinguished before retiring to
+sleep. In the morning we were buried in the frost falling from our own
+breath.
+
+It was difficult to work at dawn with fur-covered hands; but the Eskimo
+can do much with his glove-fitting mitten. The broken sledges were soon
+repaired. After tumbling over irregular ice along the face of the
+glacier, the river offered a splendid highway over which the dogs
+galloped with remarkable speed. We rode until cold compelled exercise.
+The stream descended among picturesque hills, but the most careful
+scrutiny found no sign of life except the ever-present musk ox trails of
+seasons gone by.
+
+As we neared the sea line, near the mouth of the river, we began to see
+a few fresh tracks of hare and musk ox. Passing out on the south of Bay
+Fiord, we noted bear and wolf tracks. Then the eyes of the hunter and
+the dog rolled with eager anticipation.
+
+The sun flushed the skies in flaming colors as it was about to sink
+behind a run of high peaks. The western sky burned with gold, the ice
+flashed with crimson inlets, but the heat was very feeble. The
+temperature was -72° F. We had already gone twenty-five miles, and were
+looking forward to a point about ten miles beyond as the next camping
+place, when all my companions, seemingly at once, espied a herd of musk
+ox on the sky line of a whale-backed mountain to the north.
+
+The distance was about three miles, but the eagle eyes of the natives
+detected the black spots.
+
+We searched the gorge with our glasses. Suddenly one of the Eskimos
+cried out in a joyous tone: "_Ah-ming-ma! Ah-ming-ma!_"
+
+I could detect only some dark specks on the snow, which looked like a
+hundred others that I knew to be rocks. I levelled my glasses on the
+whale-backed mountain at which the Eskimo was staring, and, sure enough,
+there were three musk oxen on a steep snow slope. They seemed to be
+digging up the winter snow fields to get "scrub" willows. They were not
+only three miles away, but at an altitude of perhaps a thousand feet
+above us.
+
+The cumbersome loads were quickly pitched from three sledges. Rifles and
+knives were securely fastened. In a few moments the long lashes snapped,
+and away we rushed, with two men on each of the sledges and with double
+teams of twenty dogs.
+
+The dogs galloped at a pace which made the sledges bound like rubber
+balls over irregularities of rocks, slippery ice, and hard-crusted snow,
+and our hold tightened on the hickory in the effort to keep our places.
+It disturbed the dogs not at all whether they were on rock or snow, or
+whether the sledge rested on runners or turned spirally; but it made
+considerable difference to us, and we lost much energy in the constant
+efforts to avoid somersaults. We did not dare release our grip for a
+moment, for to do so would have meant painful bumping and torn clothes,
+as well as being left behind in the chase.
+
+It took but a brief time to cover the three miles. We made our final
+advance by three separate ravines, and for a time the musk oxen were out
+of sight. When we again saw them they had not taken the alarm, nor did
+they until we were ready to attack them from three separate points.
+
+All but five dogs from each sledge were now freed from harness. They
+darted toward the oxen with fierce speed.
+
+The oxen tried to escape through a ravine, but it was too late. The dogs
+were on every side of them, and all the oxen could do was to grunt
+fiercely and jump into a bunch, with tails together and heads directed
+at the enemy. There were seven musk oxen in all, and they tried to keep
+the dogs scattered at a safe distance.
+
+The dogs would rush up to within a few feet, showing their teeth and
+uttering wolfish sounds, and every now and then an ox would rush out
+from its circle, with head down, in an effort to strike the dogs; but
+the dogs were always too quick to be caught by the savage thrust, and
+each time the ox, in its retreat, would feel canine fangs closing on its
+haunches.
+
+After a few such efforts, the bulls, with lowered horns, merely held to
+the position, while the dogs, not daring actually to attack under such
+circumstances, sat in a circle and sent up blood-chilling howls.
+Meanwhile, the Eskimos and myself were hurrying up.
+
+The strife was soon over. I snapped my camera at an old bull which at
+that moment broke through the dogs and, followed by a group of them, was
+driven madly over a cliff in a plunge of five thousand feet. The other
+oxen were soon killed by the hunters.
+
+[Illustration: "THE IGLOO BUILT, WE PREPARE FOR OUR DAILY CAMP"]
+
+[Illustration: CAMPING TO EAT AND TAKE OBSERVATIONS ON AGAIN!]
+
+The sun settled under mountains of ice, and the purple twilight rapidly
+thickened. It was very cold. The breath of each man came like jets of
+steam from a kettle. The temperature was now -81° F. No time could be
+lost in dressing the game. But the Eskimos were equal to the task, and
+showed such skill as only Indians possess.
+
+While this was being done by my companions, I strolled about to note the
+ear-marks of the home of the musk ox. The mountain was in line of the
+sweep of the winds, and was bared of snows. Here were grass, mosses, and
+creeping willows in abundance, descending into the gullies. I found
+fossil-stumps of large trees and bits of lignite coal. The land in
+pre-glacial times had evidently supported a vigorous vegetation; but now
+the general aspect offered a scene of frosty hopelessness. Still, in
+this desolation of snowy wastes, nature had supplied creatures with food
+in their hard pressure of life.
+
+Fox and wolf tracks were everywhere, while on every little eminence sat
+an Arctic hare, evincing ear-upraised surprise at our appearance. With
+the glasses I noted on neighboring hills three other herds of musk ox.
+This I did not tell the hunters, for they would not have rested until
+all were secured. Living in a land of cold and hunger, the Eskimo is
+insatiable for game. We had as much meat as we could possibly use for
+the next few days, and it was much easier to fill up, and secure more
+when we needed it, than now to carry almost impossible loads. In a
+remarkably short time the skins were removed and the meat was boned and
+cut in small strips in such a way that the axe would break it when
+frozen. Neatly wrapped in skins, the loads did not seem large.
+
+Selecting a few choice bits for later use, the balance was separated and
+allowed to cool. I looked at the enormous quantity of meat, and wondered
+how it could be transported to camp, but no such thought troubled the
+Eskimos. Piece after piece went down the canine throats with a gulp. No
+energy was wasted in mastication. With a drop of the jaws and a twist of
+the neck, the task of eating was finished and the stomach began to
+spread. The dogs had not yet reached their limit when the snow was
+cleared of its weight of dressed meat and a canine wrangle began for the
+possession of the cleaned bones.
+
+With but little meat on the sledges, we began the descent, but the
+spirit of the upward rush was lost. The dogs, too full to run, simply
+rolled down the slopes, and we pushed the sledges ourselves. The ox that
+had made the death plunge was picked up and taken as reserve meat. It
+was midnight before camp was pitched. The moon burned with a cheerful
+glow. The air was filled with liquid frost, but there was no wind and
+consequently no suffering from cold.
+
+Two comfortable snowhouses were built, and in them our feasts rivalled
+the canine indulgence. Thus was experienced the greatest joy of savage
+life in boreal wilds--the hunt of the musk ox, with the advantage of the
+complex cunning gathered by forgotten ages. The balance of the meat left
+after our feast was buried, with the protecting skins, in the snow. On
+opening the meat on the following morning, it was still warm, although
+the minimum thermometer registered -80° F. for the night.
+
+A few minutes before midday, on our next march, the sledge train halted.
+We sat on the packs, and, with eyes turned southward, waited. Even an
+Eskimo has an eye for color and a soul for beauty. To us there appeared
+a play of suppressed light and bleached color tints, as though in
+harmony with bars of music, which inspired my companions to shouts of
+joy.
+
+Slowly and majestically the golden orb lifted. The dogs responded in
+low, far-reaching calls. The Eskimos greeted the day god with savage
+chants. The sun, a flushed crimson ball, edged along the wintry outline
+of the mountains' purplish snowy glitter. The pack was suddenly screened
+by a moving sheet of ever-changing color, wherein every possible
+continuation of purple and gold merged with rainbow hues.
+
+Soon the dyes changed to blue, and eventually the sky was fired by
+flames of red. Then, slowly, the great blazing globe sank into seas of
+fire-flushed ice. The snowy mountains about glowed with warm cheer. The
+ice cooled again to purple, and again to blue, and then a winter
+blackness closed the eye to color and the soul to joy.
+
+
+
+
+IN GAME TRAILS TO LAND'S END
+
+SVERDRUP'S NEW WONDERLAND--FEASTING ON GAME EN ROUTE TO
+SVARTEVOEG--FIRST SHADOW OBSERVATIONS--FIGHTS WITH WOLVES AND
+BEARS--THE JOYS OF ZERO'S LOWEST--THRESHOLD OF THE UNKNOWN
+
+XII
+
+SHORES OF THE CIRCUMPOLAR SEA
+
+
+March 2 was bright and clear and still. The ice was smooth, with just
+snow enough to prevent the dogs cutting their feet. The heavy sledges
+bounded along easily, but the dogs were too full of meat to step a
+lively pace. The temperature was -79° F. We found it comfortable to walk
+along behind the upstanders of the sledges. Some fresh bear tracks were
+crossed. These denoted that bears had advanced along the coast on an
+exploring tour, much as we aimed to do. Scenting these tracks, the dogs
+forgot their distended stomachs, and braced into the harness with full
+pulling force. We were still able to keep pace by running. Hard exercise
+brought no perspiration.
+
+After passing the last land point, we noted four herds of musk oxen. The
+natives were eager to embark for the chase. I tried to dissuade them,
+but, had we not crossed the bear trail, no word of mine would have kept
+them from another chase of the musk ox.
+
+Long after sunset, as we were about to camp, a bear was sighted
+advancing on us behind a line of hummocks. The light was already feeble.
+It was the work of but a minute to throw our things on the ice and start
+the teams on the scent of the bear. But this bear was thin and hungry.
+He gave us a lively chase. His advance was checked, however, as our rush
+began, and he spread his huge paws into a step which outdistanced our
+dogs. The chase was continued on the ice for about three miles. Then
+bruin, with sublime intelligence, took to the land and the steep slopes,
+leading us over hilly, bare ground, rocks, and soft snows. He gained the
+top of the tall cliffs while we were still groping in the darkness among
+the rocks at the base, a thousand feet below.
+
+The sledges were now left, and the dogs freed. They flew up a gully in
+which the bear tracks guided an easy path. In a short time their
+satisfying howls told of the bear's captivity. He had taken a position
+on a table-rock, which was difficult for the dogs to climb. At an easy
+distance from this rock were steep slopes of snow. One after another,
+the dogs came tumbling down these slopes. With but a slight cuff of his
+paw, the bear could toss the attacking dogs over dizzy heights. His
+position was impregnable to the dogs, but, thus perched, he was a
+splendid mark for E-tuk-i-shook. That doughty huntsman raised his gun,
+and, following a shot, the bear rolled down the same slopes on which he
+had hurled the dogs. To his carcass a span of strong dogs were soon
+hitched, and it was hauled down to the sea level. Quickly dressed and
+distributed, the bear was only a teasing mouthful to the ever-hungry
+dogs.
+
+It was nearly midnight before we returned to our sledge packs. The work
+of building the houses was rendered difficult by the failing moon and
+the very low temperature. The lowest temperature of the season, -83°,
+was reached this night.
+
+The sun rose in the morning of March 3 with warm colors, painting the
+crystal world surrounding us with gorgeous tints of rose and old gold.
+It was odd that in the glare of this enrapturing glory we should note
+the coldest day of the year.
+
+With the returning sun in the Arctic comes the most frigid season. The
+light is strongly purple, and one is tempted to ascribe to the genial
+rays a heating influence which is as yet absent, owing to their slant.
+The night-darkened surfaces prevent the new sunbeams from disseminating
+any considerable heat, and the steadily falling temperature indicates
+that the crust of the earth, as a result of its long desertion by the
+sun in winter, is still unchecked in its cooling. Because of the
+persistence of terrestrial radiation, we have the coldest weather of the
+year with the ascending sun.
+
+It is a fortunate provision of nature that these icy days of the
+ascending sun are usually accompanied by a breathless stillness. When
+wind and storms come, the temperature quickly rises. It is doubtful if
+any form of life could withstand a storm at -80° F. A quiet charm comes
+with this eye-opening period. The spirits rise with indescribable
+gladness, and, although the mercury is frozen, the body, when properly
+dressed, is perfectly comfortable. The soft light of purple and gold, or
+of lilac and rose, on the snowy slopes, dispels the chronic gloom of the
+long night, while the tonic of a brightening air of frost returns the
+flush to the pale cheeks. The stillness adds a charm, with which the
+imagination plays. It is not the music of silence, nor the gold solitude
+of summer, nor the deathlike stillness of the winter blackness. It is
+the stillness of zero's lowest, which has a beauty of its own.
+
+The ice pinnacles are lined with hoar frost, on which there is a play of
+rainbow colors. The tread of one's feet is muffled by feathery beds of
+snow. The mountains, raised by the new glow of light or outlined by
+colored shadows, stand against the brightened heavens in sculptured
+magnificence.
+
+The bear admires his shadow, the fox peeps from behind his bushy tail,
+devising a new cult, for his art of night will soon be a thing of the
+past. The hare sits, with forelegs bent reverently, as if offering
+prayers of gratitude. The musk ox stands in the brightest sun, with his
+beautiful coat of black and blue, and absorbs the first heaven-given sun
+bath, and man soars high in dreams of happiness.
+
+Shadows always attract the eye of primitive people and children. In a
+world such as the one we were invading, with little to rest the eye from
+perpetual glitter, they were to become doubly interesting. When we first
+began observing our shadows, on March 3, I did not dream that a thing so
+simple could rise to the dignity of a proof of the Polar conquest. But,
+since then, I have come to the conclusion that, if a proof of this
+much-discussed problem is at all possible, it is in the corroborative
+evidence of just such little things as shadows.
+
+Accordingly, I have examined every note and impression bearing on
+natural phenomena en route.
+
+To us, in our daily marches from Bay Fiord, the shadow became a thing
+of considerable interest and importance. The Eskimo soul is something
+apart from the body. The native believes it follows in the shadow. For
+this reason, stormy, sunless days are gloomy times to the natives, for
+the presence of the soul is then not in evidence. The night has the same
+effect, although the moon often throws a clear-cut shadow. The native
+believes the soul at times wanders from the body. When it does this, the
+many rival spirits, which in their system of beliefs tenant the body,
+get into all sorts of trouble.
+
+Every person, and every animal, has not only a soul which guards its
+destiny, but every part of the body has an individual spirit--the arm,
+the leg, the nose, the eye, the ear, and every other conceivable part of
+the anatomy, with a peculiar individuality, throbs with a separate life.
+The separate, wandering soul in the shadow is the guiding influence.
+
+Furthermore, there is no such conception as an absolutely inanimate
+thing. The land, the sea, the air, ice, and snow, have great individual
+spirits that ever engage in battle with each other. Even mountains,
+valleys, rocks, icebergs, wood, iron, fire--all have spirits. All of
+this gives them a keen interest in shadows in an otherwise desert of
+gloom and death.
+
+Their entire religious creed would require a long time to work out. Even
+that part of it which is represented by the shadow is quite beyond me.
+As I observed in our following marches toward Svartevoeg, their keen
+eyes detect in shadows incidents and messages of life, histories that
+would fill volumes. The shadow is long or short, clear-cut or vague,
+dark or light, blue or purple, violet or black. Each phase of it has a
+special significance. It presages luck or ill-luck on the chase,
+sickness and death in the future, the presence or unrest of the souls of
+parted friends. Even the souls of the living sometimes get mixed. Then
+there is love or intrigue. All the passions of wild life can be read
+from the shadows. The most pathetic shadows had been the vague, ghastly
+streaks of black that followed the body about a week before sunset in
+October. At that time all the Arctic world is sad, and tears come
+easily.
+
+The shadow does not quickly come back with the returning sun. Continuous
+storms so screen the sunbeams that only a vague, diffused light reaches
+the long night-blackened snows. When the joy of seeing the first shadows
+exploded among my companions I did not know just what intoxication
+infected the camp. With full stomachs of newly acquired musk ox loins,
+we had slept. Suddenly the sun burst through a maze of burning clouds
+and made our snow palace glow with electric darts. The temperature was
+very low. Only half-dressed, the men rushed out, dancing with joy.
+
+Their shadows were long, sharp-cut, and of a deep, purple blue. They
+danced with them. This brought them back to the normal life of Eskimo
+hilarity. Then followed the pleasures of the thrill of the sunny days of
+crystal air and blinding sparkle during never-to-be forgotten days of
+the enervating chill of zero's lowest at -83° F.
+
+In the northward progress, for a long time the shadows did not
+perceptibly shorten or brighten to my eyes. The natives, however, on our
+subsequent marches, got from these shadows a never-ending variety of
+topics to talk about. They foretold storms, located game, and read the
+story of respective home entanglements of the Adamless Eden which we had
+left far away on the Greenland shore.
+
+Our bear adventures took us on an advance trail over which progress was
+easy. Beyond, the snow increased rapidly in depth with every mile.
+Snowshoes were lashed to our feet for the first mile. We halted in our
+march at noon, attacked suddenly by five wolves. The rifles were
+prepared for defense. No shots were to be fired, however, unless active
+battle was commenced. The creatures at close range were slightly
+cream-colored, with a little gray along their backs, but at a greater
+distance they seemed white. They came from the mountains, with a
+chilling, hungry howl that brought shivers. The dogs were interested,
+but made no offer to give chase.
+
+The wolves passed the advancing sledges at a distance, and gathered
+about the rear sledge, which was separated from the train. The driver
+turned his team to help in the fight. As the sledges neared, the teams
+were stopped, the wolves sat down and delivered a maddening chorus of
+chagrin. The dogs were restless, but only wiggled their tails. The men
+stood still, with rifles pointed. The chorus ended. The battle was
+declared off. Seeing that they were outnumbered, the howling creatures
+turned and dashed up the snowy slopes, from which they had come, with a
+storming rush. The train was lined up, and through the deep snow we
+plowed westward.
+
+In two difficult marches we reached Eureka Sound.
+
+Wolves continued on our trail nearly every day along the west coast of
+Acpohon, and also along North Devon.
+
+In the extreme North, the wolf, like the fox, is pure white, with black
+points to the ears, and spots over the eyes. In the regions farther
+south his fur is slightly gray. In size, he is slightly larger than the
+Eskimo dog, his body longer and thinner, and he travels with his tail
+down. Like the bear, he is a ceaseless wanderer during all seasons of
+the year.
+
+In winter, wolves gather in groups of six or eight, and attack musk ox,
+or anything in their line of march. But in summer they travel in pairs,
+and become scavengers. The wolf is alert in estimating the number of his
+combatants and their fighting qualities. Men and dogs in numbers he
+never approaches within gunshot, contenting himself by howling
+piercingly from mountains at a long distance. When a single sledge was
+separated from the others, he would approach to an uncomfortable range.
+
+Bear tracks were also numerous. We were, however, too tired to give
+chase. Close to a cape where we paused, on Eureka Sound, to cut
+snow-blocks for igloos attached to the sledges, E-tuk-i-shook noted two
+bears wandering over the lands not far away. Watching for a few moments
+with the glasses, we noted that they were stalking a sleeping musk ox.
+Now we did not care particularly for the bears, but the musk ox was
+regarded as our own game, and we were not willing to divide it
+knowingly. The packs were pitched into the snow, and the dogs rushed
+through deep snow, over hummocks and rocks, to the creeping bears.
+
+As the bears turned, the rear attack seemed to offer sport, and they
+rose to meet us. But as one team after the other bounced over the
+nearest hills, their heads turned and they rushed up the steep slopes.
+We now saw twenty musk oxen asleep in scattered groups. These interested
+us more than the bears. The dogs were seemingly of the same mind, for
+they required no urging to change the noses from the bears to the musk
+oxen.
+
+As we wound around the hill upon which they rested, all at once arose,
+shook off the snow, rubbed their horns on their knees, and then formed a
+huge star. In a short time the entire herd was ours. The meat was
+dressed, wrapped in skins, the dogs lightly fed, and the carcasses
+hauled to camp. Then we completed our igloos. Bears and wolves wandered
+about camp all night, but with one hundred dogs, whose eyes were on the
+swelled larder, there was no danger from wild brutes.
+
+Early in the morning of March 4 we were awakened by a furious noise from
+the dogs. Koo-loo-ting-wah peeked out and saw a bear in the act of
+taking a choice strip of tenderloin from the meat. With a deft cut of
+the knife, a falling block of snow made a window, and through it the
+rifle was leveled at the animal. He was big, fat, and gave us just the
+blubber required for our lamps.
+
+A holiday was declared. It would take time to stuff the dogs with twenty
+musk oxen and a bear. Furthermore, our clothing needed attention. Boots,
+mittens, and stockings had to be dried and mended. Some of our garments
+were torn in places, permitting winds to enter. Much of the dog harness
+required fixing. The Eskimos' sledges had been slightly broken. Later,
+the same day, another herd of twenty musk oxen were seen. Now even the
+Eskimo's savage thirst for blood was satisfied. The pot was kept
+boiling, and the igloos rang with chants of primitive joys.
+
+On March 7 we began a straight run to the Polar sea, a distance of one
+hundred and seventy miles. The weather was superb and the ice again free
+of heavy snow.
+
+In six marches we reached Schei Island, which we found to be a
+peninsula. We halted here and a feast day was declared. Twenty-seven
+musk oxen and twenty-four hares were secured in one after-dinner hunt.
+This meat guaranteed a food supply to the shores of the Polar sea. A
+weight was lifted from my load of cares, for I had doubted the existence
+of game far enough north to count on fresh meat to the sea. The
+temperature was still low (-50° F.), but the nights were brightening,
+and the days offered twelve hours of good light. Our outlook was hopeful
+indeed.
+
+In the Polar campaign, the bear was unconsciously our best friend, and
+also consciously our worst enemy. There were times when we admired him,
+although he was never exactly friendly to us. There were other times
+when we regarded him with a savage wrath. Only beyond the range of life
+in the utmost North were we free from his attacks. In other places he
+nosed our trail with curious persistence. He had attacked the first
+party that was sent out to explore a route, under cover of night and
+storms. One man was wounded, another lost the tail of his coat and a
+part of his anatomy.
+
+In our march of glory through the musk ox land, the bear came as a
+rival, and disputed not only our right to the chase, but also our right
+to the product from our own catch. But we had guns and dogs, and the
+bears fell easily. We were jealous of the quest of the musk ox. It
+seemed properly to belong to the domain of man's game. We were equal at
+the time to the task, and did not require the bear's help.
+
+The bears were good at figures, and quickly realized ours was a superior
+fighting force. So they joined the ranks in order that they might share
+in the division of the spoils. The bear's goodly mission was always
+regarded with suspicion. We could easily spare the bones of our game,
+which he delighted to pick. We were perfectly able to protect our booty
+with one hundred dogs, whose dinners depended on open eyes. But the bear
+did not always understand our tactics. We afterwards learned that we did
+not always understand his, for he drove many prizes into our arms. But
+man is a short-sighted critic--he sees only his side of the game.
+
+In the northern march a much more friendly spirit was developed. We
+differed on many points of ethics with bruin, and our fights, successful
+or otherwise, were too numerous and disagreeable to relate fully. Only
+one of these battles will be recorded here, to save the reputation of
+man as a superior fighting animal.
+
+We had made a long march of about forty miles. Already the dull purple
+of twilight was resting heavily on darkening snows. The temperature was
+-81°. There was no wind. The air was semi-liquid with suspended
+crystals. When standing still we were perfectly comfortable, although
+jets of steam from our nostrils arranged frost crescents about our
+faces.
+
+We had been advancing towards a group of musk oxen for more than an
+hour. We were now in the habit of living from catch to catch, filling up
+on meat at the end of each successful hunt, and waiting for pot-luck for
+the next meal. The sledges were too heavily loaded to carry additional
+weight. Furthermore, the temperature was too low to split up frozen
+meat. Indeed, most of our axes had been broken in trying to divide meat
+as dog food. It was plainly an economy of axes and fuel to fill up on
+warm meat as the skin was removed, and wait for the next plunder.
+
+We had been two days without setting eyes on an appetizing meal of
+steaming meat. Not a living speck had crossed our horizon; and,
+therefore, when we noted the little cloud of steam rise from a side
+hill, and guessed that under it were herds of musk ox, our palates
+moistened with anticipatory joys. A camping place was sought. Two domes
+of snow were erected as a shelter.
+
+Through the glasses we counted twenty-one musk oxen. Some were digging
+up snow to find willows; others were sleeping. All were unsuspecting.
+After the experience we had in this kind of hunting, we confidently
+counted the game as ours. A holiday was declared for the morrow, to
+dispose of the surplus. Nourishment in prospect, one hundred dogs
+started with a jump, under the lashes of ten Eskimos. Our sledges began
+shooting the boreal shoots. After rushing over minor hills, the dog
+noses sank into bear tracks. A little farther along, we realized we had
+rivals. Two bears were far ahead, approaching the musk oxen.
+
+The dogs scented their rivals. The increased bounding of the sledges
+made looping-the-loop seem tame. But we were too late; the bears ran
+into the bunch of animals, and spoiled our game with no advantage to
+themselves. Giving a half-hearted chase, they rose to a bank of snow,
+deliberately sat down, and turned to a position to give us the laugh.
+
+The absence of musk ox did not slacken the pace of the dogs. The bears
+were quick to see the force of our intent. They scattered and climbed. A
+bear is an expert Alpinist; he requires no ice axe and no lantern. The
+moon came out, and the snow slopes began to glare with an electric
+incandescence.
+
+In this pearly light, the white bear seemed black, and was easily
+located. One bear slipped into a ravine and was lost. All attention was
+now given to the other, which was ascending an icy ridge to a commanding
+precipice. We cut the dogs from the sledges. They soared up the white
+slope as if they had wings. The bear gained the crest in time to cuff
+away each rising antagonist. The dogs tumbled over each other, down
+several hundred feet into a soft snow-padded gully. Other dogs continued
+to rise on the ridge to keep the bear guessing. The dogs in the pit
+discovered a new route, and made a combined rear attack. Bruin was
+surprised, and turned to face his enemies. Backing from a sudden
+assault, he stepped over a precipice, and tumbled in a heap into the
+dog-strewn pit. The battle was now on in full force. Finding four feet
+more useful than one mouth, the bear turned on his back and sent his
+paws out with telling effect. The dogs, although not giving up the
+battle, scattered, for the swing of the creature's feet did not suit
+their battle methods. Sitting on curled tails, they filled the air with
+murderous howls and raised clouds of frozen breath in the flying snow.
+
+We were on the scene at a safe distance, each with a tight grip on his
+gun, expecting the bear to make a sudden plunge. But he was not given a
+choice of movement, and we could not shoot into the darting pit of dogs
+without injuring them. At this moment Ah-we-lah, youngest of the party,
+advanced. Leaving his gun, he descended through the dog ranks into the
+pit, with the spiked harpoon shaft. The bear threw back its head to meet
+him. A score of dogs grabbed the bear's feet. Ah-we-lah raised his arm.
+A sudden savage thrust sank the blunt steel into the bear's chest.
+Cracking whips, we scattered the guarding dogs. The prize was quickly
+divided.
+
+On our advance to the Polar sea, I found that there is considerable art
+in building snowhouses. The casual observer is likely to conclude that
+it is an easy problem to pile up snow-blocks, dome-shaped, but to do
+this properly, so that the igloo will withstand wind, requires adept
+work. From the lessons of my companions in this art I now became more
+alert to learn, knowing the necessity of protection on our Polar dash.
+
+The first problem is to find proper snow. One has often to seek for
+banks where the snow is just hard enough. If it is too hard, it cannot
+be easily cut with knives. If it is too soft, the blocks will crush, and
+cause the house to cave in. Long knives are the best instruments--one of
+fifteen inches and another about ten. From sixty to seventy-five blocks,
+fifteen by twenty-four inches, are required to make a house ten feet by
+ten. The blocks are cut according to the snow, but fifteen by
+twenty-four by eight inches is the best size.
+
+The lower tiers of blocks are set in slight notches in the snow, to
+prevent the blocks from slipping out. A slight tilt begins from the
+first tiers; the next tier tilts still more, and so the next. The blocks
+are set so that the upper blocks cover the breaks in the lower tier. The
+fitting is done mostly with the blocks in position, the knife being
+passed between the blocks to and fro, with a pressure on the blocks with
+the other hand. The hardest task is to make the blocks stick without
+holding in the upper tiers. This is done by deft cuts with the knife and
+a slight thump of the blocks.
+
+The dome is the most difficult part to build. In doing this all blocks
+are leveled and carefully set to arch the roof.
+
+When the structure is completed, a candle is lit and the cracks are
+stuffed by cutting the edges off the nearest blocks, and pressing the
+broken snow into the cracks with the mittens. After this process, the
+interior arrangement is worked out. The foot space is first cut out in
+blocks. If the snow is on a slope, as it often happens, these blocks are
+raised and the upper slopes are cut down to a level plane.
+
+The foot space is a very important matter, first for the comfort of
+sitting, and also to let off the carbonic acid gas, which quickly
+settles in these temperatures and extinguishes the fires. It, of course,
+has also an important bearing on human breathing.
+
+Inhalation of very cold air at this time forced an unconscious
+expenditure of very much energy. The extent of this tax can be gauged
+only by the enormous difference between the temperature of the body and
+that of the air. One day it was -72° F. The difference was, therefore,
+170°. It is hard to conceive of normal breathing under such
+difficulties; but when properly clothed and fed, no great discomfort or
+ill-effects are noted. The membranes of the air passages are, however,
+overflushed with blood. The chest circulation is forced to its limits,
+and the heart beats are increased and strengthened. The organs of
+circulation and respiration, which do ninety per cent. of the work of
+the body, are taxed with a new burden that must be counted in estimating
+one's day's task. This loss of power in breathing extreme frost is
+certain to reduce working time and bodily force.
+
+The land whose coast we were following to the shores of the Polar sea is
+part of the American hemisphere, and one of the largest islands of the
+world, spreading 30° longitude and rising 7° of latitude. What is its
+name? The question must remained unanswered, for it not only has no
+general name, but numerous sections are written with names and outlines
+that differ to a large extent with the caprice of the explorers who have
+been there.
+
+The south is called Lincoln Land; above it, Ellesmere Land. Then comes
+Schley Land, Grinnell Land, Arthur Land, and Grant Land, with other
+lands of later christening by Sverdrup and others.
+
+No human beings inhabit the island. No nation assumes the responsibility
+of claiming or protecting it. The Eskimo calls the entire country
+Acpohon, or "the Land of Guillemots," which are found in great abundance
+along the southeast point. I have, therefore, to avoid conflictions,
+affixed the name of Acpohon as the general designation.
+
+We had now advanced beyond the range of all primitive life. No human
+voice broke the frigid silence. The Eskimos had wandered into the
+opening of the musk ox pass. Sverdrup had mapped the channels of the
+west coast. But here was no trace of modern or aboriginal residence.
+There is no good reason why men should not have followed the musk oxen
+here, but the nearest Eskimos on the American side are those on
+Lancaster Sound.
+
+I found an inspiration in being thus alone at the world's end. The
+barren rocks, the wastes of snow-fields, the mountains stripped of
+earlier ice-sheets, and every phase of the landscape, assured a new
+interest. There was a note of absolute abandon on the part of nature. If
+our own resources failed, or if a calamity overtook us, there would be
+no trace to mark icy graves forever hidden from surviving loved ones.
+
+My Eskimo comrades were enthusiastic explorers. The game trails gave a
+touch of animation to their steps, which meant much to the progress of
+the expedition. We not only saw musk oxen in large herds, but tracks of
+bears and wolves were everywhere in line with our course. On the sea-ice
+we noted many seal blow-holes. Already the natives talked of coming here
+on the following year to cast their lot in the new wilds.
+
+The picturesque headland of Schie we found to be a huge triassic rock of
+the same general formation as that indicated along Eureka Sound. Its
+west offered a series of grassy slopes bared by persistent winds, upon
+which animal life found easy access to the winter-cured grass. A narrow
+neck of land connected what seemed like an island with the main land.
+Here caches of fur and fuel were left for the return. In passing Snag's
+Fiord the formation changed. Here, for several marches, game was scarce.
+The temperature rose as we neared the Polar sea. The snow became much
+deeper but it was hardened by stronger winds and increased humidity.
+High glacier-abandoned valleys with gradual slopes to the water's edge,
+gave the Heiberg shores on Nansen Sound a different type of landscape
+from that of the opposite shores. Here and there we found pieces of
+lignite coal, and as we neared Svartevoeg the carboniferous formation
+became more evident.
+
+Camping in the lowlands just south of Svartevoeg Cliffs we secured seven
+musk oxen and eighty-five hares. Here were immense fields of grass and
+moss bared by persistent winter gales. By a huge indentation here,
+through which we saw the sea-level ice of the west, the shores seemed to
+indicate that the point of Heiberg is an island, but of this we were not
+absolutely sure. To us it was a great surprise that here, on the shores
+of the Polar sea, we found a garden spot of plant luxuriance and animal
+delight. For this assured, in addition to the caches left en route, a
+sure food supply for the return from our mission to the North.
+
+
+
+
+THE TRANS-BOREAL DASH BEGINS
+
+BY FORCED EFFORTS AND THE USE OF AXES SPEED IS MADE OVER THE
+LAND--ADHERING PACK ICE OF POLAR SEA--THE MOST DIFFICULT TRAVEL OF THE
+PROPOSED JOURNEY SUCCESSFULLY ACCOMPLISHED--REGRETFUL PARTING WITH THE
+ESKIMOS
+
+XIII
+
+FIVE HUNDRED MILES FROM THE POLE
+
+
+Svartevoeg is a great cliff, the northernmost point of Heiberg Land,
+which leaps precipitously into the Polar sea. Its negroid face of black
+scarred rocks frowns like the carven stone countenance of some hideously
+mutilated and enraged Titan savage. It expresses, more than a human face
+could, the unendurable sufferings of this region of frigid horrors. It
+is five hundred and twenty miles from the North Pole.
+
+From this point I planned to make my dash in as straight a route as
+might be possible. Starting from our camp at Annoatok late in February,
+when the curtain of night was just beginning to lift, when the chill of
+the long winter was felt at its worst, we had forced progress through
+deep snows, over land and frozen seas, braving the most furious storms
+of the season and traveling despite baffling darkness, and had covered
+in less than a month about four hundred miles--nearly half the distance
+between our winter camp and the Pole.
+
+Arriving at land's end my heart had cause for gratification. We had
+weathered the worst storms of the year. The long bitter night had now
+been lost. The days lengthened and invaded with glitter the decreasing
+nights. The sun glowed more radiantly daily, rose higher and higher to a
+continued afterglow in cheery blues, and sank for periods briefer and
+briefer in seas of running color. Our hopes, like those of all mankind,
+had risen with the soul-lifting sun. We had made our progress mainly at
+the expense of the land which we explored, for the game en route had
+furnished food and clothing.
+
+The supplies we had brought with us from Annoatok were practically
+untouched. We had stepped in overfed skins, were fired by a resolution
+which was recharged by a strength bred of feeding upon abundant raw and
+wholesome meat. Eating to repletion on unlimited game, our bodies were
+kept in excellent trim by the exigencies of constant and difficult
+traveling.
+
+As a man's mental force is the result of yesteryears' upbuilding, so his
+strength of to-day is the result of last week's eating. With the surge
+of ambition which had been formulating for twenty years, and my body in
+best physical shape for the supreme test, the Pole now seemed almost
+near.
+
+As the great cliffs of Svartevoeg rose before us my heart leaped. I felt
+that the first rung in the ladder of success had been climbed, and as I
+stood under the black cliffs of this earth's northernmost land I felt
+that I looked through the eyes of long experience. Having reached the
+end of Nansen Sound, with Svartevoeg on my left, and the tall, scowling
+cliffs of Lands-Lokk on my right, I viewed for the first time the rough
+and heavy ice of the untracked Polar sea, over which, knowing the
+conditions of the sea ice, I anticipated the most difficult part of our
+journey lay. Imagine before you fields of crushed ice, glimmering in the
+rising sunlight with shooting fires of sapphire and green; fields which
+have been slowly forced downward by strong currents from the north, and
+pounded and piled in jagged mountainous heaps for miles about the land.
+Beyond this difficult ice, as I knew, lay more even fields, over which
+traveling, saving the delays of storms and open leads, would be
+comparatively easy. To encompass this rough prospect was the next step
+in reaching my goal. I felt that no time must be lost. At this point I
+was now to embark upon the Polar sea; the race for my life's ambition
+was to begin here; but first I had finally to resolve on the details of
+my campaign.
+
+I decided to reduce my party to the smallest possible number consistent
+with the execution of the problem in hand. In addition, for greater
+certainty of action over the unknown regions beyond, I now definitely
+resolved to simplify the entire equipment. An extra sled was left at the
+cache at this point to insure a good vehicle for our return in case the
+two sleds which we were to take should be badly broken en route. I
+decided to take only two men on the last dash. I had carefully watched
+and studied every one of my party, and had already selected
+E-tuk-i-shook and Ah-we-lah, two young Eskimos, each about twenty years
+old, as best fitted to be my sole companions in the long run of destiny.
+
+Twenty-six of the best dogs were picked, and upon two sleds were to be
+loaded all our needs for a trip estimated to last eighty days.
+
+To have increased this party would not have enabled us to carry supplies
+for a greater number of days.
+
+The sleds might have been loaded more heavily, but I knew this would
+reduce the important progress of the first days.
+
+With the character of ice which we had before us, advance stations were
+impossible. A large expedition and a heavy equipment would have been
+imprudent. We must win or lose in a prolonged effort at high pressure.
+Therefore, absolute control and ease of adaptability to a changing
+environment was imperative.
+
+From past experience I knew it was impossible to control adequately the
+complex human temperament of white men in the Polar wilderness. But I
+felt certain the two Eskimo boys could be trusted to follow to the limit
+of my own endurance. So our sleds were burdened only with absolute
+necessaries.
+
+Because of the importance of a light and efficient equipment, much care
+had to be taken to reduce every ounce of weight. The sleds were made of
+hickory, the lightest wood consistent with great endurance, and every
+needless fibre was gouged out. The iron shoes were ground thin, and up
+to the present had stood the test of half the Polar battle.
+
+Eliminating everything not actually needed, but selecting adequate food,
+I made the final preparations.
+
+The camp equipment selected included the following articles: One blow
+fire lamp (jeuel), three aluminum pails, three aluminum cups, three
+aluminum teaspoons, one tablespoon, three tin plates, six pocket
+knives, two butcher knives (ten inches), one saw knife (thirteen
+inches), one long knife (fifteen inches), one rifle (Sharp's), one rifle
+(Winchester .22), one hundred and ten cartridges, one hatchet, one
+Alpine axe, extra line and lashings, and three personal bags.
+
+The sled equipment consisted of two sleds weighing fifty-two pounds
+each; one twelve-foot folding canvas boat, the wood of which formed part
+of a sled; one silk tent, two canvas sled covers, two reindeer skin
+sleeping bags, floor furs, extra wood for sled repairs, screws, nails
+and rivets.
+
+My instruments were as follows: One field glass; one pocket compass; one
+liquid compass; one aluminum surveying compass, with azimuth attachment;
+one French surveyor's sextant, with radius 7½, divided on silver to
+10´, reading by Vernier to 10´´ (among the extra attachments were a
+terrestrial and an astronomical telescope, and an extra night telescope
+mounted in aluminum, and also double refracting prisms, thermometers,
+etc.--the instrument was made by Hurleman of France and bought of
+Keuffel & Esser); one glass artificial horizon; three Howard pocket
+chronometers; one Tiffany watch; one pedometer; map-making material and
+instruments; three thermometers; one aneroid barometer; one camera and
+films; notebook and pencils.
+
+The personal bags contained four extra pairs of kamiks, with fur
+stockings, a woolen shirt, three pairs of sealskin mittens, two pairs of
+fur mittens, a piece of blanket, a sealskin coat (netsha), extra fox
+tails and dog harness, a repair kit for mending clothing, and much other
+necessary material.
+
+On the march we wore snow goggles, blue fox coats (kapitahs) and
+birdskin shirts (Ah-tea), bearskin pants (Nan-nooka), sealskin boots
+(Kam-ik), hare-skin stockings (Ah-tee-shah), and a band of fox tails
+under the knee and about the waist.
+
+The food supply, as will be seen by the following list, was mostly
+pemmican:
+
+Eight hundred and five pounds of beef pemmican, one hundred and thirty
+pounds of walrus pemmican, fifty pounds of musk ox tenderloin,
+twenty-five pounds of musk ox tallow, two pounds of tea, one pound of
+coffee, twenty-five pounds of sugar, forty pounds of condensed milk,
+sixty pounds of milk biscuit, ten pounds of pea soup powdered and
+compressed, fifty pounds of surprises, forty pounds petroleum, two
+pounds of wood alcohol, three pounds of candles and one pound of
+matches.
+
+We planned our future food supply with pemmican as practically the sole
+food; the other things were to be mere palate satisfiers. For the eighty
+days the supply was to be distributed as follows:
+
+For three men: Pemmican, one pound per day for eighty days, two hundred
+and forty pounds. For six dogs: Pemmican, one pound per day for eighty
+days, four hundred and eighty pounds. This necessitated a total of seven
+hundred and twenty pounds of pemmican.
+
+Of the twenty-six dogs, we had at first figured on taking sixteen over
+the entire trip to the Pole and back to our caches on land, but in this
+last calculation only six were to be taken. Twenty, the least useful,
+were to be used one after the other, as food on the march, as soon as
+reduced loads and better ice permitted. This, we counted, would give one
+thousand pounds of fresh meat over and above our pemmican supply. We
+carried about two hundred pounds of pemmican above the expected
+consumption, and in the final working out the dogs were used for
+traction purposes longer than we anticipated. But, with a cautious
+saving, the problem was solved somewhat more economically than any
+figuring before the start indicated.
+
+Every possible article of equipment was made to do double service; not
+an ounce of dead weight was carried which could be dispensed with.
+
+After making several trips about Svartevoeg, arranging caches for the
+return, studying the ice and land, I decided to make the final start on
+the Polar sea on March 18, 1908.
+
+The time had come to part with most of our faithful Eskimo companions.
+Taking their hands in my manner of parting, I thanked them as well as I
+could for their faithful service to me. "_Tigishi ah yaung-uluk!_" (The
+big nail!), they replied, wishing me luck.
+
+Then, in a half gale blowing from the northwest and charged with snow,
+they turned their backs upon me and started upon the return track. They
+carried little but ammunition, because we had learned that plenty of
+game was to be provided along the return courses.
+
+Even after they were out of sight in the drifting snowstorm their voices
+came cheerily back to me. The faithful savages had followed me until
+told that I could use them no longer; and it was not only for their
+simple pay of knives and guns, but because of a real desire to be
+helpful. Their parting enforced a pang of loneliness.[10]
+
+With a snow-charged blast in our faces it was impossible for us to start
+immediately after the Eskimos returned. Withdrawing to the snow igloo,
+we entered our bags and slept a few hours longer. At noon the horizon
+cleared. The wind veered to the southwest and came with an endurable
+force. Doubly rationed the night before, the dogs were not to be fed
+again for two days. The time had come to start. We quickly loaded our
+sleds. Hitching the dogs, we let the whips fall, and with bounds they
+leaped around deep ice grooves in the great paleocrystic floes.
+
+Our journey was begun. Swept of snow by the force of the preceding
+storm, the rough ice crisply cracked under the swift speed of our sleds.
+Even on this uneven surface the dogs made such speed that I kept ahead
+of them only with difficulty. Their barking pealed about us and
+re-echoed from the black cliffs behind. Dashing about transparent
+ultramarine gorges, and about the base of miniature mountains of ice, we
+soon came into a region of undulating icy hills. The hard irregularity
+of the ice at times endangered our sleds. We climbed over ridges like
+walls. We jumped dangerous crevasses, keeping slightly west by north;
+the land soon sank in the rear of us. Drifting clouds and wind-driven
+snows soon screened the tops of black mountains. Looking behind, I saw
+only a swirling, moving scene of dull white and nebulous gray. On every
+side ice hummocks heaved their backs and writhed by. Behind me followed
+four snugly loaded sleds, drawn by forty-four selected dogs, under the
+lash of four expert Eskimo drivers. The dogs pranced; the joyous cries
+of the natives rose and fell. My heart leaped; my soul sang. I felt my
+blood throb with each gallop of the leaping dog teams. The sound of
+their feet pattering on the snow, the sight of their shaggy bodies
+tossing forward, gave me joy. For every foot of ice covered, every
+minute of constant action, drew me nearer, ever nearer, to my goal.
+
+Our first run was auspicious; it seemed to augur success. By the time we
+paused to rest we had covered twenty-six miles.
+
+We pitched camp on a floeberg of unusual height; about us were many big
+hummocks, and to the lee of these banks of hardened snow. Away from land
+it is always more difficult to find snow suitable for cutting building
+blocks. There, however, was an abundance. We busily built, in the course
+of an hour, a comfortable snow igloo. Into it we crept, grateful for
+shelter from the piercing wind.
+
+The dogs curled up and went to sleep without a call, as if they knew
+that there would be no food until to-morrow. My wild companions covered
+their faces with their long hair and sank quietly into slumber. For me
+sleep was impossible. The whole problem of our campaign had again to be
+carefully studied, and final plans made, not only to reach our ultimate
+destination, but for the two returning Eskimos and for the security of
+the things left at Annoatok, and also to re-examine the caches left en
+route for our return. These must be protected as well as possible
+against the bears and wolves.
+
+Already I had begun to think of our return to land. It was difficult at
+this time even to approximate any probable course. Much would depend
+upon conditions to be encountered in the northward route. Although we
+had left caches of supplies with the object of returning along Nansen
+Sound, into Cannon Fiord and over Arthur Land, I entertained grave
+doubts of our ability to return this way. I knew that if the ice should
+drift strongly to the east we might not be given the choice of working
+out our own return. For, in such an event, we should perhaps be carried
+helplessly to Greenland, and should have to seek a return either along
+the east or the west coast.
+
+This drift, in my opinion, would not necessarily mean dangerous
+hardships, for the musk oxen would keep us alive to the west, and to the
+east it seemed possible to reach Shannon Island, where the
+Baldwin-Zeigler expeditions had abandoned a large cache of supplies. It
+appeared not improbable, also, that a large land extension might offer a
+safe return much further west. I fell asleep while pondering over these
+things. By morning the air was clear of frost crystals. It was intensely
+cold, not only because of a temperature of 56° below zero, Fahrenheit,
+but a humid chill which pierced to the very bones. A light breeze came
+from the west. The sun glowed in a freezing field of blue.
+
+Hitching our dogs, we started. For several hours we seemed to soar over
+the white spaces. Then the ice changed in character, the expansive,
+thick fields of glacier-like ice giving way to floes of moderate size
+and thickness. These were separated by zones of troublesome crushed ice
+thrown into high-pressure lines, which offered serious barriers.
+Chopping the pathway with an ice axe, we managed to make fair progress.
+We covered twenty-one miles of our second run on the Polar sea. I
+expected, at the beginning of this final effort, to send back by this
+time the two extra men, Koo-loo-ting-wah and In-u-gi-to, who had
+remained to help us over the rough pack-ice. But progress had not been
+as good as I had expected; so, although we could hardly spare any food
+to feed their dogs, the two volunteered to push along for another day
+without dog food.
+
+Taking advantage of big, strong teams and the fire of early enthusiasm,
+we aimed to force long distances through the extremely difficult ice
+jammed here against the distant land. The great weight of the supplies
+intended for the final two sleds were now distributed over four sleds.
+With axe and compass in hand, I led the way. With prodigious effort I
+chopped openings through barriers after barriers of ice. Sled after sled
+was passed over the tumbling series of obstacles by my companions while
+I advanced to open a way through the next. With increasing difficulties
+in some troublesome ice, we camped after making only sixteen miles.
+Although weary, we built a small snowhouse. I prepared over my stove a
+pot of steaming musk ox loins and broth and a double brew of tea. After
+partaking of this our two helpers prepared to return. To have taken them
+farther would have necessitated a serious drain on our supplies and an
+increased danger for their lives in a longer return to land.
+
+By these men I sent back instructions to Rudolph Francke to remain in
+charge of my supplies at Annoatok until June 5th, 1908, and then, if we
+should not have returned by that date, to place Koo-loo-ting-wah in
+charge and go home either by a whaler or some Danish ship. I knew that,
+should we get in trouble, he could offer no relief to help us, and that
+his waiting an indefinite time alone would be a needless hardship.
+
+[Illustration: DASHING FORWARD EN ROUTE TO THE POLE]
+
+[Illustration: DEPARTURE OF SUPPORTING PARTY
+
+A BREATHING SPELL
+
+POLEWARD!]
+
+The way before Koo-loo-ting-wah and In-u-gi-to, who had so cheerfully
+remained to the last possible moment that they could be of help, was not
+an entirely pleasant one. Their friends were by now well on their
+journey toward Annoatok, and they had to start after them with sleds
+empty of provisions and dogs hungry for food.
+
+They hoped to get back to land and off the ice of the Polar sea in one
+long day's travel of twenty-four hours. Even this would leave their
+fourth day without food for their dogs. In case of storms or moving of
+the ice, other days of famine might easily fall to their lot. However,
+they faced possible dangers cheerfully rather than ask me to give them
+anything from the stores that were to support their two companions,
+myself and our dogs on our way onward to the Pole and back. I was deeply
+touched by this superlative devotion. They assured me too (in which they
+were right) that they had an abundance of possible food in the eighteen
+dogs they took with them. If necessary, they could sacrifice a few at
+any time for the benefit of the others, as must often be done in the
+Northland.
+
+There were no formalities in our parting on the desolate ice. Yet, as
+the three of us who were left alone gazed after our departing
+companions, we felt a poignant pang in our hearts. About us was a
+cheerless waste of crushed wind-and-water-driven ice. A sharp wind
+stung our faces. The sun was obscured by clouds which piled heavily and
+darkly about the horizon. The cold and brilliant jeweled effects of the
+frozen sea were lost in a dismal hue of dull white and sombre gray. On
+the horizon, Svartevoeg, toward which the returning Eskimos were bound,
+was but a black speck. To the north, where our goal lay, our way was
+untrodden, unknown. The thought came to me that perhaps we should never
+see our departing friends. With it came a pang of tenderness for the
+loved ones I had left behind me. Although our progress so far had been
+successful, and half the distance was made, dangers unknown and
+undreamed of existed in the way before us. My Eskimos already showed
+anxiety--an anxiety which every aboriginal involuntarily feels when land
+disappears on the horizon. Never venturing themselves far onto the Polar
+sea, when they lose sight of land a panic overcomes them. Before leaving
+us one of the departing Eskimos had pointed out a low-lying cloud to the
+north of us. "Noona" (land), he said, nodding to the others. The thought
+occurred to me that, on our trip, I could take advantage of the mirages
+and low clouds on the horizon and encourage a belief in a constant
+nearness to land, thus maintaining their courage and cheer.[11]
+
+Regrets and fears were not long-lasting, however, for the exigencies of
+our problem were sufficiently imperative and absorbing. To the
+overcoming of these we had now to devote our entire attention and strain
+every fibre.
+
+We had now advanced, by persistent high-pressure efforts, over the worst
+possible ice conditions, somewhat more than sixty miles. Of the 9°
+between land's end and the Pole, we had covered one; and we had done
+this without using the pound of food per day allotted each of us out of
+the eighty days' supply transported.
+
+[Illustration: POLAR BEAR]
+
+
+
+
+OVER THE POLAR SEA TO THE BIG LEAD
+
+WITH TWO ESKIMO COMPANIONS, THE RACE POLEWARD CONTINUES OVER ROUGH AND
+DIFFICULT ICE--THE LAST LAND FADES BEHIND--MIRAGES LEAP INTO BEING AND
+WEAVE A MYSTIC SPELL--A SWIRLING SCENE OF MOVING ICE AND FANTASTIC
+EFFECTS--STANDING ON A HILL OF ICE, A BLACK, WRITHING, SNAKY CUT APPEARS
+IN THE ICE BEYOND--THE BIG LEAD--A NIGHT OF ANXIETY--FIVE HUNDRED MILES
+ALREADY COVERED--FOUR HUNDRED TO THE POLE
+
+XIV
+
+TO EIGHTY-THIRD PARALLEL
+
+
+Our party, thus reduced to three, went onward. Although the isolation
+was more oppressive, there were the advantages of the greater comfort,
+safety, speed and convenience that came from having only a small band.
+The large number of men in a big expedition always increases
+responsibilities and difficulties. In the early part of a Polar venture
+this disadvantage is eliminated by the facilities to augment supplies by
+the game en route and by ultimate advantages of the law of the survival
+of the fittest. But after the last supporting sleds return, the men are
+bound to each other for protection and can no longer separate. A
+disabled or unfitted dog can be fed to his companions, but an injured
+or weak man cannot be eaten nor left alone to die. An exploring venture
+is only as strong as its weakest member, and increased numbers, like
+increased links in a chain, reduce efficiency.
+
+Moreover, personal idiosyncrasies and inconveniences always shorten a
+day's march. And, above all, a numerous party quickly divides into
+cliques, which are always opposed to each other, to the leader, and
+invariably to the best interests of the problem in hand. With but two
+savage companions, to whom this arduous task was but a part of an
+accustomed life of frost, I did not face many of the natural personal
+barriers which contributed to the failure of former Arctic expeditions.
+
+In my judgment, when you double a Polar party its chances for success
+are reduced one-half; when you divide it, strength and security are
+multiplied.
+
+We had been traveling about two and one-half miles per hour. By making
+due allowances for detours and halts at pressure lines, the number of
+hours traveled gave us a fair estimate of the day's distance. Against
+this the pedometer offered a check, and the compass gave the course.
+Thus, over blank charts, our course was marked.
+
+By this kind of dead reckoning our position on March 20 was: Latitude,
+82° 23´; Longitude, 95° 14´. A study of our location seemed to
+indicate that we had passed beyond the zone of ice crushed by the
+influence of land pressure. Behind were great hummocks and small ice;
+ahead was a cheerful expanse of larger, clearer fields, offering a
+promising highway.
+
+Our destination was now about four hundred and sixty miles beyond. Our
+life, with its pack environment, assumed another aspect. Previously we
+permitted ourselves some luxuries. A pound of coal oil and a good deal
+of musk ox tallow were burned each day to heat the igloo and to cook
+abundant food. Extra meals were served when occasion called for them,
+and for each man there had been all the food and drink he desired. If
+the stockings or the mittens were wet there was fire enough to dry them
+out. All of this had now to be changed.
+
+Hereafter there was to be a short daily allowance of food and fuel--one
+pound of pemmican a day for the dogs, about the same for the men, with
+just a taste of other things. Fortunately, we were well provided with
+fresh meat for the early part of the race by the lucky run through game
+lands. Because of the need of fuel economy we now cut our pemmican with
+an axe. Later it split the axe.
+
+At first no great hardship followed our changed routine. We filled up
+sufficiently on two cold meals daily and also depended on superfluous
+bodily tissue. It was no longer possible to jump on the sled for an
+occasional breathing spell, as we had done along the land.
+
+Such a journey as now confronted us is a long-continued, hard,
+difficult, sordid, body-exhausting thing. Each day some problem presents
+some peculiar condition of the ice or state of the weather. The effort,
+for instance, to form some shield from intense cold gives added interest
+to the game. That one thing after another is being met, with always the
+anticipation of next day's struggle, adds a thrill to the conquest,
+spurs one to greater and ever greater feats, and really constitutes the
+actual victory of such a quest. With overloaded sleds the drivers must
+now push and pull at them to aid the dogs. My task was to search the
+troubled ice for easy routes, cutting away here and there with the
+ice-axe to permit the passing of the sleds.
+
+Finally stripping for the race, man and dog must walk along together
+through storms and frost for the elusive goal. Success or failure must
+depend mostly upon our ability to transport nourishment and to keep up
+the muscular strength for a prolonged period.
+
+As we awoke on the morning of March 21 and peered out of the eye-port of
+the igloo, the sun edged along the northeast. A warm orange glow
+suffused the ice and gladdened our hearts. The temperature was 63° below
+zero, Fahrenheit; the barometer was steady and high. There was almost no
+wind. Not a cloud lined the dome of pale purple blue, but a smoky streak
+along the west shortened our horizon in that direction and marked a lead
+of open water.
+
+Our breakfast consisted of two cups of tea, a watch-sized biscuit, a
+chip of frozen meat and a boulder of pemmican. Creeping out of our bags,
+our shivering legs were pushed through bearskin cylinders which served
+as trousers. We worked our feet into frozen boots and then climbed into
+fur coats. Next we kicked the front out of the snowhouse and danced
+about to stimulate heart action.
+
+Quickly the camp furnishings were tossed on the sleds and securely
+lashed. We gathered the dog traces into the drag lines, vigorously
+snapped the long whips, and the willing creatures bent to the shoulder
+straps. The sleds groaned. The unyielding snows gave a metallic ring.
+The train moved with a cheerful pace.
+
+"_Am-my noona terronga dosangwah_" (Perhaps land will be out of sight
+today), we said to one another.[12] But the words did not come with
+serious intent. In truth, each in his own way felt keenly that we were
+leaving a world of life and possible comfort for one of torment and
+suffering. Axel Heiberg Land, to the south, was already only a dull blue
+haze, while Grant Land, on the eastward, was making fantastic figures of
+its peaks and ice walls. The ice ran in waves of undulating blue,
+shimmering with streams of gold, before us. Behind, the last vestiges of
+jagged land rose and fell like marionettes dancing a wild farewell. Our
+heart-pulls were backward, our mental kicks were forward.
+
+Until now this strange white world had been one of grim reality. As
+though some unseen magician had waved his wand, it was suddenly
+transformed into a land of magic. Leaping into existence, as though from
+realms beyond the horizon, huge mirages wove a web of marvelous
+delusional pictures about the horizon. Peaks of snow were transformed
+into volcanoes, belching smoke; out of the pearly mist rose marvelous
+cities with fairy-like castles; in the color-shot clouds waved golden
+and rose and crimson pennants from pinnacles and domes of mosaic-colored
+splendor. Huge creatures, misshapen and grotesque, writhed along the
+horizon and performed amusing antics.
+
+Beginning now, and rarely absent, these spectral denizens of the North
+accompanied us during the entire journey; and later, when, fagged of
+brain and sapped of bodily strength, I felt my mind swimming in a sea of
+half-consciousness, they filled me almost with horror, impressing me as
+the monsters one sees in a nightmare.
+
+At every breathing spell in the mad pace our heads now turned to land.
+Every look was rewarded by a new prospect. From belching volcanoes to
+smoking cities of modern bustle, the mirages gave a succession of
+striking scenes which filled me with awed and marveling delight. A more
+desolate line of coast could not be imagined. Along its edge ran low
+wind-swept and wind-polished mountains. These were separated by valleys
+filled with great depths of snow and glacial ice.
+
+Looking northward, the sky line was clear of the familiar pinnacles of
+icebergs. In the immediate vicinity many small bergs were seen; some of
+these were grounded, and the pack thus anchored was thrown in huge
+uplifts of pressure lines and hummocks. The sea, as is thereby
+determined, is very shallow for a long distance from land.
+
+This interior accumulation of snow moves slowly to the sea, where it
+forms a low ice wall, a glacier of the Malaspina type. Its appearance is
+more like that of heavy sea ice; hence the name of the paleocrystic ice,
+fragments from this glacier, floebergs, which, seen in Lincoln Sea and
+resembling old floes, were supposed to be the product of the ancient
+upbuilding of the ice of the North Polar Sea.
+
+Snapping our whips and urging the dogs, we traveled until late in the
+afternoon, mirages constantly appearing and melting about us. Now the
+land suddenly settled downward as if by an earthquake. The pearly
+glitter, which had raised and magnified it, darkened. A purple fabric
+fell over the horizon and merged imperceptibly into the lighter purple
+blue of the upper skies. We saw the land, however, at successive periods
+for several days. This happened whenever the atmosphere was in the right
+condition to elevate the terrestrial contour lines by refracting sun
+rays.
+
+Every condition favored us on this march. The wind was not strong and
+struck us at an angle, permitting us to guard our noses by pushing a
+mitten under our hoods or by raising a fur-clad hand.
+
+We had not been long in the field, however, when the wind, that
+ever-present dragon guardian of the unseen northern monarch's demesne,
+began to suck strength from our bodies. Shortly before Grant Land
+entirely faded the monster fawned on us with gentle breathing.
+
+The snow was hard, and the ice, in fairly large fields separated by
+pressure lines, offered little resistance. On March 21, at the end of a
+forced effort of fourteen hours, the register indicated a progress of
+twenty-nine miles.
+
+Too weary to build an igloo, we threw ourselves thoughtlessly upon the
+sleds for a short rest, and fell asleep. I was awakened from my fitful
+slumber by a feeling of compression, as if stifling arms hideously
+gripped me. It was the wind. I breathed with difficulty. I struggled to
+my feet, and about me hissed and wailed the dismal sound. It was a sharp
+warning to us that to sleep without the shelter of an igloo would
+probably mean death.
+
+On the heavy floe upon which we rested were several large hummocks. To
+the lee of one of these we found suitable snow for a shelter.
+
+Lines of snowy vapor were rushing over the pack. The wind came with
+rapidly increasing force. We erected the house, however, before we
+suffered severely from the blast. We crept into it out of the storm and
+nested in warm furs.
+
+The wind blew fiercely throughout the night. By the next morning, March
+22, the storm had eased to a steady, light breeze. The temperature was
+59° below zero. We emerged from our igloo at noon. Although the
+cheerless gray veil had been swept from the frigid dome of the sky, to
+the north appeared a low black line over a pearly cloud which gave us
+much uneasiness. This was a narrow belt of "water-sky," which indicated
+open water or very thin ice at no great distance.
+
+The upper surface of Grant Land was now a mere thin pen line on the edge
+of the horizon. But a play of land clouds above it attracted the eyes to
+the last known rocks of solid earth. We now felt keenly the piercing
+cold of the Polar sea. The temperature gradually rose to 46° F. below
+zero, in the afternoon, but there was a deadly chill in the long shadows
+which increased with the swing of the lowering sun.
+
+A life-sapping draught, which sealed the eyes and bleached the nose,
+still hissed over the frozen sea. We had hoped that this would soften
+with the midday sun. Instead, it came with a more cutting sharpness. In
+the teeth of the wind we persistently pursued a course slightly west of
+north. The wind was slightly north of west. It struck us at a painful
+angle and brought tears. Our moistened lashes quickly froze together as
+we winked, and when we rubbed them and drew apart the lids the icicles
+broke the tender skin. Our breath froze on our faces. Often we had to
+pause, uncover our hands and apply the warm palms to the face before it
+was possible to see.
+
+Every minute thus lost filled me with impatience and dismay. Minutes of
+traveling were as precious as bits of gold to a hoarding miser.
+
+In the course of a brief time our noses became tipped with a white skin
+and also required nursing. My entire face was now surrounded with ice,
+but there was no help for it. If we were to succeed the face must be
+bared to the cut of the elements. So we must suffer. We continued,
+urging the dogs and struggling with the wind just as a drowning man
+fights for life in a storm at sea.
+
+About six o'clock, as the sun crossed the west, we reached a line of
+high-pressure ridges. Beyond these the ice was cut into smaller floes
+and thrown together into ugly irregularities. According to my surmises,
+an active pack and troubled seas could not be far away. The water-sky
+widened, but became less sharply defined.
+
+We laboriously picked a way among hummocks and pressure lines which
+seemed impossible from a distance. Our dogs panted with the strain; my
+limbs ached. In a few hours we arrived at the summit of an unusual
+uplift of ice blocks. Looking ahead, my heart pained as if in the grip
+of an iron hand. My hopes sank within me. Twisting snake-like between
+the white field, and separating the packs, was a tremendous cut several
+miles wide, which seemed at the time to bar all further progress. It was
+the Big Lead, that great river separating the land-adhering ice from the
+vast grinding fields of the central pack beyond, at which many heroic
+men before me had stopped. I felt the dismay and heartsickness of all of
+them within me now. The wind, blowing with a vengeful wickedness,
+laughed sardonically in my ears.
+
+Of course we had our folding canvas boat on the sleds. But in this
+temperature of 48° below zero I knew no craft could be lowered into
+water without fatal results. All of the ice about was firmly cemented
+together, and over it we made our way toward the edge of the water line.
+
+Passing through pressure lines, over smaller and more troublesome
+fields, we reached the shores of the Big Lead. We had, by two
+encouraging marches, covered fifty miles. The first hundred miles of our
+journey on the Polar pack had been covered. The Pole was four hundred
+miles beyond!
+
+Camp was pitched on a secure old ice field. Cutting through huge ice
+cliffs, the dark crack seemed like a long river winding between
+palisades of blue crystal. A thin sheet of ice had already spread over
+the mysterious deep. On its ebony mirrored surface a profusion of
+fantastic frost crystals arranged themselves in bunches resembling white
+and saffron-colored flowers.
+
+Through the apertures of this young ice dark vapors rose like steam
+through a screen of porous fabrics and fell in feathers of snow along
+the sparkling shores. After partaking of a boulder of pemmican,
+E-tuk-i-shook went east and I west to examine the lead of water for a
+safe crossing. There were several narrow places, while here and there
+floes which had been adrift in the lead were now fixed by young ice.
+Ah-we-lah remained behind to make our snowhouse comfortable.
+
+For a long time this huge separation in the pack had been a mystery to
+me. At first sight there seemed to be no good reason for its existence.
+Peary had found a similar break north of Robeson Channel. It was likely
+that what we saw was an extension of the same, following at a distance
+the general trend of the northernmost land extension.
+
+This is precisely what one finds on a smaller scale when two ice packs
+come together. Here the pack of the central polar sea meets the
+land-adhering ice. The movement of the land pack is intermittent and
+usually along the coast. The shallows, grounded ice and projecting
+points interfere with a steady drift. The movement of the central pack
+is quite constant, in almost every direction, the tides, currents and
+winds each giving momentum to the floating mass. The lead is thus the
+breaking line between the two bodies of ice. It widens as the pack
+separates, and narrows or widens with an easterly or westerly drift,
+according to the pressure of the central pack. Early in the season, when
+the pack is crevassed and not elastic, it is probably wide; later, as
+the entire sea of ice becomes active, it may disappear or shift to a
+line nearer the land.
+
+In low temperature new ice forms rapidly. This offers an obstruction to
+the drift of the old ice. As the heavy central pack is pressed against
+the unyielding land pack the small ice is ground to splinters, and even
+heavy floes are crushed. This reduced mass of small ice is pasted and
+cemented along the shores of the Big Lead, leaving a broad band of
+troublesome surface as a serious barrier to sled travel. It seems quite
+probable that this lead, or a condition similar to it, extends entirely
+around the Polar sea as a buffer between the land and the middle pack.
+
+In exploring the shore line, a partially bridged place was found about a
+mile from camp, but the young ice was too elastic for a safe track. The
+temperature, however, fell rapidly with the setting sun, and the wind
+was just strong enough to sweep off the heated vapors. I knew better
+atmospheric condition could not be afforded quickly to thicken the young
+ice.
+
+Returning to camp that night, we surprised our stomachs by a little
+frozen musk ox tenderloin and tallow, the greatest delicacy in our
+possession. Then we retired. Ice was our pillow. Ice was our bed. A dome
+of snow above us held off the descending liquid air of frost. Outside
+the wind moaned. Shudderingly, the deep howl of the dogs rolled over the
+ice. Lying on the sheeted deep, beneath my ears I heard the noise of the
+moving, grinding, crashing pack. It sounded terrifyingly like a distant
+thunder of guns. I could not sleep. Sick anxiety filled me. Could we
+cross the dreadful river on the morrow? Would the ice freeze? Or might
+the black space not hopelessly widen during the night? I lay awake,
+shivering with cold. I felt within me the blank loneliness of the
+thousands of desolate miles about me.
+
+One hundred miles of the unknown had been covered; five hundred miles of
+the journey from our winter camp were behind us. Beyond, to the goal,
+lay four hundred unknown miles. Nothing dearly desired of man ever
+seemed so far away.
+
+[Illustration: ESKIMO TORCH]
+
+
+
+
+CROSSING MOVING SEAS OF ICE
+
+CROSSING THE LEAD--THE THIN ICE HEAVES LIKE A SHEET OF RUBBER--CREEPING
+FORWARD CAUTIOUSLY, THE TWO DANGEROUS MILES ARE COVERED--BOUNDING
+PROGRESS MADE OVER IMPROVING ICE--THE FIRST HURRICANE--DOGS BURIED AND
+FROZEN INTO MASSES IN DRIFTS OF SNOW--THE ICE PARTS THROUGH THE
+IGLOO--WAKING TO FIND ONE'S SELF FALLING INTO THE COLD SEA.
+
+XV
+
+THE FIRST STEPS OVER THE GRINDING CENTRAL PACK
+
+
+Ill at ease and shivering, we rose from our crystal berths on March 23
+and peeped out of a pole-punched porthole. A feeble glow of mystic color
+came from everywhere at once. Outside, toward a sky of dull purple,
+columns of steam-like vapor rose from open ice water, resembling vapors
+from huge boiling cauldrons. We sank with chattering teeth to our
+cheerless beds and quivered with the ghostly unreality of this great
+vibrating unknown.
+
+Long before the suppressed incandescent night changed to the prism
+sparkle of day we were out seeking a way over the miles of insecure
+young ice separating us from the central pack. On our snowshoes, with an
+easy tread, spread feet and with long life lines tied to each other, we
+ventured to the opposite shores of that dangerous spread of young ice.
+Beyond, the central pack glittered in moving lines and color, like
+quicksilver shot with rainbow hues.
+
+The Big Lead was mottled and tawny colored, like the skin of a great
+constrictor. As we stood and looked over its broad expanse to the solid
+floes, two miles off, there came premonitions to me of impending danger.
+Would the ice bear us? If it broke, and the life line was not quickly
+jerked, our fate would almost certainly be sure death. Sontag, the
+astronomer of Dr. Hay's Expedition, thus lost his life. Many others have
+in like manner gone to the bottomless deep. On two occasions during the
+previous winter I had thus gone through, but the life line had saved me.
+What would be our fate here? But, whatever the luck, we must cross. I
+knew delay was fatal, for at any time a very light wind or a change in
+the drift might break the new ice and delay us long enough to set the
+doom of failure upon our entire venture.
+
+Every precaution was taken to safeguard our lives. The most important
+problem was to distribute the weight so that all of it would not be
+brought to bear on a small area. We separated our dog teams from the
+sleds, holding to long lines which were fastened about our bodies and
+also to the sleds. The sleds were hitched to each other by another long
+line.
+
+With bated breath and my heart thumping, I advanced at the end of a long
+line which was attached to the first sled, and picked my way through the
+crushed and difficult ice along shore. With the life-saving line
+fastened to each one of us, we were insured against possible dangers as
+well as forethought could provide. Running from sled to sled, from dog
+to dog, and man to man, it would afford a pulling chance for life should
+anyone break through the ice. It seemed unlikely that the ice along the
+entire chain would break at once, but its cracking under the step of one
+of us seemed probable.
+
+I knew, as I gently placed my foot upon the thin yellowish surface, that
+at any moment I might sink into an icy grave. Yet a spirit of bravado
+thrilled my heart. I felt the grip of danger, and also that thrill of
+exultation which accompanies its terror.
+
+Gently testing the ice before me with the end of my axe, with spread
+legs, on snowshoes, with long, sliding steps, I slowly advanced.
+
+A dangerous cracking sound pealed in every direction under my feet. The
+Eskimos followed. With every tread the thin sheet ice perceptibly sank
+under me, and waved, in small billows, like a sheet of rubber.
+
+Stealthily, as though we were trying to filch some victory, we crept
+forward. We rocked on the heaving ice as a boat on waves of water. Now
+and then we stepped upon sheets of thicker ice, and hastily went forward
+with secure footing. None of us spoke during the dangerous crossing. I
+heard distinctly the panting of the dogs and the patter of their feet.
+We covered the two miles safely, yet our snail-like progress seemed to
+cover many anxious years.
+
+I cannot describe the exultation which filled me when the crossing was
+accomplished. It seemed as though my goal itself were stretching toward
+me. I experienced a sense of unbounded victory. I could have cheered
+with joy. Intoxicated with it, I and my companions leaped forward, new
+cheer quickening our steps. The dangers to come seemed less formidable
+now, and as we journeyed onward it was the mastering of these, as did
+our accomplishment in crossing the Big Lead, which gave us a daily
+incentive to continue our way and ever to apply brain and muscle to the
+subduing of even greater difficulties with zest.
+
+It was in doing this that the real thrill, the real victory--the only
+thrill and victory, indeed--of reaching the North Pole lay. The
+attaining of this mythical spot did not then, and does not now, seem in
+itself to mean anything; I did not then, and do not now, consider it the
+treasure-house of any great scientific secrets. The only thing to be
+gained from reaching the Pole, the triumph of it, the lesson in the
+accomplishment, is that man, by brain power and muscle energy, can
+subdue the most terrific forces of a blind nature if he is determined
+enough, courageous enough, and undauntedly persistent despite failure.
+
+On my journey northward I felt the ever constant presence of those who
+had died in trying to reach the goal before me. There were times when I
+felt a startling nearness to them--a sense like that one has of the
+proximity of living beings in an adjoining room. I felt the goad of
+their hopes within me; I felt the steps of their dead feet whenever my
+feet touched the ice. I felt their unfailing determination revive me
+when I was tempted to turn back in the days of inhuman suffering that
+were to come. I felt that I, the last man to essay this goal, must for
+them justify humanity; that I must crown three centuries of human effort
+with success.
+
+With the perilous Big Lead behind us, a bounding course was set to
+reach the eighty-fifth parallel on the ninety-seventh meridian. What
+little movement was noted on the ice had been easterly. To allow for
+this drift we aimed to keep a line slightly west of the Pole.
+
+We bounded northward joyously. Under our speeding feet the ice
+reverberated and rumbled with the echo of far-away splitting and
+crashing.
+
+The sun sank into a haze like mother-of-pearl. Our pathway glowed with
+purple and orange. We paused only when the pale purple blue of night
+darkened the pack.
+
+Starting forward in the afternoon of March 24, we crossed many small
+floes with low-pressure lines separated by narrow belts of new ice. Our
+speed increased. At times we could hardly keep pace with our dogs. The
+temperature rose to forty-one below zero. The western sky cleared
+slightly. Along the horizon remained misty appearances resembling land.
+This low-lying fog continued during our entire second hundred miles over
+the Polar basin. Under it we daily expected to see new land.
+
+But Nature did not satisfy our curiosity for a long time. Both Ah-we-lah
+and E-tuk-i-shook were sure of a constant nearness to land. Because of
+the native panic out of its reassuring sight, I encouraged this belief,
+as I did concerning every other possible sign of land further northward.
+I knew that only by encouraging a delusion of nearness to land could I
+urge them ever farther in the face of the hardships that must inevitably
+come.
+
+An altitude of the sun at noon on March 24 gave our position as latitude
+83° 31´. The longitude was estimated at 96° 27´. The land clouds of
+Grant Land were still visible. The low bank of mist in the west
+occasionally brightened. For a while I believed this to be an indication
+of Crocker Land.
+
+Until midday I took observations and endeavored to study the appearances
+of land. Our dogs sniffed the air as if scenting game. After a diligent
+search, one seal blow-hole was located, and later we saw an old bear
+track. No algæ or other small life was detected in the water between the
+ice crevices. At the Big Lead a few algæ had been gathered. But here the
+sea seemed sterile. Signs of seal and bear, however, were encouraging to
+us as possible future food supply. In returning, I calculated the season
+would be more advanced, and it was possible that life might move
+northward, thus permitting an extension of the time allowance of our
+rations.
+
+Although the heat of the sun was barely felt, its rays began to pierce
+our eyes with painful effects. Reflected from the spotless surface of
+the storm-driven snows, the bright light could not long be endured
+without some protection, even by the Eskimos. Now came the time to test
+a simple expedient that had occurred to me at Annoatok. Amber-colored
+goggles, darkened or smoked glasses and ordinary automobile goggles had
+all been tried with indifferent results. They failed for one reason or
+another, mostly because of an insufficient range of vision or because of
+a faulty construction that made it impossible to proceed more than a few
+minutes without removing the accumulated condensation within them. At
+Annoatok I had made amber-colored goggles from the glass of my
+photographic supplies. By adjusting them I soon found they were a
+priceless discovery. They entirely eliminated one of the greatest
+torments of Arctic travel.
+
+While effectually screening the active rays that would have injured the
+eye, these amber glasses at the same time possessed the inestimable
+advantage of not interfering with the range of vision.
+
+Relieved of the snow glare, the eye was better enabled to see distant
+objects than through field glasses. It is frequently extremely difficult
+to detect icy surface irregularities on cloudy days. The amber glass
+dispelled this trouble perfectly, enabling the eye to search carefully
+every nook and crevice through the vague incandescence which blinds the
+observer in hazy weather. The glasses did not reduce the _quantity_ of
+light, as do smoked glasses, but the _quality_; the actinic rays, which
+do the greatest harm, were eliminated. We were not only relieved of the
+pain and fatigue of eye strain, but the color imparted a touch of cheer
+and warmth to our chilled blue horizon. The usual snow goggles add to
+the ugly gray-blue of the frozen seas, which alone sends frosty waves
+through the nervous fibers.
+
+So thoroughly delighted were we with these goggles that later we wore
+them even in igloos while asleep, with the double object of screening
+the strong light which passes through the eyelids and of keeping the
+forehead warm.
+
+On our march in the early part of the afternoon of the 24th the weather
+proved good. The ice, though newly crevassed, improved as we advanced.
+The late start spread our day's work close to the chill of midnight.
+When we started the wind blew kindly. With glad hearts we forged
+forward without delays. On the ice I heard the soft patter of swift dog
+feet and the dashing, cutting progress of the sleds. As a scene viewed
+from a carousel, the field of ice swept around me in our dizzy, twisting
+progress. We swept resistlessly onward for twenty-three miles. As we had
+taken a zigzag course to follow smooth ice, I therefore recorded only
+eighteen miles to our credit.
+
+The night was beautiful. The sun sank into a purple haze. Soon, in the
+magic of the atmosphere, appeared three suns of prismatic colors. These
+settled slowly into the frozen sea and disappeared behind that
+persistent haze of obscuring mist which always rests over the pack when
+the sun is low. During the night a narrow band of orange was flung like
+a ribbon across the northern skies. The pack surface glowed with varying
+shades of violet, lilac and pale purplish blue. Many such splendid
+sights are to be constantly seen in the Arctic. Although I reveled in it
+now, the time was soon to come when weariness and hunger numbed my
+faculties into a dreary torpor in which the splendor was not seen.
+
+Signs appeared of a gale from the west before we were quite ready to
+camp. Little sooty clouds with ragged edges suddenly began to cover the
+sky, scurrying at an alarming pace. Beyond us a huge smoky volume of
+cloud blackened the pearly glitter.
+
+Suitable camping ice was sought. In the course of an hour we built an
+igloo. We made the structure stronger than usual on account of the
+threatening storm. We constructed double tiers of snow blocks to the
+windward. A little water was thrown over the top to cement the blocks.
+We fastened the dogs to the lee of hummocks. The sleds were securely
+lashed and fastened to the ice.
+
+We expected a hurricane, and had not to wait to taste its fury. Before
+we were at rest in our bags the wind lashed the snows with a force
+inconceivable. With rushing drift, the air thickened. Dogs and sleds in
+a few minutes were buried under banks of snow and great drifts encircled
+the igloo. The cemented blocks of our dome withstood the sweep of the
+blast well. Yet, now and then, small holes were burrowed through the
+snow wall by the sharp wind. Drift entered and covered us. I lay awake
+for hours. I felt the terrible oppression of that raging, life-sucking
+vampire force sweeping over the desolate world. Disembodied things--the
+souls of those, perhaps, who had perished here--seemed frenziedly
+calling me in the wind. I felt under me the surge of the sweeping, awful
+sea. I felt the desolation of this stormy world within my shuddering
+soul; but, withal, I throbbed with a determination to assert the
+supremacy of living man over these blind, insensate forces; to prove
+that the living brain and palpitating muscle of a finite though
+conscious creature could vanquish a hostile Nature which creates to
+kill. I burned to justify those who had died here; to fulfill by proxy
+their hopes; to set their calling souls at rest. The storm waked in me
+an angry, challenging determination.
+
+Early in the morning of the 25th the storm ceased as suddenly as it had
+come. A stillness followed which was appalling. It seemed as if the
+storm had heard my thoughts and paused to contemplate some more dreadful
+onslaught. The dogs began to howl desperately, as if attacked by a
+bear. We rushed out of our igloo, seeking guns. There was no approaching
+creature. It was, however, a signal of serious distress that we had
+heard. The dogs were in acute misery. The storm-driven snows had buried
+and bound them in unyielding ice. They had partly uncovered themselves.
+United by trace and harness, they were imprisoned in frozen masses. Few
+of them could even rise and stretch. They were in severe torment.
+
+We hurriedly freed their traces and beat the cemented snows from their
+furs with sticks. Released, they leaped about gladly, their cries,
+curling tails and pointed noses telling of gratitude. While we danced
+about, stretching our limbs and rubbing our hands to get up circulation,
+the sun rose over the northern blue, flushing the newly driven snows
+with warm tones. The temperature during the storm had risen to only 26°
+below, but soon the thermometer sank rapidly below 40°. The west was
+still smoky and the weather did not seem quite settled. As it was still
+too early to start, we again slipped into the bags and sought quiet
+slumber.
+
+As yet the dreadful insomnia which was to rob me of rest on my journey
+had not come, and I slept with the blissful soundness of a child. I must
+have been asleep several hours, when, of a sudden, I opened my eyes.
+
+Terror gripped my heart. Loud explosive noises reverberated under my
+head. It seemed as though bombs were torn asunder in the depths of the
+cold sea beneath me. I lay still, wondering if I were dreaming. The
+sounds echoingly died away. Looking about the igloo, I detected nothing
+unusual. I saw Ah-we-lah and E-tuk-i-shook staring at me with wide-open
+frightened eyes. I arose and peeped through the eye port. The fields of
+ice without reflected the warm light of the rising sun in running waves
+of tawny color. The ice was undisturbed. An unearthly quiet prevailed.
+Concluding that the ice was merely cracking under the sudden change of
+temperature, in quite the usual harmless manner, I turned over again,
+reassuring my companions, and promptly fell asleep.
+
+Out of the blankness of sleep I suddenly wakened again. Half-dazed, I
+heard beneath me a series of echoing, thundering noises. I felt the ice
+floor on which I lay quivering. I experienced the sudden giddiness one
+feels on a tossing ship at sea. In the flash of a second I saw Ah-we-lah
+leap to his feet. In the same dizzy instant I saw the dome of the
+snowhouse open above me; I caught a vision of the gold-streaked sky. My
+instinct at the moment was to leap. I think I tried to rise, when
+suddenly everything seemed lifted from under me; I experienced the
+suffocating sense of falling, and next, with a spasm of indescribable
+horror, felt about my body a terrific tightening pressure like that of a
+chilled and closing shell of steel, driving the life and breath from me.
+
+In an instant it was clear what had happened. A crevasse had suddenly
+opened through our igloo, directly under the spot whereon I slept; and
+I, a helpless creature in a sleeping bag, with tumbling snow blocks and
+ice and snow crashing about and crushing me, with the temperature 48°
+below zero, was floundering in the opening sea!
+
+
+
+
+LAND DISCOVERED
+
+FIGHTING PROGRESS THROUGH CUTTING COLD AND TERRIFIC STORMS--LIFE BECOMES
+A MONOTONOUS ROUTINE OF HARDSHIP--THE POLE INSPIRES WITH ITS RESISTLESS
+LURE--NEW LAND DISCOVERED BEYOND THE EIGHTY-FOURTH PARALLEL--MORE THAN
+TWO HUNDRED MILES FROM SVARTEVOEG--THE FIRST SIX HUNDRED MILES COVERED
+
+XVI
+
+THREE HUNDRED MILES TO THE APEX OF THE WORLD
+
+
+I think I was about to swoon when I felt hands beneath my armpits and
+heard laughter in my ears. With an adroitness such as only these natives
+possess, my two companions were dragging me from the water. And while I
+lay panting on the ice, recovering from my fright, I saw them
+expeditiously rescue our possessions.
+
+It seemed that all this happened so quickly that I had really been in
+the water only a few moments. My two companions saw the humor of the
+episode and laughed heartily. Although I had been in the water only a
+brief time, a sheet of ice surrounded my sleeping bag. Fortunately,
+however, the reindeer skin was found to be quite dry when the ice was
+beaten off. The experience, while momentarily terrifying, was
+instructive, for it taught us the danger of spreading ice, especially
+in calms following storms.
+
+Gratitude filled my heart. I fully realized how narrow had been the
+escape of all of us. Had we slept a few seconds longer we should all
+have disappeared in the opening crevasse. The hungry Northland would
+again have claimed its human sacrifice.
+
+The ice about was much disturbed. Numerous black lines of water opened
+on every side; from these oozed jets of frosty, smoke-colored vapor. The
+difference between the temperature of the sea and that of the air was
+76°. With this contrast, the open spots of ice-water appeared to be
+boiling.
+
+Anxious to move along, away from the troubled angle of ice, our usual
+breakfast was simplified. Melting some snow, we drank the icy liquid as
+an eye-opener, and began our ration of a half-pound boulder of pemmican.
+But with cold fingers, blue lips and no possible shelter, the stuff was
+unusually hard. To warm up, we prepared the sleds. Under our lashes the
+dogs jumped into harness with a bound. The pemmican, which we really
+found too hard to eat, had to be first broken into pieces with an axe.
+We ground it slowly with our molars as we trudged along. Our teeth
+chattered while the stomach was thus being fired with durable fuel.
+
+As we advanced the ice improved to some extent. With a little search
+safe crossings were found over new crevices. A strong westerly wind blew
+piercingly cold.
+
+Good progress was made, but we did not forget at any time that we were
+invading the forbidden domains of a new polar environment.
+
+Henceforth, one day was to be much like another. Beyond the
+eighty-third parallel life is devoid of any pleasure. The intense
+objective impressions of cold and hunger assailing the body rob even the
+mind of inspiration and exhilaration. Even the best day of sun and
+gentle wind offers no balm.
+
+One awakes realizing the wind has abated and sees the cheerless sun
+veering about the side of the ice shelter. One kicks the victim upon
+whom, that morning, duty has fixed the misfortune to be up first--for we
+tried to be equals in sharing the burdens of life. And upon him to whose
+lot falls this hardship there is a loss of two hours' repose. He chops
+ice, fills the kettles, lights the fire, and probably freezes his
+fingers in doing so. Then he wiggles back into his bag, warms his icy
+hands on the bare skin of his own stomach; or, if he is in a two-man
+bag, and the other fellow is awake, Arctic courtesy permits the icy
+hands on the stomach of his bedfellow.
+
+In due time the blood runs to the hand and he sets about tidying up the
+camp. First, the hood of his own bag. It is loaded with icicles and
+frost, the result of the freezing of his breath while asleep. He brushes
+off the ice and snow. The ice has settled in the kettles in the
+meantime. More ice must be chopped and put into the kettle. The chances
+are that he now breaks a commandment and steals what to us is a great
+luxury--a long drink of water to ease his parched throat. Because of the
+need of fuel economy, limit is placed on drinks.
+
+Then the fire needs attention; the flame is imperfect and the gas hole
+needs cleaning. He thoughtlessly grips the little bit of metal to the
+end of which the priming needle is attached. That metal is so cold that
+it burns, and he leaves a piece of his skin on it. Then the breakfast
+ration of pemmican must be divided. It is not frozen, for it contains no
+water. But it is hard. The stuff looks like granite. Heat would melt
+it--but there is no fuel to spare. The two slumberers are given a thump,
+and their eyes open to the stone-like pemmican. Between yawns the teeth
+are set to grind the pemmican. The water boils, the tea is tossed in it
+and the kettle is removed.
+
+We rise on elbows, still in the bags, to enjoy the one heavenly treat of
+our lives, the cup of tea which warms the hand and the stomach at once.
+
+Then we dress. It is remarkable how cold compels speed in dressing.
+
+The door of the snowhouse is now kicked out--all tumble about to warm up
+and stop chattering teeth. Breaking camp is a matter of but a minute,
+for things fall almost automatically into convenient packs. The sledges
+are loaded and lashed in a few minutes. Then the teams are gathered to
+the pulling lines, and off we go with a run. The pace for dog and man is
+two and a half miles an hour, over good ice or bad ice, hard snow or
+soft snow, or tumbling over neckbreaking irregularities. There is no
+stop for lunch, no riding, or rest, or anything else. It is
+drive--drive.
+
+At times it was impossible to perspire, and the toxin of fatigue,
+generating unearthly weariness, filled the brain with fag. When
+perspiration oozed from our pores, as we forced forward, step by step,
+it froze in the garments and the warmer portions of our bodies were
+ringed with snow. Daily, unremittingly, this was our agony.
+
+In starting before the end of the winter night, and camping on the open
+ice fields in the long northward march, we had first accustomed our eyes
+to frigid darkness and then to a perpetual glitter. This proved to be
+the coldest season of the year, and we ought to have been hardened to
+all kinds of Arctic torment. But man gains that advantage only when his
+pulse ceases to beat.
+
+Continuing the steady stride of forward marches, far from land, far from
+life, there was nothing to arouse a warming spirit. Along the land there
+had been calms and gales and an inspiring contrast, even in the dark
+days and nights, but here the frigid world was felt at its worst. The
+wind, which came persistently from the west--now strong, now feeble, but
+always sharp--inflicted a pain to which we never became accustomed.
+
+The worst torture inflicted by the wind and humid air of an Arctic pack
+came from a mask of ice about the face. It was absurdly picturesque but
+painful. Every bit of exhaled moisture condensed and froze either to the
+facial hair or to the line of fox tails about the hood. It made comical
+caricatures of us.
+
+Frequent turns in our course exposed both sides of the face to the wind
+and covered with icicles every hair offering a convenient nucleus. These
+lines of crystal made an amazing dash of light and color as we looked at
+each other. But they did not afford much amusement to the individual
+exhibiting them. Such hairs as had not been pulled from the lips and
+chin were first weighted, and then the wind carried the breath to the
+long hair with which we protected our heads, and left a mass of dangling
+frost. Accumulated moisture from the eyes coated the eyelashes and
+brows. The humidity escaping about the forehead left a crescent of snow
+above, while that escaping under the chin, combined with falling breath,
+formed there a semi-circle of ice. The most uncomfortable icicles,
+however, were those that formed on the coarse hair within the nostrils.
+To keep the face free, the Eskimos pull the facial hair out by the
+roots, the result of which is a rarity of mustaches and beards. Thus,
+with low temperature and persistent winds, life was one of constant
+torture on the march; but cooped in snowhouses, eating dried beef and
+tallow, and drinking hot tea, some animal comforts were occasionally to
+be gained in the icy camps.
+
+[Illustration: BRADLEY LAND DISCOVERED
+
+SUBMERGED ISLAND OF POLAR SEA
+
+GOING BEYOND THE BOUNDS OF LIFE]
+
+[Illustration: SWIFT PROGRESS OVER SMOOTH ICE
+
+BUILDING AN IGLOO
+
+A LIFELESS WORLD OF COLD AND ICE]
+
+We forced the dogs onward during two days of cheery bluster, with
+encouraging results. At times we ran before the teams, calling and
+urging the brutes to leaping progress. On the evening of March 26, with
+a pedometer and other methods of dead reckoning for position, we found
+ourselves at latitude 84° 24´, longitude 96° 53´.
+
+The western horizon remained persistently dark. A storm was gathering,
+and slowly moving eastward. Late in the evening we prepared for the
+anticipated blast. We built an igloo stronger than usual, hoping that
+the horizon would be cleared with a brisk wind by the morrow and afford
+us a day of rest. The long, steady marches, without time for
+recuperation, necessarily dampened our enthusiasm for a brief period of
+physical depression, which, however, was of short duration.
+
+Daily we had learned to appreciate more and more the joy of the sleeping
+bag. It was the only animal comfort which afforded a relief to our life
+of frigid hardship, and often with the thought of it we tried to force
+upon the weary body in the long marches a pleasing anticipation.
+
+In the evening, after blocks of snow walled a dome in which we could
+breathe quiet air, the blue-flame lamp sang notes of gastronomic
+delights. We first indulged in a heaven-given drink of ice-water to
+quench the intense thirst which comes after hours of exertion and
+perspiration. Then the process of undressing began, one at a time, for
+there was not room enough in the igloo for all to undress at once.
+
+The fur-stuffed boots were pulled off and the bearskin pants were
+stripped. Then half of the body was quickly pushed into the bag. A brick
+of pemmican was next taken out and the teeth were set to grind on this
+bone-like substance. Our appetites were always keen, but a half pound of
+cold withered beef and tallow changes a hungry man's thoughts
+effectually.
+
+The tea, an hour in making, was always welcome, and we rose on elbows to
+take it. Under the influence of the warm drink, the fur coat with its
+mask of ice was removed. Next the shirt, with its ring of ice about the
+waist, would come off, giving the last sense of shivering. Pushing the
+body farther into the bag, the hood was pulled over the face, and we
+were lost to the world of ice.
+
+The warm sense of mental and physical pleasure which follows is an
+interesting study. The movement of others, the sting of the air, the
+noise of torturing winds, the blinding rays of a heatless sun, the pains
+of driving snows and all the bitter elements are absent. One's mind,
+freed of anxiety and suffering, wanders to home and better times under
+these peculiar circumstances; there comes a pleasurable sensation in
+the touch of one's own warm skin, while the companionship of the arms
+and legs, freed from their cumbersome furs, makes a new discovery in the
+art of getting next to one's self.
+
+Early on March 27, a half gale was blowing, but at noon the wind ceased.
+The bright sun and rising temperature were too tempting to let us remain
+quiescent. Although the west was still dark with threatening clouds we
+hitched the dogs to the sleds. We braced ourselves. "Huk! Huk!" we
+called, and bounded away among the wind-swept hummocks. The crevices of
+the ice wound like writhing snakes as we raced on. We had not gone many
+miles before the first rush of the storm struck us. Throwing ourselves
+over the sleds, we waited the passing of the icy blast. No suitable snow
+with which to begin the erection of a shelter was near. A few miles
+northward, as we saw, was a promising area for a camp. This we hoped to
+reach after a few moments' rest. The squall soon spent its force. In the
+wind which followed good progress was made without suffering severely.
+The temperature was 41° below zero, Fahrenheit, and the barometer 29.05.
+
+Once in moving order, the drivers required very little encouragement to
+prolong the effort to a fair day's march despite the weather. As the sun
+settled in the western gloom the wind increased in fury and forced us to
+camp. Before the igloo was finished a steady, rasping wind brushed the
+hummocks and piled the snow in large dunes about us, like the sand of
+home shores.
+
+The snowhouse was not cemented as usual with water, as was our custom
+when weather permitted. The tone of the wind did not seem to indicate
+danger, and furthermore, there was no open sea water near. Because of
+the need of fuel economy we did not deem it prudent to use oil for fire
+to melt snow, excepting for water to quench thirst.
+
+Not particularly anxious about the outcome of the storm, and with senses
+blunted by overwork and benumbed with cold, we sought the comfort of the
+bags. Awakened in the course of a few hours by drifts of snow about our
+feet, I noted that the wind had burrowed holes at weak spots through the
+snow wall. We were bound, however, not to be cheated of a few hours'
+sleep, and with one eye open we turned over. I was awakened by falling
+snow blocks soon after.
+
+Forcing my head out of my ice-encased fur hood, I saw the sky,
+cloud-swept and grey. The dome of the igloo had been swept away. We were
+being quickly buried under a dangerous weight of snow. In some way I had
+tossed about sufficiently during sleep to keep on top of the
+accumulating drift, but my companions were nowhere to be seen. About me
+for miles the white spaces were vacant. With dread in my heart I uttered
+a loud call, but there came no response.
+
+A short frenzied search revealed a blowhole in the snow. In response to
+another call, as from some subterranean place came muffled Eskimo
+shouts. Tearing and burrowing at the fallen snow blocks I made violent
+efforts to free them, buried as they were in their bags. But to my
+dismay the soft snow settled on them tighter with each tussle.
+
+I was surprised, a few moments later, as I was working to keep their
+breathing place open, to feel them burrowing through the snow. They had
+entered their bags without undressing. Half clothed in shirt and pants,
+but with bare feet, they writhed and wriggled through the bags and up
+through the breathing hole.
+
+After a little digging their boots were uncovered, and then, with
+protected feet, the bag was freed and placed at the side of the igloo.
+
+Into it the boys crept, fully dressed, with the exception of coats. I
+rolled out beside them in my bag. We lay in the open sweep of furious
+wind, impotent to move, for twenty-nine hours. Only then the frigid
+blast eased enough to enable us to creep out into the open. The air came
+in hissing spouts, like jets of steam from an engine.
+
+Soon after noon of March 29 the air brightened. It became possible to
+breathe without being choked with floating crystals, and as the ice
+about our facial furs was broken, a little blue patch was detected in
+the west. We now freed the dogs of their snow entanglement and fed them.
+A shelter was made in which to melt snow and brew tea. We ate a double
+ration.
+
+Hitching the dogs we raced off. The monotonous fields of snow swept
+under us. Soon the sun burst through separating clouds and upraised icy
+spires before us. The wind died away. A crystal glory transfigured the
+storm-swept fields. We seemed traveling over fields of diamonds,
+scintillant as white fire, which shimmered dazzlingly about us. It is
+curious to observe an intense fiery glitter and glow, as in the North,
+which gives absolutely no impression of warmth. Fire here seems cold.
+With full stomachs, fair weather and a much needed rest, we moved with
+renewed inspiration. The dogs ran with tails erect, ears pricked. I and
+my companions ran behind with the joy of contestants in a race. Indeed,
+we felt refreshed as one does after a cold bath.
+
+Considerable time and distance, however, were lost in seeking a workable
+line of travel about obstructions and making detours. Camping at
+midnight, we had made only nine miles by a day's effort. The conditions
+under which this second hundred miles were forced, proved to be in every
+respect the most exciting of the run of five hundred miles over the
+Polar sea. The mere human satisfaction of overcoming difficulties was a
+daily incentive to surmount obstacles and meet baffling problems. The
+weather was unsettled. Sudden storms broke with spasmodic force, the
+barometer was unsteady and the temperature ranged from 20° below zero to
+60° below zero. The ice showed signs of recent agitation.
+
+New leads and recent sheets of new ice combined with deep snow made
+travel difficult. Persistently onward, pausing at times, we would urge
+the dogs to the limit. One dog after another went into the stomachs of
+the hungry survivors. Camps were now swept by storms. The ice opened out
+under our bodies, shelter was often a mere hole in the snow bank. Each
+of us carried painful wounds, frost bites; and the ever chronic
+emptiness of half filled stomachs brought a gastric call for food,
+impossible to supply. Hard work and strong winds sent unquenched thirst
+tortures to burning throats, and the gloom of ever clouded skies sent
+despair to its lowest reaches.
+
+But there was no monotony; our tortures came from different angles, and
+from so many sources, that we were ever aroused to a fighting spirit.
+With a push at the sled or a pull at the line we helped the wind-teased
+dogs to face the nose cutting drift that swept the pack mile after mile.
+Day after day we plunged farther and farther along into the icy despair
+and stormy bluster.
+
+Throughout the entire advance northward I found there was some advantage
+in my Eskimo companions having some slight comprehension of the meaning
+of my aim. Doubtless through information and ideas that had sifted from
+explorers to Eskimos for many generations past, the aborigines had come
+to understand that there is a point at the top of the globe, which is
+somehow the very top of the world, and that at this summit there is
+something which white men have long been anxious to find--a something
+which the Eskimo describe as the "big nail." The feeling that they were
+setting out with me in the hope of being the first to find this "big
+nail"--for, of course, I had told them of the possibility--helped to
+keep up the interest and courage of my two companions during long days
+of hardship.
+
+Naturally enough, I could not expect their interest in the Pole itself
+to be great. Their promised reward for accompanying me, a gun and knife
+for each, maintained a lively interest in them. After a ceaseless
+warfare lasting seven days, on March 30 the eastern sky broke in lines
+of cheering blue. Whipped by low winds the clouds broke and scurried.
+
+Soon the western heavens, ever a blank mystery, cleared. Under it, to my
+surprise, lay a new land. I think I felt a thrill such as Columbus must
+have felt when the first green vision of America loomed before his eye.
+
+My promise to the good, trusty boys of nearness to land was unwittingly
+on my part made good, and the delight of eyes opened to the earth's
+northernmost rocks dispelled all the physical torture of the long run of
+storms. As well as I could see, the land seemed an interrupted coast
+extending parallel to the line of march for about fifty miles, far to
+the west. It was snow covered, ice-sheeted and desolate. But it was real
+land with all the sense of security solid earth can offer. To us that
+meant much, for we had been adrift in a moving sea of ice, at the mercy
+of tormenting winds. Now came, of course, the immediate impelling desire
+to set foot upon it, but to do so I knew would have side-tracked us from
+our direct journey to the Polar goal. In any case, delay was jeopardous,
+and, moreover, our food supply did not permit our taking time to inspect
+the new land.[13]
+
+This new land was never clearly seen. A low mist, seemingly from open
+water, hid the shore line. We saw the upper slopes only occasionally
+from our point of observation. There were two distinct land masses. The
+most southern cape of the southern mass bore west by south, but still
+further to the south there were vague indications of land. The most
+northern cape of the same mass bore west by north. Above it there was a
+distinct break for 15 or 20 miles, and beyond the northern mass extended
+above the eighty-fifth parallel to the northwest. The entire coast was
+at this time placed on our charts as having a shore line along the one
+hundred and second meridian, approximately parallel to our line of
+travel. At the time the indications suggested two distinct islands.
+Nevertheless, we saw so little of the land that we could not determine
+whether it consisted of islands or of a larger mainland. The lower coast
+resembled Heiberg Island, with mountains and high valleys. The upper
+coast I estimated as being about one thousand feet high, flat, and
+covered with a thin sheet ice. Over the land I write "Bradley Land" in
+honor of John R. Bradley, whose generous help had made possible the
+important first stage of the expedition. The discovery of this land gave
+an electric impetus of driving vigor at just the right moment to
+counterbalance the effect of the preceding week of storm and trouble.
+
+Although I gazed longingly and curiously at the land, to me the Pole was
+the pivot of ambition. My boys had not the same northward craze, but I
+told them to reach the land on our return might be possible. We never
+saw it again. This new land made a convenient mile-post, for from this
+time on the days were counted to and from it. A good noon sight fixed
+the point of observation to 84° 50´, longitude 95° 36´´. We had
+forced beyond the second hundred miles from Svartevoeg. Before us
+remained about three hundred more miles, to my alluring, mysterious
+goal.
+
+[Illustration: ARCTIC FOX]
+
+
+
+
+BEYOND THE RANGE OF LIFE
+
+WITH A NEW SPRING TO WEARY LEGS BRADLEY LAND IS LEFT BEHIND--FEELING THE
+ACHING VASTNESS OF THE WORLD BEFORE MAN WAS MADE--CURIOUS GRIMACES OF
+THE MIDNIGHT SUN--SUFFERINGS INCREASE--BY PERSISTENT AND LABORIOUS
+PROGRESS ANOTHER HUNDRED MILES IS COVERED
+
+XVII
+
+TWO HUNDRED MILES FROM THE POLE
+
+
+A curtain of mist was drawn over the new land in the afternoon of March
+31, and, although we gazed westward longingly, we saw no more of it. Day
+after day we now pushed onward in desperate northward efforts. Strong
+winds and fractured, irregular ice, increased our difficulties. Although
+progress was slow for several days we managed to gain a fair march
+between storms during each twenty-four hours. During occasional spells
+of icy stillness mirages spread screens of fantasy out for our
+entertainment. Curious cliffs, odd-shaped mountains and inverted ice
+walls were displayed in attractive colors.
+
+Discoveries of new land seemed often made. But with a clearing horizon
+the deception was detected.
+
+The boys believed most of these signs to be indications of real land--a
+belief I persistently encouraged, because it relieved them of the panic
+of the terror of the unknown.
+
+On April 3, the barometer remained steady and the thermometer sank. The
+weather became settled and fairly clear, the horizon was freed of its
+smoky vapors, the pack assumed a more permanent aspect of glittering
+color. At noon there was now a dazzling light, while at night the sun
+kissed the frozen seas behind screens of mouse-colored cloud and haze.
+At the same moment the upper skies flushed with the glow of color of the
+coming double-days of joy.
+
+As we advanced north of Bradley Land the pack disturbance of
+land-divided and land-jammed ice disappeared. The fields became larger
+and less troublesome, the weather improved, the temperature ranged from
+20° to 50° below zero, the barometer rose and remained steady, the day
+sky cleared with increasing color, but a low haze blotted out much of
+the night glory which attended the dip of the nocturnal sun. With dogs
+barking and rushing before speeding sleds, we made swift progress. But
+the steady drag and monotony of the never changing work and scene
+reduced interest in life.
+
+The blankness of the mental desert which moved about us as we ran along
+was appalling. Nothing changed materially. The horizon moved. Our
+footing was seemingly a solid stable ice crust, which was, however,
+constantly shifting eastward. All the world on which we traveled was in
+motion. We moved, but we took our landscape with us.
+
+At the end of the day's march we were often too tired to build snow
+houses, and in sheer exhaustion we bivouacked in the lee of hummocks.
+Here the overworked body called for sleep, but my mind refused to close
+the eyes. My boys had the advantage of sleep. I envied them. Anyone who
+has suffered from insomnia may be able in a small degree to gauge my
+condition when sleep became impossible. To reach the end of my journey
+became the haunting, ever-present goading thought of my wakeful
+existence.
+
+As I lay painfully trying to coax slumber, my mind worked like the
+wheels of a machine. Dizzily the journey behind repeated itself; I again
+crossed the Big Lead, again floundered in an ice-cold open sea. Dangers
+of all sorts took form to harass me. Instead of sleep, a delirium of
+anxiety and longing possessed me.
+
+Beyond the eighty-fourth parallel we had passed the bounds of visible
+life. Lying wakeful in that barren world, with my companions asleep, I
+felt what few men of cities, perhaps, ever feel--the tragic isolation of
+the human soul--a thing which, dwelt upon, must mean madness. I think I
+realized the aching vastness of the world after creation, before man was
+made.
+
+For many days we had not seen a suggestion of animated nature. There
+were no longer animal trails to indicate life; no breath spouts of seal
+escaped from the frosted bosom of the sea. Not even the microscopic life
+of the deep was longer detected under us. We were alone--alone in a
+lifeless world. We had come to this blank space of the earth by slow but
+progressive stages. Sailing from the bleak land of the fisher folk along
+the out-posts of civilization, the complex luxury of metropolitan life
+was lost. Beyond, in the half savage wilderness of Danish Greenland, we
+partook of a new life of primitive simplicity. Still farther along, in
+the Ultima Thule of the aborigines, we reverted to a prehistoric plane
+of living. Advancing beyond the haunts of men, we reached the noonday
+deadliness of a world without life.
+
+As we pushed beyond into the sterile wastes, with eager eyes we
+constantly searched the dusky plains of frost, but there was no speck of
+life to grace the purple run of death.[14]
+
+During these desolate marches, my legs working mechanically, my mind
+with anguish sought some object upon which to fasten itself. My eyes
+scrutinized the horizon. I saw, every day, every sleeping hour, hills of
+ice, vast plains of ice, now a deadly white, now a dull gray, now a
+misty purple, sometimes shot with gold or gleaming with lakes of
+ultramarine, moving towards and by me, an ever-changing yet
+ever-monotonous panorama which wearied me as does the shifting of
+unchanging scenery seen from a train window. As I paced the weary
+marches, I fortunately became unconscious of the painful movement of my
+legs. Although I walked I had a sensation of being lifted involuntarily
+onward.
+
+The sense of covering distance gave me a dull, pleasurable satisfaction.
+Only some catastrophe, some sudden and overwhelming obstacle would have
+aroused me to an intense mental emotion, to a passionate despair, to the
+anguish of possible defeat.
+
+I was now becoming the unconscious instrument of my ambition; almost
+without volition my body was being carried forward by a subconscious
+force which had fastened itself upon a distant goal. Sometimes the
+wagging of a dog's tail held my attention for long minutes; it afforded
+a curious play for my morbidly obsessed imagination. In an hour I would
+forget what I had been thinking. To-day I cannot remember the vague,
+fanciful illusions about curiously insignificant things which occupied
+my faculties in this dead world. The sun, however, did relieve the
+monotony, and created in the death-chilled world skies filled with
+elysian flowers and mirages of beauty undreamed of by Aladdin.
+
+My senses at the time, as I have said, were vaguely benumbed. While we
+traveled I heard the sound of the moving sledges. Their sharp steel
+runners cut the ice and divided the snow like a cleaving knife. I became
+used to the first shudder of the rasping sound. In the dead lulls
+between wind storms I would listen with curious attention to the soft
+patter of our dogs' feet. At times I could hear their tiny toe nails
+grasping at forward ice ridges in order to draw themselves forward, and,
+strangely--so were all my thoughts interwoven with my ambition--this
+clenching, crunching, gritty sound gave me a delighted sense of
+progress, a sense of ever covering distance and nearing, ever nearing
+the Pole.
+
+In this mid-Polar basin the ice does not readily separate. It is
+probably in motion at all times of the year. In this readjustment of
+fields following motion and expansion, open spaces of water appear.
+These, during most months, are quickly sheeted with new ice.
+
+In these troubled areas I had frequent opportunities to measure
+ice-thickness. From my observation I had come to the conclusion that ice
+does not freeze to a depth of more than twelve or fifteen feet during a
+single year. Occasionally we crossed fields fifty feet thick. These
+invariably showed signs of many years of surface upbuilding.
+
+It is very difficult to estimate the amount of submerged freezing after
+the first year's ice, but the very uniform thickness of Antarctic sea
+ice suggests that a limit is reached the second year, when the ice, with
+its cover of snow, is so thick that very little is added afterward from
+below.
+
+Increase in size after that is probably the result mostly of addition to
+the superstructure. Frequent falls of snow, combined with alternate
+melting and freezing in summer, and a process similar to the upbuilding
+of glacial ice, are mainly responsible for the growth in thickness of
+the ice on the Polar sea.
+
+The very heavy, undulating fields, which give character to the mid-Polar
+ice and escape along the east and west coasts of Greenland, are,
+therefore, mostly augmented from the surface.
+
+Continuing north, at no time was the horizon perfectly clear. But the
+weather was good enough to permit frequent nautical observations. Our
+course was lined on uninteresting blank sheets. There were elusive signs
+of land frequent enough to maintain an exploring enthusiasm, which
+helped me also in satisfying my companions. For thus they were
+encouraged to believe in a nearness to terrestrial solidity. At every
+breathing spell, when we got together for a little chat, Ah-we-lah's
+hand, with pointed finger, was directed to some spot on the horizon or
+some low-lying cloud, with the shout of "_Noona?_" (land), to which I
+always replied in the affirmative; but, for me, the field-glasses and
+later positions dispelled the illusion.
+
+Man, under pressure of circumstances, will adapt himself to most
+conditions of life. To me the other-world environment of the Polar-pack,
+far from continental fastness, was beginning to seem quite natural.
+
+We forced marches day after day. We traveled until dogs languished or
+legs failed. Ice hills rose and fell before us. Mirages grimaced at our
+dashing teams with wondering faces. Daily the incidents and our position
+were recorded, but our adventures were promptly forgotten in the mental
+bleach of the next day's effort.
+
+Night was now as bright as day. By habit, we emerged from our igloos
+later and later. On the 5th and 6th we waited until noon before
+starting, to get observations; but, as was so often the case, when the
+sun was watched, it slipped under clouds. This late start brought our
+stopping time close to midnight, and infused an interest in the midnight
+sun; but the persistent haze which clouded the horizon at night when the
+sun was low denied us a glimpse of the midnight luminary.
+
+The night of April 7 was made notable by the swing of the sun at
+midnight, above the usual obscuring mist, behind which it had, during
+previous days, sunk with its night dip of splendor. For a number of
+nights it made grim faces at us in its setting. A tantalizing mist,
+drawn as a curtain over the northern sea at midnight, had afforded
+curious advantages for celestial staging. We were unable to determine
+sharply the advent of the midnight sun, but the colored cloud and haze
+into which it nightly sank produced a spectacular play which interested
+us immensely.
+
+Sometimes the great luminary was drawn out into an egg-shaped elongation
+with horizontal lines of color drawn through it. I pictured it as some
+splendid fire-colored lantern flung from the window of Heaven. Again, it
+was pressed into a basin flaming with magical fires, burning behind a
+mystic curtain of opalescent frosts. Blue at other times, it appeared
+like a huge vase of luminous crystal, such as might be evoked by the
+weird genii of the Orient, from which it required very little
+imagination to see purple, violet, crimson and multi-colored flowers
+springing beauteously into the sky.
+
+These changes took place quickly, as by magic. Usually the last display
+was of distorted faces, some animal, some semi-human--huge, grotesque,
+and curiously twitching countenances of clouds and fire. At times they
+appallingly resembled the hideous teeth-gnashing deities of China, that,
+with gnarled arms upraised, holding daggers of flame and surrounded by
+smoke, were rising toward us from beyond the horizon.
+
+Sometimes in our northward progress these faces laughed, again they
+scowled ominously. What the actual configurations were I do not know; I
+suppose two men see nothing exactly alike in this topsy-turvy world.
+
+Rushing northward with forced haste, unreal beauties took form as if to
+lure us to pause. Clouds of steam rising from frozen seas like geysers
+assumed the aspects of huge fountains of iridescent fire. As the sun
+rose, lines of light like quicksilver quivered and writhed about the
+horizon, and in swirling, swimming circles closed and narrowed about us
+on the increasingly color-burned but death-chilled areas of ice over
+which we worked. Setting amid a dance of purple radiance, the sun,
+however, instead of inspiring us, filled us with a sick feeling of
+giddiness. What beauty there was in these spectacles was often lost upon
+our benumbed senses.
+
+Nowhere in the world, perhaps, are seen such spectacles of celestial
+glory. The play of light on clouds and ice produces the illusion of some
+supernatural realm.
+
+We had now followed the sun's northward advance--from its first peep, at
+midday, above the southern ice of the Polar gateway, to its sweep over
+the northern ice at midnight. From the end of the Polar night, late in
+February, to the first of the double days and the midnight suns, we had
+forced a trail through darkness and blood-hardening temperature, and
+over leg-breaking irregularities of an unknown world of ice, to a spot
+almost exactly two hundred miles from the Pole! To this point our
+destiny had been auspiciously protected. Ultimate success seemed within
+grasp. But we were not blind to the long line of desperate effort still
+required to push over the last distance.
+
+Now that we had the sun unmistakably at midnight, its new glory before
+us was an incentive to onward efforts. Previous to this the sun had been
+undoubtedly above the horizon, but, as is well known, when the sun is
+low and the atmospheric humidity is high, as it always is over the pack,
+a dense cloud of frost crystals rests on the ice and obscures the
+horizon. During the previous days the sun sank into this frosty haze and
+was lost for several hours.
+
+Observations on April 8[15] placed camp at latitude 86° 36´, longitude
+94° 2´. Although we had made long marches and really great speed, we
+had advanced only ninety-six miles in the nine days. Much of our hard
+work had been lost in circuitous twists around troublesome pressure
+lines and high, irregular fields of very old ice. The drift ice was
+throwing us to the east with sufficient force to give us some anxiety,
+but with eyes closed to danger and hardships, double days of fatigue and
+double days of glitter quickly followed one another.
+
+Everything was now in our favor, but here we felt most of the
+accumulating effect of long torture, in a world where every element of
+Nature is hostile. Human endurance has distinct limits. Bodily abuse
+will long be counterbalanced by man's superb recuperative power, but
+sooner or later there comes a time when out-worn cells call a halt.
+
+We had lived for weeks on a steady diet of withered beef and tallow.
+There was no change, we had no hot meat, and never more to eat than was
+absolutely necessary to keep life within the body. We became indifferent
+to the aching vacant pain of the stomach. Every organ had been whipped
+to serve energy to the all important movement of our legs. The depletion
+of energy, the lassitude of overstrained limbs, manifested themselves.
+The Eskimos were lax in the swing of the whip and indifferent in urging
+on the dogs. The dogs displayed the same spirit by lowered tails, limp
+ears, and drooping noses, as their shoulders dragged the sleds farther,
+ever farther from the land of life.
+
+A light life-sapping wind came from the west. We battled against it. We
+swung our arms to fight it and maintain circulation, as a swimmer in
+water. Veering a little at times, it always struck the face at a
+piercing angle. It froze the tip of my nose so often that that feature
+felt like a foreign bump on my face. Our cheeks had in like manner been
+so often bleached in spots that the skin was covered with ugly scars.
+Our eyes were often sealed by frozen eyelashes. The tear sack made
+icicles. Every particle of breath froze as it left the nostrils, and
+coated the face in a mask of ice.
+
+The sun at times flamed the clouds, while the snow glowed in burning
+tones. In the presence of all this we suffered the chill of death. All
+Nature exulted in a wave of hysteria. Delusions took form about us--in
+mirages, in the clouds. We moved in a world of delusions. The heat of
+the sun was a sham, its light a torment. A very curious world this, I
+thought dumbly, as we pushed our sleds and lashed our lagging dogs. Our
+footing was solid; there was no motion. Our horizon was lined with all
+the topographic features of a solid land scene, with mountains, valleys
+and plains, rivers of open water; but under it all there was the heaving
+of a restless sea. Although nothing visibly moved, it was all in motion.
+Seemingly a solid crust of earth, it imperceptibly drifts in response to
+every wind. We moved with it, but ever took our landscape with us.
+
+Of the danger of this movement, of the possibility of its hopelessly
+carrying us away from our goal, and the possibility of ultimate
+starvation, I never lost consciousness. Although the distance may seem
+slight, now that we had gone so far, the last two hundred miles seemed
+hopelessly impossible. With aching, stiffened legs we started our
+continuing marches without enthusiasm, with little ambition. But marches
+we made--distance leaped at times under our swift running feet.
+
+It sometimes now seems that unknown and subtle forces of which we are
+not cognizant supported me. I could almost believe that there were
+unseen beings there, whose voices urged me in the wailing wind; who, in
+my success, themselves sought soul peace, and who, that I might obtain
+it, in some strange, mysterious way succored and buoyed me.
+
+
+
+
+OVER POLAR SEAS OF MYSTERY
+
+THE MADDENING TORTURES OF A WORLD WHERE ICE WATER SEEMS HOT, AND COLD
+KNIVES BURN ONE'S HANDS--ANGUISHED PROGRESS ON THE LAST STRETCH OF TWO
+HUNDRED MILES OVER ANCHORED LAND ICE--DAYS OF SUFFERING AND GLOOM--THE
+TIME OF DESPAIR--"IT IS WELL TO DIE," SAYS AH-WE-LAH; "BEYOND IS
+IMPOSSIBLE."
+
+XVIII
+
+ONE HUNDRED MILES FROM THE POLE
+
+
+We pushed onward. We cracked our whips to urge the tiring dogs. We
+forced to quick steps weary leg after weary leg. Mile after mile of ice
+rolled under our feet. The maddening influence of the shifting desert of
+frost became almost unendurable in the daily routine. Under the lash of
+duty interest was forced, while the merciless drive of extreme cold
+urged physical action. Our despair was mental and physical--the result
+of chronic overwork.
+
+Externally there was reason for rejoicing. The sky had cleared, the
+weather improved, a liquid charm of color poured over the strange
+other-world into which we advanced. Progress was good, but the soul
+refused to open its eyes to beauty or color. All was a lifeless waste.
+The mind, heretofore busy in directing arm and foot, to force a way
+through miniature mountains of uplifted floes, was now, because of
+better ice, relieved of that strain, but it refused to seek diversion.
+
+The normal run of hardship, although eased, now piled up the accumulated
+poison of overwork, and when I now think of the terrible strain I fail
+to see how a workable balance was maintained.
+
+As we passed the eighty-sixth parallel, the ice increased in breadth and
+thickness. Great hummocks and pressure lines became less frequent. A
+steady progress was gained with the most economical human drain
+possible. The temperature ranged between 36° and 40° below zero,
+Fahrenheit, with higher and lower midday and midnight extremes. Only
+spirit thermometers were useful, for the mercury was at this degree of
+frost either frozen or sluggish.
+
+Although the perpetual sun gave light and color to the cheerless waste
+we were not impressed with any appreciable sense of warmth. Indeed, the
+sunbeams by their contrast seemed to cause the frost of the air to
+pierce with a more painful sting. In marching over the golden glitter,
+snow scalded our faces, while our noses were bleached with frost. The
+sun rose into zones of fire and set in burning fields of ice, but, in
+pain, we breathed the chill of death.
+
+In camp a grip of the knife left painful burns from cold metal. To the
+frozen fingers ice cold water was hot. With wine-spirits the fire was
+lighted, while oil delighted the stomach. In our dreams Heaven was hot,
+the other place was cold. All Nature was false; we seemed to be nearing
+the chilled flame of a new Hades.
+
+We now changed our working hours from day to night, beginning usually at
+ten o'clock and ending at seven. The big marches and prolonged hours of
+travel with which fortune favored us earlier were no longer possible.
+Weather conditions were more important in determining a day's run than
+the hands of the chronometers.
+
+That I must steadily keep up my notes and the records of observations
+was a serious addition to my daily task. I never permitted myself to be
+careless in regard to this, for I never let myself forget the importance
+of such data in plotting an accurate course.
+
+I kept my records in small notebooks, writing very fine with a hard
+pencil on both sides of the paper. At the beginning of the journey I had
+usually set down the day's record by candle light, but later, when the
+sun was shining both day and night, I needed no light even inside the
+walls of the igloo, for the sunlight shone strongly enough through the
+walls of snow. Shining brilliantly at times, I utilized the opportunity
+it afforded, every few marches, to measure our shadows. The daily change
+marked our advance Poleward.
+
+When storms threatened, our start was delayed. In strong gales the march
+was shortened. But in one way or another we usually found a few hours in
+each turn of the dial during which a march could be forced between
+winds. It mattered little whether we traveled night or day--all hours
+and all days were alike to us--for we had no accustomed time to rest, no
+Sundays, no holidays, no landmarks, or mile-posts to pass.
+
+To advance and expend the energy accumulated during one sleep at the
+cost of one pound of pemmican was our sole aim in life. Day after day
+our legs were driven onward. Constantly new but similar panoramas rolled
+by us.
+
+Our observations on April 11, gave latitude 87° 20´, longitude 95°
+19´. The pack disturbance of the new land was less and less noted as
+we progressed in the northward movement. The fields became heavier,
+larger and less crevassed. Fewer troublesome old floes and less crushed
+new ice were encountered. With the improved conditions, the fire of a
+racing spirit surged up for a brief spell.
+
+We had now passed the highest reaches of all our predecessors. The
+inspiration of the Farthest North for a brief time thrilled me. The time
+was at hand, however, to consider seriously the possible necessity of an
+early return.
+
+Nearly half of the food allowance had been used. In the long marches
+supplies had been more liberally consumed than anticipated. Now our dog
+teams were much reduced in numbers. Because of the cruel law of the
+survival of the fittest, the less useful dogs had gone into the stomachs
+of their stronger companions. With the lessening of the number of dogs
+had come at the same time a reduction of the weight of the sledge loads,
+through the eating of the food. Now, owing to food limitations and the
+advancing season, we could not prudently continue the onward march a
+fortnight longer.
+
+We had dragged ourselves three hundred miles over the Polar sea in
+twenty-four days. Including delays and detours, this gave an average of
+nearly thirteen miles daily on an airline in our course. There remained
+an unknown line of one hundred and sixty miles to the Pole. The same
+average advance would take us to the Pole in thirteen days. There were
+food and fuel enough to risk this adventure. With good luck the prize
+seemed within our grasp. But a prolonged storm, a deep snowfall, or an
+active ice-pack would mean failure.
+
+In new cracks I measured the thickness of the ice. I examined the water
+for life. The technical details for the making and breaking of ice were
+studied, and some attention was given to the altitude of uplifted and
+submerged irregularities. Atmospheric, surface water and ice
+temperatures were taken, the barometer was noted, the cloud formations,
+weather conditions and ice drifts were tabulated. There was a continuous
+routine of work, but like the effort of the foot in the daily drive, it
+became more or less automatic.
+
+Running along over seemingly endless fields of ice, the physical
+appearances now came under more careful scrutiny. I watched daily for
+possible signs of failing in the strength of any of us, because a
+serious disability would now mean a fatal termination. A disabled man
+could neither continue nor return. Each new examination gave me renewed
+confidence and was another reason to push human endurance to the limit
+of straining every fibre and cell.
+
+As a matter of long experience I find life in this extreme North is
+healthful so long as there is sufficient good food, so long as exertion
+is not overdone. A weakling would easily be killed, but a strong man is
+splendidly hardened and kept in perfect physical trim by sledging and
+tramping in this germless air. But, as I have said, sufficient food and
+not too much exertion are requisites to full safety, and in our case we
+were working to the limit, with rations running low. Still, the men
+responded superbly.
+
+Our tremendous exertion in forcing daily rushing marches, under
+occasional bursts of burning sunbeams, provoked intense thirst.
+Following the habit of the camel, we managed to take enough water before
+starting to keep sufficient liquid in the stomach and veins for the
+ensuing day's march. Yet it was painful to await the melting of ice at
+camping time.
+
+In two sittings, evening and morning, each of us took an average of
+three quarts of water daily. This included tea and also the luxury of
+occasional soup. Water was about us everywhere in heaps, but before the
+thirst could be quenched, several ounces of precious fuel, which had
+been sledged for hundreds of miles, must be used. And yet, this water,
+so expensive and so necessary to us, became the cause of our greatest
+discomfort. It escaped through pores of the skin, saturated the boots,
+formed a band of ice under the knee and a belt of frost about the waist,
+while the face was nearly always encased in a mask of icicles from the
+moist breath. We learned to take this torture philosophically.
+
+With our dogs bounding and tearing onward, from the eighty-seventh to
+the eighty-eighth parallel we passed for two days over old ice without
+pressure lines or hummocks. There was no discernible line of demarcation
+to indicate separate fields, and it was quite impossible to determine
+whether we were on land or sea ice. The barometer indicated no
+perceptible elevation, but the ice had the hard, wavering surface of
+glacial ice, with only superficial crevasses. The water obtained from
+this was not salty. All of the upper surface of old hummock and high ice
+of the Polar sea resolves into unsalted water. My nautical observations
+did not seem to indicate a drift, but nevertheless my combined
+tabulations do not warrant a positive assertion of either land or sea; I
+am inclined, however, to put this down as ice on low or submerged land.
+
+The ice presented an increasingly cheering prospect. A plain of purple
+and blue ran in easy undulations to the limits of vision without the
+usual barriers of uplifted blocks. Over it a direct air-line course was
+possible. Progress, however, was quite as difficult as over the
+irregular pack. The snow was crusted with large crystals. An increased
+friction reduced the sled speed, while the snow surface, too hard for
+snowshoes, was also too weak to give a secure footing to the unprotected
+boot. The loneliness, the monotony, the hardship of steady, unrelieved
+travel were keenly felt.
+
+Day after day we pushed along at a steady pace over plains of frost and
+through a mental desert. As the eye opened at the end of a period of
+shivering slumber, the fire was lighted little by little, the stomach
+was filled with liquids and solids, mostly cold--enough to last for the
+day, for there could be no halt or waste of fuel for midday feeding. We
+next got into harness, and, under the lash of duty, paced off the day's
+pull; we worked until standing became impossible.
+
+As a man in a dream I marched, set camp, ate and tried to rest. I took
+observations now without interest; under those conditions no man could
+take an interest in mathematics. Eating became a hardship, for the
+pemmican, tasteless and hard as metal, was cold. Our feet were numb--it
+seemed fortunate they no longer even ached.
+
+The arduous task of building a snowhouse meant physical hardship. In
+this the eyes, no longer able to wink, quickly closed. Soon the empty
+stomach complained. Then the gastric wants were half served. With teeth
+dropping to the spasm of cold and skins in an electric wave of shivers
+to force animal heat, the boys fell to unconscious slumbers, but my lids
+did not easily close. The anxiety to succeed, the eagerness to draw out
+our food supply and the task of infusing courage into my savage helpers
+kept the mind active while the underfed blood filled the legs with new
+power.
+
+There was no pleasurable mental recreation to relieve us; there was
+nothing to arouse the soul from its icy inclosure. To eat, to sleep,
+endlessly to press one foot ahead of the other--that was all we could
+do. We were like horses driven wearily in carts, but we had not their
+advantages of an agreeable climate and a comfortable stable at night.
+Daily our marches were much the same. Finishing our frigid meal, we
+hitched the dogs and lashed the sleds.
+
+In the daily routine of our onward struggle, there was an inhuman strain
+which neither words nor pictures could adequately describe. The
+maddening influence of the sameness of Polar glitter, combined as it was
+with bitter winds and extreme cold and overworked bodies, burned our
+eyes and set our teeth to a chronic chattering. To me there was always
+the inspiration of ultimate success. But for my young savage companions,
+it was a torment almost beyond endurance. They were, however, brave and
+faithful to the bitter end, seldom allowing hunger or weariness or
+selfish ambition or fierce passions seriously to interfere with the
+effort of the expedition. We suffered, but we covered distance.
+
+On the morning of April 13, the strain of agitating torment reached the
+breaking point. For days there had been a steady cutting wind from the
+west, which drove despair to its lowest reaches. The west again
+blackened, to renew its soul-despairing blast. The frost-burn of sky
+color changed to a depressing gray, streaked with black. The snow was
+screened with ugly vapors. The path was absolutely cheerless. All this
+was a dire premonition of storm and greater torture.
+
+No torment could be worse than that never-ceasing rush of icy air. It
+gripped us and sapped the life from us. Ah-we-lah bent over his sled and
+refused to move. I walked over and stood by his side. His dogs turned
+and looked inquiringly at us. E-tuk-i-shook came near and stood
+motionless, like a man in a trance, staring blankly at the southern
+skies. Large tears fell from Ah-we-lah's eyes and froze in the blue of
+his own shadow. Not a word was uttered. I knew that the dreaded time of
+utter despair had come. The dogs looked at us, patient and silent in
+their misery. Silently in the descending gloom we all looked over the
+tremendous dead-white waste to the southward. With a tear-streaked and
+withered face, Ah-we-lah slowly said, with a strangely shrilling wail,
+"_Unne-sinig-po--Oo-ah-tonie i-o-doria--Ooh-ah-tonie i-o-doria!_" ("It
+is well to die--Beyond is impossible--Beyond is impossible!")
+
+[Illustration: "TOO WEARY TO BUILD IGLOOS WE USED THE SILK TENT"]
+
+[Illustration: "ACROSS SEAS OF CRYSTAL GLORY TO THE BOREAL CENTRE"]
+
+[Illustration: MENDING NEAR THE POLE]
+
+
+
+
+TO THE POLE--THE LAST HUNDRED MILES
+
+OVER PLAINS OF GOLD AND SEAS OF PALPITATING COLOR THE DOG TEAMS, WITH
+NOSES DOWN, TAILS ERECT, DASH SPIRITEDLY LIKE CHARIOT HORSES--CHANTING
+LOVE SONGS THE ESKIMOS FOLLOW WITH SWINGING STEP--TIRED EYES OPEN TO NEW
+GLORY--STEP BY STEP, WITH THUMPING HEARTS THE EARTH'S APEX IS NEARED--AT
+LAST! THE GOAL IS REACHED! THE STARS AND STRIPES ARE FLUNG TO THE FRIGID
+BREEZES OF THE NORTH POLE!
+
+XIX
+
+BOREAL CENTER IS PIERCED
+
+
+I shall never forget that dismal hour. I shall never forget that
+desolate drab scene about us--those endless stretches of gray and
+dead-white ice, that drab dull sky, that thickening blackness in the
+west which entered into and made gray and black our souls, that ominous,
+eerie and dreadful wind, betokening a terrorizing Arctic storm. I shall
+never forget the mournful group before me, in itself an awful picture of
+despair, of man's ambition failing just as victory is within his grasp.
+Ah-we-lah, a thin, half-starved figure in worn furs, lay over his sled,
+limp, dispirited, broken. In my ears I can now hear his low sobbing
+words, I can see the tears on his yellow fissured face. I can see
+E-tuk-i-shook standing gaunt and grim, and as he gazed yearningly onward
+to the south, sighing pitifully, shudderingly for the home, the loved
+one, An-na-do-a, left behind, whom, I could tell, he did not expect to
+see again.
+
+It was a critical moment. Up to this time, during the second week of
+April, we had, by intense mental force, goaded our wearied legs onward
+to the limit of endurance. With a cutting wind in our faces, feeling
+with each step the cold more severely to the marrow of our bones, with
+our bodily energy and our bodily heat decreasing, we had traveled
+persistently, suffering intolerable pains with every breath. Despite
+increasing despair, I had cheered my companions as best I could; I had
+impressed upon them the constant nearing of my goal. I had encouraged in
+them the belief of nearness of land; each day I had gone on, fearing
+what had now come, the utter breaking of their spirits.
+
+"_Unne-sinikpo-ashuka._" (Yes, it is well to die.)
+
+"_Awonga-up-dow-epuksha!_" (Yesterday I, too, felt that way), I said to
+myself. The sudden extinction of consciousness, I thought, might be
+indeed a blessed relief. But as long as life persisted, as long as human
+endurance could be strained, I determined to continue. Desperate as was
+my condition, and suffering hellish tortures, the sight of the despair
+of my companions re-aroused me. Should we fail now, after our long
+endurance, now, when the goal was so near?
+
+The Pole was only one hundred miles beyond. The attainment seemed almost
+certain.
+
+"_Accou-ou-o-toni-ah-younguluk_" (Beyond to-morrow it will be better),
+I urged, trying to essay a smile. "_Igluctoo!_" (Cheer up!)
+
+Holding up one hand, with a reach Poleward, bending five fingers, one
+after the other, I tried to convey the idea that in five sleeps the "Big
+Nail" would be reached, and that then we would turn (pointing with my
+fingers) homeward.
+
+"_Noona-me-neulia-capa--ahmisua_" (For home, sweethearts and food in
+abundance), I said.
+
+"_Noona-terronga, neuliarongita, ootah--peterongito_" (Land is gone;
+loved ones are lost; signs of life have vanished).
+
+"_Tig-i-lay-waongacedla--nellu ikah-amisua_" (Return will I, the sky and
+weather I do not understand. It is very cold), said Ah-we-lah.
+
+"_Attuda-emongwah-ka_" (A little farther come), I pleaded.
+"_Attudu-mikisungwah_" (Only a little further).
+
+"_Sukinut-nellu_" (The sun I do not understand), said E-tuk-i-shook.
+
+This had been a daily complaint for some days--the approaching equality
+of the length of shadows for night and day puzzled them. The failing
+night dip of the sun left them without a guiding line to give direction.
+They were lost in a landless, spiritless world, in which the sky, the
+weather, the sun and all was a mystery.
+
+I knew my companions were brave. I was certain of their fidelity. Could
+their mental despair be alleviated, I felt convinced they could brace
+themselves for another effort. I spoke kindly to them; I told them what
+we had accomplished, that they were good and brave, that their parents
+and their sweethearts would be proud of them, and that as a matter of
+honor we must not now fail.
+
+"_Tigishu-conitu_," I said. (The Pole is near.)
+
+"_Sinipa tedliman dossa-ooahtonie tomongma ah youngulok tigilay toy
+hoy._" (At the end of five sleeps it is finished, beyond all is well, we
+return thereafter quickly.)
+
+"_Seko shudi iokpok. Sounah ha-ah!_" they replied. (On ice always is not
+good. The bones ache.)
+
+Then I said, "The ice is flat, the snow is good, the sky is clear, the
+Great Spirit is with us, the Pole is near!"
+
+Ah-we-lah dully nodded his head. I noticed, however, he wiped his eyes.
+
+"_Ka-bishuckto-emongwah_" (Come walk a little further), I went on.
+"_Accou ooahtoni-ahningahna-matluk-tigilay-Inut-noona._" (Beyond
+to-morrow within two moons we return to Eskimo lands.)
+
+"_K i s a h iglucto-tima-attahta-annona-neuliasing-wah_," said
+Ah-we-lah. (At last, then it is to laugh! There we will meet father
+and mother and little wives!)
+
+"_Ashuka-alningahna-matluk_," I returned. (Yes, in two moons there will
+be water and meat and all in plenty.)
+
+E-tuk-i-shook gazed at me intently. His eyes brightened.
+
+As I spoke my own spirits rose to the final effort, my lassitude gave
+way to a new enthusiasm. I felt the fire kindling for many years aglow
+within me. The goal was near; there remained but one step to the apex of
+my ambition. I spoke hurriedly. The two sat up and listened. Slowly they
+became inspired with my intoxication. Never did I speak so vehemently.
+
+E-tuk-i-shook gripped his whip. "_Ka, aga_" (Come, go!) he said.
+
+Ah-we-lah, determined but grim, braced his body and shouted to the
+dogs--"_Huk, Huk, Huk_," and then to us he said, "_Aga-Ka!_" (Go-come).
+
+With snapping whip we were off for that last hundred miles.
+
+The animals pricked their ears, re-curled their tails, and pulled at the
+traces. Shouting to keep up the forced enthusiasm, we bounded forward on
+the last lap. A sort of wild gratification filled my heart. I knew that
+only mental enthusiasm would now prevent the defeat which might yet come
+from our own bodies refusing to go farther. Brain must now drive muscle.
+Fortunately the sense of final victory imparted a supernormal mental
+stimulus.
+
+Gray ice hummocks sped by us. My feet were so tired that I seemed to
+walk on air. My body was so light from weakness that I suppose I should
+hardly have been surprised had I floated upward from the ice in a gust
+of wind. I felt the blood moving in my veins and stinging like needles
+in my joints as one does when suffering with neurasthenia. I swung my
+axe. The whip of my companions cut the air. The dogs leaped over the
+ice, with crunching progress they pulled themselves over hummocks much
+as cats climb trees. Distance continued to fade behind us.
+
+On April 14, my observations gave latitude, 88° 21´; longitude, 95°
+52´. The wind came with a satanic cut from the west. There had been
+little drift. But with a feeling of chagrin I saw that the ice before us
+displayed signs of recent activity. It was more irregular, with open
+cracks here and there. These we had to avoid, but the sleds glided with
+less friction, and the weary dogs maintained a better speed.
+
+With set teeth and newly sharpened resolutions, we continued mile after
+mile of that last one hundred. More dogs had gone into the stomachs of
+their hungry companions, but there still remained a sufficient pull of
+well-tried brute force for each sled. Although their noisy vigor had
+been gradually lost in the long drag, they still broke the frigid
+silence with an occasional outburst of howls. Any fresh enthusiasm from
+the drivers was quickly responded to by canine activity.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We were in good trim to cover distance economically. Our sledges were
+light, our bodies were thin. We had lost, since leaving winter camp,
+judging from appearances, from twenty-five to forty pounds each. All our
+muscles had shriveled. The dogs retained strength that was amazing.
+Stripped for the last lap, one horizon after another was lifted.
+
+  =From original field papers.--Observations of April 14, 1908.=
+  Long. 95-52. Bar. 29.90 Falling. Temp. -44°. Clouds Cu. St. & Alt.
+  St. 4. Wind 1-3. Mag. E.
+
+                         Noon 0....... = 22--02--05
+          96                ===
+           4                  0....... = 22--56--20
+       +--------                       +-----------
+    60 | 384                         2 | 44--58--25
+       +--------                       +-----------
+          6-24                           22--29--12
+                                             +2
+                                       +-----------
+          54                         2 | 22--31--12
+           6½                          +-----------
+        -------                          11--15--36
+          27                                --9
+         324                            -----------
+       +-------                          11-- 6--36
+    60 | 351                             90
+       +-------                         -----------
+        5--51                            78--53--24
+    9--21--50                             9--27--41
+   -----------                          -----------
+    9--27--41                            88--21-- 5
+
+                         Shadow 30½ ft. (of tent pole 6 ft. above snow.)
+
+In the forced effort which followed we frequently became overheated. The
+temperature was steady at 44° below zero, Fahrenheit. Perspiration came
+with ease, and with a certain amount of pleasure. Later followed a train
+of suffering for many days. The delight of the birdskin shirt gave place
+to the chill of a wet blanket. Our coats and trousers hardened to icy
+suits of armor. It became quite impossible to dress after a sleep
+without softening the stiffened furs with the heat of our bare skin.
+Mittens, boots and fur stockings became quite useless until dried out.
+
+Fortunately, at this time the rays of the sun were warm enough to dry
+the furs in about three days, if lashed to the sunny side of a sled as
+we marched along, and strangely enough, the furs dried out without
+apparent thawing. In these last days we felt more keenly the pangs of
+perspiration than in all our earlier adventures. We persistently used
+the amber-colored goggles. They afforded protection to the eyes, but in
+spite of every precaution, our distorted, frozen, burned and withered
+faces lined a map in relief, of the hardships endured en route.
+
+We were curious looking savages. The perpetual glitter of the snows
+induced a squint of our eyes which distorted our faces in a remarkable
+manner. The strong light reflected from the crystal surface threw the
+muscles about the eyes into a state of chronic contraction. The iris was
+reduced to a mere pin-hole.
+
+The strong winds and drifting snows necessitated the habit of peeping
+out of the corners of the eyes. Nature, in attempting to keep the ball
+from hardening, flushed it at all times with blood. To keep the seeing
+windows of the mind open required a constant exertion of will power. The
+effect was a set of expressions of hardship and wrinkles which might be
+called the boreal squint.
+
+This boreal squint is a part of the russet-bronze physiognomy which
+falls to the lot of every Arctic explorer. The early winds, with a
+piercing temperature, start a flush of scarlet, while frequent
+frostbites leave figures in black. Later the burning sun browns the
+skin; subsequently, strong winds sap the moisture, harden the skin and
+leave open fissures on the face. The human face takes upon itself the
+texture and configuration of the desolate, wind-driven world upon which
+it looks.
+
+Hard work and reduced nourishment contract the muscles, dispel the fat
+and leave the skin to shrivel in folds. The imprint of the goggles, the
+set expression of hard times, and the mental blank of the environment
+remove all spiritual animation. Our faces assumed the color and lines of
+old, withering, russet apples, and would easily pass for the mummied
+countenances of the prehistoric progenitors of man.
+
+In enforced efforts to spread out our stiffened legs over the last
+reaches, there was left no longer sufficient energy at camping times to
+erect snow shelters. Our silk tent was pressed into use. Although the
+temperature was still very low, the congenial rays pierced the silk
+fabric and rested softly on our eye lids closed in heavy slumber. In
+strong winds it was still necessary to erect a sheltering wall, whereby
+to shield the tent.
+
+As we progressed over the last one hundred mile-step, my mind was
+divested of its lethargy. Unconsciously I braced myself. My senses
+became more keen. With a careful scrutiny I now observed the phenomena
+of the strange world into which fortune had pressed us--first of all
+men.
+
+Step by step, I invaded a world untrodden and unknown. Dulled as I was
+by hardship, I thrilled with the sense of the explorer in new lands,
+with the thrill of discovery and conquest. "Then," as Keats says, "felt
+I like some watcher of the skies, when a new planet swims into his ken."
+In this land of ice I was master, I was sole invader. I strode forward
+with an undaunted glory in my soul.
+
+Signs of land, which I encouraged my companions to believe were real,
+were still seen every day, but I knew, of course, they were deceptive.
+It now seemed to me that something unusual must happen, that some line
+must cross our horizon to mark the important area into which we were
+passing.
+
+Through vapor-charged air of crystal, my eyes ran over plains moving in
+brilliant waves of running colors toward dancing horizons. Mirages
+turned things topsy-turvy. Inverted lands and queer objects ever rose
+and fell, shrouded in mystery. All of this was due to the atmospheric
+magic of the continued glory of midnight suns in throwing piercing beams
+of light through superimposed strata of air of varying temperature and
+density.
+
+Daily, by careful measurements, I found that our night shadows shortened
+and became more uniform during the passing hours of the day, as the
+shadow dial was marked.
+
+With a lucky series of astronomical observations our position was fixed
+for each stage of progress.
+
+Nearing the Pole, my imagination quickened. A restless, almost
+hysterical excitement came over all of us. My boys fancied they saw
+bears and seals. I had new lands under observation frequently, but with
+a change in the direction of light the horizon cleared. We became more
+and more eager to push further into the mystery. Climbing the long
+ladder of latitudes, there was always the feeling that each hour's work
+was bringing us nearer the Pole--the Pole which men had sought for three
+centuries, and which, fortune favoring, should be mine!
+
+Yet, I was often so physically tired that my mind was, when the
+momentary intoxications passed, in a sense, dulled. But the habit of
+seeing and of noting what I had seen, had been acquired. The habit, yes,
+of putting one foot in front of the other, mile after mile, through the
+wild dreariness of ice, the habit of observing, even though with aching,
+blurred eyes, and noting, methodically, however wearily, what the tired
+eyes had seen.
+
+From the eighty-eighth to the eighty-ninth parallel the ice lay in large
+fields, the surface was less irregular than formerly. In other respects
+it was about the same as below the eighty-seventh. I observed here also,
+an increasing extension of the range of vision. I seemed to scan longer
+distances, and the ice along the horizon had a less angular outline. The
+color of the sky and the ice changed to deeper purple-blues. I had no
+way of checking these impressions by other observations; the eagerness
+to find something unusual may have fired my imagination, but since the
+earth is flattened at the Pole, perhaps a widened horizon would
+naturally be detected there.
+
+At eight o'clock on the morning of April 19, we camped on a picturesque
+old field, with convenient hummocks, to the top of which we could easily
+rise for the frequent outlook which we now maintained. We pitched our
+tent, and silenced the dogs by blocks of pemmican. New enthusiasm was
+aroused by a liberal pot of pea-soup and a few chips of frozen meat.
+Then we bathed in life-giving sunbeams, screened from the piercing air
+by the strands of the silk-walled tent.
+
+The day was beautiful. Had our sense of appreciation not been blunted by
+accumulated fatigue we should have greatly enjoyed the play of light and
+color in the ever-changing scene of sparkle. But in our condition it was
+but an inducement to keep the eyes open and to prolong interest long
+enough to dispel the growing complaint of aching muscles.
+
+Ah-we-lah and E-tuk-i-shook were soon lost in profound sleep, the only
+comfort in their hard lives. I remained awake, as had been my habit for
+many preceding days, to get nautical observations. My longitude
+calculations lined us at 94° 3´. At noon the sun's altitude was
+carefully set on the sextant, and the latitude, quickly reduced, gave
+89° 31´. The drift had carried us too far east, but our advance was
+encouraging.
+
+I put down the instrument, wrote the reckonings in my book. Then I
+gazed, with a sort of fascination, at the figures. My heart began to
+thump wildly. Slowly my brain whirled with exultation. I arose jubilant.
+We were only 29 miles from the North Pole!
+
+I suppose I created quite a commotion about the little camp.
+E-tuk-i-shook, aroused by the noise, awoke and rubbed his eyes. I told
+him that in two average marches we should reach the "_tigi-shu_"--the
+big nail. He sprang to his feet and shouted with joy. He kicked
+Ah-we-lah, none too gently, and told him the glad news.
+
+Together they went out to a hummock, and through glasses, sought for a
+mark to locate so important a place as the terrestrial axis! If but one
+sleep ahead, it must be visible! So they told me, and I laughed. The
+sensation of laughing was novel. At first I was quite startled. I had
+not laughed for many days. Their idea was amusing, but it was eminently
+sensible from their standpoint and knowledge.
+
+I tried to explain to them that the Pole is not visible to the eye, and
+that its position is located only by a repeated use of the various
+instruments. Although this was quite beyond their comprehension the
+explanation entirely satisfied their curiosity. They burst out in
+hurrahs of joy. For two hours they chanted, danced and shouted the
+passions of wild life. Their joy, however, was in the thought of a
+speedy turning back homeward, I surmised.
+
+This, however, was the first real sign of pleasure or rational emotion
+which they had shown for several weeks. For some time I had entertained
+the fear that we no longer possessed strength to return to land. This
+unbridled flow of vigor dispelled that idea. My heart throbbed with
+gladness. A font of new strength seemed to gush forth within me.
+Considering through what we had gone, I now marvel at the reserve forces
+latent in us, and I sometimes feel that I should write, not of human
+weakness, but a new gospel of human strength.
+
+With the Pole only twenty-nine miles distant, more sleep was quite
+impossible. We brewed an extra pot of tea, prepared a favorite broth of
+pemmican, dug up a surprise of fancy biscuits and filled up on good
+things to the limit of the allowance for our final feast days. The dogs,
+which had joined the chorus of gladness, were given an extra lump of
+pemmican. A few hours more were agreeably spent in the tent. Then we
+started out with new spirit for the uttermost goal of our world.
+
+Bounding joyously forward, with a stimulated mind, I reviewed the
+journey. Obstacle after obstacle had been overcome. Each battle won gave
+a spiritual thrill, and courage to scale the next barrier. Thus had been
+ever, and was still, in the unequal struggles between human and
+inanimate nature, an incentive to go onward, ever onward, up the
+stepping-stones to ultimate success. And now, after a life-denying
+struggle in a world where every element of Nature is against the life
+and progress of man, triumph came with steadily measured reaches of
+fifteen miles a day!
+
+We were excited to fever heat. Our feet were light on the run. Even the
+dogs caught the infectious enthusiasm. They rushed along at a pace which
+made it difficult for me to keep a sufficient advance to set a good
+course. The horizon was still eagerly searched for something to mark the
+approaching boreal center. But nothing unusual was seen. The same
+expanse of moving seas of ice, on which we had gazed for five hundred
+miles, swam about us as we drove onward.
+
+Looking through gladdened eyes, the scene assumed a new glory. Dull blue
+and purple expanses were transfigured into plains of gold, in which
+were lakes of sapphire and rivulets of ruby fire. Engirdling this world
+were purple mountains with gilded crests. It was one of the few days on
+the stormy pack when all Nature smiled with cheering lights.
+
+As the day advanced beyond midnight and the splendor of the summer night
+ran into a clearer continued day, the beams of gold on the surface snows
+assumed a more burning intensity. Shadows of hummocks and ice ridges
+became dyed with a deeper purple, and in the burning orange world loomed
+before us Titan shapes, regal and regally robed.
+
+From my position, a few hundred yards ahead of the sleds, with compass
+and axe in hand, as usual, I could not resist the temptation to turn
+frequently to see the movement of the dog train with its new fire. In
+this backward direction the color scheme was reversed. About the horizon
+the icy walls gleamed like beaten gold set with gem-spots of burning
+colors; the plains represented every shade of purple and blue, and over
+them, like vast angel wings outspread, shifted golden pinions. Through
+the sea of palpitating color, the dogs came, with spirited tread, noses
+down, tails erect and shoulders braced to the straps, like chariot
+horses. In the magnifying light they seemed many times their normal
+size. The young Eskimos, chanting songs of love, followed with easy,
+swinging steps. The long whip was swung with a brisk crack. Over all
+arose a cloud of frosted breath, which, like incense smoke, became
+silvered in the light, a certain signal of efficient motive power.
+
+With our destination reachable over smooth ice, in these brighter days
+of easier travel our long chilled blood was stirred to double action,
+our eyes opened to beauty and color, and a normal appreciation of the
+wonders of this new strange and wonderful world.
+
+As we lifted the midnight's sun to the plane of the midday sun, the
+shifting Polar desert became floored with a sparkling sheen of millions
+of diamonds, through which we fought a way to ulterior and greater
+glory.
+
+Our leg cramps eased and our languid feet lifted buoyantly from the
+steady drag as the soul arose to effervescence. Fields of rich purple,
+lined with running liquid gold, burning with flashes of iridescent
+colors, gave a sense of gladness long absent from our weary life. The
+ice was much better. We still forced a way over large fields, small
+pressure areas and narrow leads. But, when success is in sight, most
+troubles seem lighter. We were thin, with faces burned, withered, frozen
+and torn in fissures, with clothes ugly from overwear. Yet men never
+felt more proud than we did, as we militantly strode off the last steps
+to the world's very top!
+
+Camp was pitched early in the morning of April 20. The sun was
+northeast, the pack glowed in tones of lilac, the normal westerly air
+brushed our frosty faces. Our surprising burst on enthusiasm had been
+nursed to its limits. Under it a long march had been made over average
+ice, with the usual result of overpowering fatigue. Too tired and sleepy
+to wait for a cup of tea, we poured melted snow into our stomach and
+pounded the pemmican with an axe to ease the task of the jaws. Our eyes
+closed before the meal was finished, and the world was lost to us for
+eight hours. Waking, I took observations which gave latitude 89° 46´.
+
+Late at night, after another long rest, we hitched the dogs and loaded
+the sleds. When action began, the feeling came that no time must be
+lost. Feverish impatience seized me.
+
+Cracking our whips, we bounded ahead. The boys sang. The dogs howled.
+Midnight of April 21 had just passed.
+
+Over the sparkling snows the post-midnight sun glowed like at noon. I
+seemed to be walking in some splendid golden realms of dreamland. As we
+bounded onward the ice swam about me in circling rivers of gold.
+
+E-tuk-i-shook and Ah-we-lah, though thin and ragged, had the dignity of
+the heroes of a battle which had been fought through to success.
+
+We all were lifted to the paradise of winners as we stepped over the
+snows of a destiny for which we had risked life and willingly suffered
+the tortures of an icy hell. The ice under us, the goal for centuries of
+brave, heroic men, to reach which many had suffered terribly and
+terribly died, seemed almost sacred. Constantly and carefully I watched
+my instruments in recording this final reach. Nearer and nearer they
+recorded our approach. Step by step, my heart filled with a strange
+rapture of conquest.
+
+At last we step over colored fields of sparkle, climbing walls of purple
+and gold--finally, under skies of crystal blue, with flaming clouds of
+glory, we touch the mark! The soul awakens to a definite triumph; there
+is sunrise within us, and all the world of night-darkened trouble fades.
+We are at the top of the world! The flag is flung to the frigid breezes
+of the North Pole!
+
+[Illustration: ROUTE TO THE POLE AND RETURN
+
+A triangle of 30,000 square miles cut out of the mysterious unknown]
+
+
+
+
+AT THE NORTH POLE
+
+OBSERVATIONS AT THE POLE--METEOROLOGICAL AND ASTRONOMICAL
+PHENOMENA--SINGULAR STABILITY AND UNIFORMITY OF THE THERMOMETER AND
+BAROMETER--A SPOT WHERE ONE'S SHADOW IS THE SAME LENGTH EACH HOUR OF THE
+TWENTY-FOUR--EIGHT POLAR ALTITUDES OF THE SUN
+
+XX
+
+FULL AND FINAL PROOFS OF THE ATTAINMENT
+
+
+Looking about me, after the first satisfactory observation, I viewed the
+vacant expanse. The first realization of actual victory, of reaching my
+lifetime's goal, set my heart throbbing violently and my brain aglow. I
+felt the glory which the prophet feels in his vision, with which the
+poet thrills in his dream. About the frozen plains my imagination evoked
+aspects of grandeur. I saw silver and crystal palaces, such as were
+never built by man, with turrets flaunting "pinions glorious, golden."
+The shifting mirages seemed like the ghosts of dead armies, magnified
+and transfigured, huge and spectral, moving along the horizon and
+bearing the wind-tossed phantoms of golden blood-stained banners.
+
+The low beating of the wind assumed the throb of martial music.
+Bewildered, I realized all that I had suffered, all the pain of
+fasting, all the anguish of long weariness, and I felt that this was my
+reward. I had scaled the world, and I stood at the Pole!
+
+By a long and consecutive series of observations and mental tabulations
+of various sorts on our journey northward, continuing here, I knew,
+beyond peradventure of doubt, that I was at a spot which was as near as
+possible, by usual methods of determination, five hundred and twenty
+miles from Svartevoeg, a spot toward which men had striven for more than
+three centuries--a spot known as the North Pole, and where I stood first
+of white men. In my own achievement I felt, that dizzy moment, that all
+the heroic souls who had braved the rigors of the Arctic region found
+their own hopes' fulfilment. I had realized their dream. I had
+culminated with success the efforts of all the brave men who had failed
+before me. I had finally justified their sacrifices, their very death; I
+had proven to humanity humanity's supreme triumph over a hostile,
+death-dealing Nature. It seemed that the souls of these dead exulted
+with me, and that in some sub-strata of the air, in notes more subtle
+than the softest notes of music, they sang a pæan in the spirit with me.
+
+We had reached our destination. My relief was indescribable. The prize
+of an international marathon was ours. Pinning the Stars and Stripes to
+a tent-pole, I asserted the achievement in the name of the ninety
+millions of countrymen who swear fealty to that flag. And I felt a pride
+as I gazed at the white-and-crimson barred pinion, a pride which the
+claim of no second victor has ever taken from me.
+
+My mental intoxication did not interfere with the routine work which
+was now necessary. Having reached the goal, it was imperative that all
+scientific observations be made as carefully as possible, as quickly as
+possible. To the taking of these I set myself at once, while my
+companions began the routine work of unloading the sledges and building
+an igloo.
+
+[Illustration: CLIMBING THE LADDER OF LATITUDES]
+
+Our course when arriving at the Pole, as near as it was possible to
+determine, was on the ninety-seventh meridian. The day was April 21,
+1908. It was local noon. The sun was 11° 55´´ above the magnetic
+northern horizon. My shadow, a dark purple-blue streak with ill-defined
+edges, measured twenty-six feet in length. The tent pole, marked as a
+measuring stick, was pushed into the snow, leaving six feet above the
+surface. This gave a shadow twenty-eight feet long.
+
+Several sextant observations gave a latitude a few seconds below 90°,
+which, because of unknown refraction and uncertain accuracy of time, was
+placed at 90°. (Other observations on the next day gave similar results,
+although we shifted camp four miles toward magnetic south.) A broken
+hand-axe was tied to the end of a life-line; this was lowered through a
+fresh break in the ice, and the angle which it made with the surface
+indicated a drift toward Greenland. The temperature, gauged by a spirit
+thermometer, was 37.7°, F. The mercury thermometer indicated -36°. The
+atmospheric pressure by the aneroid barometer was at 29.83. It was
+falling, and indicated a coming change in the weather. The wind was very
+light, and had veered from northeast to south, according to the compass
+card.
+
+The sky was almost clear, of a dark purple blue, with a pearly ice-blink
+or silver reflection extending east, and a smoky water-sky west, in
+darkened, ill-defined streaks, indicating continuous ice or land toward
+Bering Sea, and an active pack, with some open water, toward
+Spitzbergen. To the north and south were wine-colored gold-shot clouds,
+flung in long banners, with ragged-pointed ends along the horizon. The
+ice about was nearly the same as it had been continuously since leaving
+the eighty-eighth parallel. It was slightly more active, and showed, by
+news cracks and oversliding, young ice signs of recent disturbance.
+
+The field upon which we camped was about three miles long and two miles
+wide. Measured at a new crevasse, the ice was sixteen feet thick. The
+tallest hummock measured twenty-eight feet above water. The snow lay in
+fine feathery crystals, with no surface crust. About three inches below
+the soft snow was a sub-surface crust strong enough to carry the bodily
+weight. Below this were other successive crusts, and a porous snow in
+coarse crystals, with a total depth of about fifteen inches.
+
+Our igloo was built near one edge in the lee of an old hummock about
+fifteen feet high. Here a recent bank of drift snow offered just the
+right kind of material from which to cut building blocks. While a
+shelter was thus being walled, I moved about constantly to read my
+instruments and to study carefully the local environment.
+
+In a geographic sense we had now arrived at a point where all meridians
+meet. The longitude, therefore, was zero. Time was a negative problem.
+There being no longitude, there can be no time. The hour lines of
+Greenwich, of New York, of Peking, and of all the world here run
+together. Figuratively, if this position is the pin-point of the earth's
+axis, it is possible to have all meridians under one foot, and therefore
+it should be possible to step from midnight to midday, from the time of
+San Francisco to that of Paris, from one side of the globe to the other,
+as time is measured.
+
+[Illustration: WHERE ALL MERIDIANS MEET AND EVERY DIRECTION IS SOUTH
+
+The Pivotal Point on which the earth turns.
+
+*Magnetic Pole]
+
+Here there is but one day and but one night in each year, but the night
+of six months is relieved by about one hundred days of continuous
+twilight. Geographically, there was here but one direction. It was south
+on every line of the dial of longitude--north, east and west had
+vanished. We had reached a point where true direction became a paradox
+and a puzzle. It was south before us, south behind us, and south on
+every side. But the compass, pointing to the magnetic Pole along the
+ninety-seventh meridian, was as useful as ever. (To avoid statements
+easily misunderstood, all our directions about the Pole will be given as
+taken from the compass, and without reference to the geographer's
+anomaly of its being south in every direction.)
+
+  =My first noon observations= gave the following result, which is
+  copied from the original paper, as it was written at the Pole and
+  reproduced photographically on another page. April 21, 1908: Long.,
+  97-W.; Bar., 29-83; Temp., -37.7; Clouds Alt., St., 1; Wind, 1;
+  Mag., S.; Iceblink E.; Water Sky W.
+
+      Noon Alt. 0      23--33--25
+               ---         +2
+                     +--------------
+                   2 | 23--35--25
+                     +--------------
+                       11--47--42  5
+                          +15--56
+                     ---------------
+        50             12-- 3--38
+         6½               --9
+    -----------      ---------------
+        25             11--54--38
+       300             90
+     +----------     ---------------
+  60 | 325             78-- 5--22
+     +----------       11--54--23
+        5--25        ---------------
+   11--48--58          89--59--45
+   ----------
+   11--54--23
+
+                                       Shadows 28 ft. (of 6 ft. pole).
+
+Taking advantage of our brief stay, the boys set up the ice-axe and
+drying sticks, and hung upon them their perspiration-wetted and frosted
+furs to dry. Hanging out wet clothes and an American flag at the North
+Pole seemed an amusing incongruity.
+
+The puzzled standpoint of my Eskimos was amusing. They tried hard to
+appreciate the advantages of finding this suppositious "_tigi shu_" (big
+nail), but actually here, they could not, even from a sense of deference
+to me and my judgment, entirely hide their feeling of disappointment.
+
+On the advance I had told them that an actual "big nail" would not be
+found--only the point where it ought to be. But I think they really
+hoped that if it had actually disappeared they should find that it had
+come back into place after all!
+
+In building our igloo the boys frequently looked about expectantly.
+Often they ceased cutting snow-blocks and rose to a hummock to search
+the horizon for something which, to their idea, must mark this important
+spot, for which we had struggled against hope and all the dictates of
+personal comforts. At each breathing spell their eager eyes picked some
+sky sign which to them meant land or water, or the play of some god of
+land or sea. The naive and sincere interest which the Eskimos on
+occasions feel in the mystery of the spirit-world gives them an
+imaginative appreciation of nature often in excess of that of the more
+material and skeptical Caucasian.
+
+Arriving at the mysterious place where, they felt, something should
+happen, their imagination now forced an expression of disappointment. In
+a high-keyed condition, all their superstitions recurred to them with
+startling reality.
+
+In one place the rising vapor proved to be the breath of the great
+submarine god--the "_Ko-Koyah_." In another place, a motionless little
+cloud marked the land in which dwelt the "_Turnah-huch-suak_," the great
+Land God, and the air spirits were represented by the different winds,
+with sex relations.
+
+Ah-we-lah and E-tuk-i-shook, with the astuteness of the aborigine, who
+reads Nature as a book, were sharp enough to note that the high air
+currents did not correspond to surface currents; for, although the wind
+was blowing homeward, and changed its force and direction, a few high
+clouds moved persistently in a different direction.
+
+This, to them, indicated a warfare among the air spirits. The ice and
+snow were also animated. To them the whole world presented a rivalry of
+conflicting spirits which offered never-ending topics of conversation.
+
+As the foot pressed the snow, its softness, its rebound, or its metallic
+ring indicated sentiments of friendliness or hostility. The ice, by its
+color, movement or noise, spoke the humor of its animation, or that of
+the supposed life of the restless sea beneath it. In interpreting these
+spirit signs, the two expressed considerable difference of opinion.
+Ah-we-lah saw dramatic situations and became almost hysterical with
+excitement; E-tuk-i-shook saw only a monotone of the normal play of
+life. Such was the trend of interest and conversation as the building of
+the igloos was completed.
+
+Contrary to our usual custom, the dogs had been allowed to rest in their
+traces attached to the sleds. Their usual malicious inquisitiveness
+exhausted, they were too tired to examine the sleds to steal food. But
+now, as the house was completed, holes were chipped with a knife in
+ice-shoulders, through which part of a trace was passed, and each team
+was thus securely fastened to a ring cut in ice-blocks. Then each dog
+was given a double ration of pemmican. Their pleasure was expressed by
+an extra twist of the friendly tails and an extra note of gladness from
+long-contracted stomachs. Finishing their meal, they curled up and
+warmed the snow, from which they took an occasional bite to furnish
+liquid for their gastric economy. Almost two days of rest followed, and
+this was the canine celebration of the Polar attainment.
+
+We withdrew to the inside of the dome of snow-blocks, pulled in a block
+to close the doors, spread out our bags as beds on the platform of
+leveled snow, pulled off boots and trousers, and slipped half-length
+into the bristling reindeer furs. We then discussed, with chummy
+congratulations, the success of our long drive to the world's end.
+
+While thus engaged, the little Juel stove piped the cheer of the
+pleasure of ice-water, soon to quench our chronic thirst. In the
+meantime, Ah-we-lah and E-tuk-i-shook pressed farther and farther into
+their bags, pulled over the hoods, and closed their eyes to an
+overpowering fatigue. But my lids did not easily close. I watched the
+fire. More ice went into the kettle. With the satisfaction of an
+ambition fulfilled, I peeped out occasionally through the pole-punched
+port, and noted the horizon glittering with gold and purple.
+
+Quivers of self-satisfying joy ran up my spine and relieved the frosty
+mental bleach of the long-delayed Polar anticipation.
+
+In due time we drank, with grateful satisfaction, large quantities of
+ice-water, which was more delicious than any wine. A pemmican soup,
+flavored with musk ox tenderloins, steaming with heat--a luxury seldom
+enjoyed in our camps--next went down with warming, satisfying gulps.
+This was followed by a few strips of frozen fresh meat, then by a block
+of pemmican. Later, a few squares of musk ox suet gave the taste of
+sweets to round up our meal. Last of all, three cups of tea spread the
+chronic stomach-folds, after which we reveled in the sense of fulness
+of the best meal of many weeks.
+
+With full stomachs and the satisfaction of a worthy task well performed,
+we rested.
+
+We had reached the zenith of man's Ultima Thule, which had been sought
+for more than three centuries. In comfortable berths of snow we tried to
+sleep, turning with the earth on its northern axis.
+
+But sleep for me was impossible. At six o'clock, or six hours after our
+arrival at local noon, I arose, went out of the igloo, and took a double
+set of observations. Returning, I did some figuring, lay down on my bag,
+and at ten o'clock, or four hours later, leaving Ah-we-lah to guard the
+camp and dogs, E-tuk-i-shook joined me to make a tent camp about four
+miles to the magnetic south. My object was to have a slightly different
+position for subsequent observations.
+
+Placing our tent, bags and camp equipment on a sled, we pushed it over
+the ice field, crossed a narrow lead sheeted with young ice, and moved
+on to another field which seemed to have much greater dimensions. We
+erected the tent not quite two hours later, in time for a midnight
+observation. These sextant readings of the sun's altitude were continued
+for the next twenty-four hours.
+
+In the idle times between observations, I went over to a new break
+between the field on which we were camped and that on which Ah-we-lah
+guarded the dogs. Here the newly-formed sheets of ice slid over each
+other as the great, ponderous fields stirred to and fro. A peculiar
+noise, like that of a crying child, arose. It came seemingly from
+everywhere, intermittently, in successive crying spells. Lying down,
+and putting my fur-cushioned ear to the edge of the old ice, I heard a
+distant thundering noise, the reverberations of the moving, grinding
+pack, which, by its wind-driven sweep, was drifting over the unseen seas
+of mystery. In an effort to locate the cry, I searched diligently along
+the lead. I came to a spot where two tiny pieces of ice served as a
+mouthpiece. About every fifteen seconds there were two or three sharp,
+successive cries. With the ice-axe I detached one. The cries stopped;
+but other cries were heard further along the line.
+
+The time for observations was at hand, and I returned to take up the
+sextant. Returning later to the lead, to watch the seas breathe, the cry
+seemed stilled. The thin ice-sheets were cemented together, and in an
+open space nearby I had an opportunity to study the making and breaking
+of the polar ice.
+
+That tiny film of ice which voiced the baby cries spreads the world's
+most irresistible power. In its making we have the nucleus for the
+origin of the polar pack, that great moving crust of the earth which
+crunches ships, grinds rocks, and sweeps mountains into the sea.
+Beginning as a mere microscopic crystal, successive crystals, by their
+affinity for each other, unite to make a disc. These discs, by the same
+law of cohesion, assemble and unite. Now the thin sheet, the first sea
+ice, is complete, and either rests to make the great field of ice, or
+spreads from floe to floe and from field to field, thus spreading,
+bridging and mending the great moving masses which cover the mid-polar
+basin.
+
+Another law of nature was solved by a similar insignificant incident. In
+spreading our things out to air and dry (for things will dry in wind
+and sun, even at a very low temperature), two pieces of canvas were
+thrown on a hummock. It was a white canvas sled-cover and a black strip
+of canvas, in which the boat fittings were wrapped. When these strips of
+canvas were lifted it was found that under the part of the black canvas,
+resting on a slope at right angles to the sun, the snow had melted and
+recongealed. Under the white canvas the snow had not changed. The
+temperature was -41°; we had felt no heat, but this black canvas had
+absorbed enough heat from a feeble sun to melt the snow beneath it. This
+little lesson in physics began to interest me, and on the return many
+similar experiments were made. As the long, tedious marches were made, I
+asked myself the questions: Why is snow white? Why is the sky blue? And
+why does black burn snow when white does not?
+
+Little by little, in the long drive of monotony, satisfactory answers
+came to these questions. Thus, in seeking abstract knowledge, the law of
+radiation was thoroughly examined. In doing this, there came to me
+slowly the solution of various problems of animal life, and eventually
+there was uncovered what to me proved a startling revelation in the
+incidents that led up to animal coloring in the Arctic. For here I found
+that the creatures' fur and feathers were colored in accord with their
+needs of absorbing external heat or of conserving internal heat. The
+facts here indicated will be presented later, when we deal with the
+snow-fitted creatures at close range.
+
+One of the impressions which I carried with me of this night march was
+that the sun seemed low--lower, indeed, than that of midday, which, in
+reality, was not true, for the observations placed it nine minutes
+higher. This was an indication of the force of habit. In the northward
+march we had noted a considerable relative difference in the height of
+the night sun and that of the day. Although this difference had vanished
+now, the mind at times refused to grasp the remarkable change.[16]
+
+At the Pole I was impressed by a peculiar uniformity in the temperature
+of the atmosphere throughout the twenty-four hours, and also by a
+strange monotone in color and light of sea and sky. I had begun to
+observe this as I approached the boreal center. The strange equability
+of light and color, of humidity and of air temperatures extended an area
+one hundred miles about the Pole. This was noted both on my coming and
+going over this district.
+
+Approaching the Pole, and as the night sun gradually lifted, an
+increasing equalization of the temperature of night and day followed.
+Three hundred miles from the Pole the thermometer at night had been from
+10° to 20° lower than during the day. There the shivering chill of
+midnight made a strong contrast to the burning, heatless glitter of
+midday. At the Pole the thermometer did not rise or fall appreciably for
+certain fixed hours of the day or night, but remained almost uniform
+during the entire twenty-four hours.
+
+This, to a less notable extent, was true also of the barometer. Farther
+south there had been a difference in the day and night range of the
+barometer. Here, although the night winds continued more actively than
+those of the day, the barometer was less variable than at any time on my
+journey.
+
+At the Pole the tendency of change in force and direction of air
+currents, observed farther south, for morning and evening periods, was
+no longer noted. But when strong winds brushed the pack, a good deal of
+the Polar equalization gave place to a radical difference, giving a
+period for high and low temperatures; which period, however, did not
+correspond to the usual hours of day or night. The winds, therefore,
+seemed to carry to us the sub-Polar inequality of atmospheric variation
+in temperature and pressure. Many of the facts bearing upon this problem
+were not learned until later. Subsequently, I learned, also, that strong
+winds often disturb the Polar atmospheric sameness; but all is given
+here because of the striking impression which it made upon me at this
+time.
+
+In the region about the Pole I observed that, although there were
+remarkable and beauteous color blendings in the sky, the intense
+contrasts and the spectacular display of cloud effects, seen in more
+southern regions, were absent.
+
+A color suffusion is common throughout the entire Arctic zone. Light,
+pouring from the low-lying sun, is reflected from the ice in an
+indescribable blaze. From millions of ice slopes, with millions and
+millions of tiny reflecting surfaces, each one a mirror, some large,
+some smaller than specks of diamond dust, this light is sent back in
+different directions in burning waves to the sky. A liquid light seems
+forced back from the sky into every tiny crevice of this bejeweled
+wonderland. One color invariably predominates at a time. Sometimes the
+ice and air and sky are suffused with a hue of rose, again of orange,
+again of a light alloyed yellow, again blue; and, as we get farther
+north, more dominantly purple. Farther south, in our journey northward,
+we had viewed color effects in reality incomparably more beautiful than
+those in the regions about the Pole. The sun, farther south, in rising
+and setting, and with limitless changes of polarized and refracted
+light, passing through strata of atmosphere of varying depths of
+different density, produces kaleidoscopic changes of burning color.
+
+[Illustration: FIRST CAMP AT THE POLE, APRIL 21, 1908]
+
+[Illustration: AT THE POLE--"WE WERE THE ONLY PULSATING CREATURES IN A
+DEAD WORLD OF ICE"]
+
+At the Pole there were sunbursts, but because of the slight change in
+the sun's dip to the horizon, the prevailing light was invariably in
+shades running to purple. At first my imagination evoked a more glowing
+wonder than in reality existed; as the hours wore on, and as the wants
+of my body asserted themselves, I began to see the vacant spaces with a
+disillusionizing eye.
+
+The set of observations given here, taken every six hours, from noon on
+April 21 to midnight on April 22, 1908, fixed our position with
+reasonable certainty.
+
+These figures do not give the exact position for the normal spiral
+ascent of the sun, which is about fifty seconds for each hour, or five
+minutes for each six hours; but the uncertainties of error by refraction
+and ice-drift do not permit such accuracy of observations. These figures
+are submitted, therefore, not to establish the pin-point accuracy of our
+position, but to show that we had approximately reached a spot where the
+sun, throughout the twenty-four hours, circled the heavens in a line
+nearly parallel to the horizon.
+
+
+THE SUN'S TRUE CENTRAL ALTITUDE AT THE POLE.
+
+April 21 and 22, 1908.
+
+  Seven successive observations, taken every six hours.
+
+  Each observation is reduced for an instrumental error of +2´.
+
+  For semi-diameter and also for refraction and parallax, -9´.
+
+  The seven reductions are each calculated from two sextant readings,
+  generally of an upper and lower limb.
+
+  (TAKEN FROM MY FIELD NOTES.)
+
+    April 21, 1908, 97th meridian local
+    time--12 o'clock noon--11°--54´--40´´
+    6 P. M. (same camp).       12--00--10
+    Moved camp 4 miles magnetic South
+    12 o'clock (midnight)      12-- 3--50
+    April 22nd, 6 A. M.        12-- 9--30
+    12 o'clock noon            12--14--20
+    6 P. M.                    12--18--40
+    12 o'clock (midnight)      12--25--10
+                           Temperature, -41. Barometer, 30.05.
+                             Shadow 27½ feet (of 6-foot pole).
+
+With the use of the sextant, the artificial horizon, pocket
+chronometers, and the usual instruments and methods of explorers, our
+observations were continued and our positions were fixed with the most
+painstakingly careful safeguards possible against inaccuracy. The value
+of all such observations as proof of a Polar success, however, is open
+to such interpretation as the future may determine. This applies, not
+only to me, but to anyone who bases any claim upon them.
+
+To me there were many seemingly insignificant facts noted in our
+northward progress which left the imprint of milestones. Our footprints
+marked a road ever onward into the unknown. Many of these almost
+unconscious reckonings took the form of playful impressions, and were
+not even at the time written down.
+
+In the first press reports of my achievement there was not space to go
+into minute details, nor did the presentation of the subject permit an
+elaboration on all the data gathered. But now, in the light of a better
+perspective, it seems important that every possible phase of the
+minutest detail be presented. For only by a careful consideration of
+every phase of every phenomena en route can a true verdict be obtained
+upon this widely discussed subject of Polar attainment.
+
+And now, right here, I want you to consider carefully with me one thing
+which made me feel sure that we had reached the Pole. This is the
+subject of shadows--our own shadows on the snow-covered ice. A seemingly
+unimportant phenomenon which had often been a topic of discussion, and
+so commonplace that I only rarely referred to it in my notebooks, our
+own shadows on the snow-cushioned ice had told of northward movement,
+and ultimately proved to my satisfaction that the Pole had been reached.
+
+In our northward progress--to explain my shadow observations from the
+beginning--for a long time after our start from Svartevoeg, our shadows
+did not perceptibly shorten or brighten, to my eyes. The natives,
+however, got from these shadows a never-ending variety of topics of
+conversation. They foretold storms, located game and read the story of
+home entanglements. Far from land, far from every sign of a cheering,
+solid earth, wandering with our shadows over the hopeless desolation of
+the moving seas of glitter, I, too, took a keen interest in the blue
+blots that represented our bodies. At noon, by comparison with later
+hours, they were sharp, short, of a dark, restful blue. At this time a
+thick atmosphere of crystals rested upon the ice pack, and when the sun
+sank the strongest purple rays could not penetrate the frosty haze.
+Long before the time for sunset, even on clear days, the sun was lost in
+low clouds of drifting needles.
+
+[Illustration: SHADOW-CIRCLES INDICATING THE APPROACH TO THE POLE
+
+Shadow-circle about 250 miles from the Pole. Circle from which extend
+radiating shadow-lines mark position of man.
+
+Shadow-circle when nearing the Pole, showing less difference in length
+during the changing hours.
+
+Shadow-circle at the Pole; standing on the same spot, at each hour,
+one's shadow is always apparently of the same length.
+
+Showing approximately the relative length of a man's shadow for each
+hour of the twenty-four-hour day.]
+
+After passing the eighty-eighth parallel there was a notable change in
+our shadows. The night shadow lengthened; the day shadow, by comparison,
+shortened. The boys saw in this something which they could not
+understand. The positive blue grew to a permanent purple, and the sharp
+outlines ran to vague, indeterminate edges.
+
+Now at the Pole there was no longer any difference in length, color or
+sharpness of outline between the shadow of the day or night.
+
+"What does it all mean?" they asked. The Eskimos looked with eager eyes
+at me to explain, but my vocabulary was not comprehensive enough to give
+them a really scientific explanation, and also my brain was too weary
+from the muscular poison of fatigue to frame words.
+
+The shadows of midnight and those of midday were the same. The sun made
+a circle about the heavens in which the eye detected no difference in
+its height above the ice, either night or day. Throughout the
+twenty-four hours there was no perceptible rise or set in the sun's
+seeming movement. Now, at noon, the shadow represented in its length the
+altitude of the sun--about twelve degrees. At six o'clock it was the
+same. At midnight it was the same. At six o'clock in the morning it was
+the same.
+
+A picture of the snowhouse and ourselves, taken at the same time and
+developed a year later, gives the same length of shadow. The compass
+pointed south. The night drop of the thermometer had vanished. Let us,
+for the sake of argument, grant that all our instrumental observations
+are wrong. Here is a condition of things in which I believed, and still
+believe, the eye, without instrumental assistance, places the sun at
+about the same height for every hour of the day and night. It is only on
+the earth's axis that such an observation is possible.
+
+[Illustration: At a latitude about New York, a man's shadow lengthens
+hour by hour as the sun descends toward the horizon at nightfall.]
+
+[Illustration: At the North Pole, a man's shadow is of equal length
+during the entire twenty-four hours, since the sun moves spirally around
+the heavens at about the same apparent height above the horizon
+throughout the twenty-four-hour day.]
+
+There was about us no land. No fixed point. Absolutely nothing upon
+which to rest the eye to give the sense of location or to judge
+distance.
+
+Here everything moves. The sea breathes, and lifts the crust of ice
+which the wind stirs. The pack ever drifts in response to the pull of
+the air and the drive of the water. Even the sun, the only fixed dot in
+this stirring, restless world, where all you see is, without your seeing
+it, moving like a ship at sea, seems to have a rapid movement in a
+gold-flushed circle not far above endless fields of purple crystal; but
+that movement is never higher, never lower--always in the same fixed
+path. The instruments detect a slight spiral ascent, day after day, but
+the eye detects no change.
+
+Although I had measured our shadows at times on the northward march, at
+the Pole these shadow notations were observed with the same care as the
+measured altitude of the sun by the sextant. A series was made on April
+22, after E-tuk-i-shook and I had left Ah-we-lah in charge of our first
+camp at the Pole. We made a little circle for our feet in the snow.
+E-tuk-i-shook stood in the foot circle. At midnight the first line was
+cut in the snow to the end of his shadow, and then I struck a deep hole
+with the ice-axe. Every hour a similar line was drawn out from his foot.
+At the end of twenty-four hours, with the help of Ah-we-lah, a circle
+was circumscribed along the points, which marked the end of the shadow
+for each hour. The result is represented in the snow diagram on the next
+page.
+
+[Illustration: SHADOW DIAL AT THE POLE
+
+At the Pole, a man's shadow is about the same length for every hour of
+the double day. When a shadow line is drawn in the snow from a man's
+foot in a marked dial, the human shadows take the place of the hands of
+a clock and mark the time by compass bearing. The relative length of
+these shadows also give the latitude or a man's position north or south
+of the equator. When during two turns around the clock dial, the shadows
+are all of about equal length, the position of the earth's axis is
+positively reached--even if all other observations fail. This simple
+demonstration is an indisputable proof of being on the North Pole.]
+
+In the northward march we did not stay up all of bedtime to play with
+shadow circles. But, at this time, to E-tuk-i-shook the thing had a
+spiritual interest. To me it was a part of the act of proving that the
+Pole had been attained. For only about the Pole, I argued, could all
+shadows be of equal length. Because of this combination of keen
+interests, we managed to find an excuse, even during sleep hours, to
+draw a line on our shadow circle.
+
+Here, then, I felt, was an important observation placing me with fair
+accuracy at the Pole, and, unlike all other observations, it was not
+based on the impossible dreams of absolutely accurate time or sure
+corrections for refraction.
+
+[Illustration: HOW THE ALTITUDE OF THE SUN ABOVE THE HORIZON FIXES THE
+POSITION OF THE NORTH POLE
+
+  OBSERVED ALTITUDES, APRIL 22, 1908
+
+    6 A. M.               NOON                6 P. M.
+
+  12° 9´ 30´´         12° 14´ 20´´          12° 18´ 40´´
+
+The exact altitude of the sun at noon of April 22, 1908, on the pole,
+was 12° 9´ 16´´, but owing to ice-drift--the impossibility of
+accurate time--and unknown error by refraction, no such pin-point
+accuracy can be recorded. At each hour the sun, circling about the
+horizon, cast a shadow of uniform length.]
+
+At the place where E-tuk-i-shook and I camped, four miles south of where
+I had left Ah-we-lah with the dogs, only two big ice hummocks were in
+sight. There were more spaces of open water than at our first camp.
+After a midnight observation--of April 22--we returned to camp. When the
+dogs saw us approaching in the distance they rose, and a chorus of howls
+rang over the regions of the Pole--regions where dogs had never howled
+before. All the scientific work being finished, we began hastily to make
+final preparations for departure.
+
+We had spent two days about the North Pole. After the first thrills of
+victory, the glamor wore away as we rested and worked. Although I tried
+to do so, I could get no sensation of novelty as we pitched our last
+belongings on the sleds. The intoxication of success had gone. I suppose
+intense emotions are invariably followed by reactions. Hungry, mentally
+and physically exhausted, a sense of the utter uselessness of this
+thing, of the empty reward of my endurance, followed my exhilaration. I
+had grasped my _ignus fatuus_. It is a misfortune for any man when his
+_ignus fatuus_ fails to elude him.
+
+During those last hours I asked myself why this place had so aroused an
+enthusiasm long-lasting through self-sacrificing years; why, for so many
+centuries, men had sought this elusive spot? What a futile thing, I
+thought, to die for! How tragically useless all those heroic
+efforts--efforts, in themselves, a travesty, an ironic satire, on much
+vainglorious human aspiration and endeavor! I thought of the enthusiasm
+of the people who read of the spectacular efforts of men to reach this
+vacant silver-shining goal of death. I thought, too, in that hour, of
+the many men of science who were devoting their lives to the study of
+germs, the making of toxins; to the saving of men from the grip of
+disease--men who often lost their own lives in their experiments; whose
+world and work existed in unpicturesque laboratories, and for whom the
+laudations of people never rise. It occurred to me--and I felt the
+bitterness of tears in my soul--that it is often the showy and futile
+deeds of men which men praise; and that, after all, the only work worth
+while, the only value of a human being's efforts, lie in deeds whereby
+humanity benefits. Such work as noble bands of women accomplish who go
+into the slums of great cities, who nurse the sick, who teach the
+ignorant, who engage in social service humbly, patiently, unexpectant of
+any reward! Such work as does the scientist who studies the depredations
+of malignant germs, who straightens the body of the crippled child, who
+precipitates a toxin which cleanses the blood of a frightful and
+loathsome disease!
+
+As my eye sought the silver and purple desert about me for some stable
+object upon which to fasten itself, I experienced an abject abandon, an
+intolerable loneliness. With my two companions I could not converse; in
+my thoughts and emotions they could not share. I was alone. I was
+victorious. But how desolate, how dreadful was this victory! About us
+was no life, no spot to relieve the monotony of frost. We were the only
+pulsating creatures in a dead world of ice.
+
+A wild eagerness to get back to land seized me. It seemed as though some
+new terror had arisen from the icy waters. Something huge, something
+baneful ... invisible ... yet whose terror-inspiring, burning eyes I
+felt ... the master genii of the goal, perhaps ... some vague, terrible,
+disembodied spirit force, condemned for some unimaginable sin to
+solitary prisonment here at the top of the world, and who wove its
+malignant, awful spell, and had lured men on for centuries to their
+destruction.... The desolation of the place was such that it was almost
+palpable; it was a thing I felt I must touch and see. My companions felt
+the heavy load of it upon them, and from the few words I overheard I
+knew they were eagerly picturing to themselves the simple joys of
+existence at Etah and Annoatok. I remember that to me came pictures of
+my Long Island home. All this arose, naturally enough, from the reaction
+following the strain of striving so long and so fiercely after the goal,
+combined with the sense of the great and actual peril of our situation.
+But what a cheerless spot this was, to have aroused the ambition of man
+for so many ages!
+
+There came forcibly, too, the thought that although the Pole was
+discovered, it was not essentially discovered, that it could be
+discovered, in the eyes of the world, unless we could return to
+civilization and tell what we had done. Should we be lost in these
+wastes or should we be frozen to death, or buried in the snow, or
+drowned in a crevasse, it would never be known that we had been here. It
+was, therefore, as vitally necessary to get back in touch with human
+life, with our report, as it had been to get to the Pole.
+
+Before leaving, I enclosed a note, written on the previous day, in a
+metallic tube. This I buried in the surface of the Polar snows. I knew,
+of course, that this would not remain long at the spot, as the ice was
+in the grip of a slow-drifting movement. I felt the possibility of this
+slow movement was more important than if it remained stationary; for, if
+ever found in the south, the destination of the tube would indicate the
+ice drift from the Pole. The following is an exact copy of the original
+note, which is reproduced photographically on another page:
+
+
+COPY OF NOTE IN TUBE.
+
+April 21--at the North Pole.
+
+  Accompanied by the Eskimo boys Ah-we-lah and E-tuk-i-shuk I reached
+  at noon to-day 90° N. a spot on the polar sea 520 miles north of
+  Svartevoeg. We were 35 days en route. Hope to return to-morrow on a
+  line slightly west of the northward track.
+
+  New land was discovered along the 102 M. between 84 and 85. The ice
+  proved fairly good, with few open leads, hard snow and little
+  pressure trouble. We are in good health, and have food for forty
+  days. This, with the meat of the dogs to be sacrificed, will keep
+  us alive for fifty or sixty days.
+
+  This note is deposited with a small American flag in a metallic
+  tube on the drifting ice.
+
+  Its return will be appreciated, to the International Bureau of
+  Polar Research at the Royal Observatory, Uccle, Belgium.
+
+                                         (Signed) FREDERICK A. COOK.
+
+[Illustration: POLAR ADVANCE OF THE NATIONAL STANDARDS
+
+Climax of four centuries of Arctic exploration--Stars and Stripes at the
+Pole.]
+
+
+
+
+THE RETURN--A BATTLE FOR LIFE AGAINST FAMINE AND FROST
+
+TURNED BACKS TO THE POLE AND TO THE SUN--THE DOGS, SEEMINGLY GLAD AND
+SEEMINGLY SENSIBLE THAT THEIR NOSES WERE POINTED HOMEWARD, BARKED
+SHRILLY--SUFFERING FROM INTENSE DEPRESSION--THE DANGERS OF MOVING ICE,
+OF STORMS AND SLOW STARVATION--THE THOUGHT OF FIVE HUNDRED AND TWENTY
+MILES TO LAND CAUSES DESPAIR
+
+XXI
+
+SOUTHWARD OVER THE MID-POLAR SEA
+
+
+With few glances backward, we continued the homeward run in haste,
+crossing many new crevasses and bound on a course along the one
+hundredth meridian.
+
+The eagerness to solve the mystery had served its purpose. The memory of
+the adventure for a time remained as a reminder of reckless daring. As
+we now moved along, there came more and more strongly the realization of
+the prospective difficulties of the return. Although the mercury was
+still frozen and the sun's perpetual flush was lost in a frigid blue,
+the time was at hand in lower latitudes for the ice to break and drift
+southward.
+
+With correct reasoning, all former expeditions had planned to return to
+land and a secure line of retreat by May 1. We could not hope to do this
+until early in June. It seemed probable, therefore, that the ice along
+the outskirts of the Polar sea would be much disrupted and that open
+water, small ice and rapid drifts would seriously interfere with our
+return to a sure footing on the shores of Fridtjof Nansen Sound. This
+and many other possible dangers had been carefully considered before,
+but the conquest of the Pole was not possible without such risks.
+
+We had started earlier than all other Polar expeditions and no time had
+been lost en route. If misfortune came to us, it could not be because of
+wasted energies or unnecessary delay. In the last days of the onward
+rush to success there had been neither time nor opportunity to ponder
+over future dangers, but now, facing the southern skies, under which lay
+home and all for which we lived, the back trail seemed indescribably
+long. In cold, sober thought, freed of the intoxication of Polar
+enthusiasm, the difficulties increasingly darkened in color. We clearly
+saw that the crucial stage of the campaign was not the taking of the
+Pole. The test of our fitness as boreal conquerors was to be measured by
+the outcome of a final battle for life against famine and frost.
+
+Figuring out the difficulties and possibilities of our return, I came to
+the conclusion that to endeavor to get back by our upward trail would
+not afford great advantage. Much time would be lost seeking the trail.
+The almost continuous low drift of snow during some part of nearly every
+day would obliterate our tracks and render the trail useless as a
+beaten track in making travel easier. The advantage of previously
+constructed snow houses as camps did not appeal to us.
+
+After one is accustomed to a new, clean, bright dome of snow every
+night, as we were, the return to such a camp is gloomy and depressing.
+The house is almost invariably left in such a shape that, for hygienic
+reasons alone, it should not be occupied. Furthermore, the influence of
+sun and storm absolutely destroys in a few days two out of three of all
+such shelter places. Moreover, we were now camping in our silk tent and
+did not require other shelter. At the season of the year in which we
+were traveling, the activity of the pack farther south made
+back-tracking impossible, because of irregular lateral drift of
+individual fields. And to me the most important reason was an eager
+desire to ascertain what might be discovered on a new trail farther
+west. It was this eagerness which led to our being carried adrift and
+held prisoners for a year.
+
+The first days, however, passed rapidly. The ice fields became smoother.
+On April 24 we crossed five crevasses. With fair weather and favorable
+ice, long marches were made. On the 24th we made sixteen miles, on the
+25th fifteen miles, on the 26th, 27th and 28th, fourteen miles a day.
+The fire of the homing sentiment began to dispel our overbearing
+fatigue. The dogs sniffed the air. The Eskimos sang songs of the chase.
+To me also there came cheering thoughts of friends and loved ones to be
+greeted. I thought of delightful dinners, of soul-stirring music. For
+all of us, the good speed of the return chase brought a mental
+atmosphere of dreams of the pleasures of another world. For a time we
+were blinded to ultimate dangers, just as we had been in the northward
+dash.
+
+In our return along the one hundredth meridian, there were three
+important objects to be gained by a route somewhat west of the northward
+march. The increasing easterly drift would thus be counterbalanced. We
+hoped to get near enough to the new lands to explore a part of the
+coast. And a wider belt would be swept out of the unknown area. On April
+30 the pedometer registered one hundred and twenty-one miles, and by our
+system of dead reckoning, which was usually correct, we should have been
+at latitude 87°, 59´, longitude 100°. The nautical observations gave
+latitude 88°, 1´, longitude 97°, 42´. We were drifting eastward,
+therefore, with increasing speed. To counterbalance our being moved by
+this drift, we turned and bounded southward in a more westerly course.
+
+The never-changing sameness of the daily routine was again felt. The
+novelty of success and the passion of the run for the goal were no
+longer operative. The scenes of shivering blue wearied the eye, and
+there was no inspiration in the moving sea of ice to gladden the heart.
+The thermometer rose and fell between 30 and 40° below zero, Fahrenheit,
+with a ceaseless wind. The first of May was at hand, bringing to mind
+the blossoms and smiles of a kindly world. But here all nature was
+narrowed to lines of ice.
+
+May 1 came with increasing color in the sunbursts, but without cheer.
+The splendor of terrestrial fire was a cheat. Over the horizon, mirages
+displayed celestial hysterics. The sun circled the skies in lines of
+glory, but its heat was a sham, its light a torment. The ice was heavy
+and smooth. On May 2, clouds obscured the sky, fog fell heavily over the
+ice, we struck our course with difficulty but made nineteen miles. On
+May 3 snow fell, but the end of the march brought clear skies, and, with
+them, the longing for my land of blossoming cherry and apple trees.
+
+With weary nerves, and with compass in hand, my lonely march ahead of
+the sledges continued day by day. Progress was satisfactory. We had
+passed the eighty-ninth and eighty-eighth parallels. The eighty-seventh
+and the eighty-sixth would soon be under foot, and the sight of the new
+lands should give encouragement. These hard-fought times were days long
+to be remembered. The lack of cerebral stimulation and nutrition left no
+cellular resource to aid the memory of those fateful hours of chill.
+
+The long strain of the march had established a brotherly sympathy
+amongst the trio of human strugglers. The dogs, though still possessing
+the savage ferocity of the wolf, had taken us into their community. We
+now moved among them without hearing a grunt of discord, and their
+sympathetic eyes followed until we were made comfortable on the
+cheerless snows. If they happened to be placed near enough, they edged
+up and encircled us, giving the benefit of their animal heat. To remind
+us of their presence, frost-covered noses were frequently pushed under
+the sleeping bag, and occasionally a cold snout touched our warm skin
+with a rude awakening.
+
+We loved the creatures, and admired their superb brute strength. Their
+superhuman adaptability was a frequent topic of conversation. With a
+pelt that was a guarantee against all weather condition, they threw
+themselves down to the sweep of winds, in open defiance of death-dealing
+storms. Eating but a pound of pemmican a day, and demanding neither
+water nor shelter, they willingly did a prodigious amount of work and
+then, as bed-fellows, daily offered their fur as shelter and their bones
+as head-rests to their two-footed companions. We had learned to
+appreciate the advantage of their beating breasts. The bond of animal
+fellowship had drawn tighter and tighter in a long run of successive
+adventures. And now there was a stronger reason than ever to appreciate
+power, for together we were seeking an escape from a world which was
+never intended for creatures with pulsating hearts.
+
+Much very heavy ice was crossed near the eighty-eighth parallel, but the
+endless unbroken fields of the northward trails were not again seen. Now
+the weather changed considerably. The light, cutting winds from the west
+increased in force, and the spasmodic squalls came at shorter intervals.
+The clear purples and blues of the skies gradually gave place to an ugly
+hue of gray. A rush of frosty needles came over the pack for several
+hours each day.
+
+The inducement to seek shelter in cemented walls of snow and to wait for
+better weather was very great. But such delay would mean certain
+starvation. Under fair conditions, there was barely food enough to reach
+land, and even short delays might seriously jeopardize our return. We
+could not, therefore, do otherwise than force ourselves against the wind
+and drift with all possible speed, paying no heed to unavoidable
+suffering. As there was no alternative, we tried to persuade ourselves
+that existing conditions might be worse than they were.
+
+The hard work of igloo building was now a thing of the past--only one
+had been built since leaving the Pole, and in this a precious day was
+lost, while the atmospheric fury changed the face of the endless expanse
+of desolation. The little silk tent protected us sufficiently from the
+icy airs. There were still 50° of frost, but, with hardened skins and
+insensible nerve filaments, the torture was not so keenly felt. Our
+steady diet of pemmican, tea and biscuits was not entirely satisfactory.
+We longed for enough to give a real filling sense, but the daily ration
+had to be slightly reduced rather than increased. The change in life
+from winter to summer, which should take place at about this time of the
+year, was, in our case, marked only by a change in shelter, from the
+snow house to the tent, and our beds were moved from the soft snow shelf
+of the igloo to the hard, wind-swept crust.
+
+In my watches to get a peep of the sun at just the right moment, I was
+kept awake during much of the resting period. For pastime, my eyes
+wandered from snorting dogs to snoring men. During one of these idle
+moments there came a solution of the utility of the dog's tail, a topic
+with which I had been at play for several days. It is quoted here at the
+risk of censure, because it is a typical phase of our lives which cannot
+be illustrated otherwise. Seeming trivialities were seized upon as food
+for thought. Why, I asked, has the dog a tail at all? The bear, the musk
+ox, the caribou and the hare, each in its own way, succeeds very well
+with but a dwarfed stub. Why does nature, in the dog, expend its best
+effort in growing the finest fur over a seemingly useless line of tail
+bones? The thing is distinctive, and one could hardly conceive of the
+creature without the accessory, but nature in the Arctic does not often
+waste energy to display beauties and temperament. This tail must have an
+important use; otherwise it would soon fall under the knife of frost and
+time. Yes! It was imported into the Arctic by the wolf progenitor of the
+dog from warmer lands, where its swing served a useful purpose in fly
+time. A nose made to breathe warm air requires some protection in the
+far north and the dog supplied the need with his tail. At the time when
+I made this discovery a cold wind, charged with cutting crystal, was
+brushing the pack. Each dog had his back arched to the wind and his face
+veiled with an effective curl of his tail. Thus each was comfortably
+shielded from icy torment by an appendage adapted to that very purpose.
+
+In the long tread over snowy wastes new lessons in human mechanism
+aroused attention. At first the effort to find a workable way over the
+troublesome pack surface had kept mind and body keyed to an exciting
+pitch, but slowly this had changed. By a kind of unconscious intuition,
+the eye now found easy routes, the lower leg mechanically traveled over
+yards and miles and degrees without even consulting the brain, while the
+leg trunk, in the effort to conserve energy, was left in repose at
+periods during miles of travel, thus saving much of the exertion of
+walking.
+
+The muscles, thus schooled to work automatically, left the mind free to
+work and play. The maddening monotone of our routine, together with the
+expenditure of every available strain of force, had left the head dizzy
+with emptiness. Something must be done to lift the soul out of the
+boreal bleach.
+
+The power of the mind over the horse-power of the body was here shown at
+its best. The flesh proved loyal to the gray matter only while mental
+entertainment was encouraged. Thus aching muscles were persuaded to do
+double duty without sending up a cry of tired feeling. The play of the
+mind with topics of its own choosing is an advantage worth seeking at
+all times. But, to us, it multiplied vital force and increased greatly
+the daily advance. Science, art and poetry were the heights to which the
+wings of thought soared. Beginning with the diversion of making curious
+speculations on subjects such as that of the use of the dog's tail and
+the Arctic law of animal coloring, the first period of this mental
+exercise closed with my staging a drama of the comedies and tragedies of
+the Eskimos.
+
+In the effort to frame sentiment in measured lines, a weird list of
+topics occupied my strained fancy. In more agreeable moods I always
+found pleasure in imagining a picture of the Polar sunrise, that budding
+period of life when all Nature awakens after its winter sleep. It was
+not difficult to start E-tuk-i-shook and Ah-we-lah on similar flights of
+fancy. A mere suggestion would keep up a flow of agreeable thought for
+several days.
+
+By such forced mental stimuli the centers of fatigue were deluded into
+insensibility. The eighty-seventh parallel was crossed, the eighty-sixth
+was neared, but there came a time when both mind and body wearied of the
+whole problem of forced resolution.
+
+On May 6 we were stopped at six in the morning by the approach of an
+unusual gale. The wind had been steady and strong all night, but we did
+not heed its threatening increase of force until too late. It came from
+the west, as usual, driving coarse snow with needle points. The ice
+about was old and hummocky, offering a difficult line of march, but some
+shelter. In the strongest blasts we threw ourselves over the sled behind
+hummocks and gathered new breath to force a few miles more.
+
+Finally, when no longer able to force the dogs through the blinding
+drift we sought the lee of an unlifted block of ice. Here suitable snow
+was found for a snow house. A few blocks were cut and set, but the wind
+swept them away as if they were chips. The tent was tried, but it could
+not be made to stand in the rush of the roaring tumult. In sheer despair
+we crept into the tent without erecting the pole. Creeping into bags, we
+then allowed the flapping silk to be buried by the drifting snow. Soon
+the noise and discomfort of the storm were lost and we enjoyed the
+comfort of an icy grave. An efficient breathing hole was kept open, and
+the wind was strong enough to sweep off the weight of a dangerous drift.
+A new lesson was thus learned in fighting the battle of life, and it was
+afterwards useful.
+
+Several days of icy despair now followed one another in rapid
+succession. The wind did not rise to the full force of a storm, but it
+was too strong and too cold to travel. The food supply was noticeably
+decreasing. The daily advance was less. With such weather, starvation
+seemed inevitable. Camp was moved nearly every day, but ambition sank to
+the lowest ebb. To the atmospheric unrest was added the instability of
+broken ice and the depressing mystery of an unknown position. For many
+days no observations had been possible. Our location could only be
+guessed at.
+
+Through driving storms, with the wind wailing in our ears and deafening
+us to the dismal howling of the hungry dogs, we pushed forward in a
+daily maddening struggle. The route before us was unknown. We were in
+the fateful clutch of a drifting sea of ice. I could not guess whither
+we were bound. At times I even lost hope of reaching land. Our bodies
+were tired. Our legs were numb. We were almost insensible to the mad
+craving hunger of our stomachs. We were living on a half ration of food,
+and daily becoming weaker.[17]
+
+Sometimes I paused, overcome by an almost overwhelming impulse to lie
+down and drift through sleep into death. At these times, fortunately,
+thoughts of home came thronging, with memories as tender as are the
+memories of singing spring-time birds in winter time. And, although the
+stimulating incentive of reaching the Pole on going north was gone, now,
+having accomplished the feat, there was always the thought that unless I
+got home no one should ever learn of that superhuman struggle, that
+final victory.
+
+Empty though it was, I had, as I had hoped, proved myself to myself; I
+had justified the three centuries of human effort: I had proven that
+finite human brain and palpitating muscle can be victorious over a cruel
+and death-dealing Nature. It was a testimony that it was my duty to give
+the world of struggling, striving men, and which, as a father, I hoped
+with pride to give to my little children.
+
+[Illustration: PTARMIGAN]
+
+
+
+
+BACK TO LIFE AND BACK TO LAND
+
+THE RETURN--DELUDED BY DRIFT AND FOG--CARRIED ASTRAY OVER AN UNSEEN
+DEEP--TRAVEL FOR TWENTY DAYS IN A WORLD OF MISTS, WITH THE TERROR OF
+DEATH--AWAKENED FROM SLEEP BY A HEAVENLY SONG--THE FIRST BIRD--FOLLOWING
+THE WINGED HARBINGER--WE REACH LAND--A BLEAK, BARREN ISLAND POSSESSING
+THE CHARM OF PARADISE--AFTER DAYS VERGING ON STARVATION, WE ENJOY A
+FEAST OF UNCOOKED GAME
+
+XXII
+
+SOUTHWARD INTO THE AMERICAN ARCHIPELAGO
+
+
+On May 24 the sky cleared long enough to permit me to take a set of
+observations. I found we were on the eighty-fourth parallel, near the
+ninety-seventh meridian. The new land I had noted on my northward
+journey was hidden by a low mist. The ice was much crevassed, and
+drifted eastward. Many open spaces of water were denoted in the west by
+patches of water sky. The pack was sufficiently active to give us
+considerable anxiety, although pressure lines and open water did not at
+the time seriously impede our progress.
+
+Scarcely enough food remained on the sledges to reach our caches unless
+we should average fifteen miles a day. On the return from the Pole to
+this point we had been able to make only twelve miles daily. Now our
+strength, even under fair conditions, did not seem to be equal to more
+than ten miles. The outlook was threatening, and even dangerous, but the
+sight of the cleared sky gave new courage to E-tuk-i-shook and
+Ah-we-lah.
+
+Our best course was to get to Fridtjof Nansen Sound as soon as possible.
+The new land westward was invisible, and offered no food prospects. An
+attempted exploration might cause a fatal delay.
+
+Still depending upon a steady easterly drift of the pack, a course was
+set somewhat west of Svartevoeg, the northern point of Axel Heiberg
+Land. In pressing onward, light variable winds and thick fogs prevailed.
+The ice changed rapidly to smaller fields as we advanced. The
+temperature rose to zero, and the air really began to be warm. Our
+chronic shivering disappeared. With light sledges and endurable weather,
+we made fair progress over the increasing pack irregularities.
+
+As we crossed the eighty-third parallel we found ourselves to the west
+of a large lead, extending slightly west of south. Immense quantities of
+broken and pulverized ice lined the shores to a width of several miles.
+The irregularities of this surface and the uncemented break offered
+difficulties over which no force of man or beast could move a sledge or
+boat. Compelled to follow the line of least resistance, a southerly
+course was set along the ice division. The wind now changed and came
+from the east, but there was no relief from the heavy banks of fog that
+surrounded us.
+
+The following days were days of desperation. The food for man and dog
+was reduced, and the difficulties of ice travel increased
+dishearteningly. We traveled twenty days, not knowing our position. A
+gray mystery enshrouded us. Terror followed in our wake. Beneath us the
+sea moved--whither it was carrying us I did not know. That we were
+ourselves journeying toward an illimitable, hopeless sea, where we
+should die of slow, lingering starvation, I knew was a dreadful
+probability. Every minute drew its pangs of despair and fear.
+
+The gray world of mist was silent. My companions gazed at me with faces
+shriveled, thinned and hardened as those of mummies. Their anguish was
+unspeakable. My own vocal powers seemed to have left me. Our dogs were
+still; with bowed heads, tails drooping, they pulled the sledges
+dispiritedly. We seemed like souls in torment, traveling in a world of
+the dead, condemned to some Dantesque torture that should never cease.
+
+After the mental torment of threatened starvation, which prevented,
+despite the awful languor of my tortured limbs, any sleep; after
+heart-breaking marches and bitter hunger and unquenched thirst, the
+baffling mist that had shut us from all knowledge at last cleared away
+one morning. Our hearts bounded. I felt such relief as a man buried
+alive must feel when, after struggling in the stifling darkness, his
+grave is suddenly opened. Land loomed to the west and south of us.
+
+Yet we found we had been hardly dealt with by fate. Since leaving the
+eighty-fourth parallel, without noticeable movement, we had been carried
+astray by the ocean drift. We had moved with the entire mass that
+covered the Polar waters. I took observations. They gave latitude 79°
+32´, and longitude 101° 22´. At last I had discovered our
+whereabouts, and found that we were far from where we ought to be. But
+our situation was indeed nearly hopeless. The mere gaining a knowledge
+of where we actually were, however, fanned again the inextinguishable
+embers of hope.
+
+We were in Crown Prince Gustav Sea. To the east were the low mountains
+and high valleys of Axel Heiberg Land, along the farther side of which
+was our prearranged line of retreat, with liberal caches of good things
+and with big game everywhere. But we were effectually barred from all
+this.
+
+Between us and the land lay fifty miles of small crushed ice and
+impassable lines of open water. In hard-fought efforts to cross these we
+were repulsed many times. I knew that if by chance we should succeed in
+crossing, there would still remain an unknown course of eighty miles to
+the nearest cache, on the eastern coast of Axel Heiberg Land.
+
+We had no good reason to expect any kind of subsistence along the west
+coast of Axel Heiberg Land. We had been on three-fourths rations for
+three weeks, and there remained only half rations for another ten days.
+Entirely aside from the natural barriers in the way of returning
+eastward and northward, we were now utterly unequal to the task, for we
+had not the food to support us.
+
+The land to the south was nearer. Due south there was a wide gap which
+we took to be Hassel Sound. On each side there was a low ice-sheeted
+island, beyond the larger islands which Sverdrup had named Ellef Ringnes
+Land and Amund Ringnes Land. The ice southward was tolerably good and
+the drift was south-south-east.
+
+In the hope that some young seals might be seen we moved into Hassel
+Sound toward the eastern island. To satisfy our immediate pangs of
+hunger was our most important mission.
+
+The march on June 14 was easy, with a bright warm sun and a temperature
+but little under the freezing point. In a known position, on good ice,
+and with land rising before us, we were for a brief period happy and
+strong, even with empty stomachs. The horizon was eagerly sought for
+some color or form or movement to indicate life. We were far enough
+south to expect bears and seals, and expecting the usual luck of the
+hungry savage, we sought diligently. Our souls reached forth through our
+far-searching eyes. Our eyes pained with the intense fixity of gazing,
+yet no animate thing appeared. The world was vacant and dead. Our
+beating hearts, indeed, seemed to be the only palpitating things there.
+
+In the piercing rays of a high sun the tent was erected, and in it,
+after eating only four ounces of pemmican and drinking two cups of icy
+water, we sought rest. The dogs, after a similar ration, but without
+water, fell into an easy sleep. I regarded the poor creatures with
+tenderness and pity. For more than a fortnight they had not uttered a
+sound to disturb the frigid silence. When a sled dog is silent and
+refuses to fight with his neighbor, his spirit is very low. Finally I
+fell asleep.
+
+At about six o'clock we were awakened by a strange sound. Our surprised
+eyes turned from side to side. Not a word was uttered. Another sound
+came--a series of soft, silvery notes--the song of a creature that
+might have come from heaven. I listened with rapture. I believed I was
+dreaming. The enchanting song continued--I lay entranced. I could not
+believe this divine thing was of our real world until the pole of our
+tent gently quivered. Then, above us, I heard the flutter of wings. It
+was a bird--a snow bunting trilling its ethereal song--the first sound
+of life heard for many months.
+
+We were back to life! Tears of joy rolled down our emaciated faces. If I
+could tell you of the resurrection of the soul which came with that
+first bird note, and the new interest which it gave in our subsequent
+life, I should feel myself capable of something superhuman in powers of
+expression.
+
+With the song of that marvelous bird a choking sense of homesickness
+came to all of us. We spoke no word. The longing for home gripped our
+hearts.
+
+We were hungry, but no thought of killing this little feathered creature
+came to us. It seemed as divine as the bird that came of old to Noah in
+the ark. Taking a few of our last bread crumbs, we went out to give it
+food. The little chirping thing danced joyously on the crisp snows,
+evidently as glad to see us as we were to behold it. I watched it with
+fascination. At last we were back to life! We felt renewed vigor. And
+when the little bird finally rose into the air and flew homeward, our
+spirits rose, our eyes followed it, and, as though it were a token sent
+to us, we followed its winged course landward with eager, bounding
+hearts.
+
+We were now on immovable ice attached to the land. We directed our
+course uninterruptedly landward, for there was no thought of further
+rest or sleep after the visit of the bird had so uplifted our hearts.
+Our chances of getting meat would have been bettered by following close
+to the open water, but the ice there was such that no progress could be
+made. Furthermore, the temptation quickly to set foot on land was too
+great to resist. At the end of a hard march--the last few hours of which
+were through deep snows--we mounted the ice edge, and finally reached a
+little island--a bare spot of real land. When my foot touched it, my
+heart sank. We sat down, and the joy of the child in digging the sand of
+the seashore was ours.
+
+I wonder if ever such a bleak spot, in a desert of death, had so
+impressed men before as a perfect paradise. In this barren heap of sand
+and clay, we were at last free of the danger, the desolation, the
+sterility of that soul-withering environment of a monotonously moving
+world of ice and eternal frost.
+
+We fastened the dogs to a rock, and pitched the tent on earth-soiled
+snows. In my joy I did not forget that the Pole was ours, but, at that
+time, I was ready to offer freely to others the future pleasures of its
+crystal environment and all its glory. Our cup had been filled too often
+with its bitters and too seldom with its sweets for us to entertain
+further thirst for boreal conquest.
+
+And we also resolved to keep henceforth from the wastes of the terrible
+Polar sea. In the future the position of lands must govern our
+movements. For, along a line of rocks, although we might suffer from
+hunger, we should no longer be helpless chips on the ocean drift, and if
+no other life should be seen, at least occasional shrimps would gladden
+the heart.
+
+[Illustration: "WITH EAGER EYES WE SEARCHED THE DUSKY PLAINS OF CRYSTAL,
+BUT THERE WAS NO LAND, NO LIFE, TO RELIEVE THE PURPLE RUN OF DEATH"]
+
+[Illustration: RECORD LEFT IN BRASS TUBE AT NORTH POLE]
+
+We stepped about on the solid ground with a new sense of security. But
+the land about was low, barren, and shapeless. Its formation was
+triassic, similar to that of most of Heiberg land, but in our immediate
+surroundings, erosion by frost, the grind of ice sheets, and the power
+of winds, had leveled projecting rocks and cliffs. Part of its interior
+was blanketed with ice. Its shore line had neither the relief of a
+colored cliff nor a picturesque headland; there was not even a wall of
+ice; there were only dull, uninteresting slopes of sand and snow
+separating the frozen sea from the land-ice. The most careful scrutiny
+gave no indication of a living creature. The rocks were uncovered even
+with black lichens. A less inviting spot of earth could not be
+conceived, yet it aroused in us a deep sense of enthusiasm. A strip of
+tropical splendor could not have done more. The spring of man's passion
+is sprung by contrast, not by degrees of glory.
+
+In camp, the joy of coming back to earth was chilled by the agonizing
+call of the stomach. The effervescent happiness could not dispel the
+pangs of hunger. A disabled dog which had been unsuccessfully nursed for
+several days was sacrificed on the altar of hard luck, and the other
+dogs were thereupon given a liberal feed, in which we shared. To our
+palates the flesh of the dog was not distasteful, yet the dog had been
+our companion for many months, and at the same time that our
+conscienceless stomachs were calling for more hot, blood-wet meat, a
+shivering sense of guilt came over me. We had killed and were eating a
+living creature which had been faithful to us.
+
+We were hard-looking men at this time. Our fur garments were worn
+through at the elbows and at the knees. Ragged edges dangled in the
+winds. All the boot soles were mere films, like paper with many holes.
+Our stockings were in tatters. The bird-skin shirts had been fed to the
+dogs, and strips of our sleeping bags had day by day been added to the
+canine mess. It took all our spare time now to mend clothing. Dressed in
+rags, with ugly brown faces, seamed with many deep wind-fissures, we had
+reached, in our appearance, the extreme limit of degradation.
+
+At the Pole I had been thin, but now my skin was contracted over bones
+offering only angular eminences as a bodily outline. The Eskimos were as
+thin as myself. My face was as black as theirs. They had risen to higher
+mental levels, and I had descended to lower animal depths. The long
+strain, the hard experiences, had made us equals. We were, however,
+still in good health and were capable of considerable hard work. It was
+not alone the want of food which had shriveled our bodies, for greater
+pangs of hunger were reserved for a later run of misfortune. Up to this
+point persistent overwork had been the most potent factor.
+
+As we passed out of Hassel Sound, the ice drifted southward. Many new
+fractures were noted, and open spaces of water appeared. Here was seen
+the track of a rat--the first sign of a four-footed creature--and we
+stopped to examine the tiny marks with great interest. Next, some old
+bear tracks were detected. These simple things had an intense
+fascination for us, coming as we did out of a lifeless world; and, too,
+these signs showed that the possibilities of food were at hand, and the
+thought sharpened our senses into savage fierceness.
+
+We continued our course southward, as we followed, wolf-like, in the
+bear footprints. The sledges bounded over the icy irregularities as they
+had not done for months. Every crack in the ice was searched for seals,
+and with the glasses we mounted hummock after hummock to search the
+horizon for bears.
+
+We were not more than ten miles beyond land when Ah-we-lah located an
+auspicious spot to leeward. After a peep through the glasses he shouted.
+The dogs understood. They raised their ears, and jumped to the full
+length of their traces. We hurried eastward to deprive the bear of our
+scent, but we soon learned that he was as hungry as we were, for he made
+an air line for our changed position. We were hunting the bear--the bear
+was also hunting us.
+
+Getting behind a hummock, we awaited developments. Bruin persistently
+neared, rising on his haunches frequently so as the better to see
+E-tuk-i-shook, who had arranged himself like a seal as a decoy. When
+within a few hundred yards the dogs were freed. They had been waiting
+like entrenched soldiers for a chance to advance. In a few moments the
+gaunt creatures encircled the puzzled bear. Almost without a sound, they
+leaped at the great animal and sank their fangs into his hind legs.
+Ah-we-lah fired. The bear fell.
+
+Camp technique and the advantages of a fire were not considered--the
+meat was swallowed raw, with wolfish haste, and no cut of carefully
+roasted bullock ever tasted better. It was to such grim hunger that we
+had come.
+
+Then we slept, and after a long time our eyes reopened upon a world
+colored with new hope. The immediate threat of famine was removed, and a
+day was given over to filling up with food. Even after that, a liberal
+supply of fresh meat rested on the sledge for successive days of
+feasting. In the days which followed, other bears, intent on examining
+our larder, came near enough at times to enable us to keep up a liberal
+supply of fresh meat.
+
+With the assurance of a food supply, a course was set to enter
+Wellington Channel and push along to Lancaster Sound, where I hoped a
+Scottish whaler could be reached in July or August. In this way it
+seemed possible to reach home shores during the current year. If we
+should try to reach Annoatok I realized we should in all probability be
+compelled to winter at Cape Sabine. The ice to the eastward in Norwegian
+Bay offered difficulties like those of Crown Prince Gustav Sea, and
+altogether the easterly return to our base did not at this time seem
+encouraging. The air-line distance to Smith Sound and that to Lancaster
+Sound were about the same, with the tremendous advantage of a straight
+course--a direct drift--and fairly smooth ice to the southward.
+
+This conclusion to push forward for Lancaster Sound was reached on June
+19. We were to the west of North Cornwall Island, but a persistent local
+fog gave only an occasional view of its icy upper slopes. The west was
+clear, and King Christian Land appeared as a low line of blue. About us
+the ice was small but free of pressure troubles. Bear tracks were
+frequently seen as we went along. The sea was bright. The air was
+delightfully warm, with the thermometer at 10° above zero.
+
+At every stop, the panting dogs tumbled and rolled playfully on the
+snows, and pushed their heated muzzles deep into the white chill. If
+given time they would quickly arrange a comfortable bed and stretch out,
+seemingly lifeless, for a refreshing slumber. At the awakening call of
+the lash, all were ready with a quick jump and a daring snarl, but the
+need of a tight trace removed their newly-acquired fighting propensity.
+They had gained strength and spirit with remarkable rapidity. Only two
+days before, they stumbled along with irregular step, slack traces, and
+lowered tails, but the fill of juicy bear's meat raised their bushy
+appendages to a coil of pride--an advantage which counted for several
+miles in a day's travel.
+
+The drift carried us into Penny Strait, midway between Bathurst Land and
+Grinnell Peninsula. The small islands along both shores tore up the ice
+and piled it in huge uplifts. There was a tremendous pressure as the
+floes were forced through narrow gorges. Only a middle course was
+possible for us, with but a few miles' travel to our credit for each
+day. But the southerly movement of the groaning ice was rapid. A
+persistent fog veiled the main coast on both sides, but off-lying
+islands were seen and recognized often enough to note the positions. At
+Dundas Island the drift was stopped, and we sought the shores of
+Grinnell Peninsula. Advancing eastward, close to land, the ice proved
+extremely difficult. The weather, however, was delightful. Between
+snowdrifts, purple and violet flowers rose over warm beds of newly
+invigorated mosses--the first flowers that we had seen for a long and
+weary time, and the sight of them, with their blossoms and color,
+deeply thrilled me. From misty heights came the howl of the white wolf.
+Everywhere were seen the traces of the fox and the lemming. The
+eider-duck and the ivory gull had entered our horizon.
+
+All nature smiled with the cheer of midsummer. Here was an inspiring
+fairyland for which our hearts had long yearned. In it there was music
+which the long stiffened tympanums were slow in catching. The land was
+an oasis of hardy verdure. The sea was a shifting scene of frost and
+blue glitter. With the soul freed from its icy fetters, the soft, sunny
+airs came in bounds of gladness. In dreamy stillness we sought the bosom
+of the frozen sea, and there heard the groan of the pack which told of
+home shores. Drops of water from melting snows put an end to thirst
+tortures. The blow of the whales and the seals promised a luxury of fire
+and fuel, while the low notes of the ducks prepared the palate for
+dessert.
+
+As we neared a little moss-covered island in drifting southward, we saw
+the interesting chick footprints of ptarmigan in the snow. The dogs
+pointed their ears and raised their noses, and we searched the clearing
+skies with eye and ear for the sudden swoop of the boreal chicken. I had
+developed a taste for this delicate fowl as desperate as that of the
+darky for chicken, and my conscience was sufficiently deadened by cold
+and hunger to break into a roost by night or day to steal anything that
+offered feathery delights for the palate.
+
+I was courting gastric desire, but the ptarmigan was engaged in another
+kind of courtship. Two singing capons were cooing notes of love to a shy
+chick, and they suddenly decided that there was not room for two,
+whereupon a battle ensued with a storm of wings and much darting of
+bills. In this excitement they got into an ice crevasse, where they
+might have become easy victims without the use of ammunition. But, with
+empty stomachs, there is also at times a heart-hunger, which pleases a
+higher sense and closes the eye to gastric wants.
+
+Later in the same day, we saw at a great distance what seemed like two
+men in motion. We hastened to meet them with social anticipations. Now
+they seemed tall--now mere dots on the horizon. I thought this due to
+their movement over ice irregularities. But boreal optics play havoc
+with the eye and the sense of perspective. As we rose suddenly on a
+hummock, where we had a clearer view, the objects rose on wings! They
+were ravens which had been enlarged and reduced by reflecting and
+refracting surfaces and a changing atmosphere, in much the same
+manner as a curved mirror makes a caricature of one's self. I
+laughed--bitterly. Dazed, bewildered, there was nevertheless for me a
+joy in seeing these living creatures, denizens of the land toward which
+we were directed.
+
+The bears no longer sought our camp, but the seals were conveniently
+scattered along our track. A kindly world had spread our waistbands to
+fairly normal dimensions. The palate began to exercise its
+discriminating force. Ducks and land animals were sought with greater
+eagerness. While in this mood, three white caribou were secured. They
+were beautiful creatures, and as pleasing to the palate as to the eye,
+but owing to the very rough ice it was quite impossible to carry more
+than a few days' supply. Usually we took only the choice parts of the
+game, but every eatable morsel of caribou that we could carry was
+packed on the sledges.
+
+With this wealth of food and fuel we moved along the shores of
+Wellington Channel to Pioneer Bay. We felt that we were steadily on our
+way homeward. There was no premonition of the keen disappointment that
+awaited us, of the inevitable imprisonment for the long Arctic winter
+and the days of starvation that were to come.
+
+[Illustration: PTARMIGAN CHICKS]
+
+
+
+
+OVERLAND TO JONES SOUND
+
+HOURS OF ICY TORTURE--A FRIGID SUMMER STORM IN THE BERG-DRIVEN ARCTIC
+SEA--A PERILOUS DASH THROUGH TWISTING LANES OF OPEN WATER IN A CANVAS
+CANOE--THE DRIVE OF HUNGER.
+
+XXIII
+
+ADRIFT ON AN ICEBERG
+
+
+As we neared Pioneer Bay, along the coast of North Devon, it became
+quite evident that farther advance by sledge was quite impossible. A
+persistent southerly wind had packed the channel with a jam of small
+ice, over which the effort of sledging was a hopeless task. The season
+was too far advanced to offer the advantage of an ice-foot on the shore
+line. There was no open water, nor any game to supply our larder. The
+caribou was mostly used. We began to feel the craving pain of short
+rations.
+
+Although the distance to Lancaster Sound was short, land travel was
+impossible, and, with no food, we could not await the drift of the ice.
+The uncertainty of game was serious, with nothing as a reserve to await
+the dubious coming of a ship. If game should appear, we might remain on
+the ice, accumulating in the meantime a supply of meat for travel by
+canvas boat later.
+
+This boat had been our hope in moving south, but thus far had not been
+of service. Forced to subsist mainly on birds, the ammunition rapidly
+diminished, and something had to be done at once to prevent famine.
+
+We might have returned to the game haunts of Grinnell Peninsula, but it
+seemed more prudent to cross the land to Jones Sound. Here, from
+Sverdrup's experience, we had reason to expect abundant game. By moving
+eastward there would be afforded the alternative of pushing northward if
+we failed to get to the whalers. The temperature now remained steadily
+near the freezing point, and with the first days of July the barometer
+became unsteady.
+
+On the 4th of July we began the climb of the highlands of North Devon,
+winding about Devonian cliffs toward the land of promise beyond. The
+morning was gray, as it had been for several days, but before noon black
+clouds swept the snowy heights and poured icy waters over us. We were
+saturated to the skin, and shivered in the chill of the high altitude.
+Soon afterwards a light breath-taking wind from the northwest froze our
+pasty furs into sheets of ice. Still later, a heavy fall of snow
+compelled us to camp. The snowstorm continued for two days, and held us
+in a snow-buried tent, with little food and no fuel.
+
+Although the storm occasioned a good deal of suffering, it also brought
+some advantages. The land had been imperfectly covered with snow, and we
+had been forced to drive from bank to bank, over bared ground, to find a
+workable course. But now all was well sheeted with crusted snow. Soon
+the gaunt, dun-colored cliffs of North Devon ended the monotony of
+interior snows, and beyond was seen the cheering blue of Jones Sound.
+
+Much open water extended along the north shore to beyond Musk Ox Fiord.
+The southern shores were walled with pack-ice for a hundred miles or
+more. In bright, cold weather we made a descent to Eidsbotn on July 7th.
+Here a diligent search for food failed. Daily the howl of wolves and the
+cry of birds came as a response to our calling stomachs. A scant supply
+of ducks was secured for the men with an expenditure of some of the last
+rifle ammunition, but no walruses, no seals, and no other big game were
+seen. To secure dog food seemed quite hopeless.
+
+We now had the saddest incident of a long run of trouble. Open water ran
+the range of vision, sledges were no longer possible, game was scarce,
+our ammunition was nearly exhausted. Our future fate had to be worked
+out in a canvas boat. What were we to do with the faithful dog
+survivors? In the little boat they could not go with us. We could not
+stay with them and live. We must part. Two had already left us to join
+their wolf progenitors. We gave the others the same liberty. One sledge
+was cut off and put into the canvas boat which we had carried to the
+Pole and back. Our sleeping-bags and old winter clothing were given as
+food to the dogs. All else was snugly packed in waterproof packages as
+well as possible, and placed in the boat. With sad eyes, we left the
+shore. The dogs howled like crying children; we still heard them when
+five miles off shore.
+
+Off Cape Vera there was open water, and beyond, as far eastward as we
+could see, its quivering surface offered a restful prospect. As we
+advanced, however, the weather proved treacherous, and the seas rose
+with sudden and disagreeable thumps.
+
+At times we camped on ice islands in the pack, but the pack-ice soon
+became too insecure, being composed of small pieces, and weakened in
+spots by the sun. Even a moderate gale would tear a pack apart, to be
+broken into smaller fragments by the water. Sometimes we made camp in
+the boat, with a box for a pillow and a piece of bear skin for a cover.
+
+With great anxiety we pulled to reach the land at Cape Sparbo before a
+storm entrapped us. To the north, the water was free of ice as far as
+the shores of Ellesmere Land, forty miles away. To avoid the glare of
+the midday sun, we chose to travel by night, but we were nearing the end
+of the season of Arctic double-days and midnight suns, when the winds
+come suddenly and often.
+
+Soon after midnight the wind from the Pacific came in short puffs, with
+periods of calm so sudden that we looked about each time for something
+to happen. At about the same time there came long swells from the
+northwest. We scented a storm, although at that time there were no other
+signs. The ice was examined for a possible line of retreat to the land,
+but, with pressure ridges, hummocks and breaks, I knew this was
+impossible. It was equally hopeless to camp on such treacherous ice.
+Berg ice had been passed the day before, but this was about as far
+behind as the land was ahead.
+
+So we pulled along desperately, while the swells shortened and rose. The
+atmosphere became thick and steel gray. The cliffs of Ellesmere Land
+faded, while lively clouds tumbled from the highlands to the sea.
+
+We were left no alternative but to seek the shelter of the disrupted
+pack, and press landward as best we could. We had hardly landed on the
+ice, and drawn our boat after us, when the wind struck us with such
+force that we could hardly stand against it. The ice immediately started
+in a westward direction, veering off from the land a little and leaving
+open leads. These leads, we now saw, were the only possible places of
+safety. For, in them, the waters were easy, and the wind was slightly
+shut off by the walls of pressure lines and hummocks. Furthermore, they
+offered slants now and then by which we could approach the land.
+
+The sledge was set under the boat and lashed. All our things were lashed
+to the wooden frame of the canoe to prevent the wind and the sea from
+carrying them away. We crossed several small floes and jumped the lines
+of water separating them, pulling sledge and canoe after us. The
+pressure lines offered severe barriers. To cross them we were compelled
+to separate the canoe from its sledge and remove the baggage. All of
+this required considerable time. A sense of hopelessness filled my
+heart. In the meantime, the wind veered to the east and came with a rush
+that left us helpless. We sought the lee of a hummock, and hoped the
+violence of the storm would soon spend itself, but there were no easy
+spells in this storm, nor did it show signs of early cessation. The ice
+about us moved rapidly westward and slowly seaward.
+
+It was no longer possible to press toward the land, for the leads of
+water were too wide and were lined with small whitecaps, while the
+tossing seas hurled mountains of ice and foaming water over the pack
+edge.
+
+The entire pack was rising and falling under faint swells, and gradually
+wearing to little fragments. The floe on which we stood was strong. I
+knew it would hold out longer than most of the ice about, but it was not
+high enough above water to give us a dry footing as the seas advanced.
+
+From a distance to the windward we noted a low iceberg slowly gaining on
+our floe. It was a welcome sight, for it alone could raise us high
+enough above the soul-despairing rush of the icy water.
+
+Its rich ultramarine blue promised ice of a sufficient strength to
+withstand the battling of the storm. Never were men on a sinking ship
+more anxious to reach a rock than we were to reach this blue stage of
+ice. It offered several little shelves, upon which we could rise out of
+the water upon the ice. We watched with anxious eyes as the berg
+revolved and forced the other ice aside.
+
+It aimed almost directly for us, and would probably cut our floe. We
+prepared for a quick leap upon the deck of our prospective craft.
+
+Bearing down upon us it touched a neighboring piece and pushed us away.
+We quickly pulled to the other pan, and then found, to our dismay, a
+wide band of mushy slush, as impossible to us for a footing as quicksand
+would have been. As the berg passed, however, it left a line of water
+behind it. We quickly threw boat and sledge into this, paddled after the
+berg, and, reaching it, leaped to its security. What a relief to be
+raised above the crumbling pack-ice and to watch from safety the
+thundering of the elements!
+
+The berg which we had boarded was square, with rounded corners. Its
+highest points were about twenty feet above water; the general level was
+about ten feet. The ice was about eighty feet thick, and its width was
+about a hundred feet. These dimensions assured stability, for if the
+thing had turned over, as bergs frequently do, we should be left to seek
+breath among the whales.
+
+It was an old remnant of a much larger berg which had stood the Arctic
+tempest for many years. This we figured out from the hard blue of the
+ice and its many caverns and pinnacles. We were, therefore, on a secure
+mass of crystal which was not likely to suffer severely from a single
+storm. Its upper configuration, however, though beautiful in its
+countless shades of blue, did not offer a comfortable berth. There were
+three pinnacles too slippery and too steep to climb, with a slope
+leading by a gradual incline on each side. Along these the seas had worn
+grooves leading to a central concavity filled with water. The only space
+which we could occupy was the crater-like rim around this lake. At this
+time we had to endure only the seething pitch of the sea and the cutting
+blast of the storm.
+
+The small ice about kept the seas from boarding. To prevent our being
+thrown about on the slippery surface, we cut holes into the pinnacles
+and spread lines about them, to which we clung. The boat was securely
+fastened in a similar way by cutting a makeshift for a ringbolt in the
+floor of ice. Then we pushed from side to side along the lines, to
+encourage our hearts and to force our circulation. Although the
+temperature was only at the freezing point, it was bitterly cold, and we
+were in a bad way to weather a storm.
+
+The sea had drenched us from head to foot. Only our shirts were dry.
+With hands tightly gripped to the line and to crevasses, we received the
+spray of the breaking icy seas while the berg ploughed the scattered
+pack and plunged seaward. The cold, though only at the freezing point,
+pierced our snow-pasted furs and brought shivers worse than that of
+zero's lowest. Thus the hours of physical torture and mental anguish
+passed, while the berg moved towards the gloomy black cliff of Hell
+Gate. Here the eastern sky bleached and the south blued, but the falling
+temperature froze our garments to coats of mail. We were still dressed
+in part of our winter garments.
+
+The coat was of sealskin, with hood attached; the shirt of camel's hair
+blanket, also with a hood; the trousers of bear fur; boots of seal, with
+hair removed, and stockings of hare fur. The mittens were of seal, and
+there were pads of grass for the palms and soles. Our garments, though
+not waterproof, shed water and excluded the winds, but there is a cold
+that comes with wet garments and strong winds that sets the teeth to
+chattering and the skin to quivering.
+
+As all was snug and secure on the berg, we began to take a greater
+interest in our wind and sea-propelled craft. Its exposed surface was
+swept by the winds, while its submarine surface was pushed by tides and
+undercurrents, giving it a complex movement at variance with the
+pack-ice. It ploughed up miles of sea-ice, crushing and throwing it
+aside.
+
+After several hours of this kind of navigation--which was easy for us,
+because the movement of the swell and the breaking of the sea did not
+inflict a hardship--the berg suddenly, without any apparent reason,
+took a course at right angles to the wind, and deliberately pushed out
+of the pack into the seething seas. This rapid shift from comfort to the
+wild agitation of the black waters made us gasp. The seas, with boulders
+of ice, rolled up over our crest and into the concavity of the berg,
+leaving no part safe. Seizing our axes, we cut many other anchor holes
+in the ice, doubly secured our life lines, and shifted with our boat to
+the edge of the berg turned to the wind. The hours of suspense and
+torment thus spent seemed as long as the winters of the Eskimo. The pack
+soon became a mere pearly glow against a dirty sky. We were rushing
+through a seething blackness, made more impressive by the pearl and blue
+of the berg and the white, ice-lined crests.
+
+What could we do to keep the springs of life from snapping in such a
+world of despair? Fortunately, we were kept too busy dodging the
+storm-driven missiles of water and ice to ponder much over our fate.
+Otherwise the mind could not have stood the infernal strain.
+
+Our bronze skins were adapted to cold and winds, but the torture of the
+cold, drenching water was new. For five months we had been battered by
+winds and cut by frosts, but water was secured only by melting ice with
+precious fuel which we had carried thousands of miles. If we could get
+enough of the costly liquid to wash our cold meals down, we had been
+satisfied. The luxury of a face wash or a bath, except by the
+wind-driven snows, was never indulged in. Now, in stress of danger, we
+were getting it from every direction. The torments of frost about the
+Pole were nothing compared to this boiling blackness.
+
+Twenty-four hours elapsed before there was any change. Such calls of
+nature as hunger or thirst or sleep were left unanswered. We maintained
+a terrific struggle to keep from being washed into the sea. At last the
+east paled, the south became blue, and the land on both sides rose in
+sight. The wind came steadily, but reduced in force, with a frosty edge
+that hardened our garments to sheets of ice.
+
+We were not far from the twin channels, Cardigan Strait and Hell Gate,
+where the waters of the Pacific and Atlantic meet. We were driving for
+Cardigan Strait, past the fiords into which we had descended from the
+western seas two weeks before. We had, therefore, lost an advance of two
+weeks in one day, and we had probably lost our race with time to reach
+the life-saving haunts of the Eskimo.
+
+Still, this line of thought was foreign to us. Not far away were bold
+cliffs from which birds descended to the rushing waters. At the sight my
+heart rose. Here we saw the satisfying prospect of an easy breakfast if
+only the waves would cease to fold in white crests. Long trains of heavy
+ice were rushing with railroad speed out of the straits. As we watched,
+the temperature continued to fall. Soon the north blackened with
+swirling curls of smoke. The wind came with the sound of exploding guns
+from Hell Gate. What, I asked myself, was to be our fate now?
+
+We took a southwest course. Freezing seas washed over the berg and froze
+our numbed feet to the ice, upon which a footing otherwise would have
+been very difficult. Adrift in a vast, ice-driven, storm-thundering
+ocean, I stood silent, paralyzed with terror. After a few hours,
+sentinel floes of the pack slowly shoved toward us, and unresistingly,
+we were ushered into the harboring influence of the heavy Polar ice.
+
+The berg lost its erratic movement, and soon settled in a fixed
+position. The wind continued to tear along in a mad rage, but we found
+shelter in our canoe, dozing away for a few moments while one paced the
+ice as a sentinel. Slowly a lane of quiet water appeared among the
+floes. We heard a strangely familiar sound which set our hearts
+throbbing. The walrus and the seal, one by one, came up to the surface
+to blow. Here, right before us, was big game, with plenty of meat and
+fat. We were starving, but we gazed almost helplessly on plenty, for its
+capture was difficult for us.
+
+We had only a few cartridges and four cans of pemmican in our baggage.
+These were reserved for use to satisfy the last pangs of famine. That
+time had not yet arrived. Made desperate by hunger, after a brief rest
+we began to seek food. Birds flying from the land became our game at
+this time. We could secure these with the slingshot made by the Eskimos,
+and later, by entangling loops in lines, and in various other ways which
+hunger taught us.
+
+A gull lighted on a pinnacle of our berg. Quietly but quickly we placed
+a bait and set a looped line. We watched with bated breath. The bird
+peered about, espied the luring bait, descended with a flutter of wings,
+pecked the pemmican. There was a snapping sound--the bird was ours.
+Leaping upon it, we rapidly cut it in bits and ravenously devoured it
+raw. Few things I have ever eaten tasted so delicious as this meat,
+which had the flavor of cod-liver oil.
+
+The ice soon jammed in a grinding pack against the land, and the wind
+spent its force in vain. We held our position, and two of us, after
+eating the bird, slept until the sentinel called us. At midnight the
+wind eased and the ice started its usual rebound, seaward and eastward,
+with the tide.
+
+This was our moment for escape. We were about ten miles off the shore of
+Cape Vera. If we could push our canvas canoe through the channels of
+water as they opened, we might reach land. We quickly prepared the boat.
+With trepidation we pushed it into the black, frigid waters. We
+hesitated to leave the sheltering berg which had saved our lives. Still,
+it had served its purpose. To remain might mean our being carried out to
+sea. The ultimate time had come to seek a more secure refuge on _terra
+firma_.
+
+Leaping into the frail, rocking canoe, we pushed along desperately
+through a few long channels to reach a wide, open space of water
+landward. Paddling frantically, we made a twisting course through
+opening lanes of water, ice on both sides of us, visible bergs bearing
+down at times on us, invisible bergs with spear-points of ice beneath
+the water in which our course lay. We sped forward at times with quick
+darts. Suddenly, and to our horror, an invisible piece of ice jagged a
+hole in the port quarter. Water gushed into the frail craft. In a few
+minutes it would be filled; we should sink to an icy death! Fortunately,
+I saw a floe was near, and while the canoe rapidly filled we pushed for
+the floe, reaching it not a moment too soon.
+
+A boot was sacrificed to mend the canoe. Patching the cut, we put again
+into the sea and proceeded.
+
+The middle pack of ice was separated from the land pack, leaving much
+free water. But now a land breeze sprang up and gave us new troubles. We
+could not face the wind and sea, so we took a slant and sought the lee
+of the pans coming from the land.
+
+Our little overloaded canoe weathered the seas very well, and we had
+nothing to gain and everything to lose by turning back. Again we were
+drenched with spray, and the canoe was sheeted with ice above water. The
+sun was passing over Hell Gate. Long blue shadows stretched over the
+pearl-gray sea. By these, without resort to the compass, we knew it was
+about midnight.
+
+As we neared the land-ice, birds became numerous. The waters rose in
+easy swells. Still nearer, we noted that the entire body of land-ice was
+drifting away. A convenient channel opened and gave us a chance to slip
+behind. We pointed for Cape Vera, dashed over the water, and soon, to
+our joy, landed on a ledge of lower rocks. I cannot describe the relief
+I felt in reaching land after the spells of anguish through which we had
+passed. Although these barren rocks offered neither food nor shelter,
+still we were as happy as if a sentence of death had been remitted.
+
+Not far away were pools of ice water. These we sought first, to quench
+our thirst. Then we scattered about, our eyes eagerly scrutinizing the
+land for breakfast. Soon we saw a hare bounding over the rocks. As it
+paused, cocking its ears, one of my boys secured it with a sling-shot.
+It was succulent; we cut it with our knives. Some moss was found among
+the rocks. This was a breakfast for a king. I returned to prepare it.
+With the moss as fuel, we made a fire, put the dripping meat in a pot,
+and, with gloating eyes, watched it simmering. I thrilled with the joy
+of sheer living, with hunger about to be satisfied by cooked food.
+
+Before the hare was ready the boys came along with two eider-ducks,
+which they had secured by looped lines. We therefore had now an advance
+dinner, with a refreshing drink and a stomach full, and solid rocks to
+place our heads upon for a long sleep. These solid rocks were more
+delightful and secure than pillows of down. The world had indeed a new
+aspect for us. In reality, however, our ultimate prospect of escape from
+famine was darker than ever.
+
+[Illustration: ARCTIC HARE]
+
+
+
+
+UNDER THE WHIP OF FAMINE
+
+BY BOAT AND SLEDGE, OVER THE DRIFTING ICE AND STORMY SEAS OF JONES
+SOUND--FROM ROCK TO ROCK IN QUEST OF FOOD--MAKING NEW WEAPONS
+
+XXIV
+
+IMPRISONED BY THE HAND OF FROST
+
+
+No time was lost in our onward course. Endeavoring at once to regain the
+distance lost by the drifting berg, we sought a way along the shores.
+Here, over ice with pools of water and slush, we dragged our sledge with
+the canvas boat ever ready to launch. Frequent spaces of water
+necessitated constant ferrying. We found, however, that most open places
+could be crossed with sledge attached to the boat. This saved much time.
+
+We advanced from ten to fifteen miles daily, pitching the tent on land
+or sleeping in the boat in pools of ice water, as the conditions
+warranted. The land rose with vertical cliffs two thousand feet high,
+and offered no life except a few gulls and guillemots. By gathering
+these as we went along, a scant hand-to-mouth subsistence daily was
+obtained.
+
+Early in August we reached the end of the land-pack, about twenty-five
+miles east of Cape Sparbo. Beyond was a water sky, and to the north the
+sea was entirely free of ice. The weather was clear, and our ambitions
+for the freedom of the deep rose again.
+
+At the end of the last day of sledge travel, a camp was made on a small
+island. Here we saw the first signs of Eskimo habitation. Old tent
+circles, also stone and fox traps in abundance, indicated an ancient
+village of considerable size. On the mainland we discovered abundant
+grass and moss, with signs of musk ox, ptarmigan, and hare, but no
+living thing was detected. After a careful search, the sledge was taken
+apart to serve as a floor for the boat. All our things were snugly
+packed. For breakfast, we had but one gull, which was divided without
+the tedious process of cooking.
+
+As we were packing the things onto the edge of the ice, we espied an
+oogzuk seal. Here was a creature which could satisfy for a while our
+many needs. Upon it one of our last cartridges was expended. The seal
+fell. The huge carcass was dragged ashore. All of its skin was jealously
+taken. For this would make harpoon lines which would enable the shaping
+of Eskimo implements, to take the place of the rifles, which, with
+ammunition exhausted, would be useless. Our boots could also be patched
+with bits of the skin, and new soles could be made. Of the immense
+amount of oogzuk meat and blubber we were able to take only a small
+part; for, with three men and our baggage and sledge in the little
+canvas boat, it was already overloaded.
+
+The meat was cached, so that if ultimate want forced our retreat we
+might here prolong our existence a few weeks longer. There was little
+wind, and the night was beautifully clear. The sun at night was very
+close to the horizon, but the sparkle of the shimmering waters gave our
+dreary lives a bright side. On the great unpolished rocks of the point
+east of Cape Sparbo a suitable camping spot was found, a prolonged feed
+of seal was indulged in, and with a warm sun and full stomachs, the tent
+was unnecessary. Under one of the rocks we found shelter, and slept with
+savage delight for nine hours.
+
+Another search of the accessible land offered no game except ducks and
+gulls far from shore. Here the tides and currents were very strong, so
+our start had to be timed with the outgoing tide.
+
+Starting late one afternoon, we advanced rapidly beyond Cape Sparbo, in
+a sea with an uncomfortable swell. But beyond the Cape, the land-ice
+still offered an edge for a long distance. In making a cut across a
+small bay to reach ice, a walrus suddenly came up behind the canoe and
+drove a tusk through the canvas. E-tuk-i-shook quickly covered the cut,
+while we pulled with full force for a pan of drift-ice only a few yards
+away. The boat, with its load, was quickly jerked on the ice. Already
+there were three inches of water in the floor. A chilly disaster was
+narrowly averted. Part of a boot was sacrificed to mend the boat.
+
+While at work with the needle, a strong tidal current carried us out to
+sea. An increasing wind brought breaking waves over the edge of the ice.
+The wind fortunately gave a landward push to the ice. A sledge-cover,
+used as a sail, retarded our seaward drift. The leak securely patched,
+we pushed off for the land ice. With our eyes strained for breaking
+seas, the boat was paddled along with considerable anxiety. Much water
+was shipped in these dashes; constant bailing was necessary. Pulling
+continuously along the ice for eight miles, and when the leads closed at
+times, jumping on cakes and pulling the boat after us, we were finally
+forced to seek a shelter on the ice-field.
+
+With a strong wind and a wet fall of snow, the ice-camp was far from
+comfortable. As the tide changed, the wind came from the west with a
+heavy, choppy sea. Further advance was impossible. Sleeping but a few
+minutes at a time, and then rising to note coming dangers, as does the
+seal, I perceived, to my growing dismay, a separation between the land
+and the sea ice. We were going rapidly adrift, with only interrupted
+spots of sea-ice on the horizon!
+
+There were a good many reefs about, which quickly broke the ice, and new
+leads formed on every side. The boat was pushed landward. We pulled the
+boat on the ice when the leads closed, lowering it again as the cracks
+opened. By carrying the boat and its load from crack to crack, we at
+last reached the land waters, in which we were able to advance about
+five miles further, camping on the gravel of the first river which we
+had seen. Here we were storm-bound for two days.
+
+There were several pools near by. Within a short distance from these
+were many ducks. With the slingshot a few of these were secured. In the
+midst of our trouble, with good appetites, we were feeding up for future
+contests of strength.
+
+With a shore clear of ice, we could afford to take some chance with
+heavy seas, so before the swell subsided, we pushed off. Coming out of
+Braebugten Bay, with its discharging glaciers and many reefs, the water
+dashed against the perpendicular walls of ice, and presented a
+disheartening prospect. These reefs could be passed over only when the
+sea was calm. With but a half-day's run to our credit, we were again
+stopped.
+
+As we neared our objective point, on the fast ice inside of a reef, we
+were greeted with the glad sight of what we supposed to be a herd of
+musk ox. About three miles of the winter ice was still fast to the land.
+Upon this we landed, cleared the canvas boat, and prepared to camp in
+it. I remained to guard our few belongings, while the two Eskimo boys
+rushed over the ice to try to secure the musk ox with the lance. It was
+a critical time in our career, for we were putting to test new methods
+of hunting, which we had partly devised after many hungry days of
+preparation.
+
+I followed the boys with the glasses as they jumped the ice crevasses
+and moved over the mainland with the stealth and ease of hungry wolves.
+It was a beautiful day. The sun was low in the northwest, throwing beams
+of golden light that made the ice a scene of joy. The great cliffs of
+North Devon, fifteen miles away, seemed very near through the clear air.
+Although enjoying the scene, I noted in the shadow of an iceberg a
+suspicious blue spot, which moved in my direction. As it advanced in the
+sunlight it changed from blue to a cream color. Then I made it out to be
+a Polar bear which we had attacked forty-eight hours previous.
+
+The sight aroused a feeling of elation. Gradually, as bruin advanced and
+I began to think of some method of defense, a cold shiver ran up my
+spine. The dog and rifle, with which we had met bears before, were
+absent. To run, and leave our last bit of food and fuel, would have been
+as dangerous as to stay. A Polar bear will always attack a retreating
+creature, while it approaches very cautiously one that holds its
+position. Furthermore, for some reason, the bears always bore a grudge
+against the boat. None ever passed it without testing the material with
+its teeth or giving it a slap with its paw. At this critical stage of
+our adventure the boat was linked more closely to our destiny than the
+clothes we wore. I therefore decided to stay and play the rôle of the
+aggressor, although I had nothing--not even a lance--with which to
+fight.
+
+Then an idea flashed through my mind. I lashed a knife to the steering
+paddle, and placed the boat on a slight elevation of ice, so as to make
+it and myself appear as formidable as possible. Then I gathered about me
+all the bits of wood, pieces of ice, and everything which I could throw
+at the creature before it came to a close contest, reserving the knife
+and the ice-ax as my last resort. When all was ready, I took my position
+beside the boat and displayed a sledge-runner moving rapidly to and fro.
+
+The bear was then about two hundred yards away. It approached stealthily
+behind a line of hummocks, with only its head occasionally visible. As
+it came to within three hundred feet, it rose frequently on its hind
+feet, dropped its forepaws, stretched its neck, and pushed its head up,
+remaining motionless for several seconds. It then appeared huge and
+beautiful.
+
+As it came still nearer, its pace quickened. I began to hurl my
+missiles. Every time the bear was hit, it stopped, turned about, and
+examined the object. But none of them proving palatable, it advanced to
+the opposite side of the boat, and for a moment stood and eyed me. Its
+nose caught the odor of a piece of oogzuk blubber a few feet beyond. I
+raised the sledge-runner and brought it down with desperate force on the
+brute's nose. It grunted, but quickly turned to retreat. I followed
+until it was well on the run.
+
+Every time it turned to review the situation, I made a show of chasing
+it. This always had the desired effect of hastening its departure. It
+moved off, however, only a short distance, and then sat down, sniffed
+the air, and watched my movements. As I turned to observe the boys'
+doings, I saw them only a short distance away, edging upon the bear.
+Their group of musk oxen had proved to be rocks, and they had early
+noted my troubles and were hastening to enter the battle, creeping up
+behind hummocks and pressure ridges. They got to within a few yards of
+the brute, and then delivered their two lances at once, with lines
+attached. The bear dropped, but quickly recovered and ran for the land.
+He died from the wounds, for a month later we found his carcass on land,
+placed near camp.
+
+For two days, with a continuation of bad luck, we advanced slowly.
+Belcher Point was passed at midnight of the 7th of August, just as the
+sun sank under the horizon for the first time. Beyond was a nameless
+bay, in which numerous icebergs were stranded. The bend of the bay was
+walled with great discharging glaciers. A heavy sea pitched our boat
+like a leaf in a gale. But, by seeking the shelter of bergs and passing
+inside of the drift, we managed to push to an island for camp.
+
+With moving glaciers on the land, and the sea storming and thundering,
+sleep was impossible. Icebergs in great numbers followed us into the
+bay, and later the storm-ground sea-ice filled the bay. On August 8,
+following a line of water along shore, we started eastward.
+
+A strong wind on our backs, with quiet waters, sent the little boat
+along at a swift pace. After a run of ten miles, a great quantity of
+ice, coming from the east, filled the bay with small fragments and
+ensnared us.
+
+Now the bay was jammed with a pack as difficult to travel over as
+quicksand. We were hopelessly beset. The land was sought, but it offered
+no shelter, no life, and no place flat enough to lie upon. We expected
+that the ice would break. It did not; instead, new winter ice rapidly
+formed.
+
+The setting sun brought the winter storms and premonitions of a long,
+bitter night. Meanwhile we eked a meagre living by catching occasional
+birds, which we devoured raw.
+
+Toward the end of August we pushed out on the ensnaring pack to a small
+but solid floe. I counted on this to drift somewhere--any place beyond
+the prison bars of the glaciers. Then we might move east or west to seek
+food. Our last meat was used, and we maintained life only by an
+occasional gull or guillemot. This floe drifted to and fro, and slowly
+took us to Belcher Point, where we landed to determine our fate. To the
+east, the entire horizon was lined with ice. Belcher Point was barren of
+game and shelter. Further efforts for Baffin's Bay were hopeless. The
+falling temperature, the rapidly forming young ice, and the setting sun
+showed us that we had already gone too long without finding a winter
+refuge.
+
+Our only possible chance to escape death from famine and frost was to
+go back to Cape Sparbo and compel the walrus that ripped our boat to
+give up his blubber, and then to seek our fortunes in the neighborhood.
+This was the only reachable place that had looked like game country.
+With empty stomachs, and on a heavy sea, we pushed westward to seek our
+fate. The outlook was discouraging.
+
+During all our enforced imprisonment we were never allowed to forget
+that the first duty in life was to provide for the stomach. Our muscles
+rested, but the signals sent over the gastric nerve kept the gray matter
+busy.
+
+We were near to the land where Franklin and his men starved. They had
+ammunition. We had none. A similar fate loomed before us. We had seen
+nothing to promise subsistence for the winter, but this cheerless
+prospect did not interfere with such preparations as we could make for
+the ultimate struggle. In our desperate straits we even planned to
+attack bears, should we find any, without a gun. Life is never so sweet
+as when its days seem numbered.
+
+The complete development of a new art of hunting, with suitable weapons,
+was reserved for the dire needs of later adventures. The problem was
+begun by this time. By an oversight, most of our Eskimo implements had
+been left on the returning sledges from Svartevoeg.
+
+We were thus not only without ammunition, but also without harpoons and
+lances. We fortunately had the material of which these could be made,
+and the boys possessed the savage genius to shape a new set of weapons.
+The slingshot and the looped line, which had served such a useful
+purpose in securing birds, continued to be of prime importance. In the
+sledge was excellent hickory, which was utilized in various ways. Of
+this, bows and arrows could be made. Combined with the slingshot and the
+looped line snares, the combination would make our warfare upon the
+feathered creatures more effective. We counted upon a similar efficiency
+with the same weapons in our hoped-for future attacks upon land animals.
+
+The wood of the sledge was further divided to make shafts for harpoons
+and lances. Realizing that our ultimate return to Greenland, and to
+friends, depended on the life of the sledge, the wood was used
+sparingly. Furthermore, hickory lends itself to great economy. It bends
+and twists, but seldom breaks in such a manner that it cannot be
+repaired. We had not much of this precious fibre, but enough for the
+time to serve our purpose. Along shore we had found musk ox horns and
+fragments of whale bone. Out of these the points of both harpoon and
+lance were made. A part of the sledge shoe was sacrificed to make metal
+points for the weapons. The nails of the cooking-box served as rivets.
+The seal skin, which we had secured a month earlier, was now carefully
+divided and cut into suitable harpoon and lassoo lines. We hoped to use
+this line to capture the bear and the musk ox. Our folding canvas boat
+was somewhat strengthened by the leather from our old boots, and
+additional bracing by the ever useful hickory of the sledge. Ready to
+engage in battle with the smallest and the largest creatures that might
+come within reach, we started west for Cape Sparbo. Death, on our
+journey, never seemed so near.
+
+[Illustration: OBSERVATION DETERMINING THE POLE--PHOTOGRAPH FROM
+ORIGINAL NOTE]
+
+[Illustration: BACK TO LAND AND TO LIFE--AWAKENED BY A WINGED
+HARBINGER]
+
+
+
+
+BEAR FIGHTS AND WALRUS BATTLES
+
+DANGEROUS ADVENTURES IN A CANVAS BOAT--ON THE VERGE OF STARVATION, A
+MASSIVE BRUTE, WEIGHING THREE THOUSAND POUNDS, IS CAPTURED AFTER A
+FIFTEEN-HOUR STRUGGLE--ROBBED OF PRECIOUS FOOD BY HUNGRY BEARS
+
+XXV
+
+GAME HAUNTS DISCOVERED
+
+
+The stormy sea rose with heavy swells. Oceanward, the waves leaped
+against the horizon tumultuously. Pursuing our vain search for food
+along the southern side of Jones Sound, early in September, we had been
+obliged to skirt rocky coves and shelves of land on which we might seek
+shelter should harm come to the fragile craft in which we braved the
+ocean storms and the spears of unseen ice beneath water.
+
+We had shaped crude weapons. We were prepared to attack game. We were
+starving; yet land and sea had been barren of any living thing.
+
+Our situation was desperate. In our course it was often necessary, as
+now, to paddle from the near refuge of low-lying shores, and to pass
+precipitous cliffs and leaping glaciers which stepped threateningly into
+the sea. Along these were no projecting surfaces, and we passed them
+always with bated anxiety. A sudden storm or a mishap at such a time
+would have meant death in the frigid sea. And now, grim and suffering
+with hunger, we clung madly to life.
+
+Passing a glacier which rose hundreds of feet out of the green sea,
+heavy waves rolled furiously from the distant ocean. Huge bergs rose and
+fell against the far-away horizon like Titan ships hurled to
+destruction. The waves dashed against the emerald walls of the smooth
+icy Gibraltar with a thunderous noise. We rose and fell in the frail
+canvas boat, butting the waves, our hearts each time sinking.
+
+Suddenly something white and glittering pierced the bottom of the boat!
+It was the tusk of a walrus, gleaming and dangerous. Before we could
+grasp the situation he had disappeared, and water gushed into our craft.
+It was the first walrus we had seen for several weeks. An impulse, mad
+under the circumstances, rose in our hearts to give him chase. It was
+the instinctive call of the hungering body for food. But each second the
+water rose higher; each minute was imminent with danger. Instinctively
+Ah-we-lah pressed to the floor of the boat and jammed his knee into the
+hole, thus partly shutting off the jetting, leaping inrush. He looked
+mutely to me for orders. The glacier offered no stopping place. Looking
+about with mad eagerness, I saw, seaward, only a few hundred yards away,
+a small pan of drift-ice. With the desire for life in our arms, we
+pushed toward it with all our might. Before the boat was pulled to its
+slippery landing, several inches of water flooded the bottom. Once upon
+it, leaping in the waves, we breathed with panting relief. With a piece
+of boot the hole was patched. Although we should have preferred to wait
+to give the walrus a wide berth, the increasing swell of the stormy sea,
+and a seaward drift forced us away from the dangerous ice cliffs.
+
+Launching the boat into the rough waters, we pulled for land. A triangle
+of four miles had to be made before our fears could be set at rest. A
+school of walrus followed us in the rocking waters for at least half of
+the distance. Finally, upon the crest of a white-capped wave, we were
+lifted to firm land. Drawing the boat after us, we ran out of reach of
+the hungry waves, and sank to the grass, desperate, despairing, utterly
+fatigued, but safe.
+
+Now followed a long run of famine luck. We searched land and sea for a
+bird or a fish. In the boat we skirted a barren coast, sleeping on rocks
+without shelter and quenching our thirst by glacial liquid till the
+stomach collapsed. The indifferent stage of starvation was at hand when
+we pulled into a nameless bay, carried the boat on a grassy bench, and
+packed ourselves in it for a sleep that might be our last.
+
+We were awakened by the glad sound of distant walrus calls. Through the
+glasses, a group was located far off shore, on the middle pack. Our
+hearts began to thump. A stream of blood came with a rush to our heads.
+Our bodies were fired with a life that had been foreign to us for many
+moons. No famished wolf ever responded to a call more rapidly than we
+did. Quickly we dropped the boat into the water with the implements, and
+pushed from the famine shores with teeth set for red meat.
+
+The day was beautiful, and the sun from the west poured a wealth of
+golden light. Only an occasional ripple disturbed the glassy blue
+through which the boat crept. The pack was about five miles northward.
+In our eagerness to reach it, the distance seemed spread to leagues.
+There was not a square of ice for miles about which could have been
+sought for refuge in case of an attack. But this did not disturb us now.
+We were blinded to everything except the dictates of our palates.
+
+As we advanced, our tactics were definitely arranged. The animals were
+on a low pan, which seemed to be loosely run into the main pack. We
+aimed for a little cut of ice open to the leeward, where we hoped to
+land and creep up behind hummocks. The splash of our paddles was lost in
+the noise of the grinding ice and the bellowing of walrus calls.
+
+So excited were the Eskimos that they could hardly pull an oar. It was
+the first shout of the wilderness which we had heard in many months. We
+were lean enough to appreciate its import. The boat finally shot up on
+the ice, and we scattered among the ice blocks for favorable positions.
+Everything was in our favor. We did not for a moment entertain a thought
+of failure, although in reality, with the implements at hand, our
+project was tantamount to attacking an elephant with pocket knives.
+
+We came together behind an unusually high icy spire only a few hundred
+yards from the herd. Ten huge animals were lazily stretched out in the
+warm sun. A few lively babies tormented their sleeping mothers. There
+was a splendid line of hummocks, behind which we could advance under
+cover. With a firm grip on harpoon and line, we started. Suddenly
+E-tuk-i-shook shouted "_Nannook_!" (Bear.)
+
+We halted. Our implements were no match for a bear. But we were too
+hungry to retreat. The bear paid no attention to us. His nose was set
+for something more to his liking. Slowly but deliberately, he crept up
+to the snoring herd while we watched with a mad, envious anger welling
+up within us. Our position was helpless. His long neck reached out, the
+glistening fangs closed, and a young walrus struggled in the air. All of
+the creatures woke, but too late to give battle. With dismay and rage,
+the walruses sank into the water, and the bear slunk off to a safe
+distance, where he sat down to a comfortable meal. We were not of
+sufficient importance to interest either the bear or the disturbed herd
+of giants.
+
+Our limbs were limp when we returned to the boat. The sunny glitter of
+the waters was now darkened by the gloom of danger from enraged animals.
+We crossed to the barren shores in a circuitous route, where pieces of
+ice for refuge were always within reach.
+
+On land, the night was cheerless and cold. We were not in a mood for
+sleep. In a lagoon we discovered moving things. After a little study of
+their vague darts they proved to be fish. A diligent search under stones
+brought out a few handfuls of tiny finny creatures. With gratitude I saw
+that here was an evening meal. Seizing them, we ate the wriggling things
+raw. Cooking was impossible, for we had neither oil nor wood.
+
+On the next day the sun at noon burned with a real fire--not the sham
+light without heat which had kept day and night in perpetual glitter for
+several weeks. Not a breath of air disturbed the blue glitter of the
+sea. Ice was scattered everywhere. The central pack was farther away,
+but on it rested several suspicious black marks. Through the glasses we
+made these out to be groups of walruses. They were evidently sound
+asleep, for we heard no calls. They were also so distributed that there
+was a hunt both for bear and man without interference.
+
+We ventured out with a savage desire sharpened by a taste of raw fish.
+As we advanced, several other groups were noted in the water. They gave
+us much trouble. They did not seem ill-tempered, but dangerously
+inquisitive. Our boat was dark in color and not much larger than the
+body of a full-sized bull. To them, I presume, it resembled a companion
+in distress or asleep. A sight of the boat challenged their curiosity,
+and they neared us with the playful intention of testing with their
+tusks the hardness of the canvas. We had experienced such love taps
+before, however, with but a narrow escape from drowning, and we had no
+desire for further walrus courtship.
+
+Fortunately, we could maintain a speed almost equal to theirs, and we
+also found scattered ice-pans, about which we could linger while their
+curiosity was being satisfied by the splash of an occasional stone.
+
+From an iceberg we studied the various groups of walruses for the one
+best situated for our primitive methods of attack. We also searched for
+meddlesome bears. None was detected. Altogether we counted more than a
+hundred grunting, snorting creatures arranged in black hills along a
+line of low ice. There were no hummocks or pressure lifts, under cover
+of which we might advance to within the short range required for our
+harpoons. All of the walrus-encumbered pans were adrift and
+disconnected from the main pack. Conflicting currents gave each group a
+slightly different motion. We studied this movement for a little while.
+
+We hoped, if possible, to make our attack from the ice. With the
+security of a solid footing, there was no danger and there was a greater
+certainty of success. But the speed of the ice on this day did not
+permit such an advantage. We must risk a water attack. This is not an
+unusual method of the Eskimo, but he follows it with a kayak, a harpoon
+and line fitted with a float and a drag for the end of his line. Our
+equipment was only a makeshift, and could not be handled in the same
+way.
+
+Here was food in massive heaps. We had had no breakfast and no full meal
+for many weeks. Something must be done. The general drift was eastward,
+but the walrus pans drifted slightly faster than the main pack. Along
+the pack were several high points, projecting a considerable distance
+seaward. We took our position in the canvas boat behind one of these
+floating capes, and awaited the drift of the sleeping monsters.
+
+Their movement was slow enough to give us plenty of time to arrange our
+battle tactics. The most vital part of the equipment was the line. If it
+were lost, we could not hope to survive the winter. It could not be
+replaced, and without it we could not hope to cope with the life of the
+sea, or even that of the land. The line was a new, strong sealskin
+rawhide of ample length, which had been reserved for just such an
+emergency. Attached to the harpoon, with the float properly adjusted, it
+is seldom lost, for the float moves and permits no sudden strain.
+
+To safeguard the line, a pan was selected only a few yards in diameter.
+This was arranged to do the duty of a float and a drag. With the knife
+two holes were cut, and into these the line was fastened near its
+center. The harpoon end was taken into the boat, the other end was
+coiled and left in a position where it could be easily picked from the
+boat later. Three important purposes were secured by this
+arrangement--the line was relieved of a sudden strain; if it broke, only
+half would be lost; and the unused end would serve as a binder to other
+ice when the chase neared its end.
+
+Now the harpoon was set to the shaft, and the bow of our little
+twelve-foot boat cleared for action. Peeping over the wall of ice, we
+saw the black-littered pans slowly coming toward us. Our excitement rose
+to a shouting point. But our nerves were under the discipline of famine.
+The pan, it was evident, would go by us at a distance of about fifty
+feet.
+
+The first group of walruses were allowed to pass. They proved to be a
+herd of twenty-one mammoth creatures, and, entirely aside from the
+danger of attack, their unanimous plunge would have raised a sea that
+must have swamped us.
+
+On the next pan were but three spots. At a distance we persuaded
+ourselves that they were small--for we had no ambition for formidable
+attacks. One thousand pounds of meat would have been sufficient for us.
+They proved, however, to be the largest bulls of the lot. As they neared
+the point, the hickory oars of the boat were gripped--and out we shot.
+They all rose to meet us, displaying the glitter of ivory tusks from
+little heads against huge wrinkled necks. They grunted and snorted
+viciously--but the speed of the boat did not slacken. E-tuk-i-shook
+rose. With a savage thrust he sank the harpoon into a yielding neck.
+
+The walruses tumbled over themselves and sank into the water on the
+opposite side of the pan. We pushed upon the vacated floe without
+leaving the boat, taking the risk of ice puncture rather than walrus
+thumps. The short line came up with a snap. The ice pan began to plough
+the sea. It moved landward. What luck! I wondered if the walrus would
+tow us and its own carcass ashore. We longed to encourage the homing
+movement, but we dared not venture out. Other animals had awakened to
+the battle call, and now the sea began to seethe and boil with enraged,
+leaping red-eyed monsters.
+
+The float took a zigzag course in the offing. We watched the movement
+with a good deal of anxiety. Our next meal and our last grip on life
+were at stake. For the time being nothing could be done.
+
+The three animals remained together, two pushing the wounded one along
+and holding it up during breathing spells. In their excitement they
+either lost their bearings or deliberately determined to attack. Now
+three ugly snouts pointed at us. This was greatly to our advantage, for
+on ice we were masters of the situation.
+
+Taking inconspicuous positions, we awaited the assault. The Eskimos had
+lances, I an Alpine axe. The walruses dove and came on like torpedo
+boats, rising almost under our noses, with a noise that made us dodge.
+In a second two lances sank into the harpooned strugglers. The water was
+thrashed. Down again went the three. The lances were jerked back by
+return lines, and in another moment we were ready for another assault
+from the other side. But they dashed on, and pulled the float-floe, on
+which we had been, against the one on which we stood, with a crushing
+blow.
+
+Here was our first chance to secure the unused end of the line, fastened
+on the other floe. Ah-we-lah jumped to the floe and tossed me the line.
+The spiked shaft of the ice-axe was driven in the ice and the line fixed
+to it, so now the two floes were held together. Our stage of action was
+enlarged, and we had the advantage of being towed by the animals we
+fought.
+
+Here was the quiet sport of the fisherman and the savage excitement of
+the battle-field run together in a new chase. The struggle was prolonged
+in successive stages. Time passed swiftly. In six hours, during which
+the sun had swept a quarter of the circle, the twin floes were jerked
+through the water with the rush of a gunboat. The jerking line attached
+to our enraged pilots sent a thrill of life which made our hearts jump.
+The lances were thrown, the line was shortened, a cannonade of ice
+blocks was kept up, but the animal gave no signs of weakening. Seeing
+that we could not inflict dangerous wounds, our tactics were changed to
+a kind of siege, and we aimed not to permit the animal its breathing
+spells.
+
+The line did not begin to slacken until midnight. The battle had been on
+for almost twelve hours. But we did not feel the strain of action, nor
+did our chronic hunger seriously disturb us. Bits of ice quenched our
+thirst and the chill of night kept us from sweating. With each rise of
+the beast for breath now, the line slackened. Gently it was hauled in
+and secured. Then a rain of ice blocks, hurled in rapid succession,
+drove the spouting animals down. Soon the line was short enough to
+deliver the lance in the captured walrus at close range. The wounded
+animal was now less troublesome, but the others tore about under us like
+submarine boats, and at the most unexpected moments would shoot up with
+a wild rush.
+
+We did not attempt to attack them, however. All our attention was
+directed to the end of the line. The lance was driven with every
+opportunity. It seldom missed, but the action was more like spurs to a
+horse, changing an intended attack upon us to a desperate plunge into
+the deep, and depriving the walrus of oxygen.
+
+Finally, after a series of spasmodic encounters which lasted fifteen
+hours, the enraged snout turned blue, the fiery eyes blackened, and
+victory was ours--not as the result of the knife alone, not in a square
+fight of brute force, but by the superior cunning of the human animal
+under the stimulus of hunger.
+
+During all this time we had been drifting. Now, as the battle ended, we
+were not far from a point about three miles south of our camp. Plenty of
+safe pack-ice was near. A primitive pulley was arranged by passing the
+line through slits in the walrus' nose and holes in the ice. The great
+carcass, weighing perhaps three thousand pounds, was drawn onto the ice
+and divided into portable pieces. Before the sun poured its morning
+beams over the ice, all had been securely taken ashore.
+
+With ample blubber, a camp fire was now made between two rocks by using
+moss to serve as a wick. Soon, pot after pot of savory meat was
+voraciously consumed. We ate with a mad, vulgar, insatiable hunger. We
+spoke little. Between gulps, the huge heap of meat and blubber was
+cached under heavy rocks, and secured--so we thought--from bears, wolves
+and foxes.
+
+When eating was no longer possible, sleeping dens were arranged in the
+little boat, and in it, like other gluttonous animals after an
+engorgement, we closed our eyes to a digestive sleep. For the time, at
+least, we had fathomed the depths of gastronomic content, and were at
+ease with ourselves and with a bitter world of inhuman strife.
+
+At the end of about fifteen hours, a stir about our camp suddenly awoke
+us. We saw a huge bear nosing about our fireplace. We had left there a
+walrus joint, weighing about one hundred pounds, for our next meal. We
+jumped up, all of us, at once, shouting and making a pretended rush. The
+bear took up the meat in his forepaws and walked off, man-like, on two
+legs, with a threatening grunt. His movement was slow and cautious, and
+his grip on the meat was secure. Occasionally he veered about, with a
+beckoning turn of the head, and a challenging call. But we did not
+accept the challenge. After moving away about three hundred yards on the
+sea-ice, he calmly sat down and devoured our prospective meal.
+
+With lances, bows, arrows, and stones in hand, we next crossed a low
+hill, beyond which was located our precious cache of meat. Here, to our
+chagrin, we saw two other bears, with heads down and paws busily digging
+about the cache. We were not fitted for a hand-to-hand encounter. Still,
+our lives were equally at stake, whether we attacked or failed to
+attack. Some defense must be made. With a shout and a fiendish rush, we
+attracted the busy brutes' attention. They raised their heads, turned,
+and to our delight and relief, grudgingly walked off seaward on the
+moving ice. Each had a big piece of our meat with him.
+
+Advancing to the cache, we found it absolutely depleted. Many other
+bears had been there. The snow and the sand was trampled down with
+innumerable bear tracks. Our splendid cache of the day previous was
+entirely lost. We could have wept with rage and disappointment. One
+thing we were made to realize, and that was that life here was now to be
+a struggle with the bears for supremacy. With little ammunition, we were
+not at all able to engage in bear fights. So, baffled, and unable to
+resent our robbery, starvation again confronting us, we packed our few
+belongings and moved westward over Braebugten Bay to Cape Sparbo.
+
+[Illustration: A THIEF OF THE NORTH]
+
+
+
+
+BULL FIGHTS WITH THE MUSK OX
+
+AN ANCIENT CAVE EXPLORED FOR SHELTER--DEATH BY STARVATION AVERTED
+BY HAND-TO-HAND ENCOUNTERS WITH WILD ANIMALS
+
+XXVI
+
+TO THE WINTER CAMP AT CAPE SPARBO
+
+
+As we crossed the big bay to the east of Cape Sparbo, our eyes were
+fixed on the two huge Archæn rocks which made remarkable landmarks,
+rising suddenly to an altitude of about eighteen thousand feet. They
+appear like two mountainous islands lifted out of the water. On closer
+approach, however, we found the islands connected with the mainland by
+low grassy plains, forming a peninsula. The grassy lands seemed like
+promising grounds for caribou and musk ox. The off-lying sea, we also
+found, was shallow. In this, I calculated, would be food to attract the
+seal and walrus.
+
+In our slow movement over the land swell of the crystal waters, it did
+not take long to discover that our conjecture was correct.
+
+Pulling up to a great herd of walrus, we prepared for battle. But the
+sea suddenly rose, the wind increased, and we were forced to abandon the
+chase and seek shelter on the nearest land.
+
+We reached Cape Sparbo, on the shores of Jones Sound, early in
+September. Our dogs were gone. Our ammunition, except four cartridges
+which I had secreted for use in a last emergency, was gone. Our
+equipment consisted of a half sledge, a canvas boat, a torn silk tent, a
+few camp kettles, tin plates, knives, and matches. Our clothing was
+splitting to shreds.
+
+Cape Sparbo, with its huge walls of granite, was to the leeward. A
+little bay was noted where we might gain the rocks in quiet water. Above
+the rocks was a small green patch where we hoped to find a soft resting
+place for the boat, so that we might place our furs in it and secure
+shelter from the bitter wind.
+
+When we landed we found to our surprise that it was the site of an old
+Eskimo village. There was a line of old igloos partly below water,
+indicating a very ancient time of settlement, for since the departure of
+the builders of these igloos the coast must have settled at least
+fifteen feet. Above were a few other ruins.
+
+Shortly after arriving we sought an auspicious place, protected from the
+wind and cold, where later we might build a winter shelter. Our search
+disclosed a cave-like hole, part of which was dug from the earth, and
+over which, with stones and bones, had been constructed a roof which now
+was fallen in.
+
+The long winter was approaching. We were over three hundred miles from
+Annoatok, and the coming of the long night made it necessary for us to
+halt here. We must have food and clothing. We now came upon musk oxen
+and tried to fell them with boulders, and bows and arrows made of the
+hickory of our sledge. Day after day the pursuit was vainly followed.
+Had it not been for occasional ducks caught with looped lines and sling
+shots, we should have been absolutely without any food.
+
+By the middle of September, snow and frost came with such frequency that
+we omitted hunting for a day to dig out the ruins in the cave and cut
+sod before permanent frost made such work impossible. Bone implements
+were shaped from skeletons found on shore for the digging. Blown drifts
+of sand and gravel, with some moss and grass, were slowly removed from
+the pit. We found under this, to our great joy, just the underground
+arrangement which we desired; a raised platform, about six feet long and
+eight feet wide with suitable wings for the lamp, and footspace, lay
+ready for us. The pit had evidently been designed for a small family.
+The walls, which were about two feet high, required little alteration.
+Another foot was added, which leveled the structure with the ground. A
+good deal of sod was cut and allowed to dry in the sun for use as a
+roof.
+
+While engaged in taking out the stones and cleaning the dungeon-like
+excavation, I suddenly experienced a heart-depressing chill when,
+lifting some debris, I saw staring at me from the black earth a
+hollow-eyed human skull. The message of death which the weird thing
+leeringly conveyed was singularly unpleasant; the omen was not good. Yet
+the fact that at this forsaken spot human hands had once built shelter,
+or for this thing had constructed a grave, gave me a certain
+companionable thrill.
+
+On the shore not far away we secured additional whale ribs and with
+these made a framework for a roof. This was later constructed of moss
+and blocks of sod. We built a rock wall about the shelter to protect
+ourselves from storms and bears. Then our winter home was ready. Food
+was now an immediate necessity. Game was found around us in abundance.
+Most of it was large. On land there were bear and musk ox, in the sea
+the walrus and the whale. But what could we do without either dogs or
+rifles?
+
+The first weapon that we now devised was the bow and arrow, for with
+this we could at least secure some small game. We had in our sledge
+available hickory wood of the best quality, than which no wood could be
+better; we had sinews and seal lashings for strings, but there was no
+metal for tips. We tried bone, horn and ivory, but all proved
+ineffective.
+
+One day, however, E-tuk-i-shook examined his pocket knife and suggested
+taking the side blades for arrow tips. This was done, and the blade with
+its spring was set in a bone handle. Two arrows were thus tipped. The
+weapons complete, the Eskimo boys went out on the chase. They returned
+in the course of a few hours with a hare and an eider-duck. Joy reigned
+in camp as we divided the meat and disposed of it without the process of
+cooking.
+
+A day later, two musk oxen were seen grazing along the moraine of a
+wasting glacier. Now the musk ox is a peace-loving animal and avoids
+strife, but when forced into fight it is one of the most desperate and
+dangerous of all the fighters of the wilderness. It can and does give
+the most fatal thrust of all the horned animals. No Spanish bull of the
+pampas, no buffalo of the plains, has either the slant of horn or the
+intelligence to gore its enemies as has this inoffensive-looking bull of
+the ice world. The intelligence, indeed, is an important factor, for
+after watching musk oxen for a time under varied conditions, one comes
+to admire their almost human intellect as well as their superhuman power
+of delivering self-made force.
+
+Our only means of attack was with the bow and arrow. The boys crept up
+behind rocks until within a few yards of the unsuspecting creatures.
+They bent the bows, and the arrows sped with the force and accuracy as
+only a hungry savage can master. But the beasts' pelts were too strong.
+The musk oxen jumped and faced their assailants. Each arrow, as it came,
+was broken into splints by the feet and the teeth.
+
+When the arrows were all used a still more primitive weapon was tried,
+for the sling shot was brought into use, with large stones. These
+missiles the musk oxen took good naturedly, merely advancing a few steps
+to a granite boulder, upon which they sharpened their horn points and
+awaited further developments. No serious injury had been inflicted and
+they made no effort to escape.
+
+Then came a change. When we started to give up the chase they turned
+upon us with a fierce rush. Fortunately, many big boulders were about,
+and we dodged around these with large stones in hand to deliver at close
+range. In a wild rush a musk ox cannot easily turn, and so can readily
+be dodged. Among the rocks two legs were better than four. The trick of
+evading the musk ox I had learned from the dogs. It saved our lives.
+
+After a while the animals wearied, and we beat a hasty retreat, with new
+lessons in our book of hunting adventures. The bow and arrow was
+evidently not the weapon with which to secure musk oxen.
+
+The musk ox of Jones Sound, unlike his brother farther north, is every
+ready for battle. He is often compelled to meet the bear and the wolf in
+vicious contests, and his tactics are as thoroughly developed as his
+emergencies require. Seldom does he fall the victim of his enemies. We
+were a long time in learning completely his methods of warfare, and if,
+in the meantime, we had not secured other game our fate would have been
+unfortunate.
+
+Harpoons and lances were next finally completed, and with them we
+hastened to retrieve our honor in the "ah-ming-ma" chase. For, after
+all, the musk ox alone could supply our wants. Winter storms were coming
+fast. We were not only without food and fuel, but without clothing. In
+our desperate effort to get out of the regions of famine to the
+Atlantic, we had left behind all our winter furs, including the sleeping
+bags; and our summer garments were worn out. We required the fuel and
+the sinew, the fat and the horn.
+
+One day we saw a herd of twenty-one musk oxen quietly grazing on a misty
+meadow, like cattle on the western plains. It was a beautiful sight to
+watch them, divided as they were into families and in small groups. The
+males were in fur slightly brown, while the females and the young ones
+were arrayed in magnificent black pelts.
+
+To get any of them seemed hopeless, but our appalling necessities forced
+us onward. There were no boulders near, but each of us gathered an
+armful of stones, the object being to make a sudden bombardment and
+compel them to retreat in disorder and scatter among the rocks.
+
+We approached under cover of a small grassy hummock. When we were
+detected, a bull gave a loud snort and rushed toward his nearest
+companions, whereupon the entire herd gathered into a circle, with the
+young in the center.
+
+We made our sham rush and hurled the stones. The oxen remained almost
+motionless, with their heads down, giving little snorts and stamping a
+little when hit, but quickly resuming their immobile position of
+watchfulness. After our stones were exhausted, the animals began to
+shift positions slightly. We interpreted this as a move for action. So
+we gave up the effort and withdrew.
+
+The days were long and the nights still light enough to continue
+operations as long as we could keep our eyes open. The whip of hunger
+made rest impossible. So we determined to seek a less formidable group
+of oxen in a position more favorable. The search was continued until the
+sinking glimmer of the sun in the north marked the time of midnight--for
+with us at that time the compass was the timepiece.
+
+When E-tuk-i-shook secured a hare with the bow and arrow, we ascended a
+rocky eminence and sat down to appease the calling stomach without a
+camp fire. From here we detected a family of four musk oxen asleep not
+far from another group of rocks.
+
+This was a call to battle. We were not long in planning our tactics. The
+wind was in our favor, permitting an attack from the side opposite the
+rocks to which we aimed to force a retreat. We also found small stones
+in abundance, these being now a necessary part of our armament. Our
+first effort was based on the supposition of their remaining asleep.
+They were simply chewing their cud, however, and rose to form a ring of
+defence as we advanced. We stormed them with stones and they took to the
+shelter of the rocks. We continued to advance slowly upon them, throwing
+stones occasionally to obviate a possible assault from them before we
+could also seek the shelter of the rocks.
+
+Besides the bow and arrow and the stones, we now had lances and these we
+threw as they rushed to attack us. Two lances were crushed to small
+fragments before they could be withdrawn by the light line attached.
+They inflicted wounds, but not severe ones.
+
+Noting the immense strength of the animals, we at first thought it
+imprudent to risk the harpoon with its precious line, for if we lost it
+we could not replace it. But the destruction of the two lances left us
+no alternative.
+
+Ah-we-lah threw the harpoon. It hit a rib, glanced to a rock, and was
+also destroyed. Fortunately we had a duplicate point, which was quickly
+fastened. Then we moved about to encourage another onslaught.
+
+Two came at once, an old bull and a young one. E-tuk-i-shook threw the
+harpoon at the young one, and it entered. The line had previously been
+fastened to a rock, and the animal ran back to its associates,
+apparently not severely hurt, leaving the line slack. One of the others
+immediately attacked the line with horns, hoofs and teeth, but did not
+succeed in breaking it.
+
+Our problem now was to get rid of the other three while we dealt with
+the one at the end of the line. Our only resource was a sudden fusilade
+of stones. This proved effective. The three scattered and ascended the
+boulder-strewn foreland of a cliff, where the oldest bull remained to
+watch our movements. The young bull made violent efforts to escape but
+the line of sealskin was strong and elastic. A lucky throw of a lance at
+close range ended the strife. Then we advanced on the old bull, who was
+alone in a good position for us.
+
+We gathered stones and advanced, throwing them at the creature's body.
+This, we found, did not enrage him, but it prevented his making an
+attack. As we gained ground he gradually backed up to the edge of the
+cliff, snorting viciously but making no effort whatever either to escape
+along a lateral bench or to attack. His big brown eyes were upon us; his
+sharp horns were pointed at us. He evidently was planning a desperate
+lunge and was backing to gain time and room, but each of us kept within
+a few yards of a good-sized rock.
+
+Suddenly we made a combined rush into the open, hurling stones, and
+keeping a long rock in a line for retreat. Our storming of stones had
+the desired effect. The bull, annoyed and losing its presence of mind,
+stepped impatiently one step too far backwards and fell suddenly over
+the cliff, landing on a rocky ledge below. Looking over we saw he had
+broken a fore leg. The cliff was not more than fifteen feet high. From
+it the lance was used to put the poor creature out of suffering. We were
+rich now and could afford to spread out our stomachs, contracted by long
+spells of famine. The bull dressed about three hundred pounds of meat
+and one hundred pounds of tallow.
+
+We took the tallow and as much meat as we could carry on our backs, and
+started for the position of our prospective winter camp, ten miles away.
+The meat left was carefully covered with heavy stones to protect it
+from bears, wolves and foxes. On the following day we returned with the
+canvas boat, making a landing about four miles from the battlefield. As
+we neared the caches we found to our dismay numerous bear and fox
+tracks. The bears had opened the caches and removed our hard-earned
+game, while the foxes and the ravens had cleared up the very fragments
+and destroyed even the skins. Here was cause for vengeance on the bear
+and the fox. The fox paid his skin later, but the bear out-generaled us
+in nearly every maneuvre.
+
+We came prepared to continue the chase but had abandoned the use of the
+harpoon. Our main hope for fuel was the blubber of the walrus, and if
+the harpoon should be destroyed or lost we could not hope to attack so
+powerful a brute as a walrus with any other device. In landing we had
+seen a small herd of musk oxen at some distance to the east, but they
+got our wind and vanished. We decided to follow them up. One day we
+found them among a series of rolling hills, where the receding glaciers
+had left many erratic boulders. They lined up in their ring of defence
+as usual when we were detected. There were seven of them; all large
+creatures with huge horns. A bitter wind was blowing, driving some snow,
+which made our task more difficult.
+
+The opening of the fight with stones was now a regular feature which we
+never abandoned in our later development of the art, but the manner in
+which we delivered the stones depended upon the effect which we wished
+to produce. If we wished the musk oxen to retreat, we would make a
+combined rush, hurling the stones at the herd. If we wished them to
+remain in position and discourage their attack, we advanced slowly and
+threw stones desultorily, more or less at random. If we wanted to
+encourage attacks, one man advanced and delivered a large rock as best
+he could at the head. This was cheap ammunition and it was very
+effective.
+
+In this case the game was in a good position for us and we advanced
+accordingly. They allowed us to take positions within about fifteen
+feet, but no nearer. The lances were repeatedly tried without effect,
+and after a while two of these were again broken.
+
+Having tried bow and arrow, stones, the lance and the harpoon, we now
+tried another weapon. We threw the lasso--but not successfully, owing to
+the bushy hair about the head and the roundness of the hump of the neck.
+Then we tried to entangle their feet with slip loops just as we trapped
+gulls. This also failed. We next extended the loop idea to the horns.
+The bull's habit of rushing at things hurled at him caused us to think
+of this plan.
+
+A large slip loop was now made in the center of the line, and the two
+natives took up positions on opposite sides of the animal. They threw
+the rope, with its loop, on the ground in front of the creature, while I
+encouraged an attack from the front. As the head was slightly elevated
+the loop was raised, and the bull put his horns in it, one after the
+other. The rope was now rapidly fastened to stones and the bull
+tightened the loop by his efforts to advance or retreat. With every
+opportunity the slack was taken up, until no play was allowed the
+animal. During this struggle all the other oxen retreated except one
+female, and she was inoffensive. A few stones at close range drove her
+off. Then we had the bull where we could reach him with the lance at
+arm's length, and plunge it into his vitals. He soon fell over, the
+first victim to our new art of musk ox capture.
+
+The others did not run very far away. Indeed, they were too fat to run,
+and two more were soon secured in the same way. This time we took all
+the meat we could with us to camp and left a man on guard. When all was
+removed to the bay we found the load too heavy for our boat, so, in two
+loads, we transported the meat and fat and skins to our camp, where we
+built caches which we believed impregnable to the bear, although the
+thieving creatures actually opened them later.
+
+Our lances repaired, we started out for another adventure a few days
+later. It was a beautiful day. Our methods of attack were not efficient,
+but we wished to avoid the risk of the last plunge of the lance, for our
+lives were in the balance every time if the line should break, and with
+every lunge of the animal we expected it to snap. In such case, we knew,
+the assailant would surely be gored.
+
+We were sufficiently independent now to proceed more cautiously. With
+the bull's willingness to put his head into the loop, I asked myself
+whether the line loop could not be slipped beyond the horns and about
+the neck, thus shutting off the air. So the line was lengthened with
+this effort in view.
+
+Of the many groups of oxen which we saw we picked those in the positions
+most to our advantage, although rather distant. Our new plan was tried
+with success on a female. A bull horned her vigorously when she gasped
+for breath, and which aided our efforts. A storming of stones scattered
+the others of the group, and we were left to deal with our catch with
+the knife.
+
+Our art of musk ox fighting was now completely developed. In the course
+of a few weeks we secured enough to assure comfort and ease during the
+long night. By our own efforts we were lifted suddenly from famine to
+luxury. But it had been the stomach with its chronic emptiness which had
+lashed the mind and body to desperate efforts with sufficient courage to
+face the danger. Hunger, as I have found, is more potent as a stimulant
+than barrels of whiskey. Beginning with the bow and arrow we had tried
+everything which we could devise, but now our most important acquisition
+was our intimate knowledge of the animal's own means of offense and
+defense.
+
+We knew by a kind of instinct when an attack upon us was about to be
+made, because the animal made a forward move, and we never failed in our
+efforts to force a retreat. The rocks which the animals sought for an
+easy defense were equally useful to us, and later we forced them into
+deep waters and also deep snow with similar success. By the use of
+stones and utilizing the creatures' own tactics we placed them where we
+wished. And then again, by the animal's own efforts, we forced it to
+strangle itself, which, after all, was the most humane method of
+slaughter. Three human lives were thus saved by the invention of a new
+art of chase. This gave us courage to attack those more vicious but less
+dangerous animals, the bear and walrus.
+
+The musk ox now supplied many wants in our "Robinson Crusoe" life. From
+the bone we made harpoon points, arrow pieces, knife handles, fox traps
+and sledge repairs. The skin, with its remarkable fur, made our bed and
+roofed our igloo. Of it we made all kinds of garments, but its greatest
+use was for coats with hoods, stockings and mittens. From the skin, with
+the fur removed, we made boots, patched punctures in our boat, and cut
+lashings. The hair and wool which were removed from the skins made pads
+for our palms in the mittens and cushions for the soles of our feet in
+lieu of the grass formerly used.
+
+The meat became our staple food for seven months without change. It was
+a delicious product. It has a flavor slightly sweet, like that of
+horseflesh, but still distinctly pleasing. It possesses an odor unlike
+musk but equally unlike anything that I know of. The live creatures
+exhale the scent of domestic cattle. Just why this odd creature is
+called "musk" ox is a mystery, for it is neither an ox, nor does it
+smell of musk. The Eskimo name of "ah-ming-ma" would fit it much better.
+The bones were used as fuel for outside fires, and the fat as both fuel
+and food.
+
+At first our wealth of food came with surprise and delight to us, for,
+in the absence of sweet or starchy foods, man craves fat. Sugar and
+starch are most readily converted into fat by the animal laboratory, and
+fat is one of the prime factors in the development and maintenance of
+the human system. It is the confectionery of aboriginal man, and we had
+taken up the lot of the most primitive aborigines, living and thriving
+solely on the product of the chase without a morsel of civilized or
+vegetable food. Under these circumstances we especially delighted in the
+musk ox tallow, and more especially in the marrow, which we sucked from
+the bone with the eagerness with which a child jubilantly manages a
+stick of candy.
+
+[Illustration: ARCTIC WOLF]
+
+
+
+
+WITH A NEW ART OF CHASE IN A NEW WORLD OF LIFE
+
+THREE WEEKS BEFORE THE SUNSET OF 1908--REVELLING IN AN EDEN OF
+GAME--PECULIARITIES OF ANIMALS OF THE ARCTIC--HOW NATURE DICTATES
+ANIMAL COLOR--THE QUEST OF SMALL LIFE
+
+XXVII
+
+COMING OF THE SECOND WINTER
+
+
+In two months, from the first of September to the end of October, we
+passed from a period of hunger, thirst and abject misery into the realm
+of abundant game. The spell for inactivity had not yet come. Up to this
+time we were too busy with the serious business of life to realize
+thoroughly that we had really discovered a new natural wonderland. The
+luck of Robinson Crusoe was not more fortunate than ours, although he
+had not the cut of frost nor the long night, nor the torment of bears to
+circumscribe his adventures. In successive stages of battle our eyes had
+opened to a new world of life.
+
+In searching every nook and cranny of land we had acquired new arts of
+life and a new perspective of nature's wonders. We slept in caves in
+storm; in the lee of icebergs in strong winds and on the mossy cushions
+of earth concavities. Here we learned to study and appreciate primal
+factors of both animal and plant life.
+
+In the Arctic, nature tries to cover its nakedness in places where the
+cruel winds do not cut its contour. The effort is interesting, not only
+because of the charm of the verdant dress, but because of the evidence
+of a motherly protection to the little life cells which struggle against
+awful odds to weave that fabric wherever a terrestrial dimple is exposed
+to the kisses of the southern sun. In these depressions, sheltered from
+the blasts of storms, a kindly hand spreads a beautiful mantle of
+colorful grass, moss, lichens and flowery plants.
+
+Here the lemming digs his home under the velvet cover, where he may
+enjoy the roots and material protection from the abysmal frost of the
+long night. Here in the protected folds of Mother Earth, blanketed by
+the warm white robe of winter, he sleeps the peace of death while the
+warring elements blast in fury outside.
+
+Here the Arctic hare plays with its bunnies during summer, and as the
+winter comes the young grow to full maturity and dress in a silky down
+of white. Under the snow they burrow, making long tunnels, still eating
+and sleeping on their loved cushions of frozen plants, far under the
+snow-skirts of Mother Earth, while the life-stilling blasts without
+expend their wintry force.
+
+Here the ptarmigan scratches for its food. The musk ox and the caribou
+browse, while the raven, with a kind word for all, collects food for its
+palate. The bear and the wolf occasionally visit to collect tribute,
+while the falcon and the fox with one eye open are ever on the alert for
+the exercise of their craft.
+
+In these little smiling indentations of nature, when the sun begins to
+caress the gentle slopes, while the snow melts and flows in leaping
+streams--the sea still locked by the iron grip of the winter
+embrace--the Arctic incubator works overtime to start the little ones of
+the snow wilds. Thus in these dimples of nature rocks the cradle of
+boreal life.
+
+Relieved of the all-absorbing care of providing food, I now was often
+held spellbound as I wandered over these spots of nature's wonders.
+Phases of life which never interested me before now riveted my
+attention. Wandering from the softly cushioned gullies, the harsh ridge
+life next came under my eyes. While the valleys and the gullies become
+garden spots of summer glory, the very protection from winds which makes
+this life possible buries the vegetable luxuriousness in winter under
+unfathomable depths of snow. The musk ox and the caribou, dependent upon
+this plant life for food, therefore become deprived of the usual means
+of subsistence. But Mother Nature does not desert her children. The same
+winds which compel man and feebler animals to seek shelter from its
+death-dealing assault, afford food to the better fitted musk ox and
+caribou. In summer, plants, like animals, climb to ridges, hummocks and
+mountain slopes, to get air and light and warm sunbeams. But the battle
+here is hard, and only very strong plants survive the force of wind and
+frosts.
+
+The plant fibre here become tenacious; with a body gnarled and knotty
+from long conflict the roots dig yards deep into the soil. This leaves
+the breathing part of the plant dwarfed to a few inches. Here the
+winter winds sweep off the snow and offer food to the musk ox and
+caribou. Thus the wind, which destroys, also gives means of life. The
+equalizing balance of nature is truly wonderful.
+
+In small, circumscribed areas we thus found ourselves in a new Eden of
+primeval life.
+
+The topography of North Devon, however, placed a sharp limit to the
+animated wilderness. Only a narrow strip of coast about Cape Sparbo,
+extending about twenty-five miles to the east and about forty miles to
+the west, presented any signs of land life. All other parts of the south
+shore of Jones Sound are more barren than the shores of the Polar sea.
+
+Although our larder was now well stocked with meat for food and blubber
+for fuel, we were still in need of furs and skins to prepare a new
+equipment with which to return to the Greenland shores. The animals
+whose pelts we required were abundant everywhere. But they were too
+active to be caught by the art and the weapons evolved earlier in the
+chase of the walrus, bear and musk ox.
+
+A series of efforts, therefore, was directed to the fox, the hare, the
+ptarmigan and the seal. It was necessary to devise special methods and
+means of capture for each family of animals. The hare was perhaps the
+most important, not only because its delicately flavored meat furnished
+a pleasing change from the steady diet of musk ox, but also because its
+skin is not equalled by any other for stockings. In our quest of the
+musk ox we had startled little groups of creatures from many centers.
+Their winter fur was not prime until after the middle of October. Taking
+notes of their haunts and their habits, we had, therefore, reserved the
+hare hunt until the days just before sunset.
+
+[Illustration: E-TUK-I-SHOOK WAITING FOR A SEAL AT A BLOW-HOLE]
+
+[Illustration: TOWARD CAPE SPARBO IN A CANVAS BOAT WALRUS--PRIZE OF A
+FIFTEEN HOUR BATTLE--4,000 POUNDS OF MEAT AND FAT]
+
+We had learned to admire this little aristocrat. It is the most
+beautiful, most delicate of northern creatures. Early in the summer we
+had found it grazing in the green meadows along the base of bird cliffs.
+The little gray bunnies then played with their mothers about crystal
+dens. Now the babes were full grown and clothed in the same immaculate
+white of the parents. We could distinguish the young only by their
+greater activity and their ceaseless curiosity.
+
+In the immediate vicinity of camp we found them first in gullies where
+the previous winter's snow had but recently disappeared. Here the grass
+was young and tender and of a flavor to suit their taste for delicacies.
+A little later they followed the musk ox to the shores of lagoons or to
+the wind-swept hills. Still later, as the winter snows blanketed the
+pastures and the bitter storms of night swept the cheerless drifts, they
+dug long tunnels under the snow for food, and when the storms were too
+severe remained housed in these feeding dugouts.
+
+An animal of rare intelligence, the hare is quick to grasp an advantage,
+and therefore as winter advances we find it a constant companion of the
+musk ox. For in the diggings of the musk ox this little creature finds
+sufficient food uncovered for its needs.
+
+With a skeleton as light as that of the bird and a skin as frail as
+paper it is nevertheless as well prepared to withstand the rigors of the
+Arctic as the bear with its clumsy anatomy. The entire makeup of the
+hare is based upon the highest strain of animal economy. It expends the
+greatest possible amount of energy at the cost of the least consumption
+of food. Its fur is as white as the boreal snows and absorbs color
+somewhat more readily. In a stream of crimson light it appears red and
+white; in a shadow of ice or in the darkness of night it assumes the
+subdued blue of the Polar world. Nature has bleached its fur seemingly
+to afford the best protection against the frigid chill, for a suitable
+white fur permits the escape of less bodily heat than any colored or
+shaded pelt.
+
+The fox is its only real enemy, and the fox's chance of success is won
+only by superior cunning. Its protection against the fox lies in its
+lightning-like movement of the legs. When it scents danger it rises by a
+series of darts that could be followed only by birds. Its expenditure of
+muscular energy is so economical that it can continue its run for an
+almost indefinite time. Shooting along a few hundred paces, it then
+rises to rest in an erect posture. With its black-tipped ears in line
+with its back it makes a fascinating little bit of nature's handiwork.
+Again, when asleep, it curls up its legs carefully in the long fur of
+its body, and its ever-active nose, with the divided lip, is then pushed
+into the long soft fur of the breast where the frost crystals are
+screened from the breath when storms carry drift snow. It is a fluffy
+ball of animation which provokes one's admiration.
+
+Deprived as we were of most of the usual comforts of life, many things
+were taught us by the creatures about. From the hare, with its
+scrupulous attention to cleanliness, we learned how to cleanse our hands
+and faces. With no soap, no towels and very little water, we had some
+difficulty in trying to keep respectable appearances. The hare has the
+same problem to deal with, but it is provided by nature with a cleansing
+apparatus. Its own choice is the forepaw, but with its need for snow
+shoes the hind legs serve a very useful purpose, and then, too, the
+surface is developed, a surface covered with tough fur which, we
+discovered, possessed the quality of a wet sponge and did not require,
+for efficiency, either soap or water. With hare paws, therefore, we kept
+clean. These paws also served as napkins. To take the place of a basin
+and a towel we therefore gathered a supply of hare paws, enough to keep
+clean for at least six months.
+
+The hare was a good mark for E-tuk-i-shook with the sling shot, and many
+fell victims to his primitive genius. Ah-we-lah, never an expert at
+stone slinging, became an adept with the bow and arrow. Usually he
+returned with at least a hare from every day's chase. Our main success
+resulted from a still more primitive device. Counting on its
+inquisitiveness we devised a chain of loop lines arranged across the
+hare's regular lines of travel. In playing and jumping through these
+loops, the animal tightened the lines and became our victim
+automatically.
+
+The ptarmigan chase was possible only for Ah-we-lah. The bird was not at
+all shy, for it often came close to our den and scattered the snow like
+a chicken. It was too small a mark for the sling shot and only Ah-we-lah
+could give the arrow the precise direction for these feathered
+creatures. Altogether, fifteen were secured in our locality, and all
+served as dessert for my special benefit. According to Eskimo custom, a
+young, unmarried man or woman cannot eat the ptarmigan, or
+"_ahr-rish-shah_" as they call it. That pleasure is reserved for the
+older people, and I did not for a moment risk the sacrilege of trying to
+change the custom. It was greatly to my advantage, for it not only
+impressed with suitable force my dignity as a superior Eskimo, but it
+enabled me to enjoy an entire bird at a time instead of only a teasing
+mouthful.
+
+To us the ptarmigan was at all times fascinating, but it proved ever a
+thing of mystery. Descending from the skies at unexpected times it
+embarks again for haunts unknown. At times we saw the birds in great
+numbers. At other times they were absent for months. In summer the bird
+has gray and brown feathers, mingled with white. It keeps close to the
+inland ice, making its course along the snowy coast of Noonataks, beyond
+the reach of man or fox. Late in September it seeks the lower ground
+along the sea level.
+
+Like the hare and the musk ox, it delights in windy places where the
+snow has been driven away. There it finds bits of moss and withered
+plants which satisfy its needs. The summer plumage is at first sight
+like that of the partridge. On close examination one finds the feathers
+are only tipped with color--underneath, the plumage is white. In winter
+it retains only the black feathers of its tail, otherwise it is as white
+as the hare. Its legs often are covered with tough fur, like that of the
+hare's lower hind legs. The meat is delicate in flavor and tender. It is
+the most beautiful of the four birds that remain in the white world when
+all is bleak during the night.
+
+We sought the fox more diligently than the ptarmigan. We had a more
+tangible way of securing it. Furthermore, we were in great need of its
+skin. E-tuk-i-shook and Ah-we-lah regarded fox hams as quite a
+delicacy--a delicacy which I never willingly shared when there were musk
+tenderloins about. We had no steel traps, and with its usual craft the
+fox usually managed to evade our crude weapons by keeping out of sight.
+Bone traps were made with a good deal of care after the pattern of steel
+traps. We used a musk-ox horn as a spring. But with these we were only
+partially successful. As a last resort, little domes were arranged in
+imitation of the usual caches, with trap stone doors. In these we
+managed to secure fourteen white and two blue animals. After that they
+proved too wise for our craft.
+
+The fox becomes shy only in the end of October, when its fur begins to
+be really worth taking. Before that it followed us everywhere on the
+musk ox quest, for it was not slow to learn the advantage of being near
+our battle scenes. We frequently left choice bits for its picking, a
+favor which it seemed to appreciate by a careful watchfulness of our
+camps. Although a much more cunning thief than the bear, we could afford
+its plunderings, for it had not so keen a taste for blubber and its
+capacity was limited. We thus got well acquainted.
+
+Up to the present we had failed in the quest of the seal. During the
+open season of summer, without a _kayak_, we could not get near the
+animal. As the winter and the night advanced, we were too busy with the
+land animals to watch the blow-holes in the new ice. When the sea is
+first spread with the thin sheet of colorless ice, which later thickens,
+the seal rises to the surface, makes a breathing hole, descends to its
+feeding grounds on the sea bottom for about ten minutes, then rises and
+makes another hole. This line of openings is arranged in a circle or a
+series of connecting, oblong lines, marking that particular seal's
+favorite feeding ground. Before the young ice is covered with snow,
+these breathing holes are easily located by a ring of white frost
+crystals, which condense and fall as the seal blows. But now that the
+winter had sheeted the black ice evenly with a white cover, the seal
+holes, though open, could not be found. We were not in need of either
+fat or meat, but the seal skins were to fill an important want. We
+required for boots and sled lashing the thin, tough seal hide. How could
+we get it?
+
+From our underground den we daily watched the wanderings of the bears.
+They trailed along certain lines which we knew to be favorable feeding
+grounds for seals, but they did not seem to be successful. Could we not
+profit by their superb scenting instinct and find the blow-holes? The
+bear had been our worst enemy, but unconsciously it also proved to be
+our best friend.
+
+We started out to trail the bear's footprints. By these we were led to
+the blow-holes, where we found the snow about had been circled with a
+regular trail. Most of these had been abandoned, for the seal has a
+scent as keen as the bear, but a few "live" holes were located. Sticks
+were placed to locate these, and after a few days' careful study and
+hard work we harpooned six seals. Taking only the skins and blubber, we
+left the carcasses for bruin's share of the chase--to be consumed later.
+We did not hunt together with the bear--at least, not knowingly.
+
+In these wanderings over game lands we were permitted a very close
+scrutiny of the animals about, and it was at this time that I came to
+certain definite conclusions as to prevailing laws of color and dress of
+our co-habitants of the Polar wastes.
+
+The animals of the Arctic assume a color in accordance to their need for
+heat transmission. The prevailing influence is white, as light furs
+permit the least escape of heat. It is evidently more important to
+confine the heat of the body, than to gather heat from the sun's feeble
+rays. The necessity for bleaching the furry raiment becomes most
+operative in winter when the temperature of the air is 150° below that
+of the body. In the summer, when the continued sunshine is made more
+heating by the piercing influence of the reflecting snow-fields, there
+is a tendency to absorb heat. Then nature darkens the skin, which
+absorbs heat accordingly.
+
+The relative advantage of light and dark shades can be easily
+demonstrated by placing pieces of white and black cloth on a surface of
+snow, with a slope at right angles to the sun's rays. If, after a few
+hours, the cloth is removed the snow under the black cloth will be
+melted considerably, while that under the white cloth will show little
+effect.
+
+Nature makes use of this law of physics to ease the hard lot of its
+creatures fighting the weather in the icy world. The laws of color
+protection as advocated in the rules of natural selection are not
+operative here, because of the vitally important demand of heat economy.
+If we now seek the problem of nature's body colored dyes, with heat
+economy as the key, our calculations will become easy. The serwah, a
+species of guillemot, which is as black as the raven in summer, is
+white in winter. The ptarmigan is light as pearl in winter, but its
+feathers become tipped with amber in summer. The hare is slightly gray
+in summer, but, in winter, becomes white as the snow under which it
+finds food and shelter.
+
+The white fox is gray in summer, the blue fox darkens as the sun
+advances, while its under fur becomes lighter with increasing cold. The
+caribou is dark brown as it grazes the moss-colored fields, but becomes
+nearly white with the permanent snows. The polar bear, as white as
+nature can make it, with only blubber to mix its paints, basks in the
+midnight sun with a raiment suggestive of gold. The musk ox changes its
+dark under-fur for a lighter shade. The raven has a white under-coat in
+winter. The rat is gray in summer but bleaches to blue-gray in winter
+time. The laws of selection and heat economy are thus combined.
+
+While thus preparing for the coming winter by seeking animals with furry
+pelts, the weather conditions made our task increasingly difficult. The
+storm of the descending sun whipped the seas into white fury and brushed
+the lands with icy clouds. With the descent of the sun, nature again set
+its seal of gloom on Arctic life. The cheer of a sunny heaven was
+blotted from the skies, and the coming of the winter blackness was
+signalled by the beginning of a warfare of the elements. All hostile
+nature was now set loose to expend its restive battle energy.
+
+For brief moments the weather was quiet, and then in awe-inspiring
+silence we steered for sequestered gullies in quest of little creatures.
+This death-like stillness was in harmony with our loneliness. As the sea
+was stilled by the iron bonds of frost, as life sought protection under
+the storm-driven snows of land, the winds, growing even wilder, beat a
+maddening onslaught over the dead, frozen world. The thunder of elements
+shook the very rocks under which we slept. Then again would fall a spell
+of that strange silence--all was dead, the sun glowed no more, the
+creatures of the wilds were hushed. We were all alone--alone in a vast,
+white dead world.
+
+[Illustration: LEMMING]
+
+
+
+
+A HUNDRED NIGHTS IN AN UNDERGROUND DEN
+
+LIVING LIKE MEN OF THE STONE AGE--THE DESOLATION OF THE LONG
+NIGHT--LIFE ABOUT CAPE SPARBO--PREPARING EQUIPMENT FOR THE RETURN
+TO GREENLAND--SUNRISE, FEBRUARY 11, 1909
+
+XXVIII
+
+LIFE ABOUT CAPE SPARBO
+
+
+The coming night slowly fixed its seal on our field of activity. Early
+in August the sun had dipped under the icy contour of North Lincoln, and
+Jones Sound had then begun to spread its cover of crystal. The warm rays
+gradually melted in a perpetual blue frost. The air thickened. The land
+darkened. The days shortened. The night lengthened. The Polar cold and
+darkness of winter came hand in hand.
+
+Late in September the nights had become too dark to sleep in the open,
+with inquisitive bears on every side. Storms, too, increased thereafter
+and deprived us of the cheer of colored skies. Thus we were now forced
+to seek a retreat in our underground den.
+
+We took about as kindly to this as a wild animal does to a cage. For
+over seven months we had wandered over vast plains of ice, with a new
+camp site almost every day. We had grown accustomed to a wandering life
+like that of the bear, but we had not developed his hibernating
+instinct. We were anxious to continue our curious battle of life.
+
+In October the bosom of the sea became blanketed, and the curve of the
+snow-covered earth was polarized in the eastern skies. The final period
+for the death of day and earthly glory was advancing, but Nature in her
+last throes displayed some of her most alluring phases. The colored
+silhouette of the globe was perhaps the most remarkable display. In
+effect, this was a shadow of the earth thrown into space. By the
+reflected, refracted and polarized light of the sun, the terrestrial
+shadows were outlined against the sky in glowing colors. Seen
+occasionally in other parts of the globe, it is only in the Polar
+regions, with its air of crystal and its surface of mirrors, that the
+proper mediums are afforded for this gigantic spectral show.
+
+We had an ideal location. A glittering sea, with a level horizon, lay
+along the east and west. The weather was good, the skies were clear,
+and, as the sun sank, the sky over it was flushed with orange or gold.
+This gradually paled, and over the horizon opposite there rose an arc in
+feeble prismatic colors with a dark zone of purple under it. The arc
+rose as the sun settled; the purple spread beyond the polarized bow; and
+gradually the heavens turned a deep purple blue to the zenith, while the
+halo of the globe was slowly lost in its own shadow.
+
+The colored face of the earth painted on the screen of the heavens left
+the last impression of worldly charm on the retina. In the end of
+October the battle of the elements, storms attending the setting of the
+sun, began to blast the air into a chronic fury. By this time we were
+glad to creep into our den and await the vanishing weeks of ebbing day.
+
+In the doom of night to follow, there would at least be some quiet
+moments during which we could stretch our legs. The bears, which had
+threatened our existence, were now kept off by a new device which served
+the purpose for a time. We had food and fuel enough for the winter.
+There should have been nothing to have disturbed our tempers, but the
+coming of the long blackness makes all Polar life ill at ease.
+
+Early in November the storms ceased long enough to give us a last fiery
+vision. With a magnificent cardinal flame the sun rose, gibbered in the
+sky and sank behind the southern cliffs on November 3. It was not to
+rise again until February 11 of the next year. We were therefore doomed
+to hibernate in our underground den for at least a hundred double nights
+before the dawn of a new day opened our eyes.
+
+The days now came and went in short order. For hygienic reasons we kept
+up the usual routine of life. The midday light soon darkened to
+twilight. The moon and stars appeared at noon. The usual partition of
+time disappeared. All was night, unrelieved darkness, midnight, midday,
+morning or evening.
+
+We stood watches of six hours each to keep the fires going, to keep off
+the bears and to force an interest in a blank life. We knew that we were
+believed to be dead. For our friends in Greenland would not ascribe to
+us the luck which came after our run of abject misfortune. This thought
+inflicted perhaps the greatest pain of the queer prolongation of life
+which was permitted us. It was loneliness, frigid loneliness. I wondered
+whether men ever felt so desolately alone.
+
+We could not have been more thoroughly isolated if we had been
+transported to the surface of the moon. I find myself utterly unable to
+outline the emptiness of our existence. In other surroundings we never
+grasp the full meaning of the word "alone." When it is possible to put a
+foot out of doors into sunlight without the risk of a bear-paw on your
+neck it is also possible to run off a spell of blues, but what were we
+to do with every dull rock rising as a bear ghost and with the torment
+of a satanic blackness to blind us?
+
+With the cheer of day, a kindly nature and a new friend, it is easy to
+get in touch with a sympathetic chord. The mere thought of another human
+heart within touch, even a hundred miles away, would have eased the
+suspense of the silent void. But we could entertain no such hopefulness.
+We were all alone in a world where every pleasant aspect of nature had
+deserted us. Although three in number, a bare necessity had compressed
+us into a single composite individuality.
+
+There were no discussions, no differences of opinion. We had been too
+long together under bitter circumstances to arouse each other's
+interest. A single individual could not live long in our position. A
+selfish instinct tightened a fixed bond to preserve and protect one
+another. As a battle force we made a formidable unit, but there was no
+matches to start the fires of inspiration.
+
+The half darkness of midday and the moonlight still permitted us to
+creep from under the ground and seek a few hours in the open. The stone
+and bone fox traps and the trap caves for the bears which we had built
+during the last glimmer of day offered an occupation with some
+recreation. But we were soon deprived of this.
+
+Bears headed us off at every turn. We were not permitted to proceed
+beyond an enclosed hundred feet from the hole of our den. Not an inch of
+ground or a morsel of food was permitted us without a contest. It was a
+fight of nature against nature. We either actually saw the little sooty
+nostrils with jets of vicious breath rising, and the huge outline of a
+wild beast ready to spring on us, or imagined we saw it. With no
+adequate means of defense we were driven to imprisonment within the
+walls of our own den.
+
+From within, our position was even more tantalizing. The bear thieves
+dug under the snows over our heads and snatched blocks of blubber fuel
+from under our very eyes at the port without a consciousness of
+wrongdoing. Occasionally we ventured out to deliver a lance, but each
+time the bear would make a leap for the door and would have entered had
+the opening been large enough. In other cases we shot arrows through the
+peep-hole. A bear head again would burst through the silk covered window
+near the roof, where knives, at close range and in good light, could be
+driven with sweet vengeance.
+
+As a last resort we made a hole through the top of the den. When a bear
+was heard near, a long torch was pushed through. The snow for acres
+about was then suddenly flashed with a ghostly whiteness which almost
+frightened us. But the bear calmly took advantage of the light to pick a
+larger piece of the blubber upon which our lives depended, and then
+with an air of superiority he would move into the brightest light,
+usually within a few feet of our peep-hole, where we could almost touch
+his hateful skin. Without ammunition we were helpless.
+
+Two weeks after sunset we heard the last cry of ravens. After a silence
+of several days they suddenly descended with a piercing shout which cut
+the frosty stillness. We crept out of our den quickly to read the riddle
+of the sudden bluster. There were five ravens on five different rocks,
+and the absence of the celestial color gave them quite an appropriate
+setting. They were restless: there was no food for them. A fox had
+preceded them with his usual craftiness, and had left no pickings for
+feathered creatures.
+
+A family of five had gathered about in October, when the spoils of the
+chase were being cached, and we encouraged their stay by placing food
+for them regularly. Some times a sly fox, and at other times a thieving
+bear, got the little morsels, but there were usually sufficient picking
+for the raven's little crop. They had found a suitable cave high up in
+the great cliffs of granite behind our den.
+
+We were beginning to be quite friendly. My Eskimo companions ascribed to
+the birds almost human qualities and they talked to them reverently,
+thereby displaying their heart's desire. The secrets of the future were
+all entrusted to their consideration. Would the "too-loo-ah" go to
+Eskimo Lands and deliver their messages? The raven said "ka-ah" (yes).
+
+E-tuk-i-shook said: "Go and take the tears from An-na-do-a's eyes; tell
+her that I am alive and well and will come to take her soon. Tell
+Pan-ic-pa (his father) that I am in Ah-ming-ma-noona (Musk Ox Land).
+Bring us some powder to blacken the bear's snout." "Ka-ah, ka-ah," said
+the two ravens at once.
+
+Ah-we-lah began an appeal to drive off the bears and to set the raven
+spirits as guardians of our blubber caches. This was uttered in shrill
+shouts, and then, in a low, trembling voice, he said: "Dry the tears of
+mother's cheeks and tell her that we are in a land of todnu (tallow)."
+
+"Ka-ah," replied the raven.
+
+"Then go to Ser-wah; tell her not to marry that lazy gull, Ta-tamh; tell
+her that Ah-we-lah's skin is still flushed with thoughts of her, that he
+is well and will return to claim her in the first moon after sunrise."
+"Ka-ah, ka-ah, ka-ah," said the raven, and rose as if to deliver the
+messages.
+
+For the balance of that day we saw only three ravens. The two had
+certainly started for the Greenland shores. The other three, after an
+engorgement, rose to their cave and went to sleep for the night as we
+thought. No more was seen of them until the dawn of day of the following
+year.
+
+A few days later we also made other acquaintances. They were the most
+interesting bits of life that crossed our trail, and in the dying effort
+to seek animal companionship our soured tempers were sweetened somewhat
+by four-footed joys.
+
+A noise had been heard for several successive days at eleven o'clock.
+This was the time chosen by the bears for their daily exercise along our
+foot-path, and we were usually all awake with a knife or a lance in
+hand, not because there was any real danger, for our house cemented by
+ice was as secure as a fort, but because we felt more comfortable in a
+battle attitude. Through the peep-hole we saw them marching up and down
+along the foot-path tramped down by our daily spells of leg-stretching.
+
+They were feasting on the aroma of our foot-prints, and when they left
+it was usually safe for us to venture out. Noises, however, continued
+within the walls of the den. It was evident that there was something
+alive at close range.
+
+We were lonely enough to have felt a certain delight in shaking hands
+even with bruin if the theft of our blubber had not threatened the very
+foundation of our existence. For in the night we could not augment our
+supplies; and without fat, fire and water were impossible. No! there was
+not room for man and bear at Cape Sparbo. Without ammunition, however,
+we were nearly helpless.
+
+But noises continued after bruin's steps came with a decreasing metallic
+ring from distant snows. There was a scraping and a scratching within
+the very walls of our den. We had a neighbor and a companion. Who, or
+what, could it be? We were kept in suspense for some time. When all was
+quiet at the time which we chose to call midnight, a little blue rat
+came out and began to tear the bark from our willow lamp trimmer.
+
+I was on watch, awake, and punched E-tuk-i-shook without moving my head.
+His eyes opened with surprise on the busy rodent, and Ah-we-lah was
+kicked. He turned over and the thing jumped into a rock crevasse.
+
+The next day we risked the discomfort of bruin's interview and dug up an
+abundance of willow roots for our new tenant. These were arranged in
+appetizing display and the rat came out very soon and helped himself,
+but he permitted no familiarity. We learned to love the creature,
+however, all the more because of its shyness. By alternate jumps from
+the roots to seclusion it managed to fill up with all it could carry.
+Then it disappeared as suddenly as it came.
+
+In the course of two days it came back with a companion, its mate. They
+were beautiful little creatures, but little larger than mice. They had
+soft, fluffy fur of a pearl blue color, with pink eyes. They had no
+tails. Their dainty little feet were furred to the claw tips with silky
+hair. They made a picture of animal delight which really aroused us from
+stupor to little spasms of enthusiasm. A few days were spent in testing
+our intentions. Then they arranged a berth just above my head and became
+steady boarders.
+
+Their confidence and trust flattered our vanity and we treated them as
+royal guests. No trouble was too great for us to provide them with
+suitable delicacies. We ventured into the darkness and storms for hours
+to dig up savory roots and mosses. A little stage was arranged every day
+with the suitable footlights. In the eagerness to prolong the rodent
+theatricals, the little things were fed over and over, until they became
+too fat and too lazy to creep from their berths.
+
+They were good, clean orderly camp fellows, always kept in their places
+and never ventured to borrow our bed furs, nor did they disturb our
+eatables. With a keen sense of justice, and an aristocratic air, they
+passed our plates of carnivorous foods without venturing a taste, and
+went to their herbivorous piles of sod delicacies. About ten days before
+midnight they went to sleep and did not wake for more than a month.
+Again we were alone. Now even the bears deserted us.
+
+In the dull days of blankness which followed, few incidents seemed to
+mark time. The cold increased. Storms were more continuous and came with
+greater force. We were cooped up in our underground den with but a
+peep-hole through the silk of our old tent to watch the sooty nocturnal
+bluster. We were face to face with a spiritual famine. With little
+recreation, no amusements, no interesting work, no reading matter, with
+nothing to talk about, the six hours of a watch were spread out to
+weeks.
+
+We had no sugar, no coffee, not a particle of civilized food. We had
+meat and blubber, good and wholesome food at that. But the stomach
+wearied of its never changing carnivorous stuffing. The dark den, with
+its walls of pelt and bone, its floor decked with frosted tears of ice,
+gave no excuse for cheer. Insanity, abject madness, could only be
+avoided by busy hands and long sleep.
+
+My life in this underground place was, I suppose, like that of a man in
+the stone age. The interior was damp and cold and dark; with our
+pitiable lamps burning, the temperature of the top was fairly moderate,
+but at the bottom it was below zero. Our bed was a platform of rocks
+wide enough for three prostrate men. Its forward edge was our seat when
+awake. Before this was a space where a deeper hole in the earth
+permitted us to stand upright, one at a time. There, one by one, we
+dressed and occasionally stood to move our stiff and aching limbs.
+
+On either side of this standing space was half a tin plate in which
+musk-ox fat was burned. We used moss as a wick. These lights were kept
+burning day and night; it was a futile, imperceptible sort of heat they
+gave. Except when we got close to the light, it was impossible to see
+one another's faces.
+
+We ate twice daily--without enjoyment. We had few matches, and in fear
+of darkness tended our lamps diligently. There was no food except meat
+and tallow; most of the meat, by choice, was eaten raw and frozen. Night
+and morning we boiled a small pot of meat for broth; but we had no salt
+to season it. Stooped and cramped, day by day, I found occasional relief
+from the haunting horror of this life by rewriting the almost illegible
+notes made on our journey.
+
+My most important duty was the preparation of my notes and observations
+for publication. This would afford useful occupation and save months of
+time afterwards. But I had no paper. My three note books were full, and
+there remained only a small pad of prescription blanks and two miniature
+memorandum books. I resolved, however, to try to work out the outline of
+my narrative in chapters in these. I had four good pencils and one
+eraser. These served a valuable purpose. With sharp points I shaped the
+words in small letters. When the skeleton of the book was ready I was
+surprised to find how much could be crowded on a few small pages. By a
+liberal use of the eraser many parts of pages were cleared of
+unnecessary notes. Entire lines were written between all the lines of
+the note books, the pages thus carrying two narrations or series of
+notes.
+
+By the use of abbreviations and dashes, a kind of short-hand was
+devised. My art of space economy complete, I began to write, literally
+developing the very useful habit of carefully shaping every idea before
+an attempt was made to use the pencil. In this way my entire book and
+several articles were written. Charts, films and advertisement boxes
+were covered. In all 150,000 words were written, and absolute despair,
+which in idleness opens the door to madness, was averted.
+
+Our needs were still urgent enough to enforce much other work. Drift
+threatened to close the entrance to our dungeon and this required
+frequent clearing. Blubber for the lamp was sliced and pounded every
+day. The meat corner was occasionally stocked, for it required several
+days to thaw out the icy musk ox quarters. Ice was daily gathered and
+placed within reach to keep the water pots full. The frost which was
+condensed out of our breaths made slabs of ice on the floor, and this
+required occasional removal. The snow under our bed furs, which had a
+similar origin, was brushed out now and then.
+
+Soot from the lamps, a result of bad housekeeping, which a proud Eskimo
+woman would not have tolerated for a minute, was scraped from the bone
+rafters about once a week. With a difference of one hundred degrees
+between the breathing air of the den and that outside there was a
+rushing interchanging breeze through every pinhole and crevice. The
+ventilation was good. The camp cleanliness could almost have been called
+hygienic, although no baths had been indulged in for six months, and
+then only by an unavoidable, undesirable accident.
+
+Much had still to be done to prepare for our homegoing in the remote
+period beyond the night. It was necessary to plan and make a new
+equipment. The sledge, the clothing, the camp outfit, everything which
+had been used in the previous campaign, were worn out. Something could
+be done by judicious repairing, but nearly everything required
+reconstruction. In the new arrangement we were to take the place of the
+dogs at the traces and the sledge loads must be prepared accordingly.
+There was before us an unknown line of trouble for three hundred miles
+before we could step on Greenland shores. It was only the hope of
+homegoing, which gave some mental strength in the night of gloom. Musk
+ox meat was now cut into strips and dried over the lamps. Tallow was
+prepared and moulded in portable form for fuel.
+
+But in spite of all efforts we gradually sank to the lowest depths of
+the Arctic midnight. The little midday glimmer on the southern sky
+became indiscernible. Only the swing of the Great Dipper and other stars
+told the time of the day or night. We had fancied that the persistent
+wind ruffled our tempers. But now it was still; not a breath of air
+moved the heavy blackness. In that very stillness we found reasons for
+complaint. Storms were preferable to the dead silence; anything was
+desirable to stir the spirits to action.
+
+Still the silence was only apparent. Wind noises floated in the frosty
+distance; cracking rocks, exploding glaciers and tumbling avalanches
+kept up a muffled rumbling which the ear detected only when it
+rested on the floor rock of our bed. The temperature was low--
+-48° F.--so low that at times the very air seemed to crack. Every
+creature of the wild had been buried in drift; all nature was asleep.
+In our dungeon all was a mental blank.
+
+Not until two weeks after midnight did we awake to a proper
+consciousness of life. The faint brightness of the southern skies at
+noon opened the eye to spiritual dawn. The sullen stupor and deathlike
+stillness vanished.
+
+Shortly after black midnight descended I began to experience a curious
+psychological phenomenon. The stupor of the days of travel wore away,
+and I began to see myself as in a mirror. I can explain this no better.
+It is said that a man falling from a great height usually has a picture
+of his life flashed through his brain in the short period of descent. I
+saw a similar cycle of events.
+
+The panorama began with incidents of childhood, and it seems curious now
+with what infinite detail I saw people whom I had long forgotten, and
+went through the most trivial experiences. In successive stages every
+phase of life appeared and was minutely examined; every hidden recess of
+gray matter was opened to interpret the biographies of self-analysis.
+The hopes of my childhood and the discouragements of my youth filled me
+with emotion; feelings of pleasure and sadness came as each little
+thought picture took definite shape; it seemed hardly possible that so
+many things, potent for good and bad, could have been done in so few
+years. I saw myself, not as a voluntary being, but rather as a
+resistless atom, predestined in its course, being carried on by an
+inexorable fate.
+
+Meanwhile our preparations for return were being accomplished. This
+work had kept us busy during all of the wakeful spells of the night.
+Much still remained to be done.
+
+Although real pleasure followed all efforts of physical labor, the
+balking muscles required considerable urging. Musk ox meat was cut into
+portable blocks, candles were made, fur skins were dressed and chewed,
+boots, stockings, pants, shirts, sleeping bags were made. The sledge was
+re-lashed, things were packed in bags. All was ready about three weeks
+before sunrise. Although the fingers and the jaws were thus kept busy,
+the mind and also the heart were left free to wander.
+
+In the face of all our efforts to ward aside the ill effects of the
+night we gradually became its victims. Our skin paled, our strength
+failed, the nerves weakened, and the mind ultimately became a blank. The
+most notable physical effect, however, was the alarming irregularity of
+the heart.
+
+In the locomotion of human machinery the heart is the motor. Like all
+good motors it has a governor which requires some adjustment. In the
+Arctic, where the need of regulation is greatest, the facilities for
+adjustment are withdrawn. In normal conditions, as the machine of life
+pumps the blood which drives all, its force and its regularity are
+governed by the never-erring sunbeams. When these are withdrawn, as they
+are in the long night, the heart pulsations become irregular; at times
+slow, at other times spasmodic.
+
+Light seems to be as necessary to the animal as to the plant. A diet of
+fresh meat, healthful hygienic surroundings, play for the mind,
+recreation for the body, and strong heat from open fires, will help;
+but only the return of the heaven-given sun will properly adjust the
+motor of man.
+
+As the approaching day brightened to a few hours of twilight at midday,
+we developed a mood for animal companionship. A little purple was now
+thrown on the blackened snows. The weather was good. All the usual
+sounds of nature were suspended, but unusual sounds came with a weird
+thunder. The very earth began to shake in an effort to break the seal of
+frost. For several days nothing moved into our horizon which could be
+imagined alive.
+
+About two weeks before sunrise the rats woke and began to shake their
+beautiful blue fur in graceful little dances, but they were not really
+alive and awake in a rat sense for several days. At about the same time
+the ravens began to descend from their hiding place and screamed for
+food. There were only three; two were still conversing with the Eskimo
+maidens far away, as my companions thought.
+
+In my subsequent strolls I found the raven den and to my horror
+discovered that the two were frozen. I did not deprive E-tuk-i-shook and
+Ah-we-lah of their poetic dream; the sad news of raven bereavement was
+never told.
+
+The foxes now began to bark from a safe distance and advanced to get
+their share of the camp spoils. Ptarmigan shouted from nearby rocks.
+Wolves were heard away in the musk ox fields, but they did not venture
+to pay us a visit.
+
+The bear that had shadowed us everywhere before midnight was the last to
+claim our friendship at dawn. There were good reasons for this which we
+did not learn until later. The bear stork had arrived. But really we had
+changed heart even towards the bear. Long before he returned we were
+prepared to give him a welcome reception. In our new and philosophical
+turn of mind we thought better of bruin. In our greatest distress during
+the previous summer he had kept us alive. In our future adventures he
+might perform a similar mission. After all he had no sporting
+proclivities; he did not hunt or trouble us for the mere fun of our
+discomfort or the chase. His aim in life was the very serious business
+of getting food. Could we blame him? Had we not a similar necessity?
+
+A survey of our caches proved that we were still rich in the coin of the
+land. There remained meat and blubber sufficient for all our needs, with
+considerable to spare for other empty stomachs. So, to feed the bear,
+meat was piled up in heaps for his delight.
+
+The new aroma rose into the bleaching night air. We peeped with eager
+eyes through our ports to spot results. The next day at eleven o'clock
+footsteps were heard. The noise indicated caution and shyness instead of
+the bold quick step which we knew so well. There was room for only one
+eye and only one man at a time at the peep-hole, and so we took turns.
+Soon the bear was sighted, proceeding with the utmost caution behind
+some banks and rocks. The blue of the snows, with yellow light, dyed his
+fur to an ugly green. He was thin and gaunt and ghostly. There was the
+stealth and the cunning of the fox in his movements. But he could not
+get his breakfast, the first after a fast of weeks, without coming
+squarely into our view.
+
+The den was buried under the winter snows and did not disturb the
+creature, but the size of the pile of meat did disturb its curiosity.
+When within twenty-five yards, a few sudden leaps were made, and the
+ponderous claws came down on a walrus shoulder. His teeth began to grind
+like a stone cutter. For an hour the bear stood there and displayed
+itself to good advantage. Our hatred of the creature entirely vanished.
+
+Five days passed before that bear returned. In the meantime we longed
+for it to come back. We had unconsciously developed quite a brotherly
+bear interest. In the period which followed we learned that eleven
+o'clock was the hour, and that five days was the period between meals.
+The bear calendar and the clock were consulted with mathematical
+precision.
+
+We also learned that our acquaintance was a parent. By a little
+exploration in February we discovered the bear den, in a snow covered
+cave, less than a mile west. In it were two saucy little teddies in
+pelts of white silk that would have gladdened the heart of any child.
+The mother was not at home at the time, and we were not certain enough
+of her friendship, or of her whereabouts, to play with the twins.
+
+With a clearing horizon and a wider circle of friendship our den now
+seemed a cheerful home. Our spirits awakened as the gloom of the night
+was quickly lost in the new glitter of day.
+
+On the eleventh of February the snow-covered slopes of North Devon
+glowed with the sunrise of 1909. The sun had burst nature's dungeon.
+Cape Sparbo glowed with golden light. The frozen sea glittered with
+hills of shimmering lilac. We escaped to a joyous freedom. With a
+reconstructed sled, new equipment and newly acquired energy we were
+ready to pursue the return journey to Greenland and fight the last
+battle of the Polar campaign.
+
+[Illustration: GUILLEMOT]
+
+
+
+
+HOMEWARD WITH A HALF SLEDGE AND HALF-FILLED STOMACHS
+
+THREE HUNDRED MILES THROUGH STORM AND SNOW AND UPLIFTED MOUNTAINS OF ICE
+TROUBLES--DISCOVER TWO ISLANDS--ANNOATOK IS REACHED--MEETING HARRY
+WHITNEY--NEWS OF PEARY'S SEIZURE OF SUPPLIES
+
+XXIX
+
+BACK TO GREENLAND FRIENDS
+
+
+On February 18, 1908, the reconstructed sledge was taken beyond the ice
+fort and loaded for the home run. We had given up the idea of journeying
+to Lancaster Sound to await the whalers. There were no Eskimos on the
+American side nearer than Pond's Inlet. It was somewhat farther to our
+headquarters on the Greenland shores, but all interests would be best
+served by a return to Annoatok.
+
+During the night we had fixed all of our attention upon the return
+journey, and had prepared a new equipment with the limited means at our
+command; but, traveling in the coldest season of the year, it was
+necessary to carry a cumbersome outfit of furs, and furthermore, since
+we were to take the place of the dogs in the traces, we could not expect
+to transport supplies for more than thirty days. In this time, however,
+we hoped to reach Cape Sabine, where the father of E-tuk-i-shook had
+been told to place a cache of food for us.
+
+Starting so soon after sunrise, the actual daylight proved very brief,
+but a brilliant twilight gave a remarkable illumination from eight to
+four. The light of dawn and that of the afterglow was tossed to and fro
+in the heavens, from reflecting surfaces of glitter, for four hours
+preceding and following midday. To use this play of light to the best
+advantage, it was necessary to begin preparations early by starlight;
+and thus, when the dim purple glow from the northeast brightened the
+dull gray-blue of night, the start was made for Greenland shores and for
+home.
+
+We were dressed in heavy furs. The temperature was -49°. A light air
+brushed the frozen mist out of Jones Sound, and cut our sooty faces. The
+sled was overloaded, and the exertion required for its movement over the
+groaning snow was tremendous. A false, almost hysterical, enthusiasm
+lighted our faces, but the muscles were not yet equal to the task set
+for them.
+
+Profuse perspiration came with the first hours of dog work, and our
+heavy fur coats were exchanged for the sealskin _nitshas_ (lighter
+coat). At noon the snows were fired and the eastern skies burned in
+great lines of flame. But there was no sun and no heat. We sat on the
+sledge for a prolonged period, gasping for breath and drinking the new
+celestial glory so long absent from our outlook. As the joy of color was
+lost in the cold purple of half-light, our shoulders were braced more
+vigorously into the traces. The ice proved good, but the limit of
+strength placed camp in a snowhouse ten miles from our winter den. With
+the new equipment, our camp life now was not like that of the Polar
+campaign. Dried musk ox meat and strips of musk fat made a steady diet.
+Moulded tallow served as fuel in a crescent-shaped disk of tin, in which
+carefully prepared moss was crushed and arranged as a wick. Over this
+primitive fire we managed to melt enough ice to quench thirst, and also
+to make an occasional pot of broth as a luxury. While the drink was
+liquefying, the chill of the snow igloo was also moderated, and we crept
+into the bags of musk ox skins, where agreeable repose and home dreams
+made us forget the cry of the stomach and the torment of the cold.
+
+At the end of eight days of forced marches we reached Cape Tennyson. The
+disadvantage of manpower, when compared to dog motive force, was clearly
+shown in this effort. The ice was free of pressure troubles and the
+weather was endurable. Still, with the best of luck, we had averaged
+only about seven miles daily. With dogs, the entire run would have been
+made easily in two days.
+
+As we neared the land two small islands were discovered. Both were about
+one thousand feet high, with precipitous sea walls, and were on a line
+about two miles east of Cape Tennyson. The most easterly was about one
+and a half miles long, east to west, with a cross-section, north to
+south, of about three-quarters of a mile. About half a mile to the west
+of this was a much smaller island. There was no visible vegetation, and
+no life was seen, although hare and fox tracks were crossed on the ice.
+I decided to call the larger island E-tuk-i-shook, and the smaller
+Ah-we-lah. These rocks will stand as monuments to the memory of my
+faithful savage comrades when all else is forgotten.
+
+From Cape Tennyson to Cape Isabella the coast of Ellesmere Land was
+charted, in the middle of the last century, by ships at a great distance
+from land. Little has been added since. The wide belt of pack thrown
+against the coast made further exploration from the ship very difficult,
+but in our northward march over the sea-ice it was hoped that we might
+keep close enough to the shores to examine the land carefully.
+
+A few Eskimos had, about fifty years previously, wandered along this ice
+from Pond's Inlet to the Greenland camps. They left the American shores
+because famine, followed by forced cannibalism, threatened to
+exterminate the tribe. A winter camp had been placed on Coburg Island.
+Here many walruses and bears were secured during the winter, while in
+summer, from Kent Island, many guillemots were secured. In moving from
+these northward, by skin boat and _kayak_, they noted myriads of
+guillemots, or "acpas," off the southeast point of the mainland. There
+being no name in the Eskimo vocabulary for this land, it was called
+Acpohon, or "The Home of Guillemots." The Greenland Eskimos had
+previously called the country "Ah-ming-mah Noona," or Musk Ox Land, but
+they also adopted the name of Acpohon, so we have taken the liberty of
+spreading the name over the entire island as a general name for the most
+northern land west of Greenland. In pushing northward, many of the
+Eskimos starved, and the survivors had a bitter fight for subsistence.
+Our experience was similar.
+
+[Illustration: PUNCTURED CANVAS BOAT IN WHIH WE PADDLED 1,000 MILES
+FAMINE DAYS WHEN ONLY STRAY BIRDS PREVENTED STARVATION DEN IN WHICH WERE
+SPENT 100 DOUBLE NIGHTS]
+
+[Illustration: BULL FIGHTS WITH THE MUSK OX ABOUT CAPE SPARBO]
+
+Near Cape Paget those ancient Eskimos made a second winter camp. Here
+narwhals and bears were secured, and through Talbot's Fiord a short pass
+was discovered over Ellesmere Land to the musk ox country of the west
+shores. The Eskimos who survived the second winter reached the Greenland
+shores during the third summer. There they introduced the _kayak_, and
+also the bow and arrow. Their descendants are to-day the most
+intelligent of the most northern Eskimos.
+
+To my companions the environment of the new land which we were passing
+was in the nature of digging up ancient history. Several old camp sites
+were located, and E-tuk-i-shook, whose grandfather was one of the old
+pioneers, was able to tell us the incidents of each camp with remarkable
+detail.
+
+As a rule, however, it was very difficult to get near the land. Deep
+snows, huge pressure lines of ice, and protruding glaciers forced our
+line of march far from the Eskimo ruins which we wished to examine. From
+Cape Tennyson to Cape Clarence the ice near the open water proved fairly
+smooth, but the humid saline surface offered a great resistance to the
+metal plates of the sled. Here ivory or bone plates would have lessened
+the friction very much. A persistent northerly wind also brought the ice
+and the humid discomfort of our breath back to our faces with painful
+results. During several days of successive storms we were imprisoned in
+the domes of snow. By enforced idleness we were compelled to use a
+precious store of food and fuel, without making any necessary advance.
+
+Serious difficulties were encountered in moving from Cape Clarence to
+Cape Faraday. Here the ice was tumbled into mountains of trouble.
+Tremendous snowdrifts and persistent gales from the west made traveling
+next to impossible, and, with no game and no food supply in prospect, I
+knew that to remain idle would be suicidal. The sledge load was
+lightened, and every scrap of fur which was not absolutely necessary was
+thrown away. The humid boots, stockings and sealskin coats could not be
+dried out, for fuel was more precious than clothing. All of this was
+discarded, and, with light sleds and reduced rations, we forced along
+over hummocks and drift. In all of our Polar march we had seen no ice
+which offered so much hardship as did this so near home shores. The
+winds again cut gashes across our faces. With overwork and insufficient
+food, our furs hung on bony eminences over shriveled skins.
+
+At the end of thirty-five days of almost ceaseless toil we managed to
+reach Cape Faraday. Our food was gone. We were face to face with the
+most desperate problem which had fallen to our long run of hard luck.
+Famine confronted us. We were far from the haunts of game; we had seen
+no living thing for a month. Every fiber of our bodies quivered with
+cold and hunger. In desperation we ate bits of skin and chewed tough
+walrus lines. A half candle and three cups of hot water served for
+several meals. Some tough walrus hide was boiled and eaten with relish.
+While trying to masticate this I broke some of my teeth. It was hard on
+the teeth, but easy on the stomach, and it had the great advantage of
+dispelling for prolonged periods the pangs of hunger. But only a few
+strips of walrus line were left after this was used.
+
+Traveling, as we must, in a circuitous route, there was still a
+distance of one hundred miles between us and Cape Sabine, and the
+distance to Greenland might, by open water, be spread to two hundred
+miles. This unknown line of trouble could not be worked out in less than
+a month. Where, I asked in desperation, were we to obtain subsistence
+for that last thirty days?
+
+To the eastward, a line of black vapors indicated open water about
+twenty-five miles off shore. There were no seals on the ice. There were
+no encouraging signs of life; only old imprints of bears and foxes were
+left on the surface of the cheerless snows at each camp. For a number of
+days we had placed our last meat as bait to attract the bears, but none
+had ventured to pay us a visit. The offshore wind and the nearness of
+the open water gave us some life from this point.
+
+Staggering along one day, we suddenly saw a bear track. These mute
+marks, seen in the half-dark of the snow, filled us with a wild
+resurgence of hope for life. On the evening of March 20 we prepared
+cautiously for the coming of the bear.
+
+A snowhouse was built, somewhat stronger than usual; before it a shelf
+was arranged with blocks of snow, and on this shelf attractive bits of
+skin were arranged to imitate the dark outline of a recumbent seal. Over
+this was placed a looped line, through which the head and neck must go
+in order to get the bait. Other loops were arranged to entangle the
+feet. All the lines were securely fastened to solid ice. Peepholes were
+cut in all sides of the house, and a rear port was cut, from which we
+might escape or make an attack. Our lances and knives were now carefully
+sharpened. When all was ready, one of us remained on watch while the
+others sought a needed sleep. We had not long to wait. Soon a crackling
+sound on the snows gave the battle call, and with a little black nose
+extended from a long neck, a vicious creature advanced.
+
+Through our little eye-opening and to our empty stomach he appeared
+gigantic. Apparently as hungry as we were, he came in straight reaches
+for the bait. The run port was opened. Ah-we-lah and E-tuk-i-shook
+emerged, one with a lance, the other with a spiked harpoon shaft. Our
+lance, our looped line, our bow and arrow, I knew, however, would be
+futile.
+
+During the previous summer, when I foresaw a time of famine, I had taken
+my four last cartridges and hid them in my clothing. Of the existence of
+these, the two boys knew nothing. These were to be used at the last
+stage of hunger, to kill something--or ourselves. That desperate time
+had not arrived till now.
+
+The bear approached in slow, measured steps, smelling the ground where
+the skin lay.
+
+I jerked the line. The loop tightened about the bear's neck. At the same
+moment the lance and the spike were driven into the growling creature.
+
+A fierce struggle ensued. I withdrew one of the precious cartridges from
+my pocket, placed it in my gun, and gave the gun to Ah-we-lah, who took
+aim and fired. When the smoke cleared, the bleeding bear lay on the
+ground.
+
+We skinned the animal, and devoured the warm, steaming flesh. Strength
+revived. Here were food and fuel in abundance. We were saved! With the
+success of this encounter, we could sit down and live comfortably for a
+month; and before that time should elapse seals would seek the ice for
+sun baths, and when seals arrived, the acquisition of food for the march
+to Greenland would be easy.
+
+But we did not sit down. Greenland was in sight; and, to an Eskimo,
+Greenland, with all of its icy discomforts, has attractions not promised
+in heaven. In this belief, as in most others, I was Eskimo by this time.
+With very little delay, the stomach was spread with chops, and we
+stretched to a gluttonous sleep, only to awake with appetites that
+permitted of prolonged stuffing. It was a matter of economy to fill up
+and thus make the sled load lighter. When more eating was impossible we
+began to move for home shores, dragging a sled overloaded with the
+life-saving prize.
+
+A life of trouble, however, lay before us. Successive storms, mountains
+of jammed ice, and deep snow, interrupted our progress and lengthened
+the course over circuitous wastes of snowdrifts and blackened our
+horizon. When, after a prodigious effort, Cape Sabine was reached, our
+food supply was again exhausted.[18]
+
+Here an old seal was found. It had been caught a year before and cached
+by Pan-ic-pa, the father of E-tuk-i-shook. With it was found a rude
+drawing spotted with sooty tears. This told the story of a loving
+father's fruitless search for his son and friends. The seal meat had the
+aroma of Limburger cheese, and age had changed its flavor; but, with no
+other food possible, our palates were easily satisfied. In an oil-soaked
+bag was found about a pound of salt. We ate this as sugar, for no salt
+had passed over our withered tongues for over a year.
+
+The skin, blubber and meat were devoured with a relish. Every eatable
+part of the animal was packed on the sled as we left the American shore.
+
+Smith Sound was free of ice, and open water extended sixty miles
+northward. A long detour was necessary to reach the opposite shores, but
+the Greenland shores were temptingly near. With light hearts and
+cheering premonitions of home, we pushed along Bache Peninsula to a
+point near Cape Louis Napoleon. The horizon was now cleared of trouble.
+The ascending sun had dispelled the winter gloom of the land. Leaping
+streams cut through crystal gorges. The ice moved; the sea began to
+breathe. The snows sparkled with the promise of double days and midnight
+suns.
+
+Life's buds had opened to full blossom. On the opposite shores, which
+now seemed near, Nature's incubators had long worked overtime to start
+the little ones of the wilds. Tiny bears danced to their mothers' call;
+baby seals sunned in downy pelts. Little foxes were squinting at school
+in learning the art of sight. In the wave of germinating joys our
+suppressed nocturnal passions rose with surprise anew. We were raised to
+an Arctic paradise.
+
+As it lay in prospect, Greenland had the charm of Eden. There were the
+homes of my savage companions. It was a stepping-stone to my home, still
+very far off. It was a land where man has a fighting chance for his
+life.
+
+In reality, we were now in the most desperate throes of the grip of
+famine which we had encountered during all of our hard experience.
+Greenland was but thirty miles away. But we were separated from it by
+impossible open water--a hopeless stormy deep. To this moment I do not
+know why we did not sit down and allow the blood to cool with famine and
+cold. We had no good reason to hope that we could cross, but again
+hope--"the stuff that goes to make dreams"--kept our eyes open.
+
+We started. We were as thin as it is possible for men to be. The scraps
+of meat, viscera, and skin of the seal, buried for a year, was now our
+sole diet. We traveled the first two days northward over savage uplifts
+of hummocks and deep snows, tripping and stumbling over blocks of ice
+like wounded animals. Then we reached good, smooth ice, but open water
+forced us northward, ever northward from the cheering cliffs under which
+our Greenland homes and abundant supplies were located. No longer
+necessary to lift the feet, we dragged the ice-sheeted boots step after
+step over smooth young ice. This eased our tired, withered legs, and
+long distances were covered. The days were prolonged, the decayed seal
+food ran low, water was almost impossible. Life no longer seemed worth
+living. We had eaten the strips of meat and frozen seal cautiously. We
+had eaten other things--our very boots and leather lashings as a last
+resort.
+
+So weak that we had to climb on hands and knees, we reached the top of
+an iceberg, and from there saw Annoatok. Natives, who had thought us
+long dead, rushed out to greet us. There I met Mr. Harry Whitney. As I
+held his hand, the cheer of a long-forgotten world came over me. With
+him I went to my house, only to find that during my absence it had been
+confiscated. A sudden bitterness rose within which it was difficult to
+hide. A warm meal dispelled this for a time.
+
+In due time I told Whitney: "I have reached the Pole."
+
+Uttering this for the first time in English, it came upon me that I was
+saying a remarkable thing. Yet Mr. Whitney showed no great surprise, and
+his quiet congratulation confirmed what was in my mind--that I had
+accomplished no extraordinary or unbelievable thing; for to me the Polar
+experience was not in the least remarkable, considered with our later
+adventures.
+
+Mr. Whitney, as is now well known, was a sportsman from New Haven,
+Connecticut, who had been spending some months hunting in the North. He
+had made Annoatok the base of his operations, and had been spending the
+winter in the house which I had built of packing-boxes.
+
+The world now seemed brighter. The most potent factor in this change was
+food--and more food--a bath and another bath--and clean clothes. Mr.
+Whitney offered me unreservedly the hospitality of my own camp. He
+instructed Pritchard to prepare meal after meal of every possible dish
+that our empty stomachs had craved for a year. The Eskimo boys were
+invited to share it.
+
+Between meals, or perhaps we had better call meals courses (for it was a
+continuous all-night performance--interrupted by baths and breathing
+spells to prevent spasms of the jaws)--between courses, then, there were
+washes with real soap and real cleansing warm water, the first that we
+had felt for fourteen months. Mr. Whitney helped to scrape my angular
+anatomy, and he volunteered the information that I was the dirtiest man
+he ever saw.
+
+From Mr. Whitney I learned that Mr. Peary had reached Annoatok about the
+middle of August, 1908, and had placed a boatswain named Murphy,
+assisted by William Pritchard, a cabin boy on the _Roosevelt_, in charge
+of my stores, which he had seized. Murphy was anything but tactful and
+considerate; and in addition to taking charge of my goods, had been
+using them in trading as money to pay for furs to satisfy Mr. Peary's
+hunger for commercial gain. Murphy went south in pursuit of furs after
+my arrival.
+
+For the first few days I was too weak to inquire into the theft of my
+camp and supplies. Furthermore, with a full stomach, and Mr. Whitney as
+a warm friend at hand, I was indifferent. I was not now in any great
+need. For by using the natural resources of the land, as I had done
+before, it was possible to force a way back to civilization from here
+with the aid of my Eskimo friends.
+
+Little by little, however, the story of that very strange "Relief
+Station for Dr. Cook" was unraveled, and I tell it here with no ulterior
+notion of bitterness against Mr. Peary. I forgave him for the practical
+theft of my supplies; but this is a very important part of the
+controversy which followed, a controversy which can be understood only
+by a plain statement of the incidents which led up to and beyond this
+so-called "Relief Station for Dr. Cook," which was a relief only in the
+sense that I was relieved of a priceless store of supplies.
+
+When Mr. Peary heard of the execution of my plans to try for the Pole in
+1907, and before he left on his last expedition, he accused me of
+various violations of what he chose to call "Polar Ethics." No
+application had been filed by me to seek the Pole. Now I was accused of
+stealing his route, his Pole, and his people. This train of accusations
+was given to the press, and with the greatest possible publicity. A part
+of this was included in an official complaint to the International
+Bureau of Polar Research at Brussels.
+
+Now, what are Polar ethics? There is no separate code for the Arctic.
+The laws which govern men's bearing towards each other in New York are
+good in any part of the world. One cannot be a democrat in civilized
+eyes and an autocrat in the savage world. One cannot cry, "Stop thief!"
+and then steal the thief's booty. If you are a member of the brotherhood
+of humanity in one place, you must be in another. In short, he who is a
+gentleman in every sense of the word needs no memory for ethics. It is
+only the modern political reformer who has need of the cloak of the
+hypocrisy of ethics to hide his own misdeeds. An explorer should not
+stoop to this.
+
+Who had the power to grant a license to seek the Pole? If you wish to
+invade the forbidden regions of Thibet, or the interior of Siberia, a
+permit is necessary from the governments interested. But the Pole is a
+place no nation owned, by right of discovery, occupation, or otherwise.
+
+If pushing a ship up the North Atlantic waters to the limit of
+navigation was a trespass on Mr. Peary's preserve, then I am bound to
+plead guilty. But ships had gone that way for a hundred years before Mr.
+Peary developed a Polar claim. If I am guilty, then he is guilty of
+stealing the routes of Davis, Kane, Greely and a number of others. But
+as I view the situation, a modern explorer should take a certain pride
+in the advantages afforded by his worthy predecessors. I take a certain
+historic delight in having followed the routes of the early pathfinders
+to a more remote destination. This indebtedness and this honor I do now,
+as heretofore, acknowledge. The charge that I stole Mr. Peary's route is
+incorrect. For, from the limit of navigation on the Greenland side, my
+track was forced over a land which, although under Mr. Peary's eyes for
+twenty years, was explored by Sverdrup, who got the same unbrotherly
+treatment from Mr. Peary which he has shown to every explorer who has
+had the misfortune to come within the circle he has drawn about an
+imaginary private preserve.
+
+The charge of borrowing Peary's ideas, by which is meant the selection
+of food and supplies and the adoption of certain methods of travel, is
+equally unfounded. For Mr. Peary's weakest chain is his absolute lack of
+system, order, preparation or originality. This is commented upon by the
+men of every one of his previous expeditions. Mr. Peary early charged
+that my system of work and my methods of travel were borrowed from him.
+This was not true; but when he later, in a desperate effort to say
+unkind things, said that my system--the system borrowed from
+himself--was inefficient, the charge becomes laughable. As to the
+Pole--if Mr. Peary has a prior lien on it--it is there still. We did not
+take it away. We simply left our footprints there.
+
+Now as to the charge of using Mr. Peary's supplies and his people--by
+assuming a private preserve of all the reachable Polar wilderness of
+this section, he might put up a plausible claim to it as a private
+hunting ground. If this claim is good, then I am guilty of trespass. But
+it was only done to satisfy the pangs of hunger.
+
+This claim of the ownership of the animals of the unclaimed North might
+be put with plausible excuses to The Hague Tribunal. But it is a claim
+no serious person would consider. The same claim of ownership, however,
+cannot be said of human life.
+
+The Eskimos are a free and independent people. They acknowledge no
+chiefs among themselves and submit to no outside dictators. They are
+likely to call an incoming stranger "nalegaksook," which the vanity of
+the early travelers interpreted as the "great chief." But the intended
+interpretation is "he who has much to barter" or "the great trader."
+This is what they call Mr. Peary. The same compliment is given to other
+traders, whalers or travelers with whom they do business. Despite his
+claims Mr. Peary has been regarded as no more of a benefactor than any
+other explorer.
+
+After delivering, early in 1907, an unreasonable and uncalled for
+attack, Mr. Peary, two months after the Pole had been reached by me,
+went North with two ships, with all the advantage that unlimited funds
+and influential friends could give. At about the same time my companion,
+Rudolph Francke, started south under my instructions, and he locked my
+box-house at Annoatok wherein were stored supplies sufficient for two
+years or more.
+
+The key was entrusted to a trustworthy Eskimo. Under his protection this
+precious life-saving supply was safe for an indefinite time. With it no
+relief expedition or help from the outside world was necessary.
+
+Francke had a hard time as he pushed southward, with boat and sledge.
+Moving supplies to the limit of his carrying capacity, he fought bravely
+against storms, broken ice and thundering seas. The route proved all but
+impossible, but at last his destination at North Star was reached, only
+for him to find that he was too late for the whalers he had expected.
+Impossible to return to our northern camp at that time, and having used
+all of his civilized food en route, he was now compelled to accept the
+hospitality of the natives, in their unhygienic dungeons. For food there
+was nothing but the semi-putrid meat and blubber eaten by the Eskimos.
+After a long and desperate task by boat and sled he returned to Etah but
+he was absolutely unable to proceed farther. Francke's health failed
+rapidly and when, as he thought, the time had arrived to lay down and
+quit life, a big prosperous looking ship came into the harbor. He had
+not tasted civilized food for months, and longed, as only a sick, hungry
+man can, for coffee and bread.
+
+Almost too weak to arise from his couch of stones, he mustered up enough
+strength to stumble over the rails of that ship of plenty. After
+gathering sufficient breath to speak, he asked for bread and coffee. It
+was breakfast time. No answer came to that appeal. He was put off the
+ship. He went back to his cheerless cave and prayed that death might
+close his eyes to further trouble. Somewhat later, when it was learned
+that there was a house and a large store of supplies at Annoatok, and
+that the man had in his possession furs and ivory valued at $10,000,
+there was a change of heart in Mr. Peary. Francke was called on board,
+was given bread and coffee and whiskey. Too weak to resist, he was
+bullied and frightened, and forced under duress to sign papers which he
+did not understand. To get home to him meant life; to remain meant
+death. And the ship before him was thus his only chance for life. Under
+the circumstances he would naturally have put his name to any paper
+placed under his feeble eyes. But the law of no land would enforce such
+a document.
+
+In this way Mr. Peary compelled him to turn over $10,000 worth of furs
+and ivory, besides my station and supplies, worth at least $35,000,
+which were not his to turn over. The prized ivory tusks and furs were
+immediately seized and sent back on the returning ship.
+
+One of the narwhal tusks, worth to me at least $1,000, was polished and
+sent as Peary's trophy to President Roosevelt. Under the circumstances
+has not the President been made the recipient of stolen goods?
+
+When Francke, as a passenger, returned on the Peary supply ship, _Erik_,
+a bill of one hundred dollars was presented for his passage. This bill
+was presumably the bill for the full cost of his return. But the
+priceless furs and ivory trophies were confiscated without a murmur of
+conscious wrongdoing. This is what happened as the ship went south.
+
+Now let us follow the ship _Roosevelt_ in its piratic career northward.
+With Mr. Peary as chief it got to Etah. From there instructions were
+given to seize my house and supplies. This was done over the signature
+of Mr. Peary to a paper which started out with the following shameless
+hypocrisy:
+
+"This is a relief station for Dr. Cook."
+
+According to Mr. Whitney even Captain Bartlett quivered with indignation
+at the blushing audacity of this steal. The stores were said to be
+abandoned. The men, with Peary's orders, went to Koo-loo-ting-wah and
+forced from him the key with which to open the carefully guarded stores.
+The house was reconstructed.
+
+Murphy, a rough Newfoundland bruiser, who had been accustomed to kick
+sailors, was placed in charge with autocratic powers. Murphy could
+neither read nor write, but he was given a long letter of instruction to
+make a trading station of my home and to use my supplies.
+
+Now if Mr. Peary required my supplies for legitimate exploration I
+should have been glad to give him my last bread; but to use my things to
+satisfy his greed for commercial gain was, when I learned it, bitter
+medicine.
+
+Because Murphy could not write, Pritchard was left with him to read the
+piratic instructions once each week. Pritchard was also to keep account
+of the furs bought and the prices paid--mostly in my coin. Murphy soon
+forbade the reading of the instructions, and also stopped the
+stock-taking and bookkeeping. The hypocrisy of the thing seemed to pinch
+even Murphy's narrow brain.
+
+This same deliberate Murphy, accustomed to life in barracks, held the
+whip for a year over the head of Harry Whitney, a man of culture and
+millions. Money, however, was of no use there. Audacity and self-assumed
+power, it seems, ruled as it did in times of old when buccaneers
+deprived their victims of gold, and walked them off a plank into the
+briny deep.
+
+Murphy and Pritchard, the paid traders, fixed themselves cosily in my
+camp. Mr. Whitney had been invited as a guest to stay and hunt for his
+own pleasure. The party lived for a year at my expense, but the lot of
+Whitney was very hard as an invited guest, a privilege for which I was
+told he had paid Mr. Peary two thousand dollars or more. His decision to
+stay had come only after a disappointment in a lack of success of
+hunting during the summer season. He was, therefore, ill-provided for
+the usual Polar hardships. With no food, and no adequate clothing of his
+own, he was dependent on the dictates of Murphy to supply him. As time
+went on, the night with its awful cold advanced. Murphy gathered in all
+the furs and absolutely prohibited Whitney from getting suitable furs
+for winter clothing. He, therefore, shivered throughout the long winter
+in his sheepskin shooting outfit. Several times he was at the point of a
+hand-to-hand encounter with Murphy, but with young Pritchard as a friend
+and gentlemanly instincts to soften his manner, he grit his teeth and
+swallowed the insults.
+
+His ambition for a hunting trip was frustrated because it interfered
+with Murphy's plans for trading in skins. The worst and most brutal
+treatment was the almost inconceivable cruelty of his not allowing Mr.
+Whitney enough food for a period of months, not even of my supplies,
+although this food was used eventually to feed useless dogs.
+
+All of this happened under Mr. Peary's authority, and under the coarse,
+swaggering Murphy, whom Mr. Peary, in his book, calls "a thoroughly
+trustworthy man!" Mr. Peary's later contention, in a hypocritical effort
+to clear himself (see "The North Pole," page 76) that he placed Murphy
+in charge "to prevent the Eskimos from looting the supplies and
+equipment left there by Dr. Cook," is a mean, petty and unworthy slur
+upon a brave, loyal people, among whom thievery is a thing unknown.
+Unknown, yes, save when white men without honor, without respect for
+property or the ethics of humanity, which the Eskimos instinctively
+have, invade their region and rob them and fellow explorers with the
+brazenness of middle-aged buccaneers.
+
+
+
+
+ANNOATOK TO UPERNAVIK
+
+ELEVEN HUNDRED MILES SOUTHWARD OVER SEA AND LAND--AT ETAH--OVERLAND TO
+THE WALRUS GROUNDS--ESKIMO COMEDIES AND TRAGEDIES--A RECORD RUN OVER
+MELVILLE BAY--FIRST NEWS FROM PASSING SHIPS--THE ECLIPSE OF THE
+SUN--SOUTHWARD BY STEAMER GODTHAAB
+
+XXX
+
+ALONG DANISH GREENLAND
+
+
+A few interesting days were spent with Mr. Whitney at Annoatok. The
+Eskimos, in the meantime, had all gone south to the walrus hunting
+grounds at Nuerke. Koo-loo-ting-wah came along with a big team of dogs.
+Here was an opportunity to attempt to reach the Danish settlements--for
+to get home quickly was now my all-absorbing aim. Koo-loo-ting-wah was
+in my service. He was guarding my supplies in 1908 when the ship
+_Roosevelt_ had come along. He had been compelled to give up the key to
+my box-house. He had been engaged to place supplies for us and search
+the American shores for our rescue. Peary, making a pretended "Relief
+Station," forced Koo-loo-ting-wah from his position as guardian of my
+supplies, and forbade him to engage in any effort to search for us, and
+absolutely prohibited him and everybody else, including Murphy,
+Prichard and Whitney, from engaging in any kind of succor at a time when
+help was of consequence. Koo-loo-ting-wah was liberally paid to abandon
+my interests (by Mr. Peary's orders, from my supplies), but, like
+Bartlett and Whitney and Prichard later, he condemned Mr. Peary for his
+unfair acts. When asked to join me in the long journey to Upernavik, he
+said, "_Peari an-nutu_" (Peary will be mad.) Koo-loo-ting-wah was now in
+Peary's service at my expense, and I insisted that he enter my service,
+which he did. Then we began our preparations for the southern trip.
+
+Accompanied by Whitney, I went to Etah, and for this part of the journey
+Murphy grudgingly gave me a scant food supply for a week, for which I
+gave him a memorandum. This memorandum was afterwards published by Mr.
+Peary as a receipt, so displayed as to convey the idea that all the
+stolen supplies had been replaced.
+
+At Etah was a big cache which had been left a year before by Captain
+Bernier, the commander of a northern expedition sent out by the Canadian
+Government, and which had been placed in charge of Mr. Whitney. In this
+cache were food, new equipment, trading material, and clean underclothes
+which Mrs. Cook had sent on the Canadian expedition. With this new store
+of suitable supplies, I now completed my equipment for the return to
+civilization.[19]
+
+To get home quickly, I concluded, could be done best by going to the
+Danish settlements in Greenland, seven hundred miles south, and thence
+to Europe by an early steamer. From Upernavik mail is carried in small
+native boats to Umanak, where there is direct communication with Europe
+by government steamers. By making this journey, and taking a fast boat
+to America, I calculated I could reach New York in early July.
+
+Mr. Whitney expected the _Erik_ to arrive to take him south in the
+following August. Going, as he planned, into Hudson Bay, he expected to
+reach New York in October. Although this would be the easiest and safest
+way to reach home, by the route I had planned I hoped to reach New York
+four months earlier than the _Erik_ would.
+
+The journey from Etah to Upernavik is about seven hundred miles--a
+journey as long and nearly as difficult as the journey to the North
+Pole. I knew it involved difficulties and risks--the climbing of
+mountains and glaciers, the crossing of open leads of water late in the
+season, when the ice is in motion and snow is falling, and the dragging
+of sledges through slush and water.
+
+Mr. Whitney, in view of these dangers, offered to take care of my
+instruments, notebooks and flag, and take them south on his ship. I knew
+that if any food were lost on my journey it might be replaced by game.
+Instruments lost in glaciers or open seas could not be replaced. The
+instruments, moreover, had served their purposes. The corrections,
+notes, and other data were also no longer needed; all my observations
+had been reduced, and the corrections were valuable only for a future
+re-examination. This is why I did not take them with me. It is
+customary, also, to leave corrections with instruments.
+
+In the box which I gave to Mr. Whitney were packed one French sextant;
+one surveying compass, aluminum, with azimuth attachment; one artificial
+horizon, set in a thin metal frame adjusted by spirit levels and
+thumbscrews; one aneroid barometer, aluminum; one aluminum case with
+maximum and minimum spirit thermometer; other thermometers, and also one
+liquid compass. All of these I had carried with me.
+
+Besides these were left other instruments used about the relief station.
+There were papers giving instrumental corrections, readings,
+comparisons, and other notes; a small diary, mostly of loose leaves,
+containing some direct field readings, and meteorological data. These
+were packed in one of the instrument cases. By special request of Mr.
+Whitney, I also left my flag.
+
+In addition, I placed in Mr. Whitney's charge several big cases of
+clothing and supplies which Mrs. Cook had sent, also ethnological
+collections, furs, and geological specimens. In one of these boxes were
+packed the instrument cases and notes.
+
+Mr. Whitney's plans later were changed. His ship, the _Erik_, not
+having arrived when Peary returned, Whitney arranged with Peary to come
+back to civilization on the latter's ship, the _Roosevelt_. As I learned
+afterwards, when the _Roosevelt_ arrived Mr. Whitney took from one of my
+packing boxes my instruments and packed them in his trunk. He was,
+however, prohibited from carrying my things, and all my belongings were
+consequently left at the mercy of the weather and the natives in far-off
+Greenland. I have had no means of hearing from them since, so that I do
+not know what has become of them.
+
+About Etah and Annoatok and on my eastward journey few notes were made.
+As well as I can remember, I left Annoatok some time during the third
+week of April. On leaving Whitney, I promised to send him dogs and
+guides for his prospective hunting trip. I also promised to get for him
+furs for a suitable winter suit--because, according to Mr. Peary's
+autocratic methods, he had been denied the privilege of trading for
+himself. He was not allowed to gather trophies, or to purchase
+absolutely necessary furs, nor was he accorded the courtesy of arranging
+for guides and dogs with the natives for his ambition to get big game.
+All of this I was to arrange for Whitney as I passed the villages
+farther south.
+
+In crossing by the overland route, over Crystal Palace Glacier to Sontag
+Bay, we were caught in a violent gale, which buried us in drifts on the
+highlands. Descending to the sea, we entered a new realm of coming
+summer joys.
+
+Moving along to Neurke, we found a big snowhouse village. All had
+gathered for the spring walrus chase. Many animals had been caught, and
+the hunters were in a gluttonous stupor from continued overfeeding. It
+was not long before we, too, filled up, and succumbed to similar
+pleasures.
+
+My boys were here, and the principal pastime was native gossip about the
+North Pole.
+
+Arriving among their own people here, Ah-we-lah and E-tuk-i-shook
+recounted their remarkable journey. They had, of course, no definite
+idea of where they had been, but told of the extraordinary journey of
+seven moons; of their reaching a place where there was no game and no
+life; of their trailing over the far-off seas where the sun did not dip
+at night, and of their hunting, on our return, with slingshots, string
+traps, and arrows. These were their strong and clear impressions.[20]
+
+From Neurke we crossed Murchison Sound, along the leads where the walrus
+was being hunted, and from there we set a course for the eastern point
+of Northumberland Island.
+
+We next entered Inglefield Gulf. Our party had grown. Half of the
+natives were eager to join us on a pilgrimage to the kindly and beloved
+Danes of Southern Greenland; but, because of the advancing season, the
+marches must be forced, and because a large sled train hinders rapid
+advancement, I reduced the numbers and changed the personnel of my party
+as better helpers offered services.
+
+From a point near Itiblu we ascended the blue slopes of a snow-free
+glacier, and after picking a dangerous footing around precipitous
+cliffs, we rose to the clouds and deep snows of the inland ice. Here,
+for twenty-four hours, we struggled through deep snow, with only the
+wind to give direction to our trail. Descending from this region of
+perpetual mist and storm, we came down to the sea in Booth Sound. From
+here, after a good rest, over splendid ice, in good weather, we entered
+Wolstenholm Sound. At Oomonoi there was a large gathering of natives,
+and among these we rested and fed up in preparation for the long,
+hazardous trip which lay before us.
+
+In this locality, the Danish Literary Expedition, under the late Mylius
+Ericksen, had wintered. Their forced march northward from Upernavik
+proved so desperate that they were unable to carry important
+necessaries.
+
+But the natives, with characteristic generosity, had supplied the Danes
+with the meat for food and the fat for fuel, which kept them alive
+during dangerous and trying times.[21]
+
+We now started for Cape York. My-ah, Ang-ad-loo and I-o-ko-ti were
+accepted as permanent members of my party. All of this party was,
+curiously enough, hostile to Mr. Peary, and the general trend of
+conversation was a bitter criticism of the way the people had been
+fleeced of furs and ivory; how a party had been left to die of cold and
+hunger at Fort Conger; how, at Cape Sabine, many died of a sickness
+which had been brought among them, and how Dr. Dedrick was not allowed
+to save their lives; how a number had been torn from their homes and
+taken to New York, where they had died of barbarous ill-treatment; how
+their great "Iron Stone," their only source of iron for centuries, the
+much-prized heritage of their nation, had been stolen from the point we
+were now nearing; and so on, throughout a long line of other abuses.
+But, at the time, all of this bitterness seemed to soften my own
+resentment, and I began to cherish a forgiving spirit toward Mr. Peary.
+After all, thought I, I have been successful; let us have an end of
+discord and seek a brighter side of life.
+
+Now I began to think for the first time of the public aspect of my
+homegoing. Heretofore my anticipations had been centered wholly in the
+joys of a family reunion, but now the thought was slowly forced as to
+the attitude which others would take towards me. In the wildest flights
+of my imagination I never dreamed of any world-wide interest in the
+Pole. Again I desire to emphasize the fact that every movement I have
+made disproves the allegation that I planned to perpetrate a gigantic
+fraud upon the world. Men had been seeking the North Pole for years, and
+at no time had any of these many explorers aroused any general interest
+in his expedition or the results.
+
+Millions of money, hundreds of lives, had been sacrificed. The complex
+forces of great nations had been arrayed unsuccessfully. I had believed
+the thing could be done by simpler methods, without the sacrifice of
+life, without using other people's money; and, with this conviction, had
+gone north. I now came south, with no expectations of reward except such
+as would come from a simple success in a purely private undertaking.
+
+I wish to emphasize that I regarded my entire experience as something
+purely personal. I supposed that the newspapers would announce my
+return, and that there would be a three days' breath of attention, and
+that that would be all. So far as I was personally concerned, my chief
+thought was one of satisfaction at having satisfied myself, and an
+intense longing for home.
+
+We camped at Cape York. Before us was the great white expanse of
+Melville Bay to the distant Danish shores. Few men had ever ventured
+over this. What luck was in store for us could not be guessed. But we
+were ready for every emergency. We moved eastward to an island where the
+natives greeted us with enthusiasm, and then we started over treacherous
+ice southward. The snow was not deep; the ice proved fairly smooth. The
+seals, basking in the new summer sun, augmented our supplies. Frequent
+bear tracks added the spirit of the chase, which doubled our speed. In
+two days we had the "Devil's Thumb" to our left, and at the end of three
+and a half days the cheer of Danish cliffs and semi-civilized Eskimos
+came under our eyes.
+
+The route from Annoatok to this point, following the circuitous twists
+over sea and land, was almost as long as that from Annoatok to the Pole,
+but we had covered it in less than a month. With a record march across
+Melville Bay, we had crossed a long line of trouble, in which Mylius
+Ericksen and his companions nearly succumbed after weeks of frosty
+torture. We had done it in a few days, and in comfort, with the luxury
+of abundant food gathered en route.
+
+Behind the Danish archipelago, traveling was good and safe. As we went
+along, from village to village, the Eskimos told the story of the Polar
+conquest. Rapidly we pushed along to Tassuasak, which we reached in the
+middle of May. This is one of the small trading posts belonging to the
+district of Upernavik.
+
+At Tassuasak I met Charles Dahl, a congenial Danish official, with whom
+I stayed a week. He spoke only Danish, which I did not understand.
+Despite the fact that our language was unintelligible, we talked until
+two or three o'clock in the morning, somehow conveying our thoughts, and
+when he realized what I told him he took my hand, offering warm,
+whole-souled Norse appreciation.
+
+Here I secured for Mr. Whitney tobacco and other needed supplies. For
+the Eskimos, various presents were bought, all of which were packed on
+the returning sleds. Then the time arrived to bid the final adieu to my
+faithful wild men of the Far North. Tears took the place of words in
+that parting.
+
+By sledge and oomiak (skin boat) I now continued my journey to
+Upernavik.
+
+Upernavik is one of the largest Danish settlements in Greenland and one
+of the most important trading posts. It is a small town with a
+population of about three hundred Eskimos, who live in box-shaped huts
+of turf. The town affords residence for about six Danish officials, who
+live, with their families, in comfortable houses.
+
+I reached there early one morning about May 20, 1909, and went at
+once to the house of Governor Kraul. The governor himself--a tall,
+bald-headed, dignified man, a bachelor, about fifty years of
+age, of genial manner and considerable literary and scientific
+attainments--answered my knock on the door. He admitted me hospitably,
+and then looked me over from head to foot.
+
+I was a hard-looking visitor. I wore an old sealskin coat, worn bearskin
+trousers, stockings of hare-skin showing above torn seal boots. I was
+reasonably dirty. My face was haggard and bronzed, my hair was uncut,
+long and straggling. However, I felt reassured in a bath and clean
+underclothing secured a week before at Tassuasak. Later these clothes
+were replaced by new clothes given me by Governor Kraul, some of which I
+wore on my trip to Copenhagen. My appearance was such that I was not
+surprised by the governor's question: "Have you any lice on you?"
+
+Some years before he had entertained some Arctic pilgrims, and a
+peculiar breed of parasites remained to plague the village for a long
+time. I convinced him that, in spite of my unprepossessing appearance,
+he was safe in sheltering me.
+
+At his house I had all the luxuries of a refined home with a large
+library at my disposal. I had also a large, comfortable feather-bed with
+clean sheets. I slept for hours every day, devoting about four or five
+hours to my work on my notes.
+
+At breakfast I told Governor Kraul briefly of my journey, and although
+he was polite and pleasant, I could see that he was skeptical as to my
+having reached the Pole. I remained with him a month, using his pens and
+paper putting the finishing touches on my narrative--on which I had done
+much work at Cape Sparbo. My notes and papers were scattered about, and
+Governor Kraul read them, and as he read them his doubts were dispelled
+and he waxed enthusiastic.
+
+Governor Kraul had had no news of the inside world for about a year. He
+was as anxious as I was for letters and papers. I went over his last
+year's news with a good deal of interest. While thus engaged, early one
+foggy morning, a big steamer came into port. It was the steam whaler
+_Morning_ of Dundee. Her master, Captain Adams, came ashore with letters
+and news. He recited the remarkable journey of Shackleton to the South
+Pole as his opening item in the cycle of the year's incidents. After
+that he gave it as his opinion that England had become Americanized in
+its politics, and after recounting the year's luck in whaling, sealing
+and fishing, he then informed me that from America the greatest news was
+the success of "The Merry Widow" and "The Dollar Princess." I was
+invited aboard to eat the first beefsteak and first fresh civilized food
+that I had eaten in two years. I then told him of my Polar conquest. He
+was keenly interested in my story, all of my reports seeming to confirm
+his own preconceived ideas of conditions about the Pole. When I went
+ashore I took a present of a bag of potatoes. To Governor Kraul and
+myself these potatoes proved to be the greatest delicacy, for to both
+the flavor and real fresh, mealy potatoes gave our meals the finishing
+touches of a fine dessert.
+
+I gave Captain Adams some information about new hunting grounds which,
+as he left, he said would be tried.[22]
+
+Life at Upernavik was interesting. Among other things, we noted the
+total eclipse of the sun on June 17. According to our time, it began in
+the evening at eighteen minutes past seven and ended ten minutes after
+nine.
+
+For a number of days the natives had looked with anxiety upon the coming
+of the mysterious darkness attending the eclipse, for now we were in a
+land of anxiety and uneasiness. It was said that storms would follow
+each other, displaying the atmospheric rage; that seals could not be
+sought, and that all good people should pray. Although a violent
+southwest gale did rush by, the last days before the eclipse were clear
+and warm.
+
+Governor Kraul suggested a camp on the high rocks east. Mr. Anderson,
+the governor's assistant, and I joined in the expedition. We took smoked
+and amber glasses, a pen and paper, a camera and field glasses. A little
+disk was cut out of the northern side of the sun before we started.
+There was no wind, and the sky was cloudless. A better opportunity could
+not have been afforded. It had been quite warm. The chirp of the snow
+bunting and the buzz of bees gave the first joyous rebound of the short
+Arctic summer. Small sand-flies rose in clouds, and the waters glittered
+with midsummer incandescence. Small groups of natives, in gorgeous
+attire, gathered in many places, and occasionally took a sly glance at
+the sun as if something was about to happen. They talked in muffled
+undertones.
+
+When one-third of the sun's disk was obscured it was impossible to see
+the cut circle with the unprotected eye. It grew perceptibly dark. The
+natives quieted and moved toward the church. The birds ceased to sing;
+the flies sank to the ground. With the failing light the air quickly
+chilled, the bright contour of the land blurred, the deep blue of the
+sea faded to a dull purple-blue seemingly lighter, but the midday
+splendor of high lights and shadows was lost. The burning glitter of
+the waters under the sun now quickly changed to a silvery glow. The
+alabaster and ultramarine blue of the icebergs was veiled in gray.
+
+When a thread of light spread the cut out, we knew that the total
+eclipse was over. In what seemed like a few seconds the gloom of night
+brightened to the sparkle of noon.
+
+[Illustration: SAVED FROM STARVATION--THE RESULT OF ONE OF OUR LAST
+CARTRIDGES]
+
+[Illustration: "MILES AND MILES OF DESOLATION."
+
+HOMEWARD BOUND
+
+_Copyright_, 1909, "_New York Herald Co._"]
+
+At the darkest time the natives had called for open church doors, and a
+sense of immediate danger came over the savage horizon with the force of
+a panic. A single star was visible for about a minute before and after
+the total eclipse. A slight salmon flush remained along the western
+horizon; otherwise the sky varied in tones of purple-blue.
+
+After the sea had brightened to its normal luster, Governor Kraul gave
+the entire native settlement a feast of figs.
+
+About June 20, the Danish supply ship, _Godthaab_, with Captain Henning
+Shoubye in command, arrived from South Greenland. Inspector Dougaard
+Jensen and Handelschef Weche were aboard on a tour of inspection along
+the Danish settlements. A corps of scientific observers were also
+aboard. Among these were Professors Thompsen and Steensby and Dr.
+Krabbe. Governor Kraul asked me to accompany him aboard the _Godthaab_.
+Thus I first met this group of men, who afterwards did so much to make
+my journey southward to Copenhagen interesting and agreeable. The
+Governor told them of the conquest of the Pole. At the time their
+interest in the news was not very marked, but later every phase of the
+entire trip was thoroughly discussed.
+
+In a few days the _Godthaab_ sailed from Upernavik to Umanak, and I took
+passage on her. Captain Shoubye quietly and persistently questioned me
+as to details of my trip. Apparently he became convinced that I was
+stating facts, for when we arrived at Umanak, the social metropolis of
+North Greenland, the people enthusiastically received me, having been
+informed of my feat by the captain.
+
+After coaling at a place near Umanak we started south.
+
+At the "King's Guest House" in Eggedesminde, the only hotel in
+Greenland, I met Dr. Norman-Hansen, a scientist, with whom I talked. He
+questioned me, and a fraternal confidence was soon established.
+
+Later the _Godthaab_, which took the missionary expedition to the
+northernmost Eskimo settlement at North Star Bay and then returned,
+arrived from Cape York with Knud Rassmussen and other Danes aboard. They
+had a story that my two Eskimos had said I had taken them to the "Big
+Nail."
+
+
+
+
+FROM GREENLAND TO COPENHAGEN
+
+FOREWARNING OF THE POLAR CONTROVERSY--BANQUET AT EGGEDESMINDE--ON
+BOARD THE HANS EGEDE--CABLEGRAMS SENT FROM LERWICK--THE OVATION AT
+COPENHAGEN--BEWILDERED AMIDST THE GENERAL ENTHUSIASM--PEARY'S FIRST
+MESSAGES--EMBARK ON OSCAR II FOR NEW YORK
+
+XXXI
+
+AT THE DANISH METROPOLIS
+
+
+At Eggedesminde was given the first banquet in my honor. At the table
+were about twenty people. Knud Rassmussen, the writer, among others
+spoke. In an excited talk in Danish, mixed with English and German, he
+foretold the return of Mr. Peary and prophesied discord. This made
+little impression at the time and was recalled only by later events.
+
+At this point I wish to express my gratitude and appreciation of the
+universal courtesy of which I was the recipient at every Danish
+settlement in my southward progress along the coast of Greenland.
+
+At Eggedesminde Inspector Daugaard-Jensen endeavored to secure an idle
+walrus schooner for me. By this I hoped to get to Labrador and thence to
+New York. This involved considerable official delay, and I estimated I
+could make better time by going to Copenhagen on the _Hans Egede_.
+Although every berth on this boat, when it arrived, was engaged,
+Inspector Daugaard-Jensen, with the same characteristic kindness and
+courtesy shown me by all the Danes, secured for me comfortable quarters.
+
+On board were a number of scientific men and Danish correspondents. As
+the story of my quest had spread along the Greenland coast, and as
+conflicting reports might be sent out, Inspector Daugaard-Jensen
+suggested that I cable a first account to the world.
+
+The anxiety of the newspaper correspondents on board gave me the idea
+that my story might have considerable financial value. I was certainly
+in need of money. I had only forty or fifty dollars and I needed
+clothing and money for my passage from Copenhagen to New York.
+
+The suggestions and assistance of Inspector Daugaard-Jensen were very
+helpful. Iceland and the Faroe Islands, frequent ports of call for the
+Danish steamers, because of a full passenger list and the absence of
+commercial needs, were not visited by the _Hans Egede_ on this return
+trip. The captain decided to put into Lerwick, in the Shetland Islands,
+so that I could send my message.
+
+I prepared a story of about 2,000 words, and went ashore at Lerwick. No
+one but myself and a representative of the captain was allowed to land.
+We swore the cable operator to secrecy, sent several official and
+private messages, and one to James Gordon Bennett briefly telling of my
+discovery. As the operator refused to be responsible for the press
+message, it was left with the Danish consul. To Mr. Bennett I cabled:
+"Message left in care of Danish consul, 2,000 words. For it $3,000
+expected. If you want it, send for it."
+
+Our little boat pulled back to the _Hans Egede_, and the ship continued
+on her journey to Copenhagen. Two days passed. On board we talked of my
+trip as quite a commonplace thing. I made some appointments for a short
+stay in Copenhagen.
+
+Off the Skaw, the northernmost point of Denmark, a Danish man-of-war
+came alongside us. There was a congratulatory message from the Minister
+of State. This greatly surprised me.
+
+Meanwhile a motor boat puffed over the unsteady sea and a half dozen
+seasick newspaper men, looking like wet cats, jumped over the rails.
+They had been permitted to board on the pretext that they had a message
+from the American Minister, Dr. Egan. I took them to my cabin and asked
+whether the New York _Herald_ had printed my cable. The correspondent of
+the _Politiken_ drew out a Danish paper in which I recognized the story.
+I talked with the newspaper men for five minutes and my prevailing
+impression was that they did not know what they wanted. They told me
+Fleet Street had moved to Copenhagen. I confess all of this seemed
+foolish at the time.
+
+They told me that dinners and receptions awaited me at Copenhagen. That
+puzzled me, and when I thought of my clothes I became distressed. I wore
+a dirty, oily suit. I had only one set of clean linen and one cap. After
+consulting with the Inspector we guessed at my measurements, and a
+telegram was written to a tailor at Copenhagen to have some clothing
+ready for me. At Elsinore cables began to arrive, and thence onward I
+became a helpless leaf on a whirlwind of excitement. I let the people
+about plan and think for me, and had a say in nothing. A cable from Mr.
+Bennett saying that he had never paid $3,000 so willingly gave me
+pleasure. There was relief in this, too, for my expenses at the hotel in
+Eggedesminde and on the _Hans Egede_ were unpaid.
+
+At Elsinore many people came aboard with whom I shook hands and muttered
+inanities in response to congratulations. Reporters who were not seasick
+thronged the ship, each one insisting on a special interview. Why should
+I be interviewed? It seemed silly to make such a fuss.
+
+Cablegrams and letters piled in my cabin. With my usual methodical
+desire to read and answer all communications I sat down to this task,
+which soon seemed hopeless. I was becoming intensely puzzled, and a
+not-knowing-where-I-was-at sensation confused me. I did not have a
+minute for reflection, and before I could approximate my situation, we
+arrived at Copenhagen.
+
+Like a bolt from the blue, there burst about me the clamor of
+Copenhagen's ovation. I was utterly bewildered by it. I found no reason
+in my mind for it. About the North Pole I had never felt such
+exultation. I could not bring myself to feel what all this indicated,
+that I had accomplished anything extraordinarily marvelous. For days I
+could not grasp the reason for the world-excitement.
+
+When I went on deck, as we approached the city, I saw far in the
+distance flags flying. Like a darting army of water bugs, innumerable
+craft of all kind were leaping toward us on the sunlit water. Tugs and
+motors, rowboats and sailboats, soon surrounded and followed us. The
+flags of all nations dangled on the decorated craft. People shouted, it
+seemed, in every tongue. Wave after wave of cheering rolled over the
+water. Horns blew, there was the sound of music, guns exploded. All
+about, balancing on unsteady craft, their heads hooded in black, were
+the omnipresent moving-picture-machine operators at work. All this
+passed as a moving picture itself, I standing there, dazed, simply
+dazed.
+
+Amidst increasing cheering the _Hans Egede_ dropped anchor. Prince
+Christian, the crown prince, Prince Waldemar, King Frederick's brother,
+United States Minister Egan, and many other distinguished gentlemen in
+good clothes greeted me. That they were people who wore good clothes was
+my predominant impression. Mentally I compared their well-tailored
+garments with my dirty, soiled, bagged-at-the-knees suit. I doffed my
+old dirty cap, and as I shook hands with the Prince Christian and Prince
+Waldemar, tall, splendid men, I felt very sheepish. While all this was
+going on, I think I forgot about the North Pole. I was most
+uncomfortable.
+
+For a while it was impossible to get ashore. Along the pier to which we
+drew, the crowd seemed to drag into the water. About me was a babel of
+sound, of which I heard, the whole time, no intelligible word. I was
+pushed, lifted ashore, the crown prince before me, William T. Stead, the
+English journalist, behind. I almost fell, trying to get a footing. On
+both sides the press of people closed upon us. I fought like a swimmer
+struggling for life, and, becoming helpless, was pushed and carried
+along. I walked two steps on the ground and five on the air. Somebody
+grabbed my hat, another pulled off a cuff, others got buttons; but
+flowers came in exchange. At times Stead held me from falling. I was
+weak and almost stifled. On both sides of me rushed a flood of blurred
+human faces. I was in a delirium. I ceased to think, was unable to
+think, for hours.
+
+We finally reached the Meteorological building. I was pushed through the
+iron gates. I heard them slammed behind me. I paused to breathe.
+Somebody mentioned something about a speech. "My God!" I muttered. I
+could no more think than fly. I was pushed onto a balcony. I remember
+opening my mouth, but I do not know a word I said. There followed a lot
+of noise. I suppose it was applause. Emerging from the black, lonely
+Arctic night, the contrast of that rushing flood of human faces
+staggered me. Yes, there was another sensation--that of being a stranger
+among strange people, in a city where, however much I might be honored,
+I had no old-time friend. This curiously depressed me.
+
+Through a back entrance I was smuggled into an automobile. The late
+Commander Hovgaard, a member of the Nordenskjöld expedition, took charge
+of affairs, and I was taken to the Phoenix Hotel. Apartments had also
+been reserved for me at the Bristol and Angleterre, but I had no voice
+in the plans, for which I was glad.
+
+I was shown to my room and, while washing my face and hands, had a
+moment to think. "What the devil is it all about?" I remember repeating
+to myself. I was simply dazed. A barber arrived; I submitted to a shave.
+Meanwhile a manicure girl appeared and took charge of my hands. Through
+the bewildered days that followed, the thought of this girl, like the
+obsession of a delirious man, followed me. I had not paid or tipped her,
+and with the girl's image a perturbed feeling persisted, "Here is some
+one I have wronged." I repeated that over and over again. This shows the
+overwrought state of my mind at the time.
+
+Next the bedroom was a large, comfortable reception room, already filled
+with flowers. Beyond that was a large room in which I found many suits
+of clothes, some smaller, some bigger than the estimated size wired from
+the ship. At this moment there came Mr. Ralph L. Shainwald--an old
+friend and a companion of the first expedition to Mt. McKinley. He
+selected for me suitable things. Hastily I fell into one of these, and
+mechanically put on clean linen--or rather, the clothing was put on by
+my attendants.
+
+Now I was carried to the American Legation, where I lunched with
+Minister Egan, and I might have been eating sawdust for all the
+impression food made on me. For an hour, I have been told since, I was
+plied with questions. It is a strange phenomenon how our bodies will act
+and our lips frame words when the mind is blank. I had no more idea of
+my answers than the man in the moon.
+
+Upon my brain, with the quick, nervous twitter of moving-picture
+impressions, swam continually the scenes through which I moved. I have a
+recollection, on my return to the hotel, of going through hundreds of
+telegrams. Just as a man looks at his watch and puts it in his pocket
+without noting the time, so I read these messages of congratulation.
+Tremendous offers of money from publishers, and for lecture engagements,
+and opportunities by which I might become a music-hall attraction
+excited no interest one way or another.
+
+My desire to show appreciation of the hospitality of the Danes by
+returning to America on a Danish steamer prevented my even considering
+some of these offers. If I had planned to deceive the world for money,
+is it reasonable to believe I should have thrown away huge sums for this
+simple show of courtesy?
+
+Having lunched with Minister Egan, I spent part of the afternoon of the
+day of my arrival hastily scanning a voluminous pile of correspondence.
+Money offers and important messages were necessarily pushed aside. I had
+been honored by a summons to the royal presence, and shortly before five
+o'clock repaired to the royal palace.
+
+I still retain in my mental retina a picture of the king. It is a
+gracious, kindly memory. Surrounded by the queen and his three
+daughters, Princesses Ingeborg, Thyra, and Dagmar, he rose, a
+gray-haired, fatherly old man, and with warmness of feeling extended his
+hand. Out of that human sea of swirling white faces and staring eyes, in
+which I had struggled as a swimmer for life, I remember feeling a sense
+of security and rest. We talked, I think, of general topics.
+
+I returned to the hotel. Into my brain came the words, from some one,
+that the newspaper correspondents, representing the great dailies and
+magazines of the world, were waiting for me. Would I see them? I went
+downstairs and for an hour was grilled with questions. They came like
+shots, in many tongues, and only now and then did familiar English words
+strike me and quiver in my brain cells.
+
+I have been told I was self-possessed and calm. Had I gone through
+30,000 square miles of land? Was I competent to take observations? Could
+I sit down and invent observations? Had I been fully possessed, I
+suppose, these sudden doubts expressed would have caused some
+wonderment; doubtless I was puzzled below the realm of consciousness,
+where, they say, the secret service of the mind grasps the most elusive
+things. I have since read my replies and marveled at the lucidity of
+certain answers; only my bewilderment, unless I were misquoted, can
+explain the absurdity of others.
+
+My impression of the banquet that night in the City Hall is very vague.
+I talked aimlessly. There were speeches, toasts were drunk; I replied.
+The North Pole was, I suppose, the subject, but so bewildered was I at
+the time, that nothing was further from my mind than the North Pole. If
+an idea came now and then it was the feeling that I must get away
+without offending these people. I felt the atmosphere of excitement
+about me for days, pressing me, crushing me.
+
+My time was occupied with consultations, receptions, lunches, and
+dinners, between which there was a feverish effort to answer
+increasingly accumulating telegrams. Mr. E. G. Wyckoff, an old friend,
+now came along and took from me certain business cares. By day there was
+excitement; by night excitement; there was excitement in my dreams. I
+slept no more than five hours a night--if I could call it sleep.
+
+As a surcease from this turmoil came the evening at King Frederick's
+summer palace, where I dined with the royal family and many notable
+guests. All were so kindly, the surroundings were so unostentatious,
+that for a short while my confusion passed.
+
+I remember being cornered near a piano after dinner by the young members
+of the family and plied with questions. I felt for once absolutely at
+ease and told them of the wild animals and exciting hunts of the north.
+Otherwise we talked of commonplace topics, and rarely was the North Pole
+mentioned.
+
+Until after midnight, on my return to my hotel, I sat up with the late
+Commander Hovgaard and Professor Olafsen, secretary of the Geographical
+Society. I clearly recall an afternoon when Professor Torp, rector of
+the university, and Professor Elis Stromgren, informed me that the
+university desired to honor me with a decoration. Professor Stromgren
+asked me about my methods of observation and I explained them freely. He
+believed my claim. The question of certain, absolute and detailed proofs
+never occurred to me. I was sure of the verity of my claim. I knew I had
+been as accurate in my scientific work as anyone could be.
+
+My first public account of my exploit was delivered before the
+Geographical Society on the evening of September 7, and in the presence
+of the king and queen, Prince and Princess George of Greece, most of the
+members of the royal family, and the most prominent people of
+Copenhagen. I had outlined my talk and written parts of it. With the
+exception of these, which I read, I spoke extempore. Because of the
+probability of the audience not understanding English, I confined
+myself to a brief narrative. The audience listened quietly and their
+credence seemed but the undemonstrative acceptance of an every-day fact.
+
+Not knowing that a medal was to be presented to me at that time, I
+descended from the platform on concluding my speech. I met the crown
+prince, who was ascending, and who spoke to me. I did not understand him
+and proceeded to the floor before the stage. Embarrassed by my
+misunderstanding, he unfolded his papers and began a presentation
+speech. Confused, I remained standing below. Whether I ascended the
+stage and made a reply or received the medal from the floor, I do not
+now remember.
+
+During the several days that followed I spent most of my time answering
+correspondence and attending to local obligations. An entire day was
+spent autographing photographs for members of the royal family. After
+much hard work I got things in such shape that I saw my way clear to go
+to Brussels, return to Copenhagen, and make an early start for home.
+
+I had delivered my talk before the Geographical Society. The reporters
+had seen me, and assailed me with questions, and had packed their suit
+cases. Tired to death and exhausted with want of sleep, I viewed the
+prospect of a departure with relief. Because of my condition I refused
+an invitation to attend a banquet which the newspaper _Politiken_ gave
+to the foreign correspondents at the Tivoli restaurant.
+
+They insisted that I come, if only for five minutes, and promised that
+there would be no attempt at interviewing. I went and listened wearily
+to the speeches, made in different languages, and felt no stir at the
+applause. While the representative of the _Matin_ was speaking in
+French, some one tiptoed up to me and placed a cablegram under my plate.
+From all sides attendants appeared with cables which were quietly placed
+under the plates of the various reporters. The _Matin_ man stopped; we
+looked at the cables. A deadly lull fell in the room. You could have
+heard a pin drop. It was Peary's first message--"Stars and Stripes
+nailed to the Pole!"
+
+My first feeling, as I read it, was of spontaneous belief. Well, I
+thought, he got there! On my right and left men were arguing about it.
+It was declared a hoax. I recognized the characteristic phrasing as
+Peary's. I knew that the operators along the Labrador coast knew Peary
+and that it would be almost impossible to perpetrate a joke. I told this
+to the dinner party. The speeches continued. No reference was made to
+the message, but the air seemed charged with electricity.
+
+My feeling at the news, as I analyze it, was not of envy or chagrin. I
+thought of Peary's hard, long years of effort, and I was glad; I felt no
+rivalry about the Pole; I did feel, aside from the futility of reaching
+the Pole itself, that Peary's trip possibly might be of great scientific
+value; that he had probably discovered new lands and mapped new seas of
+ice. "There is glory enough for all," I told the reporters.
+
+At the hotel a pile of telegrams six inches high, from various papers,
+awaited me. I picked eight representative papers and made some
+diplomatic reply, expressing what I felt. That Peary would contest my
+claim never entered my head. It did seem, and still seems, in itself too
+inconsequential a thing to make such a fuss about. This may be hard to
+believe to those who have magnified the heroism of such an achievement,
+a thing I never did feel and could not feel.
+
+While sitting at the farewell dinner of the Geographical Society the
+following day, Mr. Peary's second message, saying that my Eskimos
+declared I had not gone far out of sight of land, came to me. Those
+about received it with indignation. Many advised me to reply in biting
+terms. This I did not do; did not feel like doing.
+
+Peary's messages caused me to make a change in my plans. Previously I
+had accepted an invitation to go to Brussels, but now, as I was being
+attacked, I determined to return home immediately and face the charges
+in person. I took passage on the steamship _Oscar II_, sailing direct
+from Copenhagen to New York.
+
+
+
+
+COPENHAGEN TO THE UNITED STATES
+
+ACROSS THE ATLANTIC--RECEPTION IN NEW YORK--BEWILDERING CYCLONE OF
+EVENTS--INSIDE NEWS OF THE PEARY ATTACK--HOW THE WEB OF SHAME WAS
+WOVEN
+
+XXXII
+
+PEARY'S UNDERHAND WORK AT LABRADOR
+
+
+It seemed that, coming from the companionless solitude of the North,
+destiny in the shape of crowds was determined to pursue me. I expected
+to transfer from the _Melchior_ to the _Oscar II_ at Christiansaand,
+Norway, quietly and make my way home in peace. At Christiansaand the
+noise began. On a smaller scale was repeated the previous ovation of
+Copenhagen.
+
+On board the _Oscar II_ I really got more sleep than I had for months
+previous or months afterwards. After several days of seasickness I
+experienced the joys of comparative rest and slept like a child. My
+brain still seemed numbed. There were on the boat no curiosity-seekers;
+no crowds stifled me nor did applause thunder in my ears.
+
+Every few minutes, before we got out of touch with the wireless, there
+were messages; communications from friends, from newspapers and
+magazines; repetitions of the early charges made against me; questions
+concerning Peary's messages and my attitude toward him. When the boat
+approached Newfoundland the wireless again became disturbing. Then came
+the "gold brick" cable.
+
+At this time, every vestige of pleasure in the thought of the thing I
+had accomplished left me. Since then, and to this day, I almost view all
+my efforts with regret. I doubt if any man ever lived in the belief of
+an accomplishment and got so little pleasure, and so much bitterness,
+from it. That my Eskimos had told Mr. Peary they had been but two days
+out of sight of land seemed probable; it was a belief I had always
+encouraged. That Mr. Peary should persistently attack me did arouse a
+feeling of chagrin and injury.
+
+I spent most of my time alone in my cabin or strolling on the deck. The
+people aboard considered Peary's messages amusing. I talked little; I
+tried to analyze the situation in my mind, but wearily I gave it up;
+mentally I was still dazed.
+
+During the trip Director Cold, chief of the Danish United Steamship
+Company, helped me with small details in every way; Lonsdale, my
+secretary, and Mr. Cold's secretary were busy copying my notes and my
+narrative story, which I had agreed to give to the New York _Herald_. I
+had made no plans; my one object was to see my family.
+
+As we approached New York the wireless brought me news of the ovation
+under way. This amazed and filled me with dismay. I had considered the
+exaggerated reception of Copenhagen a manifestation of local excitement,
+partly due to the interest of the Danes in the North. New York, I
+concluded, was too big, too unemotional, too much interested in bigger
+matters to bother much about the North Pole. This I told Robert M.
+Berry, the Berlin representative of the Associated Press, who
+accompanied me on the boat. He disagreed with me.
+
+Having burned one hundred tons of coal in order to make time, the _Oscar
+II_ arrived along American shores a day before that arranged for my
+reception. So as not to frustrate any plans, we lay off Shelter Island
+until the next day. It was my wish to send a message to Mrs. Cook and
+ask her to come out. But the sea was rough; and, moreover, she was not
+well. Now tugs bearing squads of reporters began to arrive. We agreed to
+let no one aboard. The New York _Journal_, with characteristic
+enterprise, had brought Anthony Fiala on its tug with a note from Mrs.
+Cook. So an exception had to be made. An old friend and a letter from my
+wife could not be sent away.
+
+That night I slept little. Outside I heard the dull thud of the sea.
+Voices exploded from megaphones every few minutes. Mingled emotions
+filled me. The anticipation of meeting wife and children was sweet; that
+again, after an absence of more than two years, I should step upon the
+shores of my own land filled me with emotions too strong for words.
+
+The next morning I was up with the rising of the sun. We arrived at
+Quarantine soon after seven. About us on the waves danced a dozen tugs
+with reporters. In the distance appeared a tug toward which I strained
+my eyes, for I was told it bore my wife and children. With a feeling of
+delight, which only long separation can give, I boarded this, and in a
+moment they were in my arms. I was conscious of confusion about me; of
+whistling and shrieking; uncanny magnified voices thundering from scores
+of megaphones; of a band playing an American air. When the _Grand
+Republic_, thrilling a metallic salute, steamed toward us, and the
+cheers of hundreds rent the air, I remembered asking myself what it
+could be all about. Why all this agitation?
+
+Again the contagion of excitement bewildered me; the big boat drew near
+to a tug, above me swirled a cloud of hundreds of faces; around me the
+sunlit sea, with decorated craft, whirled and danced. As I giddily
+ascended the gangplank and felt a wreath of roses flung about me I was
+conscious chiefly of an unsuitable lack of appreciation. I spoke
+briefly; friends and relatives greeted me; the shaking of thousands of
+hands began; and all the while a deep hurt, a feeling of soreness,
+oppressed me.
+
+From that day on until after I left New York, my life was a
+kaleidoscopic whirl of excitement, for which I found no reason. I had no
+time to analyze or estimate public enthusiasm and any change of that
+enthusiasm into doubt. I had no sense of perspective; involuntarily I
+was swept through a cyclone of events. The bewilderment which came upon
+me at Copenhagen returned, and with it a feeling of helplessness, of
+puzzlement; I felt much as a child might when taking its first ride in a
+carousel. Each day thereafter, from morning until morning there was a
+continuous rush of excitement; at no time, until I fled from it, did I
+get more than four hours' sleep at night--disturbed sleep at that. I
+had not a moment for reflection, and even now, after recovering from the
+lack of mental perception which inevitably followed, it is with
+difficulty that I recall my impressions at the time. I suppose there are
+those who think that I was having a good time, but it was the hardest
+time of my life.
+
+I remember standing in the pilot house of the _Grand Republic_, my
+little ones by me, and watching thousands of men along the wharves of
+the East River, going mad. The world seemed engaged in some frantic
+revel. Factories became vocal and screamed hideously; boats became
+hoarse with shrieking; the megaphone cry was maddening. Drawing up to a
+gayly decorated pier, a thunder of voices assailed me. I felt crushed by
+the unearthly din.
+
+I was involuntarily shoved along, and found myself in an automobile--one
+of many, all decorated with flags. Cameras clicked like rapid-fire guns.
+A band played; roaring voices like beating sound waves rose and fell;
+faces swam before me.
+
+Through streets jammed with people we moved along. I hardly spoke a word
+to my wife, who sat near. Out of the scene of tumult, familiar faces
+peered now and again. I remember being touched by the sight of thousands
+of school children, assembled outside of public schools and waving
+American flags.
+
+In the neighborhood of the new bridge, under the arch, I recall seeing
+the eager face of my favorite boyhood school-teacher. It struck me at
+the time that she hardly seemed aged a day. Something swelled up within
+me, and I was conscious of a desire to lean out through the crowd and
+draw her into the machine. Through the thick congestion it was
+difficult to move; even the police were helpless. Now and again people
+tried to climb into the machine and were torn away.
+
+At the Bushwick Club I lunched in a small room with friends, and a
+feeling of pleasure warmed my heart. During the reception words of
+confidence were spoken and somehow filtered into my mind. I shook hands
+until my arms were sore, bowed my head until my neck ached. I was forced
+to retire. Later there was dinner at the club, after which I received
+seven hundred singers. By this time I felt like a machine. My brain was
+blank. About midnight, utterly exhausted, I arrived at the
+Waldorf-Astoria, where I fought through a crowd in the lobby. I think I
+sat and listened to Mrs. Cook telling me news of home and the family
+until night merged into morning.
+
+Next day the storm through which I was being swept began again. During
+that and the days following I made many mistakes, did and said unwise
+things. I want to show you, in telling of these events, just how
+helpless I was; what a victim of circumstance; how unfitted to bear the
+physical and mental demands of a ceaseless procession of public
+functions, lectures, dinners, receptions, days and nights of traveling,
+and how unable to cope with the many charges. In sixty days there were
+not less than two hundred lectures, dinners, and receptions, not to
+mention the unremitting train of press interviews. With no club of
+friends or organization of any kind behind me, I stood the strain alone.
+
+I was ignorant of much that was said about me. I had no one to gauge my
+situation at any time and advise me. About me was an unbearable pressure
+from friends and foes; I stood it until I could stand it no longer.
+There was not a minute of relief, not a minute to think. Coming after
+two years spent in the Arctic, at a time when nature was paying the debt
+of long starvation and hardship, the stress of events inevitably
+developed a mental strain bordering on madness. Where could I go to get
+rest from it all? This was my last thought at night and my first thought
+in the morning.
+
+During my second day at the Waldorf I had to read proofs of the
+narrative to be printed in the _Herald_, go over the plans of my book
+with the New York publishing house with whom I had signed a contract,
+and examine hundreds of films to select photographs. There were hundreds
+of letters and telegrams; scores of reporters demanding interviews;
+hundreds of callers, few of whom I was able to see. An army of
+publishers, lecture managers, and even vaudeville managers sent up their
+cards.
+
+The chief event of the first day in New York was the inquisition by
+newspaper reporters. They both interested and amused me. I had gone
+through the same ordeal in Copenhagen, and I knew that American
+interviewers are famed for their wolfish propensities.
+
+Before I saw the sensation-hungry press men, I got certain news that
+shocked my sense of the fairness of the American press. Someone
+interested in my case had sent me unsolicited copies of all telegrams,
+cables and wireless messages passing between New York and the Peary
+ship. These messages now continued to come daily, and thus I was
+afforded a splendid opportunity to watch an underhand game of deceit
+wherein Mr. Peary was shown to be in league with a New York paper
+aiming secretly to further his claims and to cast doubt upon mine.
+
+Among these was a message asking a certain editor to meet Peary at
+Bangor, Maine, to arrange for the pro-Peary campaign of bribery and
+conspiracy which followed. In another, and the most remarkable message,
+Mr. Peary first showed the sneaking methods by which the whole
+controversy was conducted. A long list of questions had been prepared by
+Mr. Peary at Battle Harbor, covering, as rival interests dictated, every
+phase of Polar work. These questions were sent to the New York _Times_
+with instructions to compel answers from me on each of a series of catch
+phrases.
+
+When the _Times_ reporter came to me with these, I recognized the Peary
+phraseology at once. I afterwards compared the copy of Peary's telegram
+with that of the _Times_, and found in it nearly every question asked by
+the reporters. While the questions were being read off, it required a
+good deal of patience to conceal my irritation, as I knew Mr. Peary was
+talking through the smooth-faced, smiling press cubs, none of whom knew
+that he was Peary's mouthpiece. Every one of the Peary questions,
+however, was amusing, for I had answered each a dozen times in Europe.
+But if Mr. Peary must question me, why did he stoop to the hypocrisy of
+doing it through others? The other reporters asked many questions, the
+reports of which I have not seen since. But the duplicity of this little
+trick left a strong impression of unfairness.
+
+At about this time I began to examine critically the many efforts which
+Mr. Peary had begun to make to discredit my achievement. In going over
+such of his reports of his own claims as had gotten to me, I was at once
+struck with the statements parallel to mine which he had sent out, and
+since these so thoroughly proved my case I felt that I could be liberal
+and patient with Mr. Peary's ill-temper.
+
+I now learned that after Mr. Peary got the full reports of my attainment
+of the Pole at the wireless station at Labrador, he withdrew behind the
+rocks to a place where no one was looking, and digested that report. His
+own report came after the digestion of mine. In the meantime, his delay
+in proceeding to Sydney, Nova Scotia, and his silence, were explained by
+the official announcement that the ship was being washed and cleaned.
+This was manifestly absurd. No seaman returning from a voyage of a year,
+where sailors have no occupation whatever except such work, waits until
+he gets to port before cleaning his decks. Furthermore, this hiding
+behind the rocks of Labrador continued for weeks. What was the
+mysterious occupation of Mr. Peary? The _Roosevelt_, as described by
+visitors when she arrived at Sydney, was still very dirty. When Mr.
+Peary's much-heralded report was finally printed, every Arctic explorer
+at once said the astonishing parallel statements in Mr. Peary's
+narrative either proved my case or convicted Mr. Peary of plagiarism. My
+story, by this time, had got well along in the New York _Herald_. To
+help Mr. Peary out of his position, McMillan later rushed to the press.
+He was under contract not to write or talk to the press, nor to lecture,
+write magazine articles or books, as were all of Peary's men. But this
+prohibition was waived temporarily. Then McMillan made the statement
+that Dr. Cook must have gotten the "parallel data" and inside
+information from Mr. Peary's Eskimos. Everyone acquainted with
+Greenland, including McMillan, knows that such inter-communication was
+impossible. I had left for Upernavik by the time Peary returned to Etah.
+Therefore, McMillan and Peary both were caught in a deliberate lie, as
+were also Bartlett[23] and Borup later. These were Mr. Peary's witnesses
+in the broadside of charges with which I was to be annihilated.
+
+A few days after my arrival in America I learned for the first time of
+the strange death of Ross Marvin. We were asked by Mr. Peary to believe
+that this young man of more than average intelligence, a graduate of
+Cornell University and of the New York Nautical School, a man of
+experience on the Polar seas, stepped over young ice alone, without a
+life-line, and sank through a film of ice to a grave in the Arctic
+waters.
+
+An idiot might do that; but Marvin, unless he went suddenly mad, would
+not do it. To cross the young ice of open leads, like that in which
+Marvin is said to have perished, is a daily, almost hourly, experience
+in Arctic travel. To safeguard each other's lives, and to save sledges
+and dog teams, life-lines are carried in coils on the upstanders of the
+sled. When about to risk a crossing, a line is always fixed from one to
+the other and from sled to sled. When this is done, and an accident
+happens such as that which is alleged to have befallen Marvin, the
+victim is saved by the pull of his companions on the line. This is done
+as unfailingly as one eats meals. Would a man of Marvin's experience and
+intelligence neglect such a precaution? I knew such an accident might
+have happened to the inexperienced explorers of the days of Franklin,
+but to-day it seemed incredible. Furthermore, Peary was boasting of what
+he styled the "Peary system," for which is claimed such thoroughness
+that without it no other explorer could reach the Pole. If Marvin's
+death was natural, then he is a victim of this system.
+
+But let us read between the lines of this harrowing tragedy. After
+learning of my attainment of the Pole, Peary rushed to the wireless.
+With a letter in his pocket from Captain Adams which gave the news that
+started the ire of envy, and which also gave the news that convicted
+Peary of a lie, he thereafter for a week or more kept the wires busy
+with the famous "gold brick" messages.
+
+Marvin's death, and the duty to a bereaved family, which ordinary
+humanity would have dictated, were of no consequence to one making
+envious, vicious attacks. For a week all the world blushed with shame
+because of the dishonor thus brought upon our country and our flag. In
+New York there was a happy home, a loving mother, a fond sister; anxious
+friends were all busy in preparing surprises for the happy homecoming of
+the one beloved by all. It was a busy week, with joyous, heart-stirring
+anticipation. There was no news from the Peary ship. Not a word came to
+indicate that their expected returning hero had been lost in the icy
+seas. To that mother's yearning heart her boy was nearing home--but
+alas! no news came! A week passed, and still no news!
+
+At last, after Peary had digested my narrative, the carefully prepared
+press report was put on the wires. Ross Marvin's family, engrossed in
+preparations for a reception with flowers and flags, was about to see,
+in cold, black print, that he for whom their hearts beat expectantly was
+no more. At the last moment, Peary's conscience seemingly troubled him.
+A long message was sent to a friend to break the news and to soften the
+effects of the press reports on that poor mother and sister. That
+message was sent "Collect." A man who had given years of his time and
+his life to glorify Peary was not worthy of a prepaid telegram!
+
+Later, an important letter from Marvin reached his own home. In it the
+stealing of my supplies is referred to in a way to show that Marvin
+condemned Peary. The public ought to know the wording of this part of
+the letter. Why has it been suppressed? Marvin's death, to my
+understanding, does not seem natural. With a good deal of empty verbiage
+the sacrifice of this unfortunate young man is explained; but two
+questions are forced at once: Why was Marvin without a life-line? Why
+were conveniently lost with him certain data that might disprove Peary's
+case?
+
+If Marvin sank into the ice, as Peary said he did, then Peary is
+responsible for the loss of that life, for he did not surround him with
+proper safeguards. The death of this man points to something more than
+tragedy. Since Marvin's soundings were made under the authority of the
+Coast and Geodetic Survey, the American Government is, therefore,
+answerable for this death.
+
+Mr. Peary's treatment of Marvin wearied me of all the Peary talk at the
+time; and, furthermore, all of Mr. Peary's charges, of which so much
+fuss was made, carried the self-evident origin of cruel envy and
+selfishness. First, the Eskimos, put through a third degree behind
+closed doors, were reported to have said that I had not been more than
+two sleeps out of sight of land. This was easily explained. They had
+been instructed not to tell Mr. Peary of my affairs, and they had been
+encouraged to believe themselves always near land. Then this charge was
+dropped, and the next was made, the one about my not reporting the
+alleged cache at "Cape Thomas Hubbard." That assertion, instead of
+injuring me, convicted Peary of trying to steal from Captain Sverdrup
+the honor of discovering and naming Svartevoeg. For it was shown that by
+deception "Cape Thomas Hubbard" had been written over a point discovered
+years earlier by another explorer. For this kind of honor Hubbard had
+contributed to Peary's expeditions. But is not the obliteration of a
+geographic name for money a kind of geographic larceny?
+
+Then was forced the charge that I had told no one of my Polar success in
+the North, and therefore the entire report was an afterthought. Whitney
+and Prichard later cleared this up, but at the very time when Peary made
+this charge he had in his possession a letter from Captain Adams, of the
+whaler _Morning_, which he had received in the North, wherein my
+attainment of the Pole was stated. When Peary got the Adams letter he
+put on full steam, abandoned his plan to visit other Greenland ports,
+and came direct to Labrador, to the wireless. Why was the Adams letter
+suppressed, when it was charged that I had told no one? And,
+furthermore, why had Mr. Peary told no one on his ship of his own
+success until he neared Battle Harbor?
+
+All of these charges betrayed untruthful methods on the part of Mr.
+Peary in his own method of presentation. Automatically, without a word
+of defence on my part, each charge rebounded on the charger.
+
+Then there came the page broadside of rearranged charges printed by
+every American paper. It contained nothing new in the text, but with it
+there was a faked map, copied from Sverdrup, which was made to appear
+as though drawn by Eskimos. The best answer to this whole problem is
+that from the same tongues with which Mr. Peary tried to discredit me
+has come a much more formidable charge against Mr. Peary. For these same
+Eskimos have since said, without quizzing from me, that Mr. Peary never
+got to the Pole and that he never saw Crocker Land.
+
+This part of the controversy was thoroughly analyzed by Professor W. F.
+Armbruster and Dr. Henry Schwartz in the St. Louis _Mirror_[24].
+
+While this controversy early began to rage, the tremendous offers of
+money which came in every hour contributed to my bewilderment. They
+seemed fabulous; the purport was beyond me. I imagined this as part of
+a dream from which I should awake. Were I the calculating monster of
+cupidity which some believe me, I suppose I should have been more
+circumspect in making my financial arrangements.
+
+I should hardly, for instance, have sold my narrative story to Mr. James
+Gordon Bennett for $25,000 when there were single offers of $50,000,
+$75,000, $100,000, and more, for it. While I was in Copenhagen, and
+before the _Herald_ offer was accepted, Mr. W. T. Stead had come with a
+message from W. R. Hearst with instructions to double any other offer
+presented for my narrative. Had I accepted Mr. Hearst's bid he would
+have paid $400,000 for what I sold for $25,000. Here is a sacrifice of
+$375,000. Does that look as if I tried to hoax the world for sordid
+gain, as my enemies would like the public to believe? What Mr. Bennett
+asked and offered $25,000 for was a series of four articles on
+adventures in the North, for use in the Sunday supplement of the
+_Herald_. I had no such articles prepared at the time, nor, as I knew,
+should I have time to write these. I did have the narrative story of my
+trip, which consisted of twenty-five thousand to thirty thousand words,
+complete. I decided, when I heard the first reports of doubt cast on my
+claim, to publish my narrative story as an honest and sincere proof of
+my claim as soon as possible. So I gave this to Mr. Bennett for the sum
+offered purely for Sunday articles.
+
+[Illustration: GOVERNOR KRAUL IN HIS STUDY
+
+ARRIVAL AT UPERNAVIK]
+
+[Illustration: POLAR TRAGEDY--A DESERTED CHILD OF THE SULTAN OF THE
+NORTH AND ITS MOTHER]
+
+Mr. Bennett offered me $5,000 additional for the European rights of this
+story. To this offer I made no reply, giving Mr. Bennett the sole news
+rights of the story for the entire world.
+
+When I reached New York, needing ready money, I wired Mr. Bennett for an
+advance on my story. He cabled back an immediate order for the entire
+sum of $25,000. This gave me a sudden glow, a feeling of pleasure at
+what I regarded as a display of confidence.
+
+With my lecture work and traveling I was kept so busy that I did not
+have time to go over the story, typewritten from my almost illegible
+notes, which was sent to the New York _Herald_. When I did go over the
+proofs and found many grievous errors, the _Herald_ had already
+syndicated the story. It was too late for any corrections, and thus many
+errors appeared.
+
+I made a contract with a New York publishing house, while in Copenhagen,
+with the idea of getting out my book and all proofs possible as soon as
+the presses would allow, in view of the imminent controversy. For the
+English and American rights to my book I was to receive $150,000 in a
+lump sum and an additional $150,000 in royalties. Although papers were
+signed for this, later on, when things seemed turning against me and I
+saw the publishers were getting "cold feet," I voluntarily freed them
+from the contract.
+
+By the time I left Copenhagen, as I figured later, offers for book and
+magazine material and lectures had aggregated just one and one-half
+million dollars. A prominent New York manager made me an offer of
+$250,000 for a series of lectures. During the first few days I had
+absolutely no system of caring for this correspondence, hundreds of
+important cablegrams remained unopened, and huge offers of money were
+ignored. It was only after Minister Egan sent Walter Lonsdale, in
+response to my request for a competent secretary, that some intelligible
+information was gleaned from the mass of correspondence. Most of it, as
+a matter of fact, was read only when we were on the _Oscar II_, bound
+for home.
+
+After making my arrangement with Mr. Bennett, the _Matin_ of Paris had
+sent me an offer of $50,000 for the serial rights of a French
+translation of the story to appear in the _Herald_. This included a
+lecture under the auspices of the paper in Paris. My anxiety to get home
+prevented a consideration of this; and it was only after I sailed on
+the _Oscar II_ that I realized I could have gone to Paris, delivered the
+lecture, and returned to New York by a fast boat.
+
+On the _Oscar II_ a wireless had reached me of a large offer for a
+lecture during the convention in St. Louis. This I decided to accept,
+the simple reason being that I needed money.
+
+Much criticism has been hurled at me because I started on a lecture
+campaign when I should have prepared my data and submitted proof. At
+that time I was in no position to anticipate or understand this
+criticism. Every explorer for fifty years had done the same thing, all
+had delivered lectures and written articles about their work after a
+first preliminary report. Supplementary and detailed data were usually
+given long afterwards, not as proof but as a part of the plan of
+recording ultimate results. I had the precedents of Stanley,
+Nordenskjöld, Nansen, Peary, and others.
+
+Had I anticipated the furore that was being raised about proofs, I
+probably should have taken public opinion into my consideration. So firm
+was my own conviction of achievement that the difficulty of supplying
+such absolute proof as the unique occasion afterwards demanded never
+occurred to me. My feeling at the time was that I was under no
+obligation to patrons, to the Government, to any society, or anyone, and
+that I had a right to deliver lectures at a time when public interest
+was keyed up, and to prepare my detailed reports at a time when I should
+have more leisure.
+
+My family needed money. Huge sums were offered me hourly; I should have
+been unwise indeed had I not accepted some of the offers. I am advised
+that stories of enormous lecture profits have been told. I am informed
+that the newspapers said I was to receive $25,000 for going to St.
+Louis. The truth is that I got less than half that, though I believe St.
+Louis probably spent more than $25,000 in preparing for my appearance
+there. All told, I delivered about twenty lectures in various large
+cities, receiving from $1,000 to $10,000 per lecture. My expenses were
+heavy, so that in the end I netted less than $25,000. When I determined
+to stop the lecture work and prepare my data, I canceled $140,000 worth
+of lecture engagements.
+
+Each day there was a routine of lunches with speeches, dinners with
+speeches, suppers with speeches. The task of devising speeches was ever
+present; with me it did not come easy. But speeches must be made, and I
+felt a tense strain, as if something were drawing my mentality from me.
+
+Everywhere I went crowds pressed about me. I shook hands until the flesh
+of one finger was actually worn through to the bone. Hundreds of people
+daily came to see me.
+
+About this time, too, my bewildered brain began to realize that I was
+also the object of most ferocious attacks from many quarters. I had no
+time to read the newspapers, and these charges and suspicions filtered
+in to me through reporters and friends. Usually they reached me in an
+exaggerated or a distorted form.
+
+There began at this time the publication of innumerable fake interviews
+and stories misrepresenting me.[25] One interviewer quoted me as saying
+that Dagaard Jensen had seen my records, and therefore confirmed my
+claim to the people in Copenhagen; another that I said Governor Kraul of
+Greenland had reported talking with my Eskimos, who had confirmed my
+report. Dagaard Jensen justly denied this by cable, as I had made no
+such statement. That about Governor Kraul was absurd on the face of it,
+as he was a thousand miles away from my Eskimos. I have no means of
+knowing the embarrassing statements attributed to me--things which were
+variously denied, and which hurt me. There was not time for me to
+consider or answer them.
+
+Then came the blow which almost stunned me--the news that Harry Whitney
+had not been allowed by Peary to bring my instruments and notes home
+with him.
+
+During the long night at Cape Sparbo I had carefully figured out and
+reduced most of my important observations. The old, rubbed, oily, and
+torn field notes, the instrumental corrections and the direct readings
+were packed with the instruments, and these were mostly left with Mr.
+Whitney. The figures were important for future recalculation, but
+otherwise had not seemed materially important to me, for they had served
+their purpose. I had with me all the important data, such as is usually
+given in a traveler's narrative. No more had ever been asked before.
+
+Under ordinary circumstances, these instruments and papers would not
+have been of great value, but under the public excitement their
+importance was immensely enhanced.
+
+I had publicly announced that Mr. Whitney would bring these with him on
+the boat in which he was to return. Had there been no notes and no
+instruments, I hardly should have said this were I perpetrating a fraud,
+for I should have known that the failure of Mr. Whitney to supply these
+would provoke widespread suspicion. This is just what happened. Had I
+foreseen the trouble that resulted, I should have taken my instruments
+with me to Upernavik, and have supplied my observations and notes at
+once.
+
+As I have said before, I believed in an accomplishment which I felt was
+largely personal, for which a world excitement was not warranted and in
+which I had such a sure confidence that I never thought of absolutely
+accurate proof. This was my folly--for which fate made me pay. Imagine
+my dismay, the heartsickness which seized me when, through the din of
+tumult and excitement, in the midst of suspicion, came the news that Mr.
+Whitney had been forced by Mr. Peary to take from the _Roosevelt_ and
+bury the very material with which I might have dispelled suspicion and
+quelled the storm of unmerited abuse.
+
+The instruments carried on my northern trip, and left with Mr. Whitney,
+and which he had seen, consisted of one French sextant; one aluminum
+surveying compass, with azimuth attachment, bought of Keuffer & Essen,
+New York; one glass artifical horizon, set in a thin metal frame,
+adjusted by spirit levels and thumbscrews, bought of Hutchinson, Boston;
+one aneroid barometer, aluminum, bought of Hicks; an aluminum case with
+maximum and minimum spirit thermometer; other thermometers, and one
+liquid compass.
+
+Other instruments used about stations were also left. With these were
+papers giving some instrumental corrections, readings, and comparisons,
+and other occasional notes, and a small diary, mostly loose leaves,
+containing some direct field reading of instruments and meteorological
+data. These took up very little space; and, if I remember correctly,
+all were snugly packed in one of the instrument cases.
+
+Mr. Whitney especially asked, as a personal favor, the honor of caring
+for my flag. Later, after his return, he said that as Mr. Peary had
+refused to let him take aboard my things, he had no alternative but to
+bury them at Etah. I have no complaint to make against Mr. Peary about
+this. He was at liberty to pick the freight of his own ship. But he
+later said: "His [Dr. Cook's] leaving of his records at Etah was a
+scheme by which he could claim that they were lost." If Mr. Peary knew
+this, why did he not bring them?
+
+At the time I felt crippled; my feeling of disgust with the problem,
+with myself, and with the situation began. It would be impossible to
+give in my report a continuous line of observations. I had no
+corrections for the instruments. I knew they might vary. I had no means
+of checking them. I had some copies of the original data, but they were
+not complete. I should have to rest my whole case on a report with
+reduced observations, for I knew it would not be possible to send a ship
+to Etah until the following year. And I also knew that if Eskimos were
+not given strong explicit instructions all would be lost.
+
+Meanwhile, many apparently trivial accusations against me were being
+widely discussed, which, never refuted, had their weight in the long run
+in discrediting my good faith. On every side I was attacked, not so much
+for unintentional error, as for deliberate falsehood.
+
+In the bewildering days that followed--during which I traveled to
+various cities to fulfill lecture engagements--I felt alone, a victim
+of such pressure as, I believe, has seldom been the fate of any human
+being.
+
+Friends confused me as much as the attacks of foes. Some advised one
+thing; others another; my brain staggered with their well-meaning
+advice. Most of them wanted me to "light out," as they expressed it, and
+attack Mr. Peary. A number suggested the formation of an organization,
+the work of which would be to issue counter attacks on Mr. Peary, to be
+written by various men, and to reply systematically to charges made
+against me. Such a course was distasteful to me, and, furthermore, the
+selfish, envious origin of all of Mr. Peary's charges seemed evident.
+
+Many of the other attacks seemed so ridiculous that I felt no one would
+believe them--which was another of my many mistakes. The more serious
+charges I believed could wait until I had time to sit down and reply to
+them at length. I felt the futility of any fragmentary retorts. At no
+time did I have an intelligent grasp of the situation, of the excited
+and exaggerated interest of the public, or of the fluctuating state of
+public opinion.
+
+In my many years of Arctic work I had gathered pictures of almost every
+phase of Arctic life and scene; on subsequent trips, unless for some
+special reason, I did not duplicate photographs of impregnable,
+unmeltable headlands, or of walrus, or icebergs which I considered
+typical. In the early rush for illustrative material I gave a number of
+these to the _Herald_, stating they were scenes I had passed, but which
+had been taken on an earlier expedition. By some mistake, which is not
+unusual in newspaper offices, one of these pictures was put under a
+caption, "Pictures of Dr. Cook's Polar Trip," or something to this
+effect. Whereupon, Mr. Herbert Bridgman, secretary of the Peary Arctic
+Club, shouted aloud, "Fraud!" and others took up the cry. A further
+charge that these pictures were not mine at all, but had been stolen or
+borrowed from Herbert Berri, was advanced--an absolute untruth, as I had
+the negatives, from which these pictures were made, in my possession.
+
+What, in those early days, had seemed a serious criticism offered
+against my claim, was that I had exceeded possible speed limits by
+asserting an average of about fifteen miles a day. The English critics
+were particularly severe. According to their reading, this had never
+been done before. Admiral Melville had taken this up in America before
+my arrival; by the time I got to New York, Mr. Peary had made a report
+of twenty to forty-five miles daily under similar conditions, and I
+asked myself the reason of the sudden hush.
+
+Much space was now given to the criticism by learned men of my giving
+seconds in observations. The point was taken that as you near the Pole
+the degrees of longitude narrow, and seconds are of no consequence.
+Therefore I was charged with trying to fake an impossible accuracy. I
+always regarded seconds as of little consequence, put them down as a
+matter of routine--for in that snow-blinding, bewildering North I worked
+more like a machine than a reasoning being--and now the inadvertent use
+of these was used to cast suspicion upon me.
+
+With this attack, like echoes from many places, came reiterations of the
+criticism, which, polly-like, was taken up by Rear-Admiral Chester.
+Professor Stockwell of Cleveland had earlier brought out this academic
+discussion. Because I had seen the midnight sun for the first time on
+April 7 it was claimed I must have been at a more southern point of the
+globe than I believed. At the time it seemed the only serious scientific
+criticism of my reports which was used against me.
+
+Whether I was on a more southerly point of the globe than I believed or
+not, I had not used the midnight sun, seen through a mystic maze of
+unknowable refraction, to determine position; to do so would have been
+impossible. With a constant moving and grinding of the ice, causing
+opening lanes of water, from which the inequality of temperature drew an
+evaporation like steam from a volcano, it is impossible at this season
+to see a low sun with a clear horizon. One looks through an opaque veil
+of blinding crystals. Every Arctic traveler knows that even when the sun
+is seen on a clear horizon, as it returns after the long night, his eyes
+are deceived--he does not see the sun at all, but a refracted image
+caused by the optical deception of atmospheric distortions. For this
+reason, as I knew, all observations of the sun when very low are
+worthless as a means of determining position. The assumption that I had
+done this seemed mere foolishness to me at the time.
+
+Staggered by the blow that Whitney had buried my instruments in the
+North, the recurring thoughts of these harassing charges certainly had
+no soothing effect.
+
+Alone, I was unable to cope with matters, anyway. I under-estimated the
+effect of the cumulating attacks. Oppressed by the undercurrent feeling
+that it was all a fuss about very little, a thing of insignificant
+worth, and disturbed by the growing uncertainty of proving such a claim
+to the point of hair-breadth accuracy by any figures, despair overcame
+me.
+
+I was so busy I could not pause to think, and was conscious only of the
+rush, the labor, the worry. I no longer slept; indigestion naturally
+seized me as its victim. A mental depression brought desperate
+premonitions.
+
+I developed a severe case of laryngitis in Washington; it got worse as I
+went to Baltimore and Pittsburg. At St. Louis, where I talked before an
+audience said to number twelve thousand persons, I could hardly raise my
+voice above a whisper. The lecture was given with physical anguish. I
+was feverish and mentally dazed. Thereafter, day by day, my thoughts
+became less coherent; I, more like a machine.
+
+I do not exaggerate when I say that there was practically not one hour
+of pleasure in those troubled days. The dinner which was given by the
+Arctic travelers at the Waldorf-Astoria pleased me more than anything
+during the entire experience. I felt the close presence of hundreds of
+warm friends; I was conscious of their good will.
+
+I can recall the ceremony of presenting the keys of the City of New York
+to me, but I was so confused and half ill that I was not in a condition
+to appreciate the honor.
+
+After I had been on my lecture tour for a few weeks, I began to feel
+persecuted. On every side I sensed hostility; the sight of crowds filled
+me with a growing sort of terror. I did not realize at the time that I
+was passing from periods of mental depression to dangerous periods of
+nervous tension. I was pursued by reporters, people with craning necks,
+good-natured demonstrations of friendliness that irritated me. In the
+trains I viewed the whirling landscape without, and felt myself part of
+it--as a delirious man swept and hurtled through space.
+
+I suppose I answered questions intelligently; like an automaton
+delivered my lectures, shook hands. I have been told I smiled pleasantly
+always--mentally I was never conscious of a smile. It is strange how,
+machine-like, a man can conduct himself like a reasonable being when,
+mentally, he is at sea. I have read a great deal about the subconscious
+mind; on no other theory can I account for my rational conduct in public
+at the time. Really, as I view myself from the angle of the present, I
+marvel that a man so distraught did not do desperate things.
+
+    _Author's Note._--I have never attempted to disprove Mr. Peary's
+    claim to having reached the North Pole. I prefer to believe that Mr.
+    Peary reached the North Pole.
+
+    So avid have been my enemies, however, to cast discredit upon my own
+    achievement, by such trivial and petty charges, that it seems
+    curious they have never noticed or have remained silent about many
+    striking and staggering discrepancies in Mr. Peary's own published
+    account of his journey.
+
+    In Mr. Peary's book, entitled "The North Pole; Its Discovery, 1909,"
+    published by Frederick A. Stokes Company, on page 302, appears the
+    following:
+
+    "We turned our backs upon the Pole at about four o'clock of the
+    afternoon of April 7."
+
+    According to a statement made on page 304, Mr. Peary took time on
+    his return trip to take a sounding of the sea five miles from the
+    Pole.
+
+    On page 305, Mr. Peary says: "Friday, April 9, was a wild day. All
+    day long the wind blew strong from the north-northeast, increasing
+    finally to a gale." And on page 306: "We camped that night at 87°
+    47´."
+
+    Mr. Peary thus claims to have traveled from the Pole to this point,
+    a distance of 133 nautical miles, or 153 statute miles, in a little
+    over two days. This would average 76½ statute miles a day. Could a
+    pedestrian make such speed? During this time Mr. Peary camped twice,
+    to make tea, eat lunch, feed the dogs, and rest--several hours in
+    each camp.
+
+    Why I should never have gone out of sight of land for more than two
+    days, as he has charged, when such miraculous speed can be made on
+    the circumpolar sea, is something Mr. Peary might find interesting
+    reasons to explain.
+
+    On page 310, Mr. Peary says: "We were coming down the North Pole
+    hill in fine shape now, and another double march, April 16-17,
+    brought us to our eleventh upward camp at 85° 8´, one hundred and
+    twenty-one miles from Cape Columbia."
+
+    According to this, Mr. Peary covered the distance from 87° 47´, on
+    April 9, to 85° 8´, on April 17--a distance of 159 nautical miles in
+    eight day. This averaged twenty miles a day.
+
+    On page 316, he says: "It was almost exactly six o'clock on the
+    morning of April 23 when we reached the igloo of 'Crane City,' at
+    Cape Columbia, and the work was done."
+
+    Mr. Peary left 85° 8´ on April 17, according to his statement, and
+    traveled 121 miles to Cape Columbia in six days, arriving on April
+    23. This last stretch was at the rate of twenty miles a day. To sum
+    up, he traveled from the North Pole, according to his statements, to
+    land, as follows:
+
+    The first 133 nautical miles southward in two days, at the rate of
+    66 nautical miles, or 76½ statute miles, a day; the last 279
+    nautical miles in fourteen days, an average of 20 miles a day.
+
+    According to Peary's book, Bartlett left him at 87° 46´, and Mr.
+    Peary started on his final spurt to the Pole a little after midnight
+    on the morning of April 2. By arriving at the point where he left
+    Bartlett on the evening of April 9, he would have made the distance
+    of 270 miles to the Pole from this point and back, in a little over
+    seven days.
+
+    In the New York _World_ of October 3, 1910, page 3, column 6,
+    Matthew Henson makes the following statement: "On the way up we had
+    to break a trail, and averaged only eighteen to twenty miles a day.
+    On the way back we had our own trail to within one hundred miles of
+    land, and then Captain Bartlett's trail. We made from twenty to
+    forty miles a day."
+
+    At the rate of twenty miles a day on the way up, which Henson claims
+    was made, it would have taken 6 days and 18 hours to cover the
+    distance of 135 miles from 87° 47´ to the Pole. Adding the thirty
+    hours Mr. Peary claims he spent at the Pole for observations, eight
+    days would have elapsed before they started back. Peary says the
+    round trip of 270 miles from 87° 47´ N. to the Pole and the return
+    to the same latitude was done in seven days and a few hours.
+
+    Why has Mr. Peary never been asked to explain his miraculous speed
+    and the discrepancy between his statement and Henson's?
+
+    Henson was Mr. Peary's sole witness. When Mr. Peary, in a framed-up
+    document, endeavors to disprove my claim by quoting my Eskimos, it
+    would be just as fair to apply Henson's words to disprove Peary.
+
+    Moreover, inasmuch as Mr. Peary's partisans attacked my speed limits
+    when I made my first reports, does it not seem curious indeed that
+    they now accept as infallible, and _ex cathedra_, the published
+    reports of the almost supernatural feat in covering distance made by
+    Mr. Peary?
+
+
+
+
+THE KEY TO THE CONTROVERSY
+
+PEARY AND HIS PAST--HIS DEALING WITH RIVAL EXPLORERS--THE DEATH OF
+ASTRUP--THE THEFT OF THE "GREAT IRON STONE," THE NATIVES' SOLE SOURCE
+OF IRON
+
+XXXIII
+
+ACTIONS WHICH CALL FOR INVESTIGATION
+
+
+Aiming to be retired from the Navy as a Captain, with a comfortable
+pension; aiming eventually to wear the stripes of a Rear-Admiral, which
+necessitated a promotion over the heads of others in the normal line of
+advancement, a second Polar victory, which was all that Peary could
+honestly claim, was not sufficient. Something must be done to destroy in
+the public eye the merits of my achievement for the first attainment of
+the Pole. I had reached the Pole on April 21, 1908. Mr. Peary's claims
+were for April 6, 1909, a year later. To destroy the advantage of
+priority of my conquest, and to establish himself as the first and only
+one who had reached the Pole, was now the one predominant effort to
+which Mr. Peary and his coterie of conspirators set themselves. To this
+end the cables were now made to burn with an abusive campaign, which the
+press, eager for sensations, took up from land's end to land's end,
+even to the two worlds. The wireless operators picked up messages that
+were being thrown from ship to ship and from point to point. Each
+carried unkind insinuations coming from the lips of Mr. Peary. The press
+and the public were induced to believe that Peary's words came from one
+who was himself above the shadow of suspicion. Their efforts, however,
+as we will see later, did not differ from the battle of envy forced
+against others before me, but it was now done more openly.
+
+It was difficult to remain silent against such world-wide slanders. But
+I reasoned that truth would ultimately prevail, and that the rebound of
+the American spirit of fair play would quell the storm.
+
+I had known for nearly a quarter of a century the man for whom the press
+now attacked me. I had served on two of his expeditions without pay; I
+had watched his successes and his failures; I had admired his strong
+qualities, and I had shivered with the shocks of his wrongdoings. But
+still I did not feel that anything was to be gained by retaliative
+abuse; and the truth about him, out of charity, I hesitated to tell. No,
+I argued, this warfare of the many against one, under the dictates of
+envy, must ultimately bring to light its own injustice.
+
+I had always reasoned that a quiet, dignified, non-assailing bearing
+would be most effective in a battle of this kind. Contrary to the
+general belief at the time, this was not done out of respect for Mr.
+Peary; it seemed the best means to a worthier end. But I did not know at
+this time that the press, dog-like, jumps upon him who maintains a
+non-attacking attitude. In modern times, the old Christian philosophy
+of turning the other cheek, as I have found, does not give the desired
+results.
+
+The press, which, at my home-coming, had lavished praise and glowing
+panegyric, now, as promptly, swung completely around and heaped upon my
+head terms of opprobrium and obloquy. Faked news items were issued to
+discredit me by Peary's associates; editors devoted space to jibes and
+sarcasms at my expense; clever writers and cartoonists did their best to
+make my name a humorous byword with my countrymen. Much of this I did
+not know until long after.
+
+The suddenness of all this--the terrible injustice and unreasonableness
+of it--simply overwhelmed me. Arriving from the cruel North, completely
+spent in body and in mind, the rest that I was urgently in need of had
+been constantly denied me. Instead, I had been caught up and held within
+a perfect maelstrom of excitement. That excitement still ran like fever
+in my veins. The plaudits of the multitude were still ringing in my ears
+when this horror of a world's contumely burst on my head. I could only
+bow my head and let the storm spend itself about me. Sick at heart and
+dazed in mind, conscious only of a vague disgust with all the world and
+myself, I longed for respite and forgetfulness within the bosom of my
+family.
+
+So, quietly, I decided to retire for a year, out of reach of the yellow
+papers; out of reach of the grind of the pro-Peary mill of infamy, still
+maintaining silence rather than stoop to the indignity of showing up the
+dark side of Mr. Peary's character. Having returned, I hesitate to do it
+now; but the weaving of the leprous blanket of infamy with which Peary
+and his supporters attempted to cover me cannot be understood unless we
+look through Mr. Peary's eyes--regard other explorers as he regarded
+them; regard the North as his inalienable property as he did, and regard
+his infamous, high-handed injustices as right.
+
+I have now decided to uncover the incentive of this one-sided fight to
+which I have so long maintained a non-attacking attitude. I had hoped,
+almost against hope, that the public would ultimately understand,
+without a word from me, the humbug of the mudslingers who were
+attempting to defame my character. I had felt sure that the hand which
+did the besmearing was silhouetted clearly against the blackness of its
+own making. But the storm of a sensation-seeking press later so
+thickened the atmosphere that the public, from which one has a sure
+guarantee of fair play, was denied a clear view.
+
+Now that the storm has spent its force; now that the hand which did the
+mudslinging has within its grasp the unearned gain which it sought; now
+that a clear point of observation can be presented, I am compelled, with
+much reluctance and distaste, to reveal the unpleasant and unknown past
+of the man who tried to ruin me; showing how unscrupulous and brutal he
+was to others before me; with evidence in hand, I shall reveal how he
+wove his web of defamation and how his friends conspired with him in the
+darkest, meanest and most brazen conspiracy in the history of
+exploration.
+
+In doing this, my aim is not to challenge Mr. Peary's claim, but to
+throw light on unwritten pages of history, which pages furnish the key
+to unlock the longclosed door of the Polar controversy and the
+pro-Peary conspiracy.
+
+From the earliest days, Mr. Peary's effort to reach the Pole was
+undertaken primarily for purposes of personal commercial gain. For
+twenty years he has passed the hat along lines of easy money. That hat
+would be passing to-day if the game had not been, in the opinion of
+many, spoiled by my success.
+
+For nearly twenty years he sought to be promoted over the heads of
+stay-at-home but hardworking naval officers. During all of this time,
+while on salary as a naval officer, he was away engaged in private
+enterprises from which hundreds of thousands of dollars went into his
+pockets. By wire-pulling and lobbying he succeeded in having the
+American Navy pay him an unearned salary. Such a man could not afford to
+divide the fruits of Polar attainment with another.
+
+In 1891, as the steamer _Kite_ went north, Mr. Peary began to evince the
+brutal, selfish spirit which later was shown to every explorer who had
+the misfortune to cross his trail. Nansen had crossed Greenland; his
+splendid success was in the public eye. Mr. Peary attempted to belittle
+the merited applause by saying that Nansen had borrowed the "Peary
+system." But Peary had borrowed the Nordenskiold system, without giving
+credit. A few months later, Mr. John M. Verhoeff, the meteorologist of
+the _Kite_ expedition, was accorded such unbrotherly treatment that he
+left his body in a glacial crevasse in preference to coming home on the
+same ship with Mr. Peary. This man had paid $2,000 for the privilege of
+being Peary's companion.
+
+Eivind Astrup, another companion of Peary, a few years later was
+publicly denounced because he had written a book on his own scientific
+observations and did work which Peary had himself neglected to do. This
+attempt to discredit a young, sensitive explorer was followed by his
+mental unbalancement and suicide.
+
+About 1897, Peary took from the people of the Farthest North the
+Eskimos' treasured "Star Stone." At some remote period in the unknown
+history of the frigid North, thousands of years ago, when, possibly, the
+primitive forefathers of the Eskimos were perishing from inability to
+obtain food in that fierce war waged between Nature and crude, blindly
+struggling, aboriginal life because of a lack of weapons with which to
+kill, there swiftly, roaringly, descended from the mysterious skies a
+gigantic meteoric mass of burning, white-hot iron. Whence it came, those
+dazed and startled people knew not; they regarded it, as their
+descendants have regarded it, with baffled mystified terror; later, with
+reverence, gratitude, and a feeling akin to awe. Gazing skyward, in the
+long, starlit nights, there undoubtedly welled up surgingly in the wild
+hearts of these innocent, Spartan children of nature, a feeling of
+vague, instinctive wonder at the Power which swung the boreal lamps in
+heaven; which moves the worlds in space; which sweeps in the northern
+winds, and which, for the creatures of its creation, apparently
+consciously, and often by means seemingly miraculous, provides methods
+of obtaining the sources of life. As the meteor and its two smaller
+fragments cooled, the natives, by the innate and adaptive ingenuity of
+aboriginal man, learned to chip masses from it, from which were shaped
+knives and arrows and spearheads. It became their mine of treasure,
+more precious than gold; it was their only means of making weapons for
+obtaining that which sustained life. With new weapons, they developed
+the art of spear-casting and arrow-throwing. As the centuries passed,
+animals fell easy prey to their skill; the starvation of elder ages gave
+way to plenty.
+
+The arm of God, it is said in the Scriptures, is long. From the far
+skies it extended to these people of an ice-sheeted, rigorous land, that
+they might survive, this miraculous treasure. It seemed, however, that
+the arm of man, in its greed, proved likewise long; and as the strange
+providence which gave these people their chief means of killing was
+kind, so the arm of man was cruel.
+
+In 1894, R. E. Peary, regarding the Arctic world as his own, the people
+as his vassals, came north, and a year later took from these natives,
+without their consent, the two smaller fragments. In 1897 he took "The
+Tent," or Great Iron Stone, the natives' last and one source of mineral
+wealth and ancestral treasure. That it was these people's great source
+of securing metal meant nothing to him; that it was a scientific curio,
+whereby he might secure a specious credit from the well-fed armchair
+gentlemen of science at home, meant much to the man who later did not
+hesitate to employ methods of dishonor to try to secure exclusive credit
+of the achievement of the Pole. Just as he later tried to rob me of
+honor, so he ruthlessly took from these people a thing that meant
+abundance of game--and game there meant life.
+
+The great "Iron Stone" was hauled aboard the S. S. _Hope_, and brought
+to New York. Today it reposes in the Museum of Natural History--a
+bulky, black heap of metal, which can be viewed any day by the well-fed
+and curious. In the North, where he will not go again to give his
+mythical "abundance of guns and ammunition," the Eskimos need the metal
+which was sold to Mrs. Morris K. Jesup (who presented it to the museum)
+for $40,000. That money went into Mr. Peary's pockets. In a land where
+laws existed this act would be regarded as a high-handed, monumental and
+dishonorable theft. One who might attempt now to purloin the ill-gotten
+hulk from the museum would be prosecuted. Taken from the people to whose
+ancestors it was sent, as if by a providence that is divine, and to whom
+it meant life, it gave Mr. Peary so-called scientific honors among his
+friends. In the name of religion, it has been said, many crimes have
+been committed. It remained for this man to reveal what atrocious things
+could be done in the fair name of science.
+
+At about the same time a group of seven or eight Eskimos were put aboard
+a ship against their will and brought to New York for museum purposes.
+They were locked up in a cellar in New York, awaiting a market place.
+Before the profit-time arrived, because of unhygienic surroundings and
+improper food, all but one died. When in the grip of death, through a
+Mrs. Smith, who ministered to their last wants, they appealed with tears
+in their eyes for some word from Mr. Peary. They begged that he extend
+them the attention of visiting them before their eyes closed to a world
+of misery and trouble. There came no word and no responsive call from
+the man who was responsible for their suffering. Of seven or eight
+innocent wild people, but one little child survived. That
+one--Mene--was later even denied a passage back to his fathers' land by
+Mr. Peary.
+
+A few years later, the Danish Literary Expedition visited the
+northernmost Eskimos in their houses. The splendid hospitality shown the
+Danes by the Eskimos saved their lives. The Danish people, aiming to
+express their gratitude for this unselfish Eskimo kindness, sent a ship
+to their shores on the following year, loaded with presents, at an
+expenditure of many thousands of kroner. That ship, under the direction
+of Captain Schoubye, left at North Star great quantities of food, iron
+and wood. After the Danes had turned their backs, Mr. Peary came along
+and deliberately, high-handedly, took many of the things. This story is
+told today by every member of the tribe whom Peary claims to have
+befriended, whom he calls "my people."
+
+The sad story of the unavoidable deaths by starvation of the members of
+General Greely's Expedition has for years been issued and reissued to
+the press by Mr. Peary and his press agents, in such form as to
+discredit General Greely and his co-workers. His own inhuman doings
+about Cape Sabine and the old Greely stamping-grounds have been
+suppressed.
+
+In 1901 the ship _Erik_ left Mr. Peary, with a large group of native
+helpers, near Cape Sabine. An epidemic, brought by the Peary ship, soon
+after attacked the Eskimos. Many died; others survived to endure a slow
+torture. Peary had no doctor and no medicine. In the year previous,
+Peary had shown the same spirit to the ever faithful Dr. Dedrick that he
+had shown to Verhoeff, to Astrup, and to others. Although Dedrick could
+not endure Peary's unfairness, he remained, against instructions,
+within reach for just such an emergency as this epidemic presented. He
+offered his services when the epidemic broke out, but Peary refused his
+offer, and allowed the natives to die rather than permit a competent
+medical expert to attend the afflicted.
+
+Near the same point, a year later, Captain Otto Sverdrup wintered with
+his ship. His mission was to explore the great unknown to the west. This
+unexplored country had been under Mr. Peary's eye for ten years; but
+instead of exploring it, his time was spent in an easy and comparatively
+luxurious life about a comfortable camp. When Sverdrup's men visited the
+Peary ship, they were denied common brotherly courtesy and were refused
+the hospitality which is universally granted, by an unwritten law, to
+all field workers. Mr. Peary even refused to send him, on his returning
+ship, important letters and papers which Sverdrup desired taken back. He
+also refused to allow Sverdrup to take native guides and dogs-which did
+not belong to Mr. Peary. This same courtesy was later denied to Captain
+Bernier, of the Canadian Expedition.
+
+Thus attempting to make a private preserve of the unclaimed North, he
+attempted to discredit and thwart every other explorer's effort. In line
+with the same policy, every member of every Peary expedition has been
+muzzled with a contract which prevented talking or writing after the
+expedition's return--contracts by which Mr. Peary derived the sole
+credit, the entire profit, and all the honor of the results of the men
+who volunteered their services and risked their lives. This same spirit
+was shown at the time when, at 87° 45´´, he turned Captain Bartlett
+back, because he (Peary), to use his own words, "wanted all the honors."
+
+In profiting by his long quest for funds for legitimate exploration, we
+find Peary engaged in private enterprises for which public funds were
+used. Much of this money was, in my judgment, used to promote a
+lucrative fur and ivory trade, while the real effort of getting to the
+Pole was delayed, seemingly, for commercial gain. I believe the Pole
+might have been reached ten years earlier. But delay was profitable.
+
+After being thus engaged for years in a propaganda of self-exploitation,
+in assailing other explorers whom he regarded as rivals, in committing
+deeds in the North unworthy of an American and officer of the Navy,
+Peary, knowing that I had started Poleward, knowing that relief must
+inevitably be required, ultimately appropriated my supplies, and
+absolutely prevented any effort to reach me, which even the natives
+themselves might have made. Peary knew he was endangering my life. He
+knew that he was getting ivory and furs in return for supplies belonging
+to me, and which I should need. He knew, also, that it would not
+coincide with his selfish purposes of appropriating all honor and profit
+if I reached the Pole and should return and tell the world. His
+deliberate act was in itself--whether so designed or not--an effort to
+kill a brother explorer. The stains of at least a dozen other lives are
+on this man.
+
+The property which Peary took from Francke and myself, with the hand of
+a buccaneer and the heart of a hypocrite, was worth thirty-five thousand
+dollars. This was done, not to insure expedition needs, but to satisfy
+a hunger for commercial gain, and to inflict a cowardly, underhanded
+injury on a rival. All of my caches, my camp equipment, my food, were
+taken; and under his own handwriting he gave the orders which deprived
+me of all relief efforts at a time when relief was of vital importance.
+Certainly to all appearances this was a deliberate, preconceived plan to
+kill a rival worker by starvation. Here we find an American naval
+officer stooping to a trick for which he would be hanged in a mining
+camp.
+
+Many members of his expeditions, some rough seamen, speak with
+shuddering of his actions in that far-away North. In my possession are
+affidavits, voluntarily made and given to me by members of Mr. Peary's
+expeditions, revealing gross actions, which, in an officer of the Navy,
+call for investigation. Mention has been made of certain facts, because,
+only by knowing these things, can people understand the spirit and
+character of the man and the unscrupulous attacks made upon me, and
+understand, also, why, out of a sense of delicacy and dislike for
+mudslinging, I remained silent so long. It is only because the public
+has been misled by a sensational press, because I realize I have
+suffered by my own silence, in order that history may know the full
+truth and accord a just verdict, that with reluctance, with a sense of
+shuddering distaste, I have been compelled to present these unpleasant
+pages of unwritten Arctic history.
+
+When Mr. Peary and his partisans attacked me they hesitated at nothing
+that was untrue, cruel and dishonorable--forgery and perjury even seemed
+justifiable to them in their effort to discredit me. I still hesitate
+to speak of certain unworthy, unblushing and utterly cruel acts of which
+Mr. Peary is guilty. I would have preferred to remain silent about the
+actions of which I have told.
+
+Assuming the attitude of one above reproach, Peary, upon his return,
+assailed me as a dishonest person who tried to rob him of honor. Had the
+actual and full truths been told at the time about Peary's life in the
+North, his charges would have rebounded annihilatingly upon himself. For
+certain things the people of this country, who are clean, honest and
+fair, will not stand. The facts told about Peary in the affidavits given
+me make his charges of dishonor and dishonesty against me a travesty,
+indeed. Yet, at a time when I might have profited by revealing phases of
+Mr. Peary's personal character, I preferred to remain silent. Of certain
+things men do not care to speak. Although Mr. Peary and his friends
+endeavored to make the Polar controversy a personal one, I regarded Mr.
+Peary's personal actions as having no bearing upon his, or my, having
+attained the Pole. He and his friends forced a personal fight; they
+tried to injure my veracity, my reputation for truth-telling, my
+personal honor. I had hoped against hope that the truth would resolve
+itself without any necessity of my revealing elements of Mr. Peary's
+character. I have herein recited pages from his past, known to Arctic
+explorers but not to the general public, so that his attitude toward me
+may be understood. Yet all, indeed, has not been told. Although Mr.
+Peary did not scruple to lie about me, I still hesitate to tell the full
+truth about him.
+
+In the white, frozen North a tragedy was enacted which would bring
+tears to the hearts of all who possess human tenderness and kindness.
+This has never been written. To write it would still further reveal the
+ruthlessness, the selfishness, the cruelty of the man who tried to ruin
+me. Yet here I prefer the charity of silence, where, indeed, charity is
+not at all merited.
+
+The knowledge of these facts tempered the shocks I felt when the Peary
+campaign of defamation was first made against me. I told myself that a
+man who had done these things would, in the nature of things, be branded
+by the truth, as he deserved.
+
+I was not so greatly surprised that Peary tried to steal my honor. I
+knew that he had stolen tangible things. Yet the theft of food, even
+though a man's life depends upon it, is not so awful as the attempt to
+steal the good name a father hopes to bequeath his children. Yet Peary
+has attempted to do this.
+
+He has attempted to blacken me in the eyes of my family; but, with the
+conscience of a brute, he has deserted two of his own children--left
+them to starve and freeze in the cheerless north. They are there today
+crying for food and a father, while he enjoys a life of luxury at the
+expense of the American tax-payers. This statement calls for an
+investigation by the Secretary of the Navy. See photograph of the
+deserted child of the Sultan of the North, facing page 493.
+
+
+
+
+THE MT. McKINLEY BRIBERY
+
+THE BRIBED, FAKED AND FORGED NEWS ITEMS--THE PRO-PEARY MONEY POWERS
+ENCOURAGE PERJURY--MT. M'KINLEY HONESTLY CLIMBED--HOW, FOR PEARY, A
+SIMILAR PEAK WAS FAKED
+
+XXXIV
+
+HOW A MAN'S SOUL WAS MARKETED
+
+
+After Mr. Peary had done his utmost to try to disprove my Polar
+attainment; after the chain of newspapers which, for him, in conjunction
+with the New York _Times_, had printed the same egregious lies on the
+same days, from the Atlantic to the Pacific; after they had expended all
+possible ammunition, the damages inflicted were still insufficient. My
+narrative, as published in the New York _Herald_, was still more
+generally credited than Mr. Peary's. To gain his end, something else had
+to be done. Something else was done. The darkest page of defamation in
+the world's history of exploration was now written by the hands of
+bribers and perjurers.
+
+The public suddenly turned from the newspaper-inculcated idea of "proof"
+in figures to a more sane examination of personal veracity. To destroy
+my reputation for truth in the public mind was the next unscrupulous
+effort decided upon. The selfish and self-evident press campaign,
+obviously managed by the Peary cabal, to that end had given
+unsatisfactory results. Some vital blow must be delivered by fair
+means or otherwise.
+
+The climb of Mt. McKinley was now challenged.
+
+I had made a first ascent of the great mid-Alaskan peak in 1906. The
+record of that conquest was published during my absence in the North,
+under the title, "To the Top of the Continent." The book, being printed
+at a time when I was unable to see the proofs, contained some mistakes;
+but in it was all the data that could be presented for such an
+undertaking.
+
+The Board of Aldermen of the City of New York decided to honor me by
+offering the keys and the freedom of the metropolis on October 15. This
+was to be an important event. The pro-Peary conspiracy aiming to deliver
+striking blows through the press, their propaganda was so planned that
+the bribed, faked and forged news items were issued on days which gave
+them dramatic and psychologic climaxes. Two days before the New York
+demonstration in my favor, the pretentious full-page broadside of
+distorted Eskimo information was issued. This fell flat; for it was
+instantly seen to be a pretentious rearrangement of old charges. But it
+was so played up as to fill columns of newspaper space and impress
+readers by its magnitude. This was followed by the Barrill affidavit,
+similarly played up so as to fill a full newspaper page, which I shall
+analyze later. All this was done to draw a black cloud over the day of
+honor in New York, the 15th day of October.
+
+Since the published affidavit of my old associate, Barrill, was a
+document which proved him a self-confessed liar; since the affidavit
+carried with it the earmarks of pro-Peary bribery and perjury, I
+reasoned again that fair-minded people would in time see through this
+moneyed campaign of dishonor. In all history it has been shown that he
+who seeks to besmear others usually leaves the greatest amount of mud on
+himself. But again I had not counted on the unfairness of the press.
+
+The only reason given that I should have faked the climb of Mt. McKinley
+is that, in some vague way, I was to profit mightily by a successful
+report. The expedition was to have been financed by a rich Philadelphia
+sportsman. He did advance the greater portion of the sum required. We
+were to prepare a game trail for him. Something interfered, he
+relinquished his trip, and did not send the balance of money promised.
+
+The result was that many checks I had given out went to protest. Harper
+& Brothers had agreed, before starting, to pay me $1,500 for an account
+of the expedition, whether successful or not. On my return this was
+paid, and went to meet outstanding debts--debts to pay which I
+embarrassed myself. Instead of "profits" from this alleged "fake," I
+suffered a loss of several thousand dollars.
+
+As is quite usual in all exploring expeditions, some of the members of
+my Mt. McKinley expedition, who did not share in the final success, were
+disgruntled. Chief among these was Herschell Parker. Owing to ill-health
+and inexperience, Parker had proved himself inefficient in Alaskan work.
+Climbing a little peak forty miles from the great mountain, when he was
+with me, he had pronounced Mt. McKinley unclimbable. Climbing a similar
+hill, four years later, he stooped to the humbug of offering a
+photograph of it as a parallel to my picture of the top of Mt. McKinley.
+This man was so ill-fitted for such work that two men were required to
+help him mount a horse. But I insisted that we continue at least to the
+base of the mountain. At the first large glacier, Parker and his
+companion, Belmore Brown, balked, halting in front of an insignificant
+ice-wall. The ascent of Mt. McKinley, still thirty-five miles off, they
+said, was impossible. Parker returned, and in a trail of four thousand
+miles to New York told every press representative how impossible was the
+ascent of Mt. McKinley. By the time Parker reached New York a cable went
+through that the thing was done. At a point four thousand miles from the
+scene of action, he again cried, "Impossible!" When I returned to New
+York, however, a month later, and Parker learned the details, he
+publicly and privately credited my ascent of Mt. McKinley. Nothing
+further was said to doubt the climb until two years later, when he lined
+up with the Peary interests.
+
+Using Parker as a tool, Peary's Arctic Club, through him, first forced
+the side-issue of Mt. McKinley. With the Barrill affidavit, made later,
+were printed other affidavits by Barrill's friends, who had not been
+within fifty miles of the mountain when it was climbed. This act, to me,
+was a bitter climax of injustice. But I have since learned that Printz
+got $500 of pro-Peary money; that both Miller and Beecher were promised
+large amounts, but were cheated at the "showdown." Printz afterwards
+wrote that he would make an affidavit for me for $300, and at Missoula
+he made an affidavit in which he attempted to defend me.[26] This he
+offered to sell to Roscoe Mitchell for $1,000.
+
+While easy pro-Peary money was passing in the West, Parker came forward
+with his old grudge. His chief contention was that, because he had taken
+home with him in deserting the object of the expedition a hypsometer, I
+could not have measured the high altitudes claimed. The altitude had
+been measured by triangulation by the hydrographer of the expedition,
+but I had other methods of measuring the ascent.
+
+I had two aneroid barometers, specially marked for very high climbing,
+thermometers, and all the usual Alpine instruments. The hypsometer was
+not at that time an important instrument. Parker also showed unfair
+methods by allowing the press repeatedly to print that he had been the
+leader and the organizer of the expedition. This he knew to be false. I
+had organized two expeditions to explore Mt. McKinley, at a cost of
+$28,000. Of this Parker had furnished $2,500. Parker took no part in the
+organization of the last expedition, had given no advice to help supply
+an adequate equipment, and in the field his presence was a daily
+handicap to the progress of the expedition. Heretofore, this was never
+indicated. But when he allows himself to be quoted as the leader of an
+expedition upon which he attempts to throw discredit, then it is right
+that all the facts be known.
+
+In the press reports, when Parker was first heard from, came the news
+that on the Pacific coast, at Tacoma, a lawyer by the name of J. M.
+Ashton was retained by someone. To the press Ashton said he was engaged
+"to look into the McKinley business," but he did not know by
+whom--whether by Cook or Peary. He was "engaged" in a business too
+questionable to tell who furnished the money.
+
+In the final ascent of Mt. McKinley there was with me Edward Barrill,
+the affidavit-maker. He was a good-natured and hard-working packer, who
+had proved himself a most able climber. Together we ascended the
+mountain in September, 1906. To this time (1909) there was not the
+slightest doubt about the footprints on the top of the great mountain.
+Barrill had told everybody that he knew, and all who would listen to
+him, that the mountain was climbed. He went from house to house
+boastfully, with my book under his arm, telling and retelling the story
+of the ascent of Mt. McKinley. That anyone should now believe the
+affidavit, secured and printed for Peary, did not to me seem reasonable.
+
+Parker, filling the position of betrayer and traitor to one who had
+saved his life many times, had decided, as the Polar controversy opened,
+to direct the Mt. McKinley side-issue of the pro-Peary effort.
+
+The first news of bribery in the matter came from Darby, Montana. This
+was Barrill's home town. A Peary man from Chicago was there. He frankly
+said that he would pay Barrill $1,000 to offer news that would discredit
+the climb of Mt. McKinley. Other news of the dishonest pro-Peary
+movement induced me to send Roscoe Mitchell, of the New York _Herald_,
+to the working ground of the bribers. Mitchell was working under the
+direction of my attorneys, H. Wellington Wack, of New York, Colonel
+Marshal, of Missoula, and General Weed, of Helena, Montana.
+
+Mitchell secured testimony and evidence regarding the buying of Barrill,
+but was unable to put the conspirators in jail. At Hamilton, Montana,
+there had appeared a man with $5,000 to pass to Barrill. Barrill's first
+reply was that he had climbed the mountain; that Dr. Cook had climbed
+the mountain; that to take that $5,000, in his own words, he "would have
+to sell his own soul." Barrill's business partner, Bridgeford, was
+present. He later made an affidavit for Mr. Mitchell covering this part
+of the pro-Peary perjury effort.
+
+A little later, however, Barrill said to his partner he "might as well
+see what was in it." Five thousand dollars to Barrill meant more than
+five million dollars to Mr. Peary or his friends. To Barrill, ignorant,
+poor, good-natured, but weak, it was an irresistible temptation.
+
+Barrill now went to Seattle. He visited the office of the Seattle
+_Times_. In the presence of the editor, Mr. Joe Blethen, he dickered for
+the sale of an affidavit to discredit me. He knew such an affidavit had
+news value. Indefinite offers ranging from $5,000 to $10,000 were made.
+Not getting a lump sum off-hand, Barrill, dissatisfied, then went over
+to Tacoma, to the mysterious Mr. Ashton. That all this was done, was
+told me on my trip west shortly afterward, by Mr. Blethen himself.
+
+After visiting Ashton, Barrill was seen in a bank in Tacoma. Barrill had
+said to his partner that to make an affidavit denying my climb would be
+"selling his soul." Barrill, ill at ease, reluctant, appeared. It is a
+terrible thing to lure a weak man to dishonor; it is still more tragic
+and awful when that man is bought so his lie may hurt another. The time
+for the parting of his soul had arrived in the bank. With the sadness of
+a funeral mourner Barrill was pushed along. The talk was in a muffled
+undertone. But it all happened. In the presence of a witness, whose
+evidence I am ready to produce, $1,500 was passed to him. This money was
+paid in large bills, and placed in Barrill's money-belt. There were
+other considerations, and I know where some of this money was spent. His
+soul was marketed at last. The infamous affidavit was then prepared.
+
+This affidavit was printed first in the New York _Globe_. The _Globe_ is
+partly owned and entirely controlled by General Thomas H. Hubbard, the
+President of the Peary Club. With General Hubbard, Mr. Peary had
+consulted at Bar Harbor immediately after his return from Sydney.
+Together they had outlined their campaign. General Hubbard is a
+multi-millionaire. A tremendous amount of money was spent in the Peary
+campaign. In the Mt. McKinley affidavit of Barrill we can trace bribery,
+a conspiracy, and black dishonor, right up to the door of R. E. Peary.
+
+If Peary is not the most unscrupulous self-seeker in the history of
+exploration, caught in underhand, surreptitious acts too cowardly to be
+credited to a thief, caught in the act of bartering for men's souls and
+honor in as ruthless a way as he high-handedly took others' property in
+the North; if he, drawing an unearned salary from the American Navy, has
+not brindled his soul with stripes that fit his body for jail, let him
+come forward and reply. If Peary is not the most conscienceless of
+self-exploiters in all history, caught in the act of stealing honor by
+forcing dishonor, let him come forward and explain the Mt. McKinley
+perjury.
+
+Now let us examine the others who were lined up in this desperate black
+hand movement. In New York there is a club, at first organized to bring
+explorers together and to encourage original research. It bore the name
+of Explorers' Club; but, as is so often the case with clubs that
+monopolize a pretentious name, the membership degenerated. It is now
+merely an association of museum collectors. Among real explorers, this
+club to-day is jocularly known as the "Worm Diggers' Union." In 1909 Mr.
+Peary was president. His press agent, Bridgman, was the moving spirit,
+and one of Colonel Mann's muck-rakers was secretary. Of course, such a
+society, committed to Peary, had no use for Dr. Cook.
+
+In a spirit of helping along the pro-Peary conspiracy, and after the
+Barrill affidavit was secured, the Explorers' Club took upon itself the
+supererogatory duty of appointing a committee to pass on my ascent of
+Mt. McKinley. There was but one real explorer on this committee. The
+others were kitchen geographers, whose honor and fairness had been
+bartered to the Peary interests before the investigation began. Without
+a line of data before them, they decided, with glee and gusto, that Mt.
+McKinley had not been climbed. This was what one would expect from such
+an honor-blind group of meddlers. But Mr. Peary's press worker,
+Bridgman, who himself had engineered the investigation, used this
+seeming verdict of experts to Mr. Peary's advantage.[27]
+
+Still all these combined underhanded efforts failed to reach vital spots
+and to turn the entire public Mr. Peary's way. Something more must still
+be done, Peary's press agent offered $3,000, and the cowardly Ashton, of
+Tacoma, offered another $3,000, to send an expedition to Alaska, to
+further the pro-Peary effort to down a rival. The traitor, Parker,
+responded. He was joined by the other quitter, Belmore Brown, who has
+conveniently forgotten to return borrowed money to me. This
+Peary-Parker-Brown combination went to Alaska in 1910, engaged in mining
+pursuits and hunting adventures. They returned with the expected and
+framed report that Mt. McKinley had not been climbed, and that they had
+climbed a snow-hill, had photographed it, and that the photograph was
+similar to mine of the topmost peak of Mt. McKinley. Mt. McKinley has a
+base twenty-five miles wide; it has upon the various slopes of its giant
+uplift hundreds of peaks, all glacial, polished, and of a similar
+contour. No one peak towers gigantically above the others. On the top
+are many peaks, no particular one of which can with any accuracy of
+inches be decided arbitrarily as the very highest. The top of a mountain
+does not converge to a pin-point apex. One looks out, not into immediate
+space on all sides, but over an area, as I have said, of many peaks. My
+photograph of the peak, which loomed highest among the others on the
+top, possesses a profile not unusual among ice-cut rocks. The
+Peary-Parker-Brown seekers tried hard to duplicate this photograph, so
+as to show I had faked my picture. The thing might have been done easily
+in the Canadian Rockies. It could be done in a dozen more accessible
+places in Alaska; but, without real work, it could be only crudely done
+near Mt. McKinley. The photograph which Peary's friends offered to
+discredit the first ascent is one of a double peak, part of which
+vaguely suggests but a poor outline of Mt. McKinley, and in which a rock
+has been faked. Who is responsible for this humbug? Where is the
+negative? The photograph bears no actual semblance to my picture of the
+top of Mt. McKinley whatever. But why was the negative faked? Parker
+excuses the evident unfairness of the dissimilar photograph by saying
+that he could not get the same position as I must have had. But is
+laziness or haste an excuse when a man's honor is assailed.[28]
+
+Let us follow the Peary high-handed humbugs further. To the southeast of
+Mt. McKinley is a huge mountain, which I named Mt. Disston in 1905. This
+peak was robbed of its name, and over it Parker wrote Mt. Huntington. To
+the northeast of Mt. McKinley is another peak, charted on my maps, to
+which Peary gave the name of the president of the Peary Arctic Trust. To
+this peak was given the same name, by the same methods of stealing the
+credit of other explorers, as that adopted by Peary when, in response to
+$25,000 of easy money, he wrote the same name, "Thomas Hubbard," over
+Sverdrup's northern point of Heiberg Land. Can it be doubted that the
+Peary-Parker-Brown propaganda of hypocrisy and dishonor in Alaska is
+guided by no other spirit than that of Mr. Peary?
+
+Many persons say: "We will credit Dr. Cook's attainment of the Pole
+if this Mt. McKinley matter is cleared up." I have heard this often.
+I have offered in my book proofs of the climb--the same proofs any
+mountain-climber offers. To discredit these, my enemies stooped to
+bribery. I have in my possession, and have stated here, proofs of this.
+Such proofs are even more tangible than the climbing of a far-away
+mountain. Is any other clarifier or any other evidence required to prove
+the pro-Peary frauds?
+
+
+THE PEARY-PARKER-BROWN HUMBUG UP TO DATE
+
+  This chapter is best closed by an analysis of the second effort of
+  Parker and Brown. It will be remembered that in their first venture
+  as hirelings of the Peary propaganda, they balked at the north-east
+  ridge, without making a serious attempt. This ridge--(the ridge upon
+  which I had climbed to the top of Mt. McKinley) was pronounced
+  impossible and therefore my claim in their judgment was false, for
+  such a statement $3,000.00 had been paid. During the spring of 1912,
+  again with $5,000 of Pro-Peary money to discredit me--The same
+  hirelings went through the range, attacked the same ridge from the
+  west and by the really able efforts of their guide, La Voy, a point
+  near the top was reached. The Associated Press report of this effort
+  said that the principal result of the expedition was to show that the
+  north-east ridge (the ridge which I had climbed), was climbable. The
+  very men sent out and paid, therefore, by my enemies to disprove my
+  work have proven, against their will, my first ascent of Mt. McKinley.
+
+  Two other exploring parties were about the slopes of Mt. McKinley
+  during the time of the Peary-Parker defamers. The first, a group of
+  hardy Alaskan pioneers, whose report is written in the Overland
+  Magazine for February, 1913, by Ralph H. Cairns--after an unbiased
+  study of reports both for and against, Cairns credits my first ascent.
+  The well known Engineer R. C. Bates, who as a U. S. revenue inspector
+  of mines and an explorer and mountain climber, did much pioneer work
+  about Mt. McKinley. He also goes on record in the Los Angeles Tribune
+  of February 13th, 1913, as saying: "Dr. Cook really succeeded in
+  ascending the north-east ridge of Mt. McKinley as claimed in 1906."
+  Bates confirms the charge of $5,000 being paid the Parker-Brown
+  expedition to refute my 1906 ascent, and says: "In 1906 Dr. Cook
+  claimed he climbed Mt. McKinley by the north-east ridge. In the
+  account of the 1910 expedition, Parker claimed that 'the north-east
+  ridge, the one used by Dr. Cook, was absolutely unsurmountable'. I,
+  with a party of two, explored the mountain in 1911 and selected the
+  north-east ridge as the only feasible route to the top. I ascended to
+  11,000 feet, according to barometric measure. I told of the exploit
+  to members of the Parker party, who took the same course in 1912.
+  Mr. Parker now contradicts his former statement by saying, 'The
+  north-east ridge is the only feasible ridge, and whoever goes up will
+  follow in my footsteps.'" It is important to note that Dr. Cook's
+  previous footsteps were eliminated, $5,000 had been paid for that very
+  purpose.
+
+  In a personal interview Mr. Bates made the very grave change that one
+  of the leaders of the very expedition sent out to discredit me, had
+  offered him a bribe to swear falsely to certain assessment work on
+  claims which had not been done. The Peary-Parker-Brown movement is
+  therefore from many sources a proven propaganda of bribery, conspiracy
+  and perjury. That such men can escape the doom of prison cells is
+  a parody upon human decency, and yet such are the men who are
+  responsible for the distrust which has been thrown on my work.
+
+
+
+
+THE DUNKLE-LOOSE FORGERY
+
+ITS PRO-PEARY MAKING
+
+XXXV
+
+THE LAST PERJURED DEFAMATION
+
+
+With the bitterness of the money-bought document to shatter my veracity
+regarding the ascent of Mt. McKinley ever before me, I canceled in
+November all my lecture engagements. Mr. William M. Grey, then managing
+my tour, broke contracts covering over $140,000. But, for the time
+being, these could not be filled. I was nearing a stage of mental and
+physical exhaustion, and required rest. Seeking a quiet retreat, my wife
+and I left the Waldorf-Astoria and secured quarters at the Gramatan Inn,
+in Bronxville, N. Y. Here was prepared my report and data to be sent to
+Copenhagen.
+
+At this time, as if again destined by fate, innocently I made my
+greatest error, opened myself to what became the most serious and
+damaging charge against my good faith, and the misstated account of
+which, published later, was used by my enemies in their efforts to brand
+me as a conscious faker and deliberate fraud.
+
+When I now think of the incidents leading up to the acquaintance of
+Dunkle and Loose, it does seem that I had lost all sense of balance, and
+that my brain was befogged. Shortly before I had started West, Dunkle
+was brought to me by Mr. Bradley on the pretext of wanting to talk life
+insurance.
+
+During my lecture tour threats from fanatics reached me, and in my
+nervous condition it was not hard for me to believe that my life was in
+danger. Then, too, it seemed that all the money I had made might be
+spent in efforts to defend myself. I decided to protect my wife and
+children by life insurance. How Dunkle guessed this--if he did--I do not
+know. But at just the right moment he appeared, and I fell into the
+insurance trap.
+
+At the time I did not know that Dunkle had been a professional
+"subscription-raiser," who, while I was in the North, had volunteered to
+raise money for a relief expedition--provided he was given an exorbitant
+percentage.
+
+For this reason both Anthony Fiala and Dillon Wallace had refused to
+introduce him to me before he secured the introduction by Mr. Bradley.
+When Mrs. Cook first saw him, with feminine intuition she said:
+
+"Don't have anything to do with that man. I don't like his looks."
+
+I did not heed this, however. After some futile life insurance talk, he
+surprised me by saying irrelevantly:
+
+"By the way, I have an expert navigator, a friend of mine, who can prove
+that Peary was not at the Pole."
+
+"I have not challenged Mr. Peary's claim," I replied, "and do not wish
+to. The New York _Herald_, however, may listen to what you have to say."
+That was all that was said at the time.
+
+After my return from the western lecture tour, Dunkle seemed to be
+always around, and at every opportunity spoke to me. He gained a measure
+of confidence by criticising the press campaign waged against me. I
+naturally felt kindly toward anyone who was sympathetic. At this time,
+when the problem of accurate observations was worrying me, when my mind
+was beginning to weigh the problem of scientific accuracy--again just at
+the psychological moment--Dunkle brought Loose out to the Gramatan Inn
+and introduced him to me, saying that he was an expert navigator.
+
+Pretending a knowledge of the situation in Europe, Loose told me the
+Danes were becoming impatient. I replied that I was busy preparing my
+report.
+
+"Something ought to be done in the meantime," he said. "Now, I have
+connections with some of the Scandinavian papers, and I think some
+friendly articles in the meantime would allay this unrest."
+
+The idea seemed reasonable; anything that would help me was welcome, and
+I told Loose, if he wanted to, that he might go ahead. He visited me
+several times, and broached the subject of the possible outcome of the
+Copenhagen verdict. By this time I felt fairly friendly with him.
+Finally he brought me several articles. They seemed weak and irrelevant.
+Lonsdale read them, said there was not much to them, but that they might
+help. Loose mailed the articles--or said he did. Then, to my amazement,
+he made the audacious suggestion that I let him go over my material. I
+flatly refused.
+
+He pointed out, what I myself had been thinking about, that all
+observations were subject to extreme inaccuracy. He suggested his
+working mine out backward to verify them. As I regarded him as an
+experienced navigator, I thought this of interest. I was not a
+navigator, and, moreover, had had no chance of checking my figures. So,
+desiring an independent view, and thinking that another man's method
+might satisfy any doubts, I told him to go ahead, using the figures
+published in my story in the New York _Herald_.
+
+At the time I told him to purchase for me a "Bowditch Navigator," which
+I lacked, and any other almanacs and charts he needed for himself. He
+came out to the Gramatan to live. Arrangements for his stay had been
+made by Dunkle--under the name of Lewis, I have been told since--but I
+knew nothing of this at the time. I gave Loose $250, which was to
+compensate him in full for the articles and his running expenses. It
+struck me that he took an unnecessarily long time to finish his work of
+checking my calculations.
+
+Late one night, returning from the city, I went to his room. Dunkle was
+there. Papers were strewn all over the room.
+
+"Well," said Loose, "I think we have this thing all fixed up."
+
+Dunkle, smooth-tongued and friendly as ever, said, "Now, Doctor, I want
+to advise you to put your own observations aside. _Send these to
+Copenhagen!_"
+
+I looked up amazed, incredulous. I felt stunned for the moment, and said
+little. I then took the trouble to look over all the papers carefully.
+There was a full set of faked observations. The examination took me an
+hour. During that time Dunkle and Loose were talking in a low tone. I
+did not hear what they said. I saw at once the game the rascals had been
+playing. The insinuation of their nefarious suggestion for the moment
+cleared my mind, and a dull anger filled me.
+
+"Gentlemen," I said, "pack up every scrap of this paper in that
+dress-suit case. Take all of your belongings and leave this hotel at
+once."
+
+I stood there while they did so. Not a word was spoken. Sheepish and
+silent, they shuffled from the room, ashamed and taken aback. Sick at
+heart at the thought that these men should have considered me
+unscrupulous enough to buy and use their faked figures, I went to my
+room. From that day--November 22--I have not received a letter or
+telegram from either.
+
+Months later, in South America, I read with horrified amazement a
+summary of the account of this occurrence, sold by Dunkle and Loose to
+the New York _Times_. Distorted and twisted as it was I doubt if even
+the _Times_ would have used it had Dunkle and Loose not forced the lie
+that these faked figures were sent to Copenhagen. They knew, as God
+knows, that every scrap of paper on which they wrote was packed in a
+suit-case as dirty as the intent of their sin-blotted paper.
+
+If my report to the Copenhagen University proved anything, it was, by
+comparison, figure by figure, with the affidavits published, that in
+this at least I was guilty of no fraud.
+
+In a re-examination later, a handwriting expert has come to the
+conclusion that the name of Loose was forged, and Loose was later put in
+jail for another offense. To the city editor of a New York evening paper
+Loose offered to sell a story retracting the charges published in the
+_Times_. Dunkle admitted to witnesses that he had been paid for the
+affidavit published in the New York _Times_. Loose, willing to discredit
+the _Times_ story, said, however, he "wanted big money" for a
+retraction. One question that is forced in the interest of fair-play is,
+Why did the New York _Times_, without investigation, print a news item
+by which a man's honor is attacked, which is not only a perjury but a
+forgery? The managing editor was shown the evidence of this forgery,
+admitted its force, but not a word was printed to counteract the harm
+done by printing false news.
+
+Captain E. B. Baldwin, a year later, discovered that this pro-Peary
+faked stuff was in possession of Professor James H. Gore, one of Mr.
+Peary's friends in the National Geographic Society, which prostituted
+its name for Peary by passing upon valueless "proofs." From the methods
+pursued by this society later, I am inclined to the belief that the
+Dunkle-Loose fake was concocted for members of this society. If not, how
+does it happen that Professor Gore is in possession of this faked,
+forged, and perjured stuff?
+
+
+
+
+HOW A GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY PROSTITUTED ITS NAME
+
+XXXVI
+
+THE WASHINGTON VERDICT--THE COPENHAGEN VERDICT
+
+
+While one group of pro-Peary men were early engaged in various
+conspiracies, extending from New York to the Pacific coast, fabricating
+false charges, faking, and forging news items designed to injure me, men
+higher up in Washington were planning other deceptions behind closed
+doors. The Mt. McKinley bribery and the Dunkle-Loose humbug had the
+desired effect in reducing the opposition in Washington, and by December
+of 1909 the controversy was settled to Mr. Peary's satisfaction by a
+group of men who, by deception, betrayed public trust.
+
+The National Geographic Society very early assumed a meddlesome air in
+an effort to dictate the distribution of Polar honors. With the excuse
+that they would give a gold medal to him who could prove priority to the
+claim of Polar discovery, they began a series of movements that would
+put a dishonorable political campaign to shame. In the light of later
+developments, medals from this society are regarded by true scientific
+workers as badges of dishonor. By way of explanation, one of the
+officers said that they made it a rule to examine all original field
+observations before the society honored an explorer. This was a
+deliberate falsehood, for no explorer going to Washington had previously
+packed his field papers and instruments for inspection. If so, then this
+society again convicts itself of a humbug, as it did later. Mr. Peary
+had been given a gold medal for his claim of having reached the farthest
+north in 1906. Peary admitted that his position rested on one imperfect
+observation. I happened, quite by accident, to be in a position, soon
+after Peary's return, to examine the instruments with which the farthest
+north observations had been made. Every apparatus was so bent and
+bruised that further observations were impossible. Of course Peary will
+say that the instruments were injured en route on the return. But this
+does not excuse the idle boast of the members of the National Geographic
+Society, who said that they always examined a returning explorer's field
+notes and apparatus, when in this case they did not see Mr. Peary's
+observations nor his instruments.
+
+As a matter of fact, the National Geographic, like every other
+geographic society, had previously rated the merits of an explorer's
+work by his published reports. Their tactics were now changed to bring
+about a position where they might focus the controversy to Mr. Peary's
+and their advantage. There would have been no harm in this effort, if it
+had been honest; but, as we will see presently, falsehood and deception
+were evident in every move.
+
+The position of the National Geographic Society is very generally
+misunderstood because of its pretentious use of the word "National." In
+reality, it is neither national nor geographic. It is a kind of
+self-admiration society, which serves the mission of a lecture bureau.
+It has no connection with the Government and has no geographic authority
+save that which it assumes. As a lecture bureau it had retained Mr.
+Peary to fill an important position as its principal star for many
+years. To keep him in the field as their head-line attraction they had
+paid $1,000 to Mr. Peary for the very venture now in question. This
+so-called "National" Geographic Society was, therefore, a stock owner in
+the venture upon which they passed as an unbiased jury.
+
+Of course Mr. Peary consented to rest his case in their hands; but, for
+reasons above indicated and for others given below, I refused to have
+any dealings with such an unfair combination. The Government was
+appealed to, and every political and private wire was pulled to compel
+me to submit my case to a packed jury. During all the time when this was
+done, its moving spirits, Gilbert Grosvenor and Admiral Chester, were
+publicly and privately saying things about me and my attainment of the
+Pole that no gentleman would utter. That Mr. Peary was a member of this
+society; that his friends were absolute dictators of the power of
+appointment; that they were stock owners in Mr. Peary's enterprise--all
+of this, and a good many other facts, were carefully suppressed. To the
+public this society declared they were "neutral, unbiased and
+scientific"--no more deliberate lie than which was ever forced upon the
+public.
+
+Of course I refused to place my case in dishonest pro-Peary hands. With
+shameless audacity this society helped Mr. Peary carry along his press
+campaign by disseminating the cowardly slurs of Grosvenor, Chester, and
+others. They watched and encouraged the McKinley bribery; they closed
+their eyes to the Kennan lies. Through Chester and others, they faked
+pages of sensational pseudo-scientific news, all with the one centered
+aim of forcing doubt on opposing interests before the crucial moment,
+when, behind closed doors, the matter could be settled to their liking.
+
+Thus, when Peary, his club, and his affiliated boosters at Washington
+were carrying their press slanders to a focus, there came a loud cry
+from the National Geographic Society for proofs.
+
+With some wrangling, and a good deal of protest from half-hearted men,
+like Professor Moore, a jury was appointed to pass upon Mr. Peary's
+claims and mine. My claims were to be passed upon against my will.
+Unbiased and real Arctic explorers like General Greely and Admiral
+Schley were carefully excluded from this jury. Instead, armchair
+geographers, who were closely related to the Peary interests, were
+appointed as a "neutral jury," as follows:
+
+_Henry Gannett_, a close personal friend of Mr. Peary.
+
+_C. M. Chester_, related to Mr. Peary's fur trader, a member of a
+coterie that divided the profits of fleecing the Eskimos.
+
+_O. H. Tittman_, chief of a department under which part of Mr. Peary's
+work was done.
+
+With a flourish of trumpets, including pages of self-boosting news
+distributed by Mr. Peary's press agents, this commission began its
+important investigation. At the time, it was said that all of Mr.
+Peary's original field papers and instruments were under careful
+scrutiny. Later it was shown that one of the jury saw only COPIES. On
+November 4, 1909, was issued the verdict of this jury: "That Commander
+Peary reached the North Pole on April 6, 1909."
+
+This verdict, at its face value, was fair; but the circumstances which
+surrounded it before and after were such as to raise a doubt that can
+never be removed. With the verdict came the insinuation that no one else
+had reached the Pole before Peary; that my claim of priority was
+dishonest. A nagging press campaign continued to emanate from
+Washington.
+
+I have no objection to Mr. Peary's friends endorsing him--a friend who
+will stretch a point is not to be condemned. But when such friends stoop
+to dishonorable methods to inflict injury upon others, then a protest is
+in order. My aim here is not to deny that Mr. Peary reached the Pole
+near enough for all practical purposes, but to show how men sacrificed
+their word of honor to boost Mr. Peary and to discredit me.
+
+The verdict of this jury which was to settle the controversy for all
+time was sent out on wires that encircled the globe. Soon after there
+was a call for the data upon which that jury passed. The public called
+for it; the Government called for it; foreign geographical societies
+asked for it. No one was allowed to see the wonderful "proofs." Why?
+
+Officially, that commission said that Mr. Peary's contract with a
+magazine prevented the publication of the "proofs." But every member of
+the commission was on the Government pay-roll. Why, may we ask, should
+a Government official be muzzled with a bid for commercial gain? This
+contract was held by Benjamin Hampton, of _Hampton's Magazine_. If
+Hampton's contract muzzled the Government officials, Mr. Hampton thought
+so little of the so-called "proofs" that he did not print them. For, in
+_Hampton's_ installment, with the eye-attracting title, "Peary Proofs
+Positive," the real data upon which the Peary case rests were
+eliminated. Why? In Mr. Peary's own book that material is again
+suppressed. Why? For the same reason that the jury was muzzled. _The
+material would not bear public scrutiny!_
+
+The real difficulty is that, in the haste to floor rival claims, Mr.
+Peary and all his biased helpers fixed as the crucial test of Polar
+attainment an examination of field observations. Mr. Peary had his; he
+had refused to let Whitney bring part of mine from the North; and,
+therefore, he and his friends supposed that I was helpless, by assuming
+this false position. But when Mr. Peary's own material was examined, it
+was found that his position rested on a set of worthless
+observations--calculations of altitudes of the sun so low that it is
+questionable if the observation could have been made at all. So long as
+three men, behind closed doors, could be made to say "Yes, Peary reached
+the Pole," and so long as this verdict came with the authority of a
+Geographic Society and the seeming endorsement of national prestige, the
+false position could be impressed upon the pubic as a _bona-fide_
+verdict. But, with publicity, the whole railroading game would be
+spoiled. These three men could be influenced. But there are a hundred
+thousand other men in the world whose lives depend upon their knowledge
+of just such observations as were here involved. They knew publicity
+would bring the attention of these men to the fact that Mr. Peary's
+polar claim rests upon the impossible observations of a sun at an
+altitude less than 7° above the horizon. The three armchair geographers,
+seldom out of reach of dusty book-shelves, passed upon these worthless
+observations. Not one of one hundred thousand honest sextant experts
+would credit such an observation as that upon which Mr. Peary's case
+rests--not even in home regions, where for centuries tables for
+corrections have been gathered.
+
+[29]A year later, at the Congressional investigation of the Naval
+Committee in Washington, Mr. Peary and two of his jurors admitted that
+in the much-heralded Peary proofs "there was no proof." Members of the
+Geographic Society acknowledged their "examination" of Peary's
+instruments was made in the Pennsylvania Station, when they opened Mr.
+Peary's trunk and casually looked over its contents. Therefore, Mr.
+Peary's claim for a second victory now rests upon his book.
+
+In forcing the controversy, the press and the public have come to the
+conclusion that one or the other report must be discredited. This is an
+incorrect point of view. Each case must be judged upon its own merits.
+To prove my case, it is not necessary to disprove Peary's; nor, to prove
+Peary's, should it have been necessary to try to disprove mine.
+
+Much has been said about my case resting in foreign hands. This came
+about in a natural way. It was not intended to convey the idea that my
+own countrymen were incompetent or dishonest. In the case of the
+National Geographic Society they have irretrievably prostituted their
+name; but the same is not true of other American authorities.
+
+When I came to Copenhagen, the Danish Geographic Society gave me a first
+spontaneous hearing. The Copenhagen University honored me. It was,
+therefore, but proper that the Danes should be the first to pass upon
+the merits of my claim. While these arrangements were in progress, I met
+Professor Thorp, the Rector of the University of Copenhagen, at the
+American Legation. I did not know the purport of that meeting, nor of
+his detailed, careful questions; but on the 6th of September appeared an
+official statement in the press reports. In these it was stated that
+the meeting had been arranged to satisfy the University authorities as
+to whether the Pole had been reached. Among other things, Professor
+Thorp said:
+
+"As there were certain questions of a special astronomical nature with
+which I myself was not sufficiently acquainted, I called in our greatest
+astronomical scientist, Professor Stromgren, who put an exhaustive
+series of mathematical, technical and natural scientific questions to
+Dr. Cook, based particularly on those of his contentions on which some
+doubts had been cast.
+
+"Dr. Cook answered all to our full satisfaction. He showed no
+nervousness or excitement at any time. I dare say, therefore, that there
+is no justification for anybody to throw the slightest doubt on his
+claim to have reached the Pole and the means by which he did it.
+Professor Stromgren and I are entirely satisfied with the evidence."
+
+I have always maintained that the proof of an explorer's doings was not
+to be found in a few disconnected figures, but in the continuity of his
+final book which presents his case. To this end I prepared a report,
+accompanied by the important part of the original field notes and a
+complete set of reduced observations. These were submitted to the
+University of Copenhagen in December of 1909. The verdict on this was
+that in such material there was no absolute proof of the attainment of
+the Pole.
+
+The Peary press agents were in Copenhagen, and sent this news out so as
+to convey the idea that Copenhagen had denounced me; that, in their
+opinion, the Pole had not been reached as claimed, and that I had hoaxed
+the world for sordid gain; all of which was untrue. But the press
+flaunted my name in big headlines as a faker.
+
+"In the Cook data there is no proof," they repeated as the verdict of
+Copenhagen.
+
+A year later Mr. Peary and his jurors confessed unwillingly in Congress
+that in the Peary data there was no proof.
+
+This was reported in the official Congressional pamphlets, but, so far
+as I know, not a single newspaper displayed the news. The two cases,
+therefore, so far as verdicts go, are parallel.
+
+Wearied of the whole problem of undesirable publicity; mentally and
+physically exhausted; disgusted with the detestable and slanderous
+campaign, which, for Mr. Peary, the press forced unremittingly, I
+decided to go away for a year, to rest and recuperate. This could not be
+done if I took the press into my confidence; and, therefore, I quietly
+departed from New York, to be joined by my family later. Out of the
+public eye, life, for me, assumed a new interest. In the meantime, the
+public agitation was stilled. Time gave a better perspective to the
+case; Mr. Peary got that for which his hand had reached. He was made a
+Rear-Admiral, with a pension of $6,000 under retirement.
+
+By the time I had resolved my case, I received through my brother,
+William L. Cook, of Brooklyn, and my London solicitor, various offers
+from newspapers and magazines for any statement I desired to make.
+Because I had gone away quietly and remained in seclusion, the
+newspapers had inflamed the public with an abnormal curiosity in my
+so-called mysterious disappearance. This fact imparted a great
+sensational value to any news of my public reappearance or to any
+statement which I might make. Eager to secure a "beat," newspapers were
+offering my brother as high as one thousand dollars merely for my
+address. The New York newspaper which had led the attack against me sent
+an offer, through my London solicitor, of any figure which I might make
+for my first exclusive statement to the public. One magazine offered me
+ten thousand dollars for a series of articles.
+
+While in London I received a message from Mr. T. Everett Harry, of
+_Hampton's Magazine_, concerning the publication of a series of articles
+explaining my case. Mr. Harry came to London and talked over plans for
+these. The opportunity of addressing the same public, through the same
+medium, as Mr. Peary had in his serial story, strongly influenced me--in
+fact, so strongly that, while I had a standing offer of ten thousand
+dollars, I finally gave my articles to _Hampton's_ for little more than
+four thousand dollars.
+
+In order that _Hampton's Magazine_ might benefit by the publicity
+attaching to my first statement, and in response to the editor's
+request, I came quietly to the United States with Mr. Harry, by way of
+Canada, to consult with the editor before making final arrangements. Mr.
+Harry and I had agreed upon the outline for the articles. They were to
+be a series of heart-to-heart talks, embodying the psychological phases
+of the Polar controversy and my own actions. In these I determined fully
+to state my case, explain the ungracious controversy, and analyze the
+impossibility of mathematically ascertaining the Pole or of proving such
+a claim by figures. The articles that eventually appeared in
+_Hampton's_, with the exception of unauthorized editorial changes and
+excisions of vitally important matter concerning Mr. Peary, were
+practically the same as planned in London.
+
+Coming down from Quebec, I stopped in Troy, New York, to await Mr.
+Hampton, who was to come from New York. While there, a sub-editor, with
+all a newspaper man's sensational instincts, came to see me. He
+communicated, it seems, a brilliant scheme for a series of articles. As
+he outlined it, I was to go secretly to New York, submit myself to
+several employed alienists who should pronounce me insane, whereupon I
+was to write several articles in which I should admit having arrived at
+the conclusion that I reached the Pole while mentally unbalanced! This
+admission was to be supported by the alienists' purchased report! This
+plan, I was told, would "put me right" and make a great sensational
+story!
+
+When I was told of this I felt staggered. Did people--could they--deem
+me such a hoax that, in order to obtain an unwarranted sympathy, or to
+make money, I should be willing to admit to such a shameful, mad,
+atrocious and despicable lie? I said nothing when the suggestion was
+made. At heart, I felt achingly hurt. I felt that this newspaper man,
+not hesitating at deceiving the public in order to get a sensation,
+regarded me as a scoundrel. I was learning, too, as I had throughout the
+heart-bitter controversy, the duplicity of human nature.
+
+After a talk with Mr. Hampton, who finally arrived, and who, I am glad
+to say, had no such suggestion himself to offer, I got to work on my
+articles after the general plan spoken of in London. These were written
+at the Palatine Hotel, in Newburgh. The articles finished, I returned to
+London to settle certain business matter prior to my public return to
+America by Christmas.
+
+Imagine my amazed indignation when, shortly before sailing, the cables
+brought the untrue news, "Dr. Cook Confesses." Imagine my heart-aching
+dismay when, on reaching the shores of my native country, I found the
+magazine which was running the articles in which I hoped to explain
+myself, had blazoned the sensation-provoking lie over its cover--"Dr.
+Cook's Confession."
+
+I had made no confession. I had made the admission that I was uncertain
+as to having reached the exact mathematical Pole. That same admission
+Mr. Peary would have to make had he been pinned down. He did make this
+admission, in fact, while his own articles, a year before, were being
+prepared, in the _Hampton's_ office.
+
+In order to advertise itself, the magazine employed the trick of
+construing a mere admission of uncertainty as to the exact pin-point
+attainment of the Pole as a "confession." To the public I had apparently
+authorized this. The misrepresentation hurt me, and for a time placed me
+in an unhappy dilemma.
+
+Before the appearance of the January _Hampton's_, in which the first
+instalment of my articles appeared, a series of press stories supposedly
+based upon my forthcoming articles were prepared and sent out by the
+sub-editor who had suggested the insanity plan. These were prepared
+during the absence of Mr. Harry in Atlantic City. By picking garbled
+extracts from my articles about the impossibility of a pin-point
+determination of the Pole, and the crazy mirage-effects of the Arctic
+world, these news-stories were construed to the effect that I admitted I
+did not know whether I had been at the North Pole or whether I had not
+been at the North Pole, and also that I admitted to a plea of insanity.
+These stories were printed on the first pages of hundreds of newspaper
+all over the country, under scareheads of "Dr. Cook Admits Fake!" and
+"Dr. Cook Makes Plea of Insanity!"
+
+In these reports, written by the sub-editor, he gave himself credit for
+the "discovery" of Dr. Cook and the securing of his articles for
+_Hampton's_. This claim for the magazine "beat" was as dishonest as his
+handling of the press matter for _Hampton's_. My dealings with the
+magazine were entirely through Mr. Harry, whose frankness and
+fair-dealing early disposed me to give my story to the publication he
+represented.
+
+The widespread dissemination of the untrue and cruelly unfair
+"confession" and "insanity-plea" stories dazed me. I felt impotent,
+crushed. In my very effort to explain myself I was being irretrievably
+hurt. I was being made a catspaw for magazine and newspaper sensation.
+
+But misrepresentations do not make history. The American people cannot
+always be hoodwinked. The reading public soon realized that my story was
+no more a confession than the "Peary Proof Positive" instalment in
+Hampton's had been the embodiment of any real Polar proofs.
+
+Finding that it was impossible, in magazines and newspapers, to tell
+the full truth; finding that what I did say was garbled and distorted, I
+concluded to reserve the detailed facts for this book. There were truths
+about Mr. Peary which, I suppose, no paper would have dared to print. I
+have told them here. There were truths about myself which, because they
+explain me, the papers, preferring to attack me, would not have printed.
+I have told them here.
+
+I climbed Mt. McKinley, by my own efforts, without assistance; I reached
+the Pole, save for my Eskimos, alone. I had spent no one's money, lost
+no lives. I claimed my victory honestly; and as a man believing in
+himself and his personal rights, at a time when I was nervously unstrung
+and viciously attacked, I went away to rest, rather than deal in dirty
+defamation, alone. At a time when the tables seemed turned, when the
+wolves of the press were desirous of rending me, I came back to my
+country--alone.
+
+I have now made my fight; I have been compelled to extreme measures of
+truth-telling that are abhorrent to me. I have done this because,
+otherwise, people would not understand the facts of the Polar
+controversy or why I, reluctant, remained silent so long. I have done
+this single-handedly. I have confidence in my people; more than that, I
+have implicit and indomitable confidence in--Truth.
+
+
+
+
+RETROSPECT
+
+
+Returning from the North, in September, 1909, while being honored in
+Copenhagen for my success in reaching the North Pole, there came, by
+wireless from Labrador, messages from Robert E. Peary, claiming the
+attainment exclusively as his own, and declaring that in my assertion I
+was, in his vernacular, offering the world a "gold brick."
+
+On April 21, 1908, I had reached a spot which I ascertained, with as
+scientific accuracy as possible, to be the top of the axis around which
+the world spins--the North Pole.
+
+On April 6, 1909, a year later, Mr. Peary claimed to have reached the
+same spot.
+
+To substantiate his charge of fraud, Peary declared that my Eskimo
+companions had said I had been only two sleeps from land. Why, he
+further asked, had I not taken reputable witnesses with me on such a
+trip?
+
+I had taken, on my final dash, two expert Eskimos. Mr. Peary had four
+Eskimos and a negro body servant.
+
+Before launching further charges, Mr. Peary delayed his ship, the
+_Roosevelt_, at Battle Harbor, on the pretext of cleaning it, that he
+might digest my New York _Herald_ story, compare it with his own, and
+fabricate his broadside of abuse. There he was in constant communication
+with the New York _Times_, General Thomas Hubbard--president of the
+Peary Arctic Club and financial sponsor of the "trust"--and Herbert L.
+Bridgman. The _Times_, eager to "beat" the _Herald_, was desirous of
+descrediting me and launching Peary's as the _bona-fide_ North Pole
+discovery story. General Hubbard, Mr. Bridgman, and the "trust" were
+eager for a publicity and acclaim greater than that which might attach
+to any honorable second victor. Dishonor and perjury, to secure first
+honors, were not even to be weighed in the balance.
+
+When I arrived in New York, I was confronted by a series of technical
+questions, designed to baffle me. These questions, I learned, had been
+sent to the _Times_ by Mr. Peary with instructions that the _Times_ "get
+after" me.
+
+I answered these questions. I had answered them in Europe. Mr. Peary,
+when he arrived at Sydney, and afterward, refused to answer any
+questions. He continued simply to attack me, to make insinuations
+aspersing my honesty, playing the secret back-hand game of defamation
+conducted by his friends of his Arctic Club.
+
+Why had I not, on my return from my Polar trip, told anyone of the
+achievement, Mr. Peary asked in an interview, aiming to show that my
+Polar attainment was an afterthought.
+
+On my return to Etah I had told Harry Whitney and Pritchard. They, in
+turn, told Captain Bob Bartlett. Captain Bartlett, as well as the
+Eskimos, in turn told Peary at Etah that I claimed to have reached the
+Pole. At the very moment when this charge was made, Peary had in his
+pocket Captain Adams' letter which gave the same information. Why did
+Mr. Peary suppress this information, convicting himself of insinuating
+an untruth from three different sources to challenge my claim.
+Returning from the North with the negro, Henson, and Eskimos, Mr. Peary
+himself had not told his own companions on the _Roosevelt_ of his own
+success. Why was this?
+
+In a portentous statement Mr. Peary and his party declared my Eskimos
+said I had not been more than two sleeps from land.
+
+I had instructed my companions not to tell Peary of my achievement. He
+had stolen my supplies. I felt him unworthy of the confidence of a
+brother explorer. I had encouraged the delusion of E-tuk-i-shook and
+Ah-we-lah that almost daily mirages and low-lying clouds were signs of
+land, so as to prevent the native panic and desertion on the circumpolar
+sea. They had possibly told this to Peary in all honesty; but other
+natives also told him that we had reached the "Big Nail."
+
+Why was the news to Mr. Peary's liking given, while that which he did
+not like was ignored?
+
+Not long ago, Matthew Henson, interviewed in the south, was quoted as
+saying that Peary did not get to the Pole. In another interview he said
+that Peary, like a tenderfoot, rode in a fur-cushioned sledge until they
+got to a place which was "far enough." I still prefer to believe Peary
+rather than Henson. Peary's Eskimo companions of a former trip
+positively deny Peary's claimed discovery of Crocker Land. I still
+prefer to believe that Crocker Land does deserve a place on the map.
+Peary's last Eskimo companions say that he did not reach the Pole. But I
+prefer to credit his claim. Mr. Peary's spirit has never been that of
+fairness to others when a claim impinges upon his own. He has always
+adopted the tactics of the claim-jumper.
+
+In a like manner, and with similar intent, Mr. Peary had attacked many
+explorers before me. To prevent his companions from profiting by their
+own work, members of each expedition were forced to sign contracts that
+barred press interviews, eliminated cameras, prohibited lecturing or
+writing, or even trading for trophies. To insure Mr. Peary all the
+honor, his men were made slaves to his cause.
+
+In a quarrel which resulted from these impossible conditions, Eivind
+Astrup was assailed. Broken-hearted, he committed suicide. Captain Otto
+Sverdrup was made to feel the sting of the same grasping spirit. General
+A. W. Greely has been unjustly attacked. All of this detestable
+selfishness culminated in the treatment of Captain Bob Bartlett. When
+the Pole, to Peary, seemed within reach, and the glory of victory was
+within grasp, the ever-faithful Bartlett was turned back and his place
+was taken by a negro, that Peary might be, to quote his own words, "the
+only white man at the Pole."
+
+When, on my return to New York, I found myself attacked by a man of this
+caliber, I decided that the public, without any counter-defamation on my
+part, would read him aright and see through the unscrupulous and
+dishonest campaign. So I remained silent.
+
+Coming down to Portland from Sydney, where he had landed, Mr. Peary gave
+out an interview insinuating that I had had no instruments with which to
+take observations. "Would Dr. Cook," he asked, "if he had had
+instruments, have left them in the hands of a stranger (Harry Whitney),
+when upon these depended his fame or his dishonor?"
+
+On his return to this country, Mr. Whitney corroborated my statement of
+leaving my instruments with him. Mr. Peary's own captain, who had
+cross-questioned my Eskimos for Mr. Peary, later stated to two magazine
+editors that my companions had described to him the instruments I had
+had. Is it reasonable to suppose that Mr. Peary did not know of this? I
+know that he knew. If he is an honest man, why did he stoop to this
+dishonesty? Even if he believed me to be dishonest, dishonest methods
+only placed him in the class of the one he attacked as dishonest.
+
+By using the same underhand methods, as when he got the New York _Times_
+to cross-question me for himself, Peary now got his friends of the
+Geographic Society, who had boosted him, to call for "proofs." Such
+proofs, it appeared, should always be presented before public honors
+were accepted or the returns of a lecture tour considered. But Peary had
+engaged in exploration for twenty years, and had always given lectures
+at once, without ever offering proofs. I was asked to cancel lecture
+engagements and furnish what Peary knew neither he nor anybody else
+could furnish offhand. For the proof of an explorer's doings is his
+final book, which requires months and years to prepare.
+
+With much blaring of trumpets, the Peary "proofs" were submitted to his
+friends of the National Geographic Society. With but a casual
+examination of copies of data, claimed at the time to be original field
+notes, with no explanation of the wonderful instruments upon which it
+had been earlier claimed Polar honors rested, an immediate and
+favorable verdict was rendered.
+
+A huge picture was published, showing learned, bewhiskered gentlemen
+examining the Peary "proofs," and reaching their verdict. Mr. Peary's
+case for a rediscovery of the Pole was won--for the time. The public
+were deceived into believing that positive proofs had been presented;
+that the society, acting as a competent and neutral jury, was honest.
+Later it was shown that its members were financially interested in Mr.
+Peary's expedition, and still later it was admitted that the Peary
+proofs contained no proof. All of this later development has had no
+publicity.
+
+In the meantime, I was attacked for delay. My data was finally sent to
+the University of Copenhagen. A verdict of "Unproven" was rendered.
+
+Thereupon, Mr. Peary and his friends at once shouted "Fraud!" The press
+parrot-like re-echoed that shout. With this unfair insinuation there
+came to me the biting sting of a burning electric shock as the wires
+quivered all around the world. At the Congressional investigation, a
+year later, the Peary data was shown to be useless as proof. It was a
+verdict precisely like that of Copenhagen on mine, but the press did not
+print it. Did the Peary interests have any control over the American
+press or its sources of news distribution?
+
+After the call for "proof" came charges, from members of the Peary
+cabal, that I was unable to take observations. Mr. Peary was so much
+better equipped than I to do so! Moreover, he had had the able
+scientific assistance of Bartlett and--the negro.
+
+When I was at the Pole the sun was 12° above the horizon. At the time
+Peary claims he was there it was less than 7°. Difficult as it is to
+take observations at 12°, because of refracted light, any accurate
+observation at 7° is impossible. It is indeed, questionable if an
+observation could be made at all at the time when Peary claims to have
+been at the Pole.
+
+Finding that, despite all charges, the public believed in me, Mr. Peary,
+through his coöperators, attempted to discredit my veracity. An
+affidavit, which was bought, as I have evidence to prove, was made by
+Barrill to the effect that I had not climbed Mt. McKinley. The getting
+of this affidavit is placed at the door of Mr. Peary.
+
+Do honest men, with honest intentions, buy perjured documents?
+
+Do honest men, believing in themselves, besmirch their own honor by
+deliberate lying?
+
+Dunkle and Loose came to me, offered to look over the observations in my
+_Herald_ story, and--suddenly--to my amazement--offered a set of faked
+observations, manufactured at the instigation of someone. I refused the
+batch of faked papers, and turned the two nefarious conspirators out of
+my hotel.
+
+A comparison of my Copenhagen report with the Dunkle perjured story,
+later printed in the New York _Times_, proves I used not one of their
+figures. Mr. R. J. McLouglin later proved that the hand which signed
+"Dunkle" also signed "Loose" to that lying document. It is, therefore,
+not only a perjury, but a forgery.
+
+Recently, Professor J. H. Gore, a member of the National Geographic
+Society, and one of Peary's friends, acknowledged to Evelyn B. Baldwin
+that he had in his possession the faked observations which were made by
+Dunkle and Loose.
+
+How did he come by them? Why does he have them? What were the relations
+between Dunkle and Loose, Peary's friends, the New York _Times_, and the
+National Geographic Society? Do honest men, with honest intentions,
+conspire with men of this sort, men who offered to sell me faked
+figures--most likely to betray me had I been dishonest enough to buy
+them--and who, failing, perjured themselves?
+
+Disgusted, I decided to let my enemies exhaust their abuse. I knew it
+eventually would rebound. Determined to retire to rest, to resolve my
+case in quietude and secrecy, I left America. My enemies gleefully
+proclaimed this an admission of imposture.
+
+Yet, after they had turned almost every newspaper in the country against
+me, having rested, having resolved my case, having secured damaging
+proofs of the facts of the conspiracy against me, I returned to America.
+
+Realizing my error in so long remaining silent; realizing the power of a
+sensation-seeking press, which has no respect for individuals or of
+truth, I determined, painful as would be the task, to tell the
+unpleasant, distasteful truth about the man who tried to besmirch my
+name. This may seem unkind. But I was kind too long. Truth is often
+unpleasant, but it is less malicious than the sort of lies hurled at me.
+
+After I had left America, the newspapers, desirous of sensation, had
+played into the hands of those who, with seeming triumph, assailed me.
+But meanwhile, however, I was taking advantage of the opportunity to
+rest and gain an accurate perspective of the situation. I thought out my
+case, considered it pro and con, puzzled out the reasons for, and the
+source of, the newspaper clamor against me. Through friends in America
+who worked quietly and effectively, I secured evidence, which is
+embodied in affidavits, which laid bare the methods employed to
+discredit me in the Mt. McKinley affair. I learned of the methods used,
+and just what charges were made, to discredit my Polar claim. Damaging
+admissions were secured concerning Mr. Peary's fabricated attacks from
+the mouths of Mr. Peary's own associates. Knowing these facts, at the
+proper time, I returned to my native country to confront my enemies. I
+have proceeded in detail to state my case and reveal the hitherto
+unknown inside facts of the entire Polar controversy. I have stated
+certain facts before the public. Neither Mr. Peary nor his friends have
+replied. One point in the Polar controversy has never reached the
+public. Both Mr. Peary and many of his friends asserted that I left the
+country just in time to escape criminal prosecution. They said the
+charge was to be that I had obtained money on a false pretence by
+accepting fees for lecturing on my discovery. I returned to America. I
+have been lecturing for fees on my discovery since; I have not yet been
+prosecuted.
+
+Were Mr. Peary not the sort of man who would stoop to dishonor, to
+discredit a rival in order to gain an unfair advantage for himself, were
+he not guilty of the gross injustice I have stated, he would have had
+all the opportunity in the world for effectively coming back at me. But
+he has remained silent. Why?
+
+I have, as I have said, absolute confidence in the good sense, spirit of
+fair-play, and ability of reasoning judgment of my people. My case
+rests, not with any body of armchair explorers or kitchen geographers,
+but with Arctic travelers who can see beyond the mist of selfish
+interests, and with my fellow-countrymen, who breathe normal air and
+view without bias the large open fields of honest human endeavor.
+
+In this book I have stated my case, presented my proofs. As to the
+relative merits of my claim, and Mr. Peary's, place the two records side
+by side. Compare them. I shall be satisfied with your decision.
+
+                                                  FREDERICK A. COOK.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+
+[1] Accused of being the most colossal liar of history, I sometimes feel
+that more lies have been told about me than about anyone ever born. I
+have been guilty of many mistakes. Most men really true to themselves
+admit that. My claim to the North Pole may always be questioned. Yet,
+when I regard the lies great and small attached to me, I am filled
+almost with indifference.
+
+As a popular illustration of the sort of yarns that were told, let me
+refer to the foolish fake of the gum drops. Someone started the story
+that I expected to reach the Pole by bribing the Eskimos with gum
+drops--perhaps the idea was that I was to lure them on from point to
+point with regularly issued rations of these confections.
+
+Wherever I went on my lecture tour after my return to the United States,
+much to my irritation I saw "Cook" gum drops conspicuously displayed in
+confectionery store windows. Hundreds of pounds of gum drops were sent
+to my hotel with the compliments of the manufacturers. On all sides I
+heard the gum-drop story, and in almost every paper read the reiterated
+tale of leading the Eskimos to the Pole by dangling a gum drop on a
+string before them. I never denied this, as I never denied any of the
+fakes printed about me. The fact is, that I never heard the gum-drop
+yarn until I came to New York. We took no gum drops with us on our Polar
+trip, and, to my knowledge, no Eskimo ate a gum drop while with me.
+
+
+[2] Among the many things which the public has been misled into
+believing is that Mr. Bradley and I together connived the trip for the
+purpose of essaying this quest of the Pole. The fact is, not until I
+reached Annoatok, and saw that conditions were favorable for a long
+sledge journey, did I finally determine to make a Poleward trip; not
+until then did I tell my decision definitely to Mr. Bradley.
+
+One of the big mistakes which has been pounded into the public mind is
+that the proposed Polar exploit was expensively financed. It did cost a
+great deal to finance the planned hunting trip. Mr. Bradley's expenses
+aggregated, perhaps, $50,000, but my journey Northward, which was but an
+extension of this yachting cruise, cost comparatively little.
+
+
+[3] The killing of Astrup.--The head of Melville Bay was explored by
+Eivind Astrup while a member of the Peary expedition of 1894-1895.
+Astrup had been a member of the first expedition, serving without pay,
+during 1891 and 1892 and proving himself a loyal supporter and helper of
+Mr. Peary, when he crossed the inland ice in 1892. As a result of eating
+pemmican twenty years old, in 1895, Astrup was disabled by poisoning,
+due to Peary's carelessness in furnishing poisoned food. Recovering from
+this illness, he selected a trustworthy Eskimo companion, went south,
+and under almost inconceivable difficulties, explored and mapped the ice
+walls, with their glaciers and mountains, and the off-lying islands of
+Melville Bay. This proved a creditable piece of work of genuine
+discovery. Returning, he prepared his data and published it, thus
+bringing credit and honor on an expedition which was in other respects a
+failure.
+
+Astrup's publication of this work aroused Peary's envy. Publicly, Peary
+denounced Astrup. Astrup, being young and sensitive, brooded over this
+injustice and ingratitude until he had almost lost his reason. The abuse
+was of the same nature as that heaped on others, the same as that
+finally hurled at me in the wireless "Gold Brick" slurs. For days and
+weeks, Astrup talked of nothing but the infamy of Peary's attack on
+himself and the contemptible charge of desertion which Peary made
+against Astrup's companions. Then he suddenly left my home, returned to
+Norway, and we next heard of his suicide. Here is one life directly
+chargeable to Peary's narrow and intolerant brutality. Directly this was
+not murder with a knife--but it was as heinous--for a young and noble
+life was cut short by the cowardly dictates of jealous egotism.
+
+
+[4] The Death of John M. Verhoeff.--As we passed Robertson Bay, there
+came up memories of the tragedy of Verhoeff. This young man was a member
+of Peary's first expedition, in 1891. He had paid $2,000 toward the fund
+of the expedition. Verhoeff was young and enthusiastic. He gave his
+time, his money, and he risked his life for Peary. He was treated with
+about the same consideration as that accorded the Eskimo dogs. When I
+last saw him in camp, he was in tears, telling of Peary's injustice.
+Mrs. Peary--I advert to this with all possible reluctance--had done much
+to make his life bitter, and over this he talked for days. Finally he
+said: "I will never go home in the same ship with that man and that
+woman." It was the last sentence he uttered in my hearing. He did not go
+home in that ship. Instead, he wandered off over the glacier, where he
+left his body in the blue depths of a crevasse.
+
+
+[5] Before he sailed on his last Northern expedition Mr. Peary, learning
+that I had preceded him, took the initial step in his campaign to
+discredit me by issuing a statement to the effect that I was bent upon
+the unfair and dishonest purpose of enlisting in my aid Eskimos which he
+had the exclusive right to command. Mr. Peary's attitude that the
+Eskimos, because he had given them guns, powder and needles, belong to
+him, is as absurd as his pretension to the sole ownership of the North
+Pole. Although Mr. Peary had spent about a quarter of a century essaying
+the task by means of luxurious expeditions, he had done little more than
+other explorers and did not, in my opinion, either secure an option on
+the Pole or upon the services of the natives. In giving guns, etc., to
+the natives he also did no more than other explorers, and the Danes for
+many years, have done. Nor was this with him a magnanimous matter of
+gracious bounty, for, in prodigal return for all he gave them, Mr. Peary
+on every expedition secured a fortune in furs and ivory. The Eskimos
+belong to no one. For ages they have worked out their rigorous existence
+without the aid of white men, and Mr. Peary's pretension becomes not
+only absurd but grotesque when one realizes that following the arrival
+of ships with white crews, the natives have fallen easy victims of
+loathsome epidemics, mostly of a specific nature, for which the trivial
+gifts of any explorer would ill repay them.
+
+
+[6] One of the charges which Mr. Peary circulated before he returned
+North in 1908, was, that I violated a rule of Polar ethics by not
+applying for a license to seek the Pole, nor giving notice of my
+proposed trip. There is no such rule in Polar ethics. The following
+letter, however, to his press agent, Mr. Herbert Bridgman, dated Etah,
+August 26, 1907, answers the charge:
+
+"My dear Bridgman: I have hit upon a new route to the North Pole and
+will stay to try it. By way of Buchanan Bay and Ellesmere Land and
+northward through Nansen Strait over the Polar sea seems to me to be a
+very good route. There will be game to the 82°, and here are natives and
+dogs for the task. So here is for the Pole. Mr. Bradley will tell you
+the rest. Kind regards to all--F. A. Cook."
+
+"It will be remembered," continued Mr. Bridgman, in his press reports,
+"that Dr. Cook, accompanied by John R. Bradley, Captain Moses Bartlett,
+and a number of Eskimos, left North Sidney, N. S., early last July on
+the American Auxiliary Schooner Yacht _John R. Bradley_, which landed
+the party at Smith Sound. Mr. Bradley returned to North Sydney on the
+yacht on October 1. _The expedition is provisioned for two years and
+fully equipped with dogs and sledges for the trip. The party is
+wintering thirty miles further north than Peary did two years ago._"
+
+And yet Bridgman, in line with the indefatigable pro-Peary boosters,
+later tried to lead the public to believe that I had nothing but gum
+drops with which to undertake a trip to the Pole. This same Bridgman
+also printed in what Brooklyn people call the "Standard Liar" the fake
+about my using, as my own, photographs said to belong to the newspaper
+cub, Herbert Berri.
+
+For fifteen years Bridgman used my photographs and my material for his
+lectures on the Arctic and Antarctic, generally without giving credit.
+Evidently, my work and my results were good enough for him to borrow as
+Peary did. So long as my usefulness served the Bridgman-Peary interests,
+there was no question of my credibility, but when my success interfered
+with the monopoly of the fruits of Polar attainment, then I was to be
+striped with dark lines of dishonor.
+
+The most amusing and also the most significant incident of the
+Bridgman-Peary humbug was the faked wireless message which Bridgman
+printed for Peary in his paper. Peary claims he reached the Pole on
+April 6, 1909. In the Standard Union, Brooklyn, of April 14, 1909 (eight
+days after the alleged discovery), Peary's friend H. L. Bridgman, one of
+the owners, printed the following:
+
+"PEARY DUE NORTH POLE TWELVE M., THURSDAY"
+
+(APRIL 15, 1909).
+
+Is Mr. Bridgman a psychic medium? How, with Peary thousands of miles
+away, hundreds of miles from the most northerly wireless station, did he
+sense the amazing feat? Were he and Peary in telepathic communication?
+Or, rather, does this not seem to point to an agreement entered into
+before the departure of Peary, about a year before the attempt was made,
+to announce on a certain day the "discovery" of the Pole?
+
+From other sources we learn that the timing of the arrival of the ship
+at Cape Sheridan seems to have been made good, but in an apparent effort
+on the part of Peary to keep faith with Bridgman on April 15, we find
+him in trouble. If Peary arranged his "discovery" for this agreed date,
+he would have had to take nine days for his return trip from the Pole.
+This would increase his speed limit 50 per cent., and since he is
+regarded with suspicion on his speed limits, to make his "Pole
+Discovery" story fit in between the known time when he left Bartlett and
+the time when he got back to the ship, he was compelled to break faith
+with Bridgman and went back nine days on his calendar, placing the date
+of Pole reaching at April 6.
+
+
+[7] _Game List._--The following animals were captured from August 15,
+1907, to May 15, 1909:
+
+Two thousand four hundred and twenty-two birds, 311 Arctic hares, 320
+blue and white foxes, 32 Greenland reindeer, 4 white reindeer, 22 polar
+bears, 52 seals, 73 walrus, 21 narwhals, 3 white whales, and 206 musk
+oxen.
+
+
+[8] Auroras in the Arctic are best seen in more southern latitudes. The
+display here described was the brightest observed on this trip. Not more
+than three or four others were noted during the following year, but in
+previous trips I have witnessed some very wonderful color and motion
+displays.
+
+The best illustrations of this remarkable color of aurora and night come
+from the brush of Mr. Frank Wilbert Stokes. These were reproduced in the
+_Century Magazine_ of February, 1903. After their appearance, Mr. Peary
+accorded to Mr. Stokes (a member of his expedition) the same sort of
+treatment as he had accorded Astrup--the same as that shown to others.
+In a letter to the late Richard Watson Gilder, editor of the _Century_,
+he denounced and did his utmost to discredit Mr. Stokes by insisting
+that no such remarkable colors are displayed by the aurora borealis. Mr.
+Gilder replied, in defense of Mr. Stokes, by quoting from Peary's own
+book, "Northward," Vol. II, pages 194, 195, 198 and 199, descriptions of
+even more remarkable color effects.
+
+
+[9] The so-called "Jesup" sled, which Mr. Peary used on his last Polar
+trip, is a copy of the Eskimo sledge, a lumbering, unwieldy thing
+weighing over one hundred pounds and which bears the same relation to a
+refined bent-hickory vehicle that a lumber cart does to an express
+wagon. In this "Jesup" sledge there is a dead weight of over fifty
+pounds of useless wood. The needless weight thus carried can, in a
+better sledge, be replaced by fifty pounds of food. This fifty pounds
+will feed one man over the entire route to the Pole. Mr. Peary claims
+that the Pole is not reachable without this sled, but Borup, in his
+book, reports that most of the sledges were broken at the first trial.
+
+Since an explorer's success is dependent upon his ability to transport
+food it behooves him to eliminate useless weight. Therefore, the solid
+runner sled is as much out of place as a solid wood wheel would be in an
+automobile.
+
+
+[10] A great deal of careful search and study was prosecuted about
+Svartevoeg, for here Peary claims to have left a cache, the alleged
+placing of which he has used as a pretext for attempting to take from
+the map the name of Svartevoeg, given by Sverdrup, when he discovered
+it, to the northern part of Heiberg Land. Peary, coming later, put on
+his map the name Cape Thomas Hubbard, for one who had put easy money in
+his hands. But no such cache was found, and I doubt very much if Peary
+ever reached this point, except through a field-glass at very long
+range.
+
+
+[11] On their return to Etah, and after I had left for Upernavik, my
+Eskimos, questioned by Mr. Peary, who was anxious to secure anything
+that might serve towards discrediting me, answered innocently that they
+had been only a few sleeps from land. This unwilling and naive admission
+was published in a pretentious statement, the purpose of which was to
+cast doubt on my claim. Other answers of my Eskimos, to the effect that
+I had instruments and had made constant observations, it is curious to
+note, were suppressed by Mr. Peary and his party on their return. Every
+insinuation was made to the effect that I had had no instruments, had
+consequently taken no observations, and had, therefore, no means of
+ascertaining the Pole even had I wished to do so.
+
+
+[12] My enemies credit me with a journey of two thousand miles, which is
+double Peary's greatest distance; but then, to deny my Polar attainment,
+they keep me sitting here, on a sterile waste of ice, for three months.
+Would any man sit down there and shiver in idleness, when the reachable
+glory of Polar victory was on one side and the get-at-able gastronomic
+joy of game land on the other? Only a crazy man would do that, and we
+were too busy to lose our mental balance at that time. When leg-force
+controls human destiny, and a half-filled stomach clears the brain for
+action, for a long time, at least, insanity is very remote. Furthermore,
+the Eskimo boys said we traveled on the ice-pack for seven moons, and
+that we reached a place where the sun does not dip at night; where the
+day and night shadows were of equal length. Has Mr. Peary reached that
+point? If so, neither he nor his Eskimos have noted it.
+
+
+[13] After my return to Copenhagen I was widely quoted as declaring that
+I had discovered and traversed 30,000 square miles of new land. What I
+did report was that in my journey I had passed through an area wherein
+it was possible to declare 30,000 square miles--a terrestrial unknown of
+water and ice--cleared from the blank of our charts. I have been quoted
+as describing this land as "a paradise for hunters" and criticised on
+the ground that animal life does not exist so far north. Whether animal
+life existed there, I do not know, for the impetus of my quest left no
+time to investigate. I passed the last game at Heiberg Land.
+
+In my diary of the day's doings, only the results of observations were
+written down. The detail calculations were made on loose sheets of paper
+and in other note books--wherein was recorded all instrumental data.
+Later all my observations were reduced in the form in which they were to
+be finally presented. Therefore, these field papers with their
+miscellaneous notes had served their purpose, as had the instruments;
+and for this reason most of the material was left with Harry Whitney. A
+few of the important calculations were kept more as a curiosity. These
+will be presented as we go along. Those left I thought might later be
+useful for a re-examination of the results; but it never occurred to me
+that Whitney would be forced to bury the material, as he was by Peary. I
+do not regard those buried notes as being proof or as being particularly
+valuable, except as proving Peary to be one of the most ungracious and
+selfish characters in history.
+
+In the subsequent excitement, because Peary cried fraud on the very
+papers which he had buried for me, an agitated group of American
+armchair explorers came to the conclusion against the dictates of
+history that the proof of the Polar quest was to be found in the
+re-examination of the figures of the observations for position.
+
+Part of mine were buried. Peary had his. Thus handicapped, because
+blocks of my field calculations were absent, with the instruments and
+chronometer corrections, I rested my case at Copenhagen on a report, the
+original notes giving the brief tabulations of the day's doings, and the
+complete set of reduced observations.
+
+My friends have criticised me for not sending the data given below and
+similar observations to Copenhagen to prove my claim, but I did not deem
+it worth while to present more, taking the ground that if in this there
+was not sufficient material to explain the movement step by step of the
+Polar quest, then no academic examination could be of any value. This
+viewpoint, as I see it at present, was a mistake. I am now presenting
+every scrap of paper and every isolated fact, not as proof but as part
+of the record of the expedition, with due after-thought, and the better
+perspective afforded by time. Every explorer does this. Upon such a
+record history has always given its verdict of the value of an
+explorer's work. It will do the same in estimating the relative merits
+of the Polar quest.
+
+=Observation as figured out in original field paper for March 30, 1908=:
+Longitude 95.36. Bar. 30.10 had risen from 29.50 in 2 hours. Temp. -34°.
+Wind 2. Mag. N. E. Clouds Mist W.-Water bands E.
+
+                            ----
+         95½           Noon, 0       18--46--10
+          4                 ----     18--48--20
+       +---------            0     +-------------
+    60 | 382                     2 | 37--34--30
+       +---------                  +-------------
+          6-22                       18--47--15
+                        I. E.            +2
+                                   +-------------
+                                 2 | 18--49--15
+                                   +-------------
+         58                           9--24--38
+          6½ h.                        --16-- 2
+        ----------                 --------------
+         29                         9-- 8--36
+        348           R. & P.        -- 9
+      +-----------                 --------------
+   60 | 377                         8--59--36
+      +-----------                 90
+         6--17                     --------------
+     3--43--15                     81--00--24
+     -------------                  3--49--32
+     3--49--32                     --------------
+                                   84--49--56
+
+                         Shadows 39 ft. (of tent pole 6 ft. above snow).
+                                                (Directions Magnetic.)
+
+Because of the impossibility of making correct allowances for
+refraction, I have made a rough allowance of -9´ for refraction and
+parallax in all my observations.
+
+The tent pole was a hickory floor slat of one of the sledges. It was 6
+ft. 6 ins. high, 2 ins. wide, and 1/2 in. thick. This stick was marked
+in feet and inches, to be used as a measuring stick. It also served as a
+paddle and steering oar for the boat.
+
+By pressing this tent pole 6 ins. into the snow, it served as a 6 ft.
+pole to measure the shadows. These measurements were recorded on the
+observation blanks. Absolute accuracy for the measurements is not
+claimed, because of the difficulty of determining the line of
+demarcation in long, indistinct shadows; but future efforts will show
+that my shadow measurements are an important check on all sun
+observations by which latitude and longitude are determined.
+
+
+[14] Peary claims to have seen life east of this position. This is
+perfectly possible, for Arctic explorers have often noted when game
+trails were abundant one year, none were seen the next. In these tracks
+of foxes and bears, as noted by Baldwin, are positive proofs of the
+position of Bradley Land--for such animals work only from a land base.
+
+
+[15] Observation on April 8, from original field-papers. April 8, 1908,
+Longitude 94°-2´. Bar. 29.80, rising. Temp. -31°. Wind 2, Mag. N. E.
+Clouds St. 3.
+
+                                       ---
+                                        0        21°--59´--30´´
+                                        0        21 --08 --20
+       94°                             ---     +----------------
+        4´                                   2 | 43 -- 7 --50
+    +------                                    +----------------
+ 60 | 376´                                       21 --33 --55
+    +------                                     ----------------
+       6-16                 I. E.                     +2
+                                               +----------------
+          56´´                               2 | 21 --35 --50
+         × 6¼                                  +----------------
+        --------                                 10 --47 --55
+          14                                         --9
+         336                                    ----------------
+       +--------                                 10 --38 --55
+    60 | 350                                     90--
+       +--------                                ----------------
+          5--50                                  79 --21 -- 5
+      7-- 9--33                                   7 --15 --23
+     -----------                                ----------------
+      7--15--23                                  86 --36 --28
+
+                                               Shadows 32 ft. (of pole 6
+                                                        ft. above snow).
+
+
+[16] After trying to explain this impression fifteen months later to a
+Swiss professor, who spoke little English, he quoted me as saying that
+the sun at night about the Pole was much lower than at noon. No such
+ridiculous remark was ever made. In reality the eye did not detect any
+difference in the distance between the sun and the horizon through the
+next twenty-four hours. There was no visible rise or set, the night dip
+of the nocturnal swing of the sun was entirely eliminated. We had,
+however, several ways of checking this important phenomena, which will
+be introduced later.
+
+
+[17] _The Fall of Body Temperature_--The temperature of the body was
+frequently taken. Owing to the breathing of very cold air, the
+thermometer placed in the mouth gave unreliable results, but by placing
+the bulb in the armpits, when in the sleeping bag, fairly accurate
+records were kept. These proved that extreme cold had little influence
+on bodily heat; but when long-continued overwork was combined with
+insufficient food, the temperature gradually came down. On the route to
+the Pole the bodily temperature ranged from 97° 5´ to 98° 4´. In
+returning, the subnormal temperature fell still lower. When the worry of
+being carried adrift and the danger of never being able to return became
+evident, then the mental anguish, combined as it was with prolonged
+overwork, continued thirst and food insufficiency, was strikingly noted
+by our clinical thermometer. During the last few weeks, before reaching
+land at Greenland in 1909, the subnormal temperature sank to the
+remarkable minimum of 96° 2´ F. The Eskimos usually remained about half
+a degree warmer. The respiration and heart action was at this time fast
+and irregular.
+
+In the summer period of famine about Jones Sound the temperature was
+normal. At that time we had an abundance of water and an interesting
+occupation in quest of game, but we often felt the cold more severely
+than in the coldest season of winter.
+
+
+[18] _The Tragedies of Cape Sabine._--Cape Sabine has been the scene of
+one of the saddest Arctic tragedies--the death by starvation of most of
+the members of the Greely Expedition. Several modern travelers,
+including Mr. Peary, have, in passing here, taken occasion to criticise
+adversely the management of this expedition. In his last series of
+articles in _Hampton's Magazine_, Peary has again attempted to throw
+discredit on General Greely. It is easy, after a lapse of forty years,
+to show the mistakes of our predecessors, and thereby attempt to
+belittle another's effort; but is it right? I have been at Cape Sabine
+in a half-starved condition, as General Greely was. I have watched the
+black seas of storm thunder the ice and rock walls, as he did; and I
+have looked longingly over the impassable stretches of death-dealing
+waters to a land of food and plenty, as he did. I did it, possessing the
+accumulated knowledge of the thirty years which have since passed, and I
+nearly succumbed in precisely the same manner as did the unfortunate
+victims of that expedition. The scientific results of the Lady Franklin
+Bay Expedition were so carefully and so thoroughly gathered that no
+expedition to the Arctic since has given value of equal importance.
+Greely's published record is an absolute proof of his ability as a
+leader and a vindication of the unfair insinuations of later rivals.
+
+In passing along this same coast, E-tuk-i-shook called my attention to
+several graves, some of which we opened. In other places we saw human
+bones which had been left unburied. They were scattered, and had been
+picked by the ravens, the foxes and the wolves. With a good deal of
+sorrow and reserve I then learned one of the darkest imprinted pages of
+Arctic history. When the steamer _Erie_ returned, in 1901, a large
+number of Eskimos were left with Mr. Peary near Cape Sabine. They soon
+after developed a disease which Mr. Peary's ship brought to them. There
+was no medicine and no doctor to save the dying victims. Dr. T. F.
+Dedrick, who had served Mr. Peary faithfully, was dismissed without the
+payment of his salary, because of a personal grudge, but Dedrick refused
+to go home and leave the expedition without medical help. He remained at
+Etah, living with the Eskimos in underground holes, as wild men do,
+sacrificing comfort and home interests for no other purpose except to
+maintain a clean record of helpfulness. As the winter and the night
+advanced, Dr. Dedrick got news that the Eskimos were sick and required
+medical assistance. He crossed the desperate reaches of Smith Sound at
+night, and offered Mr. Peary medical assistance to save the dying
+natives. Peary refused to allow Dedrick to attempt to cure the
+afflicted, crying people. Dedrick had been without civilized food for
+months, and was not well himself after the terrible journey over the
+storm-swept seas of ice. Before returning, he asked for some coffee, a
+little sugar and a few biscuits. These Mr. Peary refused him. Dr.
+Dedrick returned. The natives, in fever and pain, died. Theirs are the
+bones scattered by the wild beasts. Who is responsible for these deaths?
+
+"_Peary-tiglipo-savigaxua_" (Peary has stolen the iron stone), was now
+repeated with bitterness by the Eskimos. In 1897 it occurred to Mr.
+Peary that the museums would be interested in the Eskimos, and also in
+the so-called "Star Stone," owned by the Eskimos. It had been passed
+down from generation to generation as a tribal property; from it the
+natives, from the Stone Age, had chipped metal for weapons. This
+"meteorite" was, without Eskimo consent, put by Mr. Peary on his ship;
+without their consent, also, were put a group of men and women and
+children on the ship. All were taken to New York for museum purposes. In
+New York the precious meteorite was sold, but the profits were not
+divided with the rightful owners. The men, women and children
+(merchandise of similar value) were placed in a cellar, awaiting a
+marketplace. Before the selling time arrived, all but one died of
+diseases directly arising out of inhuman carelessness, due to the
+dictates of commercialism. Who is responsible for the death of this
+group of innocent wild folk?
+
+
+[19] These supplies had, fortunately, been left in the care of Mr.
+Whitney. In the months that followed, Murphy several times threatened to
+take these things, but Whitney's sense of justice was such that no
+further pilfering was allowed.
+
+The unbrotherly tactics which Mr. Peary had shown to Sverdrup and other
+explorers were here copied by his representative. Captain Bernier was
+bound for the American coast, to explore and claim for Canada the land
+to the west. He desired a few native helpers. There were at Etah
+descendants of Eskimo emigrants from the very land which Bernier aimed
+to explore. These men were anxious to return to their fathers' land, and
+would have made splendid guides for Bernier. Murphy volunteered to ask
+the Eskimos if they would go. He went ashore, pretending that he would
+try to secure guides, but, in reality, he never asked a single Eskimo to
+join Bernier. Returning, he said that no one would go. Later he boasted
+to Whitney and Prichard of the intelligent way in which he had deceived
+Captain Bernier. Was this under Mr. Peary's instructions?
+
+
+[20] I now learned, also, that the Eskimos had told their tribesmen of
+their arrival at the mysterious "Big Nail," which, of course, meant less
+to them than the hardship and unique methods of hunting.
+
+Among themselves the Eskimos have an intimate way of conveying things, a
+method of expression and meaning which an outsider never grasps. At
+most, white men can understand only a selected and more simple language
+with which the Eskimos convey their thoughts. This partly accounts for
+the unreliability of any testimony which a white man extracts from them.
+There is also to be considered an innate desire on the part of these
+simple people to answer any question in a manner which they think will
+please. In all Indian races this desire to please is notoriously
+stronger than a sense of truth. The fact that my Eskimos, when later
+questioned as to my whereabouts, are reported to have answered that I
+had not gone far out of sight of land, was due partly to my instructions
+and partly to this inevitable wish to answer in a pleasing way.
+
+While they spoke among themselves of having reached the "Big Nail," they
+also said--what they later repeated to Mr. Peary--that they had passed
+few days beyond the sight of land, a delusion caused by mirages, in
+which, to prevent any panic, I had with good intentions encouraged an
+artificial belief in a nearness to land.
+
+But we were for weeks enshrouded in dense fogs, where nothing could be
+seen. The natives everywhere had heard of this, and inquired about it.
+Why has Mr. Peary suppressed this important information? We traveled and
+camped on the pack for "seven moons." Why was this omitted? We reached a
+place where the sun did not dip at night; where there was not enough
+difference in the height of the day and night sun to give the Eskimo his
+usual sense of direction. Why was this fact ignored?
+
+
+[21] In appreciation of this kind helpfulness, the Danes later sent a
+special ship loaded with presents, which were left for distribution
+among the good-natured Eskimos who had helped Ericksen. Mr. Peary came
+along after the Danes had turned their backs, and picked from the Danish
+presents such things as appealed to his fancy, thus depriving the
+Eskimos of the merited return for their kindness. What right had Mr.
+Peary to take these things? The Danes, who have since placed a mission
+station here, in continuation of their policy to guard and protect the
+Eskimos, are awaiting an answer to this question to-day.
+
+
+[22] When Captain Adams arrived off the haunts of the northernmost
+Eskimos, he sent ashore a letter to be passed along to Mr. Peary, as he
+was expected to return south during that summer. In his letter Captain
+Adams told of my attainment of the Pole. The letter got into Mr. Peary's
+hands before he returned to Labrador. With this letter in his pocket,
+Mr. Peary gave as his principal reason for doubting my success that
+nobody else had been told that I had reached the Pole. I told Whitney, I
+had told Pritchard--thus Peary's charge was proven false later. But why
+did he suppress the information which Captain Adams' letter contained?
+With this letter in his pocket, why did Mr. Peary say that no one had
+been told?
+
+
+[23] Captain Robert A. Bartlett, of the Peary ship _Roosevelt_, has
+figured much in this controversy. Most of his reported statements, I am
+inclined to believe, are distorted. But he has allowed the words
+attributed to him to stand; therefore, the harm done is just as great as
+if the charges were true. He allowed Henry Rood, in _The Saturday
+Evening Post_, to say that my expedition was possible only through the
+advice of Bartlett. Every statement which Rood made, as Bartlett knows,
+is a lie. He has allowed this to stand, and he thereby stands convicted
+as party to a faked article written with the express purpose of
+inflicting an injury.
+
+Bartlett cross-questioned my Eskimos about instruments. By showing them
+a sextant and other apparatus he learned that I not only had a full set,
+but he also learned how I used them. Peary, although having Bartlett's
+report on this, insinuated that I had no instruments, and that I made no
+observations. Bartlett knew this to be a lie, but he remained silent. He
+is therefore a party to a Peary lie.
+
+In the early press reports Bartlett is credited with saying that "Cook
+had no instruments." A year later, after Bartlett returned from another
+trip north, faked pictures and faked news items were printed with the
+Bartlett interviews and reports. There was no protest, and at the same
+time Bartlett said that books, instruments, and things belonging to me
+had been destroyed. In the following year Bartlett announced that he was
+"going after Cook's instruments." Has the press lied, or has Bartlett
+lied? Next to Henson, Mr. Peary's colored servant, Captain Bartlett is
+Peary's star witness.
+
+George Borup, in "A Tenderfoot With Peary," after repeating in his book
+many pro-Peary lies, tried to prove his assertion by an alleged study of
+my sledge (P. 300): "Except for its being shortened, the sledge was the
+same as when it had left Annoatok. It weighed perhaps thirty pounds, and
+was very flimsy."
+
+This is a deliberate lie, for it was only a half-sled, reassembled and
+repaired by old bits of driftwood. After this first lie he says, in the
+same paragraph: "Yet it had only two cracks in it." The upstanders had
+been cracked in a dozen places, the runners were broken, and every part
+was cracked.
+
+Borup shows by his orthography of Eskimo words that he knows almost
+nothing of the Eskimo language. Therefore he may be dismissed as
+incompetent where Eskimo reports are to be interpreted. He is committed
+to the Peary interests, which also eliminates him from the jury. But in
+his report of my sled he has stooped to lies which forever deprive him
+of being credited with any honest opinion on the Polar controversy.
+
+
+[24] Professor Armbruster and Dr. Schwartz, of St. Louis, at a time when
+few papers had the courage to print articles in my defence, appealed to
+W. R. Reedy, of the _Mirror_, for space to uncover the unfair methods of
+the Pro-Peary conspiracy. This space was liberally granted, and the
+whole controversy was scientifically analyzed by the _Mirror_ in an
+unbiased manner. Here is shown an important phase of the Peary charges,
+from the _Mirror_, April 21, 1910. As it clearly reveals the facts, I
+present part of it as follows:
+
+The point made by Dr. Schwartz, that there is a contradiction between
+Peary's statements of September 28 and October 13, is well taken. The
+statement of October 13 is a point-blank contradiction of the previous
+one. Dr. Schwartz notes that when Peary made, on September 28, what
+Peary called his strongest indictment of Dr. Cook, Peary must have had
+with him at Bar Harbor the chart with the trail of Cook's route, and
+infers that, as the later charge was by far the stronger indictment of
+the two, there must be some other explanation of the contradiction.
+
+Analysis of this contradiction develops one of the most serious
+propositions of the whole Polar controversy. Mr. Peary might now say
+that he was holding his strongest point in reserve, but such explanation
+would not be sufficient, for he stated that the indictment of September
+28 is "the strongest that has been advanced in Arctic exploration ever
+since the great expedition was sent there," and no child is so simple as
+to believe that the indictment of September 28 is at all comparable in
+magnitude to the one of October 13. Upon analysis, we find that there is
+indeed another explanation, and only one, and that is, that _when the
+indictment of September 28 was made, the one of October 13 had not been
+conceived or concocted_, and it will show that Peary, Bartlett,
+McMillan, Borup and Henson, _all_ who signed the statement of October
+13, perpetrated a gross falsehood and imposition upon the public. All
+are caught in the one net.
+
+If this coterie had received from the Eskimos such information as is
+claimed by them in their statement of October 13, then they must have
+received it from the Eskimos _before Peary and his party left Etah on
+their return to America_. If they had the information when they left the
+Eskimos at Etah, on their return to America, then they had it when they
+arrived at Indian Harbor, and before their statement of September 28 was
+made.
+
+In their statement of October 13, 1909, Peary, Bartlett, McMillan, Borup
+and Henson state, and sign their names to the statement made to the
+world and copyrighted, that they had a map on which E-tuk-i-shook and
+Ah-we-lah, Dr. Cook's two Eskimos, had traced for them the route taken
+by Dr. Cook, and that this was also supported by the verbal statements
+of the two Eskimos, _that Dr. Cook had reached the northern point of
+Heiberg Land, or Cape Thomas Hubbard; that he had gone two sleeps north
+of it, had then turned to the west or southwest, and returned to the
+northern headland of Heiberg Land, but on the west or northwest side,
+and had sent back one of the Eskimos to the cache left on the headland,
+but on the east side of the point, and remained at this new place on the
+west side of the point for four or five sleeps_. Then, all the time that
+Peary was challenging and impugning that Dr. Cook had reached even the
+northern point of Heiberg Land, according to their own statement of
+October 13, _they had in their pockets the map and information from the
+Eskimos that Dr. Cook had not only reached the northern point of Heiberg
+Land, but traveled above it and turned around the point_. In so
+challenging that Dr. Cook had reached even the northern point of said
+land, and thereby discrediting Dr. Cook with all the force and influence
+at their command, when, according to their own later statement, they had
+then and at that time, and before such time (since they left Etah on
+their return to America), the statements, trail of route and testimony
+of the Eskimos entirely to the contrary, _Peary and his coterie
+deliberately and knowingly perpetrated on the public the grossest of
+falsehoods and impositions_.
+
+There are several other contradictions in the statement of October 13.
+One is the statement that Pan-ic-pa (the father of E-tuk-i-shook), was
+familiar with the first third and last third of the journey of Dr. Cook
+and his two Eskimos. Pan-ic-pa may be familiar with the territory of the
+last third of the route, but not with the journey made by Dr. Cook and
+E-tuk-i-shook and Ah-we-lah over this part of the route, for these three
+alone made the journey from Cape Sparbo to Annoatok. Pan-ic-pa went only
+as far as the northern point of Heiberg Land, and returned from there
+nearly a year before Dr. Cook and his two Eskimos arrived from Cape
+Sparbo. This is shown by Peary and his party themselves in their
+statement that Pan-ic-pa, the father of E-tuk-i-shook, a very
+intelligent man, _who was in the party of Eskimos that came back from
+Dr. Cook from the northern end of Nansen's Strait_ (Sound), came in and
+indicated the same localities and details as the two boys. Of course
+Pan-ic-pa could only indicate the localities that he had himself
+journeyed to with Dr. Cook, and not any after he had left Dr. Cook and
+the two Eskimos at the northern point of Heiberg Land, or the northern
+end of Nansen's Sound, which is the same thing.
+
+Another contradiction, a very serious one indeed, as important as the
+first of the foregoing contradictions is, that if Peary and his party
+had such information from the Eskimos as they claimed in their statement
+of October 13, then they knew that the little sledge of Dr. Cook which
+they saw at Etah was not the sledge that made the trip to the Pole. The
+printed reports show that long before October 13 Peary and all his
+henchmen were challenging and charging to the public that the little
+sled in question left with Whitney, could not possibly have made the
+trip to the Pole. In the statement of October 13, Peary and his party
+state that, according to the Eskimos, Dr. Cook and his two Eskimos
+started from the northern point of Heiberg Land with only two sledges.
+Further on in the statement, that the dogs and one sledge were abandoned
+in Jones Sound, and that at Cape Vera--western end of Jones Sound--Peary
+and his party say that E-tuk-i-shook and Ah-we-lah, Dr. Cook's two
+Eskimos, informed them that (quoting Peary and his party's statement
+verbatim), "here they cut the remaining sledge off--that is, shortened
+it, as it was awkward to transport with the boat, and near here they
+killed a walrus."
+
+_During all the time then, before October 13, that Peary and his party
+were belittling this sled, and referring to its character as a positive
+proof that Dr. Cook could not have reached the Pole, and stating that it
+would have been knocked to pieces in a few days, they, according to
+their own statement of October 13, knew, even while using such argument
+against Dr. Cook, that the little sled was not the original sled, but
+only a part of one which the desperate and fearfully hard-pressed
+wanderers had themselves--having no dogs--dragged their food for three
+hundred miles over one of the roughest and most terrible stretches of
+the frozen zone, never before traveled by man._ According to their own
+statement of October 13, Peary and his clique convict themselves of
+boldly and deliberately perpetrating gross falsehoods against Dr. Cook
+and upon the people. Then shall we believe anything further from them?
+
+There is only one rational view to take of their statement of October
+13. That, knowing their first charges were certain to fail, the
+statement of October 13 was concocted for their own base purposes. _No
+sane person can believe that if they had had such exceedingly damaging
+information as is claimed by them in their statement of October 13, they
+could have instead made use of charges far less damaging and known to
+them to be false._
+
+                                                   W. J. ARMBRUSTER.
+
+ST. LOUIS, MO., April 13, 1910.
+
+
+[25] One of the meanest and pettiest charges concocted for Mr. Peary at
+a time when personal veracity was regarded as the test of rival claims
+was that I had attempted to steal the scientific work of a missionary
+while I was on the Belgica Antarctic Expedition. Director Townsend, of
+the New York Aquarium, who, like Mr. Peary, was drawing a salary from
+the taxpayers while his energies were spent in another mission, declared
+I had taken a dictionary, compiled by Thos. Bridges, of Indian words,
+and had put it forth as my own work. Dalenbagh, of the American
+Geographical Society, and of the "Worm Diggers' Union," polly-like, also
+repeated this charge. "Of the other charges against Dr. Cook we are at
+sea," he said, "but here is something that we know about." By expending
+five cents in stamps, five minutes with the pen, both Townsend and
+Dalenbaugh might have learned that the dishonor which they were trying
+to attach to some one else was on themselves.
+
+Under big headlines, "Dr. Cook Steals a Missionary's Work," the New York
+_Times_ and other pro-Peary papers printed columns of absolute lies in
+what purported to be interviews with Townsend. Dalenbaugh, pointing to
+this gleefully, said "Dr. Cook has been guilty of wrong-doing for many
+years."
+
+Now what were the facts? Among the scientific collections of the Belgian
+Expedition, was a series of notes, embodying a Yahagan Indian
+Dictionary, made by the missionary, Thomas Bridges. Although this was of
+little use to anybody, it was a scientific record worthy of
+preservation. In a friendly spirit toward the late Mr. Bridges and his
+Indians, I persuaded the Belgians at great expense to publish the work.
+It was written in the old Ellis system of orthography, which is not
+generally understood. Working on this material for one year without pay,
+I changed it to ordinary English orthography, but made few other
+alterations. The book is not yet printed, but part of it is in press.
+The introduction was printed five years ago, and among the first
+paragraphs appear these words:
+
+"My visit among the tribe of Fuegians was not of sufficient length to
+make a thorough study, nor had I the opportunity to collect much data
+from Indians, but I was singularly fortunate in being in the company of
+Mr. Thomas Bridges and Mr. John Lawrence, men who have made these people
+their life study. The credit of collecting and making this Yahagan
+Grammar and Vocabulary belongs solely to Mr. Bridges, who devoted most
+of his time during thirty-seven years to recording this material. My
+work is limited to a slight re-arrangement of the words, a few additions
+of notes and words, and a conversion of the Ellis phonetic characters in
+which the native words were written into ordinary English orthography.
+It is hoped that this study of Yahagan language, with a few of their
+tales and traditions, will, with a report of the French Expedition, make
+a fitting end to an important record of a vanishing people."
+
+Then follows a short favorable biography of the man whose work I was
+accused of stealing.
+
+
+[26] Letter from Barrill's associate:
+
+                                     MISSOULA, MONT., Oct. 12, 1909.
+
+Friend Cook--I am sorry that I can't come at present. But will come
+and see you in about fifteen days if you will send me Three Hundred and
+Fifty ($350.00), and I will say that the report in the papers (that Dr.
+Cook did not ascend Mt. McKinley), from what I have, is not true.
+
+Hoping to see you soon.
+
+                                        Your friend,
+                                               (Signed) FRED PRINTZ.
+
+
+[27] While this book was going through the press, several chapters of
+the proof-sheets, stolen from the printers, Messrs. Lent & Graff, were
+found on the table of the Explorers' Club on June 27, 1911. It is
+important to note that this pro-Peary repository of bribed, faked and
+forged writings, which were issued to defame me, is also the den for
+stolen goods. Who are the thieves who congregate there to deposit their
+booty? Why the theft of a part of my book? What humbug has this club and
+its shameless president next to offer?
+
+
+[28] Letter from an onlooker when Mt. McKinley was climbed:
+
+To Dr. Cook's Friends:
+
+Professor Parker says "regretfully" that Dr. Cook's evidence as to the
+ascent of Mt. McKinley was unconvincing.
+
+I was located in the foothills of Mt. McKinley, and had been for about a
+year, when Dr. Cook, Professor H. C. Parker, Mr. Porter, the topographer
+of the party, and Mr. Miller, Fred Printz and the rest of the party,
+landed at the head-waters of the Yentna River, in the foothills of Mt.
+McKinley.
+
+I met Professor Parker and the rest of the party, and saw a great deal
+of them while they were up there, as I had three mining camps in the
+foothills from which they made their try for the top of the mountain. I
+let Dr. Cook have one of my Indian hunters, who knew every foot of the
+country around there, for a guide. Dr. Cook also had some of his caches
+in my camps, leaving supplies which he did not take along with his
+pack-trains. Some of Dr. Cook's party were in our camps nearly every day
+or so, and consequently I became very well posted in regard to Dr.
+Cook's affairs, and very well acquainted with him. Dr. Parker should be
+the last one to say anything about mountain-climbing or anything else
+connected with the expedition, or anything where it takes a man and
+pluck to accomplish results--good results; as he showed himself to be
+the rankest kind of a tenderfoot while in the foothills of Mt. McKinley,
+and was the laughing stock of the country. Mt. McKinley and the country
+around there was too rough for him. He got "cold feet," and started back
+for the States, before he had even seen much of the country around
+there.
+
+Looking over my memoranda, I find that Dr. Cook had given up his attempt
+to climb Mt. McKinley for the time being, and had sent Printz and Miller
+on a hunting expedition, and the rest of the party was scattered out to
+hunt up something new.
+
+At that time I came into Youngstown, and the boys were getting ready to
+strike out on their different routes, and Dr. Cook was going down to
+Tyonic, in Cook's Inlet, with his launch, to meet a friend, Mr. Disston,
+who expected to go on a hunting trip with him. The friend did not
+arrive, so Dr. Cook returned to the head-waters of the Yentna River, to
+Youngstown, arriving there on Monday, August 27. On Sunday, August 28,
+he started down to the Sushitna River. I went down with him as far as
+the Sushitna Station, and he told me he was going to run up the river
+and strike Fish Creek, which ran up on another side of Mt. McKinley, and
+see what the chances were to make the top of the continent from that
+side. He made it. I was one of the last to see him start on the ascent,
+and one of the first to see him when he returned after he had made the
+ascent.
+
+Dr. Cook proved to be a man in every respect, as unselfish as he was
+courageous, always giving the other fellow a thought before thinking of
+himself.
+
+Upon his arrival from the ascent of the mountain, although tired and
+worn and in a bad physical condition himself, he gave his unlimited
+attention to a party of prospectors who had been picked up from a wreck
+in the river, and brought into camp in an almost dying condition just
+before his arrival. He spent hours working over these men, and did not
+give himself a thought until they were properly cared for.
+
+_Evidence?_ No man who has known Dr. Cook, been with him, worked with
+him, and learned by personal experience of his courage, energy and
+perseverance, would ask for evidence beyond his word.
+
+Dr. Cook is one of the most daring men, and can stand more hardships
+than any man I have ever met, and I believe I have met some of the most
+able men of the world when it comes to roughing it over the trails in
+Alaska and the North.
+
+Dr. Cook climbed Mt. McKinley. Of course there are always skeptics--men
+who have a wishbone instead of a backbone, and who, when wishing has
+brought to them no good results, their last effort is pushed forth in
+criticism of the things which have been constructed or accomplished by
+men, their superiors.
+
+If Professor Parker wants evidence to convince him, I think he can find
+it, provided he will put himself to as much trouble in looking for
+evidence as he has in criticising such evidence as he has obtained.
+
+                        Respectfully yours,
+                                                    J. A. MACDONALD.
+
+VONTRIGGER, CALIFORNIA.
+
+    _Author's Note._--It is a curious fact that most men who have
+    assailed me are themselves sailing under false colors. Herschell
+    Parker was an assistant professor and instructor in the Department
+    of Physics in Columbia University. This gave him the advantage of
+    using the title, "Professor," but, like many others, his university
+    association was mostly for the prestige it gave him. His
+    professorship assumption was, therefore, a deception. Instead of
+    devoting himself conscientiously to university interests, he was,
+    like Peary, engaged in private enterprises--such as the Parker-Clark
+    light, and other ventures--and employed substitute instructors to do
+    the work for which he drew a salary, and for which he claimed the
+    honor and the prestige. A man who thus sails falsely under the
+    banner of a professorship is just the man to try to steal the honor
+    of other men. Here is a make-believe professor who is not a
+    professor; whose dwarfed conscience is eased by drippings from the
+    Arctic Trust; who has stooped to a photographic humbug. He is a
+    fitting exponent of the bribing pro-Peary propaganda.
+
+
+[29] When Mr. Peary first returned from the North, and began his attacks
+upon me, he caused a demand for "proofs" through the New York _Times_
+and its affiliated papers; he had them call for my instruments; he
+insinuated that I had had no instruments with me in the North (despite
+the fact that Captain Bartlett had informed him that my own Eskimos had
+testified that I had); he declared that any Polar claim must be
+established by an examination of observations and an examination of the
+explorer's instruments.
+
+In view of the unwarranted newspaper call for "proofs," I was
+embarrassed by having left my instruments with Whitney. Mr. Peary had
+his, however. But were they carefully examined by the august body who so
+eagerly decided he reached the Pole? Was the verdict of the
+self-appointed arbiters of the so-called National Geographic Society
+based upon such examination as Mr. Peary--concerning my case--had
+declared necessary?
+
+Testifying before the subcommittee of the Committee on Naval Affairs,
+when the move was on to have Peary made a Rear-Admiral, Henry Gannett,
+one of the three members of the National Geographic Society, who had
+passed on Peary's claim, admitted that their examination of Mr. Peary's
+instruments was casually and hastily made in the Pennsylvania Station at
+Washington. When Peary later appeared in person before the committee, he
+admitted having come to Washington from Portland, Maine, to consult with
+the members of the National Geographic Society who were to examine his
+proofs, and that he had brought his instruments with him in a trunk,
+which was left at the station. The following took place (See official
+Congressional Report, Private Calendar No. 733, Sixty-first Congress,
+Third Session, House of Representatives, Report No. 1961, pages 21 and
+22):
+
+"Mr. Roberts--How did the instruments come down?
+
+"Captain Peary--They came in a trunk.
+
+"Mr. Roberts--Your trunk?
+
+"Captain Peary--Yes.
+
+"Mr. Roberts--After you reached the station and found the trunk, what
+did you and the committee do regarding the instruments?
+
+"Captain Peary--I should say that we opened the trunk there in the
+station.
+
+"Mr. Roberts--That is, in the baggage-room of the station?
+
+"Captain Peary--Yes.
+
+"Mr. Roberts--Were the instruments all taken out?
+
+"Captain Peary--_That I could not say. Members of the committee will
+probably remember better than I._
+
+"Mr. Roberts--Well, do you not have any recollection of whether they
+took them out and examined them?
+
+"Captain Peary--Some were taken out, I should say; whether all were
+taken out I could not say.
+
+"Mr. Roberts--Was any test of those instruments made by any member of
+the committee to ascertain whether or not the instruments were
+inaccurate?
+
+"Captain Peary--_That I could not say. I should imagine that it would
+not be possible to make tests there._
+
+"Mr. Roberts--Were those instruments ever in the possession of the
+committee other than the inspection at the station?
+
+"Captain Peary--NOT TO MY KNOWLEDGE."
+
+NOTE.--This, then, was the basis of the glorious verdict of the packed
+jury which assailed me; which demanded as necessary instruments of me
+which had been left in the North, and which posed as a fair body of
+experts!
+
+All important questions asked of Peary, Tittman and Gannett were hedged,
+their aim being to avoid publicity. In substance, they admitted that in
+the "Peary Proofs," passed upon a year before, there was no proof. They
+admitted that their favorable verdict was reached upon an examination of
+COPIES of Mr. Peary's observations, and that the examination and
+decision occurred at a sort of social gathering in the house of Admiral
+Chester, who had attacked me. Chairman Roberts, commenting on the
+testimony, wrote (see page 15):
+
+"From these extracts from the testimony it will be seen that Mr.
+Gannett, after his careful examination of Captain Peary's proofs and
+records, did not know how many days it took Captain Peary from the time
+he left Bartlett to reach the Pole and return to the _Roosevelt_, that
+information being supplied by a Mr. Grosvenor. It will be also observed
+that Mr. Gannett, as a result of his careful examination of Captain
+Peary's proofs and records, gives Captain Peary, in his final dash to
+the Pole, the following equipment: Two sledges, 36 or 32 dogs, 2
+Eskimos, and Henson. It will be seen later from Captain Peary's
+testimony, that he had on that final dash 40 dogs, 5 sledges, and a
+total of six men in his party. This discrepancy on so vital a point must
+seem quite conclusive that the examination of the Geographic Society's
+committee was anything but careful."
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX
+
+
+
+
+COPY OF THE FIELD NOTES
+
+
+The following copy of the daily entries in one of my original note-books
+takes the expedition step by step from Svartevoeg to the Pole and back
+to land.
+
+As will be seen by those here reproduced, the original notes are mostly
+abbreviations and suggestions, hasty tabulations and reminders,
+memoranda to be later elaborated. The hard environment, the scarcity of
+materials, and cold fingers did not encourage extensive field notes.
+Most of these field notes were rewritten while in Jones Sound, and some
+were also copied and elaborated in Greenland.
+
+In planning this expedition, every article of equipment and every phase
+of effort was made subordinate to the one great need of covering long
+distances. We deliberately set out for the Pole, with a desperate
+resolution to succeed, and although appreciating the value of detail
+scientific work, I realized that such work could not be undertaken in a
+pioneer project like ours. We therefore did not burden ourselves with
+cumbersome instruments, nor did we allow ourselves to be side-tracked in
+attractive scientific pursuits. Elaborate results are not claimed, but
+the usual data of Arctic expeditions were gathered with fair success.
+
+(Notes usually written at end of day's march.)
+
+  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
+       |Date.| Miles  |       OBSERVATIONS, ETC.
+       |     |Covered.| (Exact copy from original Field Papers)
+  -----+-----+--------+-------------------------------------------------
+  March| 18  |   26   | Svartevoeg. Made cache here for return.
+  1908.|     |        | Supporting party goes back. Noon start;
+       |     |        | 4 men, 46 dogs, 4 sleds; 26 miles. Ice heavy,
+       |     |        | wavy; little snow; crystals hard; land
+       |     |        | screened by drift. Camp on old field. Night
+       |     |        | uncomfortable; air humid, penetrating.
+       |     |        | Snowhouse of hard snow imperfectly made.
+       |     |        | (Other notes of this date so dim that they
+       |     |        | cannot be read. _Compass directions, unless
+       |     |        | otherwise noted, are true._)
+       |     |        |
+       | 19  |   21   | Clearer, overland thick; -56° F.; Wind 2 W.;
+       |     |        | sun feeble; blue haze. On march, ice smaller;
+       |     |        | use of axe; crossings troublesome. Camp lee of
+       |     |        | big hummock. Cannot send supply back; must
+       |     |        | follow for another day.
+       |     |        |
+       | 20  |   16   | Land more clearly visible; sky overcast; wind
+       |     |        | W. S. W. 1; ice worse. Small igloo. The last
+       |     |        | feed men return.
+       |     |        |
+       | 21  |   29   | Awoke, sun N. E.; orange glow; -63° F.;
+       |     |        | bar. 30.10, steady; no clouds; sky pale purple.
+       |     |        | More snow (on ice); groaning sledges; mirages,
+       |     |        | lands, mountains, volcanoes. Air light; wind
+       |     |        | sky N.; Grant Land a mere line; -46°. Torture
+       |     |        | of light snow; march 14 hours.
+       |     |        |
+       | 22  |   22   | A. M.; wind E. 3; -59°. Start 12 (noon); sky
+       |     |        | clearer; wind 2; water sky N. Grant Land visible
+       |     |        | P. M. (Later) Temp. rose to -46°. Wind tolerably
+       |     |        | high; pressure lines; the big lead. Camp on old
+       |     |        | field on bank; ice noises; search for the
+       |     |        | crossing. Young, elastic ice.
+       |     |        |
+       | 23  |   17   | Cross the big lead. Young ice elastic and
+       |     |        | dangerous; western sky again threatening; ice
+       |     |        | movement east; fields small; narrow open lanes.
+       |     |        | Course for 85th on 97th; -40°; march 11 hours;
+       |     |        | 23 miles, credit 17 miles. Ice noises; night
+       |     |        | beautiful; sun sank into pearly haze. (Later)
+       |     |        | Orange glow; pack violet and pale purple blue;
+       |     |        | sky late--partly cl. appearance of land W.
+       |     |        |
+       | 24  |   18   | Observations 83.31--96.27; -41°; bar. 29.70.
+       |     |        | West bank of fog and haze. Start afternoon;
+       |     |        | no life; old seal hole and bear tracks; long
+       |     |        | march; ice improving. 10 h.; pedometer 21 m.;
+       |     |        | camp in coming storm; rushing clouds; signs of
+       |     |        | land W. 18 m. (credited on course).
+       |     |        |
+       | 25  |   18   | Early awakened by dogs. Storm spent soon;
+       |     |        | sunrise temp. -26°, later -41°; west again
+       |     |        | smoky. Back to the bags; cracking ice; the
+       |     |        | breaking and separating ice and the crevasse
+       |     |        | episode; in a bag and in water; ice-water
+       |     |        | and pemmican; masks of ice. Good march over
+       |     |        | newly-fractured ice; ice in motion.
+       |     |        |
+       | 26  |   17   | Still windy; some drift snow; another storm
+       |     |        | threatening. How we need rest! Strong wind
+       |     |        | during the night. Position D. R. 84.24--96.53.
+       |     |        |
+       | 27  |   16   | In camp until noon. Strong winds all night;
+       |     |        | eased at noon; clearing some; sun; weather
+       |     |        | unsettled. Short run; squally en route; made
+       |     |        | early camp. Bar. 29.05.
+       |     |        |
+       | 28  |    0   | Weather still unsettled. Temp. -41°; Bar. 29.15;
+       |     |        | west ugly. No progress. The drift. In camp.
+       |     |        | Anxious about stability of igloo. The collapsed
+       |     |        | camp. Midnight; north cloudy, but ice bright;
+       |     |        | many hummocks.
+       |     |        |
+       | 29  |    9   | Start early P. M. A little blue in the west; sun
+       |     |        | bursts; pack disturbed; hard traveling, due to
+       |     |        | fresh crevasses. Camp midnight; only 9 miles.
+       |     |        |
+       | 30  |   10   | Land, 9 A. M., cleared; land was seen; westerly
+       |     |        | clouds settled over it. Observations 84.50,
+       |     |        | 95.36; bearing of land, southern group, West by
+       |     |        | South to West by North true. Other bearings
+       |     |        | taken later place a coast line along the 102
+       |     |        | meridian from lat. 84° 20´ to 85° 10´. There
+       |     |        | must be much open water about the land, for
+       |     |        | banks of vapor persistently hide part. A low fog
+       |     |        | persistent; cannot see shore; for days we have
+       |     |        | expected to see something W., but never a clear
+       |     |        | horizon. Probably two island S. like Heiberg,
+       |     |        | 1,800 ft. high, valleys, mountains, snow N.,
+       |     |        | table 1,000, thin ice sheet, bright nights.
+       |     |        | From observation paper: Bar. 30.10, had risen
+       |     |        | from 29.50 in 2 hours; wind 2-3 mag. S.;
+       |     |        | clouds mist, East, water-bands W.; shadow
+       |     |        | (of 6 ft. pole) 39 ft.
+       |     |        |
+       | 31  |   10   | Land screened by mist; wind W. 2-0. Ice
+       |     |        | fracture; no sign of life--none since 83.
+       |     |        |
+  April|  1  |   18   | (Time of traveling) 9 to 6; ice better; fields
+  1908.|     |        | larger; crevasses less troublesome; temp. -32°.
+       |     |        | There is no more darkness at night.
+       |     |        |
+       |  2  |   12   | (Start) 9.30; (stop) 8. Smooth ice; hard snow;
+       |     |        | ice 28 ft. and 32. Night bright but cloudy.
+       |     |        | Temp. -35°; bar. 30.10; leads difficult.
+       |     |        |
+       |  3  |   10   | 8.30 to 6.30. Temp. -39°; bar. 30.12; sky
+       |     |        | clearing at noon, but low clouds and frosty haze
+       |     |        | persist in the W. and N. Night bright; sun at
+       |     |        | midnight under cloud and haze.
+       |     |        |
+       |  4  |   14   | 8.45 to 6.10. Snow softer; used snowshoes; have
+       |     |        | crossed 11 crevasses; much chopping; brash and
+       |     |        | small hummocks.
+       |     |        |
+       |  5  |   14   | 9 (A. M.) to 5.45 (P. M.). Snow better.
+       |     |        | Ice larger. Oh, so tired! Snowshoes.
+       |     |        |
+       |  6  |   14   | 8.10 (A. M.) to 6.15 (P. M.). Snow hard. Ice
+       |     |        | flat. Few hummocks. Less wavy. Snow (shoes).
+       |     |        | Sun faces.
+       |     |        |
+       |  7  |   14   | 11 to 10. Beautiful clear weather; even the
+       |     |        | night sky clear. Midnight sun first seen.
+       |     |        | Ice 36 ft. (thick). (Another measurement gave
+       |     |        | 21 feet.)
+       |     |        |
+       |  8  |    9   | Observation before starting, 86.36, 94.2. In
+       |     |        | spite of what seemed like long marches we made
+       |     |        | only 106 miles in 9 days. Much distance lost in
+       |     |        | crossings. (From field paper) bar. 29.50,
+       |     |        | rising; temp. -37°; wind mag. N. E., 2; clouds
+       |     |        | St. 3; shadow (6 ft. pole), 32 feet.
+       |     |        |
+       |  9  |   14   | 9 A. M. to 5.30 P. M.; snow hard; ice about the
+       |     |        | same; wind cutting; frost bites. Clothes humid.
+       |     |        |
+       | 10  |   16   | 10 P. M. to 7 A. M. Working hours changed; big
+       |     |        | marches and long hours no longer possible; snow
+       |     |        | good; ice steadily improving; bodily fatigue
+       |     |        | much felt; wind 1-28 W.
+       |     |        |
+       | 11  |   15   | 10.30 to 8 A. M. Observation end of March,
+       |     |        | 87.20, 95.19; the pack disturbance of B. Ld.
+       |     |        | lost; farthest north; little crushed ice;
+       |     |        | old floes less irregular; anxious about food;
+       |     |        | wind 3 W. (true); 300 miles in 24 days; work
+       |     |        | intermittent; too tired to read instruments.
+       |     |        | (From other field notes, Temp. -39°;
+       |     |        | bar. 29.90°.)
+       |     |        |
+       | 12  |   21   | 11 P. M. to 7 A. M. Thoughts of return. Food
+       |     |        | supply reduced. Hope to economize in warmer
+       |     |        | weather. Very heavy ice. Much like land ice.
+       |     |        | Wind 2 W. S. W. The awful monotony!
+       |     |        |
+       | 13  |   17   | 12 P. M. to 7 A. M. The same heavy glacier-like
+       |     |        | ice.... The occasional soup. Hummocks 15-20 ft.
+       |     |        | Ahwelah in tears at start. W. black. Sun under
+       |     |        | rushing vapors. Ice changes. Leads.
+       |     |        |
+       | 14  |   23   | 11 P. M. to 7.10 A. M. 88.21, 95.52. Wind light
+       |     |        | but penetrating. Off the big field, ice smaller.
+       |     |        | Some open leads. Little sign of pressure. Snow
+       |     |        | soft, but less precipitation. Dogs get up
+       |     |        | better speed. 100 miles from Pole. (From other
+       |     |        | observation papers: Bar. 29.90, falling;
+       |     |        | temp., -44°; shadow (6 ft. pole) 30½ feet.)
+       |     |        |
+       | 15  |   14   | 10 P. M. to 7 A. M. Ice same. Wind -1, S. W.
+       |     |        | Working to the limit of muscle capacity. So
+       |     |        | tired and weary of the never ceasing tread!
+       |     |        |
+       | 16  |   15   | 10.30 to 8 A. M. Ice passed. Several heavy old
+       |     |        | floes. Made 6 crossings. Wind 1-3, W. S. W.
+       |     |        |
+       | 17  |   13   | 10.15 to 8 A. M. Ice same. Crevasses new.
+       |     |        | 7 crossings. Saw several big hummocks. Ice
+       |     |        | less troublesome. Temp., -40°; bar., 30.00.
+       |     |        | Sled friction less.
+       |     |        |
+       | 18  |   14   | 9 P. M. to 6. Ice, though broken, smooth. The
+       |     |        | horizon line not so irregular as that of more
+       |     |        | S. ice. Sky and ice of a dark purple blue.
+       |     |        | (Bar. 30.02.)
+       |     |        |
+       | 19  |   16   | 11 P. M. to 8 A. M. (Position) 89.31. D. R.
+       |     |        | 94.03. Camp on an old field--the only one on
+       |     |        | the horizon with big hummocks. Ice in very large
+       |     |        | fields; surface less irregular, but in other
+       |     |        | respects not different from farther S. Eskimos
+       |     |        | told that in two average marches Pole would be
+       |     |        | reached. Extra rations served. Camp in tent.
+       |     |        | (Bar., 29.98; Temp., -46°.)
+       |     |        |
+       | 20  |  15½   | 8 P. M. to 4 A. M. An exciting run; ice aglow in
+       |     |        | purple and gold; Eskimos chanting. Wind, S. 1
+       |     |        | 89; 46.45. (D. R.) 94.52. New enthusiasm; good
+       |     |        | march. Temp., -36°; bar. (not legible on notes);
+       |     |        | course set for 97th.
+       |     |        |
+       | 21  |  13½   | 1 A. M. to 9 A. M. Observations noon: 89; 59.45;
+       |     |        | ped. 14. Camp; sleep in tent short time; after
+       |     |        | observations advance; pitch tent; (also) made
+       |     |        | camp--snow--prepared for two rounds of
+       |     |        | observations. Temp., 37.7°; bar., 29.83. Nothing
+       |     |        | wonderful; no Pole; a sea of unknown depth; ice
+       |     |        | more active; new cracks; open leads; but surface
+       |     |        | like farther south. Overjoyed but find no words
+       |     |        | to express pleasure. So tired and weary! How we
+       |     |        | need a rest! 12, night. Sun seems as high as at
+       |     |        | noon, but in reality is a little higher, owing
+       |     |        | to its spiral ascent. The mental elation--the
+       |     |        | drying of furs, and (making) photos--Eskimos'
+       |     |        | ideas and disappointment of no Pole--thoughts
+       |     |        | of home and its cheer. But oh, such monotony of
+       |     |        | sky, wind and ice! The dangers of getting back.
+       |     |        | (From other observation papers: Temp, ranged
+       |     |        | from -36° by mercury thermometer to -39° by
+       |     |        | spirit thermometer; clouds Alt. St., 1; wind
+       |     |        | mag. S., 1; ice blink E.; water sky, W.; shadow
+       |     |        | (of 6 ft. pole) 28 feet.)
+       |     |        |
+       | 22  |    0   | Moved camp 4 m. magnetic S. Made 4 observations
+       |     |        | for altitude; S. at noon, W. at 6, N. at 12M, E.
+       |     |        | at 6 A. M. Ice same; more open water; wind 2-3;
+       |     |        | temp., -41°; (from field paper) W. S. W., 1 to
+       |     |        | 2. There are only two big hummocks in sight.
+       |     |        | (Made a series of observations for the sun's
+       |     |        | altitude, 2 on the 21st at the first camp, 4 on
+       |     |        | the 22nd at W. M. camp, and another midnight
+       |     |        | 22-23. Before we left deposited tube.)
+       |     |        |
+       | 23  |   20   | Start for home. 12.30 to noon. Fairly clear--ice
+       |     |        | smooth, but many new crevasses. Temp., -41°.
+       |     |        | Course for 100 mer.
+       |     |        |
+       | 24  |   16   | 11 P. M. to 9 A. M. These records, being made at
+       |     |        | the end of the day's journey, give the doings of
+       |     |        | the day previous--this note for the 24th is in
+       |     |        | reality written on the morning of the 25th, when
+       |     |        | comfortable in camp. Wind 1-2 W. Temp., -36°.
+       |     |        | Ice smooth--fields larger; 5 crossings; the
+       |     |        | pleasure of facing home.
+       |     |        |
+       | 25  |   15   | 8-8. Temp., -37°; Wind 1-2 W. S. W.; ice same.
+       |     |        | The worry of ice breaking up for me, signs of
+       |     |        | joy for the Eskimo.
+       |     |        |
+       | 26  |   14   | 9 to 7. Still much worried about return;
+       |     |        | possibility of ice disruption and open water
+       |     |        | near land; wind light; ice shows new cracks,
+       |     |        | but few have opened; seems to be little
+       |     |        | pressure; few hummocks; snow hard and
+       |     |        | traveling all that could be desired.
+       |     |        |
+       | 27  |   14   | 9.30 to 8. Ice same; wind S. E. 1; good going;
+       |     |        | crossings not troublesome; dogs in good spirits;
+       |     |        | Eskimos happy; but all very tired. Temp., -40°.
+       |     |        |
+       | 28  |   14   | 9.15 to 7.45. Ice same; wind 1 W.; snow
+       |     |        | moderately hard; few hummocks and no pressure
+       |     |        | lines.
+       |     |        |
+       | 29  |   13   | Midnight to 8.45 A. M. Ice more active; fresh
+       |     |        | cracks; some open cracks but no leads. Wind 1 S.
+       |     |        |
+       | 30  |   15   | Midnight to 8 A. M. Ped. registered 121 m. from
+       |     |        | Pole; camp by D. R., 87.59-100; observations
+       |     |        | 88.01, 97.42. Course half point more W.
+       |     |        | Temp., -34°. Start more westerly.
+       |     |        |
+   May |  1  |   18   | 12.30 to 9 A. M. Much color to the sunbursts,
+  1908.|     |        | but the air humid; the temperature persistently
+       |     |        | near -40°, but considerable range with the
+       |     |        | direction of the light winds and mists when
+       |     |        | they come over leads. Much very heavy smooth
+       |     |        | ice--undulating, not hummocky like S.
+       |     |        |
+       |  2  |   12   | 2 A. M. to 11 A. M. Fog, clouds and wet air.
+       |     |        | Temp., -15°. Hard to strike a course.
+       |     |        |
+       |  3  |   13   | 1 A. M. to 10 A. M. Thick weather; wind E. 2;
+       |     |        | ice friction less; occasional light snow fall.
+       |     |        |
+       |  4  |   14   | 3 to 11 A. M. Air clear but sky obscured; ice
+       |     |        | very good, but hummocks appearing on the
+       |     |        | horizon.
+       |     |        |
+       |  5  |   11   | 11 P. M. to 6 A. M. Strong wind; occasional
+       |     |        | breathing spell behind hummocks; squally with
+       |     |        | drifts.
+       |     |        |
+       |  6  |    0   | In camp. Stopped by signs of storm; tried to
+       |     |        | build igloo but wind prevented; in a collapsed
+       |     |        | tent for 24 hours; eat only half ration of
+       |     |        | pemmican.
+       |     |        |
+       |  7  |   10   | 8 A. M. to 3 P. M. Wind detestable; ice bad;
+       |     |        | life a torture; sky persistently obscured; no
+       |     |        | observations; pedometer out of order, only time
+       |     |        | to gauge our distance.
+       |     |        |
+       |  8  |   12   | 2 A. M. to 10. Weather bad; windy, S. W.; some
+       |     |        | drift; heavy going.
+       |     |        |
+       |  9  |   13   | 1 to 8 A. M. (Weather) thick; wind easier; ice
+       |     |        | in big fields; snow a little harder, snowshoes
+       |     |        | steady.
+       |     |        |
+       | 10  |   13   | 11 P. M. of the 9th to 6 A. M. Heavy going but
+       |     |        | little friction on sled; some drift; see more
+       |     |        | hummocks.
+       |     |        |
+       | 11  |    0   | May 11. In camp. Strong wind; heavy drift;
+       |     |        | encircle tent with snow blocks.
+       |     |        |
+       | 12  |   11   | 12.30 to 8.30 A. M. Wind still strong; cestrugi
+       |     |        | troublesome, but temperature moderate; sled
+       |     |        | loads getting light.
+       |     |        |
+       | 13  |   12   | 11 P. M. of 12th, to 7.30 A. M. of 13th. Wind
+       |     |        | easier, S. S. W.; snow harder; ice very thick
+       |     |        | and very large fields; fog.
+       |     |        |
+       | 14  |    9   | 3 A. M. to 9 A. M. No sky; strong wind compelled
+       |     |        | to camp early.
+       |     |        |
+       | 15  |   13   | 1 A. M. to 10. Fog; ice much crevassed; passed
+       |     |        | over several cracks--some opening.
+       |     |        |
+       | 16  |   14   | May 16. 11 P. M. of the 15th to 6 A. M. Cl. 10;
+       |     |        | wind again troublesome; light diffused, making
+       |     |        | it difficult to find footing.
+       |     |        |
+       | 17  |   11   | 2 A. M. to 10. Thick; ice more and more broken;
+       |     |        | smaller and more cracked--cracks give much
+       |     |        | trouble.
+       |     |        |
+       | 18  |   11   | 1 A. M. to 9.30. Wind more southerly and strong;
+       |     |        | ice separating; some open water in leads.
+       |     |        |
+       | 19  |   12   | 11 P. M. to 7.30. Wind veering east; fog
+       |     |        | thicker; ice very much broken, but snow surface
+       |     |        | good.
+       |     |        |
+       | 20  |    6   | Midnight to 9 A. M. Open water; active pack;
+       |     |        | almost impossible.
+       |     |        |
+       | 21  |    8   | 11 P. M. to 9. Conditions the same; our return
+       |     |        | seems almost hopeless; no observations--cannot
+       |     |        | even guess at the drift.
+       |     |        |
+       | 22  |    0   | In camp. Gale N. E.; temp, high; air wet;
+       |     |        | ice breaking and grinding; worried about the
+       |     |        | ultimate return; food low.
+       |     |        |
+       | 23  |    5   | 3 A. M. to 7 A. M. Still squally, but forced a
+       |     |        | short march.
+       |     |        |
+       | 24  |   12   | 12 noon to 8 A. M. Short clearing at noon; the
+       |     |        | first clear mid-day sky for a long time; west
+       |     |        | still in haze. Water sky W. and S. W.; no land
+       |     |        | in sight--though the boys saw the land later
+       |     |        | when I was asleep; ice much broken.
+       |     |        | 84° 02´-97° 03´.
+       |     |        |
+       | 25  |   14   | 10 P. M. to 6 A. M. Ice better; no wind; thick
+       |     |        | fog; snow hard. Temp., -10°.
+       |     |        |
+       | 26  |   12   | 11 P. M. to 7.45 A. M. Ice in fields of about
+       |     |        | 1 M. somewhat hummocky; crossings hard; no wind.
+       |     |        |
+       | 27  |   11   | 11.30 P. M. to 9.30 A. M. Ice same; thick fog.
+       |     |        |
+       | 28  |   13   | 12 m. night to 10 A. M. Ice still same; fog;
+       |     |        | wind 3, shifting E. S. E. and S. W.
+       |     |        |
+       | 29  |   11   | 11.30 P. M. to 9.30 A. M. As we came here the
+       |     |        | water sky in the southwest to which we had
+       |     |        | aimed, gradually working west, led to a wide
+       |     |        | open lead, extending from north to south, and
+       |     |        | almost before knowing it, in the general plan
+       |     |        | of the ice arrangement, we found ourselves to
+       |     |        | the east of this lead. Temp. rose to zero. Ice
+       |     |        | much broken; air thick; light vague; impossible
+       |     |        | to see irregularities. Food 3/4 rations; and
+       |     |        | straight course for Nansen Sound.
+       |     |        |
+       | 30  |   10   | 12 to 11 A. M. Ice in heaps; open water; brash
+       |     |        | the worst trouble; little fog.
+       |     |        |
+       | 31  |   11   | 11.15 P. M. to 9 A. M. Ice little better; snow
+       |     |        | hard; sleds go easy; much helping required
+       |     |        | (over pressure lines).
+       |     |        |
+  June |  1  |   12   | 10.45 to 8. Ice in large fields; many hummocks;
+  1908.|     |        | few heavy fields.
+       |     |        |
+       |  2  |   12   | 10 P. M. to 9 A. M. Ice steadily improving.
+       |     |        |
+       |  3  |   11   | 10 P. M. to 8 A. M. Ice begins to show action of
+       |     |        | sun. Temperature occasionally above freezing.
+       |     |        |
+       |  4  |   10   | 9.30 P. M. to 7.30 A. M. Fog; ice offering much
+       |     |        | trouble, but friction little and load light.
+       |     |        |
+       |  5  |   11   | 9.45 P. M. to 7 A. M. Hummocks exposed to sun
+       |     |        | have icicles.
+       |     |        |
+       |  6  |    0   | In camp. Strong N. W. gale.
+       |     |        |
+       |  7  |    0   | In camp. Gale continues, with much snow; the ice
+       |     |        | about breaks up; anxious about map. (Not knowing
+       |     |        | either drift or position, were puzzled as to
+       |     |        | proper course to set.)
+       |     |        |
+       |  8  |   14   | 1 A. M. to noon. Ice bad, but snow hard, and
+       |     |        | after rest progress good; wind still blowing
+       |     |        | west.
+       |     |        |
+       |  9  |   10   | 11 P. M. to 9 A. M. With thick ice and this kind
+       |     |        | of traveling it is hard to guess at distances.
+       |     |        |
+       | 10  |    0   | 10.30 P. M. to 8. Bad ice; open leads; still no
+       |     |        | sun.
+       |     |        |
+       | 11  |   14   | 10 P. M. to 8 A. M. Large smooth ice; little
+       |     |        | snow; wind S. W., 1; no fog, but sky still of
+       |     |        | lead.
+       |     |        |
+       | 12  |   15   | 10.30 to 5. Small fields but good going;
+       |     |        | sky black to the east.
+       |     |        |
+       | 13  |   14   | 10 to 8 A. M. Fog cleared first time since last
+       |     |        | observation. Land in sight south and east.
+       |     |        | Heiberg and Ringnes Land; water sky; small ice;
+       |     |        | brash and drift eastward. We have been carried
+       |     |        | adrift far to the south and west, and
+       |     |        | examination of ice eastward proves that all
+       |     |        | is small ice and open water. Heiberg Island
+       |     |        | is impossible to us. What is our fate? Food and
+       |     |        | fuel is about exhausted, though we still have
+       |     |        | 10 bony dogs. Upon these and our little pemmican
+       |     |        | we can possibly survive for 20 days. In the
+       |     |        | meantime we must go somewhere. To the south
+       |     |        | is our only hope.
+  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+NOTE.--_June 14_ and thereafter to _September 1_, all notes were briefly
+jotted down in another diary, a collection of loose leaves in which the
+observations of the return were made. This diary was left with the
+instruments at Etah with Mr. Whitney. The data, however, had been
+rewritten at Cape Sparbo, so that the notes had served their purpose and
+were of no further value when no pretentious publication was
+anticipated.
+
+Other notes were made on loose sheets of paper or on leaves of the note
+books. Many of these were destroyed, others were rubbed out to make room
+for recording what was regarded as more important data, and a few were
+retained quite by accident.
+
+
+
+
+QUESTIONS THAT ENTER CALCULATIONS FOR POSITION OF THE NORTH POLE.
+
+By FREDERICK A. COOK.
+
+
+Much abstruse, semi-scientific and academic material has been forced
+into the polar discussions about proofs by observation. The problem
+presented is full of interesting points, and to elucidate these I will
+ask the reader to go back with me to that elusive imaginary spot, the
+North Pole. Here we find no pole--and absolutely nothing to mark the
+spot for hundreds of miles. We are in the center of a great moving sea
+of ice and for 500 miles in every direction it is the same hopeless
+desert of floating, shifting crystal. I believed then that we had
+reached the Pole, and it never occurred to me that there would be a cry
+for absolute proof. Such a demand had never been presented before. The
+usual data of the personal narrative of the explorers had always been
+received with good faith. But let us reopen the question and examine the
+whole problem.
+
+Is there any positive proof for a problem of this kind? Is there any one
+sure shoulder upon which we can hang the mantle of polar conquest? We
+are deprived of the usual landmarks of terrestrially fixed points. The
+effort to furnish proof is like trying to fix a point in Mid-Atlantic.
+But here you have the tremendous advantage of known compass variation,
+sure time, reasonably accurate corrections. Not only by careful
+observation at sea of fixed stars and other astronomical data, but by an
+easy and quick access to and from each shore, and by reliable tables for
+reductions gathered during scores of years of experience.
+
+All this is denied in the mid-polar basins at the time when it is
+possible to arrive there. There is no night, there are no stars, and the
+sun, the only fixed object by which a position can be calculated, is not
+absolutely fixable. It is low on the horizon. Its rays are bent in
+getting to the recording instruments while passing through the thick
+maze of floating ice mist. This mist always rests on the pack even in
+clear days. The very low temperature of the atmosphere and the
+distorting, twisting mirage effect of different strata of air, with
+radically different temperatures, wherein each stratum has a different
+density, carry different quantities of frosted humidity.
+
+All of this gives to the sunbeam, upon which the calculation for
+latitude and longitude is based, the deceptive appearance of a paddle
+thrust into clear water. The paddle in such case seems bent. The sunbeam
+is bent in a like manner, since it passes through an unknown depth of
+refractory air for the correction of which no law can be devised until
+modern aerial navigation brings to a science that very complex problem
+of the geography of the atmosphere. For this reason, and for others
+which we will presently show, this whole idea of proof by figures as
+devised by Mr. Peary and the armchair geographers, falls to pieces.
+
+Let us take the noon observation--a fairly certain method to determine
+latitude in most zones of the earth where for hundreds of years we have
+learned to make certain corrections, which by use have been incorporated
+as laws in the art of navigation. About five minutes before local noon
+the sea captain goes to the bridge with sextant in hand. His time is
+certain, but even if it were not, the sun rises and sets and therefore
+changes its altitude quickly. The captain screws the sun down to a fixed
+angle on his sextant; he puts the instrument aside; then takes it up
+again, brings the sun to the horizon, examines his instrument. The sun
+has risen a little further; it is not yet noon. This is repeated again
+and again, and at last the sun begins to descend. It is now local noon.
+This gives a rough check for his time. There is a certain sure moment
+for his observation at just the second when it is accurate,--when the
+sun's highest ascent has been reached. Such advantages are impossible
+when nearing the Pole. The chronometers have been shooting the shoots of
+the pack for weeks. The sudden changes of temperature also disturb the
+mechanism, and therefore time, that very important factor upon which all
+astronomical data rest, is at best only a rough guess. For this reason
+alone, if for no other, such as unknown refraction and other optical
+illusions, the determination of longitude when nearing the Pole becomes
+difficult and unreliable. All concede this, but latitude, we are told by
+the armchair observer, is easy and sure. Let us see.
+
+The time nears to get a peep of the sun at noon, but what is local
+noon? The chronometers may be, and probably are, far off. And there is
+no way to correct even approximately. I do not mean on hours, but there
+may be unknowable differences of minutes, and each minute represents a
+mile. Let us see how this affects our noon observation. Five or ten
+minutes before local noon the observer levels his artificial horizon and
+with sextant in hand lies down on the snow. A little drift and nose
+bleaching wind complicate matters. The fingers are cold; the instrument
+must be handled with mittens; the cold is such that at best a shiver
+runs up the spine, the eye blinks with snow glitter and frost. The arms,
+hands and legs become stiff from cold and from inaction. He tries
+exactly what the sea captain does in comfort on the bridge, but his time
+is a guess, he watches the sun, he tries to catch it when it is highest,
+but this is about as difficult as it is to catch a girl in the act of
+winking when her back is turned.
+
+The sun does not rise and set as it does in temperate climes--it circles
+the horizon day and night in a spiral ascent so nearly parallel to the
+line of the horizon that it is a practical impossibility to determine by
+any possible means at hand when it is highest. One may lie on that snow
+for an hour, and though steadied with the patience of Job, the absolute
+determination of the highest point of the sun's altitude or the local
+noon is almost a physical impossibility.
+
+This observation is not accurate and gives only results of use in
+connection with other calculations. These results at best are also
+subject to that unknown allowance for really great atmospheric
+refraction. The geographic student will, I am sure, agree that against
+this the magnetic needle will offer some check, for if you can be
+certain that when the needle points to a positive direction, then it is
+a simple matter to get approximate time with it and the highest noon
+altitude; but since the correction for the needle, like that of latitude
+and longitude, is based on accurate time, and since it is further
+influenced by other local and general unknown conditions--therefore even
+the compass, that sheet anchor of the navigator, is as uncertain as
+other aids to fixing a position in the polar basin.
+
+In making such observations an artificial horizon must be used. This
+offers an uncontrollable element of inaccuracy in all Arctic
+observations when the sun is low.
+
+My observations were made with the sun about 12° above the horizon. At
+this angle the image of the sun is dragged over the glass or mercury
+with no sharp outlines, a mere streak of light, and not a perfect,
+sharp-cut image of the sun which an important observation demands.
+
+Mr. Peary's altitudes were all less than 7°. I challenge any one to
+produce a clear cut image of the sun on an artificial horizon with the
+sun at that angle. All such observations therefore are unreliable
+because of imperfect contact, for which there can be no correction.
+
+The question of error by refraction is one of very great importance. In
+the known zones the accumulated lesson of ages has given us certain
+tables for correction, but even with these advantages few navigators
+would take an observation when the sun is but 7° above the horizon and
+count it of any value whatever.
+
+In the Arctic the problem of refraction presents probable inaccuracies,
+not of seconds or minutes, but possibly of degrees. Every Arctic
+traveler has seen in certain atmospheric conditions a dog enlarged to
+the image of a bear. A raven frequently looks like a man, and a hummock,
+but 25 feet high, a short distance away, will at times rise to the
+proportions of a mountain. Mirages turn things topsy-turvy, and the
+whole polar topography is distorted by optical illusions. Many explorers
+have seen the returning sun over a sea horizon after the long night one
+or two days before the correct time for its reappearance. This gives you
+an error in observations which can be a matter of 60 miles.
+
+Here is a tangle in optics, which cannot under the present knowledge of
+conditions be elucidated, and yet with all these disadvantages, the
+group of armchair geographers of the National Geographic Society
+pronounces a series of sun altitudes less than 7° above the horizon as
+proof positive of the attainment of the Pole. Furthermore these men are
+personal friends of Mr. Peary, and the society for whom they act is
+financially interested in the venture which they indorsed.
+
+Is this verdict based upon either science or justice, or honor?
+
+In response to a public clamor for a peep at these papers, a more
+detestable unfairness was forced on the public. The venerable director
+of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, who was one of Mr. Peary's jurors,
+instead of showing his hand, and thus freeing himself from a dishonest
+entanglement, asked his underlings, H. C. Mitchell and C. R. Duval, to
+stoop to a dishonor to veil the humbug previously perpetrated. Under the
+instruction of their chief, the first figures of Mr. Peary's sextant
+readings have been taken, and by manipulating these they have helped Mr.
+Peary by saying that their calculation placed Mr. Peary within two miles
+of the Pole.
+
+Perhaps Mr. Peary was at the pin-point of the Pole, but when he allows
+his friends to use questionable methods to give a false security to his
+claim, then his claim is insecure indeed.
+
+Mitchell and Duval took the sextant readings at face value. If Mr. Peary
+or his computers had frankly admitted the uncertainty of the grounds
+upon which these sextant readings rested, then one would be inclined to
+grant the benefit of doubt; but as was the case regarding the verdict of
+the National Geographic Society, the public was carefully excluded from
+a knowledge of the shaky grounds upon which these calculations are
+based. The impossibility of correct time and adequate allowance for
+refraction render such figures useless as proof of a position. But what
+about the image of the sun upon the artificial horizon?
+
+An important observation demands that this should be sharp and clear,
+otherwise the observation is worthless. Mitchell and Duval have surely
+thought of this. Perhaps they have tried an experiment. As real
+scientific students they should have experimented with the figures with
+which they played. If the experiment has not been made they are
+incompetent. In either case a trick has been used to bolster up the
+deceptive verdict of the National Geographic Society.
+
+A dish of molasses, a bull's eye lantern and a dark room are all that is
+necessary to prove how the public has been deceived by men in the
+Government pay as scientific computers. With the bull's eye as the sun,
+the molasses or any other reflecting surface as a horizon, with the
+light striking the surface at less than 7 degrees, as Mr. Peary's sun
+did, it will be found that the sun's image is an oblong streak of light
+with ill-defined edges. Such an image cannot be recorded on a sextant
+with sufficient accuracy to make it of any use as an observation.
+Mitchell and Duval must know this. If so, they are dishonest, for they
+did not tell the public about it. If they did not know it they are
+incompetent and should be dismissed from the Government service.
+
+With all of these uncertainties a course which gives a workable plan of
+action can be laid over the blank charts, but there always remains the
+feebly guarded mystery of the ice drift. When the course is set, the
+daily run of distance can be checked by estimating speed and hourly
+progress with the watches. Against this there is the check of the
+pedometer or some other automatic measure for distance covered. The
+shortening night shadows and the gradual coming to a place where the
+night and day shadows are of about equal length is a positive conviction
+to him who is open to self-conviction, as a polar aspirant is likely to
+be. But frankly and candidly, when I now review one and all of these
+methods of fixing the North Pole, or the position of a traveler en route
+to it, I am bound to admit that all attempt at proof represented by
+figures is built on a foundation of possible and unknowable inaccuracy.
+Figures may convince an armchair geographer who has a preconceived
+opinion, but to the true scientist with the many chances for mistakes
+above indicated there is no real proof. The verdict on such data must
+always be "not proven" if the evidence rests on a true scientific
+examination of material which at best and in the very nature of things
+is not checked by the precision which science demands. The real
+proof--if proof is possible--is the continuity of the final printed book
+that gives all the data with the consequent variations.
+
+
+FROM A CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE POLAR CLAIMS IN A FORTHCOMING BOOK
+
+By CAPTAIN THOMAS F. HALL of Omaha, Neb.
+
+DR. COOK'S VALID CLAIM.
+
+Cook's narrative has been before the public nearly two years. It has
+been subject to the most minute scrutiny that invention, talent and
+money could give. It is to-day absolutely unscathed. Not one item in it
+from beginning to end has been truthfully discredited. It stands
+unimpeached. Mud enough has been thrown. Bribery and conspiracy have
+done their worst. A campaign of infamy has been waged, and spent its
+force; but not one solitary sentence has been proven wrong. Musk-ox
+fakes, starved dogs, fictitious astronomical or other calculations may
+have some effect on popular opinion; but they have none on the actual
+facts. They do not budge the truth a hair's breadth and they do not make
+history.
+
+Cook's claim to the Discovery of the North Pole is as sound and as valid
+as the other claims of discovery, or the achievement of any one
+preceding him in the Arctic or the Antarctic.
+
+
+VERDICT OF GEN. A. W. GREELY, REAR ADMIRAL W. S. SCHLEY AND OTHER ARCTIC
+EXPERTS
+
+Dr. Cook is the discoverer of the North Pole.--GENERAL A. W. GREELY.
+
+No one familiar with the Polar problem doubts Dr. Cook's success. Peary
+never tried to get to the Pole. He copied Cook's data and then, by
+official intrigue tried to "put it over." A study of Peary's deception
+on compass variation will prove that.--CLARK BROWN.
+
+You can prove the discovery of Northermost Land. The Eskimo talk is
+nonsense. The Polar discussion should be settled by an International
+Commission--PROF. OTTO NORDENSKJOLD.
+
+Dr. Cook was the first and only man to reach the North Pole--CHAS. E.
+RILLIET.
+
+I have gone over all of Dr. Cook's data, and, in spite of the statements
+to the contrary, I believe he reached the Pole.--MAURICE CONNELL.
+
+It has always been my pleasure to support Dr. Cook. I can see no reason
+for doubting his success. Who are his accusers, surely not Arctic
+Explorers?--CAPTAIN OTTO SVERDRUP.
+
+I am convinced that if anyone reached the Pole, Dr. Cook got
+there.--ANDREW J. STONE.
+
+From first to last I have championed Dr. Cook's cause, and after going
+over the printed records of both claimants I am doubly convinced that he
+reached the Pole.--CAPTAIN EDWARD A. HAVEN.
+
+Dr. Cook reached the Pole, I doubt Peary, his observations bear the
+stamp of inexcusable inaccuracy and bunglesome carelessness. One cannot
+read Peary's book and believe in him.--CAPTAIN JOHN MENANDER.
+
+                                              Washington, D. C.,
+                                                     Jan. 7th, 1911.
+
+  Dear Dr. Cook:
+
+  ... I would assure you that I have never varied in the belief that you
+  reached the Pole. After reading the published accounts, daily and
+  critically, of both claimants, I was forced to the conclusion from
+  their striking similarity that each of you was the eye witness of the
+  other's success.
+
+  Without collusion it would have been impossible to have written
+  accounts so similar, and yet in view of the ungracious controversy
+  that has occurred since that view (collusion) would be impossible
+  to imagine.
+
+  While I have never believed that either of you got within a pin-point
+  of the Pole, I have steadfastly held that both got as near the goal
+  as was possible to ascertain considering the imperfections of the
+  instruments used and the personal errors of individuals under
+  circumstances as adverse to absolute accuracy.
+
+  Again I have been broad enough in my views to believe that there was
+  room enough at the Pole for two; and never narrow enough to believe
+  that only one man got there.
+
+  I believe that both are entitled to the honor of the achievement.
+
+                                           Very truly yours,
+                                             (Signed)  W. S. SCHLEY.
+
+
+
+
+POSITIVE PROOF OF DR. COOK'S ATTAINMENT OF THE POLE
+
+BY CAPTAIN EVELYN BRIGGS BALDWIN
+
+    METEOROLOGIST PEARY EXPEDITION, 1893-4, SECOND-IN-COMMAND WELLMAN
+    EXPEDITION 1898-9, AND ORGANIZER AND LEADER OF THE BALDWIN-ZIEGLER
+    POLAR EXPEDITION, 1901-2, ETC.
+
+
+I can prove the truth of Dr. Cook's statements in regard to his
+discovery of the North Pole from Peary's own official record of his last
+dash to the Northward.
+
+So far as I can learn, Dr. Cook has never made a "confession" in regard
+to his trip to the Pole in the sense that he denied his first
+statements. He has merely said that, in view of the great difficulty in
+determining the exact location of the Pole, he may not have been exactly
+upon the northernmost pin-point of the world. Peary, under pressure at
+the Congressional investigation, was forced to admit the same.
+
+For three hundred years there has been a rivalry among civilized men to
+be the first to reach the North Pole. I believe that the honor of having
+succeeded in the attempt should go--not to Peary--but to the man who
+reached the Pole a year before Peary claims to have been there.
+
+Dr. Cook is now in New York City, and I have talked with him several
+times recently. With the information that I myself have gathered, I
+believe that he really did reach the Pole, or came so close to that
+point that he is entitled to the credit of the Pole's discovery.
+
+[Illustration: THE LAND-DIVIDED ICE-PACK REPORTED BY PEARY PROVES COOK'S
+ATTAINMENT OF THE POLE]
+
+Bradley Land is located between latitude 84 and 85. It was discovered by
+Cook in his Poleward march. The land ice, or glacial ice, which Cook
+also discovered, is located between latitude 87 and latitude 88.
+Cook's line of march carried him thirty or forty miles to the east of
+Bradley Land and then upon the glacial ice. The proximity to the new
+land gave Cook a favorable land-protected surface upon which to travel,
+and also afforded him protection from gales and from the consequent
+movements of the pack-ice westward of the new lands. Cook traveled in
+the lee of the groups of islands and over ice floes more stationary than
+the ice farther to the east, over which Peary traveled.
+
+
+EVIDENCE OF COOK'S TRAVELS
+
+A critical examination of Peary's book not only reveals a remarkable
+corroboration of Cook's discovery of Bradley Land and the glacial island
+north of it, but also seems to indicate the existence of islands farther
+west between the same parallels of latitude.
+
+Referring to page 250, when beyond the 86th parallel, Peary says: "In
+this march there was some pretty heavy going. Part of the way was over
+some old floes, which had been broken up by many seasons of unceasing
+conflict with the winds and tides. Enclosing these more or less level
+floes were heavy pressure ridges over which we and the dogs were obliged
+to climb." In other words, the floes which Peary describes in this part
+of his journey clearly indicate that they were just such floes as one
+would expect to find after having passed through a group of islands,
+and, therefore, contrasting naturally with the immense size of the floes
+which both Cook and Peary traversed north of the 88th parallel.
+
+Beginning with page 258, we have a most instructive description by Peary
+of the ice between the parallels wherein Cook locates the glacial ice
+and upon which he traveled for two days. It is such ice as one would
+expect to find after having passed around the north and south ends of an
+island from forty to sixty miles to the westward. This particular area
+Peary designates as a veritable "Arctic Phlegethon," and it is
+inconceivable to believe in this Phlegethon without also believing in
+the existence of the glacial ice, as located and described by Dr. Cook.
+Let us, therefore, examine Peary's narrative minutely. He says, on page
+259, "When I awoke the following day, March 28, the sky was apparently
+clear; but, ahead of us, was a thick, smoky, ominous haze drifting low
+over the ice, and a bitter northeast wind, which, in the orthography of
+the Arctic, plainly spelled 'Open Water'...."
+
+Also, on the same page: "After traveling at a good rate for six hours
+along Bartlett's trail, we came upon his camp beside a wide lead, with a
+dense black, watery sky to the northwest, north and northeast."
+
+Again, on page 260: "... The break in the ice had occurred within a foot
+of the fastening of one of my dog teams, ... Bartlett's igloo was moving
+east on the ice raft, which had broken, and beyond it, as far as the
+belching fog from the lead would let us see, there was nothing but black
+water."
+
+Finally, on page 262, Peary says: "This last march had put us well
+beyond my record of three years before, probably 87° 12´. The following
+day, March 29, was not a happy one for us. Though we were all tired
+enough to rest, we did not enjoy picnicing beside this Arctic Phlegethon
+which, hour after hour, to the north, northeast and northwest, seemed to
+belch black smoke like a prairie fire.... Bartlett made a sounding of
+one thousand two hundred and sixty fathoms, but found no bottom."
+
+In the foregoing we have positive proof that this almost open water area
+was not caused by shoals at that immediate point.
+
+Peary's concern as regards this big hole in the ice-pack is set forth
+further on page 265, as follows: "The entire region through which we had
+come during the last four marches was full of unpleasant possibilities
+for the future. Only too well we knew that violent winds, for only a few
+hours, would send the ice all abroad in every direction. Crossing such a
+zone on a journey north is only half the problem, for there is always
+the return to be figured on. Though the motto of the Arctic must be
+'Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof,' we ardently hoped there
+might not be violent winds until we were south of this zone again on the
+return."
+
+From this it is apparent that Peary realized fully the permanent
+character of this Phlegethon over which he was traveling. With
+astonishing persistency, he refers again and again to this particular
+locality. Quoting from page 303, when on his return march, he says:
+"There was one region just above the 87th parallel, a region about
+fifty-seven miles wide, which gave me a great deal of concern until we
+had passed it. Twelve hours of strong wind blowing from any quarter
+excepting the north would have turned that region into an open sea. I
+breathed a sigh of relief when we left the 87th parallel behind."
+
+And, as though the Phlegethon had not already been sufficiently
+described, on page 307 we find recorded: "Inspired by our good fortune
+we pressed on again completing two marches, and when we camped we were
+very near the 87th parallel. The entry that I made in my diary that
+night is perhaps worth quoting: 'Hope to reach the Marvin Igloo (86°
+38´) to-morrow. I shall be glad when we get there on to the big ice
+again. This region here was open water during February and the early
+part of March and is now covered with young ice which is thoroughly
+unreliable as a means of return. A few hours of a brisk wind east, west,
+or south, would make this entire region open water for some fifty to
+sixty miles north and south, and an unknown extent east and west. Only
+calm weather or a northerly wind keeps it practicable.'"
+
+
+ABSOLUTE PROOF OF COOK'S CLAIM
+
+From the foregoing it is self-evident that Peary's observations by
+sextant could not be more corroborative of Cook's latitude than that the
+Phlegethon is proof of the existence of a glacial island between the
+same two parallels traversed by both explorers. Cook had discovered the
+_cause_, and Peary followed to discover the effect of that _cause_. To
+one familiar with the conditions of ice-floes in the vicinity of islands
+in the Arctic the reasons for this are as clear as it would be to the
+lay mind should it be suddenly announced that on a certain date an
+astronomer had discovered the head of a comet, which being doubted by
+rival investigators, might lead to the unhappy discrediting of the
+original discoverer; but should it be as suddenly announced that a rival
+astronomer had observed the tail of a comet in the same locality there
+would quite certainly follow a reversal of public sentiment.
+
+
+EVIDENCE OF HIS TRAVELS
+
+Of first importance also in proving the existence of new lands
+discovered by Cook is the evidence derived from the existence of animal
+life, since Arctic game clings close to the shore line in its search for
+food. Birds must find their nesting places on lands. Foxes live upon
+birds and the refuse left in the trails of polar bears and seals. Seals
+feed upon shrimps and find the chief source of food in waters close to
+the land. Polar bears in turn feed upon seals, and necessarily are found
+more numerously about lands or islands.
+
+For this reason we will examine Peary's official narrative of his
+journey north for evidence of Dr. Cook's discovery of land to within 2°
+of the North Pole. Having noted Dr. Cook's statement relative to the
+blow hole of a seal near Bradley Island, we will follow in Peary's trail
+for corroboration of Cook's journey eleven months previous, and a
+comparatively short distance westward of Peary's line of march.
+Referring to Peary's "North Pole" on page 249, while in latitude 85° 48´
+he records:
+
+"While we were engaged in this business we saw a seal disporting himself
+in the open water of the lead."
+
+Still farther along, when in latitude 86° 13´, Peary states, on page
+252: "Along the course of one of those leads we saw the fresh tracks of
+a polar bear going west."
+
+
+ANIMAL TRAILS VERIFY COOK'S REPORT
+
+Arctic travelers will well appreciate the force of this statement
+relative to the polar bear, who, scenting the land a few miles to the
+westward, was in search of seals. The freshness of the bear's tracks is
+proof that it had not drifted on some ice floe from remote parts of the
+Arctic basin.
+
+Again, referring to page 257, we find that Peary while traveling through
+deep snow March 28, records: "During the day we saw the tracks of two
+foxes in this remote and icy wilderness, nearly two hundred and forty
+nautical miles beyond the northern coast of Grant Land."
+
+It is worthy of note that Peary does not state just how far from the
+glacial or land ice upon the submerged island over which Cook traveled
+the fox tracks were. But it is evident that the foxes were less than two
+sleeps from land, since Peary states that Marvin's observation placed
+them in about latitude 86° 38´, the very latitude in which Cook traveled
+upon the stationary land ice.
+
+Still again, page 307, while on his return march and near the 88th
+parallel Peary observes: "Here we noticed some fox tracks that had just
+been made. The animal was probably disturbed by our approach. These are
+the most northerly animal tracks ever seen."
+
+Certainly. Why not? Since they were so near the northern termination of
+the land ice discovered by Dr. Cook. In this connection it is also
+important to remark that between latitude 88 and his approximate
+approach to the Pole, Dr. Cook makes no mention of animal life, and this
+is corroborated by Peary's own statement that he observed no tracks of
+animals beyond the 88th parallel. Thus Peary corroborated Cook by the
+very absence of animal life in the very region where Cook states he saw
+no land.
+
+
+PEARY'S STATEMENTS PROVE COOK'S
+
+On Peary's return journey he states that as they approached Grant Land
+the fresh tracks of foxes and other evidences of animal life were very
+numerous. And if the nearness of land was evidenced in this case it is
+also clear that the tracks and appearance of animals on his journey in
+the high latitudes should be given equal weight as evidence of the
+lands discovered by Cook.
+
+The line of deep sea soundings taken by Peary from Cape Columbia
+northward indicates a steady increase in depth to latitude 84° 24´,
+where the lead touched bottom at eight hundred and twenty-five fathoms,
+until, in latitude 85° 23´, the sounding showed a depth of but three
+hundred and ten fathoms. Referring to this, we find that Peary says, on
+page 338 of his narrative: "This diminution in depth is a fact of
+considerable interest in reference to the possible existence of land to
+the westward."
+
+It seems to me that it is not impertinent to remark that this land to
+the westward was scarcely two sleeps distant, as Dr. Cook has
+steadfastly maintained. Finally, on page 346, Peary says: "Taking
+various facts into consideration it would seem that an obstruction
+(lands, islands or shoals) containing nearly half a million square
+statute miles probably exists, and another at or near Crocker Land."
+
+
+MORE ACCURATE OBSERVATIONS BY COOK THAN BY PEARY
+
+And this is all that Dr. Cook claims in his location of land to the
+northward of the very Crocker Land to which Peary alludes.
+
+As to Dr. Cook's and Peary's observations when in the immediate vicinity
+of the Pole, I would call attention to the following facts: Cook's
+determination by the sextant of the sun's altitude was made April 21,
+1908; Peary's final observations were taken April 7 of the following
+year. The sun being thus two weeks higher at the time Cook made his
+observations, he was able to secure a more accurate series of altitudes,
+and this will have an important bearing in substantiation of his claims.
+
+Considering the difficulty which Peary has had in proving whether he was
+at 1.6 miles from the Pole on the Grant Land side or the Bering Strait
+side, and whether he was ten or fifteen miles away, I think Dr. Cook was
+justified in saying that, although he believed he was at the North
+Pole, he is not claiming that he had been exactly at the pin-point of
+the North Pole. At any rate, it places Dr. Cook in the position of
+endeavoring to tell the truth.
+
+In this connection I feel like replying to a criticism which Mr.
+Grosvenor, editor of the National Geographic Magazine, published over
+his own signature immediately following Dr. Cook's return from the Pole.
+"Cook's story reads like that of a man who had filled his head with the
+contents of a few books on polar expeditions and especially the writings
+of Sverdrup."
+
+
+ARMCHAIR CRITICISMS UNFAIR
+
+Now, since Sverdrup is a real navigator, having accompanied Nansen
+during his three years' drift on the Fram, and, following this, having
+himself organized and led an expedition during three years to the
+westward of Grinnell Land, in the course of which he discovered and
+charted, in 1902, Heiberg Land and contiguous islands (which, however,
+Peary charted four years later and named Jessup Land), I do not consider
+Mr. Grosvenor's armchair criticism of the writings of Capt. Sverdrup and
+of Dr. Cook quite in keeping with the principles of a square deal and
+fair play.
+
+Among the reasons which Peary assigns for doubting Dr. Cook is one
+pertaining to the original records which Dr. Cook unwillingly left at
+Etah. The leaving behind of these papers, according to Peary, was merely
+a scheme on Cook's part, so that he might claim they had been lost or
+destroyed and thus escape being forced to produce them in substantiation
+of his claim. Recently, when I asked Dr. Cook about this, his reply was:
+"This does not sound very manly. If this was so in Peary's belief, why
+did he not bring them back? Here was absolute proof in his own hands.
+Why did he bury it?"
+
+Armchair geographers and renegades may endeavor to discredit Dr. Cook,
+but the seals and polar bears and little foxes will bear testimony of
+unimpeachable character to substantiate his claims as the discoverer of
+the North Pole. The reading public will not forget that when Paul Du
+Chaillu, returning from his expedition to Africa, reported the discovery
+of the pigmies, he was denounced as a faker and a liar. For three years
+Du Chaillu, as he has told me himself, sought in vain to re-establish
+his credibility, and when at the end of that time he succeeded in
+bringing some of the pigmies and exhibiting them before the scientific
+bodies of the world, then the "doubting Thomases" were obliged to give
+him credit as the discoverer of the African dwarfs. The yellow press and
+sensation mongers will decry Dr. Cook as they did Du Chaillu, for some
+years to come, but Arctic explorers endorse him to-day.
+
+Rear Admiral W. S. Schley, General A. W. Greely, Captain Otto Sverdrup,
+Captain Roald Amundsen, and all the world's greatest explorers have
+indorsed Dr. Cook.
+
+I have seen Dr. Cook's original field notes, his observations, and the
+important chapters of his book, wherein his claim is presented in such a
+way that the scientific world must accept it as the record and the proof
+of the greatest geographic accomplishment of modern times.
+
+Putting aside the academic and idle argument of pin-point accuracy--the
+North Pole has been honestly reached by Dr. Cook 350 days before anyone
+else claimed to have been there.
+
+                                     (Signed) EVELYN BRIGGS BALDWIN.
+
+
+
+
+VERDICT OF THE GEOGRAPHIC HISTORIAN
+
+DR. COOK'S RECORD IS ACCURATE IT IS CERTIFIED--IT IS CORROBORATED
+
+HE IS THE DISCOVERER OF THE NORTH POLE
+
+By EDWIN SWIFT BALCH
+
+(From the N. Y. Tribune, April 14, 1913)
+
+
+Which was it: Cook or Peary? Who discovered the North Pole? Everybody
+thought the question had been settled long ago, but now comes an eminent
+geographer and explorer, who says, over his name, that both got to the
+"Big Nail," and that it was the Brooklyn doctor who did it first. And in
+defense of his belief he cites chapter and verse, and uses Peary's own
+story to prove that his hated rival it was who first stood at the top of
+the earth, "where every one of the cardinal points is South."
+
+The intrepid defender of Cook is Edwin Swift Balch, fellow of the
+Association for the Advancement of Science, member of the Wyoming
+Historical and Geological Society, the Franklin Institute, American
+Philosophical, American Geographical and Royal Geographical Societies,
+writer on arctic, antarctic geographical and ethnological topics for the
+learned societies of the world. Dr. Balch lives at No. 1412 Spruce
+street, Philadelphia, and the title of his book, just published by
+Campion & Co., of Philadelphia, is "The North Pole and Bradley Land."
+
+
+"ALL TRAVELLERS CALLED LIARS"
+
+"From time immemorial travellers have been called liars," says Mr. Balch
+in a chapter devoted to "travellers who were first doubted and afterward
+vindicated," and it is on this general assumption of their
+Munchausen-like proclivities that much of the weight of argument
+depends. But most of all the truthfulness of the doctor's assertion that
+on April 21, 1908, he and his two Eskimo boys, E-tuk-i-shook and
+Ah-we-lah, reached the goal and "were the only pulsating creatures in a
+dead world of ice," is shown by the fact that conditions reported by
+Cook as existing there were corroborated by Peary.
+
+"The man who breaks into the unknown may say what he chooses and present
+such astronomical observations as he sees fit," says Mr. Balch, "but his
+proof rests on his word. But if the next traveller corroborated the
+discoverer, instantly the first man's statements are immeasurably
+strengthened.
+
+"To solve such a problem as that of who discovered the North Pole, this
+comparative method seems to the writer the only one available. It is not
+a matter of belief, it is a matter of comparison and reasoning. It is
+not the evidence which Cook produces _which in itself alone could prove
+Cook's claims_. It is the geographical evidence offered by both Cook and
+Peary, which, when carefully compared, affords, in the writer's
+judgment, the only means of arriving at a conclusion. It is Peary's
+statements and observations which prove, as far as can be proved at
+present, Cook's statements."
+
+
+ALL DISCOVERERS FIRST DOUBTED
+
+The writer then mentions a score of the great discoverers and explorers
+of history who have been defamed and berated by their contemporaries,
+yet whose achievements have in time proved them to be truth tellers.
+Marco Polo, "greatest of mediaeval travellers, was generally
+discredited." Amerigo Vespucci "to this day remains under a cloud for
+things he did not do." Fernao Mendes Pinto, Nathaniel B. Palmer, Robert
+Johnson, James Weddell, von Drygalski, Nordenskjold, Bruce, Charcot, Dr.
+Krapf, Dr. Robmann, Du Chaillu, Stanley, Livingstone, Colter, all have
+been reviled as fabricators, yet all have been honored by those who came
+later, he says.
+
+"There are three records of Dr. Cook's journey of 1908," says the
+writer. "Cook's first announcement was a long cablegram sent from
+Lerwick, Shetland Islands, and published in the 'New York Herald' of
+September 2, 1909. The full original narrative was sent immediately
+after this and published in the 'New York Herald' between September 15
+and October 7, 1909, with the title 'The Conquest of the Pole.'
+
+"_Both of these were written and sent before Cook could, by any
+possibility, have seen or heard of any of the results of Peary's last
+expedition._
+
+The third record is Cook's book "My Attainment of the Pole," which is
+simply an enlargement on the earlier story.
+
+
+COOK MUST HAVE BEEN FIRST
+
+The point here emphasized is that Cook could not have had anything on
+which to base his description of conditions north of 83:20 north
+latitude, and as his description agreed with that later given by Peary,
+there could be no doubt that Cook was there first.
+
+"The reason for this is that these statements can be based on nothing
+but Cook's own observations," says Mr. Balch, "for Cook started for
+Denmark from South Greenland before Peary started for Labrador from
+North Greenland, and therefore everything Cook stated or wrote or
+published immediately after his arrival in Europe must be based on what
+Cook observed or experienced himself.
+
+"_Cook's original narrative stands on its own merits; it is the first
+and most vital proof of Cook's veracity, and yet it has passed almost
+unnoticed._
+
+The points on which the two accounts, Cook's and Peary's, of conditions
+at 90 degrees north agree most fundamentally, and hence most definitely
+establish the truthfulness of Cook, are first the "account of the land
+sighted in 84:20 north to 85:11 north (Bradley Land). The second is the
+glacial land ice in 87-88 degrees north. The third is the account of the
+discovery of the North Pole and the description of the ice at the North
+Pole."
+
+
+COOK'S THREE ACHIEVEMENTS
+
+Cook's first great discovery, the writer holds, was Bradley Land, named
+after his friend and backer. This land, Cook declared, had a great
+crevasse in it, making it appear like two islands, the southerly one
+starting at 84:20 north. Peary made no mention of land north of 83:20
+north.
+
+"Whether there is land or water in the intervening sixty geographical
+miles is a problem," says the writer, "but in order to be perfectly fair
+to both explorers and to allow for errors in observation one might split
+the difference at 83:50 north and consider that latitude as a dividing
+line between the lands discovered respectively by Cook and Peary."
+
+"The second important discovery of Cook's is the glacial land ice in 87
+north to 87 north-88 north," says the writer. "A closely similar
+occurrence was observed by Peary on his 1906 trip in about 86 north, 60
+west."
+
+But the most important particular in which the two men agree, in the
+mind of Mr. Balch, is in their description of the ice at the pole. Cook
+reported that it was "a smooth sheet of level ice." The writer adds: "if
+that description of the North Pole is accurate, the writing of it by
+Cook, first of all men, on the face of it is proof that Cook is the
+discoverer of the North Pole."
+
+
+THE SNOW WAS PURPLE
+
+But not only was the ice at the pole smooth and level, but the snow
+there was "purple" in the story of Cook, a detail in which he is again
+borne out by Peary.
+
+"Purple snow," says the writer, "is a linguistic expression, an attempt
+to suggest with words what Frank Wilbert Stokes has done with paints in
+his superb pictures of the polar regions. Hence," he says, "the use of
+the word 'purple' by Dr. Cook, who is not a trained artist, proves that
+he has the eye of an impressionist painter and that he is an extremely
+accurate observer of his surroundings....
+
+That Cook's description is accurate is in the next place certified to by
+Peary. Peary corroborates Cook absolutely about conditions enroute to
+the North Pole; and Cook is corroborated by Peary, not only by what
+Peary saw, but by what Peary did. If there was anything in the Western
+Arctic between the North Pole and 87:47 north but 'an endless field of
+purple snows,' smooth and slippery, Peary could not have covered the
+intervening 133 geographical miles in two days and a few hours. Peary,
+therefore, from observation and from actual physical performance proves
+that Cook's most important statement is true."
+
+The evidence is thus examined, step by step. The statements of the two
+men are compared, word by word, and this is the conclusion reached:
+
+"In view of all these facts it becomes certain that Cook must have
+written his description of the North Pole from his own observations, for
+until Cook actually traversed the Western Arctic between 88 degrees
+north and the North Pole, and told the world the facts, no one could
+have said whether in that area there was land or sea, nor have stated
+anything of the conditions of its ice, with its unusual, perhaps unique,
+flat surface.
+
+"But Cook, in his first cable dispatch, stated definitely and positively
+and finally that at the North Pole there was no land, but sea, frozen
+over into smooth ice, and Peary confirmed Cook's statements.
+
+"Cook was accurate, and the only possible inference is that Cook was
+accurate because Cook knew; and the further inevitable conclusion is
+that since Cook knew, Cook had been at the North Pole."
+
+(_Ed._) In personal letters Balch further says, "I have tried to look at
+it as if this were the year 2013, and all of us in heaven.... It is only
+a question of time till Dr. Cook is recognized as the discoverer of the
+North Pole."
+
+
+
+
+FOR A NATIONAL INVESTIGATION
+
+A REQUEST
+
+By DR. FREDERICK A. COOK
+
+
+For three years I have sought in various ways to bring about a National
+investigation of the relative merits of the Polar Attainment and the
+unjust propaganda of distrust which followed. Such an investigation
+would do no harm if the original work and the later criticism has been
+done in good faith. Why has it been refused? To take the ground that it
+is a private matter and that the Government has taken no official part
+in the Polar race is to assume a false position. The injustice of this
+evasive policy is brought out in my telegram to former President
+Taft--and again in my letter to President Wilson. To compel such an
+investigation and to appoint Arctic explorers as National experts has
+been my main mission on the platform. Much against my will I have been
+forced to adopt the usual political tactics of getting to the voters to
+force action by Congress and the official circles of Washington.
+
+When in 1911 the bill was introduced in Congress to retire Peary as a
+Rear Admiral with a pension, I supposed that this would automatically
+bring about a thorough scientific examination of the merits of the rival
+Polar claims. And such an investigation I then believed would surely
+bring about the only reward I have ever claimed--The appreciation of my
+fellow countrymen. It was however, as I learned later, a bold Pro-Peary
+movement fostered by lobbyists whose conscience was eased by drippings
+from the Hubbard-Bridgeman Arctic Trust, but I still believed that the
+dictates of National prestige were such that the usual white-washing and
+rail-roading process could not be adopted in a question of such
+International importance. I did not begrudge Mr. Peary a pension if
+honest methods were pursued to adjust the bitterly fought contention in
+the eyes of the world. My friends made no protest in Congress. As
+matters progressed, however, I saw that such men as Prof. Willis Moore
+and others of his kind--men I had previously trusted as honest, really
+proved themselves, double-faced, political back-scratchers. Then I
+changed my tactics. When one's honor is bartered by thieves under the
+guise of friends--and when these thieves are part of a government from
+which justice is expected--Then one is bound to uncover the leprous
+spots of one's accusers. I am glad to note that Prof. Moore, the
+President of the National Geographic Society, has since been exposed as
+being too crooked to fit into a berth of the present administration.
+There are others whose long fingers have been in the Polar-pie who will
+also meet their fate as time exposes their flat-heads.
+
+To call a halt on this National Humbug where only official chair-warmers
+and political crooks served as experts, I sent the following telegram to
+former President Taft:
+
+
+COPY OF TELEGRAM SENT TO FORMER PRESIDENT TAFT
+
+                                          Omaha, Neb., March 4, 1911
+  The President--The White House,
+                Washington, D. C.
+
+  When you sign the Peary bill you are honoring a man with sin-soiled
+  hands who has taken money from our innocent school children. A part of
+  this money I believe was used to make Arctic concubines comfortable. I
+  am ready to produce others of the same opinion. Thus for twenty years
+  while in the pay of the navy, supplied with luxuries from the public
+  purse, Peary has enjoyed, apparently with National consent, the
+  privilege denied the Mormons.
+
+  There are at least two children now in the cheerless north crying for
+  bread and milk and a father. These are growing witnesses of Peary's
+  leprous character. Will you endorse it?
+
+  By endorsing Peary you are upholding the cowardly verdict of Chester,
+  Tittman and Gannett, who bartered their souls to Peary's interests by
+  suppressing the worthlessness of the material upon which they passed.
+  These men on the Government pay-roll have stooped to a dishonor that
+  should make all fair-minded people blush with shame. This underhanded
+  performance calls for an investigation. Will you close these dark
+  chamber doings to the light of justice?
+
+  In this bill you are honoring one, who in seeking funds for legitimate
+  exploration, has passed the hat along the line of easy money for
+  twenty years. Much of this money was in my judgment used to promote a
+  lucrative fur and ivory trade, while the real effort of getting to the
+  pole was delayed seemingly for commercial gain. Thus engaged in a
+  propaganda of hypocrisy he stooped to immerality and dishonor and
+  ultimately when his game of fleecing the public was threatened, he
+  tried to kill a brother explorer. The stain of at least two other
+  lives is on this man. This bill covers a page in history against
+  which the spirits of murdered men cry for redress.
+
+  Peary is covered with the scabs of unmentionable indecency, and for
+  him your hand is about to put the seal of clean approval upon the
+  dirtiest campaign of bribery, conspiracy and black-dishonor that the
+  world has ever known.
+
+  If you can close your eyes to this, sign the Peary bill.
+
+                                          (Signed) FREDERICK A. COOK
+
+
+The telegram was received but not acknowledged--the Peary bill was
+signed. But the false assumption of Peary's "Discovery of the Pole" was
+eliminated from the bill. There is therefore no National endorsement of
+Peary; though he was given an evasive Old Age Pension which the
+newspapers quoted incorrectly as an official recognition of Peary's
+claim to polar priority.
+
+I now appeal to President Wilson and the present administration to make
+some official endeavor to clear our National emblem of the stain of the
+envious Polar contention. To that end I have written the following
+letter:
+
+
+AN APPEAL TO PRESIDENT WILSON
+
+(COPY OF A LETTER)
+
+                                                Chicago, May 1, 1913
+
+  Honored Sir:
+
+  I appeal to you to forward a movement which will adjust in the eyes
+  of the world the contention regarding the rival Polar claims. The
+  American Eagle has spread its wings of glory over the world's top. It
+  would seem to be a National duty to determine officially whether there
+  is room for one or two under those wings.
+
+  The graves of our worthy ancestors are marks in the ascent of the
+  ladder of latitudes. Hundreds of lives, millions of dollars, have been
+  sacrificed in the quest of the Pole. The success at last attained has
+  lifted the United States to the first ranks as a Nation of Scientific
+  Pioneers. Every true American has quivered with an extra thrill of
+  pride with the knowledge that the unknown boreal center has been
+  pierced and that the stars and stripes have been put to the virgin
+  breezes of the North Pole. The unjustified and ungracious controversy
+  which followed has wounded our National honor; it has left a stain
+  upon our flag. Is it not, therefore, our duty as a Nation to dispel
+  the cloud of contention resting over the glory of Polar attainment?
+
+  I have given twenty years to the life-sapping task of Polar
+  exploration--all without pay--all for the benefit of future man.
+  Returning--asking for nothing, expecting only brotherly appreciation
+  of my fellow countrymen, I am compelled to face an unjust battle of
+  political intrigues by men in the pay of the Government. My effort now
+  is not for money nor for a pension, but to defend my honor and that of
+  my family. The future of my children demands an exposition of the
+  unfair methods of the arm-chair geographers in Washington. However,
+  I do not ask the administration to defend me or my posterity, but do
+  ask that the men who draw a salary from the National treasury be made
+  answerable for a propaganda of character assassination, among these
+  is Prof. Willis Moore and others of the so-called National Geographic
+  Society.
+
+  The National Geographic Society with Prof. Moore as President is
+  responsible for the false interpretation of the rival Polar claims.
+  This society is a private organization used mostly for political
+  purposes; for two dollars per year a college professor or a
+  street-sweeper becomes with equal facility a "national geographer."
+  It is, therefore, not "national" nor "geographic," and when this
+  society poses as a scientific body, it is an imposition upon American
+  intelligence, and yet it is this society, with the well-known
+  political trickery of Prof. Moore, which has attempted to decide for
+  the world the merits of Polar attainment. An investigation of the
+  wrong doings of this society will quickly bring to light the
+  injustice of the Polar controversy.
+
+  A commission of Polar explorers appointed by National authority will
+  end for all times the problem of the rival Polar claims. There is an
+  abundance of material on both sides by which such a commission could
+  come to a reasonable conclusion. The general impression that the Polar
+  contention has been scientifically determined is not true. There has
+  been no real investigation into either claim. Such an investigation
+  could only be made by Arctic explorers, and to bring about this end I
+  would suggest the appointment of an International Commission of such
+  men as General A. W. Greely, U. S. A., Captain Otto Sverdrup of Norway
+  and Professor Georges Lecointe of Belgium. Their decision would be
+  accepted everywhere. Greely and Sverdrup have each spent four years in
+  the very region under discussion, and Lecointe is the Secretary of the
+  International Bureau for Polar Research and also director of the Royal
+  Observatory of Belgium. Such men will render a decision free from
+  personal bias, free from National prejudice and their verdict will be
+  accepted by the Nations of the world.
+
+  Though I am an interested party I insist that my appeal is not
+  altogether a personal one. In the interest of that deep-seated
+  American sense of fair play, in the interest of National honor, in
+  the interest of the glory of our flag, it would seem to be a National
+  duty to have the distrust of the Polar attainment cleared by an
+  International commission.
+
+                                 Respectfully submitted,
+                                          (Signed) FREDERICK A. COOK
+  To the President,
+    The White House,
+      Washington, D. C.
+
+Thousands of requests similar to those reproduced below have gone to
+various officials in Washington. Such appeals demand action.
+
+                                                Chicago, May 7, 1913
+  Mr. Josephus Daniels, Secretary of the Navy,
+                Washington, D. C.
+
+  Dear Sir:
+
+  Rear Admiral Peary wears the stripes of the Navy, he is drawing
+  a pension of $6,000.00 per year from the tax-payers--The National
+  dictates of honor compel such a man to be clean morally--honest
+  and upright officially. Dr. Cook has publicly made charges against
+  Peary which relegate this Naval Officer to the rank of a common
+  thief and degenerate. In his book, "My Attainment of the Pole,"
+  (Mitchell-Kennedy, N. Y.) there are specific charges made which call
+  for an investigation. These charges have remained unanswered for
+  three years--Why?
+
+  In the Polar controversy the flag has been dragged through muck, and
+  this dishonor seems to rest upon a man for whose actions you are
+  responsible.
+
+  The American people have a right to demand an investigation into the
+  intrigue of the Peary Polar Propaganda, and as one believing in
+  justice at the bar of public opinion, I ask that you take steps to
+  clear this cloud in the eyes of the world.
+
+                                  Respectfully,
+                                            FRED HIGH
+                                      Editor of _The Platform_,
+                                   The Lyceum and Chautauqua Magazine,
+                                                 Steinway Hall, Chicago.
+
+
+                                              Chicago, May 22, 1913.
+  To Congressman James R. Mann,
+                Washington, D. C.
+
+  Dear Sir:
+
+  The conquest of the North Pole has lifted the United States to a first
+  position as a Nation of scientific pioneers. The controversy which
+  followed is a blot on our flag and it is a slur at our National honor.
+  From the Government purse and from private resources we have spent
+  millions to reach the top of the earth; it would appear therefore to
+  be our duty as a Nation to adjust the Polar contention in the eyes of
+  the world.
+
+  If Dr. Cook has reached the Pole, a year earlier than Peary, as most
+  Arctic explorers believe, then the seeming endorsement and the pension
+  of the Naval officer is an injustice to Dr. Cook and an imposition on
+  the public; if both have reached the Pole then there should be a
+  suitable recognition and reward extended to each. As one of thousands
+  of American citizens, I beg of you to forward a movement which will
+  bring about a National investigation into this problem, with a
+  suitable provision for a proper recognition.
+
+                                  Respectfully,
+                                CHARLES W. FERGUSON,
+                                                  Pres.,
+                              The Chautauqua Managers Association,
+                                               Orchestra Bldg., Chicago.
+
+
+
+
+CAN THE GOVERNMENT ESCAPE THE RESPONSIBILITY?
+
+BY FRED HIGH
+
+
+While the Danes were royally entertaining Dr. Cook on September 4th,
+1909, telegrams were being showered upon him by all the world. The King
+of Sweden sent this message:
+
+"A BRILLIANT DEED, OF WHICH THE AMERICAN PEOPLE MAY RIGHTLY BE PROUD."
+
+The American minister to Denmark made Dr. Cook's visit state business
+and joined in the effort to share Cook's honors. Dr. Cook paused in the
+midst of all this splendor to cable the following message to our
+President:
+
+                                          Copenhagen, Sept. 4, 1909.
+  President,
+    The White House, Washington.
+
+  I have the honor to report to the chief magistrate of the United
+  States that I have returned, having reached the North Pole."
+
+To which President Taft cabled the following reply:
+
+                                      Beverly, Mass., Sept. 4, 1909.
+  Frederick A. Cook,
+    Copenhagen, Denmark.
+
+  Your dispatch received. Your report that you have reached the North
+  Pole calls for my heartiest congratulations, and stirs the pride of
+  all Americans that this feat which has so long baffled the world has
+  been accomplished by the intelligent energy and wonderful endurance
+  of a fellow countryman."
+                                                    WILLIAM H. TAFT.
+
+Was President Taft speaking for the American people when he called Dr.
+Cook's achievement the pride of all Americans? Were we ready to share
+Cook's joys? Share his honors? If so, then in all fairness, should we
+not share in his trials and tribulations? Are we like the crazy base
+ball fan who cheers a pitching hero when he wins and insults him with
+all kinds of vile epithets when he loses?
+
+For one I shared in that thrill of pride and was glad to know that I
+had had dealings with Dr. Cook before he went in search of the Pole,
+consequently, I felt in honor bound to withhold any hasty criticisms
+that I might feel tempted to hurl at Dr. Cook. All who joined in his
+praises should insist upon it that he be given a chance to disprove
+every charge that has been brought against him, that he be given a
+chance to explain his every act before we join in the cry to crucify
+him. "Crucify him, or give us the most contemptible coward, moral leper
+and political crook that has lived in our time," if Dr. Cook's charges
+are true.
+
+Believing that this is a matter that ought to be fairly settled by
+competent and orderly methods, I have written to several congressmen and
+senators, and the following correspondence speaks for itself:
+
+                                     Chicago, Illinois, May 7, 1913.
+  Hon. Wooda N. Carr,
+    Washington, D. C.
+
+  Dear Sir:
+
+  I wish to ask a personal favor of you, one that I think the public is
+  interested in and one that I think the world ought to know more about.
+  It is the Cook-Peary controversy. I have given this considerable
+  thought and study. I have heard Dr. Cook lecture a number of times and
+  have talked to him personally and tried to find out from every angle
+  the facts as to whether or not his story is true. So far I have been
+  unable to find a flaw in any of his statements, and Mr. Peary by his
+  actions has given every evidence that Dr. Cook is telling the truth.
+  Therefore, as a citizen who is interested in the larger affairs of
+  this country, and as the editor of The Platform, which is devoted to
+  the Lyceum and Chautauqua movement, I am asking whether or not it
+  would be compatible with fair play and our sense of justice and real
+  national dignity to take this controversy out of the hands of
+  individuals and settle it by an official tribunal, or by a commission
+  of arctic explorers.
+
+  I shall be very glad, indeed, if you will inform me of what steps
+  could best be taken to bring about the settlement of this controversy.
+  If there are any authoritative facts developed along this line, I will
+  be glad to know where to locate them as my sole object is to learn the
+  truth.
+
+  Under separate cover I am sending you copy of The Platform which
+  contains Doctor Cook's letter to President Wilson, which I hope you
+  will read.
+                                           Yours very truly,
+                                                 (Signed) FRED HIGH.
+
+
+                                 House of Representatives, U. S.
+                                    Washington, D. C., May 13, 1913.
+  Mr. Fred High,
+    602 Steinway Hall,
+      Chicago, Ill.
+
+  Dear Sir:
+
+  Your letter of the 7th inst., regarding the Cook-Peary controversy,
+  received. I do not think it would be possible to get Congress to
+  interfere in this matter. It is a question of little concern to many
+  who discovered the Pole, or whether it was discovered at all. It seems
+  to be a personal matter, the settlement of which should be determined
+  by the persons interested.
+                                          Very truly yours,
+                                             (Signed) WOODA N. CARR.
+
+Is it a matter of no concern whether or not the North Pole has been
+discovered? Is it a matter of no concern whether a man can fake a story
+about having discovered the North Pole, receive the homage of the world,
+fleece the American public out of thousands of dollars for fees to hear
+his lecture and go unpunished? If Dr. Cook has hoaxed the world as so
+many have charged him with having done, this is more than a private
+matter.
+
+If Dr. Cook has discovered the North Pole, are we acting the part of
+fellow countrymen by shirking our duty? Shall Congress say that the
+clique at Washington either make good its charges against Dr. Cook, or
+be made to retract and stand disgraced in the eyes of the world? We
+shared Cook's honors. Will we shirk when he calls upon his countrymen
+for a square deal?
+
+The following letter was received from Senator Miles Poindexter and
+should be carefully studied:
+
+United States Senate, Committee on Expenditures in the War Department.
+
+                                      Washington, D. C. May 9, 1913.
+  Mr. Fred High, Editor,
+    The Platform, 602 Steinway Hall,
+      64 E. Van Buren St.,
+        Chicago, Illinois.
+
+  My dear Mr. High:
+
+  I have yours of 7th inst., and was very much pleased to know that you
+  are interested in securing a fair examination, officially if possible,
+  into Dr. Cook's claims of discovery.
+
+  Ever since the Cook-Peary controversy began, I have paid more or less
+  close attention to the questions involved therein. I have talked with
+  a number of residents around the neighborhood of Mt. McKinley, Alaska,
+  some of whom are friendly and some unfriendly to Dr. Cook; have read
+  with great care Dr. Cook's book describing his polar expedition; and
+  have followed through the newspapers and otherwise the various phases
+  of the controversy and happenings in connection therewith. As a
+  lawyer, I have always been especially interested in the study of the
+  credibility of witnesses, the weight of evidence; and in deducing
+  logical conclusions therefrom. From the careful consideration of the
+  comparative character of the witnesses for and against Dr. Cook, their
+  motives, and the attitude and hearing throughout the controversy of
+  Cook and Peary themselves, I have a very fixed and firm conviction
+  that Dr. Cook's story is true. I believe the majority of the people of
+  the country who are interested in the subject are of the same opinion.
+
+  From my observation of the miserable petty cliques and factional
+  squabbles in official circles of the Government, such for instance
+  as the Sampson-Schley controversy and innumerable smaller disputes,
+  I have long ago ceased to accept, as necessarily correct, official
+  evidence merely because it is official.
+
+  I have not yet seen a copy of The Platform containing Dr. Cook's
+  letter to President Wilson which you say you are forwarding me under
+  separate cover, and when received will read it with much interest.
+  Not having read it, I do not know just what plan Dr. Cook proposes for
+  an official investigation. I will be glad however, to learn the basis
+  upon which it is proposed to make the test an official investigation.
+  It occurs to me that it is entirely a private matter and that the
+  Government officially has nothing to do with it. Every man has as much
+  right as any other man to form a conclusion in the case; public
+  opinion, if the facts can be presented to the public, is the best
+  judgment. I would be apprehensive of submitting the absolute
+  determination of the question to an official tribunal for the reasons,
+  among others, which I have mentioned above. However, will be glad to
+  learn further as stated of the proposal.
+
+  With kind regards.
+                                      Very truly yours,
+                                          (Signed) MILES POINDEXTER.
+
+Senator Poindexter's letter is a stricture on official Washington that
+ought to cause every true patriot to blush with shame. Are we at the
+point where even an impartial investigation can not be had into the
+controversy as to who discovered the North Pole?
+
+There are thousands who believe this is a question that touches our
+national honor and therefore is a rightful subject for a Congressional
+Investigation. Those who believe this, ought to write to their
+representatives at Washington and urge such action as will lay the
+facts before the world.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The following letter from Hon. Champ Clark is worthy of much
+consideration as it reveals the real status of this controversy as it
+exists in official circles.
+
+Dr. Cook is a private citizen with no Cook Arctic club to back him and
+share his gains. No National Geographical Society helped to finance his
+venture with the hope of managing his lectures as a sort of bureau
+graft. He is a private citizen.
+
+Speaker Clark's letter furnishes us with the reason for asking Congress
+to take a hand in this affair for it shows how ready our statesmen are
+to give ear when the people speak:
+
+  THE SPEAKER'S ROOM
+  HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
+
+  WASHINGTON, D. C.
+
+                                                       May 10, 1913.
+  Mr. Fred High,
+    Editor of The Platform,
+      Chicago, Illinois.
+
+  My dear Mr. High:
+
+  I have your letter touching the Cook-Peary controversy. I note what
+  you say. I do not see clearly what it is that you are suggesting. That
+  is, whether you want Congress to formulate some plan to determine the
+  matter by appointing a commission of Arctic explorers, or exactly what
+  it is that you do want.
+
+  Of course, I do not know very much about Arctic explorations and do
+  not set a very high store on them as I never could understand what
+  sort of good would come of locating the North Pole. I am a good deal
+  of a utilitarian, and am a disciple of the Baconian philosophy rather
+  than of the philosophy of Aristotle and the Greek school. To tell the
+  truth, I have always had a hazy sort of an idea that both Cook and
+  Peary discovered the North Pole. I have not valued my opinion highly
+  enough to undertake to exploit it or to induce anybody else to believe
+  it as I have enough other matters on hand to employ the time and
+  attention of one man.
+
+  Wishing you success, I am
+                                            Your friend,
+                                                (Signed) CHAMP CLARK
+
+The following opinion of the men on the Chautauqua platform is
+attributed to our good friend from Missouri:
+
+    "The Chautauqua has been a powerful force in directing the political
+    thought of the country, which is largely sociological in these
+    latter days. I approve the Chautauqua lecturers, with whom I have
+    been associated, because they constitute as fine a group of men and
+    women as can be found among the splendid citizenship of America. I
+    have a deep and abiding interest in them, and bid them a hearty
+    godspeed in their work."
+
+Dr. Cook is perhaps the leading Chautauqua lecturer of the present
+season. He is now booked to appear at seventy Chautauquas this Summer
+and it is certain that even the genial Speaker of the House wouldn't
+want to associate with a man who would hoax the world for gain.
+Certainly he wouldn't want "The greatest liar of the Century" to be one
+of the powerful forces directing the political thoughts of the Century.
+If Dr. Cook discovered the North Pole he should be given the credit for
+that great achievement.
+
+We certainly have a right to see to it that neither Dr. Cook nor Mr.
+Peary are treated as though they were the scum of the earth. Dr. Cook
+has brought charges against Mr. Peary as a Naval officer. He still
+brings these charges, and he should be made to prove them. Peary, an
+officer of the Navy, has brought charges against Cook and he should be
+made to prove them.
+
+Mr. Peary is an officer of our navy, drawing an old age pension. His
+position is such that he cannot ignore Dr. Cook's open charges. He is
+honor bound to protect the good name of this great country by asking an
+investigation of these charges. To remain silent, is to stand to be
+branded as the arch-degenerate of our day. Don't forget it was he who
+opened up the mud batteries and caused this undignified controversy.
+
+No honorable man can allow such open charges of gross immorality as Dr.
+Cook preferred against Mr. Peary in his telegram to President Taft.
+These have been printed in magazines and newspapers as well as appearing
+in Dr. Cook's books, now in the sixtieth thousand edition.
+
+Here in Illinois press stories of improper conduct implicating
+Lieutenant-Governor Barrett O'Hara were circulated and he immediately
+asked the state legislature to investigate them. The legislature
+appointed a committee that took testimony and reported these stories
+were groundless and false.
+
+Is a retired Admiral less important in the eyes of the world than the
+Lieutenant-Governor of Illinois, or has the "old tar" taken an immunity
+bath?
+
+Are we any farther along than were those who put Columbus in chains and
+stoned the Prophets and nailed the Christ to the Cross? Are we so
+engrossed in the material things that all questions of honor are of no
+concern to us?
+
+It is true that the bar of public opinion is the court of last resort in
+a real democracy, but it is equally true that it is essential to see
+that the source of public opinion be not polluted. Should our school
+children be taught that Peary discovered the Pole if Dr. Cook was there
+first?
+
+Senator Robert M. LaFollette says: "You can't buy, you can't subsidize
+the Lyceum. At least, it never has been done. The Press has been
+subsidized. Papers and magazines which were printing the bad records of
+public officials and political parties have, in many instances, been
+forced out of the field or silenced. Special privilege organized as a
+System has its own press.
+
+But the Lyceum platform is free. Really, I sometimes think that, from
+the days of Wendell Phillips to now, the Lyceum has pretty nearly been
+the salvation of the country."
+
+The Lyceum and the Chautauqua have given Dr. Cook a fair hearing, and it
+is now a matter of National pride that when the press was silent or
+hostile, Congress indifferent, the Chautauqua, the one distinctively
+American institution, gave him an honest, impartial hearing.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I write as I do because, being the editor of The Lyceum and Chautauqua
+Magazine, I have tried to give Dr. Cook the same opportunity to present
+his case as I would expect him to do by me were I in his place and he in
+mine.
+
+AFTER YOU HAVE READ THIS BOOK KINDLY WRITE YOUR CONGRESSMAN CALLING FOR
+AN INVESTIGATION.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+  Acpohon, Trail Along, 183;
+    "The Land of Guillemots," 191
+
+  Acponie Island, 50
+
+  Adams, Captain, 458;
+    Peary Suppressed Letter Presented by, 459, 487, 489
+
+  Advance Bay, 106
+
+  Ah-tah, Turns Away Ma-nee, 58
+
+  Ah-we-lah, Told Bartlett That Observations Were Made, 13, 189;
+    Chosen for Dash to Pole, 196;
+    Sure of Nearness of Land, 225, 230, 269, 270, 284, 293, 307, 327,
+          335;
+    Prevents Boat From Sinking, 366, 385, 399;
+    Recounts Remarkable Journey to the Pole, 452
+
+  Ahwynet, 96
+
+  Alaskan Wilds, 29
+
+  Alexander, Cape, 65, 117, 122, 152
+
+  Al-leek-ah, 95
+
+  American Legation, 469
+
+  Amund Ringnes Land, 329
+
+  Anderson, Mr., 460
+
+  Annoatok, 25;
+    Supplies Stored at, 30;
+    Started for, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71;
+    First Day at, 75;
+    Erected a House of Packing Boxes at, 76, 79, 83, 84, 85, 104, 110,
+          117, 152, 157, 194, 195, 226, 312, 336, 379, 437, 442, 443,
+          447, 451, 456
+
+  Antarctic Exploration, 28
+
+  Arctic, Bradley, Expedition, 24, 27
+
+  Arctic Circle Crossed, 34
+
+  Armbruster, Professor W. F., Defense of Dr. Cook by, 490
+
+  Armour of Chicago, Food Supplies by, 135
+
+  Arthur Land, 191
+
+  Ashton, J. M., 526, 530
+
+  Astrup, Eivind, Death of, 38, 511, 515, 560
+
+  Atholl, Cape, Sailed Around, 46
+
+  Auckland, Cape, 60
+
+  Auks, 62
+
+  Auroras, 112
+
+  Axel Heiberg Land, 193, 194, 201, 212, 246, 327, 329, 333
+
+
+  Bache Peninsula, Headed for, 158, 435
+
+  Baffin's Bay, 362
+
+  Baldwin, Captain Evelyn B., 135, 540, 564
+
+  Baldwin-Zeigler, Cache of Supplies Left by, 203
+
+  Bancroft Bay, 103
+
+  Bangor, 483
+
+  Barrill Affidavit, 13, 14, 522, 523, 524
+
+  Bartlett, Capt. Robt. A., Learns from Eskimos That Observations Were
+          Made, 13;
+    Assisted Peary in His Lies, 485, 558, 560, 562.
+
+  Bathurst Land, 337
+
+  Battle Harbor, Arrival at, 31;
+    Questions Prepared by Peary at, 483, 489, 557
+
+  Bay, Baffin's, 362;
+    Bancroft, 103;
+    Braebugten, 358, 377;
+    Buchanan, 77;
+    Cannon, 162;
+    Dallas, 103, 104;
+    Flagler, 154, 161, 168;
+    Melville, 38;
+    Entered, 39, 42, 44, 45;
+    North Star, 46;
+    Anchored in, 50, 462;
+    Olrick's, 59, 63;
+    Pioneer, 314;
+    Robertson, 63;
+    Sontag, 451
+
+  Bay Fiord, Overland to, 162, 168
+
+  Bear Hunting, 177, 184, 189, 432
+
+  Belcher Point, Passed, 361, 362
+
+  Belgian Antarctic Expedition, 28, 497
+
+  Belle Isle, Straits of, Entering, 31
+
+  Bennett, James Gordon, Cable to, 464, 465;
+    Selling Narrative Story to, 491, 492, 493
+
+  Bernier, Captain, 448, 516
+
+  Berri, Herbert, 502
+
+  Berry, Robert M., 478
+
+  "Big Lead," Peary's Eskimos Become Panic-Stricken at, 11;
+    Dr. Cook Reaches the Shores of, 217;
+    Crossing the, 221, 222, 224, 250
+
+  "Big Nail," 85, 243
+
+  Blethen, J., 527
+
+  Bonsall Island, 106
+
+  Booth Sound, 453
+
+  Borup, George, 485, 486
+
+  Bradley, John R., Compact Made for Expedition, 24;
+    Expedition, 29;
+    Join Party, 31;
+    Called to Action, 51;
+    Assumed Direction, 53;
+    Shoots Duck, 54, 537
+
+  "_Bradley, John R._," S. S., Sailed July 3, 1907, 23;
+    Going Northward, 28;
+    Aboard the, 30;
+    Sailing Qualities of the, 31
+
+  Bradley Land, 246, 249;
+    Positive Proof of, 251
+
+  Braebugten Bay, 358, 377
+
+  Breton, Cape, 30
+
+  Bridgeford, 527
+
+  Bridgman, Herbert L., Kitchen Explorer, 13, 77, 78, 502, 529, 557
+
+  Bridges, Thomas, Yahgan Dictionary, 497, 498
+
+  Brooklyn Dairy Business, 27
+
+  Brooke's Island, 106
+
+  Brown, Belmore, 524
+
+  Buchanan Bay, 77
+
+  Bushwick Club, 481
+
+
+  Cairn Point, Passed, 68
+
+  Camped for the Winter, 393
+
+  Cannon Bay, 162
+
+  Cannon Fiord, 203
+
+  Cape Alexander, Passed, 65, 117, 122, 152;
+    Athol, Sailed Around, 46;
+    Auckland, 60;
+    Breton, 30;
+    Clarence, 429;
+    Faraday, 429, 430;
+    Hatherton, 167;
+    Inglefield, 68;
+    Isabella, 428;
+    Louis Napoleon, 435;
+    Paget, 428;
+    Parry, 59;
+    Robertson, Proceeded to, 61, 62;
+    Rutherford, 159;
+    Sabine, Note Left at, 149, 150, 154, 157, 158, 161, 336, 426, 431;
+    Tragedies of, 433, 434;
+    Seiper, 103;
+    Sheridan, 78;
+    Sparbo, 344, 355, 357, 363, 364, 377, 378, 413, 497;
+    Tennyson, 427, 428, 429;
+    "Thomas Hubbard," 201;
+    Veile, 154, 161;
+    Vera, 343, 352, 353;
+    York, 44, 454, 455
+
+  Cardigan Strait, 350
+
+  Caribou Hunting, 109
+
+  Chester, Rear-Admiral, 502, 543, 544
+
+  Christiansaand, 476
+
+  Clarence, Cape, 429
+
+  Coast and Geodetic Survey, 488
+
+  Coburg Island, 428
+
+  Cold, Director, 477
+
+  Columbus, Christopher, 7
+
+  Conger, Fort, Party Left by Peary to Die of Cold and Hunger at, 454
+
+  Congress, Investigation of, Admission of Peary Witnesses in, 15, 18,
+          547
+
+  Contracts, Book, 494
+
+  Controversy, Polar, 5
+
+  Cook, Mrs., 478
+
+  Copenhagen, 12, 15, 244, 465, 466, 476, 479, 482, 494, 497, 538, 539,
+          540, 549, 550, 551, 557, 563
+
+  Copenhagen, University of, 549, 562
+
+  Cornell University, 485
+
+  Crocker Land, 226, 490, 559
+
+  Crown Prince Gustav Sea, 329, 336
+
+  Crystal Palace Glacier, 451
+
+
+  Dahl, Charles, 456
+
+  Dallas Bay, 103, 104
+
+  Danes, Hospitality of the, 515
+
+  Danish Literary Expedition, 453, 515
+
+  Davis Straits, Entered, 31
+
+  Dedrick, Dr., Harshly Treated by Peary, 434, 454, 515
+
+  De Gerlache, 134
+
+  "Devil's Thumb," 456
+
+  Dial Shadow, at the Pole, 308
+
+  Disco, Island of, Sighted, 34
+
+  Dundas Island, 337
+
+  Dunkle, Faked Observations of, 15, 535;
+    Introduced to, 536, 537, 538, 539, 540, 563
+
+  Dunkle-Loose Forgery, Explanation of, 355
+
+
+  Egan, Dr., 465, 469, 470, 494
+
+  Eggedesminde, 462;
+    First Banquet in Honor of Discovery of the Pole at, 463, 466
+
+  Eidsbotn, Descended to, 343
+
+  Ellef Ringnes Land, 329
+
+  Ellesmere Land, 71;
+    the Promised Land, 101, 191, 344
+
+  Elsinore, 466
+
+  Endor, 2
+
+  Equipment, Examination of, 149
+
+  Eric the Red, 33
+
+  "_Erik_," S. S., Peary Supply Ship, 443, 449, 451, 515
+
+  Eskimos, Delusions of, 11;
+    Testimony of, 12, 34;
+    Married Life Among the, 48;
+    Tents, 49;
+    Bargaining, 49;
+    Study of Walrus Habits, 52;
+    Customs Pertaining to Children, 54;
+    Romance, 55;
+    Have No Salutation, 61;
+    Equality of Children and Dogs to the, 63;
+    Prosperity Measured by the Number of Dogs, 68;
+    Engaged in Request of Reserve Supplies, 85;
+    Making Clothes, 90;
+    Gloom When the Long Night Begins, 92;
+    Mourning for the Dead, 95;
+    Dancing, 97;
+    Joy in Killing a Bear, 108;
+    Christmas Festivities, 137;
+    Ice Cream, 137;
+    the Coming of the Stork to the, 142;
+    Love for Children, 145;
+    Belief in Shadows, 180;
+    Show Anxiety, 206;
+    Questioned by Peary, 206;
+    Comedies and Tragedies of the, 322;
+    Weird Customs of the, 399;
+    Describe Trip to Pole, 452;
+    Hostility to Peary, 454;
+    Put Through the Third Degree by Peary, 488;
+    Put on Board Peary's Ship Against their Will, 514
+
+  Etah, 13;
+    Steered for, 64;
+    Landing Difficult at, 69, 70;
+    Eskimos Return to, 206, 312, 448, 449, 451, 558
+
+  E-tuk-i-shook, 12;
+    Told Bartlett That Observations Were Made, 13;
+    Sights Bears, 183;
+    Chosen for Dash to Pole, 196, 293;
+    Sure of Nearness to Land, 225, 230, 270, 279, 284, 293, 307, 327,
+          335;
+    Kills a Walrus, 373, 381;
+    Secures a Hare, 384;
+    An Adept With a Sling Shot, 399;
+    Recounts Remarkable Journey to the Pole, 452.
+
+  Eureka Sound, Reached, 102, 183, 192
+
+  Explorers' Club, 529
+
+
+  Faraday, Cape, 429, 430
+
+  Faroe Islands, 464
+
+  Fenker, Governor, 36
+
+  Fiala, Anthony, 478, 536
+
+  Fiord Umanak, Reached, 38;
+    Bay, Overland to, 162, 168;
+    Snag's, 193;
+    Cannon, 203;
+    Musk Ox, 343;
+    Talbot's, 429
+
+  Floundering in the Open Sea, 231
+
+  Flagler Bay, Advance Supplies Sent to, 154, 161, 168
+
+  Foulke Fiord, Entered, 66
+
+  Fox, Arctic, 398
+
+  Francke, Rudolph, 25;
+    Selected as Companion to Dr. Cook, 72, 73, 79;
+    Hunting, 89, 90;
+    Meat Gathered and Dried in Strips by, 114;
+    Prepared a Feast, 147, 148;
+    Asked to Join Party, 153, 155;
+    Remained in Charge of Supplies at Annoatok, 204;
+    in Starving Condition Refused Bread and Coffee by Peary, 442;
+    Compelled by Peary to Turn Over Furs and Ivory, 443, 517
+
+  Franklin Bay Expedition, Lady, 158
+
+  Fridtjof Nansen Sound, 315, 327
+
+
+  Game, Captured, 100
+
+  Gannett, Henry, 544
+
+  "Gates of Hades," 66
+
+  Gilder, Richard Watson, 112
+
+  Glacier, Crystal Palace, 451;
+    Humboldt, 45, 100, 106, 109;
+    Petowik, Sighted, 45
+
+  Gloucester, 23
+
+  "_Godthaab_," S. S., Supply Ship, 461
+
+  Godhaven, Sheltered in, 36, 37
+
+  Goggles, Amber-Colored, Used to Protect the Eyes, 226
+
+  "Gold Brick," Slurs, 39
+
+  Gore, Professor, 540, 563
+
+  Gramatan Inn, 535
+
+  Grand Republic, 479, 480
+
+  Grant Land, 191, 212, 214, 215, 226
+
+  Great Iron Stone, 513
+
+  Greely Expedition, Camp of, 158;
+    Peary Throws Discredit Upon the, 433, 515
+
+  Greely, General A. W., 168, 544, 560
+
+  Greely River, 168
+
+  Greenland, Steered for, 31;
+    Interior, 32, 37, 45, 62, 69, 79, 117, 364, 408, 433, 436, 489, 497
+
+  Grinnell Land, 191
+
+  Grinnell Peninsula, 337, 342
+
+  Grosvenor, Gilbert, 543, 544
+
+  Gulf, Inglefield, 46, 59;
+    Crossing, 60, 453;
+    of St. Lawrence, Sailed Over, 31
+
+  Gum Drop Story, Explanation of, 30
+
+
+  Hague Tribunal, The, 441
+
+  Hampton, Benjamin, 546, 553
+
+  Hampton's Magazine, 546, 552, 553
+
+  "_Hans Egede_," S. S., Sailed on, 464, 466, 467
+
+  Hansen, Dr. Norman, 462
+
+  Hares, Arctic, 67, 163
+
+  Harry, T. Everett, 552, 554
+
+  Hassel Sound, 329, 334
+
+  Hatherton, Cape, 67
+
+  Hayes, Dr., 66, 222
+
+  Hearst, W. R., Offer From, 491
+
+  Hell Gate, 348;
+    Drifting Towards, 350, 353
+
+  Henson, Matthew, Statement of, 506, 559
+
+  Holland House, Compact Made at, 24
+
+  Holsteinborg, 32
+
+  "_Hope_," S. S., 513
+
+  Hovgaard, Commander, 468, 472
+
+  "Hubbard, Cape Thomas," 201, 489
+
+  Hubbard, General Thomas, 528, 558
+
+  Humboldt Glacier, 45, 100, 106, 109
+
+  Hunting, Caribou, 109;
+    Bear, 177, 184, 189, 432;
+    Hare, 67, 89, 163;
+    Musk Ox, 171, 184, 378-392;
+    Narwhal, 87;
+    Walrus, 54, 64, 367-373;
+    In the Moonlight, 114-129
+
+
+  Icarus, 43
+
+  Ice, Explosion of, 124
+
+  Iceberg, Adrift on an, 346
+
+  Iceland, 464
+
+  Igloo, Building an, 166
+
+  Ik-wa, the Cruelty of, 55, 56, 57
+
+  Inglefield, Cape, 68
+
+  Inglefield, Gulf, 46, 59;
+    Crossing, 60, 453
+
+  Instruments, Carried on Journey to Pole, 198;
+    Left With Whitney, 450;
+    Buried, 499
+
+  Investigation of Peary's So-Called Proofs, 544, 545
+
+  Isabella Cape, 428
+
+  Island, Bonsall, 106;
+    Brook's, 106;
+    Coburg, 428;
+    Disco, 34, 50;
+    Littleton, Passing Inside of, 67;
+    Dundas, 337;
+    Faroe, 464;
+    North Cornwall, 336;
+    Saunders, 54;
+    Schei, 185;
+    Shannon, 203;
+    Shelton, 478;
+    Weyprecht, 159
+
+  Itiblu, Near, 59, 453
+
+
+  Jensen, Inspector Dougaard, 461, 463, 464, 497
+
+  Jesup, Mrs. Morris K., 514
+
+  Jones Sound, 324, 342, 383, 396, 406, 426
+
+
+  Kraul, Governor, 457, 458, 459, 460, 461, 497
+
+  Kane Basin, 66, 101
+
+  Kane, Dr., 66
+
+  Kanga, 59
+
+  Karnah, 60
+
+  Kennedy Channel, 66
+
+  King Christian Land, 336
+
+  "King's Guest House," Only Hotel in Greenland, 462
+
+  "_Kite_," S. S., 511
+
+  Kookaan, 63
+
+  Koo-loo-ting-wah, Leading Man, 101, 105, 108, 109, 184;
+    Took Instructions to Francke, 204;
+    Paid by Peary to Abandon Supplies, 448
+
+  Ky-un-a, the Death of, 127
+
+
+  Labrador, 9, 31, 463, 484, 557
+
+  Lancaster Sound, 192, 336, 342, 425
+
+  Lands-Lokk, 195
+
+  Lerwick, Sent First Cable to New York From, 464
+
+  Lonsdale, 477, 494, 537
+
+  Loose, 15;
+    Faked Observations, 535, 537, 538, 539, 540, 563
+
+  Louis Napoleon, Cape, 435
+
+  Lifeboat Cove, Searched for Relics Along, 67
+
+  Lincoln Land, 191
+
+  Lincoln Sea, 214
+
+  Littleton Island, Passing Inside of, 67
+
+
+  MacDonald, J. A., Describes the Mt. McKinley Ascent, 531, 532, 533
+
+  McLaughlin, A. J., 563
+
+  Ma-nee, the Romance of, 55, 56, 57
+
+  Mann, Colonel, 13, 529
+
+  Marshal, Colonel, 527
+
+  Marvin, Ross, the Suspicious Death of, 485;
+    Letters Suppressed, 488
+
+  _Matin_, Paris, offer $50,000, 494
+
+  McMillan, Makes False Statements, 484
+
+  "_Melchior_," S. S., 476
+
+  Melville, Admiral, 502
+
+  Melville Bay, 38;
+    Entered, 39, 42, 44, 45, 455
+
+  Meteorite, "Star Stone," Stolen by Peary, 435, 454, 512
+
+  _Mirror_, St. Louis, the Only Paper to Grant Space to Uncover the
+          Unfair Methods of the Pro-Peary Conspiracy, 490, 491, 492
+
+  Mitchell, Roscoe, 525, 527
+
+  "_Morning_," S. S., 458
+
+  Mountain, Table, "Oomanaq," 46
+
+  Mt. McKinley, Affidavit, 13, 14;
+    Scaled, 29, 522;
+    Description of ascent, 531, 535, 541
+
+  Murchison Sound, 453
+
+  Museum of Natural History, 513
+
+  Musk Ox Fiord, 343
+
+  Musk Ox Hunting, 171, 184, 387
+
+  My-ah, Disposes of Wives to Gain Dogs, 48;
+    Direct Hunting, 51
+
+  Mylius Erickson, 133, 453
+
+
+  Nansen, introduced the Kayak, 133, 495
+
+  Nansen Sound, Through, 164, 193, 195, 203
+
+  Nansen Straits, 77
+
+  Narwhal Hunt, Description of, 87
+
+  Naval Committee, 10
+
+  National Geographic Society, 10, 13, 540, 541, 542, 544, 549, 561, 564
+
+  Needles, Eskimo, How They are Made, 91
+
+  Newfoundland Boats, 31
+
+  New York _Globe_, 528
+
+  New York _Herald_, 465, 482, 493, 527, 538, 557
+
+  New York _Times_, Published Lying Document, 15;
+    Peary's Questions Sent to, 483, 521, 540, 557, 561, 564
+
+  New York _World_, 506
+
+  New York, University of, Graduated From, 27
+
+  Nordenskjold, 495
+
+  Nordenskjold, Expedition, 468
+
+  Nordenskjold System Borrowed by Peary, 511
+
+  North Cornwall Island, 336
+
+  North Devon, 183, 342, 359, 396, 423
+
+  North Lincoln, 406
+
+  North Pole, 3, 4, 5, 8, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 24, 30, 74, 155, 284, 287,
+          310, 449, 452, 455, 557
+
+  North Star Bay, 44, 46;
+    Anchored in, 50, 462
+
+  Norwegian Bay, 336
+
+  Nuerke, 447, 451, 453
+
+
+  Observations, 245, 257, 274, 292, 302
+
+  Olafsen, Professor, 472
+
+  Olrik's Bay, 59, 63
+
+  "Oomanaq," Table Mountain, 46
+
+  Oomanooi, Village of, Visited, 47, 453
+
+  _Oscar II_, S. S., Sailed on to New York, 475, 476, 477, 494, 495
+
+
+  Paget, Cape, 428
+
+  Palatine Hotel, 554
+
+  Parker, Professor Herschell, 13, 523, 524
+
+  Parry, Cape, 59
+
+  Peary, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 18, 19, 20, 27, 28, 38, 39, 77,
+          112, 131, 200, 212, 244, 253, 433, 438, 439, 440, 441, 443,
+          444, 447, 448, 451, 452, 454, 459, 463, 474, 477, 482, 483,
+          484, 485, 487, 490, 491, 492, 493, 496, 499, 500, 501, 502,
+          505, 506, 507, 508, 509, 510, 511, 512, 513, 514, 516, 517,
+          518, 519, 527, 528, 529, 530, 540, 542, 543, 544, 545, 557,
+          558, 563, 565
+
+  Peary, Mrs., 63
+
+  Pennsylvania R. R. Station (Washington), Casual Examination of Peary's
+          Instruments in, 10
+
+  Penny Strait, 337
+
+  Petowik Glacier, 45
+
+  Phoenix Hotel, Stayed at, 468
+
+  Pioneer Bay, 340, 341
+
+  Polar Ethics, Accused of Violating, 439
+
+  Poe, Edgar Allen, 140
+
+  "_Polaris_," S. S., Stranded in Sinking Condition, 67
+
+  Pole, Copy of Note Left in Tube at, 313
+
+  Pole Star, 136
+
+  _Politiken_, 465, 473
+
+  Pond's Inlet, 425
+
+  Portland, 560
+
+  Press, Injustice of the, 19
+
+  Printz, F., 525
+
+  Proofs, Peary's Demands for, 547, 548, 549
+
+
+  Quebec, 553
+
+
+  Rassmussen, Knud, Lived Among Eskimos, 46;
+    Heard Story From Eskimos of Finding the "Big Nail," 462;
+    Foretold Return of Peary and Prophesied Discord, 463
+
+  Rensselaer Harbor, 101
+
+  Rice Strait, Through, 158
+
+  Roberts, Mr., 548
+
+  Robertson Bay, 63
+
+  Robertson, Cape, Proceed to, 61, 62
+
+  Robeson Channel, 218
+
+  "Robinson Crusoe" Life, 391
+
+  Rocky Mountains, 33
+
+  Rood, Henry, 485
+
+  Roosevelt, Stolen Tusk Presented to, 443
+
+  "_Roosevelt_," S. S., 438;
+    Piratical Career of the, 444, 447, 451, 484, 557
+
+  Route to the Pole, 285
+
+  Royal Geographical Society, 472, 473, 475
+
+  Rutherford, Cape, 159
+
+
+  Sabine, Cape, Notes Left at, 149, 150, 154, 157, 158, 161, 336;
+    Tragedies of, 426, 431, 433, 434, 515
+
+  Saunders Island, 54
+
+  Schei Land, 185
+
+  Schley Land, 79, 164, 191
+
+  Schley, Rear-Admiral, 168, 544, 584
+
+  Schley River, 168
+
+  Schwartz, Dr. Henry, 490
+
+  Seattle _Times_, 527
+
+  Seiper, Cape, 103
+
+  Ser-wah-ding-wah, 122, 152
+
+  Shackleton's Journey to the South Pole, 458
+
+  Shadows at the Pole, 304, 306, 308
+
+  Shainwald, Ralph L., 469
+
+  Shakespeare, 140
+
+  Shelter Island, 478
+
+  Shannon Island, 203
+
+  Sheridan, Cape, 78
+
+  Schoubye, Captain Henning, 46, 515
+
+  Sledges, Making of, 128
+
+  Smith, Mrs., 514
+
+  Smith Sound, Entered, 65, 66;
+    Left, 71, 104, 122, 150
+
+  Snag's Fiord, 193
+
+  Sontag, Astronomer, Lost Life, 222
+
+  Sontag Bay, 451
+
+  Sound, Booth, 453;
+    Eureka, 182, 183, 192;
+    Fridtjof Nansen, 315, 327;
+    Hassel, 329, 334, 365;
+    Jones, 324, 342, 383, 396, 406, 426;
+    Lancaster, 192, 336, 425;
+    Murchison, 453;
+    Nansen, Through, 164, 193, 195, 203;
+    Smith, Entered, 65, 66;
+    Left, 71, 164, 122, 150;
+    Whale, Entered, 59;
+    Wolstenholm, 46;
+    Walrus Adventure in, 50, 433.
+
+  Sparbo, Cape, 344, 355, 357, 363, 364, 377, 378, 413, 497
+
+  Speed Limits, Criticized, 502;
+    Peary's, 505
+
+  Spitzbergen, 289
+
+  Squint, Boreal, 275
+
+  Stanley, 7, 495
+
+  "Star Stone," 435, 454, 512
+
+  Stars and Stripes Pinned to the North Pole, 287
+
+  Stead, William T., 467, 468, 491
+
+  Steinsby, Professor, 461
+
+  St. Lawrence, Gulf of, 31
+
+  St. Louis, Lecture, 496
+
+  Stockwell, Professor, 503
+
+  Stokes, Frank Wilbert, 112
+
+  Straits, Davis, 31;
+    Belle Isle, Entering, 31;
+    Rice, Through, 158;
+    Vaigat, Passed, 38;
+    Cardigan, 350
+
+  Stromgren, Professor Elis, 472, 550
+
+  Stork, Visits at Christmas, 142
+
+  Supplies, 197;
+    Taken for Journey to Pole, 198, 199;
+    Seized by Peary, 444
+
+  Sydney, Harry Whitney, Arrives at, 12;
+    Journey to, 236, 558, 561
+
+  Svarten Huk, 38
+
+  Svartevoeg, 180;
+    Camped South of, 193, 194, 195, 201, 206, 247, 287, 363
+
+  Sverdrup, Captain Otto, Exploration of, 80, 191;
+    Mapped Channels by, 192, 201, 342;
+    Peary Stole the Honor of the Naming of Svartevoeg From, 489, 490,
+          516, 560
+
+
+  Table Mountain, "Oomanaq," 46
+
+  Tacoma, 528, 530
+
+  Talbot's Fiord, 429
+
+  Tassuasak, Arrived at, 456
+
+  Temperature of the Body, 324
+
+  Tennyson, Cape, 427, 428, 429
+
+  "Tent, The," Meteorite, 513
+
+  Tents, Eskimo, 49
+
+  Thompsen, Professor, 461
+
+  "Thumb, The Devil's," 39
+
+  Tittman, O. H., 544
+
+  Torp, Professor, 472, 549, 560
+
+  Townsend, Director, of the New York Aquarium, Falsely Accused Dr. Cook
+          of Stealing a Dictionary Compiled by Thomas Bridges of Indian
+          Words, 497, 498
+
+  To-ti-o, 107;
+    Joy in Killing of Bear, 108
+
+  Troy, 553
+
+  Tung-wing-wah, 95
+
+
+  Umanak, 449, 461, 462
+
+  Umanak Fiord, 38
+
+  United Steamship Company, 477
+
+  Upernavik, Island, Appeared, 38, 206, 448, 449, 457, 459, 461
+
+
+  Vaigat Straits, Passed, 38
+
+  Veile, Cape, 154, 161
+
+  Vera, Cape, 343, 352, 353
+
+  Verhoeff, John M., the Death of, 63, 511, 515
+
+  Vespucci, Amerigo, 7
+
+
+  Wack, H. Wellington, 527
+
+  Waldorf-Astoria, Arrived at, 481;
+    Dinner Given at, 504, 535
+
+  Wallace, Dillon, 536
+
+  Walrus Hunting, 15, 50, 122, 123, 367-373;
+    In the Moonlight, 114-129
+
+  Whale Sound, Entered, 59
+
+  Whitney, Harry, 12;
+    Instruments left with, 244, 437;
+    Ill Treated by Peary's Boatswain Murphy, 445, 449, 451;
+    Peary Refused Permission to Bring From the North Instruments and
+          Data Left in His Hands, 497;
+    Forced to Bury Instruments, 499, 558
+
+  Weapons, Making, 381
+
+  Weche, Handelschef, 461
+
+  Weed, General, 527
+
+  Wellington, Channel, 336, 340
+
+  Weyprecht Island, 159
+
+  Wolstenholm Sound, 46, 50, 453
+
+  "Worm Diggers' Union," 529
+
+  Wyckoff, E. G., 471
+
+
+  York, Cape, 44, 454, 455
+
+
+
+
+INDEX OF NEW MATERIAL
+
+
+  Arctic Club of America (b)
+
+
+  Balch, Edwin Swift, Article by, 595-599 (b)
+
+  Bates, R. C., Credits Mt. McKinley ascent, 534 (b)
+
+  Bradley Land, 597-598
+
+
+  Chautauqua Managers Association, Article by (a, b, c)
+
+  Caines, Ralph H., Credits Mt. McKinley ascent, 534 (b)
+
+  Cook-Peary Controversy, 606, 607, 608
+
+  Cook Must Have Been First, 597
+
+  Cook's Three Achievements, 598
+
+  Carr, Wooda N. Letter to and from, 606
+
+  Can Government Escape Responsibility, 605
+
+  Clark, Champ, Letter from, 608
+
+
+  Danish Geographical Society (b)
+
+  "Discoverer of the Pole," Peary denied title (a)
+
+  Daniels, Josephus, Card to, 603
+
+  Discoverers Doubted, 596
+
+
+  Explorers, Verdicts of, 584
+
+
+  Geographic Societies, European, Forced to Honor Peary (a)
+
+  Greely, Gen. A. W., 603 (b)
+
+  Glacial Land, Discovery of, 598
+
+
+  Hubbard-Bridgeman, Arctic Trust, 600
+
+  Hoax the World, 606
+
+  High, Fred, Editor of Platform, Article by, 604, 605, 610
+
+
+  King of Belgium (b)
+
+  Kill Brother Explorer, Tried to, 602
+
+
+  Lecointe, Prof. Georges, 603
+
+  Lyceum and Chautauqua Magazine, 604, 610
+
+
+  Mann, Congressman James R., Card to, 604
+
+  Mt. McKinley Expedition, 534
+
+  Moore, Prof. Willis, 601, 603
+
+
+  North Pole, 595, 604, 606
+
+  National Investigation, Desired by Cook, 600
+
+  National Geographical Society, 601, 603, (a)
+
+
+  Overland Magazine, Article by R. H. Caines, 534
+
+  Official Evidence not Necessarily Correct, 607
+
+  O'Hara, Barrett, 609
+
+
+  Pension Peary, Old Age, 602, 603
+
+  Purple Snow, 598, 599
+
+  Peary's Data proves Cook's, 596, 597, 599
+
+  Poindexter, Miles, Letter from, 607
+
+  Petty Cliques in Washington, 607
+
+  Peary-Parker-Brown Humbug up to date, 534
+
+  Parker-Brown Mt. McKinley Expedition, 534
+
+
+  Schley, Rear Admiral W. S. (b)
+
+  Sverdrup, Capt. Otto, 603 (b)
+
+  Sampson-Schley Controversy, 607
+
+  Scientific Pioneers, U. S. first rank, 602
+
+
+  Tribune, N. Y., Article from, 595
+
+  Travelers Called Liars, 595
+
+  Taft, Wm. H., Telegram to, 606
+
+
+  University of Copenhagen, Conferred Degree, Ph. D. (a, b)
+
+
+  Wilson, Woodrow, Letter to, 602
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+OTHER BOOKS BY DR. COOK
+
+
+You have read Dr. Cook's narrative of his expedition to the North Pole.
+His other books are of equal interest.
+
+
+Through the First Antarctic Night
+
+A narrative of the Belgian South Pole Expedition of 1897, in charge of
+Commander de Gerlache, with Dr. Cook as surgeon.
+
+This expedition came near sharing the fate of Captain Scott of the
+English expedition. Captain Roald Amundsen, discoverer of the South
+Pole, in speaking to the Press of the hardships which the members of the
+Belgica expedition withstood says: "During the winter scurvy broke out
+and at the same time several of the party showed signs of mental
+trouble. Dr. Cook proved himself a surgeon equal to the situation. All
+of his patients recovered. Here I learned to know Dr. Cook and to
+appreciate him as one of the ablest, most honest, most reliable men I
+have ever met. Members of the Belgica expedition owe their lives to Dr.
+Cook, as it was through his ingenious plan of sawing the channel through
+the pack-ice to open water, thus releasing the ice locked ship, that
+saved the entire party from death."
+
+The above is covered in detail in similar words on pages 19, 20, 23
+Volume One of "The South Pole" a late book by Captain Amundsen. On page
+24 of the same volume he says:
+
+"Upright, honorable, capable and consciencious in the extreme; such is
+the memory we retain of Dr. Frederick A. Cook."
+
+
+To the Top of the Continent
+
+Exploration in Sub-Artic Alaska. A thrilling account of the first ascent
+of America's highest mountain--Mount McKinley.
+
+Dr. Cook has been engaged in exploration for twenty years--the best part
+of his life--all without pay. He has furnished his own money for most of
+his expeditions. He is a quiet, unassuming man and has done all of his
+work with little thought of personal gain or honorary publicity.
+Quietly he came forward and told us that one of the greatest exploits
+ever made in mountain climbing was now accomplished. It did not occur to
+him to beat a drum or blow a trumpet to make this known to the world.
+The work was accomplished; this was sufficient for him. Little was known
+of the Mt. McKinley trip until Peary brought it up as a side issue to
+throw doubt on Dr. Cook's Polar Claim; see page 534 of this book.
+
+
+My Attainment of the Pole
+
+Edition de Luxe
+
+Captain Amundsen in speaking of Dr. Cook's Polar trip says: "It was a
+pity that Peary should besmirch his beautiful work by circulating
+outrageous accusations against a competitor who had WON THE BATTLE in
+open field. If Peary is to prove the accusation by the evidence of
+Cook's two followers, I must confess it is a very weak foundation."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The above books by Dr. Frederick A. Cook have been printed in edition de
+Luxe, especially for subscription purposes. The regular price is $5.00
+each, but to accommodate those further interested in exploration, we
+have arranged to make a special reduced price; see next page.
+
+
+                                ....................................
+                                    ....................................
+
+  The Polar Publishing Co.,
+     601 Steinway Hall,
+        Chicago, Ill.
+
+  Gentlemen:
+
+  Enclosed find three dollars ($3.00) for which please send me postpaid,
+  one copy of "Through the First Antarctic Night," by Dr. Frederick A.
+  Cook, and oblige
+
+                              Yours truly,
+                                ........................................
+                                    ....................................
+
+
+                                ........................................
+                                    ....................................
+
+  The Polar Publishing Co.,
+     601 Steinway Hall,
+        Chicago, Ill.
+
+  Gentlemen:
+
+  Enclosed find three dollars ($3.00) for which please send me postpaid,
+  one copy of "To the Top of the Continent," by Dr. Frederick A. Cook,
+  and oblige
+
+                              Yours truly,
+                                ....................................
+                                    ....................................
+
+
+                                ....................................
+                                    ....................................
+
+  The Polar Publishing Co.,
+     601 Steinway Hall,
+        Chicago, Ill.
+
+  Gentlemen:
+
+  Enclosed find three dollars ($3.00) for which please send me postpaid,
+  one copy of "My Attainment of the Pole," Edition de Luxe, by Dr.
+  Frederick A. Cook, and oblige
+
+                              Yours truly,
+                                ....................................
+                                    ....................................
+
+
+Remove this sheet, clip and fill out any or all of the above coupons and
+mail to this office and we will forward the books at once.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's My Attainment of the Pole, by Frederick A. Cook
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY ATTAINMENT OF THE POLE ***
+
+***** This file should be named 36962-8.txt or 36962-8.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/9/6/36962/
+
+Produced by Greg Bergquist and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
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+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" />
+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of My Attainment of the Pole, by Dr. Frederick A. Cook.
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+<pre>
+
+Project Gutenberg's My Attainment of the Pole, by Frederick A. Cook
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: My Attainment of the Pole
+
+Author: Frederick A. Cook
+
+Release Date: August 3, 2011 [EBook #36962]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY ATTAINMENT OF THE POLE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Greg Bergquist and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 501px;">
+<img src="images/frontcover.jpg" width="501" height="717" alt="Front Cover" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 484px;">
+<a name="Frontispiece" id="Frontispiece"></a>
+<img src="images/illo_002.jpg" width="484" height="800" alt="Frederick A. Cook" title="" />
+</div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+
+<h4><i>Press Edition</i></h4>
+
+<h1>MY ATTAINMENT<br />
+OF THE POLE</h1>
+
+<p class="center"><i>Being the Record of the Expedition<br />
+that First Reached the Boreal Center,<br />
+1907-1909. With the Final Summary<br />
+of the Polar Controversy</i></p>
+
+<h3><i>By</i><br />
+
+DR. FREDERICK A. COOK</h3>
+
+<h5>THIRD PRINTING, 60TH THOUSAND</h5>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 195px;">
+<img src="images/illo_003.png" width="195" height="195" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<h4>NEW YORK AND LONDON<br />
+MITCHELL KENNERLEY<br />
+
+MCMXIII</h4>
+
+<p class="center">By Special arrangements this edition is marketed by<br />
+The Polar Publishing Co., 601 Steinway Hall, Chicago</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Copyright 1913<br />
+by<br />
+Dr. Frederick A. Cook</span></p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<div class="bbox">
+<h4><span class="u"><i>OTHER BOOKS BY DR. COOK</i></span></h4>
+
+
+<p><b>Through the First Antarctic Night</b></p>
+
+<p> &nbsp; &nbsp; A Narrative of the Belgian South Polar Expedition.</p>
+
+
+<p><b>To the Top of the Continent</b></p>
+
+<p> &nbsp; &nbsp; Exploration in Sub-Arctic Alaska&mdash;The First Ascent of Mt. McKinley</p>
+
+
+<p><b>My Attainment of the Pole</b></p>
+
+<p> &nbsp; &nbsp; Edition de Luxe</p>
+
+<p> &nbsp;  &nbsp; Each of above series will be sent post paid for $5.00. All to one
+address for $14.00.</p>
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" summary="">
+<tr><td valign='top'>Address:</td><td align='center'>THE POLAR PUBLISHING CO.<br />601 Steinway Hall, Chicago</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h2><i>To the Pathfinders</i></h2>
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align='left'>
+To the Indian who invented pemmican and snowshoes;<br />
+To the Eskimo who gave the art of sled traveling;<br />
+To this twin family of wild folk who have no flag<br />
+Goes the first credit.<br />
+To the forgotten trail makers whose book of experience has been a guide;<br />
+To the fallen victors whose bleached bones mark steps in the ascent of the ladder of latitudes;<br />
+To these, the pathfinders&mdash;past, present and future&mdash;I inscribe the first page.<br />
+In the ultimate success there is glory enough<br />
+To go to the graves of the dead and to the heads of the living.
+</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 100%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[A]</a></span></p>
+<h2>THE PRESENT STATUS OF THE POLAR CONTROVERSY</h2>
+
+<h4>DR. COOK IS VINDICATED. HIS DISCOVERY OF THE NORTH POLE<br />
+IS ENDORSED BY THE EXPLORERS OF ALL THE WORLD.</h4>
+
+<div class="sblockquot">
+<p>In placing Dr. Cook on the Chautauqua platform as a lecturer, we have
+been compelled to study the statements issued for and against the rival polar
+claims with special reference to the facts bearing upon the present status of the
+Polar Controversy.</p>
+
+<p>Though the question has been argued during four years, we find that it is
+almost the unanimous opinion of arctic explorers today, that Dr. Cook reached
+the North Pole on April 21, 1909.</p>
+
+<p>With officer Peary's first announcement he chose to force a press campaign
+to deny Dr. Cook's success and to proclaim himself as the sole Polar Victor.
+Peary aimed to be retired as a Rear-Admiral on a pension of $6,000 per year.
+This ambition was granted; but the American Congress rejected his claim for
+priority by eliminating from the pension bill the words "Discovery of the Pole."
+The European geographical societies, forced under diplomatic pressure to honor
+Peary, have also refused him the title of "Discoverer." By a final verdict of the
+American government and of the highest European authorities, Peary is therefore
+denied the assumption of being the discoverer of the Pole, though his claim
+as a re-discoverer is allowed. The evasive inscriptions on the Peary medals
+prove this statement.</p>
+
+<p>Following the acute excitement of the first announcement, it seemed to
+be desirable to bring the question to a focus by submitting to some authoritative
+body for decision. Such an institution, however, did not exist. Previously,
+explorers had been rated by the slow process of historic digestion and assimilation
+of the facts offered, but it was thought that an academic examination would
+meet the demands. Officer Peary first submitted his case to a commission appointed
+by the National Geographical Society of Washington, D. C. This jury
+promptly said that in their "opinion" Peary reached the Pole on April 6, 1909;
+but a year later in congress the same men unwillingly admitted that in the Peary
+proofs there was no positive proof.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Cook's data was sent to a commission appointed by the University
+of Copenhagen. The Danes reported that the material presented was incomplete
+and did not constitute positive proof. This verdict, however, did not carry
+the interpretation that the Pole had not been reached. The Danes have never
+said, as they have been quoted by the press, that Dr. Cook did not reach the
+Pole; quite to the contrary, the University of Copenhagen conferred the degree
+of Ph. D. and the Royal Danish Geographical Society gave a gold medal, both
+in recognition of the merits of the Polar effort.</p>
+
+<p>This early examination was based mostly upon the nautical calculations
+for position, and both verdicts when analyzed gave the version that in such
+observations there was no positive proof. The Washington jury ventured an
+opinion. The Danes refused to give an opinion, but showed their belief in Dr.
+Cook's success by conferring honorary degrees.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[B]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It is the unfair interpretation of the respective verdicts by the newspapers
+which has precipitated the turbulent air of distrust which previously rested over
+the entire Polar achievement. All this, however, has now been cleared by the
+final word of fifty of the foremost Polar explorers and scientific experts.</p>
+
+<p>In so far as they were able to judge from all the data presented in the
+final books of both claimants the following experts have given it as their opinion
+that Dr. Cook reached the Pole, and that officer Peary's similar report coming
+later is supplementary proof of the first victory:</p>
+
+<p>General A. W. Greely, U. S. A., commander of the Lady Franklin Bay
+Expedition, who spent four years in the region under discussion.</p>
+
+<p>Rear Admiral W. S. Schley, U. S. N., commander of the Greely Relief
+Expedition.</p>
+
+<p>Capt. Otto Sverdrup, discoverer of the land over which Dr. Cook's route
+was forced.</p>
+
+<p>Capt. J. E. Bernier, commanding the Canadian Arctic Expeditions.</p>
+
+<p>Prof. G. Frederick Wright, author of the "Ice Age of North America."</p>
+
+<p>Capt. E. B. Baldwin, commanding the Baldwin-Ziegler Expedition.</p>
+
+<p>Prof. W. H. Brewer for 16 years president of the Arctic Club of America.</p>
+
+<p>Prof. Julius Payer of the Weyprecht-Payer Expedition.</p>
+
+<p>Prof. L. L. Dyche, member of various Peary and Cook Expeditions.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Maurice Connell, Greely Expedition, and U. S. Weather Bureau.</p>
+
+<p>Capt. O. C. Hamlet, U. S. A. Arctic Revenue Service.</p>
+
+<p>Capt. E. A. Haven, Baldwin-Ziegler Expedition.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Andrew J. Stone, Explorer of North Coast of America.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Dillon Wallace, Labrador Explorer.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Edwin Swift Balch, author of "The North Pole and Bradley Land."</p>
+
+<p>Captains Johan Menander, B. S. Osbon and Thomas F. Hall.</p>
+
+<p>Messrs. Henry Biederbeck, Frederick B. Wright, F. F. Taylor, Ralph H.
+Cairns, Theodore Lerner, M. Van Ryssellberghe, J. Knowles Hare, Chas. E.
+Rilliet, Homer Rogers, R. C. Bates, E. C. Rost, L. C. Bement, Clarence Wychoff,
+Alfred Church, Archibald Dickinson, Robert Stein, J. S. Warmbath, Geo.
+B. Butland, Ralph Shainwald, Henry Johnson, S. J. Entrikin, Clark Brown,
+W. F. Armbruster, John R. Bradley, Harry Whitney and Rudolph Franke.</p>
+
+<p>Drs. T. F. Dedrick, Middleton Smith, J. G. Knowlton, H. J. Egbert, W. H.
+Axtell, A. H. Cordier and Henry Schwartz.</p>
+
+<p>Judge Jules Leclercq, and Prof. Georges Lecointe, Secretary of the International
+Bureau of Polar Research.</p>
+
+<p>Thus endorsed by practically all Polar Explorers, Dr. Cook's attainment
+of the Pole and his earlier work of discovery and exploration is farther established
+by the following honorary pledges of recognition. (These are now in the possession
+of Dr. Cook, the press reports to the contrary being untrue).</p>
+
+<p>By the King of Belgium, decorated as Knight of the Order of Leopold.</p>
+
+<p>By the University of Copenhagen in conferring the degree of Ph. D.</p>
+
+<p>By the Royal Danish Geographical Society, presentation of a gold medal.</p>
+
+<p>By the Arctic Club of America, presentation of a gold medal.</p>
+
+<p>By the Royal Geographical Society of Belgium, presentation of a gold medal.</p>
+
+<p>By the Municipality of the City of Brussels, presentation of a gold medal.</p>
+
+<p>By the Municipality of the City of New York, with the ceremony of presenting
+the keys and offering the freedom of the city.</p>
+
+<p>Without denying officer Peary's success, we note that his case rests upon
+the opinion of three of his official associates in Washington. Three men acting
+for a society financially interested&mdash;three men who have never seen a piece of
+Polar ice&mdash;have given it as their "opinion" that Mr. Peary (a year later than
+Dr. Cook) reached the Pole. By many this was accepted as a final verdict of
+experts for Peary. But are such men dependable experts?</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[C]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Dr. Cook now offers in substantiation of his work the support and the
+final verdict of fifty of the foremost explorers and scientific experts. Each in
+his own way has during the past four years examined the polar problem and
+pronounced in favor of Dr. Cook.</p>
+
+<p>He is therefore vindicated of the propaganda of insinuation and distrust
+which his enemies forced, and his success in reaching the Pole is conceded and
+endorsed by his own peers.</p>
+
+<p>In his book, "My Attainment of the Pole," Dr. Cook offers with thrilling
+vividness a most remarkable series of adventures in the enraptured wilderness
+at the top of the globe. And in his lectures he takes his audience step by step
+over the haunts of northernmost man and beyond to the sparkling sea of death at
+the pole. Above all he leaves in the hearts of his listeners the thrills of a fresh
+vigor and a new inspiration, which opens the way for other worlds to conquer.
+By his books and by his lectures, Dr. Cook seeks justice at the bar of public
+opinion, and three million people have applauded his effort on the platform.
+One hundred thousand people will read his book during the coming year. We
+are inclined to agree with Capt. E. B. Baldwin and other Arctic explorers who say&mdash;"Putting
+aside the academic and idle argument of pin-point accuracy, the
+North Pole has been honestly reached by Dr. Cook, three hundred and fifty days
+before any one else claimed to have been there."</p>
+
+<p>May 22, 1913.</p>
+<p style='text-align: right'>
+THE CHAUTAUQUA MANAGERS' ASSOCIATION, &nbsp; &nbsp;  &nbsp; &nbsp; <br />
+ORCHESTRA BUILDING, CHICAGO. &nbsp; &nbsp; </p>
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="" width="95%">
+<tr><td align='left'>Chas. W. Ferguson, Pres.</td><td align='right'>A. L. Flude, Sec'y.</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 640px;">
+<img src="images/illo_008.jpg" width="640" height="414" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 100%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span></p>
+<h2>PREFACE</h2>
+
+
+<p>This narrative has been prepared as a general outline
+of my conquest of the North Pole. In it the scientific
+data, the observations, every phase of the pioneer
+work with its drain of human energy has been presented
+in its proper relation to a strange cycle of events. The
+camera has been used whenever possible to illustrate
+the progress of the expedition as well as the wonders
+and mysteries of the Arctic wilds. Herein, with due
+after-thought and the better perspective afforded by
+time, the rough field notes, the disconnected daily tabulations
+and the records of instrumental observations,
+every fact, every optical and mental impression, has
+been re-examined and re-arranged to make a concise
+record of successive stages of progress to the boreal
+center. If I have thus worked out an understandable
+panorama of our environment, then the mission of this
+book has served its purpose.</p>
+
+<p>Much has been said about absolute geographic
+proof of an explorer's work. History demonstrates that
+the book which gives the final authoritative narrative is
+the test of an explorer's claims. By it every traveler
+has been measured. From the time of the discovery of
+America to the piercing of darkest Africa and the open<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[viii]</a></span>ing
+of Thibet, men who have sought the truth of the
+claims of discovery have sought, not abstract figures,
+but the continuity of the narrative in the pages of the
+traveler's final book. In such a narrative, after due
+digestion and assimilation, there is to be found either
+the proof or the disproof of the claims of a discoverer.</p>
+
+<p>In such narratives as the one herewith presented,
+subsequent travelers and other experts, with no other
+interests to serve except those of fair play, have critically
+examined the material. With the lapse of time
+accordingly, when partisanship feelings have been
+merged in calm and conscientious judgment, history has
+always finally pronounced a fair and equitable verdict.</p>
+
+<p>In a similar way my claim of being first to reach
+the North Pole will rest upon the data presented between
+the covers of this book.</p>
+
+<p>In working out the destiny of this Expedition, and
+this book which records its doings, I have to acknowledge
+my gratitude for the assistance of many people.
+First among those to whom I am deeply indebted is
+John R. Bradley. By his liberal hand this Expedition
+was given life, and by his loyal support and helpfulness
+I was enabled to get to my base of operations at Annoatok.
+By his liberal donations of food we were enabled to
+live comfortably during the first year. To John R.
+Bradley, therefore, belong the first fruits of the Polar
+conquest.</p>
+
+<p>A tribute of praise must be placed on record for
+Rudolph Francke. After the yacht returned, he was
+my sole civilized helper and companion. The faithful
+manner in which he performed the difficult duties assigned
+to him, and his unruffled cheerfulness during the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[ix]</a></span>
+trying weeks of the long night, reflect a large measure
+of credit.</p>
+
+<p>The band of little people of the Farthest North
+furnished without pay the vital force and the primitive
+ingenuity without which the quest of the Pole would be
+a hopeless task. These boreal pigmies with golden
+skins, with muscles of steel, and hearts as finely human
+as those of the highest order of man, performed a task
+that cannot be too highly commended. The two boys,
+Ah-we-lah and E-tuk-i-shook, deserve a place on the tablet
+of fame. They followed me with a perseverance
+which demonstrates one of the finest qualities of savage
+life. They shared with me the long run of hardship;
+they endured without complaint the unsatisfied hunger,
+the unquenched thirst, and the maddening isolation, with
+no thought of reward except that which comes from an
+unselfish desire to follow one whom they chose to regard
+as a friend. If a noble deed was ever accomplished,
+these boys did it, and history should record their heroic
+effort with indelible ink.</p>
+
+<p>At the request of Mrs. Cook, the Canadian Government
+sent its ship, the "Arctic," under Captain Bernier,
+with supplementary supplies for me, to Etah.
+These were left under the charge of Mr. Harry Whitney.
+The return to civilization was made in comfort,
+by the splendid manner in which this difficult problem
+was carried out. To each and all in this combination I
+am deeply indebted.</p>
+
+<p>With sweet memories of the warm hospitality of
+Danes in Greenland, I here subscribe my never-to-be-forgotten
+appreciation. I am also indebted to the
+Royal Greenland Trading Company and to the United<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[x]</a></span>
+S. S. Company for many favors; and, above all, am I
+grateful to the Danes as a nation, for the whole-souled
+demonstrations of friendship and appreciation at
+Copenhagen.</p>
+
+<p>In the making of this book, I was relieved of much
+routine editorial work by Mr. T. Everett Harry, associate
+editor of Hampton's Magazine, who rearranged
+much of my material, and by whose handling of certain
+purely adventure matter a book of better literary
+workmanship has been made.</p>
+
+<p>I am closing the pages of this book with a good deal
+of regret, for, in the effort to make the price of this
+volume so low that it can go into every home, the need
+for brevity has dictated the number of pages. My last
+word to all&mdash;to friends and enemies&mdash;is, if you must
+pass judgment, study the problem carefully. You are
+as capable of forming a correct judgment as the self-appointed
+experts. One of Peary's captains has said
+"that he knew, but never would admit, that Peary
+did not reach the Pole." Rear Admiral Chester
+has said the same about me, but he "admits" it in big,
+flaming type. With due respect to these men, in justice
+to the cause, I am bound to say that these, and others of
+their kind, who necessarily have a blinding bias, are not
+better able to judge than the average American citizen.</p>
+
+<p>If you have read this book, then read Mr. Peary's
+"North Pole." Put the two books side by side. When
+making comparisons, remember that my attainment of
+the Pole was one year earlier than Mr. Peary's claim;
+that my narrative was written and printed months before
+that of Mr. Peary; that the Peary narrative is such
+that Rear Admiral Schley has said&mdash;"After reading<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[xi]</a></span>
+the published accounts daily and critically of both
+claimants, I was forced to the conclusion from their
+striking similarity that each of you was the eye-witness
+of the other's success. Without collusion, it would
+have been impossible to have written accounts so
+similar."</p>
+
+<p>This opinion, coming as it does from one of the
+highest Arctic and Naval authorities, is endorsed by
+practically all Arctic explorers. Captain E. B. Baldwin
+goes even further, and proves my claim from the
+pages of Peary's own book. Governor Brown of
+Georgia, after a critical examination of the two reports,
+says, "If it is true, as Peary would like us to believe,
+that Cook has given us a gold brick, then Peary has
+offered a paste diamond."</p>
+
+<p>Since my account was written and printed first,
+the striking analogy apparent in the Peary pages either
+proves my position at the Pole or it convicts Peary of
+using my data to fill out and impart verisimilitude to
+his own story of a second victory.</p>
+
+<p>Much against my will I find myself compelled to
+uncover the dark pages of the selfish unfairness of rival
+interests. In doing so my aim is not to throw doubt and
+distrust on Mr. Peary's success, but to show his incentive
+and his methods in attempting to leave the sting of discredit
+upon me. I would prefer to close my eye to a
+long series of wrong doings as I have done in the
+passing years, but the Polar controversy cannot be
+understood unless we get the perspective of the man
+who has forced it. Heretofore I have allowed others
+to expend their argumentative ammunition. The questions
+which I have raised are minor points. On the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[xii]</a></span>
+main question of Polar attainment there is not now
+room for doubt. The Pole has been honestly reached&mdash;the
+American Eagle has spread its wings of glory over
+the world's top. Whether there is room for one or two
+or more under those wings, I am content to let the
+future decide.</p>
+
+<p style='text-align: right'><span class="smcap">Frederick A. Cook.</span> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; </p>
+<p class="noin">The Waldorf-Astoria,<br />
+ &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; New York, June 15, 1911.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 640px;">
+<img src="images/illo_014.jpg" width="640" height="423" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 100%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[xiii]</a></span></p>
+<h2>TABLE OF CONTENTS</h2>
+
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="5" summary="" width="80%">
+<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='right'><small>PAGE</small></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="negin">I THE POLAR FIGHT</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="negin">II INTO THE BOREAL WILDS</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_23">23</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='justify'><span class="smcap">The Yacht Bradley Leaves Gloucester&mdash;Invades the Magic
+Waters of the Arctic Seas&mdash;Recollections of Boyhood
+Ambitions&mdash;Beyond the Arctic Circle&mdash;The Weaving of
+the Polar Spell</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="negin">III THE DRIVING SPUR OF THE POLAR QUEST</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_42">42</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='justify'><span class="smcap">On the Frigid Pathway of Three Centuries of Heroic
+Martyrs&mdash;Meeting the Strange People of the Farthest
+North&mdash;The Life of the Stone Age&mdash;On the Chase With
+the Eskimos&mdash;Manee and Spartan Eskimo Courage</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="negin">IV TO THE LIMITS OF NAVIGATION</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_62">62</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='justify'><span class="smcap">Exciting Hunts for Game With the Eskimos&mdash;Arrival at
+Etah&mdash;Speedy Trip to Annoatok, the Windy Place, Where
+Supplies are Found in Abundance&mdash;Everything Auspicious
+for Dash to the Pole&mdash;Determination to Essay the Effort&mdash;Bradley
+Informed&mdash;Debark for the Pole&mdash;The Yacht
+Returns</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="negin">V PREPARATIONS FOR THE POLAR DASH</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_73">73</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='justify'><span class="smcap">An Entire Tribe Breathlessly and Feverishly at Work&mdash;Mapping
+Out the Polar Campaign</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="negin">VI THE CURTAIN OF NIGHT DROPS</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_81">81</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='justify'><span class="smcap">Tribe of Two Hundred and Fifty Natives Busily Begin
+Preparations for the Polar Dash&mdash;Exciting Hunts for the
+Unicorn and Other Game From Annoatok to Cape York&mdash;Every
+Animal Caught Bearing Upon the Success of the
+Venture&mdash;The Gray-Green Gloom of Twilight in Which
+the Eskimo Women Communicate With the Souls of the
+Dead</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="negin">VII FIRST WEEK OF THE LONG NIGHT</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_99">99</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='justify'><span class="smcap">Hunting in the Arctic Twilight&mdash;Pursuing Bear, Caribou
+and Smaller Game in Semi-Gloom</span><span class='pagenum'>[xiv]</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="negin">VIII THE MOONLIGHT QUEST OF THE WALRUS</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_114">114</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='justify'><span class="smcap">Desperate and Dangerous Hunting, in Order to Secure Adequate
+Supplies for the Polar Dash&mdash;A Thrilling and Adventurous
+Race Is Made Over Frozen Seas and Icy Mountains
+to the Walrus Grounds&mdash;Terrific Explosion of the Ice
+on Which the Party Hunts&mdash;Success in Securing Over
+Seven Sled-Loads of Blubber Makes the Pole Seem Nearer&mdash;An
+Arctic Tragedy</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="negin">IX MIDNIGHT AND MID-WINTER</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_130">130</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='justify'><span class="smcap">The Equipment and Its Problems&mdash;New Art in the Making
+of Sledges Combining Lightness&mdash;Progress of the Preparations&mdash;Christmas
+With Its Glad Tidings and Auguries for
+Success in Quest of the Pole</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="negin">X EN ROUTE FOR THE POLE</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_149">149</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='justify'><span class="smcap">The Campaign Opens&mdash;Last Weeks of the Polar Night&mdash;Advance
+Parties Sent Out&mdash;Awaiting the Dawn</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="negin">XI EXPLORING A NEW PASS OVER ACPOHON</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_162">162</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='justify'><span class="smcap">From the Atlantic Waters at Flagler Bay to the Pacific
+Waters at Bay Fiord&mdash;The Mecca of the Musk Ox&mdash;Battles
+With the Bovine Monsters of the Arctic&mdash;Sunrise and the
+Glory of Sunset</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="negin">XII IN GAME TRAILS TO LAND'S END</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_176">176</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='justify'><span class="smcap">Sverdrup's New Wonderland&mdash;Feasting on Game En Route
+to Svartevoeg&mdash;First Shadow Observations&mdash;Fights With
+Wolves and Bears&mdash;The Joys of Zero's Lowest&mdash;Threshold
+of the Unknown</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="negin">XIII THE TRANS-BOREAL DASH BEGINS</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_194">194</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='justify'><span class="smcap">By Forced Efforts and the Use of Axes Speed is Made Over
+the Land-Adhering Pack Ice of Polar Sea&mdash;The Most Difficult
+Travel of the Proposed Journey Successfully Accomplished&mdash;Regretful
+Parting With the Eskimos</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="negin">XIV OVER THE POLAR SEA TO THE BIG
+LEAD</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_208">208</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='justify'><span class='pagenum'>[xv]</span><span class="smcap">With Two Eskimo Companions, the Race Poleward Continues
+Over Rough and Difficult Ice&mdash;The Last Land Fades
+Behind&mdash;Mirages Leap Into Being and Weave a Mystic
+Spell&mdash;A Swirling Scene of Moving Ice and Fantastic Effects&mdash;Standing
+on a Hill of Ice, a Black, Writhing, Snaky
+Cut Appears in the Ice Beyond&mdash;The Big Lead&mdash;A Night of
+Anxiety&mdash;Five Hundred Miles Already Covered&mdash;Four Hundred
+to the Pole</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="negin">XV CROSSING MOVING SEAS OF ICE</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_221">221</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='justify'><span class="smcap">Crossing the Lead&mdash;The Thin Ice Heaves Like a Sheet of
+Rubber&mdash;Creeping Forward Cautiously, the Two Dangerous
+Miles are Covered&mdash;Bounding Progress Made Over Improving
+Ice&mdash;The First Hurricane&mdash;Dogs Buried and Frozen Into
+Masses in Drifts of Snow&mdash;The Ice Parts Through the Igloo&mdash;Waking
+to Find One's Self Falling Into the Cold Sea</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="negin">XVI LAND DISCOVERED</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_232">232</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='justify'><span class="smcap">Fighting Progress Through Cutting Cold and Terrific
+Storms&mdash;Life Becomes a Monotonous Routine of Hardship&mdash;The
+Pole Inspires With Its Resistless Lure&mdash;New Land Discovered
+Beyond the Eighty-Fourth Parallel&mdash;More Than
+Two Hundred Miles From Svartevoeg&mdash;The First Six Hundred
+Miles Covered</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="negin">XVII BEYOND THE RANGE OF LIFE</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_248">248</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='justify'><span class="smcap">With a New Spring to Weary Legs Bradley Land is Left
+Behind&mdash;Feeling the Aching Vastness of the World Before
+Man Was Made&mdash;Curious Grimaces of the Midnight
+Sun&mdash;Sufferings Increase&mdash;By Persistent and Laborious
+Progress Another Hundred Miles is Covered</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="negin">XVIII OVER POLAR SEAS OF MYSTERY</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_260">260</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='justify'><span class="smcap">The Maddening Tortures of a World Where Ice Water
+Seems Hot, and Cold Knives Burn One's Hands&mdash;Anguished
+Progress on the Last Stretch of Two Hundred Miles Over
+Anchored Land Ice&mdash;Days of Suffering and Gloom&mdash;The
+Time of Despair&mdash;"It Is Well to Die," Says Ah-We-Lah;
+"Beyond is Impossible"</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="negin">XIX TO THE POLE&mdash;LAST HUNDRED
+MILES</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_269">269</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='justify'><span class="smcap">Over Plains of Gold and Seas of Palpitating Color the Dog
+Teams, With Noses Down, Tails Erect, Dash Spiritedly
+Like Chariot Horses</span>&mdash;<span class='pagenum'>[xvi]</span><span class="smcap">Chanting Love Songs the Eskimos
+Follow With Swinging Step</span>&mdash;<span class="smcap">Tired Eyes Open to New
+Glory&mdash;Step by Step, With Thumping Hearts the Earth's
+Apex Is Neared&mdash;At Last! The Goal Is Reached! The Stars
+and Stripes are Flung to the Frigid Breezes of the North
+Pole!</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="negin">XX AT THE NORTH POLE</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_286">286</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='justify'><span class="smcap">Observations at the Pole&mdash;Meteorological and Astronomical
+Phenomena&mdash;Singular Stability and Uniformity of the
+Thermometer and Barometer&mdash;A Spot Where One's Shadow
+Is the Same Length Each Hour of the Twenty-Four&mdash;Eight
+Polar Altitudes of the Sun</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="negin">XXI THE RETURN&mdash;A BATTLE FOR LIFE</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_314">314</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='justify'><span class="smcap">Turned Backs to the Pole and to the Sun&mdash;The Dogs,
+Seemingly Glad and Seemingly Sensible That Their Noses
+Were Pointed Homeward, Barked Shrilly&mdash;Suffering From
+Intense Depression&mdash;The Dangers of Moving Ice, of Storms
+and Slow Starvation&mdash;The Thought of Five Hundred and
+Twenty Miles to Land Causes Despair</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="negin">XXII BACK TO LIFE AND BACK TO LAND</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_326">326</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='justify'><span class="smcap">The Return&mdash;Deluded by Drift and Fog&mdash;Carried Astray
+Over an Unseen Deep&mdash;Travel for Twenty Days in a World
+of Mists, With the Terror of Death&mdash;Awakened From
+Sleep by a Heavenly Song&mdash;The First Bird&mdash;Following
+the Winged Harbinger&mdash;We Reach Land&mdash;A Bleak, Barren
+Island Possessing the Charm of Paradise&mdash;After Days
+Verging on Starvation, We Enjoy a Feast of Uncooked
+Game</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="negin">XXIII OVERLAND TO JONES SOUND</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_341">341</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='justify'><span class="smcap">Hours of Icy Torture&mdash;A Frigid Summer Storm in the Berg-Driven
+Arctic Sea&mdash;A Perilous Dash Through Twisting
+Lanes of Opening Water in a Canvas Canoe&mdash;The Drive of
+Hunger</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="negin">XXIV UNDER THE WHIP OF FAMINE</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_355">355</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='justify'><span class="smcap">By Boat and Sledge, Over the Drifting Ice and Stormy Seas
+of Jones Sound&mdash;From Rock to Rock in Quest of Food&mdash;Making
+New Weapons</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="negin">XXV BEAR FIGHTS AND WALRUS BATTLES</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_365">365</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='justify'><span class='pagenum'>[xvii]</span><span class="smcap">Dangerous Adventures in a Canvas Boat&mdash;On the Verge of
+Starvation, a Massive Brute, Weighing Three Thousand
+Pounds, Is Captured After a Fifteen-Hour Struggle&mdash;Robbed
+of Precious Food by Hungry Bears</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="negin">XXVI BULL FIGHTS WITH THE MUSK OX</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_378">378</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='justify'><span class="smcap">An Ancient Cave Explored for Shelter&mdash;Death by Starvation
+Averted by Hand-to-Hand Encounters With Wild
+Animals</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="negin">XXVII A NEW ART OF CHASE</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_393">393</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='justify'><span class="smcap">Three Weeks Before the Sunset of 1908&mdash;Revelling in an
+Eden of Game&mdash;Peculiarities of Animals of the Arctic&mdash;How
+Nature Dictates Animal Color&mdash;The Quest of Small
+Life</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="negin">XXVIII A HUNDRED NIGHTS IN AN UNDERGROUND
+DEN</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_406">406</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='justify'><span class="smcap">Living Like Men of the Stone Age&mdash;The Desolation of the
+Long Night&mdash;Life About Cape Sparbo&mdash;Preparing Equipment
+for the Return to Greenland&mdash;Sunrise, February 11,
+1909</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="negin">XXIX HOMEWARD WITH A HALF SLEDGE
+AND HALF-FILLED STOMACHS</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_425">425</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='justify'><span class="smcap">Three Hundred Miles Through Storm and Snow and Uplifted
+Mountains of Ice Troubles&mdash;Discover Two Islands&mdash;Annoatok
+Is Reached&mdash;Meeting Harry Whitney&mdash;News of
+Peary's Seizure of Supplies</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="negin">XXX ANNOATOK TO UPERNAVIK</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_447">447</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='justify'><span class="smcap">Eleven Hundred Miles Southward Over Sea and Land&mdash;At
+Etah&mdash;Overland to the Walrus Grounds&mdash;Eskimo Comedies
+and Tragedies&mdash;A Record Run Over Melville Bay&mdash;First
+News From Passing Ships&mdash;The Eclipse of the Sun&mdash;Southward
+by Steamer Godthaab</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="negin">XXXI FROM GREENLAND TO COPENHAGEN</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_463">463</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='justify'><span class="smcap">Forewarning of the Polar Controversy&mdash;Banquet at
+Eggedesminde&mdash;On Board the Hans Egede&mdash;Cablegrams
+Sent From Lerwick&mdash;The Ovation at Copenhagen&mdash;Bewildered
+Amidst the General Enthusiasm&mdash;Peary's First
+Messages&mdash;Embark on Oscar II for New York</span><span class='pagenum'>[xviii]</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="negin">XXXII COPENHAGEN TO THE UNITED
+STATES</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_476">476</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='justify'><span class="smcap">Across the Atlantic&mdash;Reception in New York&mdash;Bewildering
+Cyclone of Events&mdash;Inside News of the Peary Attack&mdash;How
+the Web of Shame Was Woven</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="negin">XXXIII THE KEY TO THE CONTROVERSY</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_507">507</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='justify'><span class="smcap">Peary and His Past&mdash;His Dealing With Rival Explorers&mdash;The
+Death of Astrup&mdash;The Theft of the "Great Iron
+Stone," the Natives' Sole Source of Iron</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="negin">XXXIV THE MT. MCKINLEY BRIBERY</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_521">521</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='justify'><span class="smcap">The Bribed, Faked and Forged News Items&mdash;The Pro-Peary
+Money Powers Encourage Perjury&mdash;Mt. McKinley Honestly
+Climbed&mdash;How, for Peary, a Similar Peak Was Faked</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="negin">XXXV THE DUNKLE-LOOSE FORGERY</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_535">535</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='justify'><span class="smcap">Its Pro-Peary Making</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="negin">XXXVI HOW A GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY PROSTITUTED
+ITS NAME</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_541">541</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='justify'><span class="smcap">The Washington Verdict&mdash;The Copenhagen Verdict</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="negin">Retrospect</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_557">557</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="negin1"><span class="smcap">The Present Status of the Polar Controversy</span> (Preceding Preface)</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_iv">(a)</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='justify'>Dr. Cook Vindicated&mdash;His Discovery of the North Pole Endorsed by
+the Explorers of all the World.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="negin1"><span class="smcap">The Peary-Parker-Brown Humbug Up To Date</span> (To Finish Page)</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_534">534</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='justify'>Parker contradicts former Statement&mdash;Says he climbed Mt. McKinley
+by Northeast Ridge.&mdash;The Ridge used by Dr. Cook.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="negin1"><span class="smcap">Verdict of the Geographic Historian</span> (By Edwin Swift Balch)</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_595">595</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='justify'>Dr. Cook's Record is Accurate&mdash;It is Certified&mdash;It is Corroborated&mdash;He
+is the Discoverer of the North Pole.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="negin1"><span class="smcap">A Request for a National Investigation</span> (By Dr. Frederick A. Cook)</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_600">600</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='justify'>Nation should decide&mdash;Congress Should Investigate Rival Claims&mdash;Letter
+to the President.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="negin1"><span class="smcap">Can the Government Escape the Responsibility</span> (By Fred High, Editor
+of the Platform)</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_605">605</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='justify'>Cook Should Have a Fair Deal&mdash;An Unbiased Comparison&mdash;Letters to
+and from Prominent Men.</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 100%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xix" id="Page_xix">[xix]</a></span></p>
+<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2>
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="5" summary="" width="80%">
+<tr><td class="negin">Frederick A. Cook</td><td align='right'><a href="#Frontispiece"><i>Frontispiece</i></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td align='right'><small>FACING<br />PAGE &nbsp;</small></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="negin">Rudolph Francke in Arctic Costume</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_12">12</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="negin">Midnight&mdash;"A Panorama of Black Lacquer and Silver"</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_13">13</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="negin">On the Chase for Bear&mdash;The Box-House at Annoatok and its Winter Environment</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_76">76</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="negin">Man's Prey of the Arctic Sea&mdash;Walrus Asleep</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_77">77</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="negin">The Helpers&mdash;Northernmost Man and His Wife</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_108">108</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="negin">A Mecca of Musk Ox Along Eureka Sound&mdash;A Native Helper&mdash;Ah-We-Lah's Prospective Wife</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_109">109</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="negin">The Capture of a Bear&mdash;Rounding Up a Herd of Musk Oxen</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_140">140</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="negin">Svartevoeg&mdash;Camping 500 Miles from the Pole</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_141">141</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="negin">"The Igloo Built, We Prepare for Our Daily Camp"</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_172">172</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="negin">Camping to Eat and Take Observations&mdash;On Again</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_173">173</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="negin">Dashing Forward En Route to the Pole</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_204">204</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="negin">Departure of Supporting Party&mdash;A Breathing Spell&mdash;Poleward</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_205">205</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="negin">Bradley Land Discovered&mdash;Submerged Island of Polar Sea&mdash;Going Beyond the Bounds of Life</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_236">236</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="negin">Swift Progress over Smooth Ice&mdash;Building an Igloo&mdash;A Lifeless World of Cold and Ice</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_237">237</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="negin">"Too Weary to Build Igloos, We Used the Silk Tent" "Across Seas of Crystal Glory to the Boreal Centre"</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_268">268</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="negin">Mending Near the Pole</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_269">269</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="negin">First Camp at the Pole, April 21, 1908</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_300">300</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="negin">At The Pole&mdash;"We Were the Only Pulsating Creatures in a Dead World of Ice"</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_301">301</a><span class='pagenum'>[xx]</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="negin">"With Eager Eyes We Searched the Dusky Plains of Crystal, But There Was No Land, No life, To Relieve the Purple Run of Death"</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_332">332</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="negin">Record Left in Brass Tube at North Pole</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_333">333</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="negin">Observation Determining the Pole&mdash;Photograph from Original Note</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_364">364</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="negin">Back to Land and Back to Life&mdash;Awakened by a Winged Harbinger</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_365">365</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="negin">E-Tuk-I-Shook Waiting for a Seal at a Blow Hole</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_396">396</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="negin">Toward Cape Sparbo in Canvas Boat&mdash;Walrus&mdash;(Prize of 15-Hour Battle) 4,000 Lbs. of Meat and Fat</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_397">397</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="negin">Punctured Canvas Boat In Which We Paddled 1,000 Miles&mdash;Famine Days, When Only Stray Birds Prevented Starvation&mdash;Den In Which We Spent 100 Double Nights</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_428">428</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="negin">Bull Fights with the Musk Ox About Cape Sparbo</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_429">429</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="negin">Saved from Starvation&mdash;The Result of One of Our Last Cartridges</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_460">460</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="negin">"Miles and Miles of Desolation"&mdash;Homeward Bound</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_461">461</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="negin">Governor Kraul In His Study&mdash;Arrival at Upernavik</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_492">492</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="negin">Polar Tragedy&mdash;A Deserted Child of the Sultan of the North and Its Mother</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_493">493</a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 100%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
+<h1>My Attainment of the Pole</h1>
+
+
+
+<h3>I.<br />
+<br />
+THE POLAR FIGHT</h3>
+
+
+<p>On April 21, 1908, I reached a spot on the silver-shining
+desert of boreal ice whereat a wild wave of joy
+filled my heart. I can remember the scene distinctly&mdash;it
+will remain one of those comparatively few mental
+pictures which are photographed with a terribly vivid
+distinctness of detail, because of their emotional effect,
+during everyone's existence, and which reassert themselves
+in the brain like lightning flashes in stresses of
+intense emotion, in dreams, in the delirium of sickness,
+and possibly in the hour of death.</p>
+
+<p>I can see the sun lying low above the horizon,
+which glittered here and there in shafts of light like
+the tip of a long, circular, silver blade. The globe of
+fire, veiled occasionally by purplish, silver-shot mists,
+was tinged with a faint, burning lilac. Through opening
+cracks in the constantly moving field of ice, cold
+strata of air rose, deflecting the sun's rays in every
+direction, and changing the vision of distant ice irregularities
+with a deceptive perspective, as an oar blade
+seen in the depth of still water.</p>
+
+<p>Huge phantom-shapes took form about me; they
+were nebulous, their color purplish. About the horizon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span>
+moved what my imagination pictured as the ghosts
+of dead armies&mdash;strange, gigantic, wraith-like shapes
+whose heads rose above the horizon as the heads of a
+giant army appearing over the summits of a far-away
+mountain. They moved forward, retreated, diminished
+in size, and titanically reappeared again. Above them,
+in the purple mists and darker clouds, shifted scintillantly
+waving flashes of light, orange and crimson, the
+ghosts of their earthly battle banners, wind-tossed,
+golden and bloodstained.</p>
+
+<p>I stood gazing with wonder, half-appalled, forgetting
+that these were mirages produced by cold air
+and deflected light rays, and feeling only as though I
+were beholding some vague revelation of victorious
+hosts, beings of that other world which in olden times, it
+is said, were conjured at Endor. It seemed fitting that
+they should march and remarch about me; that the low
+beating of the wind should suddenly swell into throbbing
+martial music. For that moment I was intoxicated.
+I stood alone, apart from my two Eskimo companions,
+a shifting waste of purple ice on every side,
+alone in a dead world&mdash;a world of angry winds, eternal
+cold, and desolate for hundreds of miles in every direction
+as the planet before man was made.</p>
+
+<p>I felt in my heart the thrill which any man must
+feel when an almost impossible but dearly desired work
+is attained&mdash;the thrill of accomplishment with which a
+poet must regard his greatest masterpiece, which a
+sculptor must feel when he puts the finishing touch to
+inanimate matter wherein he has expressed consummately
+a living thought, which a conqueror must feel
+when he has mastered a formidable alien army. Stand<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span>ing
+on this spot, I felt that I, a human being, with all
+of humanity's frailties, had conquered cold, evaded
+famine, endured an inhuman battling with a rigorous,
+infuriated Nature in a soul-racking, body-sapping
+journey such as no man perhaps had ever made. I
+had proved myself to myself, with no thought at the
+time of any worldy applause. Only the ghosts about
+me, which my dazzled imagination evoked, celebrated
+the glorious thing with me&mdash;a thing in which no human
+being could have shared. Over and over again I repeated
+to myself that I had reached the North Pole,
+and the thought thrilled through my nerves and veins
+like the shivering sound of silver bells.</p>
+
+<p>That was my hour of victory. It was the climacteric
+hour of my life. The vision and the thrill, despite
+all that has passed since then, remain, and will remain
+with me as long as life lasts, as the vision and the thrill
+of an honest, actual accomplishment.</p>
+
+<p>That I stood at the time on the very pivotal pin-point
+of the earth I do not and never did claim; I may
+have, I may not. In that moving world of ice, of constantly
+rising mists, with a low-lying sun whose rays
+are always deflected, such an ascertainment of actual
+position, even with instruments in the best workable
+condition, is, as all scientists will agree, impossible.
+That I reached the North Pole approximately, and
+ascertained my location as accurately, as painstakingly,
+as the terrestrial and celestial conditions and the best instruments
+would allow; that I thrilled with victory,
+and made my claim on as honest, as careful, as scientific
+a basis of observations and calculations as any human
+being could, I do emphatically assert. That any man,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span>
+in reaching this region, could do more than I did to
+ascertain definitely the mathematical Pole, and that any
+more voluminous display of figures could substantiate
+a claim of greater accuracy, I do deny. I believe still
+what I told the world when I returned, that I am the
+first white man to reach that spot known as the North
+Pole as far as it is, or ever will be, humanly possible to
+ascertain the location of that spot.</p>
+
+<p>Few men in all history, I am inclined to believe,
+have ever been made the subject of such vicious attacks,
+of such malevolent assailing of character, of such
+a series of perjured and forged charges, of such a widespread
+and relentless press persecution, as I; and few
+men, I feel sure, have ever been made to suffer so bitterly
+and so inexpressibly as I because of the assertion
+of my achievement. So persistent, so egregious, so
+overwhelming were the attacks made upon me that for
+a time my spirit was broken, and in the bitterness of my
+soul I even felt desirous of disappearing to some remote
+corner of the earth, to be forgotten. I knew that envy
+was the incentive to all the unkind abuses heaped upon
+me, and I knew also that in due time, when the public
+agitation subsided and a better perspective followed,
+the justice of my claim would force itself to the inevitable
+light of truth.</p>
+
+<p>With this confidence in the future, I withdrew from
+the envious, money-waged strife to the calm and restfulness
+of my own family circle. The campaign of infamy
+raged and spent its force. The press lined up
+with this dishonest movement by printing bribed, faked
+and forged news items, deliberately manufactured by
+my enemies to feed a newspaper hunger for sensation.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span>
+In going away for a rest it did not seem prudent to
+take the press into my confidence, a course which resulted
+in the mean slurs that I had abandoned my cause.
+This again was used by my enemies to blacken my character.
+In reality, I had tried to keep the ungracious
+Polar controversy within the bounds of decent, gentlemanly
+conduct; but indecency had become the keynote,
+and against this, mild methods served no good purpose.
+I preferred, therefore, to go away and allow the
+atmosphere to clear of the stench stirred up by rival
+interest; but while I was away, my enemies were
+watched, and I am here now to uncover the darkest campaign
+of bribery and conspiracy ever forged in a strife
+for honor.</p>
+
+<p>Now that my disappointment, my bitterness has
+passed, that my hurt has partly healed, I have determined
+to tell the whole truth about myself, about the
+charges made against me, and about those by whom the
+charges were made. Herein, FOR THE FIRST
+TIME, I will tell how and why I believed I reached the
+North Pole, and give fully the record upon which this
+claim is based. Only upon such a complete account of
+day-by-day traveling and such observations, can any
+claim rest.</p>
+
+<p>Despite the hullabaloo of voluminous so-called
+proofs offered by a rival, I am certain that the unprejudiced
+reader will herein find as complete a story,
+and as valuable figures as those ever offered by anyone
+for any such achievement in exploration as mine.
+Herein, for the first time, shall I answer <i>in toto</i> all
+charges made against me, and this because the entire
+truth concerning these same charges I have not suc<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span>ceeded
+in giving the world through other channels. Because
+of the power of those who arrayed themselves
+against me, I found the columns of the press closed to
+much that I wished to say; articles which I wrote for
+publication underwent editorial excision, and absolutely
+necessary explanations, which in themselves attacked
+my assailants, were eliminated.</p>
+
+<p>Only by reading my own story, as fully set down
+herein, can anyone judge of the relative value of my
+claim and that of my rival claimant; only by so doing
+can anyone get at the truth of the plot made to discredit
+me; only by doing so can one learn the reason for all of
+my actions, for my failure to meet charges at the time
+they were made, for my disappearing at a time when
+such action was unfairly made to confirm the worst
+charges of my detractors. That I have been too charitable
+with those who attempted to steal the justly
+deserved honors of my achievement, I am now convinced;
+when desirable, I shall now, having felt the
+smarting sting of the world's whip, and in order to
+justify myself, use the knife. I shall tell the truth
+even though it hurts. I have not been spared, and I
+shall spare no one in telling the unadorned and unpleasant
+story of a man who has been bitterly
+wronged, whose character has been assailed by bought
+and perjured affidavits, whose life before he returned
+from the famine-land of ice and cold&mdash;the world of his
+conquest&mdash;was endangered, designedly or not, by a
+dishonest appropriation of food supplies by one who
+afterwards endeavored to steal from him his honor,
+which is more dear than life.</p>
+
+<p>To be doubted, and to have one's honesty assailed,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span>
+has been the experience of many explorers throughout
+history. The discoverer of our own continent, Christopher
+Columbus, was thrown into prison, and another,
+Amerigo Vespucci, was given the honor, his name to
+this day marking the land which was reached only
+through the intrepidity and single-hearted, single-sustained
+confidence of a man whose vision his own people
+doubted. Even in my own time have explorers been
+assailed, among them Stanley, whose name for a time
+was shrouded with suspicion, and others who since have
+joined the ranks of my assailants. Unfortunately, in
+such cases the matter of proof and the reliability of any
+claim, basicly, must rest entirely upon the intangible
+evidence of a man's own word; there can be no such
+thing as a palpable and indubitable proof. And in the
+case when a man's good faith is aspersed and his character
+assailed, the world's decision must rest either upon
+his own word or that of his detractors.</p>
+
+<p>Returning from the North, exhausted both in body
+and brain by a savage and excruciating struggle against
+famine and cold, yet thrilling with the glorious conviction
+of a personal attainment, I was tossed to the
+zenith of worldly honor on a wave of enthusiasm, a
+world-madness, which startled and bewildered me. In
+that swift, sudden, lightning-flash ascension to glory,
+which I had not expected, and in which I was as a bit of
+helpless drift in the thundering tossing of an ocean
+storm, I was decorated with unasked-for honors, the
+laudations of the press of the world rang in my ears, the
+most notable of living men hailed me as one great among
+them. I found myself the unwilling and uncomfortable
+guest of princes, and I was led forward to receive
+the gracious hand of a King.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Returning to my own country, still marveling that
+such honors should be given because I had accomplished
+what seemed, and still seems, a merely personal achievement,
+and of little importance to anyone save to him
+who throbs with the gratification of a personal success,
+I was greeted with mad cheers and hooting whistles,
+with bursting guns and blaring bands. I was led
+through streets filled with applauding men and singing
+children and arched with triumphal flowers. In a dizzy
+whirl about the country&mdash;which now seems like a delirious
+dream&mdash;I experienced what I am told was an ovation
+unparalleled of its kind.</p>
+
+<p>Coincident with my return to civilization, and while
+the world was ringing with congratulations, there came
+stinging through the cold air from the North, by wireless
+electric flashes, word from Mr. Peary that he had
+reached the North Pole and that, in asserting such a
+claim myself, I was a liar. I did not then doubt the good
+faith of Peary's claim; having reached the boreal center
+myself, under extremely favorable weather conditions, I
+felt that he, with everything in his favor, could do as
+much a year later, as he claimed. I replied with all candor
+what I felt, that there was glory enough for two.
+But I did, of course, feel the sting of my rival's unwarranted
+and virulent attacks. In the stress of any great
+crisis, the average human mind is apt to be carried away
+by unwise impulses.</p>
+
+<p>Following Mr. Peary's return, I found myself the
+object of a campaign to discredit me in which, I believe,
+as an explorer, I stand the most shamefully abused man
+in the history of exploration. Deliberately planned,
+inspired at first, and at first directed, by Mr. Peary from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span>
+the wireless stations of Labrador, this campaign
+was consistently and persistently worked out by a
+powerful and affluent organization, with unlimited
+money at its command, which has had as its allies dishonest
+pseudo-scientists, financially and otherwise interested
+in the success of Mr. Peary's expedition. With
+a chain of powerful newspapers, a financial backer of
+Peary led a campaign to destroy confidence in me. I
+found myself in due time, before I realized the importance
+of underhand attacks, in a quandary which baffled
+and bewildered me. Without any organization behind
+me, without any wires to pull, without, at the time, any
+appreciable amount of money for defence, I felt what
+anyone who is not superhuman would have felt, a sickening
+sense of helplessness, a disgust at the human
+duplicity which permitted such things, a sense of the
+futility of the very thing I had done and its little worth
+compared to the web of shame my enemies were endeavoring
+to weave about me.</p>
+
+<p>One of the remarkable things about modern journalism
+is that, by persistent repetition, it can create as a
+fact in the public mind a thing which is purely immaterial
+or untrue. Taking the cue from Peary, there was
+at the beginning a widespread and unprecedented call
+for "proofs," which in some vague way were to consist
+of unreduced reckonings. Mr. Peary had his own&mdash;he
+had buried part of mine. I did not at the time instantly
+produce these vague and obscure proofs, knowing, as all
+scientists know, that figures must inevitably be inadequate
+and that any convincing proof that can exist is to
+be found only in the narrative account of such a quest. I
+did not appreciate that in the public mind, because of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>
+the newspapers' criticisms, there was growing a demand
+for this vague something. For this reason, I did not
+consider an explanation of the absurdity of this exaggerated
+position necessary.</p>
+
+<p>Nor did I appreciate the relative effect of the
+National Geographic Society's "acceptance" of Mr.
+Peary's so-called "proofs" while mine were not forthcoming.
+I did not know at the time, what has since been
+brought out in the testimony given before the Naval
+Committee in Washington, that the National Geographic
+Society's verdict was based upon an indifferent
+examination of worthless observations and a few
+seconds' casual observation of Mr. Peary's instruments
+by several members of the Society in the Pennsylvania
+Railroad Station at Washington. With many lecture
+engagements, I considered that I was right in doing
+what every other explorer, including Mr. Peary himself,
+had done before me; that is, to fulfill my lecture
+and immediate literary opportunities while there
+was a great public interest aroused, and to offer a narrative
+of greater length, with field observations and
+extensive scientific data, later.</p>
+
+<p>Following the exaggerated call for proofs, there
+began a series of persistently planned attacks. So
+petty and insignificant did many of them seem to me
+that I gave them little thought. My speed limits were
+questioned, this charge being dropped when it was found
+that Mr. Peary's had exceeded mine. The use by the
+newspaper running my narrative story of photographs
+of Arctic scenes&mdash;which never change in character&mdash;that
+had been taken by me on previous trips, was held
+up as visible evidence that I was a faker! Errors which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>
+crept into my newspaper account because of hasty preparation,
+and which were not corrected because there
+was no time to read proofs, were eagerly seized upon,
+and long, abstruse and impressive mathematical dissertations
+were made on these to prove how unscrupulous
+and unreliable I was.</p>
+
+<p>The photograph of the flag at the Pole was put
+forth by one of Mr. Peary's friends to prove on <i>prima
+facie</i> evidence that I had faked. Inasmuch as the original
+negative was vague because of the non-actinic light
+in the North, the newspaper photographers retouched
+the print and painted on it a shadow as being cast from
+the flag and snow igloos. This shadow was seized upon
+avidly, and after long and learned calculations, was
+cited as showing that the picture was taken some five
+hundred miles from the Pole.</p>
+
+<p>A formidable appearing statement, signed by various
+members of his expedition, and copyrighted by the
+clique of honor-blind boosters, was issued by Mr.
+Peary. In this he gave statements of my two Eskimo
+companions to the effect that I had not gotten out of
+sight of land for more than one or two "sleeps" on my
+trip. I knew that I had encouraged the delusion of my
+Eskimos that the mirages and low-lying clouds which
+appeared almost daily were signs of land. In their ignorance
+and their eagerness to be near land, they believed
+this, and by this innocent deception I prevented
+the panic which seizes every Arctic savage when he finds
+himself upon the circumpolar sea out of sight of land. I
+have since learned that Mr. Peary's Eskimos became
+panic-stricken near the Big Lead on his last journey
+and that it was only by the life-threatening announce<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>ment
+to them of his determination to leave them alone
+on the ice (to get back to land as best they might or
+starve to death) that he compelled them to accompany
+him.</p>
+
+<p>In any case, I did not consider as important any
+testimony of the Eskimos which Mr. Peary might cite,
+knowing as well as he did that one can get any sort of
+desired reply from these natives by certain adroit questioning,
+and knowing also that the alleged route on his
+map which he said they drew was valueless, inasmuch as
+an Eskimo out of sight of land and in an unfamiliar
+region has no sense of location. I felt the whole statement
+to be what it was, a trumped-up document in
+which my helpers, perhaps unwittingly, had been
+adroitly led to affirm what Mr. Peary by jesuitical and
+equivocal questioning planned to have them say, and
+that it was therefore unworthy of a reply.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 541px;">
+<img src="images/illo_035.jpg" width="541" height="800" alt="RUDOLPH FRANCKE IN ARCTIC COSTUME" title="" />
+<span class="caption">RUDOLPH FRANCKE IN ARCTIC COSTUME</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>I had left my instruments and part of the unreduced
+reckonings with Mr. Harry Whitney, a fact
+which Mr. Whitney himself confirmed in published
+press interviews when he first arrived&mdash;in the heat of the
+controversy and after I left Copenhagen&mdash;in Sidney.
+When interviews came from Mr. Peary insinuating
+that I had left no instruments in the North, this
+becoming a definite charge which was taken up
+with great hue and cry, I bitterly felt this to be
+a deliberate untruth on Mr. Peary's part. I have since
+learned that one of Mr. Peary's officers cross-questioned
+my Eskimos, and that by showing them Mr. Peary's
+own instruments he discovered just what instruments I
+had had with me on my trip, and that by describing the
+method of using these instruments to E-tuk-i-shook and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>
+Ah-we-lah, Bartlett learned from them that I did take
+observations. This information he conveyed to Mr.
+Peary before his expedition left Etah for America, and
+this knowledge Mr. Peary and his party, deliberately
+and with malicious intent, concealed on their return.
+At the time I had no means of refuting this insinuation;
+it was simply my word or Mr. Peary's.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 540px;">
+<img src="images/illo_036.jpg" width="540" height="800" alt="MIDNIGHT" title="" />
+<span class="caption">MIDNIGHT&mdash;&ldquo;A PANORAMA OF BLACK LACQUER AND SILVER.&rdquo;</span>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>I had no extraordinary proofs to offer, but, such
+as they were, I now know, by comparison with the
+published reports of Mr. Peary himself, they were as
+good as any offered by anyone. I was perhaps unfortunate
+in not having, as Mr. Peary had, a confederate
+body of financially interested friends to back me up, as
+was the National Geographic Society.</p>
+
+<p>Not satisfied with unjustly attacking my claim,
+Mr. Peary's associates proceeded to assail my past career,
+and I was next confronted by an affidavit made
+by my guide, Barrill, to the effect that I had not scaled
+Mt. McKinley, an affidavit which, as I later secured
+evidence, had been bought. A widely heralded "investigation"
+was announced by a body of "explorers" of
+which Peary was president. One of Colonel Mann's
+muck-rakers was secretary, while its moving spirit was
+Mr. Peary's press agent, Herbert L. Bridgman. In a
+desperate effort to help Peary, a cowardly side issue was
+forced through Professor Herschell Parker, who had
+been with me on the Mt. McKinley trip but who had
+turned back after becoming panic-stricken in the crossing
+of mountain torrents. Mr. Parker expressed doubt
+of my achievements because he differed with me as to the
+value of the particular instrument to ascertain altitude
+which I, with many other mountain climbers, used. I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>
+had offered all possible proofs as to having climbed the
+mountain, as full and adequate proofs as any mountaineer
+could, or ever has offered.</p>
+
+<p>I resented the meddlesomeness of this pro-Peary
+group of kitchen explorers, not one of whom knew the
+first principles of mountaineering. From such an investigation,
+started to help Peary in his black-hand effort
+to force the dagger, with the money power easing
+men's conscience&mdash;as was evident at the time everywhere&mdash;no
+fair result could be expected. And as to the
+widely printed Barrill affidavit&mdash;this carried on its face
+the story of pro-Peary bribery and conspiracy. I have
+since learned that for it $1,500 and other considerations
+were paid. Here was a self-confessed liar. I did not
+think that a sane public therefore could take this underhanded
+pro-Peary charge as to the climb of Mt. McKinley
+seriously. Indeed, I paid little attention to it,
+but by using the cutting power of the press my enemies
+succeeded in inflicting a wound in my side.</p>
+
+<p>I was thus plunged into the bewildering chaos
+which friends and enemies created, and swept for three
+months through a cyclone of events which I believe no
+human being could have stood. Before returning, I felt
+weakened mentally and physically by the rigors of the
+North, where for a year I barely withstood starvation.
+I was now whirled about the country, daily delivering
+lectures, greeting thousands of people, buffeted by
+mobs of well-meaning beings, and compelled to attend
+dinners and receptions numbering two hundred in sixty
+days. The air hissed about me with the odious charges
+which came from every direction. I was alone, helpless,
+without a single wise counsellor, under the charge<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>
+of the enemies' press, mud-charged guns fired from
+every point of the compass. Unlimited funds were
+being consumed in the infamous mill of bribery.</p>
+
+<p>I had not the money nor the nature to fight in this
+kind of battle&mdash;so I withdrew. At once, howls of execration
+gleefully rose from the ranks of my enemies;
+my departure was heralded gloriously as a confession
+of imposture. Advantage was taken of my absence
+and new, perjured, forged charges were made to blacken
+my name. Far from my home and unable to defend
+myself, Dunkle and Loose swore falsely to having
+manufactured figures and observations under my direction.
+When I learned of this, much as it hurt me, I
+knew that the report which I had sent to Copenhagen
+would, if it did anything, disprove by the very figures
+in it the malicious lying document published in the New
+York <i>Times</i>. This, combined with the verdict rendered
+by the University of Copenhagen&mdash;a neutral verdict
+which carried no implication of the non-attainment of
+the Pole, but which was interpreted as a rejection&mdash;helped
+to stamp me in the minds of many people as the
+most monumental impostor the world has ever seen.</p>
+
+<p>I fully realized that under the circumstances the
+only verdict of an unprejudiced body on any such proofs
+to such a claim must be favorable or neutral. The
+members of the University of Copenhagen who examined
+my papers were neither personal friends nor members
+of a body financially interested in my quest. Their
+verdict was honest. Mr. Peary's Washington verdict
+was dishonest, for two members of the jury admitted
+a year later in Congress, under pressure, that in the
+Peary data there was no absolute proof.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>By the time I determined to return to my native
+country and state my case, I had been placed, I am
+certain, in a position of undeserved discredit unparalleled
+in history. No epithet was too vile to couple with
+my name. I was declared a brazen cheat who had concocted
+the most colossal lie of ages whereby to hoax an
+entire world for gain. I was made the subject of cheap
+jokes. My name in antagonistic newspapers had become
+a synonym for cheap faking. I was compelled
+to see myself held up gleefully as an impostor, a liar, a
+fraud, an unscrupulous scoundrel, one who had tried to
+steal honors from another, and who, to escape exposure,
+had fled to obscurity.</p>
+
+<p>All the scientific work which scientists themselves
+had accepted as valuable, all the necessary hardships
+and the inevitable agonies of my last Arctic journey
+were forgotten; I was coupled with the most notorious
+characters in history in a press which panders to the
+lowest of human emotions and delights in men's shame.
+When I realized how egregious, how frightful, how undeserved
+was all this, my soul writhed; when I saw
+clearly, with the perspective which only time can give,
+how I, stepping aside, in errors of confused judgment
+which were purely human, had seemingly contributed to
+my unhappy plight, I felt the sting of ignominy greater
+than that which has broken stronger men's hearts.</p>
+
+<p>For the glory which the world gives to such an
+accomplishment as the discovery of the North Pole, I
+care very little, but when the very result of such a victory
+is used as a whip to inflict cuts that mark my future
+destiny, I have a right to call a halt. I have claimed
+no national honors, want no medals or money. My feet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span>
+stepped over the Polar wastes with a will fired only by
+a personal ambition to succeed in a task where all the
+higher human powers were put to the test of fitness.
+That victory was honestly won. All that the achievement
+ever meant to me&mdash;the lure of it before I achieved
+it, the only satisfaction that remains since&mdash;is that it is
+a personal accomplishment of brain and muscle over
+hitherto unconquered forces, a thought in which I have
+pride. From the tremendous ovations that greeted me
+when I returned to civilization I got not a single thrill.
+I did thrill with the handclasp of confident, kindly people.
+I still thrill with the handclasp of my countrymen.</p>
+
+<p>Insofar as the earthly glory and applause are concerned,
+I should be only too glad to share them, with all
+material accruements, to any honest, manly rivals&mdash;those
+of the past and those of the future. But against
+the unjust charges which have been made against me,
+against the aspersions on my personal integrity, against
+the ignominy with which my name has been besmirched,
+I will fight until the public gets a normal perspective.</p>
+
+<p>I have never hoaxed a mythical achievement.
+Everything I have ever claimed was won by hard labor,
+by tremendous physical fortitude and endurance, and
+by such personal sacrifice as only I, and my immediate
+family, will ever know.</p>
+
+<p>For this reason, I returned to my country in the
+latter part of 1910, as I always intended to do, after a
+year's rest. By this time I knew that my enemies
+would have said all that was possible about me; the excitement
+of the controversy would have quieted, and I
+should have the advantage of the last word.</p>
+
+<p>In the heat of the controversy, only just re<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>turned
+in a weakened condition from the North, and
+mentally bewildered by the unexpected maelstrom of
+events, I should not have been able, with justice to myself,
+to have met all the charges, criminal and silly,
+which were made against me. Even what I did say
+was misquoted and distorted by a sensational press
+which found it profitable to add fuel to the controversy.
+Sometimes I feel that no man ever born has been so
+variedly, so persistently lied about, misrepresented,
+made the butt of such countless untruths as myself.
+When I consider the lies, great and small, which for
+more than a year, throughout the entire world, have
+been printed about me, I am filled almost with hopelessness.
+And sometimes, when I think how I have
+been unjustly dubbed as the most colossal liar of history,
+I am filled with a sort of sardonic humor.</p>
+
+<p>Returning to my country, determined to state my
+case freely and frankly, and making the honest admission
+that any claim to the definite, actual attainment of
+the North Pole&mdash;the mathematical pin-point on which
+the earth spins&mdash;must rest upon assumptions, because
+of the impossibility of accuracy in observations, I found
+that this admission, which every explorer would have
+to make, which Mr. Peary was unwillingly forced to
+make at the Congressional investigation, was construed
+throughout the country and widely heralded as a "confession,"
+that garbled extracts were lifted from the
+context of my magazine story and their meaning distorted.
+In hundreds of newspapers I was represented
+as confessing to a fraudulent claim or as making a plea
+of insanity. A full answer to the charges made against
+me, necessary in order to justly cover my case, because<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span>
+of the controversial nature of certain statements which
+involved Mr. Peary, was prohibited by the contract I
+found it necessary to sign in order to get any statement
+of a comparatively ungarbled sort before a public which
+had read Mr. Peary's own account of his journey.</p>
+
+<p>I found the columns of the press of my country
+closed to the publication of statements which involved
+my enemies, because of the unfounded prejudice
+created against me during my absence and because of
+the power of Mr. Peary's friends. It is almost impossible
+in any condition for anyone to secure a refutation
+for an unfounded attack in the American papers. With
+the entire press of the country printing misstatements,
+I was almost helpless. The justice, kindliness and generous
+spirit of fair dealing of the American people,
+however, was extended to me&mdash;I found the American
+people glad&mdash;nay, eager&mdash;to listen.</p>
+
+<p>It is this spirit which has encouraged me, after the
+shameful campaign of opprobrium which well-nigh
+broke my spirit, to tell the entire and unalterable truth
+about myself and an achievement in which I still believe&mdash;in
+fairness to myself, in order to clear myself,
+in order that the truth about the discovery of the North
+Pole may be known by my people and in order that
+history may record its verdict upon a full, free and
+frank exposition. I do not address myself to any
+clique of geographers or scientists, but to the great
+public of the world, and herein, for the first time, shall
+I give fully whatever proofs there may be of my conquest.
+Upon these records must conviction rest.</p>
+
+<p>Did I actually reach the North Pole? When I
+returned to civilization and reported that the boreal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>
+center had been attained, I believed that I had reached
+the spot toward which valiant men had strained for
+more than three hundred years. I still believe that I
+reached the boreal center as far as it is possible for any
+human being to ascertain it. If I was mistaken in
+approximately placing my feet upon the pin-point
+about which this controversy has raged, I maintain that
+it is the inevitable mistake any man must make. To
+touch that spot would be an accident. That any other
+man has more accurately determined the Pole I do
+deny. That Mr. Peary reached the North Pole&mdash;or
+its environs&mdash;with as fair accuracy as was possible, I
+have never denied. That Mr. Peary was better fitted
+to reach the Pole, and better equipped to locate this
+mythical spot, I do not admit. In fact, I believe that,
+inasmuch as the purely scientific ascertainment is a
+comparatively simple matter, I stood a better chance of
+more scientifically and more accurately marking the
+actual spot than Mr. Peary. I reached my goal when
+the sun was twelve degrees above the horizon, and was
+therefore better able to mark a mathematical position
+than Mr. Peary could have with the sun at less than
+seven degrees. Mr. Peary's case rests upon three
+observations of sun altitude so low that, as proof of a
+position, they are worthless.</p>
+
+<p>Besides taking observations, which, as I shall explain
+in due course in my narrative, cannot be adequate,
+I also ascertained what I believed to be my approximate
+position at the boreal center and en route by measuring
+the shadows each hour of the long day. Inasmuch as
+one's shadow decreases or increases in length as the sun
+rises toward the meridian or descends, at the boreal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>
+center, where the sun circles the entire horizon at practically
+the same height during the entire day, one's
+shadow in this region of mystery is of the same length.
+In this observation, which is so simple that a child may
+understand it, is a sure and certain means of approximately
+ascertaining the North Pole. I took advantage
+of this method, which does not seem to have occurred to
+any other Arctic traveler, and this helped to bring
+conviction.</p>
+
+<p>I shall in this volume present with detail the story
+of my Arctic journey&mdash;I shall tell how it was possible
+for me to reach my goal, why I believe I attained that
+goal; and upon this record must the decision of my people
+rest. I shall herein tell the story of an unfair and
+unworthy plot to ruin the reputation of an innocent
+man because of an achievement the full and prior credit
+of which was desired by a brutally selfish, brutally unscrupulous
+rival. I shall tell of a tragedy compared
+with which the North Pole and any glory accruing to
+its discoverer pales into insignificance&mdash;the tragedy of
+a spirit that was almost broken, of a man whose honor
+and pride was cut with knives in unclean hands.</p>
+
+<p>When you have read all this, then, and only then,
+in fairness to yourself and in fairness to me, do I ask
+you to form your opinion. Only by reading this can
+you learn the full truth about me, about my claim and
+about the plot to discredit me, of the charges made
+against me, and the reason for all of my own actions.
+So persistent, so world-wide has been the press campaign
+made by my enemies, and so egregious have the
+charges seemed against me, so multitudinous have the
+lies, fake stories, fake interviews, fake confessions been,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>
+so blatant have rung the hideous cries of liar, impostor,
+cheat and fraud, that the task to right myself, explain
+myself, and bring the truth into clean relief has seemed
+colossal.</p>
+
+<p>To return to my country and face the people in
+view of all that was being said, with my enemies exultant,
+with antagonistic press men awaiting me as some
+beast to be devoured, required a determined gritting of
+the teeth and a reserve temperament to prevent an
+undignified battle.</p>
+
+<p>For against such things nature dictates the tactics
+of the tiger. I faced my people, I found them fair and
+kindly. I accused my enemies of their lies, and they
+have remained silent. Titanic as is this effort of forcing
+fair play where biased abuse has reigned so long, I am
+confident of success. I am confident of the honesty
+and justice of my people; of their ability spiritually to
+sense, psychically to appreciate the earmarks of a clean,
+true effort&mdash;a worthy ambition and a real attainment.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 100%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span></p>
+<h2>INTO THE BOREAL WILDS</h2>
+
+<p class="blockquot">THE YACHT BRADLEY LEAVES GLOUCESTER&mdash;INVADES THE
+MAGIC OF THE WATERS OF THE ARCTIC SEAS&mdash;RECOLLECTION
+OF BOYHOOD AMBITIONS&mdash;BEYOND THE
+ARCTIC CIRCLE&mdash;THE WEAVING OF THE POLAR SPELL</p>
+
+<h3>II<br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">Over the Arctic Circle</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>On July 3, 1907, between seven and eight o'clock
+in the evening, the yacht, which had been renamed the
+<i>John B. Bradley</i>, quietly withdrew from the pier at
+Gloucester, Massachusetts, and, turning her prow
+oceanward, slowly, quietly started on her historic journey
+to the Arctic seas.</p>
+
+<p>In the tawny glow of sunset, which was fading in
+the western sky, she looked, with her new sails unfurled,
+her entire body newly painted a spotless white, like
+some huge silver bird alighting upon the sunshot waters
+of the bay. On board, all was quiet. I stood alone,
+gazing back upon the picturesque fishing village with
+a tender throb at my heart, for it was the last village of
+my country which I might see for years, or perhaps ever.</p>
+
+<p>Along the water's edge straggled tiny ramshackle
+boat houses, dun-colored sheds where fish are dried, and
+the humble miniature homes of the fisherfolk, in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>
+windows of which lights soon after appeared. On the
+bay about us, fishing boats were lazily bobbing up and
+down; in some, old bearded fishermen with broad hats,
+smoking clay and corncob pipes, were drying their
+seines. Other boats went by, laden with wriggling,
+silver-scaled fish; along the shore I could still see tons
+of fish being unloaded from scores of boats. Through the
+rosy twilight, voices came over the water, murmurous
+sounds from the shore, cries from the sea mixed with
+the quaint oaths of fisherfolk at work. Ashore, the boys
+of the village were testing their firecrackers for the morrow;
+sputtering explosions cracked through the air.
+Occasionally a faint fire rocket scaled the sky. But no
+whistles tooted after our departure. No visiting crowds
+of curiosity-seekers ashore were frenziedly waving us
+good-bye.</p>
+
+<p>An Arctic expedition had been born without the
+usual clamor. Prepared in one month, and financed by
+a sportsman whose only mission was to hunt game
+animals in the North, no press campaign heralded our
+project, no government aid had been asked, nor had
+large contributions been sought from private individuals
+to purchase luxuries for a Pullman jaunt of a large
+party Poleward. For, although I secretly cherished the
+ambition, there was no definite plan to essay the North
+Pole.</p>
+
+<p>At the Holland House in New York, a compact
+was made between John R. Bradley and myself to
+launch an Arctic expedition. Because of my experience,
+Mr. Bradley delegated to me the outfitting of the
+expedition, and had turned over to me money enough
+to pay the costs of the hunting trip. A Gloucester<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>
+fishing schooner had been purchased by me and was
+refitted, covered and strengthened for ice navigation.
+To save fuel space and to gain the advantage of a
+steamer, I had a Lozier gasoline motor installed. There
+had been put on board everything of possible use and
+comfort in the boreal wild. As it is always possible
+that a summer cruising ship is likely to be lost or delayed
+a year, common prudence dictated a preparation
+for the worst emergencies.</p>
+
+<p>So far as the needs of my own personal expedition
+were concerned, I had with me on the yacht plenty of
+hard hickory wood for the making of sledges, instruments,
+clothing and other apparatus gathered with
+much economy during my former years of exploration,
+and about one thousand pounds of pemmican. These
+supplies, necessary to offset the danger of shipwreck
+and detention by ice, were also all that would be required
+for a Polar trip. When, later, I finally decided
+on a Polar campaign, extra ship supplies, contributed
+from the boat, were stored at Annoatok. There, also,
+my supply of pemmican was amplified by the stores of
+walrus meat and fat prepared during the long winter
+by myself, Rudolph Francke and the Eskimos.</p>
+
+<p>As the yacht slowly soared toward the ocean, and
+night descended over the fishing village with its home
+lights glimmering cheerfully as the stars one by one
+flecked the firmament with dots of fire, I felt that at
+last I had embarked upon my destiny. Whether I
+should be able to follow my heart's desire I did not
+know; I did not dare hazard a guess. But I was leaving
+my country, now on the eve of celebrating its freedom,
+behind me; I had elected to live in a world of ice<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>
+and cold, of hunger and death, which lay before me&mdash;thousands
+of miles to the North.</p>
+
+<p>Day by day passed monotonously; we only occasionally
+saw writhing curves of land to the west of us;
+about us was the illimitable sea. That I had started on
+a journey which might result in my starting for the
+Pole, that my final chance had come, vaguely thrilled
+me. Yet the full purport of my hope seemed beyond
+me. On the journey to Sydney my mind was full. I
+thought of the early days of my childhood, of the strange
+ambition which grew upon me, of my struggles, and the
+chance which favored me in the present expedition.</p>
+
+<p>In the early days of my childhood, of which I now
+had only indistinct glimmerings, I remembered a restless
+surge in my little bosom, a yearning for something
+that was vague and undefined. This was, I suppose,
+that nebulous desire which sometimes manifests itself in
+early youth and later is asserted in strivings toward
+some splendid, sometimes spectacular aim. My boyhood
+was not happy. As a tiny child I was discontented,
+and from the earliest days of consciousness I
+felt the burden of two things which accompanied me
+through later life&mdash;an innate and abnormal desire for
+exploration, then the manifestation of my yearning, and
+the constant struggle to make ends meet, that sting of
+poverty, which, while it tantalizes one with its horrid
+grind, sometimes drives men by reason of the strength
+developed in overcoming its concomitant obstacles to
+some extraordinary accomplishment.</p>
+
+<p>As a very small boy, I remember being fascinated
+by the lure of a forbidden swimming pool. One day,
+when but little over five, I, impelled to test the depth,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>
+plunged to the center, where the water was above my
+head, and nearly lost my life. I shall never forget that
+struggle, and though I nearly gave out, in that short
+time I learned to swim. It seems to me now I have
+been swimming and struggling ever since.</p>
+
+<p>Abject poverty and hard work marked my school
+days. When quite a boy, after the death of my father,
+I came to New York. I sold fruit at one of the markets.
+I saved my money. I enjoyed no luxuries.
+These days vividly occur in my mind. Later I engaged
+in a dairy business in Brooklyn, and on the meager
+profits undertook to study medicine.</p>
+
+<p>At that time the ambition which beset me was undirected;
+it was only later that I found, almost by accident,
+what became its focusing point. I graduated
+from the University of New York in 1890. I felt (as
+what young man does not?) that I possessed unusual
+qualifications and exceptional ability. An office was
+fitted up, and my anxiety over the disappearing pennies
+was eased by the conviction that I had but to hang
+out my shingle and the place would be thronged with
+patients. Six months passed. There had been about
+three patients.</p>
+
+<p>I recall sitting alone one gloomy winter day.
+Opening a paper, I read that Peary was preparing his
+1891 expedition to the Arctic. I cannot explain my
+sensations. It was as if a door to a prison cell had
+opened. I felt the first indomitable, commanding call
+of the Northland. To invade the Unknown, to assail
+the fastness of the white, frozen North&mdash;all that was
+latent in me, the impetus of that ambition born in childhood,
+perhaps before birth, and which had been stifled
+and starved, surged up tumultuously within me.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I volunteered, and accompanied Peary, on this, the
+expedition of 1891-92, as surgeon. Whatever merit
+my work possessed has been cited by others.</p>
+
+<p>Unless one has been in the Arctic, I suppose it is
+impossible to understand its fascination&mdash;a fascination
+which makes men risk their lives and endure inconceivable
+hardships for, as I view it now, no profitable personal
+purpose of any kind. The spell was upon me
+then. It was upon me as I recalled those early days on
+the <i>Bradley</i> going Northward. With a feeling of sadness
+I realize that the glamor is all gone now.</p>
+
+<p>On the Peary and all my subsequent expeditions I
+served without pay.</p>
+
+<p>On my return from that trip I managed to make
+ends meet by meager earnings from medicine. I was
+nearly always desperately hard pressed for money. I
+tried to organize several co&ouml;perative expeditions to the
+Arctic. These failed. I then tried to arouse interest in
+Antarctic exploration, but without success. Then came
+the opportunity to join the Belgian Antarctic Expedition,
+again without pay.</p>
+
+<p>On my return I dreamed of a plan to attain the
+South Pole, and for a long time worked on a contrivance
+for that end&mdash;an automobile arranged to travel
+over ice. Financial failure again confronted me. Disappointment
+only added to my ambition; it scourged me
+to a determination, a conviction that&mdash;I want you to
+remember this, to bear in mind the mental conviction
+which buoyed me&mdash;I must and should succeed. It is
+always this innate conviction which encourages men to
+exceptional feats, to tremendous failures or splendid,
+single-handed success.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>A summer in the Arctic followed my Antarctic
+trip, and I returned to invade the Alaskan wilds. I succeeded
+in scaling Mt. McKinley. After my Alaskan
+expeditions, the routine of my Brooklyn office work
+seemed like the confinement of prison. I fretted and
+chafed at the thought. Let me have a chance, and I
+would succeed. This thought always filled my mind.
+I convinced myself that in some way the attainment of
+one of the Poles&mdash;the effort on which I had spent sixteen
+years&mdash;would become possible.</p>
+
+<p>I had no money. My work in exploration had
+netted me nothing, and all my professional income was
+soon spent. Unless you have felt the goading, devilish
+grind of poverty hindering you, dogging you, you cannot
+know the mental fury into which I was lashed.</p>
+
+<p>I waited, and fortune favored me in that I met
+Mr. John R. Bradley. We planned the Arctic expedition
+on which I was now embarked. Mr. Bradley's interest
+in the trip was that of a great sportsman, eager
+to seek big game in the Arctic. My immediate purpose
+was to return again to the frozen North. The least
+the journey would give me was an opportunity to complete
+the study of the Eskimos which I had started
+in 1891.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bradley and I had talked, of course, of the
+Pole; but it was not an important incentive to the
+journey. Back in my brain, barely above the subconscious
+realm, was the feeling that this, however, might
+offer opportunity in the preparation for a final future
+determination. I, therefore, without any conscious
+purpose, and with my last penny, paid out of my purse<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>
+for extra supplies for a personal expedition should I
+leave the ship.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<p>Aboard the <i>Bradley</i>, going northward, my plans
+were not at all definite. Even had I known before
+leaving New York that I should try for the Pole, I
+should not have sought any geographical license from
+some vague and unknown authority. Though much has
+since been made by critics of our quiet departure, I
+always felt the quest of the Pole a personal ambition<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a>,
+a crazy hunger I had to satisfy.</p>
+
+<p>Fair weather followed us to Sydney, Cape Breton.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span></p><p>From this point we sailed over the Gulf of St.
+Lawrence, then entered the Straits of Belle Isle at a
+lively speed. On a cold, cheerless day in the middle of
+July we arrived at Battle Harbor, a little town at the
+southeastern point of Labrador, where Mr. Bradley
+joined us. He had preceded us north, by rail and coasting
+vessels, after watching a part of the work of outfitting
+the schooner.</p>
+
+<p>On the morning of July 16 we left the rockbound
+coast of North America and steered straight for Greenland.
+In this region a dense and heavy fog almost
+always lies upon the sea. Then nothing is visible but
+slow-swaying gray masses, which veil all objects in a
+shroud of ghostly dreariness. Through the fog can be
+heard the sound of fisher-boat horns, often the very
+voices of the fishermen themselves, while their crafts
+are absolutely hidden from view. On this trip, however,
+from time to time, great fragments of fog slowly
+lifted, and we saw, emerging out of the gray mistiness,
+islands, bleak and black and weathertorn, and patches
+of ocean dotted with scores of Newfoundland boats,
+which invade this region to fish for cod. We entered
+the Arctic current, and breasting its stream, a fancy
+came that perhaps this current, flowing down from out
+of the mysterious unknown, came from the very Pole
+itself.</p>
+
+<p>Continuing, we entered Davis Straits, where we
+encountered headwinds that piled up the water in great
+waves. It was a good test of the sailing qualities of the
+<i>Bradley</i>, and well did the small craft respond.</p>
+
+<p>Long before the actual coast line of Greenland
+could be seen we had a first glimpse of the beauties that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>
+these northern regions can show. Like great sapphires,
+blue ice floated in a golden sea; towering masses of
+crystal rose gloriously, dazzling the eye and gladdening
+the heart with their superb beauty. The schooner
+sailed into this wonderful yellow sea, which soon became
+a broad and gleaming surface of molten silver. Although
+this striking beauty of the North, which it often
+is so chary of displaying, possesses a splendor of color
+equal to the gloriousness of tropical seas, it always
+impresses one with a steely hardness of quality suggestive
+of the steely hardness of the heart of the North.
+And it somehow seemed, curiously enough, as if all this
+wonderful glitter was a shimmering reflection from the
+ice-covered mountains of the Greenland interior, although
+the mountains themselves were still invisible.</p>
+
+<p>We swung from side to side, dodging icebergs.
+We steered cautiously around low-floating masses,
+watching to see that the keel was not caught by some
+treacherous jutting spur just beneath the water-line.
+Through this fairyland of light and color we sailed
+slowly into a region rich in animal life, a curious and
+striking sight. Seals floundered in the sunbeams or
+slumbered on masses of ice, for even in this Northland
+there is a strange commingling and contrast of heat
+and cold. Gulls and petrels darted and fluttered about
+us in every direction, porpoises were making swift and
+curving leaps, even a few whales added to the magic
+and apparent unreality of it all.</p>
+
+<p>At length the coast showed dimly upon the horizon,
+veiled in a glow of purple and gold. The wind freshened,
+the sails filled, and the speed of the schooner increased.
+We were gradually nearing Holsteinborg,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span>
+and the course was set a point more in towards shore.
+The land was thrown into bold relief by the brilliancy
+of lights and shadows, and in the remarkably clear air
+it seemed as if it could be reached in an hour. But this
+was an atmospheric deception, of the kind familiar to
+those who know the pure air of the Rocky Mountains,
+for, although the land seemed near, it was at least forty
+miles away. The general color of the land was a frosty
+blue, and there were deep valleys to be seen, gashes cut
+by the slow movement of centuries of glaciers, with
+rocky headlands leaping forward, bleak and cold. It
+appeared to be a land of sublime desolation.</p>
+
+<p>The course was set still another point nearer the
+coast; the wind continued fair and strong; and, with
+every possible stitch of canvas spread, the schooner
+went rapidly onward.</p>
+
+<p>We saw rocky islands, drenched by clouds of spray
+and battered by drifting masses of ice. There the eider
+duck builds its nest and spends the brief summer of
+the Arctic. We saw dismal cliffs, terra cotta and buff
+in color, in the crevasses of which millions of birds made
+their homes, and from which they rose, frightened, in
+dense clouds, giving vent to a great volume of
+clamorous hoarseness.</p>
+
+<p>Through our glasses we could see a surprising
+sight in such a land&mdash;little patches of vegetation, seal
+brown or even emerald green. Yet, so slight were these
+patches of green that one could not but wonder what
+freak of imagination led the piratical Eric the Red, one
+thousand years ago, to give to this coast a name so suggestive
+of luxuriant forests and shrubs and general
+lushness of growth as "Greenland." Never, surely, was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>
+there a greater misnomer, unless one chooses to regard
+the old-time Eric as a practical joker.</p>
+
+<p>Between the tall headlands there were fiords cutting
+far into the interior; arms of the sea, these, winding
+and twisting back for miles. Along these quiet land-locked
+waters the Eskimos love to hunt and fish, just as
+their forefathers have done for centuries. Shaggy looking
+fellows are these Eskimos, clothed in the skins of
+animals, relieved by dashes of color of Danish fabric,
+most of them still using spears, and thus, to outward
+appearance, in the arts of life almost like those that
+Eric saw.</p>
+
+<p>Although this rugged coast, with its low-lying
+islands, its icebergs and floating icefields, its bleak headlands,
+its picturesque scenes of animal life, is a continuous
+delight, it presents the worst possible dangers to
+navigation, not only from reefs and under-water ice,
+but because there are no lighthouses to mark permanent
+danger spots and because signs of impending storm are
+ever on the horizon. While navigating the coast, our
+officers spent sleepless nights of anxiety; but the shortening
+of the nights and lengthening of the days, the
+daily night brightening resulting from the northerly
+movement, combined with an occasional flash of the
+aurora, gradually relieved the tension of the situation.</p>
+
+<p>By the time the island of Disco rose splendidly
+out of the northern blue, the Arctic Circle had been
+crossed, and a sort of celestial light-house brightened
+the path of the schooner. Remaining on deck until
+after midnight, we were rewarded by a sight of the
+sun magnified to many times its normal size, glowing
+above the rim of the frosty sea. A light wind blew<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>
+gently from the coast, the sea ran in swells of gold, and
+the sky was streaked with topaz and crimson.</p>
+
+<p>Bathed in an indescribable glow, the towering
+sides of the greatest icebergs showed a medley of ever-changing,
+iridescent colors. The jutting pinnacles of
+others seemed like oriental minarets of alabaster fretted
+with old gold. Here and there, as though flung by an
+invisible hand from the zenith, straggled long cloud ribbons
+of flossy crimson and silver. Gradually, imperially,
+the sun rose higher and flushed sky and sea
+with deeper orange, more burning crimson, and the
+bergs into vivid ruby, chalcedony and chrysophase
+walls. This suddenly-changing, kaleidoscopic whirl of
+color was rendered more effective because, in its midst,
+the cliffs of Disco rose frowningly, a great patch of
+blackness in artistic contrast. A pearly vapor now
+began to creep over the horizon, and gradually spread
+over the waters, imparting a gentle and restful tone of
+blue. This gradually darkened into irregular shadows;
+the brilliant color glories faded away. Finally we retired
+to sleep with a feeling that sailing Poleward was
+merely a joyous pleasure journey over wonderful
+and magic waters. This, the first glorious vision of
+the midnight sun, glowed in my dreams&mdash;the augury of
+success in that for which my heart yearned. The glow
+never faded, and the weird lure unconsciously began to
+weave its spell.</p>
+
+<p>Next morning, when we went on deck, the schooner
+was racing eastward through heavy seas. The terraced
+cliffs of Disco, relieved by freshly fallen snow, were but
+a few miles off. The cry of gulls and guillemots
+echoed from rock to rock. Everything was divested of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>
+the glory of the day before. The sun was slowly rising
+among mouse-colored clouds. The bergs were of an
+ugly blue, and the sea ran in gloomy lines of ebony.
+Although the sea was high, there was little wind, but we
+felt that a storm was gathering and sought to hasten
+to shelter in Godhaven&mdash;a name which speaks eloquently
+of the dangers of this coast and the precious
+value of such a harbor.</p>
+
+<p>As we entered the narrow channel, which turns
+among low, polished rocks and opens into the harbor,
+two Eskimos in kayaks came out to act as pilots. Taking
+them aboard, we soon found a snug anchorage,
+secure from wind and sea. The launch was lowered,
+and in it we left the schooner for a visit to the Governor.</p>
+
+<p>Coming up to a little pier, we were cordially
+greeted by Governor Fenker, who escorted us to his
+home, where his wife, a cultivated young Danish
+woman, offered us sincere hospitality.</p>
+
+<p>The little town itself was keenly alive. All the
+inhabitants, and all the dogs as well, were jumping
+about on the rocks, eagerly gazing at our schooner.
+The houses of the Governor and the Inspector were the
+most important of the town. They were built of wood
+imported from Denmark, and were covered with tarred
+paper. Though quite moderate in size, the houses
+seemed too large and out of place in their setting of
+ice-polished rocks. Beyond them were twenty Eskimo
+huts, nearly square in shape, constructed of wood and
+stone, the cracks of which were filled tightly with moss.</p>
+
+<p>We deferred our visit to the native huts, and invited
+Governor Fenker and his wife to dine aboard the
+schooner. The surprise of the evening for these two<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>
+guests was the playing of our phonograph, the tunes of
+which brought tears of homesickness to the eyes of the
+Governor's gentle wife.</p>
+
+<p>Anywhere on the coast of Greenland, the coming
+of a ship is always one of the prime events of the season.
+So uneventful is life in these out-of-the-way places that
+such an arrival is the greatest possible social enlivener.
+The instant that the approach of our schooner had been
+noted, the Eskimo girls&mdash;queer little maids in queer
+little trousers&mdash;decided upon having a dance, and word
+was brought us that everyone was invited to take part.
+The sailors eagerly responded, and tumbled ashore as
+soon as they were permitted, leaving merely enough for
+a watch on board ship. Then, to the sound of savage
+music, the dance was continued until long after midnight.
+A curious kind of midnight dance it was, with
+the sun brightly shining in a night unveiled of glitter
+and color glory. The sailors certainly found pleasure
+in whirling about, their arms encircling fat and clumsy
+waists. They did admit, however, when back on board
+the schooner, that the smell of the furs within which the
+maidens had spent the past winter was less agreeable
+than the savor of fish. The name of this scattered settlement
+of huts, Godhaven, comes, clearly enough, from
+its offering fortunate refuge from storms; that the
+place is also known as Lively is not in the least to be
+wondered at, if one has watched a midnight dance of the
+little population and their visitors.</p>
+
+<p>Before hauling in anchor in the harbor of Godhaven,
+we made some necessary repairs to the yacht and
+filled our tanks with water. With a free wind speeding
+onward to the west of Disco, we passed the narrow<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>
+strait known as the Vaigat early the following morning.
+As I stood on deck and viewed the passing of icebergs,
+glittering in the limpid, silvery light of morning like
+monstrous diamonds, there began to grow within me a
+feeling&mdash;that throbbed in pulsation with the onward
+movement of the boat&mdash;that every minute, every mile,
+meant a nearing to that mysterious center, on the attaining
+of which I had set my heart, and which, even
+now, seemed unlikely, improbable. Yet the thought
+gave me a thrill.</p>
+
+<p>Before noon we reached the mouth of Umanak
+Fiord, into the delightful waters of which we were
+tempted to enter. The lure of the farther North decided
+us against this, and soon the striking Svarten
+Huk (Black Hook), a great rock cliff, loomed upon
+the horizon. Beyond it, gradually appeared a long chain
+of those islands among which lies Upernavik, where the
+last traces of civilized or semi-civilized life are found.
+The wind increased in force but the horizon remained
+remarkably clear. Over a bounding sea we sped rapidly
+along to the west, into the labyrinth of islands that are
+sprinkled along the southern shore of Melville Bay.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a>
+Beyond, we were to come into the true boreal wilder<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>ness
+of ice, where there were only a few savage
+aborigines, its sole inhabitants.</p>
+
+<p>On the following day, with reduced sail and the
+help of the auxiliary engine, we pushed far up into
+Melville Bay, where we ran into fields of pack-ice.
+Here we decided to hunt for game. With this purpose
+it was necessary to keep close to land. Here also
+came our first realistic experience with the great forces
+of the North. The pack-ice floated close around us,
+young ice cemented the broken masses together, and
+for several days we were thus closely imprisoned in
+frozen seas.</p>
+
+<p>These days of enforced delay were days of great
+pleasure, for the bears and seals on the ice afforded
+considerable sport. The constant danger of our position,
+however, required a close watch for the safety of the
+schooner. The Devil's Thumb, a high rock shaped like
+a dark thumb pointing at the sky, loomed darkly
+and beckoningly before us. A biting wind descended
+from the interior.</p>
+
+<p>The ice groaned; the eiderducks, guillemots and
+gulls uttered shrill and disturbing cries, seemingly sensing
+the coming of a storm.</p>
+
+<p>For three days we were held in the grip of the relentless
+pack; then the glimmer of the land ice changed
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>to an ugly gray, the pack around us began to crack
+threateningly, and the sky darkened to the southward.</p>
+
+<p>The wind ominously died away. The air thickened
+rapidly. A general feeling of anxiety came over us,
+although my familiarity with storms in the North made
+it possible for me to explain that heavy seas are seldom
+felt within the zone of a large ice-pack, for the reason
+that the icebergs, the flat ice masses, and even the small
+floating fragments, ordinarily hold down the swells.
+Even when the pack begins to break, the lanes of water
+between the fragments thicken under the lower temperature
+like an oiled surface, and offer an easy sea.
+Furthermore, a really severe wind would be sure to release
+the schooner, and it would then be possible to trust
+it to its staunch qualities in free water.</p>
+
+<p>Hardly had we finished dinner when we heard the
+sound of a brisk wind rushing through the rigging.
+Hurrying to the deck, we saw coils of what looked like
+smoky vapor rising in the south as if belched from some
+great volcano. The gloom on the horizon was rapidly
+growing deeper. The sound of the wind changed to a
+threatening, sinister hiss. In the piercing steel-gray
+light we saw the ice heave awesomely, like moving hills,
+above the blackening water. The bergs swayed and
+rocked, and the massed ice gave forth strange, troublous
+sounds.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly a channel began to open through the ice
+in front of us. The trisail was quickly set, the other
+sails being left tightly furled, and with the engine helping
+to push us in the desired direction, we drew deep
+breaths of relief as we moved out into the free water
+to the westward.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>We felt a sense of safety now, although, clear of the
+ice, the sea rose about us with a sickening suddenness.
+Black as night, the water seemed far more dangerous
+because the waves were everywhere dashing angrily
+against walls of ice. Already strong, the wind veered
+slightly and increased to a fierce, persistent gale. Like
+rubber balls, the bergs bounded and rolled in the sea.
+The sound of the storm was now a thunder suggestive
+of constantly exploding cannons. But, fortunately, we
+were snug aboard, and, keeping the westerly course,
+soon escaped the dangers of ensnaring ice.</p>
+
+<p>We were still in a heavy storm, and had we not
+had full confidence in the ship, built as she was to withstand
+the storms of the Grand Banks, we should still
+have felt anxiety, for the schooner rolled and pitched
+and the masts dipped from side to side until they almost
+touched the water.</p>
+
+<p>Icy water swept the deck. A rain began to fall,
+and quickly sheathed the masts and ropes in ice. Snow
+followed, giving a surface as of sandpaper to the slippery,
+icy decks. The temperature was not low, but the
+cutting wind pierced one to the very marrow. Our
+men were drenched with spray and heavily coated with
+ice. Although suffering severely, the sailors maintained
+their courage and appeared even abnormally happy.
+Gradually we progressed into the open sea. In the
+course of four hours the storm began to abate, and, under
+a double-reefed foresail, at last we gleefully rode
+out the finish of the storm in safety.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 100%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span></p>
+<h2>THE DRIVING SPUR OF THE POLAR
+QUEST</h2>
+
+<p class="blockquot">ON THE FRIGID PATHWAY OF THREE CENTURIES OF
+HEROIC MARTYRS&mdash;MEETING THE STRANGE PEOPLE
+OF THE FARTHEST NORTH&mdash;THE LIFE OF THE STONE
+AGE&mdash;ON THE CHASE WITH THE ESKIMOS&mdash;MANEE
+AND SPARTAN ESKIMO COURAGE</p>
+
+<h3>III<br />
+
+<br /><span class="smcap">Strange Traits of Northernmost Man</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>I have often wondered of late about the dazzling
+white, eerie glamor with which the Northland weaves
+its spell about the heart of a man. I know of nothing
+on earth so strange, so wonderful, withal so sad. Pursuing
+our course through Melville Bay, I felt the fatal
+magic of it enthralling my very soul. For hours I
+stood on deck alone, the midnight sun, like some
+monstrous perpetual light to some implacable frozen-hearted
+deity, burning blindingly upon the horizon and
+setting the sea aflame. The golden colors suffused my
+mind, and I swam in a sea of molten glitter.</p>
+
+<p>I was consumed for hours by but one yearning&mdash;a
+yearning that filled and intoxicated me&mdash;to go on,
+and on, and ever onward, where no man had ever been.
+Perhaps it is the human desire to excel others, to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>
+prove, because of the innate egotism of the human unit,
+that one possesses qualities of brain and muscle which
+no other possesses, that has crazed men to perform this,
+the most difficult physical test in the world. The
+lure of the thing is unexplainable.</p>
+
+<p>During those dizzy hours on deck I thought of
+those who had preceded me; of heroic men who for three
+centuries had braved suffering, cold and famine, who
+had sacrificed the comforts of civilization, their families
+and friends, who had given their own lives in the pursuit
+of this mysterious, yea, fruitless quest. I remembered
+reading the thrilling tales of those who returned&mdash;tales
+which had flushed me with excitement
+and inspired me with the same mad ambition. I
+thought of the noble, indefatigable efforts of these men,
+of the heart-sickening failures, in which I too had
+shared. And I felt the indomitable, swift surge of
+their awful, goading determination within me&mdash;to subdue
+the forces of nature, to cover as Icarus did the air
+those icy spaces, to reach the silver-shining vacantness
+which men called the North Pole.</p>
+
+<p>As we cut the shimmering waters, I felt, as it were,
+the wierd, unseen presence of those who had died there&mdash;died
+horribly&mdash;men whose bodies had withered, with
+slow suffering, in frigid blasts and famine, who possibly
+had prolonged their suffering by feeding upon their own
+doomed companions&mdash;and of others who had perished
+swiftly in the sudden yawning of the leprous white
+mouth of the hungry frozen sea. It is said by some that
+souls live only after death by the energy of great emotions,
+great loves, or great ambitions generated throughout
+life. It seemed to me, in those hours of intoxica<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>tion,
+that I could feel the implacable, unsatisfied desire
+of these disembodied things, who had vibrated with one
+aim and still yearned in the spirit for what now they
+were physically unable to attain. It seemed that my
+brain was fired with the intensity of all these dead men's
+ambition, that my heart in sympathy beat more turbulently
+with the throb of their dead hearts; I felt growing
+within me, irresistibly, what I did not dare, for fear
+it might not be possible, to confide to Bradley&mdash;a determination,
+even in the face of peril, to essay the Pole!</p>
+
+<p>From this time onward, and until I turned my
+back upon the fruitless silver-shining place of desolation
+at the apex of the world, I felt the intoxication,
+the intangible lure of the thing exhilarating, buoying
+me gladsomely, beating in my heart with a singing
+rhythm. I recall it now with marveling, and am filled
+with the pathos of it. Yet, despite all that I have
+suffered since because of it, I regret not those enraptured
+hours of perpetual glitter of midnight suns.</p>
+
+<p>One morning we reached the northern shore of
+Melville Bay, and the bold cliffs of Cape York were
+dimly outlined through a gray mist. Strong southern
+winds had carried such great masses of ice against the
+coast that it was impossible to make a near approach,
+and as a strong wind continued, there was such a heavy
+sea along the bobbing line of outer ice as to make it
+quite impossible to land and thence proceed toward
+the shore.</p>
+
+<p>We were desirous of meeting the natives of Cape
+York, but these ice conditions forced us to proceed
+without touching here, and so we set our course for the
+next of the northernmost villages, at North Star Bay.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>
+By noon the mist had vanished, and we saw clearly the
+steep slopes and warm color of crimson cliffs rising precipitously
+out of the water. The coast line is about two
+thousand feet high, evidently the remains of an old
+tableland which extends a considerable distance northward.
+Here and there were short glaciers which had
+worn the cliffs away in their ceaseless effort to reach
+the sea. The air was full of countless gulls, guillemots,
+little auks and eider-ducks.</p>
+
+<p>As the eye followed the long and lofty line of
+crimson cliffs, there came into sight a towering, conical
+rock, a well-known guidepost for the navigator. Continuing,
+we caught sight of the long ice wall of Petowik
+Glacier, and behind this, extending far to the eastward,
+the scintillating, white expanse of the overland-ice which
+blankets the interior of all Greenland.</p>
+
+<p>The small and widely scattered villages of the
+Eskimos of this region are hemmed in by the ice walls
+of Melville Bay on the southward, the stupendous
+cliffs of Humboldt Glacier on the north, an arm of the
+sea to the westward, and the hopelessly desolate Greenland
+interior toward the east.</p>
+
+<p>There is really no reason why many Eskimos
+should not live here, for there is abundant food in both
+sea and air, and even considerable game on land. Blue
+and white foxes are everywhere to be seen. There is
+the seal, the walrus, the narwhal, and the white whale.
+There is the white bear, monarch of the Polar wilds,
+who roams in every direction over his kingdom. The
+principal reason why the population remains so small
+lies in the hazardous conditions of life. Children are
+highly prized, and a marriageable woman or girl who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>
+has one or more of them is much more valuable as a
+match than one who is childless.</p>
+
+<p>The coast line here is paradoxically curious, for
+although the coast exceeds but barely more than two
+hundred miles of latitude it presents in reality a sea
+line of about four thousand miles when the great indentations
+of Wolstenholm Sound, Inglefield Gulf,
+and other bays, sounds and fiords are measured.</p>
+
+<p>We sailed cautiously now about Cape Atholl,
+which we were to circle; a fog lay upon the waters,
+almost entirely hiding the innumerable icebergs, and
+making it difficult to pick our course among the dangerous
+rocks in this vicinity.</p>
+
+<p>Rounding Cape Atholl, we sailed into Wolstenholm
+Sound and turned our prow toward the Eskimo
+village on North Star Bay.</p>
+
+<p>North Star Bay is guarded by a promontory expressively
+named Table Mountain, "Oomanaq." As
+we neared this headland, many natives came out in
+kayaks to meet us. Inasmuch as I knew most of them
+personally, I felt a singular thrill of pleasure in seeing
+them. Years before, I learned their simple-hearted
+faithfulness. Knud Rasmussen, a Danish writer, living
+as a native among the Eskimos, apparently for the
+sake of getting local color, was in one of the canoes
+and came aboard the ship.</p>
+
+<p>As it was necessary to make slight repairs to the
+schooner, we here had to follow the primitive method of
+docking by preliminary beaching her. This was done at
+high tide when the propeller, which had been bent&mdash;the
+principal damage to the ship&mdash;was straightened. At
+the same time we gave the yacht a general looking-over,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>
+and righted a universal joint whose loosening had disabled
+the engine.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the launch kept busy scurrying to and
+fro, our quest being occasionally rewarded with eider-ducks
+or other game. Late at night, a visit was made
+to the village of Oomanooi. It could hardly be called
+a village, for it consisted merely of seven triangular
+sealskin tents, conveniently placed on picturesque rocks.
+Gathered about these in large numbers, were men,
+women and children, shivering in the midnight chill.</p>
+
+<p>These were odd-looking specimens of humanity.
+In height, the men averaged but five feet, two inches,
+and the women four feet, ten. All had broad, fat faces,
+heavy bodies and well-rounded limbs. Their skin was
+slightly bronzed; both men and women had coal-black
+hair and brown eyes. Their noses were short, and their
+hands and feet short, but thick.</p>
+
+<p>A genial woman was found at every tent opening,
+ready to receive visitors in due form. We entered and
+had a short chat with each family. Subjects of conversation
+were necessarily limited, but after all, they
+were about the same as they would have been in a
+civilized region. We conversed as to whether or not all
+of us had been well, of deaths, marriages and births.
+Then we talked of the luck of the chase, which meant
+prosperity or need of food. Even had it been a civilized
+community, there would have been little questioning regarding
+national or international affairs, because, in
+such case, everyone reads the papers. Here there
+was no comment on such subjects simply because
+nobody cares anything about them or has any papers
+to read.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>That a prominent Eskimo named My-ah had disposed
+of a few surplus wives to gain the means whereby
+to acquire a few more dogs, was probably the most
+important single item of information conveyed. I was
+also informed that at the present time there happened
+to be only one other man with two wives.</p>
+
+<p>Marriage, among these folk, is a rather free and
+easy institution. It is, indeed, not much more than a
+temporary tie of possession. Men exchange partners
+with each other much in the manner that men in other
+countries swap horses. And yet, the position of women
+is not so humble as this custom might seem to indicate,
+for they themselves are permitted, not infrequently, to
+choose new partners. These exceedingly primitive
+ideas work out surprisingly well in practice in these
+isolated regions, for such exchanges, when made, are
+seemingly to the advantage and satisfaction of all
+parties; no regrets are expressed, and the feuds of
+divorce courts, of alimony proceedings, of damages for
+alienation of affection, which prevail in so-called civilization,
+are unknown.</p>
+
+<p>It is certainly a curious thing that these simple
+but intelligent people are able to control their own
+destinies with a comfortable degree of success, although
+they are without laws or literature and without any
+fixed custom to regulate the matrimonial bond.</p>
+
+<p>It would seem as if there ought to be a large population,
+for there is an average of about three fat, clever
+children for each family, the youngest as a rule picturesquely
+resting in a pocket on the mother's back. But
+the hardships of life in this region are such that accidents
+and deaths keep down the population.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Each tent has a raised platform, upon which all
+sleep. The edge of this makes a seat, and on each
+side are placed stone lamps in which blubber is burned,
+with moss as a wick. Over this is a drying rack, also a
+few sticks, but there is no other furniture. Their dress
+of furs gives the Eskimos a look of savage fierceness
+which their kindly faces and easy temperament do not
+warrant.</p>
+
+<p>On board the yacht were busy days of barter. Furs
+and ivory were gathered in heaps in exchange for guns,
+knives and needles. Every seaman, from cabin boy to
+captain, suddenly got rich in the gamble of trade for
+prized blue-fox skins and narwhal tusks.</p>
+
+<p>The Eskimos were equally elated with their part
+of the bargain. For a beautiful fox skin, of less use to
+a native than a dog pelt, he could secure a pocket knife
+that would serve him half a lifetime!</p>
+
+<p>A woman exchanged her fur pants, worth a hundred
+dollars, for a red pocket handkerchief with which
+she would decorate her head or her igloo for years
+to come.</p>
+
+<p>Another gave her bearskin mits for a few needles,
+and she conveyed the idea that she had the long end
+of the trade! A fat youth with a fatuous smile displayed
+with glee two bright tin cups, one for himself
+and one for his prospective bride. He was positively
+happy in having obtained nine cents' worth of tin for
+only an ivory tusk worth ninety dollars!</p>
+
+<p>With the coming of the midnight tide we lifted
+the schooner to an even keel from the makeshift dry-dock
+on the beach. She was then towed out into the
+bay by the launch and two dories, and anchored.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Our first walrus adventures began in Wolstenholm
+Sound during the beautiful nightless days of mid-August.
+The local environment was fascinating. The
+schooner was anchored in North Star Bay, a lake of
+glitter in which wild men in skin canoes darted after
+seals and eider-ducks. On grassy shores were sealskin
+tents, about which fur-clad women and children vied
+with wolf-dogs for favorite positions to see the queer
+doings of white men. A remarkable landmark made the
+place conspicuous. A great table-topped rock rose suddenly
+out of a low foreland to an altitude of about six
+hundred feet. About this giant cliff, gulls, guillemots
+and ravens talked and winged uproariously. The rock
+bore the native name of Oomanaq. With the unique
+Eskimo manner of name-coining, the village was called
+Oomanooi.</p>
+
+<p>Wolstenholm Sound is a large land-locked body of
+water, with arms reaching to the narrow gorges of the
+overland sea of ice, from which icebergs tumble ceaslessly.
+The sparkling water reflected the surroundings
+in many shades of blue and brown, relieved by strong
+contrasts of white and black. On the western sky line
+were the chiseled walls of Acponie and other islands,
+and beyond a steel-gray mist in which was wrapped the
+frozen sea of the Polar gateway. Fleets of icebergs
+moved to and fro, dragging tails of drift bejeweled
+with blue crystal.</p>
+
+<p>Far out&mdash;ten miles from our outlook&mdash;there was
+a meeting of the currents. Here, small pieces of sea-ice
+slowly circled in an eddy, and upon them were herds
+of walruses. We did not see them, but their shrill voices
+rang through the icy air like a wireless message. This<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>
+was a call to action which Mr. Bradley could not resist,
+and preparations were begun for the combat.</p>
+
+<p>The motor boat&mdash;the most important factor in the
+chase&mdash;had been especially built for just such an encounter.
+Covered with a folding whale-back top entirely
+painted white to resemble ice, we had hoped to
+hunt walrus under suitable Arctic cover.</p>
+
+<p>Taking a white dory in tow, two Eskimo harpooners
+were invited to follow. The natives in kayaks soon
+discovered to their surprise that their best speed was not
+equal to ours&mdash;for the first time they were beaten in
+their own element. For ages the Eskimos had rested
+secure in the belief that the kayak was the fastest thing
+afloat. They had been beaten by big ships, of course,
+but these had spiritual wings and did not count in the
+race of man's craft. This little launch, however, with
+its rapid-fire gas explosions, made their eyes bulge to
+a wondering, wide-open, seal-like curiosity. They
+begged to be taken aboard to watch the loading of the
+engines; they thought we fed it with cartridges.</p>
+
+<p>After a delightful run of an hour, a pan of ice
+was sighted with black hummocks on it. "<i>Ahwek!</i>
+<i>Ahwek!</i>" the Eskimos shouted. A similar sound floated
+over the oily waters from many walrus throats. The
+walruses were about three miles to the southwest. At a
+slower speed we advanced two miles more. In the
+meantime Mr. Bradley cleared the deck for action. The
+direction of the hunting tactics was now turned over
+to My-ah. The mate was at the wheel. I pushed the
+levers of the gasoline kicker. Our line of attack was
+ordered at right angles to the wind. As we neared the
+game, the engines were stopped.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Looking through glasses, the sight of the gregarious
+herd made our hearts quicken. They were all
+males of tremendous size, with glistening tusks with
+which they horned one another in efforts for favorable
+positions. Some were asleep, others basked in the sun
+with heads turning lazily from side to side. Now and
+then, they uttered sleepy, low grunts. They were
+quivering in a gluttonous slumber, while the organs piled
+up their bank account of fat to pay the costs of the
+gamble of the coming winter night.</p>
+
+<p>With muffled paddles the launch was now silently
+propelled forward, while the kayaks stealthily advanced
+to deliver the harpoons. The Eskimo reason
+for this mode of procedure is based on a careful study
+of the walrus' habits. Its nose in sleep is always
+pointed windwards. Its ears are at all times sensitive
+to noises from every direction, while the eyes during
+wakeful moments sweep the horizon. But its horizon
+is very narrow. Only the nose and the ear sense the
+distant alarm. We advanced very slowly and cautiously,
+and that only when all heads were down. Our boat
+slowly got within three hundred yards of the herd. Preparing
+their implements to strike, the Eskimos had advanced
+to within fifty feet. The moment was tense.
+Of a sudden, a tumultuous floundering sound smote the
+air. The sleeping creatures awoke, and with a start
+leaped into the sea. Turning their kayaks, the Eskimos
+paddled a wild retreat and sought the security of the
+launch. The sport of that herd was lost to us. Although
+they darted about under water in a threatening
+manner, they only rose to the surface at a safe distance.</p>
+
+<p>Scanning the surroundings with our glasses, about<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span>
+two miles to the south another group was sighted.
+This time Bradley, as the chief nimrod, assumed direction.
+The kayaks and the Eskimos were placed in the
+dory. Tactics were reversed. Instead of creeping up
+slowly, a sudden rush was planned. No heed was taken
+of noise or wind. The carburetor was opened, the spark
+lever of the magneto was advanced to its limit, and we
+shot through the waters like a torpedo boat. As we
+neared the herd, the dory, with its Eskimos, was freed
+from the launch. The Eskimos were given no instructions,
+and they wisely chose to keep out of the battle.</p>
+
+<p>As we got to within two hundred yards, the canvas
+top of the launch fell and a heavy gun bombardment
+began. The walruses had not had time to wake; the suddenness
+of the onslaught completely dazed them. One
+after another dropped his ponderous head with a
+sudden jerk as a prize to the marksmen, while the
+launch, at reduced speed, encircled the walrus-encumbered
+pan. Few escaped. There were heads and meat
+and skins enough to satisfy all wants for a long time
+to follow. But the game was too easy&mdash;the advantage
+of an up-to-date sportsman had been carried to its
+highest degree of perfection. It was otherwise, however,
+in the walrus battles that followed later&mdash;battles
+on the success of which depended the possibility of my
+being able to assail the northern ice desert, in an effort
+to reach the Polar goal.</p>
+
+<p>Oomanooi was but one of six villages among which
+the tribe had divided its two hundred and fifty people
+for the current season. To study these interesting folk,
+to continue the traffic and barter, and to enjoy for a
+short time the rare sport of sailing and hunting in this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span>
+wild region, we decided to visit as many of the villages
+as possible.</p>
+
+<p>In the morning the anchor was raised and we set
+sail in a light wind headed for more northern villages.
+It was a gray day, with a quiet sea. The speed of the
+yacht was not fast enough to be exciting, so Mr.
+Bradley suggested lowering the launch for a crack at
+ducks, or a chase at walrus or a drive at anything that
+happened to cut the waters. His harpoon gun was
+taken, as it was hoped that a whale might come our
+way, but the gun proved unsatisfactory and did not
+contribute much to our sport. In the fleet launch we
+were able to run all around the schooner as she slowly
+sailed over Wolstenholm Sound.</p>
+
+<p>Ducks were secured in abundance. Seals were
+given chase, but they were able to escape us. Nearing
+Saunders Island, a herd of walruses was seen on a pan of
+drift ice far ahead. The magneto was pushed, the
+carburetor opened, and out we rushed after the shouting
+beasts. Two, with splendid tusks, were obtained,
+and two tons of meat and blubber were turned over to
+our Eskimo allies.</p>
+
+<p>The days of hunting proved quite strenuous, and in
+the evening we were glad to seek the comfort of our
+cosy cabin, after dining on eider-ducks and other game
+delicacies.</p>
+
+<p>A few Eskimos had asked permission to accompany
+us to a point farther north. Among them was a
+widow, to whom, for herself and her children, we had
+offered a large bed, with straw in it, between decks, but
+which, savage as she was, she had refused, saying she
+preferred the open air on deck. There she arranged a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>
+den among the anchor chains, under a shelter of seal
+skins.</p>
+
+<p>In tears, she told us the story of her life, a story
+which offered a peep into the tragedy and at the same
+time the essential comedy of Eskimo existence. It
+came in response to a question from me as to how the
+world had used her, for I had known her years before.
+At my simple question, she buried her face in her hands
+and for a time could only mutter rapidly and unintelligibly
+to her two little boys. Then, between sobs,
+she told me her story.</p>
+
+<p>Ma-nee&mdash;such was her name&mdash;was a descendant of
+the Eskimos of the American side. A foreign belle,
+and, although thin, fair to look upon, as Eskimo beauty
+goes, her hand was sought early by the ardent youths
+of the tribe, who, truth to tell, look upon utility as more
+desirable than beauty in a wife. The heart of Ma-nee
+throbbed to the pleadings of one Ik-wa, a youth lithe
+and brave, with brawn and sinews as resilient as rubber
+and strong as steel, handsome, dark, with flashing eyes,
+yet with a heart as cruel as the relentless wind and cold
+sea of the North. Ma-nee married Ik-wa and bore to
+him several children. These, which meant wealth of the
+most valuable kind (children even exceeding in value
+dogs, tusks and skins), meant the attainment of Ik-wa's
+selfish purpose. Ma-nee was fair, but her hands were
+not adroit with the needle, nor was she fair in the
+plump fashion desirable in wives.</p>
+
+<p>Ik-wa met Ah-tah, a good seamstress, capable of
+much toil, not beautiful, but round and plump. Whereupon,
+Ik-wa took Ah-tah to wife, and leading Ma-nee to
+the door of their igloo, ordered her to leave. Cruel as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>
+can be these natives, they also possess a persistence and
+a tenderness that manifest themselves in strange,
+dramatic ways. Ma-nee, disconsolate but brave, departed.
+There being at the time a scarcity of marriageable
+women in the village, Ma-nee was soon wooed by
+another, an aged Eskimo, whose muscles had begun to
+wither, whose eyes no longer flashed as did Ik-wa's,
+but whose heart was kind. To him Ma-nee bore two
+children, those which she had with her on deck. To
+them, unfortunately, descended the heritage of their
+father's frailities; one&mdash;now eight&mdash;being the only deaf
+and dumb Eskimo in all the land; the other, the
+younger, aged three, a weakling with a pinched and
+pallid face and thin, gaunt arms. Ma-nee's husband
+was not a good hunter, for age and cold had sapped his
+vigor. Their home was peaceful if not prosperous; the
+two loved one another, and, because of their defects,
+Ma-nee grew to love her little ones unwontedly.</p>
+
+<p>Just before the beginning of the long winter night,
+the old father, anxious to provide food and deer skins
+for the coming months of continuous darkness, ventured
+alone in search of game among the mountains
+of the interior. Day after day, while the gloom descended,
+Ma-nee, dry eyed waited. The aged father
+never came back. Returning hunters finally brought
+news that he had perished alone, from a gun accident, in
+the icy wilderness, and they had found him, his frozen,
+mummied face peeping anxiously from the mantle of
+snow. Ma-nee wept broken-heartedly.</p>
+
+<p>Ma-nee gazed into the faces of the two children
+with a wild, tragic wistfulness. By the stern and inviolable
+law of the Eskimos, Ma-nee knew her two be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>loved
+ones were condemned to die. In this land, where
+food is at a premium, and where every helpless and dependent
+life means a sensible drain upon the tribe's
+resources, they have evolved that Spartan law which
+results in the survival of only the fittest. The one child,
+because of its insufficient senses, the other because it
+was still on its mother's back and under three at the
+time its father died, and with no father to support
+them, were doomed. Kind-hearted as the Eskimos
+naturally are, they can at times, in the working out of
+that code which means continued existence, be terribly
+brutal. Their fierce struggle with the elements for
+very existence has developed in them an elemental
+fierceness. From probable experience in long-past
+losses of life from contagion, they instinctively destroy
+every igloo in which a native dies, or, at times, to save
+the igloo, they heartlessly seize the dying, and dragging
+him through the low door, cast him, ere breath has
+ceased, into the life-stilling outer world.</p>
+
+<p>This inviolable custom of ages Ma-nee, with a
+Spartan courage, determined to break. During the
+long night which had just passed, friends had been kind
+to Ma-nee, but now that she was defying Eskimo
+usage, she could expect no assistance. Brutal as he
+had been to her, hopeless as seemed such prospects,
+Ma-nee thought of the cruel Ik-wa and determined to
+go to him, with the two defective children of her second
+husband, beg him to accept them as his own and to take
+her, as a secondary wife, a servant&mdash;a position of
+humiliation and hard labor. In this determination,
+which can be appreciated only by those who know how
+implacable and heartless the natives can be, Ma-nee was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>
+showing one of their marvellous traits, that indomitable
+courage, persistence and dogged hopefulness which, in
+my two later companions, E-tuk-i-shook and Ah-we-lah,
+enabled them, with me, to reach the Pole.</p>
+
+<p>I admired the spirit of Ma-nee, and promised to
+help her, although the mission of reuniting the two
+seemed dubious.</p>
+
+<p>Ma-nee was not going to Ik-wa entirely empty-handed,
+however, for she possessed some positive wealth
+in the shape of several dogs, and three bundles of skins
+and sticks which comprised her household furniture.</p>
+
+<p>We soon reached the village where Ma-nee was to
+be put ashore. Very humbly, the heroic mother and
+her two frail children went to Ik-wa's tent. Ik-wa
+was absent hunting, and his wife, who had supplanted
+Ma-nee, a fat, unsociable creature, appeared. Weeping,
+Ma-nee told of her plight and begged for shelter.
+The woman stolidly listened; then, without a word,
+turned her back on the forlorn mother and entered her
+tent. For the unintentional part we had played she
+gave us exceedingly cold, frowning looks which were
+quite expressive.</p>
+
+<p>Ma-nee now went to the other villagers. They listened
+to her plans, and their primitive faces lighted
+with sympathy. I soon saw them serving a pot of steaming
+oil meat in her honor&mdash;a feast in which we were
+urgently invited to partake, but which we, fortunately,
+found some good excuse for avoiding. Although she had
+violated a custom of the tribe, these people, both stern-hearted
+and tender, recognized the greatness of a
+mother-love which had braved an unwritten law of ages,
+and they took her in. Several months later, on a return<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>
+to the village, I saw Ik-wa himself. Although he did not
+thank me for the unwitting part I had played in their
+reunion, he had taken Ma-nee back, and near his own
+house was a new igloo in which the mother lived with her
+children.</p>
+
+<p>Resuming our journey, a snow squall soon frosted
+the deck of the yacht, and to escape the icy air we retired
+early to our berths. During the night the speed of the
+yacht increased, and when we appeared on deck again,
+at four o'clock in the morning, the rays of the August
+sun seemed actually warm.</p>
+
+<p>We passed the ice-battered and storm-swept cliffs
+of Cape Parry and entered Whale Sound. On a sea of
+gold, strewn with ice islands of ultramarine and alabaster,
+whales spouted and walrus shouted. Large flocks
+of little auks rushed rapidly by.</p>
+
+<p>The wind was light, but the engine took us along at
+a pace just fast enough to allow us to enjoy the superb
+surroundings. In the afternoon we were well into
+Inglefield Gulf, and near Itiblu. There was a strong
+head wind, and enough ice about to make us cautious in
+our prospect.</p>
+
+<p>We aimed here to secure Eskimo guides and with
+them seek caribou in Olrik's Bay. While the schooner
+was tacking for a favorable berth in the drift off Kanga,
+the launch was lowered, and we sought to interview the
+Eskimos of Itiblu. The ride was a wet one, for a short,
+choppy sea poured icy spray over us and tumbled us
+about.</p>
+
+<p>There were only one woman, a few children, and
+about a score of dogs at the place. The woman was a
+remarkably fast talker, long out of practice. She told<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>
+us that her husband and the other men were absent on a
+caribou hunt, and then, with a remarkably rapid articulation
+and without a single question from us, plunged
+incessantly on through all the news of the tribe for a
+year. After gasping for breath like a smothered seal,
+she then began with news of previous years and a history
+of forgotten ages. We started back for the launch,
+and she invited herself to the pleasure of our company
+to the beach.</p>
+
+<p>We had gone only a few steps before it occurred to
+her that she was in need of something. Would we not
+get her a few boxes of matches in exchange for a narwhal
+tusk? We should be delighted, and a handful of sweets
+went with the bargain. Her boy brought down two
+ivory tusks, each eight feet in length, the two being
+worth one hundred and fifty dollars. Had we a knife
+to spare? Yes; and a tin spoon was also given, just to
+show that we were liberal.</p>
+
+<p>The yacht was headed northward, across Inglefield
+Gulf. With a fair wind, we cut tumbling seas of ebony
+with a racing dash. Though the wind was strong, the
+air was remarkably clear.</p>
+
+<p>The great chiselled cliffs of Cape Auckland rose in
+terraced grandeur under the midnight sun. The distance
+was twelve miles, and it was twelve miles of submerged
+rocks and shallow water.</p>
+
+<p>It was necessary to give Karnah a wide berth.
+There were bergs enough about to hold the water down,
+though an occasional sea rose with a sickening thump.
+At Karnah we went ashore. There was not a man in
+town, all being absent on a distant hunting campaign.
+But, though there were no men, the place was far from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>
+being deserted, for five women, fifteen children and
+forty-five dogs came out to meet us.</p>
+
+<p>Here we saw five sealskin tents pitched among the
+bowlders of a glacial stream. An immense quantity of
+narwhal meat was lying on the rocks and stones to dry.
+Skins were stretched on the grass, and a general air of
+thrift was evidenced about the place. Bundles of seal-skins,
+packages of pelts and much ivory were brought
+out to trade and establish friendly intercourse. We
+gave the natives sugar, tobacco and ammunition in
+quantities to suit their own estimate of value.</p>
+
+<p>Would we not place ourselves at ease and stay for
+a day or two, as their husbands would soon return? We
+were forced to decline their hospitality, for without the
+harbor there was too much wind to keep the schooner
+waiting. Eskimos have no salutation except a greeting
+smile or a parting look of regret. We got both at the
+same time as we stepped into the launch and shouted
+good-bye.</p>
+
+<p>The captain was told to proceed to Cape Robertson.
+The wind eased, and a descending fog soon blotted
+out part of the landscape, horizon and sky. It hung
+like a gray pall a thousand feet above us, leaving the air
+below this bright and startlingly clear.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 100%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span></p>
+<h2>TO THE LIMITS OF NAVIGATION</h2>
+
+<p class="blockquot">EXCITING HUNTS FOR GAME WITH THE ESKIMOS&mdash;ARRIVAL
+AT ETAH&mdash;SPEEDY TRIP TO ANNOATOK, THE
+WINDY PLACE, WHERE SUPPLIES ARE FOUND IN
+ABUNDANCE&mdash;EVERYTHING AUSPICIOUS FOR DASH TO
+THE POLE&mdash;DETERMINATION TO ESSAY THE EFFORT&mdash;BRADLEY
+INFORMED&mdash;DEBARK FOR THE POLE&mdash;THE
+YACHT RETURNS</p>
+
+<h3>IV<br /><br />
+
+<span class="smcap">Alone with Our Destiny, Seven Hundred Miles
+From the Pole</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>We awoke off Cape Robertson early on August 13,
+and went ashore before breakfast. The picturesque
+coast here rises suddenly to an altitude of about two
+thousand feet, and is crowned with a gleaming, silver
+ice cap. Large bays, blue glacial walls and prominent
+headlands give a pleasing variety. It is much like the
+coast of all Greenland. On its southern exposure the
+eroded Huronian rocks provide shelter for millions of
+little auks. They dart incessantly from cliff to sea in a
+chattering cloud of wings. Rather rich and grassy verdure
+offers an oasis for the Arctic hare, while the blue
+fox finds life easy here, for he can fill his winter den
+with the fat feathered creatures which teem by millions.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The Eskimos profit by the combination, and pitch
+their camp at the foot of the cliffs, for the chase on sea
+is nearly as good here as in other places, while land
+creatures literally tumble into the larder.</p>
+
+<p>As we approached the shore, ten men, nine women,
+thirty-one children and one hundred and six dogs came
+out to meet us. I count the children and dogs for they
+are equally important in Eskimo economy. The latter
+are by far the most important to the average Caucasian
+in the Arctic.</p>
+
+<p>Only small game had fallen to the Eskimos' lot,
+and they were eager to venture out with us after big
+game. Mr. Bradley gathered a suitable retinue of
+native guides, and we were not long in arranging a
+compact.</p>
+
+<p>Free passage, the good graces of the cook, and a
+knife each were to be their pay. A caribou hunt was
+not sufficiently novel to merit a return to Olrik's Bay,
+where intelligent hunting is always rewarded, but it
+was hoped we might get a hunt at Kookaan, near the
+head of Robertson Bay.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p>
+
+<p>Although hunting in the bay was not successful
+from a practical standpoint, it afforded exciting pleas<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>ure
+in perilous waters. Even during these hours of
+sport, my mind was busy with tentative plans for a
+Polar journey. Whenever I aimed my gun at a snorting
+walrus, or at some white-winged Arctic bird, I felt a
+thrill in the thought that upon the skill of my arms, of
+my aim, and upon that of the natives we were later to
+join, would depend the getting of food sufficient to enable
+me to embark upon my dream. Everything I did
+now began to have some bearing upon this glorious, intoxicating
+prospect; it colored my life, day and night. I
+realized how easily I might fail even should conditions
+be favorable enough to warrant the journey; for this
+reason, because of the unwelcome doubt which at times
+chilled my enthusiasm, I did not yet confide to Bradley
+my growing ambition.</p>
+
+<p>Returning to the settlement, we paid our hunting
+guides, made presents to the women and children, and
+set sail for Etah. An offshore breeze filled the big wings
+of the canvas. As borne on the back of some great
+white bird, we soared northward into a limpid molten
+sea. From below came the music of our phonograph,
+curiously shouting its tunes, classic and popular, in that
+grim, golden region of glory and death.</p>
+
+<p>It is curious how ambition sets the brain on fire,
+and quickens the heart throbs. As we sped over the
+magical waters, the wild golden air electric about me,
+I believe I felt an ecstasy of desire such as mystics
+achieved from fasting and prayer. It was the surge of
+an ambition which began to grow mightily within me,
+which I felt no obstacle could withstand, and which,
+later, I believe carried me forward with its wings of
+faith when my body well nigh refused to move. We<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>
+passed Cape Alexander and entered Smith Sound. We
+sped by storm-chiselled cliffs, whereupon the hand of
+nature had written a history, unintelligible to humans,
+as with a pen of iron. The sun was low. Great bergs
+loomed up in the radiant distance, and reflecting silver-shimmering
+halos, seemed to me as the silver-winged
+ghosts of those who died in this region and who were
+borne alone on the wind and air.</p>
+
+<p>Nature seemed to sing with exultation. Approaching
+a highland of emerald green and seal brown, I heard
+the wild shouting of hawks from the summit, and from
+below the shrill chattering of millions of auks with baby
+families. And nearer, from the life enraptured waters,
+the minor note of softly cooing ducks and mating guillemots.
+From the interior land of ice, rising above the
+low booming of a sapphire glacier moving majestically
+to the sea, rang the bark of foxes, the shrill notes of the
+ptarmigan, and from an invisible farther distance the
+raucous wolf howl of Eskimo dogs.</p>
+
+<p>Before us, at times, would come a burst of spouting
+spray, and a whale would rise to the surface of the sea.
+Nearby, on a floating island of ice, mother walrus would
+soothingly murmur to her babies. From invisible
+places came the paternal voices of the oogzook, and as
+we went forward, seals, white whales and unicorns appeared,
+speaking perhaps the sign language of the
+animal deaf and dumb in the blue submarine.</p>
+
+<p>Occasionally, there was an explosion, when
+thunder as from a hundred cannons echoed from cliff to
+cliff. A berg was shattered to ruins. Following this
+would rise the frightened voices of every animal above
+water. Now and then, from ultramarine grottoes issued<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>
+weird, echoing sounds, and almost continually rising to
+ringing peals and shuddering into silence, reiterant, incessant,
+came nature's bugle-calls&mdash;calls of the wind,
+of sundering glaciers, of sudden rushes of ice rivers, of
+exploding gases and of disintegrating bergs. With
+those sounds pealing in our ears clarion-like, we entered
+the "Gates of Hades," the Polar gateway, bound for
+the harbor where the last fringe of the world's humanity
+straggles finally up on the globe.</p>
+
+<p>As we entered Foulke Fiord, half a gale came
+from the sea. We steered for the settlement of
+Etah. A tiny settlement it was, for it was composed
+of precisely four tents, which for this season,
+had been pitched beside a small stream, just
+inside of the first projecting point on the north shore.
+Inside this point there was sheltered water for the
+Eskimo's kayaks, and it also made a good harbor for the
+schooner. It is possible in favorable seasons to push
+through Smith Sound, over Kane Basin, into Kennedy
+Channel, but the experiment is always at the risk of the
+vessel.</p>
+
+<p>So, as there was no special reasons for us to hazard
+life in making this attempt, we decided to prepare the
+schooner here for the return voyage.</p>
+
+<p>These preparations would occupy several days.
+We determined to spend as much of this time as possible
+in sport, since much game abounded in this region.
+Before we landed we watched the Eskimos harpoon a
+white whale. There were no unexplored spots in this
+immediate vicinity, as both Doctor Kane and Doctor
+Hayes, in the middle of the last century, had been
+thoroughly over the ground. The little auks kept us<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>
+busy for a day after our arrival, while hares, tumbling
+like snowballs over wind-polished, Arch&aelig;an rocks, gave
+another day of gun recreation. Far beyond, along the
+inland ice, were caribou, but we preferred to confine our
+hunting to the seashore. The bay waters were alive
+with eider-ducks and guillemots, while, just outside,
+walruses dared us to venture in open contest on the
+wind-swept water.</p>
+
+<p>After satisfying our desire for the hunt, we prepared
+to start for Annoatok, twenty-five miles to the
+northward. This is the northernmost settlement of the
+globe, a place beyond which even the hardy Eskimos
+attempt nothing but brief hunting excursions, and
+where, curiously, money is useless because it has no
+value.</p>
+
+<p>We decided to go in the motor boat, so the tanks
+were filled with gasoline and suitable food and camp
+equipment were loaded. On the morning of August 24,
+we started for Annoatok.</p>
+
+<p>It was a beautiful day. The sun glowed in a sky
+of Italian blue. A light air crossed the sea, which
+glowed dully, like ground glass. Passing inside of
+Littleton Island, we searched for relics along Lifeboat
+Cove. There the <i>Polaris</i> was stranded in a sinking
+condition in 1872, with fourteen men on board. The
+desolate cliffs of Cape Hatherton were a midsummer
+blaze of color and light that contrasted strongly with
+the cold blue of the many towering bergs.</p>
+
+<p>As we went swiftly past the series of wind-swept
+headlands, the sea and air became alive with seals, walruses
+and birds. We did little shooting as we were
+eagerly bent on reaching Annoatok.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>As we passed the sharp rocks of Cairn Point, we
+saw a cluster of nine tents on a small bay under Cape
+Inglefield.</p>
+
+<p>"Look, look! There is Annoatok!" cried Tung-we,
+our native guide. Looking farther, we saw that the
+entire channel beyond was blocked with a jam of ice.
+Fortunately we were able to take our boat as far as
+we desired. A perpendicular cliff served as a pier to
+which to fasten it. Here it could rise and fall with the
+tide, and in little danger from drifting ice.</p>
+
+<p>Ordinarily, Annoatok is a town of only a single
+family or perhaps two, but we found it unusually large
+and populous, for the best hunters had gathered here
+for the winter bear hunt. Their summer game catch
+had been very lucky. Immense quantities of meat were
+strewn along the shore, under mounds of stone. More
+than a hundred dogs, the standard by which Eskimo
+prosperity is measured, yelped a greeting, and twelve
+long-haired, wild men came out to meet us as friends.</p>
+
+<p>It came strongly to me that this was the spot to
+make the base for a Polar dash. Here were Eskimo
+helpers, strong, hefty natives from whom I could select
+the best to accompany me; here, by a fortunate chance,
+were the best dog teams; here were plenty of furs for
+clothing; and here was unlimited food. These supplies,
+combined with supplies on the schooner, would give all
+that was needed for the campaign. Nothing could have
+been more ideal.</p>
+
+<p>For the past several days, having realized the
+abundance of game and the auspicious weather, I had
+thought more definitely of making a dash for the Pole.
+With all conditions in my favor, might I not, by one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>
+powerful effort, achieve the thing that had haunted me
+for years? My former failures dogged me. If I did
+not try now, it was a question if an opportunity should
+ever again come to me.</p>
+
+<p>Now every condition was auspicious for the effort.
+I confess the task seemed audacious almost to the verge
+of impossibility. But, with all these advantages so
+fortunately placed in my hands, it took on a new and
+almost weird fascination. My many years of schooling
+in both Polar zones and in mountaineering would
+now be put to their highest test.</p>
+
+<p>Yes, I would try, I told myself; I believed I should
+succeed. I informed Mr. Bradley of my determination.
+He was not over-optimistic about success, but he shook
+my hand and wished me luck. From his yacht he
+volunteered food, fuel, and other supplies, for local
+camp use and trading, for which I have been thankful.</p>
+
+<p>"Annoatok" means "a windy place." There is really
+nothing there to be called a harbor; but we now planned
+to bring the schooner to this point and unload her
+on the rocky shore, a task not unattended with danger.
+However, the base had to be made somewhere hereabout,
+as Etah itself is still more windy than Annoatok.
+Moreover, at Etah the landing is more difficult, and it
+was not nearly so convenient for my purpose as a base.</p>
+
+<p>Besides, there were gathered at Annoatok, as I
+have described, with needed food and furs in abundance,
+the best Eskimos<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> in all Greenland, from whom, by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>
+reason of the rewards from civilization which I could
+give them, such as knives, guns, ammunition, old iron,
+needles and matches, I could select a party more efficient,
+because of their persistence, tough fibre, courage
+and familiarity with Arctic traveling, than any party
+of white men could be.</p>
+
+<p>The possible combination of liberal supplies and
+valiant natives left absolutely nothing to be desired to
+insure success, so far as preliminaries were concerned.
+It was only necessary that good health, endurable
+weather and workable ice should follow. The expenditure
+of a million dollars could not have placed an expedition
+at a better advantage. The opportunity was
+too good to be lost. We therefore returned to Etah to
+prepare for the quest.</p>
+
+<p>At Etah, practically everything that was to be
+landed at Annoatok was placed on deck, so that the
+dangerous stop beside the rocks of Annoatok could be
+made a brief one. The ship was prepared for the contingency
+of a storm.</p>
+
+<p>Late in the evening of August 26, the entire
+population of Etah was taken aboard, the anchor was
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>tripped, and soon the <i>Bradley's</i> bow put out on the
+waters of Smith Sound for Annoatok. The night was
+cold and clear, brightened by the charm of color. The
+sun had just begun to dip under the northern horizon,
+which marks the end of the summer double days of
+splendor and begins the period of storms leading into
+the long night. Early in the morning we were off
+Annoatok.</p>
+
+<p>The launch and all the dories were lowered and
+filled. Eskimo boats were pressed into service and
+loaded. The boats were towed ashore. Only a few
+reached Annoatok itself, for the wind increased and a
+troublesome sea made haste a matter of great importance.
+Things were pitched ashore anywhere on
+the rocks where a landing could be found for the boats.</p>
+
+<p>The splendid efficiency of the launch proved equal
+to the emergency, and in the course of about thirteen
+hours all was safely put on shore in spite of dangerous
+winds and forbidding seas. That the goods were spread
+along the shore for a distance of several miles did not
+much matter, for the Eskimos willingly and promptly
+carried them to the required points.</p>
+
+<p>Now the time had come for the return of the
+schooner to the United States. Unsafe to remain
+longer at Annoatok at this advanced stage of the season,
+it was also imperative that it go right on with barely a
+halt at any other place. The departure meant a complete
+severance between the civilized world and myself.
+But I do not believe, looking back upon it, that the situation
+seemed as awesome as might be supposed. Other
+explorers had been left alone in the Northland, and I
+had been through the experience before.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The party, so far as civilized men were concerned,
+was to be an unusually small one. That, however, was
+not from lack of volunteers, for when I had announced
+my determination many of the crew had volunteered to
+accompany me. Captain Bartlett himself wished to go
+along, but generously said that if it seemed necessary
+for him to go back with the schooner, he would need
+only a cook and engineer, leaving the other men
+with me.</p>
+
+<p>I wanted only one white companion, however, for
+I knew that no group of white men could possibly
+match the Eskimos in their own element. I had the
+willing help of all the natives, too, at my disposal.
+More than that was not required. I made an agreement
+with them for their assistance throughout the
+winter in getting ready, and then for as many as I
+wanted to start with me toward the uttermost North.
+For my white companion I selected Rudolph Francke,
+now one of the Arctic enthusiasts on the yacht. He
+had shipped for the experience of an Arctic trip. He
+was a cultivated young German with a good scientific
+schooling. He was strong, goodnatured, and his heart
+was in the prospective work. These were the qualities
+which made him a very useful man as my sole
+companion.</p>
+
+<p>Early on the morning of September 3, I bade farewell
+to Mr. Bradley, and not long afterward the yacht
+moved slowly southward and faded gradually into the
+distant southern horizon. I was left alone with my destiny,
+seven hundred miles from the Pole.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 100%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span></p>
+<h2>BEGINNING PREPARATIONS FOR THE
+POLAR DASH</h2>
+
+<p class="blockquot">THE ARCTIC SOLITUDE&mdash;RETROSPECTION AND INTROSPECTION&mdash;THE
+DETERMINATION TO ACHIEVE&mdash;PLANNING
+OUT THE DETAILS OF THE CAMPAIGN&mdash;AN
+ENTIRE TRIBE BUSILY AT WORK</p>
+
+<h3>V<br />
+
+<br /><span class="smcap">The Pole, the Route, and the Incentive</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>When the yacht disappeared I felt a poignant
+pang at my heart. After it had faded, I stood gazing
+blankly at the sky, and I felt the lure of the old world.
+The yacht was going home&mdash;to the land of my family
+and friends. I was now alone, and, with the exception
+of Francke, there was no white man among this tribe
+of wild people with whom to converse during the long
+Arctic night that was approaching. I knew I should
+not be lonely, for there was a tremendous lot of work to
+do, although I had unstinted assistance. In every detail,
+the entire six months of labor including the catching
+of animals, the drying of meat, the making of such
+clothes and sledges as would be necessary, and the testing
+of them, would have to be managed by myself.
+Turning from the rocky highland where I stood, a wild
+thrill stirred my heart. The hour of my opportunity<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>
+had come. After years of unavailing hopes and depressing
+defeats my final chance was presented! In
+the determination to succeed, every drop of blood in my
+body, every fibre of me responded.</p>
+
+<p>Why did I desire so ardently to reach the North
+Pole? What did I hope to gain? What, if successful,
+did I expect to reap as the result of my dreams? These
+questions since have been asked by many. I have
+searched the chambers of my memory and have tried to
+resolve replies to myself. The attaining of the North
+Pole meant at the time simply the accomplishing of a
+splendid, unprecedented feat&mdash;a feat of brain and
+muscle in which I should, if successful, signally surpass
+other men. In this I was not any more inordinately
+vain or seekful of glory than one who seeks pre-eminence
+in baseball, running tournaments, or any other
+form of athletics or sport.</p>
+
+<p>At the time, any applause which the world might
+give, should I succeed, did not concern me; I knew
+that this might come, but it did not enter into my
+speculations.</p>
+
+<p>For years I had felt the lure of the silver glamor
+of the North, and I can explain this no more than the
+reason why a poet is driven to express himself in verse,
+or why one child preternaturally develops amazing proficiency
+in mathematics and another in music. Certain
+desires are born or unconsciously developed in us. I,
+with others before me, found my life ambition in the
+conquest of the Pole. To reach it would mean, I knew,
+an exultation which nothing else in life could give.</p>
+
+<p>This imaginary spot held for me the revealing of
+no great scientific secrets. I never regarded the feat<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>
+as of any great scientific value. The real victory would
+lie, not in reaching the goal itself, but in overcoming
+the obstacles which exist in the way of it. In the battle
+with these I knew there would be excitement, danger,
+necessary expedients to tax the brain and heroic feats
+to tax the muscles, the ever constant incentive which
+the subduing of one difficulty after another excites.</p>
+
+<p>During the first day at Annoatok, after the yacht
+left, I thought of the world toward which it was going,
+of the continents to the south of me, of the cities with
+their teeming millions, and of the men with their multitudinous,
+conflicting ambitions. I could see, in my
+mind, the gigantic globe of my world swinging in cloud-swept
+emerald spaces, and far in the remote, vast, white
+regions in the north of it, far from the haunts of men,
+thousands of miles from its populous cities, beyond the
+raging of its blue-green seas, myself, alone, a wee, small
+atom on its vast surface, striving to reach its hitherto
+unattained goal. I felt, as I thought of my anticipation
+and lonely quest, a sense of the terrible overwhelming
+hugeness of the earth, and the poignant
+loneliness any soul must feel when it embarks upon
+some splendid solitary destiny.</p>
+
+<p>Beyond and above me I visioned the unimaginable,
+blinding white regions of ice and cold, about which, like
+a golden-crowned sentinel, with face of flame, the
+circling midnight sun kept guard. Upon this desolate,
+awe-inspiring stage&mdash;unchanged since the days of its
+designing&mdash;I saw myself attempting to win in the most
+spectacular and difficult marathon for the testing of
+human strength, courage and perseverance, of body
+and brain, which God has offered to man. I could see<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>
+myself, in my fancy pictures, invading those roaring
+regions, struggling over icy lands in the dismal twilight
+of the Arctic morning, and venturing, with a few companions,
+upon the lifeless, wind-swept Polar sea. A
+black mite, I saw myself slowly piercing those white
+and terrible spaces, braving terrific storms, assailing
+green, adamantine barriers of ice, crossing the swift-flowing,
+black rivers of those ice fields, and stoutly persisting
+until, successful, I stood alone, a victor, upon the
+world's pinnacle!</p>
+
+<p>This thought gave me wild joy. That I, one white
+man, might alone succeed in this quest gave me an impetus
+which only single-handed effort and the prospect
+of single-handed success can give. There was pleasure
+in the thought that, in this effort, I was indebted to no
+one; no one had expended money for me or my trip; no
+white men were to risk their lives with me. Whether
+it resulted in success or defeat, I alone should exult or
+I alone should suffer. I was the mascot of no clique of
+friends, nor the pawn of scientists who might find a
+suppositious and mythical glory in the reflected light of
+another's achievement. The quest was personal; the
+pleasure of success must be personal.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, I want you to understand this thing was no
+casual jaunt with me. All my life hinged about it, my
+hopes were bent upon it; the doing of it was part of
+me. My plans of action were not haphazard and hair-brained.
+Logically and clearly, I mapped out a campaign.
+It was based upon experience in known conditions,
+experience gathered after years of discouragement
+and failure.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 535px;">
+<img src="images/illo_101.jpg" width="535" height="800" alt="ON THE CHASE FOR BEAR
+
+THE BOX-HOUSE AT ANNOATOK AND ITS WINTER ENVIRONMENT" title="" />
+<span class="caption">ON THE CHASE FOR BEAR<br />
+THE BOX-HOUSE AT ANNOATOK AND ITS WINTER ENVIRONMENT</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>At Annoatok we erected a house of packing
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>
+boxes.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a>
+The building of the house, which was to be both
+storehouse and workshop, was a simple matter. The
+walls were made of the packing boxes, especially
+selected of uniform size for this purpose.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 640px;">
+<img src="images/illo_102.jpg" width="640" height="427" alt="MAN'S PREY OF THE ARCTIC SEA" title="" />
+<span class="caption">MAN&rsquo;S PREY OF THE ARCTIC SEA&mdash;WALRUS ASLEEP</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Enclosing a space thirteen by sixteen feet, the
+cases were quickly piled up. The walls were held
+together by strips of wood, the joints sealed with
+pasted paper, with the addition of a few long boards. A
+really good roof was made by using the covers of the
+boxes as shingles. A blanket of turf over this confined
+the heat and permitted, at the same time, healthful
+circulation of air.</p>
+
+<p>We slept under our own roof at the end of the
+first day. Our new house had the great advantage
+of containing within it all our possessions within easy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>
+reach at all times. When anything was needed in the
+way of supplies, all we had to do was to open a box
+in the wall.</p>
+
+<p>The house completed, we immediately began the
+work of building sledges, and the equally important
+work, at which a large proportion of the Eskimos were
+at once set, of making up furs into clothing. According
+to my plans, each one of us embarking in the Polar
+journey would have to carry two suits of fur clothing.
+In the Arctic regions, especially when men are marching
+to the limit of their strength every day, the bodily
+heat puts the clothing into such condition that the only
+safe way, if health is to be preserved, is to change suits
+frequently, while the perspiration-soaked furs are laid
+out to dry.</p>
+
+<p>The Eskimos had also to prepare for winter.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>
+Tents of sealskin are inhabitable only in the summer
+time. For the coming period of darkness and bitter
+cold, they made igloos of stone and snow.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, they were not in the least averse to
+agreeable relaxation. I had with me a good supply of
+tea, and was in the habit of drinking a cup of it with
+Francke about four o'clock every afternoon. Observing
+this, the Eskimos at once began to present themselves
+at the tea hour. Fortunately, tea was one of the
+supplies of which I had brought a good deal for the
+sake of pleasing the natives, and it was not long before
+I had a very large and gossipy afternoon tea party
+every day, in this northernmost human settlement of
+the globe.</p>
+
+<p>I planned to superintend every detail of progress,
+as far as it concerned our journey. I could watch the
+men, too, and see which ones promised to be the best
+to accompany me. And, what was a most important
+point, I could also perfect my final plans for the advance
+right at my final base.</p>
+
+<p>I aimed to reach the top of the globe in the angle
+between Alaska and Greenland, a promising route
+through a new and lonesome region which had not been
+tried, abandoning what has come to be called the
+"American Route." I should strike westward and then
+northward, working new trails. With Annoatok as a
+base of operations, I planned to carry sufficient supplies
+over Schley Land and along the west coast of the game
+lands, trusting that the game along this region would
+furnish sufficient supplies en route to the shores of the
+Polar sea. This journey to land's end would also afford
+a test of every article of equipment needed in the field
+work, and would enable us to choose finally from a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>
+selected number of Eskimos those most able to endure
+the rigors of the unlimited journey which lay before us.</p>
+
+<p>I sent out a few hunters along the intended line
+to seek for haunts of game, but I was not surprised that
+their searching in the dark was practically unsuccessful,
+and it merely meant that I must depend upon my previous
+knowledge of conditions. I knew from the general
+reports of the natives, and from the explorations of
+Sverdrup, that the beginning of the intended route
+offered abundant game, and the indications were that
+further food would likewise be found as we advanced.
+The readiness with which the Eskimos declared themselves
+ready to trust to the food supply of the unknown
+region was highly encouraging.</p>
+
+<p>To start from my base with men and dogs in superb
+condition, with their bodies nourished with wholesome
+fresh meat instead of the nauseating laboratory stuff
+too often given to men in the North, was of vital importance;
+and if the men and dogs could afterwards
+be supported in great measure by the game of the
+region through which we were to pass, it would be of
+an importance more vital still. If my information was
+well founded and my general conjectures correct, I
+should have advantages which had not been possessed
+by any other leader of a Polar expedition. The new
+route seemed to promise, also, immunity from the
+highly disturbing effects of certain North Greenland
+currents. In all, the chances seemed not unfavorable.</p>
+
+<p>With busy people hard at work about me, I knew
+that the months of the long night would pass rapidly
+by. There was much to do, and with the earliest dawn
+of the morning of the next year we must be ready to
+start for the Pole.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 100%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span></p>
+<h2>THE CURTAIN OF NIGHT DROPS</h2>
+
+<p class="blockquot">TRIBE OF TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY NATIVES BUSILY
+BEGIN PREPARATIONS FOR THE POLAR DASH&mdash;EXCITING
+HUNTS FOR THE UNICORN AND OTHER GAME
+FROM ANNOATOK TO CAPE YORK&mdash;EVERY ANIMAL
+CAUGHT BEARING UPON THE SUCCESS OF THE
+VENTURE&mdash;THE GREY-GREEN GLOOM OF TWILIGHT
+IN WHICH THE ESKIMO WOMEN COMMUNICATE
+WITH THE SOULS OF THE DEAD</p>
+
+<h3>VI<br />
+
+<br /><span class="smcap">The Sunset of 1907</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>Winter, long-lasting, dark and dismal, approached.
+To me it was to be a season of feverish labor in which
+every hand at work and every hour employed counted
+in the problem of success. While the hands of the entire
+tribe would be busy, and while I should direct and help
+in the making of sleds, catching of game, preparing of
+meat, I knew that my mind would find continual excitement
+in dreams of my quest, in anticipating and solving
+its difficulties, in feeling the bounding pulse of the dash
+over the ice of the Polar sea, with dogs joyously barking,
+whips cracking the air, and the reappearing sun
+paving our pathway with liquid gold. In the labor of
+the long winter which I began to map out I knew I
+should find ceaseless zest, for the pursuit of every
+narwhal, every walrus, every fox I should regard with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span>
+abated suspense, each one bearing upon my chances; in
+the employment of every pair of hands I should hang
+with an eager interest, the expediency and excellence of
+the work making for success or failure. From this time
+onward everything of my life, every native, every occurrence
+began to have some bearing upon the dominating
+task to which I had set myself.</p>
+
+<p>With the advance of winter, storms of frightful
+ferocity began to arise. Inasmuch as we had stored
+meat and blubber in large quantities about our camp, it
+was not necessary at these times to venture out to dig
+up supplies from great depths of snow drift. During
+these periods hands were employed busily inside the
+igloos. Although a large quantity of animals and furs
+had been gathered by the hunters before our arrival, we
+now unexpectedly discovered that the supply was inadequate.
+According to my plans, a large party of
+picked natives would accompany me to land's end and
+somewhat beyond on the Polar sea when I started for
+my dash in the coming spring. As spring is the best
+hunting season, it was therefore imperative to secure
+sufficient advance provisions for the families of these
+men in addition to preparing requisites for my expedition.
+So the early days of the winter would have to be
+busily occupied by the men in a ceaseless hunt for game,
+and later, even when the darkness had fully fallen, the
+moonlight days and nights would thus have to be
+utilized also.</p>
+
+<p>In the Polar cycle of the seasons there are peculiar
+conditions which apply to circumstances and movements.
+As the word, seasons, is ordinarily understood, there are
+but two, a winter season and a summer season&mdash;a winter
+season of nine months and a summer of three months.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But, for more convenient division of the yearly
+periods, it is best to retain the usual cycle of four seasons.
+Eskimos call the winter "ookiah," which also
+means year, and the summer "onsah." Days are "sleeps."
+The months are moons, and the periods are named in accord
+with the movements of various creatures of the
+chase.</p>
+
+<p>In early September at Annoatok the sun dips considerably
+under the northern horizon. There is no
+night. At sunset and at sunrise storm clouds hide the
+bursts of color which are the glory of twilight, and the
+electric afterglow is generally lost in a dull gray.</p>
+
+<p>The gloom of the coming winter night now thickens.
+The splendor of the summer day has gone. A day
+of six months and a night of six months is often ascribed
+to the Polar regions as a whole, but this is only true of a
+very small area about the Pole.</p>
+
+<p>As we come south, the sun slips under the horizon
+for an ever-increasing part of each twenty-four hours.
+Preceding and following the night, as we come from the
+Pole, there is a period of day and night which lengthens
+with the descent of latitude.</p>
+
+<p>It is this period which enables us to retain the names
+of the usual seasons&mdash;summer for the double days, fall
+for the period of the setting sun. This season begins
+when the sun first dips under the ice at midnight for a
+few moments. These moments increase rapidly, yet
+one hardly appreciates that the sun is departing until
+day and night are of equal length, for the night remains
+light, though not cheerful. Then the day rapidly shortens
+and darkens, and the sun sinks until at last there is
+but a mere glimmer of the glory of day. Winter is lim<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>ited
+to the long night, and spring applies to the days of
+the rising sun, a period corresponding to the autumn
+days of the setting sun.</p>
+
+<p>At Annoatok the midnight sun is first seen on
+April 23. It dips in the sea on August 19. It thus encircles
+the horizon, giving summer and continuous day
+for one hundred and eighteen days. It sets at midday
+on October 24, and is absent a period of prolonged
+night corresponding to the day, and it
+rises on February 19. The Arctic air, with its low
+temperature and its charge of frosted humidity, so
+distorts the sun's rays that when low it is frequently
+lifted one or two diameters; therefore, the exact day or
+hour for sunrise or sunset does not correspond to mathematical
+calculations. Then follow days of spring.</p>
+
+<p>In the fall, when the harmonizing influence of the
+sun is withdrawn, there begins a battle of the elements
+which continues until stilled by the hopeless frost of
+early night.</p>
+
+<p>At this time, although field work was painful, the
+needs of our venture forced us to persistent action in
+the chase of walrus, seal, narwhal and white whale. We
+thus harvested food and fuel.</p>
+
+<p>Before winter ice spread over the sea, ptarmigan,
+hare and reindeer were sought on land to supply the
+table during the long night with delicacies, while bear
+and fox pleased the palates of the Eskimos, and their
+pelts clothed all.</p>
+
+<p>Many long journeys were undertaken to secure
+an important supply of grass to pad boots and
+mittens and also to secure moss, which serves as wick for
+the Eskimo lamp. During the months of September<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>
+and October, along the entire Greenland coast, the Eskimos
+were engaged in a feverish quest for reserve supplies.
+Shortly after my arrival, word had been carried
+from village to village that I was at Annoatok, and, intending
+to make a dash for the "Big Nail," desired the
+help of the entire tribe. Intense and spontaneous
+activity followed. Knowing the demands of the North,
+and of such work as I planned, the natives, without specific
+instructions from me and with only a brief outline
+of the planned Polar campaign which was sent from
+village to village, immediately got busy gathering the
+needed things. They knew better than I where to go
+for certain game, and where certain desirable things were
+obtainable. This relieved me of a great responsibility.
+Each local group of natives was to perform some important
+duty, suited to its available resources, in gathering
+the tremendous amount of material required for our
+trip. Each village had its peculiar game advantages.</p>
+
+<p>In some places foxes and hares, the skins of which
+were necessary for coats and stockings, were abundant,
+and the Eskimos must not only gather the greatest
+number possible, but prepare the skins and make them
+into properly fitting garments. In other places reindeer
+were plentiful. The skin of these was needed for sleeping
+bags, while the sinew was required for thread. In
+still other places seal was the luck of the chase; its skin
+was one of our most important needs. Of it boots were
+made, and an immense amount of line and lashings
+prepared.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, in one way or another, every man and woman
+and most of the children of this tribe of two hundred and
+fifty people were kept busy in the service of the expe<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span>dition.
+The work was well done, and with much better
+knowledge of the fitness of things than could have been
+possessed by any possible gathering of alien white men.</p>
+
+<p>The quest of the walrus and the narwhal came in
+our own immediate plan of adventure, although the narwhal,
+called by whale fishers the unicorn, does not often
+come under the eye of the white man. It afforded for
+a brief spell good results in sport and useful material.
+Its blubber is the pride of every housekeeper, for it gives
+a long, hot flame to the lamp, with no smoke to spot the
+igloo finery. The skin is regarded as quite a delicacy.
+Cut into squares, it looks and tastes like scallops, with
+only a slight aroma of train oil. The meat dries easily,
+and is thus prized as an appetizer or as a lunch to be
+eaten en route in sled or kayak. In this shape it was an
+extremely useful thing for us, for it took the place of
+pemmican on our less urgent journeys.</p>
+
+<p>Narwhals played in schools, far off shore, and
+usually along the edges of some large ice field, their long
+ivory tusks rising under spouts of breath and spray.
+Whenever this glad sight was noted, every kayak about
+camp was manned, and the skin canoes went flittering
+like birds over the water. Some of the Eskimos climbed
+to the ice fields and delivered their harpoons from a
+secure footing. Others hid behind floating fragments
+of heavy ice and made a sudden rush as the animals
+passed. Still others came up in the rear, for the narwhal
+cannot easily see backward, and does not often turn
+to watch its enemies, its speed being so fast that it can
+easily keep ahead of them.</p>
+
+<p>In these exciting hunts I participated with eager
+delight, and by proxy mentally engaged in every en<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>counter.
+For, in this sea game, existed food supplies
+which, instead of entirely confining myself to pemmican,
+I planned also to use on my Polar journey. As the skin
+boats, like bugs, sped over the water, I felt the movement
+of them surge in my brain; with the upraising of
+each swift-darting native's arm I felt, as it were, my
+heart stop with bated suspense. With every failure I
+experienced a throb of dismay. With the hauling in of
+each slimy beast I felt, as it were, nearer my goal.</p>
+
+<p>Narwhal hunting, in itself, and without the added
+spur of personal interest, which I had, is brimful of
+thrilling sport. The harpoon is always delivered at
+close range. Whenever the dragging float marks the
+end of the line in tow of the frightened creature, the line
+of skin canoes follows. Timid by nature and fearing to
+rise for breath, the narwhal plunges along until nearly
+strangled. When he does come up, there are likely to
+be several Eskimos near with drawn lances, which inflict
+deep gashes.</p>
+
+<p>Again the narwhal plunges deep down, with but
+one breath, and hurries along as best it can. But its
+speed slackens and a line of crimson marks its hidden
+path. Loss of blood and want of air do not give it a
+chance to fight. Again it comes up with a spout.
+Again the lances are hurled.</p>
+
+<p>The battle continues for several hours, with many
+exciting adventures, but in the end the narwhal always
+succumbs, offering a prize of several thousands of
+pounds of meat and blubber. Victory as a rule is not
+gained until the hunters are far from home, and also far
+from the shore line. But the Eskimo is a courageous
+hunter and an intelligent seaman.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>To the huge carcass frail kayaks are hitched in a
+long line. Towing is slow, wind and sea combining to
+make the task difficult and dangerous. One sees nothing
+of the narwhal and very little of the kayak, for dashing
+seas wash over the little craft, but the double-bladed
+paddles see-saw with the regularity of a pendulum.
+Homecoming takes many hours and demands a prodigious
+amount of hard work, but there is energy to
+spare, for a wealth of meat and fat is the culmination of
+all Eskimo ambition.</p>
+
+<p>Seven of these ponderous animals were brought in
+during five days, making a heap of more than forty
+thousand pounds of food and fuel. The sight of this
+tremulous, blubbering mass filled my heart with joy.
+Our success was not too soon, for now the narwhals suddenly
+disappeared, and we saw no more of them. About
+this time three white whales were also obtained at Etah
+by a similar method of hunting.</p>
+
+<p>With the advent of actual winter, storms swept
+over the land and sea with such fury that it was no longer
+safe to venture out on the water in kayaks. After the
+catching of several walruses from boats, sea hunting
+now was confined to the quest of seal through young ice.
+As such hunting would soon be limited to only a few
+open spaces near prominent headlands, an industrious
+pursuit was feverishly engaged in at every village from
+Annoatok to Cape York, and hour by hour, day by day,
+until the hunt of necessity changed from sea to land, the
+husky natives engaged in seal catching. As yet we had
+no caribou meat, and the little auks, which had been
+gathered in nets during the summer, with the eider-duck
+bagged later, soon disappeared as a steady diet. We<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>
+must now procure such available land game as hare,
+ptarmigan and reindeer, for we had not yet learned to
+eat with a relish the fishy, liver-like substance which is
+characteristic of all marine mammals.</p>
+
+<p>Guns and ammunition were now distributed, and
+when the winds were easy enough to allow one to venture
+out, every Eskimo sought the neighboring hills.
+Francke also took his exercise with a gun on his shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>The combined efforts resulted in a long line of
+ptarmigan, two reindeer and sixteen hares. As snow
+covered the upper slopes, the game was forced down
+near the sea, where we could still hope to hunt in the
+feeble light of the early part of the night.</p>
+
+<p>With a larder fairly stocked and good prospects
+for other tasty meats, we were spared the anxiety of a
+winter without supplies. Francke was an ideal chef in
+the preparation of this game to good effect, for he had a
+delightful way of making our primitive provisions quite
+appetizing.</p>
+
+<p>In the middle of October fox skins were prime, and
+then new steel traps were distributed and set near the
+many caches. By this time all the Eskimos had abandoned
+their sealskin tents and were snugly settled in
+their winter igloos. The ground was covered with
+snow, and the sea was almost entirely frozen.</p>
+
+<p>Everybody was busy preparing for the coming cold
+and night. The temperature was about 20&deg; below zero.
+Severe storms were becoming less frequent, and the air,
+though colder, was less humid and less disagreeable. An
+ice-foot was formed by the tides along shore, and over
+this the winter sledging was begun by short excursions
+to bait the fox traps and gather the foxes.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Our life now resolved itself into a systematic
+routine of work, which was practically followed throughout
+the succeeding long winter night. About the box-house
+in which Francke and I lived were igloos housing
+eight to twelve families. The tribe of two hundred and
+fifty was distributed in a range of villages along the
+coast, an average of four families constituting a community.
+Early each morning Koo-loo-ting-wah would
+bang at my door, enter, and I would drowsily awaken
+while he freshened the fire. Rising, we would prepare
+hot coffee and partake of breakfast with biscuits. By
+seven o'clock&mdash;according to our standard of time&mdash;five
+or six of the natives would arrive, and, after a liberal
+libation of coffee, begin work. I taught them to help
+me in the making of my hickory sleds. Some I taught
+to use modern carpentering instruments, which I had
+with me. Another group was schooled in bending the
+resilient but tough hickory. This was done by wrapping
+old cloths about the wood and steeping it in hot water.
+Others engaged, as the days went by, in making dog
+harness, articles of winter clothing, and drying meat.
+Not an hour was lost during the day. At noon we
+paused for a bite of frozen meat and hot tea. Then we
+fell to work again without respite until five or six o'clock.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, beginning in the early morning of our
+steadily darkening days, other male members of the tribe
+pursued game. Others again followed a routine of
+scouring of the villages and collecting all the furs and
+game which had been caught. The women of the tribe,
+in almost every dimly lighted igloo, were no less industrious.
+To them fell the task of assisting in drying the
+fur skins, preparing dried meat and making our cloth<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span>ing.
+Throughout the entire days they sat in their snow
+and stone houses, masses of ill-smelling furs before them,
+cutting the skins and sewing them into serviceable garments.
+This work I often watched, passing from igloo
+to igloo, with an interest that verged on anxiety; for
+upon the strength, thickness and durability of these depended
+my life, and that of the companions I should
+choose, on the frigid days which would inevitably come
+on my journey Poleward. But these broad-faced,
+patient women did their work well. Their skill is quite
+remarkable. They took my measurements, for instance,
+by roughly sizing up my old garments and by measuring
+me by sight. Garments were made to fit snugly after
+the preliminary making by cutting out or inserting
+patches of fur. Needles among the natives are indeed
+precious. So valuable are they that if a point or eye is
+broken, with infinite skill and patience the broken end
+is heated and flattened, and by means of a bow drill a
+new eye is bored. A new point is with equal skill shaped
+on local stones. With marvelous patience they make
+their own thread by drying and stripping caribou or
+narwhale sinews.</p>
+
+<p>Were it not for their extraordinary eyesight, such
+work, under such conditions, would be impossible. But
+in the dark the natives can espy things invisible to white
+men. This owl-sight enables them to hunt, if necessary,
+in almost pitch darkness, and to perform tedious feats
+of hand skill which, in such dim light, an alien would
+bungle. I noticed, with much curiosity, that when the
+natives inspected any photograph or object which I gave
+them they always held it upside down. All objects, as
+is well known, are reflected in the retina thus, and it is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span>
+our familiarity with the size and comparative relations
+of things which enables the brain to visualize an object
+or scene at its proper angle. This strange, instinctive
+act of the natives might form an interesting chapter in
+optics.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, busy and interested in the beginning of
+our various pursuits, the great crust which was to hold
+down the sea for so many months, closed and thickened.</p>
+
+<p>During the last days of brief sunshine the weather
+cleared, and at noon on October 24 everybody sought
+the open for a last glimpse of the dying day. There
+was a charm of color and glitter, but no one seemed quite
+happy as the sun sank under the southern ice, for it was
+not to rise again for one hundred and eighteen days.</p>
+
+<p>Just prior to the falling of darkness, with that instinctive
+and forced hilarity with which aboriginal beings
+seek to ward off an impending calamity, the Eskimos
+engaged in their annual sporting event. It is a curious
+sight, indeed, to behold a number of excited, laughing
+Eskimos gathering about two champion dogs which are
+to fight. Although the zest of betting is unknown, the
+natives regard dog fights with much the same eager excitement
+as a certain type of sporting man does a cock
+encounter. Sometimes the dogs do not fight fairly, a
+number of the animals bunching together and attacking
+a single dog. Dogs selected for the fight are, of course,
+the best of the teams. A dog which maintains his fighting
+supremacy becomes a king dog, and when beaten
+becomes a first lieutenant to the king.</p>
+
+<p>After the forced enthusiasm of this brief period of
+excitement, the Eskimos begin to succumb to the inevitable
+melancholia of nature, when the sun, the source of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span>
+natural life, disappears and darkness descends. A
+gloom descends heavily upon their spirits. A subtle
+sadness tinctures their life, and they are possessed by an
+impulse to weep. At this season, hour by hour, the
+darkness thickens; the cold increases and chills their
+igloos; the wind, exultant while the sun shines, now
+whines and sobs dolorously&mdash;there is something gruesome,
+uncanny, supernatural, in its siren sorrow. Outside,
+the snow falls, the sea closes. Its clamant beat of
+waves is silenced. Sea animals mostly disappear; land
+animals are rare. Their source of physical supply vanished,
+the Eskimos unconsciously feel the grim hand of
+want, of starvation, which means death, upon them. The
+psychology of this period of depression partly lies, undoubtedly,
+in this instinctive dread of death from lack of
+food and the natural depression of unrelieved gloom.
+Moreover, there is a grief, born of the native superstition
+that, when the sea freezes, the souls of all who have
+perished in the waters are imprisoned during the long
+night. Too fierce is the struggle of these people with
+the elemental forces to permit them, like many other
+aboriginal peoples to be obsessed greatly with superstitions.
+Although their religion is a very primitive and
+native one, it is usually only at the inception of night
+that they feel the appalling nearness of a world
+that is supernatural. As the last rim of the sun
+sank over the southern ice, the natives entered upon a
+formal period of melancholy, during which the bereavements
+of each family, and the discomforts and disasters
+of the year, were memoralized.</p>
+
+<p>I shall never forget that long, sad evening, which
+lasted many normal days. The sun had descended. A<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>
+sepulchral, gray-green curtain of gloom hung over the
+chilled earth. In the dim semi-darkness could be
+vaguely seen the outlines of the igloos, of the heaving
+curvatures of snow-covered land, and the blacker, snake-like
+twistings of open lanes of water, where the sea had
+not yet frozen. Sitting in my box-house, I was startled
+suddenly by a sound that made my flesh for the instant
+creep. I walked to the door and threw it open. Over
+the bluish, snow-covered land, formed by the indentures
+and hollows, stretched dark-purplish shapes&mdash;Titan
+shadows, sepulchral and ominous, some with shrouded
+heads, others with spectral arms threateningly upraised.
+Nebulous and gruesome shreds of blue-fog like wraiths
+shifted over the sea. Out of the sombre, heavy air began
+to issue a sound as of many women sobbing. From
+the indistinct distance came moaning, crooning voices.
+Sometimes hysterical wails of anguish rent the air, and
+now and then frantic choruses shrieked some heart-aching
+despair. My impression was that I was in a
+land of the sorrowful dead, some mid-strata of the spirit
+world, where, in this gray-green twilight, formless
+things in the distance moved to and fro.</p>
+
+<p>There is, I believe, in the heart of every man, an
+instinctive respect for sorrow. With muffled steps, I
+left the igloo and paced the dreariness of ice, treading
+slowly, lest, in the darkness, I slip into some unseen
+crevasse of the open sea. A strange and eerie sight confronted
+me. Along the seashore, bending over the lapping
+black water, or standing here and there by inky,
+open leads in the severed ice, many Eskimo women were
+gathered. Some stood in groups of two or three.
+Bowed and disconsolate, her arms about them, with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>
+almost every hundred steps, I saw a weeping mother and
+her children. Standing rigid and stark, motionless
+graven images of despair, or frantically writhing to and
+fro, others stood far apart in desolate places, alone.</p>
+
+<p>The dull, opaque air was tinged with a strange phosphorescent
+green, suggestive of a place of dead things;
+and now, like the flutterings of huge death-lamps, along
+the horizon, where the sun had sunk, gashes of crimson
+here and there fitfully glowed blood-red in the pall-like
+sky.</p>
+
+<p>To the left, as I walked along, I recognized Tung-wingwah,
+with a child on her back and a bag of moss in
+her hand. She stood behind a cheerless rock, with her
+face toward the faint red flushes of the sun. She stood
+motionless. Big tears rolled from her eyes, but not a
+sound was uttered. To my low queries she made no
+response. I invited her to the camp to have a cup of
+tea, thinking to change her sad thoughts and loosen her
+tongue. But still her eyes did not leave that last distant
+line of open water. From another, I later learned that
+in the previous April her daughter of five, while playing
+on the ice-foot, slipped and was lost in the sea. The
+mother now mourned because the ice would bury her
+little one's soul.</p>
+
+<p>A little farther along was Al-leek-ah, a woman of
+middle age, with two young children by her side. She
+was hysterical in her grief, now laughing with a weird
+giggle, now crying and groaning as if in great pain, and
+again dancing with emotions of madness. I learned her
+story from a chatter that ran through all her anguish.
+Towanah, her first husband, had been drawn under the
+ice, by the harpoon line, twenty years ago. And though<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span>
+she had been married three times since, she was trying
+to keep alive the memory of her first love. I went on,
+marveling at a primitive fidelity so long enduring.</p>
+
+<p>Still farther along towards the steep slopes of the
+main coast, I saw Ahwynet, all alone in the gloomy
+shadow of great cliffs. Her story was told in chants
+and moans. Her husband and all her children had been
+swept by an avalanche into the stormy seas. There was
+a kind of wild poetry in the song of her bereavement.
+Tears came to my eyes. The rush of the avalanche, the
+hiss of the wind, the pounding of the seas, were all indicated.
+And then, in heart-breaking tones, came "blood
+of her blood, flesh of her flesh, under the frozen waters,"
+and other sentiments which I could not catch in the
+undertone of sobs.</p>
+
+<p>Cold shivers began to run up my spine, and I
+turned to retreat to camp. Here was a scene that perhaps
+a Dante might adequately write about. I cannot.
+I felt that I, an alien, was intruding into the realm of
+some strange and mystic sorrow. I felt the sombre thrill
+of a borderland world not human. These women were
+communicating with the souls of their dead. To those
+who had perished in the sea they were telling, ere the
+gates of ice closed above them, all the news of the past
+year&mdash;things of interest and personal, and even of years
+before, as far back as they could remember. Almost
+every family each year loses someone in the sea;
+almost every family was represented by these weeping
+women, overburdened with their own naive sorrow, and
+who yet strangely sought to cheer the souls of the disconsolate
+and desolate dead.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, while the women were weeping and giv<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>ing
+their parting messages to the dead, the male members
+of the tribe, in chants and dramatic dances, were
+celebrating, in the igloos, the important events of the
+past year.</p>
+
+<p>Inside, the igloos were dimly lighted with stone
+blubber lamps. These, during the entire winter, furnish
+light and heat. The lamp consists of a crescent-shaped
+stone with a concavity, in which there is animal oil and a
+line of crushed moss as a wick. Lighted early in the season,
+for an entire winter, these lamps cast a faint, perpetual,
+flickering light. Shadows dance grotesquely
+about on the rounded walls. An oily stench pervades the
+unventilated enclosure. In this weird, yellow-blackish
+radiance the men engage in their fantastic dances. Moving
+the central parts of their bodies to and fro, they utter
+weird sing-song chants. They recite, in jerky, curious
+singing, the history of the big events of the year; of successful
+chases; of notable storms; of everything that
+means much in their simple lives. As they dance, their
+voices rise to a high pitch of excitement. Their eyes
+flash like smoldering coals. Their arms move frantically.
+Some begin to sob uncontrollably. A hysteria of
+laughter seizes others. Finally the dance ends; exhausted,
+they pass into a brief lethargy, from which they
+revive, their melancholia departed. The women return
+from the shores of the sea; they wipe their tears, and,
+with native spontaneity, forget their depression and
+smile again.</p>
+
+<p>While I was interested in the curious spectacles presented,
+the sunset of 1907 to me was inspiration for the
+final work in directing the completion of the outfit with
+which to begin the conquest of the Pole at sunrise of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>
+1908. Fortunately, I was not handicapped by the company
+of the usual novices taken on Polar expeditions.
+There were only two of us white men, and white men, at
+the best, must be regarded as amateurs compared with
+the expert efficiency of Eskimos in their own environment.
+Our food supply contained only the prime factors
+of primitive nourishment. Special foods and laboratory
+concoctions and canned delicacies did not fill an
+important space in our larder. Nor had we balloons,
+automobiles, motor sleds or other freak devices. We
+did, however, I have said, have what was of utmost importance,
+an abundance of the best hickory and metal
+for the making of the sleds upon which our destinies
+were vitally to depend.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 100%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span></p>
+<h2>FIRST WEEK OF THE LONG NIGHT</h2>
+
+<p class="blockquot">HUNTING IN THE ARCTIC TWILIGHT&mdash;PURSUING BEAR,
+CARIBOU AND SMALLER GAME IN SEMI-GLOOM</p>
+
+<h3>VII<br />
+
+<br /><span class="smcap">The Glory of the Aurora</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>The sun had dropped below the horizon. The
+gloom continued steadily to thicken. Each twenty-four
+hours, at the approximate approach of what was
+the noon hour when the sun had been above the horizon,
+the sky to the south of us glowed with marvelous, subdued
+sunset hues. By this time our work had gone
+ahead by progressive stages. Furs, to protect us from
+the cold of the uttermost North on my prospective trip,
+had been prepared and were being made into clothing;
+meat and fat, for food and fuel, were being dried and
+stored in numerous caches about Annoatok; several of
+the sledges and part of the equipment were ready.</p>
+
+<p>We still had need of large quantities of supplies,
+and, while some of the natives were busy with their
+routine work, we planned that as many others as possible
+should use the twilight days pursuing bear, caribou,
+fox, hare and other game far beyond the usual
+Eskimo haunts. Before the dawn of the sun's afterglow,
+on the morning of October 26, seven sledges with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>
+sixty dogs were on the ice-foot near our camp, ready to
+start for hunting grounds near Humboldt Glacier, a
+distance of one hundred miles northward.<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p>
+
+<p>While the teamsters waited for the final password
+the dogs chafed fiercely. I could barely see the outlines
+of my companions in the gloom, and it was difficult, in
+the irregular snow and tide-lifted ice descending to sea
+level, to find footing.</p>
+
+<p>The word to start was given. My companions took
+up the cry.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Huk! Huk! Huk!</i>" (Go! Go!) they shouted.</p>
+
+<p>The dogs responded in leaps and howls.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Howah! Howah!</i>" (Right! Right!) "<i>Egh!
+Egh!</i>" (Stop! Stop!) "<i>Aureti!</i>" (Behave!) came echoingly
+along the line of teams. Finally the wild dash
+slackened, the dogs regulated their paces to an easy trot,
+and we swept steadily along the frozen highway of the
+tide-made shelf of the ice-foot. The sledges dodged
+stones and ice-blocks, edged along dangerous precipices,
+in the depths of which I heard the swish of water, and
+glided miraculously over crevices and along deep gorges.
+Jumping about the sledges, guiding, pushing, or retarding
+their speed, cracking their whips in the air, the
+natives, with that art which only aborigines seem to
+have, picked the way and controlled the dogs, but a few
+generations removed from their wolf progenitors, with
+amazing dexterity.</p>
+
+<p>A low wind blew down the slopes and froze our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span>
+breath in lines of frost about our heads. The temperature
+was 35&deg; below zero. To the left of us was Kane
+Basin, recalling its history of human strife northward.
+It was filled with serried ranges of crushed ice, a berg
+here and there, all in the light of the kindling sky, aglow
+with purple and blue. To the far west I saw the
+dim outline of Ellesmere, my promised land, over which
+I hoped to force a new route to the Pole; upon its snowy
+highlands was poured a soft creamy light from encouraging
+skies. To the right was the rugged coast of Greenland,
+its huge, ice-chiselled cliffs leaping portentously
+forward in the gloom. Thrilling with the race, we made
+a run of twenty miles and reached Rensselaer Harbor,
+where Dr. Kane had spent his long nights of misfortune.</p>
+
+<p>We pitched camp at the ice-foot at the head of the
+bay. Although we found traces of hare and fox, it was
+too dark to venture on the chase. The temperature had
+fallen to &#8722;40&deg;, the wind pierced with a sharp sting. For
+my shelter I erected a new tent which I had invented,
+and the efficiency of which I desired to test. Taking the
+sledge frame work as a platform, a folding top of strong
+canvas was fastened, and spread between two bars of
+hickory from each end. The entrance was in front.
+Inside was a space eight feet long and three and one-half
+feet wide, with a round whaleback top. Inside this
+a supplementary wall was constructed of light blankets,
+offering an air space of an inch between the outer wall
+as a non-conductor to confine the little heat generated
+within. As there was ample room for only two persons,
+Koo-loo-ting-wah, my leading man, was invited to share
+the tent. The natives had not provided themselves with
+shelter of any kind. They had counted on either build<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span>ing
+an igloo or seeking the shelter of the snows, as do the
+creatures of the wilds.</p>
+
+<p>Inside my tent I prepared a meal on the little
+German stove, burning the vapor of alcohol. The meal
+consisted of a pail of hot corn meal, fried bacon and a
+liberal all-round supply of steaming tea. To accomplish
+this, which included melting the snow, heating the water,
+and cooking everything separately, required about two
+hours. As I considered eating outside with any degree
+of comfort impossible, my companions were invited to
+crowd inside the tent. The vapor of their breath and
+that of the cooking soon condensed into snow, and a
+miniature snowstorm covered everything within. After
+this was swept out, the Eskimos were invited to enter
+again. All partook of the meal ravenously, and then
+emerged to reconnoiter the surroundings. Tracks of
+ptarmigan, hare and foxes were found, and as we moved
+about with seeking, owl eyes, ravens shouted notes of
+welcome.</p>
+
+<p>We then retired to rest. As there was no snow
+about that was sufficiently hard to cut blocks with which
+to erect snow houses, the natives placed themselves in
+semi-reclining positions on their sledges and slept in their
+traveling clothes. After a few hours they awoke and
+partook of chopped frozen meat and blubber; two hours
+later, they made a fire in a tin can, with moss and blubber
+as fuel, and over this prepared a pot of parboiled meat.
+A crescent-shaped wall of snow was built to break the
+wind; in the shelter of this they sat, grinning delightedly,
+and eating savagely, with much smacking of the lips, the
+steaming broth and walrus meat. All this I studied with
+intense interest. I desired on this trip not only to test<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span>
+my tent, but to learn more of the native arts of the
+Eskimo, knowing that I, on my Polar trip, must, if I
+would be successful, adapt myself to just such methods
+of living.</p>
+
+<p>This was my first winter experience of camping out
+in the night season for this year, and, with only a diet of
+meal and bacon, I was miserably cold. I was now testing
+also for the first time the new winter clothing with
+which I and all my companions were dressed. Our
+shirts were made of bird skins. Over these were coats
+of blue fox or caribou skins; our trousers were of bear,
+our boots of seal, and our stockings of hare skins. This
+was the usual native winter costume, but under it I had
+added a suit of underwear.</p>
+
+<p>Retiring again for rest, I left instructions to be
+called for an early start. It seemed that I had hardly
+settled comfortably in my sleeping bag when the call for
+action came.</p>
+
+<p>We hastily partook of tea and biscuits, harnessed
+our teams and started through the dark. The Eskimos,
+having eaten their fill of fat and frozen meat, to which I
+must yet accustom myself, were thoroughly comfortable.
+I was miserably cold.</p>
+
+<p>By running behind my sledge I produced sufficient
+bodily heat after awhile to feel comfortable. My face
+suffered severely from the cutting slant of the winds.
+We passed the perpendicular walls of Cape Seiper at
+dawn. We ran along the long, straight coast into Bancroft
+Bay during the six hours of twilight. The journey
+was continued to Dallas Bay by a forced march of fifty
+miles before we halted.</p>
+
+<p>The scene displayed the rare glory of twilight<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>
+charms as it had the day before, but the snow was
+deeper, the temperature lower. The wind steadily increased
+and veered northward. We made several efforts
+to cross the bay ice, but cracked ice, huge uplifted blocks
+and deep snows compelled a retreat to the ice-foot.</p>
+
+<p>The ice-foot along Smith Sound is a superb highway,
+where otherwise sledge travel would be quite impossible
+along the coast.</p>
+
+<p>Along Dallas Bay we found a great deal of grass-covered
+land in undulating valleys and on low hills,
+which offered grazing for caribou and hare. The preceding
+glimmer of the new moon, which was to rise a
+few days hence, offered sufficient light to search for
+game.</p>
+
+<p>We now fed our dogs for the first time since leaving
+Annoatok. After a liberal drink of snow water, we
+started to seek our luck in the chase. In the course of
+an hour my companions returned with four hares which,
+when dressed, weighed about forty-eight pounds. Two
+of these were cached. The others were eaten later.</p>
+
+<p>Before dawn of the day-long twilight the wind
+increased to a full gale. The sky to the north, smoky
+all night, now blackened as with soot. The wind came
+with a howl that brought to mind the despairing cries of
+the dying explorers whose bleached bones were strewn
+along the shore. The gloomy outline of the coast remained
+visible for awhile; but soon the air thickened
+and came weighted with snow that piled up in huge
+drifts.</p>
+
+<p>The Eskimos took a few of their favorite dogs and
+sought shelter to the lee of the tent, where drift covered
+their blankets with snow. Breathing holes were kept<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span>
+open over their faces. Buried in snow drifts, they were
+imprisoned for twenty-eight hours. But this tent sled
+sheltered Koo-loo-ting-wah and myself. When the rush
+of the storm had abated we began digging our way out.
+In this effort we dug up men and dogs like potatoes
+from a patch. The northern sky had paled, the south
+was brightening. The pack was lined with long lines
+beyond each hummock; the snow was covered with a
+strong crust. But the ice-foot was a hopeless line of
+drifts which made travel over it quite impossible.</p>
+
+<p>The work of pounding snow from the dogs and
+freeing the sledges brought to our faces beads of perspiration
+which rolled off and froze in lines of ice on our
+furs. We were none the worse as a result of the storm,
+and although hungry as wolves, time was too precious to
+stop for a full meal.</p>
+
+<p>We now pushed out of the bay, on to the sea ice.
+At this point the dogs scented a bear and soon crossed
+its track. Rested and hungry, they were in condition
+for a desperate chase. Their sharp noses pointed keenly
+into the huge bear foot-prints, their little ears quivered,
+while, with howls, they started onward in a mad rush.</p>
+
+<p>Neither our voices nor the whips made an impression
+on their wild speed. We crossed banks and ridges
+of snow and swirled about slopes of ice, gripping
+sledges violently. Now we were thrown to one side,
+again to the other, dragging resistlessly beside the sleds.
+Rising, we gripped the rear upstanders with fierce
+determination.</p>
+
+<p>Just how we escaped broken limbs, and our sledges
+utter destruction, is a mystery to me. After a run of an
+hour we sighted the bear. The animal had evidently<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span>
+sighted us, for he was galloping for the open water
+toward the northwest. We cut the fleetest dogs loose
+from each team. Freed, they rushed over the snow like
+race-horses. But the bear had an advantage. As
+the first dog nipped his haunches he plunged into the
+black waters. We advanced and waited for him to rise.
+But this bruin had sense enough to emerge on the opposite
+shore, where he shook off the freezing waters
+vigorously, and then sat down as if to have a
+laugh at us.</p>
+
+<p>I knew that to plunge into the waters would have
+been fatal to dog or man and equally fatal to a boat, as
+ice, in the intense cold, would form about it so rapidly
+that it could not be propelled.</p>
+
+<p>The dogs sat down and howled a chorus of sad disappointment.
+For miles about, the men sought fruitlessly
+for a way to cross. Outwitted, we returned to
+continue our journey Northward.</p>
+
+<p>Advance Bay and its islands were in sight. Among
+these, we aimed to place our central camp. The light
+was fading fast, and a cold wind came from Humboldt
+Glacier, which at this time was located by a slight darkening
+of the sky. Many grounded icebergs were about,
+and the sea ice was much crossed. The hummocks and
+the snow were not as troublesome as farther south.</p>
+
+<p>Two ravens followed us, their shrill cries echoing
+from berg to berg. The Eskimos inferred from their
+presence that bears were near, but we saw no tracks.</p>
+
+<p>The cries of the ravens were nearly as provoking
+to the dogs as the bear tracks, and we moved along
+rapidly to Brook's Island. This was rather high, with a
+plateau and sharp cliffs. Bonsall Island near by was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span>
+rounded by glacial action. Between them we found a
+place to camp somewhat sheltered from the wind.</p>
+
+<p>While eating our ration of corn meal and bacon,
+howls of the dogs rose to a fierce crescendo. I supposed
+they were saluting the coming of the moon, as is their
+custom, but the howls changed to tones of increasing
+excitement. We went out to inquire, but saw nothing.
+It was so dark that I could not see the dogs twenty feet
+away, and the cold wind made breathing difficult.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Nan nook</i>" (Bear), the Eskimos said in an undertone.
+I looked around for some position of defense.
+But the dense night-blackness rendered this hopeless, so
+we took our position behind the tent, rifles in hand. The
+bear, of an inquisitive turn of mind, deliberately advanced
+upon us. "<i>Taokoo! taokoo! igloo dia oo-ah-tonie!</i>"
+(Look! look! beyond the iceberg!) said the
+Eskimos. Neither the iceberg nor the bear was visible.
+After a cold and exciting wait, the bear turned and hid
+behind another iceberg. We separated a few of the
+best bear dogs from each other. Bounding off, they
+disappeared quietly in the darkness. The other dogs
+were fastened to the sledges, and away we started.</p>
+
+<p>I sat on To-ti-o's sledge, as he had the largest team.
+We jumped crevasses, and occasionally dipped in open
+water.</p>
+
+<p>The track of the bear wound about huge bergs
+which looked in the darkness like nebulous shadows.
+The dogs, of themselves, followed the invisible line of
+tracks.</p>
+
+<p>Soon the wolfish dogs ahead began to shout the
+chorus of their battle. We left the track in an air-line
+course for the dark mystery out of which the noise came.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>
+To-ti-o took the lead. As we neared the noise, all but
+two dogs of his sledge were cut loose. The sledge overturned,
+I under it. As Koo-loo-ting-wah came along,
+he freed all his dogs. I passed him my new take-down
+Winchester.</p>
+
+<p>Hurrying after To-ti-o, he had advanced only a few
+steps when To-ti-o fired. Koo-loo-ting-wah, noting an
+effort of the bear to rise, fired the new rifle.</p>
+
+<p>A flash of fire lit the darkness. Koo-loo-ting-wah
+rushed to me, asking for the folding lantern. The
+smokeless powder had broken the new gun. To-ti-o had
+no more cartridges. The bear, however, was quiet. We
+advanced, lances in hand.</p>
+
+<p>The dogs danced wildly about the bear, but he
+managed to throw out his feet with sufficient force to
+keep the canine fangs disengaged. The other Eskimos
+now came, with rushing dogs in advance. To-ti-o dashed
+forward and delivered the lance under the bear's
+shoulder. The bear was his. He thereby not only
+gained the prize for the expedition, but, by the addition
+of the bear to his game list, completed his retinue of accomplishments
+whereby he could claim the full privileges
+of manhood.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 532px;">
+<img src="images/illo_135.jpg" width="532" height="800" alt="THE HELPERS" title="" />
+<span class="caption">THE HELPERS&mdash;NORTHERNMOST MAN AND HIS WIFE</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Among other things, it gave him the right to marry.
+He had already secured a bride of twelve, but, without
+this bear conquest, the match would not have been permanent.
+He danced with the romantic joy of a young
+lover. We drove the dogs off from the victim with
+lashes, and fell to and skinned and dressed the carcass.
+A taste was given to each dog. The balance was placed
+on the sledges. Soon we were to camp, waiting for the
+sled loads of bear meat.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 539px;">
+<img src="images/illo_136.jpg" width="539" height="800" alt="A MECCA OF MUSK OX ALONG EUREKA SOUND
+A NATIVE HELPER
+AH-WE-LAH'S PROSPECTIVE WIFE" title="" />
+<span class="caption">A MECCA OF MUSK OX ALONG EUREKA SOUND<br />
+A NATIVE HELPER<br />
+AH-WE-LAH&rsquo;S PROSPECTIVE WIFE</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>On the day following we started to hunt caribou.
+The sky was beautifully clear; the glacial wind was lost
+as we left the ice. The party scattered among numerous
+old bergs of the glacier. Koo-loo-ting-wah accompanied
+me. We aimed to rise to a small tableland from
+which I might make a study of the surroundings.</p>
+
+<p>We had not gone inland more than a mile when we
+saw numerous fresh caribou tracks. Following these,
+we moved along a steep slope to the tableland above at
+an altitude of about one thousand feet. We peeped
+over the crest. Below us were two reindeer digging
+under the snow for food. The light was good, and they
+were in gun range. An Eskimo, however, gets very near
+his game before he chances a shot, so, winding about
+under the crest of a cliff or a snow-covered shelf of rocks,
+we got to their range and fired.</p>
+
+<p>The creatures fell. They were nearly white, young,
+and possessed long fur and thick skins, which we needed
+badly for sleeping bags. With pocket knives, the
+natives skinned the animals and divided the meat in three
+packs while I examined the surroundings.</p>
+
+<p>Part of the face of Humboldt Glacier, which extends
+sixty miles north, was clearly visible in cliffs
+of a dark blue color. The interior ice ran in waves like
+the surface of stormy seas, perfectly free of snow, with
+many crevasses. An odd purplish-blue light upon it was
+reflected to the skies, resembling to some extent a water
+sky. The snow of the sea ice below was of a delicate
+lilac. Otherwise, sky and land were flooded with the
+usual dominant purple of the Arctic twilight.</p>
+
+<p>This glacier, the largest in Arctic America, had at
+one time extended very much farther south. All the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>
+islands, including Brook's, had at one time been under
+its grinding influence. As a picture it was a charming
+study in purple and blue, but the temperature was too
+low and the light too nearly spent to venture a further
+investigation.</p>
+
+<p>The Eskimos fixed for me an extremely light pack.
+This was comfortably placed on my back, with a bundle
+of thongs over the forehead. The natives took their
+huge bundles, and, together, we started for camp. At
+every rest we cut off slices of caribou tallow. I was surprised
+to find that I had acquired a taste for a new
+delicacy. At camp we found the natives, all in good
+humor, awaiting us beside heaps of meat and skins. All
+had been successful in securing from one to two animals
+each in regions nearer by. In a further search they
+had failed to find promising tracks, so we proposed to
+return on the morrow, hoping to meet bears en route.</p>
+
+<p>With the stupor of the gluttony of reindeer meat
+and the fatigue of the long chase, we slept late. Awaking,
+we partook each of a cup of tea, and packed and
+loaded the meat. Drawing heavy loads, the dogs gladly
+leaped forward. The twilight flush already suffused
+the sky with incandescence. Against the southeastern
+sky, glowing with rose, the great glaciers of Humboldt
+loomed in walls of violet, while the sea displayed many
+shades of rose and lilac, according to the direction of the
+light on the slope of the drifts.</p>
+
+<p>Knowing that their noses pointed to a land of walrus,
+the dogs kept up a lively pace. Not a breath of
+air was stirring. The temperature was -42&deg;. Aiming
+to make Annoatok in two marches, we ran behind the
+sledges to save dog energy as much as possible. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>
+cold enforced vigorous exercise. But, weighted down
+by furs, the comfort of the sledges was often sought
+to escape the tortures of perspiration. The source of
+light slowly shifted along shadowed mountains under
+the frozen sea. Our path glowed with electric, multi-colored
+splendor.</p>
+
+<p>By degrees, the rose-colored sky assumed the hue of
+old gold, the violet embroideries of clouds changed to
+purple. The gold, in running bands, darkened; the
+purple thickened. Soon new celestial torches lighted
+the changing sheen of the snows. Into the dome of
+heaven swam stars of burning intensity, each of which
+rivalled the sun in a miniature way. In this new illumination
+the twilight fires lost flame and color. Cold
+white incandescence electrically suffused the frigid sky.</p>
+
+<p>I strode onward, in that white, blazing air, the joy
+and beauty of it enthralling my soul. I felt as though
+I were walking in a world of heatless fire, a half supernatural
+realm such as that wherein reigned the gods of
+ancient peoples. I felt as an old Norseman must have
+felt when the glory of Valhalla burst upon him. For a
+long time I was unconscious of the fatigue which was
+growing upon me. Finally, overcome by the long
+forced march, I sank on my sled. The Eskimos, chanting
+songs, loomed ahead, their forms magnified in the
+unearthly light. Slowly a subtle change appeared along
+the horizon. Silent and impressed, I watched the changing
+scenes and evolving lights as if all were some divine
+and awe-inspiring stage arranged by God for some
+heroic drama of man.</p>
+
+<p>New and warm with shimmering veils of color, attended
+by four radiant satellites, the golden face of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>
+moon rose majestically over the sparkling pinnacles of
+the Greenland glaciers. Below, the lovely planet-deflected
+images formed rainbow curves like rubied necklaces
+about her invisible neck. As the moon ascended
+in a spiral course the rose hues paled, the white light
+from the stars softened to a rich, creamy glow.</p>
+
+<p>We continued our course, the Eskimos singing, the
+dogs occasionally barking. Hours passed. Then we
+all suddenly became silent. The last, the supreme,
+glory of the North flamed over earth and frozen sea.
+The divine fingers of the aurora,<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> that unseen and intangible
+thing of flame, who comes from her mysterious
+throne to smile upon a benighted world, began to
+touch the sky with glittering, quivering lines of glowing
+silver. With skeins of running, liquid fire she wove
+over the sky a shimmering panorama of blazing beauty.
+Forms of fire, indistinct and unhuman, took shape and
+vanished. From horizon to zenith, cascades of milk-colored
+fire ascended and fell, as must the magical fountains
+of heaven.</p>
+
+<p>In the glory of this other-world light I felt the in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>significance
+of self, a human unit; and, withal I became
+more intensely conscious than ever of the transfiguring
+influence of the sublime ideal to which I had set
+myself. I exulted in the thrill of an indomitable determination,
+that determination of human beings to essay
+great things&mdash;that human purpose which, throughout
+history, has resulted in the great deeds, the great art, of
+the world, and which lifts men above themselves. Spiritually
+intoxicated, I rode onward. The aurora faded.
+But its glow remained in my soul.</p>
+
+<p>We arrived at camp late on November 1.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 560px;">
+<img src="images/illo_141.jpg" width="560" height="480" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 100%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span></p>
+<h2>THE MOONLIGHT QUEST OF THE
+WALRUS</h2>
+
+<p class="blockquot">DESPERATE AND DANGEROUS HUNTING, IN ORDER TO
+SECURE ADEQUATE SUPPLIES FOR THE POLAR DASH&mdash;A
+THRILLING AND ADVENTUROUS RACE IS MADE OVER
+FROZEN SEAS AND ICY MOUNTAINS TO THE WALRUS
+GROUNDS&mdash;TERRIFIC EXPLOSION OF THE ICE ON
+WHICH THE PARTY HUNTS&mdash;SUCCESS IN SECURING
+OVER SEVEN SLED-LOADS OF BLUBBER MAKES THE
+POLE SEEM NEARER&mdash;AN ARCTIC TRAGEDY</p>
+
+<h3>VIII<br />
+
+<br /><span class="smcap">Five Hundred Miles Through Night and Storm</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>The early days of November were devoted to routine
+work about Annoatok. Meat was gathered and
+dried in strips by Francke; a full force of men were put
+to the work of devising equipment; the women were
+making clothing and dressing skins; and then a traveling
+party was organized to go south to gather an additional
+harvest of meat and skins and furs. For this purpose
+we planned to take advantage of the November moon.
+Thus, in the first week of the month, we were ready for
+a five-hundred-mile run to the southern villages and to
+the night-hunting grounds for walrus.</p>
+
+<p>A crack of whips explosively cut the taut, cold air.
+The raucous, weird and hungry howl of the wolf-dogs<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span>
+replied: "<i>Ah-u-oo, Ah-u-oo, Ah-u-oo!</i>" rolled over
+the ice; "<i>Huk-huk!</i>" the Eskimos shouted. There was a
+sudden tightening of the traces of our seven sledges;
+fifty lithe, strong bodies leaped forward; and, holding
+the upstanders, the rear upright framework of the native
+sledges, I and my six companions were off. In a few
+moments the igloos of the village, with lights shining
+through windows where animal membranes served as
+glass, had sped by us. The cheering of the natives behind
+was soon lost in the grind of our sledges on the irregular
+ice and the joyous, unrestrained barking of the
+leaping, tearing, restless dog-teams.</p>
+
+<p>To the south of us, a misty orange flush suffused
+the dun-colored sky. The sun, which we had not seen
+for an entire month, now late in November far below
+the horizon, sent to us the dim radiance of a far-away
+smile. After its setting it had, about noon time of each
+day, set the sky faintly aglow, this radiance decreasing
+until it was lost in the brightness of the midday moon.
+Rising above the horizon, a suspended lamp of frosty,
+pearl-colored glass, the moon for ten days of twenty-four
+hours, each month, encircled about us, now lost
+behind ice-sheeted mountains, again subdued under
+colored films of frost clouds, but always relieving the
+night of its gloom, and permitting, when the wind was
+not too turbulent, outside activity.</p>
+
+<p>A wonderful animal is the sea-horse, or whale-horse,
+as the Icelanders and Dutch (from whom we have
+borrowed "walrus") call it. In the summer its life is
+easy and its time is spent in almost perpetual sunny
+dreams, but in winter it would be difficult to conceive
+of a harder existence than its own. Finding food in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span>
+shallow Polar seas, it comes to permanent open water,
+or to the crevasses of an active pack for breath. With
+but a few minutes' rest on a storm-swept surface, it explores,
+without other relief for weeks, the double-night
+darkness of unknown depths under the frozen sea. At
+last, when no longer able to move its huge web feet, it
+rises on the ice or seeks ice-locked waters for a needed
+rest. In winter, the thump of its ponderous head keeps
+the young ice from closing its breathing place. If on ice,
+its thick skin, its blanket of blubber, and an automatic
+shiver, keep its blood from hardening. This is man's
+opportunity to secure meat and fuel, but the quest involves
+a task to which no unaided paleface is equal. The
+night hunt of the walrus is Eskimo sport, but it is nevertheless
+sport of a most engaging and exciting order.</p>
+
+<p>So that I might not be compelled to start on my
+dash stintedly equipped, we now prepared for such an
+adventure by moonlight. Before this time there had
+not been sufficient atmospheric stability and ice continuity
+to promise comparative safety. My heart exulted
+as I heard the crack of the whips in the electric
+air and felt the earth rush giddily under my feet as I
+leaped behind the speeding teams. The fever of the
+quest was in my veins; its very danger lent an indescribable
+thrill, for success now meant more to me than
+perhaps hunting had ever meant to any man.</p>
+
+<p>Not long after we started, darkness descended. The
+moon slowly passed behind an impenetrable curtain of
+inky clouds; the orange glow of the sun faded; and we
+were surrounded on every side by a blackness so thick
+that it was almost palpable.</p>
+
+<p>As I now recall that mad race I marvel how we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>
+escaped smashing sledges, breaking our limbs, crushing
+our heads. We tumbled and jumped in a frantic
+race over the broken, irregular pack-ice from Annoatok
+to Cape Alexander, a distance of thirty miles as the
+raven moves, but more than forty miles as we follow the
+sledge trail. Here the ice became thin; we felt cold mist
+rising from open water; and now and then, in an occasional
+breaking of the darkness, we could discern
+vast sheets or snaky leads of open sea ahead of us.</p>
+
+<p>To reach the southern waters where the walrus were
+to be found, we now had to seek an overland route,
+which would take us over the frozen Greenland mountains
+and lead us through the murky clouds, a route of
+twisting detours, gashed glaciers, upturned barriers of
+rock and ice, swept by blinding winds, unmarked by any
+trail, and which writhed painfully beyond us for forty-seven
+miles.</p>
+
+<p>Arriving at the limit of traversable sea-ice, we
+now paused before sloping cliffs of glacial land-ice
+which we had to climb. Picture to yourself a vast glacier
+rising precipitously, like a gigantic wall, thousands
+of feet above you, and creeping tortuously up its glassy,
+purple face, if such that surface could be called, formed
+by the piling of one glacial formation upon the other
+in the descent through the valleys, a twisting, retreating
+road of jagged ice strata, of earth and stone,
+blocked here and there by apparently impassable impediments,
+pausing at almost unscalable, frozen cliffs,
+and at times no wider than a few yards. Imagine yourself
+pausing, as we suddenly did, and viewing the perilous
+ascent, the only way open to us, revealed in the
+passing glimmer of the pale, circling moon, despair,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span>
+fear and hope tugging at your heart. Whipped across
+the sky by the lashing winds, the torn clouds, passing
+the face of the moon, cast magnified and grotesquely
+gesticulating shadows on the glistening face of the icy
+Gibraltar before us. Some of these misty shapes
+seemed to threaten, others shook their rag-like arms,
+beckoning forward. Upon the face of the towering,
+perpendicular ice-wall, great hummocks like the
+gnarled black limbs of a huge tree twisted upwards.</p>
+
+<p>I realized that the frightful ascent must be made.
+The goal of my single aim suddenly robbed the climb
+of its terrors. I dropped my whip. Six other whips
+cracked through the air. Koo-loo-ting-wah said, "<i>Kah-Kah!</i>"
+(Come, come!) But Sotia said, "<i>Iodaria-Iodaria!</i>"
+(Impossible, impossible!) The dogs emitted
+shrill howls. Holding the rear upstanders of the
+sledges, we helped to push them forward.</p>
+
+<p>Before us, the fifty dogs climbed like cats through
+narrow apertures of the ice, or took long leaps over the
+serried battlements that barred our way. We stumbled
+after, sometimes we fell. Again we had to lift the
+sledges after the dogs.</p>
+
+<p>From the top of the glacier a furious wind brushed
+us backwards. We felt the steaming breath of the
+laboring dogs in our faces. My heart thumped painfully.
+Now and then the moon disappeared; we followed
+the unfailing instinct of the animals. I realized
+that a misstep might plunge me to a horrible death in
+the ice abysm below. With a howl of joy from drivers,
+the dogs finally leaped to the naked surface of the
+wind-swept glacier. Panting in indescribable relief,
+we followed. But the worst part of the journey lay<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>
+before us. The sable clouds, like the curtain of some
+cyclopean stage, seemed suddenly drawn aside as if
+by an invisible hand.</p>
+
+<p>Upon the illimitable stretch of ice rising before
+us like the slopes of a glass mountain, the
+full rays of the moon poured liquid silver. Only in
+dreams had such a scene as this been revealed to me&mdash;in
+dreams of the enchanted North&mdash;which did not now
+equal reality. The spectacle filled me with both awed
+delight and a sense of terror.</p>
+
+<p>Beyond the fan-shaped teams of dogs the eyes ran
+over fields of night-blackened blue, gashed and broken
+by bottomless canyons which twisted like purple serpents
+in every direction. Vast expanses of smooth
+surface, polished by the constant winds, reflected the
+glow of the moon and gleamed like isles of silver in
+a motionless, deep, sapphire sea; but all was covered
+with the air of night. In the moonlight, the jagged irregular
+contours of the broken ice became touched with
+a burning gilt. A constant effect like running quicksilver
+played about us as the moon sailed around the
+heavens.</p>
+
+<p>Above us the ice pinnacles were lost in the clouds,
+huge billowy masses that were blown in the wind
+troublously, like the heavy black tresses of some Titan
+woman. I thrilled with the beauty of the magical spectacle,
+yet, when I viewed the perilous pathway, I felt
+the grip of terror again at my heart.</p>
+
+<p>I was aroused from my brief reverie by the familiar
+"<i>Huk-huk! Ah-gah! Ah-gah!</i>" of the Eskimos, and
+placing our hands upon the sledges, we leaped forward
+into the purple-gashed sea, with its blinding sheets of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>
+silver. I seemed carried through a world such as the
+old Norsemen sang of in the sagas.</p>
+
+<p>Of a sudden, as though extinguished, the moonlight
+faded, huge shadows leaped onto the ice before us,
+frenziedly waved their arms and melted into the pitch-black
+darkness which descended. I had read imaginative
+tales of wanderings in the nether region of the
+dead, but only now did I have a faint glimmering of
+the terror (with its certain, exultant intoxication)
+which lost souls must feel when they wander in a darkness
+beset with invisible horrors.</p>
+
+<p>Over the ice, cut with innumerable chasms and
+neck-breaking irregularities, we rushed in the dark.
+The wind moaned down from the despairing cloud-enfolded
+heights above; it tore through the bottomless
+gullies on every side with a hungry roar. Beads of
+perspiration rolled down my face and froze into icicles
+on my chin and furs. The temperature was 48&deg; below
+zero.</p>
+
+<p>Occasionally we stopped a moment to gasp for
+breath. I could hear the panting of my companions,
+the labor of the dogs. A few seconds' inaction was
+followed by convulsive shivering; the pain of stopping
+was more excruciating than that of climbing. In the
+darkness, the calls of the invisible Eskimos to the dogs
+seemed like the weird appeals of disembodied things. I
+felt each moment the imminent danger of a frightful
+death; yet the dogs with their marvelous intuition,
+twisting this way and that, and sometimes retreating,
+sensed the open leads ahead and rushed forward safely.</p>
+
+<p>At times I felt the yawning depth of ice canyons
+immediately by my side&mdash;that a step might plunge me<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>
+into the depths. Desperately I held on to the sledges,
+and was dragged along. Such an experience might
+well turn the hair of the most expert Alpinist white in
+one night; yet I did not have time to dwell fully upon
+the dangers, and I was carried over a trip more perilous
+than, later, proved the actual journey on sea-ice to the
+Pole.</p>
+
+<p>Occasionally the moon peered forth from its clouds
+and brightened the gloom. In its light the ice fields
+swam dizzily by us, as a landscape seen from the window
+of a train; the open gashed gullies writhed like
+snakes, pinnacles dancing like silver spears. By alternate
+running and riding we managed to keep from
+freezing and sweating. We finally reached an altitude
+of inland ice exceeding two thousand feet. Silver fog
+crept under our feet. We were traveling now in a
+world of clouds.</p>
+
+<p>We paced twelve miles at a rapid speed. In the
+light of the moon-burned clouds which rolled about our
+heads, I could see the forms of my companions only
+indistinctly. The dogs ahead were veiled in the argent,
+tremulous mists; the ice sped under me; I was no longer
+conscious of an earthly footing; I might have been
+soaring in space.</p>
+
+<p>We began to descend. Suddenly the dogs started
+in leaps to fly through the air. Our sleds were jerked
+into clouds of cutting snow. We jabbed our feet into
+the drift to check the mad speed. On each side we saw
+a huge mountain, seemingly thousands of feet above us,
+but ahead was nothing but the void of empty space.
+Soon the sledges shot beyond the dogs. We threw ourselves
+off to check the momentum. With dog intelli<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span>gence
+and savage strength judiciously expended, we
+reached the sea level by flying flights over dangerous
+slopes, and, like cats, we landed on nimble feet in
+Sontag Bay.</p>
+
+<p>A bivouac was arranged under a dome of snow-blocks,
+and exhausted by the mad journey, a sleep of
+twenty-four hours was indulged in.</p>
+
+<p>Now, for a time, our task was easier. A course
+was set along the land, southward. Each of the native
+settlements was visited. The season's gossip was exchanged.
+Presents went into each household, and a
+return of furs and useful products filled our sledges.
+Thus the time was occupied in profitable visits during
+the feeble light of the November moon. With the
+December moon we returned northward to Ser-wah-ding-wah.</p>
+
+<p>Then our struggle began anew for the walrus
+grounds. The Polar drift, forcing through Smith
+Sound, left an open space of water about ten miles
+south of Cape Alexander. This disturbed area was our
+destination. It was marked by a dark cloud, a "water-sky"&mdash;against
+the pearly glow of the southern heavens.
+The ice surface was smooth. We did not encounter
+the crushed heaps of ice of the northern route, but
+there were frequent crevasses which, though cemented
+with new ice, gave us considerable anxiety, for I realized
+that if a northwesterly storm should suddenly strike
+the pack we might be carried helplessly adrift.</p>
+
+<p>The urgency of our mission to secure dog food,
+however, left no alternative. It was better to brave
+death now, I thought, than to perish from scant supplies
+on the Polar trip. We had not gone far before the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>
+ever-keen canine noses detected bear tracks on the ice.
+These we shot over the pack surface in true battle spirit.
+As the bears were evidently bound for the same hunting
+grounds, this course was accepted as good enough
+for us. Although the trail was laid in a circuitous
+route, it avoided the most difficult pressure angles. We
+traveled until late in the day. The moon was low,
+and the dark purple hue of the night blackened the
+snows.</p>
+
+<p>Of a sudden we paused. From a distance came
+a low call of walrus bulls. The bass, nasal bellow was
+muffled by the low temperature, and did not thump the
+ear drums with the force of the cry in sunny summer.
+My six companions shouted with glee, and became
+almost hysterical with excitement. The dogs, hearing
+the call, howled and jumped to jerk the sledges. We
+dropped our whips, and they responded with all their
+brute force in one bound. It was difficult to hold to
+the sledges as we shot over the blackening snows.</p>
+
+<p>The ice-fields became smaller as we advanced;
+dangerous thin ice intervened; but the owl-eyes of the
+Eskimos knew just where to find safe ice. The sounds
+increased as we approached. We descended from the
+snow-covered ice to thin, black ice and for a time I
+felt as if we were flying over the open surface of the
+deep. With a low call, the dogs were stopped. They
+were detached from the sledges and tied to holes drilled
+with a knife in ice boulders.</p>
+
+<p>Pushing the sledges upon which rested the harpoon,
+the lance, the gun and knives, each one of us
+advanced at some distance from his neighbor. Soon,
+lines of mist told of dangerous breaks, and the ice was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span>
+carefully tested with the spiked shaft before venturing
+farther. I was behind Koo-loo-ting-wah's sledge.
+While he was creeping up to the water's edge, there
+came the rush of a spouting breath so near that we
+seemed to feel the crystal spray. I took his place and
+pushed the sledge along.</p>
+
+<p>Taking the harpoon, with stealthy strides Koo-loo-ting-wah
+moved to the water's edge and waited for the
+next spout. We heard other spouts in various directions,
+and in the dark water, slightly lighted by the
+declining moon, we saw other dark spots of spray.
+Suddenly a burst of steam startled me. It was near
+the ice where Koo-loo-ting-wah lay. I was about to
+shout, but the Eskimo turned, held up his hand and
+whispered "<i>Ouit-ou.</i>" (Wait.)</p>
+
+<p>Then, very slowly, he lowered his body, spread out
+his form on the ice, and startlingly imitated the walrus
+call. His voice preternaturally bellowed through
+the night. Out of the inky water, a walrus lifted its
+head. I saw its long, white, spiral, ivory tusk and two
+phosphorescent eyes. Koo-loo-ting-wah did not stir.
+I shivered with cold and impatience. Why did he not
+strike? Our prey seemed within our hands. I uttered
+an exclamation of vexed disappointment when, with a
+splash, the head disappeared, leaving on the water a
+line of algae fire.</p>
+
+<p>For several minutes I stood gazing seaward. Far
+away on the black ocean, to my amazement, I saw
+lights appearing like distant lighthouse signals, or the
+mast lanterns on passing ships. They flashed and
+suddenly faded, these strange will-o'-the wisps of the
+Arctic sea. In a moment I realized that the lights were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>
+caused by distant icebergs crashing against one another.
+On the bergs as on the surface of the sea, as it happened
+now, were coatings of a teeming germ life, the same
+which causes phosphorescence in the trail of an ocean
+ship. The effect was indescribably weird.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly I jumped backward, appalled by a noise
+that reverberated shudderingly under the ice on which
+I stood. The ice shook as if with an earthquake. I
+hastily retreated, but Koo-loo-ting-wah, lying by the
+water's edge, never stirred. A dead man could not have
+been less responsive. While I was wondering as to the
+cause of the upheaval, the ice, within a few feet of Koo-loo-ting-wah,
+was suddenly torn asunder as if by a submarine
+explosion. Koo-loo-ting-wah leaped into the
+air and descended apparently toward the distending
+space of turbulent open water. I saw him raise his arm
+and deliver a harpoon with amazing dexterity; at the
+same instant I had seen also the white tusk and phosphorescent
+eyes of a walrus appear for a moment in the
+black water and then sink.</p>
+
+<p>The harpoon had gone home; the line was run out;
+a spiked lance shaft was driven into the ice through
+a loop in the end of the line, and the line was thus
+fastened. We knew the wounded beast would have to
+rise for air. With rifle and lance ready, we waited,
+intending, each time a spout of water arose, to drive
+holes into the tough armor of skin until the beast's
+vitals were tapped. By feeling the line, I could sense
+the struggles of the wild creature below in the depths
+of the sea. Then the line would slacken, a spout of
+steam would rise from the water, Koo-loo-ting-wah
+would drive a spear, I a shot from my gun. The air<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span>
+would become oppressive with the creature's frightful
+bellowing. Then would come an interval of silence.</p>
+
+<p>For about two hours we kept up the battle. Then
+the line slackened, Koo-loo-ting-wah called the others,
+and together we drew the huge carcass, steaming with
+blood, to the surface of the ice. Smelling the odorous
+wet blood, the dogs exultantly howled.</p>
+
+<p>Falling upon the animal, the natives, trained in
+the art, with sharp knives had soon dressed the thick
+meat and blubber from the bones and lashed the weltering
+mass on a sledge. This done, with quick despatch,
+they separated, dashed along the edge of the ice, casting
+harpoons whenever the small geysers appeared on the
+water. We were in excellent luck. One walrus after
+another was dragged lumberingly on the ice, and in the
+course of several hours the seven sledges were heavily
+loaded with the precious supplies which would now
+enable me, liberally equipped, to start Poleward. We
+gave our dogs a light meal, and started landward, leaving
+great piles of walrus meat behind us on the ice.</p>
+
+<p>Although we were tired on reaching land, we began
+to build several snow-houses in which to sleep. Not far
+away was an Eskimo village. Summoning the natives
+to help us bring in the spoils of the hunt which had been
+left on the ice, we first indulged in a gluttonous feast
+of uncooked meat, in which the dogs ravenously joined.
+The meat tasted like train-oil. The work of bringing
+in the meat and blubber and caching it for subsequent
+gathering was hardly finished when, from the ominous,
+glacial-covered highlands, a winter blast suddenly began
+to come with terrific and increasing fury.</p>
+
+<p>Blinding gusts of snow whipped the frozen earth.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>
+The wind shrieked fiendishly. Above its roar, not three
+hours after our last trip on the ice, a resounding, crashing
+noise rose above the storm. Braving the blasts, I
+went outside the igloo. Through the darkness I could
+see white curvatures of piling sea-ice. I could hear the
+rush and crashing of huge floes and glaciers being carried
+seaward. Had we waited another day, had we been
+out on the ice seeking walrus just twenty-four hours
+after our successful hunt, we should have been carried
+away in the sudden roaring gale, and hopelessly perished
+in the wind-swept deep.</p>
+
+<p>During the night, or hours usually allotted to rest,
+the noise continued unabated. I failed to sleep. Now
+and then, a crashing noise shivered through the storm.
+An igloo from the nearby settlement was swept into
+the sea. During the gale many of the natives who had
+retired with their clothes hung out to dry, awoke to
+find that the wind had robbed them of their valuable
+winter furs.</p>
+
+<p>Some time along in the course of the night, I
+heard outside excited Eskimos shouting. There was
+terror in the voices. Arising and dressing hastily, I
+rushed into the teeth of the storm. Not far away were
+a number of natives rushing along the land some
+twenty feet beneath which the sea lapped the land-ice
+with furious tongues. They had cast lines into the sea
+and were shouting, it seemed, to someone who was
+struggling in the hopeless, frigid tumult of water.</p>
+
+<p>I soon learned of the dreadful catastrophe. Ky-un-a,
+an old and cautious native, awakened by the storm
+a brief while before, after dressing himself, ventured
+outside his stone house to secure articles which he had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span>
+left there. As was learned later, he had just tied his
+sledge to a rock when a gust of wind resistlessly rushed
+seaward, lifted the aged man from his feet, and dropped
+him into the sea. Through the storm, his dreadful
+cries attracted his companions. Some who were now
+tugging at the lines, were barely covered with fur rugs
+which they had thrown about them, and their limbs
+were partly bare. Now and then, a blinding gust of
+wind, filled with freezing snow crystals, almost lifted
+us from our feet. The sea lapped its tongues sickeningly
+below us.</p>
+
+<p>Finally a limp body, ice-sheeted, dripping with
+water, yet clinging with its mummied frozen hands to
+the line, was hauled up on the ice. Ky-un-a, unconscious,
+was carried to his house about five hundred feet
+away. There, after wrapping him in furs, in a brave
+effort to save his life, the natives cut open his fur garments.
+The fur, frozen solid by the frigid blasts in the
+brief period which had elapsed since his being lifted from
+the water, took with it, in parting from his body, long
+patches of skin, leaving the quivering raw flesh exposed
+as though by a burn. For three days the aged man lay
+dying, suffering excruciating tortures, the victim of
+merely a common accident, which at any time may happen
+to anyone of these Spartan people. I shall never
+forget the harrowing moans of the suffering man piercing
+the storm. Perhaps it had been merciful to let him
+perish in the sea.</p>
+
+<p>Ky-un-a's old home was some forty miles distant.
+To it, that he might die there, he desired to go. On the
+fourth day after the accident, he was placed in a litter,
+covered with warm furs, and borne over the smooth ice<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span>fields.
+I shall never forget that dismal and solemn
+procession. A benign calm prevailed over land and sea.
+The orange glow of a luxurious moon set the ice coldly
+aflame. Long shadows, like spectral mourners, robed
+in purple, loomed before the tiny procession. Now and
+then, as they dwindled in the distance, I saw them, like
+black dots, crossing areas of polished ice which glowed
+like mirror lakes of silver. From the distance, softly
+shuddered the decreasing moans of the dying man; then
+there was silence. I marvelled again upon the lure of
+this eerily, weirdly beautiful land, where, always imminent,
+death can be so terrible.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 563px;">
+<img src="images/illo_157.jpg" width="563" height="480" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 100%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span></p>
+<h2>MIDNIGHT AND MID-WINTER</h2>
+
+<p class="blockquot">THE EQUIPMENT AND ITS PROBLEMS&mdash;NEW ART IN THE
+MAKING OF SLEDGES COMBINING LIGHTNESS&mdash;PROGRESS
+OF THE PREPARATIONS&mdash;CHRISTMAS, WITH ITS
+GLAD TIDINGS AND AUGURIES FOR SUCCESS IN QUEST
+OF THE POLE</p>
+
+<h3>IX<br />
+
+<br /><span class="smcap">The Coming of the Eskimo Stork</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>In planning for the Polar dash I appreciated fully
+the vital importance of sledges. These, I realized,
+must possess, to an ultimate degree, the combined
+strength of steel with the lightness and elasticity of
+the strongest wood. The sledge must neither be flimsy
+nor bulky; nor should it be heavy or rigid. After a
+careful study of the art of sledge-traveling from the
+earliest time to the present day, after years of sledging
+and sledge observation in Greenland, the Antarctic and
+Alaska, I came to the conclusion that success was dependent,
+not upon any one type of sledge, but upon
+local fitness.</p>
+
+<p>All natives of the frigid wilds have devised sledges,
+traveling and camp equipment to fit their local needs.
+The collective lessons of ages are to be read in this development
+of primitive sledge traveling. If these wild
+people had been provided with the best material from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span>
+which to work out their hard problems of life, then it is
+probable that their methods could not be improved.
+But neither the Indian nor the Eskimo was ever in
+possession of either the tools or the raw material to fit
+their inventive genius for making the best equipment.
+Therefore, I had studied first the accumulated results
+of the sledge of primitive man and from this tried to
+construct a sledge with its accessories in which were included
+the advantages of up-to-date mechanics with the
+use of the most durable material which a search of the
+entire globe had afforded me.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p>
+
+<p>The McClintock sledges, made of bent wood with
+wide runners, had been adopted by nearly all explorers,
+under different names and with considerable modifications,
+for fifty years. This sledge is still the best type
+for deep soft snow conditions, for which it was originally
+intended. But such snow is not often found on
+the ice of the Polar sea. The native sledge which Peary
+copied, although well adapted to local use along the ice-foot
+and the land-adhering pack, is not the best sledge
+for a trans-boreal run. This is because it is too heavy
+and too easily broken, and breakable in such a way that
+it cannot be quickly repaired.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>For the Arctic pack, a sledge must be of a moderate
+length, with considerable width. Narrow runners offer
+less friction and generally give sufficient bearing surface.
+The other qualities vital to quick movement and
+durability are lightness, elasticity and interchangeability
+of parts. All of these conditions I planned to meet in
+a new pattern of sledge which should combine the durability
+of the Eskimo sledges and the lightness of the
+Yukon sledge of Alaska.</p>
+
+<p>The making of a suitable sledge caused me a good
+deal of concern. Before leaving New York I had
+taken the precaution of selecting an abundance of the
+best hickory wood in approximately correct sizes for
+sledge construction. Suitable tools had also been provided.
+Now, as the long winter with its months of
+darkness curtailed the time of outside movement, the
+box-house was refitted as a workshop. From eight to
+ten men were at the benches, eight hours each day,
+shaping and bending runners, fitting and lashing interchangeable
+cross bars and posts, and riveting the iron
+shoes. Thus the sledge parts were manufactured to
+possess the same facilities to fit not only all other
+sledges, but also other parts of the same sledge. If,
+therefore, part of a sledge should be broken, other parts
+of a discarded sledge could offer repair sections easily.</p>
+
+<p>The general construction of this new sledge is
+easily understood from the various photographs presented.
+All joints were made elastic by seal-thong
+lashings. The sledges were twelve feet long and thirty
+inches wide; the runners had a width of an inch and an
+eighth. Each part and each completed sledge was
+thoroughly tested before it was finally loaded for the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span>
+long run. For dog harness, the Greenland Eskimo
+pattern was adopted. But canine habits are such
+that when rations are reduced to minimum limits
+the leather strips disappear as food. To obviate this
+disaster, the shoulder straps were made of folds of
+strong canvas, while the traces were cut from cotton
+log line.</p>
+
+<p>A boat is an important adjunct to every sledge
+expedition which hopes to venture far from its base
+of operations. It is a matter of necessity, even when
+following a coast line, as was shown by the mishap of
+Mylius Erickson, for if he had had a boat he would
+himself have returned to tell the story of the Danish
+Expedition to East Greenland.</p>
+
+<p>Need for a boat comes with the changing conditions
+of the advancing season. Things must be carried
+for several months for a chance use in the last stages
+of the return. But since food supplies are necessarily
+limited, delay is fatal, and therefore, when open water
+prevents advance, a boat is so vitally necessary as to
+become a life preserver. Foolish indeed is the explorer
+who pays slight attention to this important problem.</p>
+
+<p>The transportation of a boat, however, offers many
+serious difficulties. Nansen introduced the kayak, and
+most explorers since have followed his example. The
+Eskimo canoe serves the purpose very well, but to carry
+it for three months without hopeless destruction requires
+so tremendous an amount of energy as to make
+the task practically impossible.</p>
+
+<p>Sectional boats, aluminum boats, skin floats and
+other devices had been tried, but to all there is the same
+fatal objection on a Polar trip, of impossible trans<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span>portation.
+But it seems odd that the ordinary folding
+canvas boat has not been pressed into this service.</p>
+
+<p>We found such a canoe boat to fit the situation
+exactly, and selected a twelve-foot Eureka-shaped boat
+with wooden frame. The slats, spreaders and floor-pieces
+were utilized as parts of sledges. The canvas
+cover served as a floor cloth for our sleeping bags. Thus
+the boat did useful service for a hundred days and never
+seemed needlessly cumbersome. When the craft was
+finally spread for use as a boat, in it we carried the
+sledge, in it we sought game for food, and in it or under
+it we camped. Without it we could never have returned.</p>
+
+<p>Even more vital than the choice of sledges, more
+vital than anything else, I knew, in such a trip as I
+proposed, is the care of the stomach. From the published
+accounts of Arctic traveling it is impossible to
+learn a fitting ration, and I hasten to add that I well
+realized that our own experience may not solve the
+problem for future expeditions. The gastronomic
+need differs with every man. It differs with every expedition,
+and it is radically different with every nation.
+Thus, when De Gerlache, with good intentions, forced
+Norwegian food into French stomachs, he learned that
+there is a nationality in gastronomics. Nor is it safe
+to listen to scientific advice, for the stomach is arbitrary,
+and stands as autocrat over every human sense and
+passion and will not easily yield to dictates.</p>
+
+<p>In this respect, as in others, I was helped very
+much by the natives. The Eskimo is ever hungry, but
+his taste is normal. Things of doubtful value in nutrition
+form no part in his dietary. Animal food, con<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span>sisting
+of meat and fat, is entirely satisfactory as a
+steady diet without other adjuncts. His food requires
+neither salt nor sugar, nor is cooking a matter of necessity.</p>
+
+<p>Quantity is important, but quality applies only
+to the relative proportion of fat. With this key to
+gastronomics, pemmican was selected as the staple food,
+and it would also serve equally well for the dogs.</p>
+
+<p>We had an ample supply of pemmican, which was
+made of pounded dried beef, sprinkled with a few
+raisins and some currants, and slightly sweetened with
+sugar. This mixture was cemented together with
+heated beef tallow and run into tin cans containing six
+pounds each.</p>
+
+<p>This combination was invented by the American
+Indian, and the supply for this expedition was made by
+Armour of Chicago after a formula furnished by Captain
+Evelyn B. Baldwin. Pemmican had been used before
+as part of the long list of foodstuffs for Arctic expeditions,
+but with us there was the important difference
+that it was to be almost entirely the whole bill of fare
+when away from game haunts. The palate surprises
+in our store were few.</p>
+
+<p>By the time Christmas approached I had reason
+indeed for rejoicing. Although this happy season
+meant little to me as a holiday of gift-giving and feasting,
+it came with auguries for success in the thing my
+heart most dearly desired, and compared to which earth
+had nothing more alluring to give.</p>
+
+<p>Our equipment was now about complete. In the
+box house were tiers of new sledges, rows of boxes and
+piles of bags filled with clothing, canned supplies,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span>
+dried meat, and sets of strong dog harness. The
+food, fuel and camp equipment for the Polar dash were
+ready. Everything had been thoroughly tested and put
+aside for a final examination. Elated by our success,
+and filled with gratitude to the faithful natives, I declared
+a week of holidays, with rejoicing and feasting.
+Feasting was at this time especially desirable, for we
+had now to fatten up for the anticipated race.</p>
+
+<p>Christmas day in the Arctic does not dawn with the
+glow which children in waking early to seek their bedecked
+tree, view outside their windows in more southern
+lands. Both Christmas day and Christmas night
+are black. Only the stars keep their endless watch in
+the cold skies.</p>
+
+<p>Standing outside my igloo on the happy night, I
+gazed at the Pole Star, the guardian of the goal I
+sought, and I remembered with a thrill the story of that
+mysterious star the Wise Men had followed, of the
+wonders to which it led them, and I felt an awed reverence
+for the Power that set these unfaltering beacons
+above the earth and had written in their golden traces,
+with a burning pen, veiled and unrevealed destinies
+which men for ages have tried to learn.</p>
+
+<p>I retired to sleep with thoughts of home. I thought
+of my children, and the bated expectancy with which
+they were now going to bed, of their hopefulness of the
+morrow, and the unbounded joy they would have in gifts
+to which I could not contribute. I think tears that
+night wet my pillow of furs. But I would give them,
+if I did not fail, the gift of a father's achievement, of
+which, with a glow, I felt they should be proud.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning the natives arrived at the box<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span>
+house early. It had been cleared of seamstresses and
+workmen the day before, and put in comparatively
+spick and span order. I had told the natives they were
+to feed to repletion during the week of holiday, an injunction
+to the keeping of which they did not need
+much urging.</p>
+
+<p>Early Christmas morning, men and women began
+working overtime on the two festive meals which were
+to begin that day and continue daily.</p>
+
+<p>About this time, the most important duty of our
+working force had been to uncover caches and dig up
+piles of frozen meat and blubber. Of this, which possesses
+the flavor and odor of Limburger cheese, and also
+the advantage, if such it be, of intoxicating them, the
+natives are particularly fond. While a woman held a
+native torch of moss dipped in oils and pierced with a
+stick, the men, by means of iron bars and picks, dug up
+boulders of meat just as coal is forced from mines.</p>
+
+<p>A weird spectacle was this, the soft light of the
+blubber lamp dancing on the spotless snows, the soot-covered
+faces of the natives grinning while they worked.
+The blubber was taken close to their igloos and placed
+on raised platforms of snow, so as to be out of reach
+of the dogs. Of this meat and blubber, which was
+served raw, partially thawed, cooked and also frozen,
+the natives partook during most of their waking hours.
+They enjoyed it, indeed, as much as turkey was being
+relished in my far-away home.</p>
+
+<p>Moreover they had, what was an important delicacy,
+native ice cream. This would not, of course,
+please the palate of those accustomed to the American
+delicacy, but to the Eskimo maiden it possesses all the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span>
+lure of creams, sherberts or ice cream sodas. With us,
+sugar in the process of digestion turns into fat, and fat
+into body fuel. The Eskimo, having no sugar, yearns
+for fat, and it comes with the taste of sweets.</p>
+
+<p>The making of native ice cream is quite a task. I
+watched the process of making it Christmas day with
+amused interest. The native women must have a mixture
+of oils from the seal, walrus and narwhal. Walrus
+and seal blubber is frozen, cut into strips, and
+pounded with great force so as to break the fat cells.
+This mass is now placed in a stone pot and heated to
+the temperature of the igloo, when the oil slowly separates
+from the fibrous pork-like mass. Now, tallow from
+the suet of the reindeer or musk ox is secured, cut into
+blocks and given by the good housewife to her daughters,
+who sit in the igloo industriously chewing it until
+the fat cells are crushed. This masticated mass is placed
+in a long stone pot over the oil flame, and the tallow
+reduced from it is run into the fishy oil of the walrus
+or seal previously prepared.</p>
+
+<p>This forms the body of native ice cream. For
+flavoring, the housewife has now a variety from which
+to select. This usually consists of bits of cooked meat,
+moss flowers and grass. Anticipating the absence of
+moss and grass in the winter, the natives, during the
+hunting season, take from the stomachs of reindeer and
+musk oxen which are shot, masses of partly digested
+grass which is preserved for winter use. This, which
+has been frozen, is now chipped in fragments, thawed,
+and, with bits of cooked meats, is added to the mixed
+fats. It all forms a paste the color of pistache, with occasional
+spots like crushed fruit.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The mixture is lowered to the floor of the igloo,
+which, in winter, is always below the freezing point, and
+into it is stirred snow water. The churned composite
+gradually brightens and freezes as it is beaten. When
+completed, it looks very much like ice cream, but it has
+the flavor of cod liver oil, with a similar odor. Nevertheless,
+it has nutritive qualities vastly superior to our
+ice cream, and stomach pains rarely follow an engorgement.</p>
+
+<p>With much glee, the natives finished their Christmas
+repast with this so-called delicacy. For myself a
+tremendous feast was prepared, consisting of food left
+by the yacht and the choicest meat from the caches. My
+menu consisted of green turtle soup, dried vegetables,
+caviar on toast, olives, Alaskan salmon, crystallized potatoes,
+reindeer steak, buttered rice, French peas, apricots,
+raisins, corn bread, Huntley and Palmer biscuits,
+cheese and coffee.</p>
+
+<p>As I sat eating, I thought with much humor of
+the curious combinations of caviar and reindeer steak,
+of the absurd contradiction in eating green turtle soup
+beyond the Arctic circle. I ate heartily, with more
+gusto than I ever partook of delicious food in the Waldorf
+Astoria in my far-away home city. After dinner
+I took a long stroll on snow shoes. As I looked at the
+star-lamps swung in heaven, I thought of Broadway,
+with its purple-pale strings of lights, and its laughing
+merry-makers on this festive evening.</p>
+
+<p>I did not, I confess, feel lonely. I seemed to be
+getting something so much more wholesome, so much
+more genuine from the vast expanse of snow and the
+unhidden heavens which, in New York, are seldom seen.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>
+Returning to the box-house, I ended Christmas evening
+with Edgar Allen Poe and Shakespeare as companions.</p>
+
+<p>The box-house in which I lived was amply comfortable.
+It did not possess the luxury of a civilized
+house, but in the Arctic it was palatial. The interior
+fittings had changed somewhat from time to time, but
+now things were arranged in a permanent setting. The
+little stove was close to the door. The floor measured
+sixteen feet in length and twelve feet in width. On one
+side the empty boxes of the wall made a pantry, on the
+other side were cabinets of tools, and unfinished sledge
+and camp material.</p>
+
+<p>With a step we rose to the next floor. On each
+side was a bunk resting on a bench. The bench was
+used as a bed, a work bench and seat. The long rear
+bench was utilized as a sewing table for the seamstresses
+and also for additional seating capacity. In the center
+was a table arranged around a post which supported
+the roof. Sliding shelves from the bunks formed table
+seats. A yacht lamp fixed to the post furnished ample
+light. There was no other furniture. All of our needs
+were conveniently placed in the open boxes of the wall.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 541px;">
+<img src="images/illo_169.jpg" width="541" height="800" alt="THE CAPTURE OF A BEAR
+ROUNDING UP A HERD OF MUSK OXEN" title="" />
+<span class="caption">THE CAPTURE OF A BEAR<br />
+ROUNDING UP A HERD OF MUSK OXEN</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The closet room therefore was unlimited. In the
+boxes near the floor, in which things froze hard, the
+perishable supplies were kept. In the next tier there
+was alternate freezing and thawing. Here we stored
+lashings and skins that had to be kept moist. The tiers
+above, usually warm and dry under the roof, were used
+for various purposes. There, fresh meat in strips, dried
+crisp in three days. Taking advantage of this, we had
+made twelve hundred pounds of dog pemmican from
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span>
+walrus meat. In the gable we placed furs and instruments.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 640px;">
+<img src="images/illo_170.jpg" width="640" height="429" alt="CAMPING FIVE HUNDRED MILES FROM THE POLE" title="" />
+<span class="caption">SVARTEVOEG&mdash;CAMPING FIVE HUNDRED MILES FROM THE POLE</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The temperature changed remarkably as the thermometer
+was lifted. On the floor in the lower boxes,
+it fell as low as -20&deg;. Under the bunks on the floor, it
+was usually -10&deg;. The middle floor space was above
+the freezing point. At the level of the bunk the temperature
+was +48&deg;. At the head, standing, +70&deg;, and
+under the roof, -105&deg;.</p>
+
+<p>We contrived to keep perfectly comfortable. Our
+feet and legs were always dressed for low temperature,
+while the other portions of our body were lightly clad.
+There was not the usual accumulation of moisture except
+in the lower boxes, where it reinforced the foundation
+of the structure and did no harm. From the hygienic
+standpoint, with the material at hand, we could
+not have improved the arrangement. The ventilation
+was by small openings, mostly along the corners, which
+thus drew heat to remote angles. The value of the long
+stove pipe was made evident by the interior accumulation
+of ice. If we did not remove the ice every three or four
+days the draft was closed by atmospheric humidity condensed
+from the draft drawn through the fire. From
+within, the pipe was also a splendid supplementary
+heater, as it led by a circuitous route about the vestibule
+before the open air was reached, thus keeping the workshop
+somewhat warm. Two Eskimo lamps gave the
+added heat and light for the sledge builders.</p>
+
+<p>From Christmas Day until New Year's there were
+daily feasts for the natives. I luxuriated in a long rest,
+spending my time taking walks and reading. I got a
+sort of pleasure by proxy in watching the delight of these<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span>
+primal people in real food, food which, although to us
+horribly unpalatable, never gives indigestion. This
+period was one of real Christmas rejoicing in many snow
+homes, and the spirit, although these people had never
+heard of the Christ child, was more truly in keeping with
+this holiday than it often is in lands where, in ostentatious
+celebration, the real meaning is lost.</p>
+
+<p>Wandering from igloo to igloo, to extend greetings
+and thanks for their faithful work, I was often touched
+by the sounds of thin, plaintive voices in the darkness.
+Each time a pang touched my heart, and I remembered
+the time when I first heard my own baby girl's wee
+voice. The little ones had begun to arrive. The Eskimo
+stork, at igloo after igloo, was leaving its Christmas
+gift.</p>
+
+<p>For some time before Christmas, Cla-you, easily
+our best seamstress, had not come for her assignment
+of sewing. To her had been given the delicate
+task of making hare skin stockings; but she had lost
+interest in needle-work and complained of not feeling
+well. E-ve-lue (Mrs. Sinue) was completing her task.
+Ac-po-di-soa (the big bird), Cla-you's husband, whom
+we called Bismark, had also deserted the bench where
+he had been making sledges. For his absence there was
+no explanation, for neither he nor his wife had ever
+shirked duties before. To solve the mystery I went to
+his igloo during Christmas week. There I first got
+news from the stork world. The boreal stork comes at
+a special season of the year, usually a few weeks after
+midnight when there is little else to interest the people.
+This season comes nine months after the days of
+budding passions in April, the first Arctic month of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>
+the year when all the world is happy. In the little
+underground home, the anticipated days of the stork
+visit were made interesting by a long line of preparations.</p>
+
+<p>A prospective mother is busy as a bee in a
+charming effort to make everything new for the
+coming little one. All things about must be absolutely
+new if possible. Even a new house must be built. This
+places the work of preparation quite as much on the
+father as on the mother. There is in all this a splendid
+lesson in primitive hygiene.</p>
+
+<p>To examine, first, the general home environment;
+there is a little girl four years old still taking nature's
+substitute for the bottle. She looks about for a meaning
+of all the changes about the home, but does not
+understand. You enter the new house on hands and
+knees through an entrance twelve or fifteen feet long,
+crowding upwards into an ever-open door just large
+enough to pass the shoulders. You rise into a dungeon
+oblong in shape. The rear two-thirds of this is raised
+about fifteen inches and paved with flat-rock. Upon
+this the furs are spread for a bed. The forward edge
+forms a seat. The space ahead of this is large enough
+for three people to stand at once. On each side there
+is a semi-circular bulge. In these are placed the crescent-shaped
+stone dishes, in which moss serves as a wick
+to burn blubber. Over this blubber flame, there is a
+long stone pot in which snow is melted for water and
+meats are occasionally cooked. Over this there is a
+drying rack for boots and furs. There is no other
+furniture. This house represents the home of the Eskimo
+family at its best. Do what she will, the best house<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span>wife
+cannot free it of oil and soot. It is not, indeed, a
+fit place for the immaculate stork to come.</p>
+
+<p>For months, the finest furs have been gathered to
+prepare a new suit for the mother. Slowly one article
+of apparel after another has been completed and put
+aside. The boots, called <i>kamik</i>, are of sealskin, bleached
+to a spotless cream color. They reach halfway up
+the thigh. The inner boot, called <i>atesha</i>, of soft caribou
+fur, is of the same length; along its upper edge there is
+a decorative run of white bear fur. The silky fur pads
+protect the tender skin of limb and foot, for no stockings
+are used. Above these, there are dainty little pants
+of white and blue fox, to protect the body to a point
+under the hips, and for protection above that there is a
+shirt of birdskins or <i>aht-tee</i>. This is the most delicate of
+all garments. Hundreds of little auk skins are gathered,
+chewed and prepared, and as the night comes the garment
+is built blouse-shaped, with hood attached. It fits
+loosely. There are no buttons or openings. For the
+little one, the hood is enlarged and extended down the
+back, as the pocket for its future abode. The coat of
+fine blue fox skins, or <i>amoyt</i>, is of the same shape, but
+fits loosely over all.</p>
+
+<p>The word <i>amoyt</i>, or <i>amoyt docsoa</i>, in its application,
+also covers the entire range of the art and function
+of pregnancy. This is regarded as an institution
+of the first order, second only to the art of the chase.
+All being ready for the mother, for the baby only a
+hood is provided, while bird-skins and grass are provided
+to take the place of absorbent cotton. For the first year,
+the child has absolutely no other wrap or cover but its
+little hood.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The Eskimo loves children. If the stork does not
+come in due time, he is likely to change his life partner.
+For this reason he looks forward to the Christmas season
+with eager anticipation. Seeking the wilds far and
+near for needed furs, in bitter winds and driving snows,
+he endures all kinds of hardships during the night of
+months for the sake of the expected child. Brave, good
+little man of iron, he fears nothing.</p>
+
+<p>From a near-by bank of hard snow he cuts blocks
+for a new igloo. In darkness and wind he transports
+them to a point near the house. When enough have
+been gathered, he walls a dome like a bee-hive. The interior
+arrangement is like the winter underground home.
+The light is put into it. By this he can see the open
+cracks between snow blocks. These are filled in to keep
+wind and snow out. When all is completed, he cuts a
+door and enters. The bed of snow is flattened.</p>
+
+<p>Then he seeks for miles about for suitable grass
+to cover the cheerless ice floor. To get this grass, he
+must dig under fields of hardened snow. Even then he
+is not always rewarded with success. The sledge, loaded
+with frozen grass, is brought to the little snow dome.
+The grass is carefully laid on the bed of leveled snow.
+Over it new reindeer skins are spread. Now the new
+house of snow blocks in which the stork is to come is
+ready.</p>
+
+<p>As the stork's coming is announced the mother's
+tears give the signal. She goes to the new snowhouse
+alone. The father is frightened and looks serious. But
+she must tear herself away. With her new garments,
+she enters the dark chamber of the snowhouse, strikes
+a fire, lights the lamp. The spotless walls of snow are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span>
+cheerful. The new things about give womanly pride.
+But life is hard for her. A soul-stirring battle follows
+in that den of ice.</p>
+
+<p>There is a little cry. But there is no doctor, no
+nurse, no one, not a kindly hand to help. A piece of
+glass is used as a surgical knife. Then all is over. There
+is no soap, no water. The methods of a mother cat are
+this mother's. Then, in the cold, cheerless chamber of
+ice, she fondly examines the little one. Its eyes are blue,
+but they turn brown at once when opened. Its hair
+is coal black, its skin is golden. It is turned over and
+over in the search for marks or blemishes. The
+mother's eyes run down along the tiny spine. At its
+end there is a blue shield-shaped blot like a tattoo mark.
+This is the Eskimo guarantee of a well-bred child. If
+it is there, the mother is happy, if not, there are doubts
+of the child's future, and of the purity of the parents.
+Now the father and the grandmother come. All rejoice.</p>
+
+<p>If misfortune at the time of birth befalls a mother,
+as is not infrequent, the snow mound becomes her grave;
+it is not opened for a long time.</p>
+
+<p>After a long sleep, into which the mother falls after
+her first joy, she awakes, turns over, drinks some ice-water,
+eats a little half-cooked meat, and then, shaking
+the frozen breath from the covers, she wraps herself
+and her babe snugly in furs. Again she sleeps, perhaps
+twenty-four hours, seemingly in perfect comfort, while
+the life-stilling winter winds drive over the feeble wall
+of snow which shelters her from the chilly death outside.</p>
+
+<p>One day during Christmas week there was a knock
+at our door. The proud Ac-po-di-soa walked in, fol<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span>lowed
+by his smiling wife, with the sleeping stork gift
+on her back. The child had been born less than five
+days before. We walked over and admired the little
+one. It suddenly opened its brown eyes, screwed up
+its little blubber nose, and wrinkled its chin for a cry.
+The mother grabbed her, plunged out of the door,
+pulled the undressed infant out, and in the wind and
+cold served the little one's want.</p>
+
+<p>New Year's Day came starlit and cold. The year
+had dawned in which I was to essay the task to which
+I had set myself, the year which would mean success or
+failure to me. The past year had been gracious and
+bountiful, so, in celebration, Francke prepared a feast
+of which we both ate to gluttonous repletion. This
+consisted of ox-tail soup, creamed boneless cod, pickles,
+scrambled duck eggs with chipped smoked beef, roast
+eider-duck, fresh biscuits, crystallized potatoes, creamed
+onions, Bayo beans and bacon, Malaga grapes,
+(canned), peach-pie, blanc-mange, raisin cake, Nabisco
+biscuits and steaming chocolate.</p>
+
+<p>The day was spent in making calls among the
+Eskimos. In the evening several families were given
+a feast which was followed by songs and dances. This
+hilarity was protracted to the early hours of morning
+and ended in an epidemic of night hysteria. When thus
+afflicted the victims dance and sing and fall into a trance,
+the combination of symptoms resembling insanity.</p>
+
+<p>In taking account of our stock we found that our
+baking powder was about exhausted. This was sad
+news, for a breakfast of fresh biscuits, butter and coffee
+was one of the few delights that remained for me in
+life. We had bicarbonate of soda, but no cream of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span>
+tartar. I wondered whether we could not substitute for
+cream of tartar some other substance.</p>
+
+<p>Curious experiments followed. The juice of sauerkraut
+was tried with good results. But the flavor, as a
+steady breakfast food, was not desirable. Francke had
+fermented raisins with which to make wine. As a wine
+it was a failure, but as a fruit acid it enabled us to make
+soda biscuits with a new and delicate flavor. Milk, we
+found, would also ferment. From the unsweetened
+condensed milk, biscuits were made that would please
+the palate of any epicure. My breakfast pleasure therefore
+was still assured for many days to come.</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 100%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span></p>
+<h2>EN ROUTE FOR THE POLE</h2>
+
+<p class="blockquot">THE CAMPAIGN OPENS&mdash;LAST WEEKS OF THE POLAR
+NIGHT&mdash;ADVANCE PARTIES SENT OUT&mdash;AWAITING
+THE DAWN</p>
+
+<h3>X<br />
+
+<br /><span class="smcap">The Start with Sunrise of 1908</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>Two weeks of final tests and re-examination of
+clothing, sledges and general equipment followed the
+New Year's festivities. On January 14 there was
+almost an hour of feeble twilight at midday. The moon
+offered light enough to travel. Now we were finally
+ready to fire the first guns of the Polar battle. Scouts
+were outside, waiting for the signal to proceed. They
+were going, not only to examine the ice field for the
+main advance, but to offer succor to a shipwrecked crew,
+which the natives believed was at Cape Sabine.</p>
+
+<p>The smoke of a ship had been seen late in the fall,
+and much wood from a wrecked ship had been found.
+The pack was, therefore, loaded with expedition supplies,
+with instructions to offer help to anyone in want
+that might be found.</p>
+
+<p>I had just finished a note to be left at Cape
+Sabine, telling of our headquarters, our caches and
+our willingness to give assistance. This was handed to
+Koo-loo-ting-wah, standing before his restless dogs,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span>
+whip in hand, as were his three companions, who volunteered
+as scouts. They jumped on the sledges, and soon
+the dogs were rushing toward the Polar pack of Smith
+Sound.</p>
+
+<p>It was a beautiful day. A fold of the curtain of
+night had been lifted for a brief spell. A strong mixed
+light, without shadows, rested on the snow. It changed
+in quality and color with the changing mystery of the
+aurora. One might call it blue, or purple, or violet, or
+no color at all, according to the color perception of the
+observer.</p>
+
+<p>In the south the heavens glowed with the heralds
+of the advancing sun. The light was exaggerated by
+the blink of the ice over which the light was sent, for the
+brightness of the heavens was out of proportion to its
+illuminating effect upon the surface snows. In the
+north, the half-spent moon dispelled the usual blackness
+Poleward, while the zenith was lighted with stars of the
+first and second magnitude.</p>
+
+<p>The temperature was -41&deg; F. The weather was
+perfectly calm&mdash;all that could be expected for the important
+event of opening the campaign.</p>
+
+<p>In the course of a few hours the cheerful light
+faded, the snows darkened to earthy fields, and out of
+the north came a smoky tempest. The snow soon piled
+up in tremendous drifts, making it difficult to leave the
+house without climbing new hills. The dogs tied about
+were buried in snow. Only the light passing through
+the membrane of intestines, which was spread over the
+ports to make windows for the native houses, relieved
+the fierce blackness.</p>
+
+<p>The run to Cape Sabine, under fine conditions, was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span>
+about forty miles, and could be made in one day, but
+Smith Sound seldom offers a fair chance. Insufficient
+light, impossible winds or ice make the crossing hazardous
+at best. The Eskimos cross every year, but
+they are out so much after bears that they have a good
+knowledge of the ice before they start to reach the other
+shores.</p>
+
+<p>Coming from the north, with a low temperature
+and blowing snow, the wind would not only stop our
+scouts, but force the ice south, leaving open spaces of
+water. A resulting disruption of the pack might greatly
+delay our start with heavy sledges. Furthermore,
+there was real danger at hand for the advance. If the
+party had been composed of white men there surely
+would have been a calamity. But the Eskimo
+approaches the ventures of the wild with splendid endurance.
+Moreover, he has a weather intelligence which
+seldom finds him unprepared.</p>
+
+<p>At midnight of the second night the party returned.
+They were none the worse for the storm. The main
+intent of their mission had failed. The storm had forced
+them into snow embankments, and before it was quite
+spent a bear began to nose about their shelter places.
+The dogs were so buried with drift that they were not on
+watch until the bear had destroyed much of their food.
+Then their mad voices aroused the Eskimos.</p>
+
+<p>As they dug out of their shelter, the bear took a big
+walrus leg and walked off, man-like, holding the meat in
+his forepaws. In their haste to free the dogs, they cut
+their harness to pieces, for snow and ice cemented the
+creatures. Oo-tah ran out in the excitement to head
+off the bear&mdash;not to make an attack, but simply to stop<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span>
+his progress. The bear dropped the meat and grabbed
+Oo-tah by the seat of his trousers. The dogs, fortunately,
+came along in time to save Oo-tah's life, but he
+had received a severe leg wound, which required immediate
+surgical attention.</p>
+
+<p>The bear was captured, and with loads of bear meat
+and the wounded scout the party returned as quickly as
+possible. In the retreat it was noticed that the ice was
+very much broken.</p>
+
+<p>In the wreck of an Arctic storm there is always a
+subsequent profit for someone. The snow becomes
+crusted and hardened, making sledge travel easy. The
+breaking of the ice, which was a great hindrance to our
+advance, offered open water for walrus and bear hunting.
+At this time we went to Serwahdingwah for the
+last chase. Some of the Eskimos took their families,
+so Annoatok became depopulated for a while. But on
+our return, visitors came in numbers too numerous for
+our comfort.</p>
+
+<p>Dogs and skins, bargained for earlier in the season,
+were now delivered. Each corps of excursionists required
+some attention, for they had done noble work for
+the expedition. We gave them dinners and allowed
+them to sit about our stove with picture-books in hand.</p>
+
+<p>Another storm came, with still more violent force,
+a week later. This caused us much anxiety, for we
+counted on our people being scattered on the ice along
+the shores of Cape Alexander. In a storm this would
+probably be swept from the land and carried seaward.
+There was nothing that could be done except wait for
+news. Messengers of trouble were not long in reaching
+headquarters after the storm. None of the men were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>
+on the ice, but a hurricane from the land had wrecked
+the camps.</p>
+
+<p>Our men suffered little, but many of the natives in
+neighboring villages were left without clothing or sleeping
+furs. In the rush of the storm the ice left the land,
+and the snowhouses were swept into the sea. Men and
+women, without clothing, barely escaped with their lives.
+Two of our new sledges, some dogs, and three suits of
+winter furs were lost. A rescue party with furs had to
+be sent to the destitute people. Fortunately, our people
+were well supplied with bed-furs, out of which new
+suits were made.</p>
+
+<p>Sledge loads of our furs were also coming north,
+and instructions were sent to use these for the urgent
+needs of the sufferers. Other things were sent from
+Annoatok, with returning excursionists, and in the
+course of a week the damage was replaced. But the
+loss was all on the expedition, and deprived many of the
+men in their northern journey of suitable sleeping-furs.
+Walruses were obtained after the storm, and the natives
+now had no fear of a famine of meat or fat.</p>
+
+<p>By the end of January most of the natives had returned,
+and new preparations were made for a second
+effort to cross the Sound. Francke asked to join the
+party, and prepared for his first camp outing. Four
+sledges were loaded with two hundred pounds each of
+expedition advance supplies. Four good drivers volunteered
+to move the sledges to the American side.</p>
+
+<p>The light had gradually brightened, and the storms
+passed off and left a keen, cold air, which was as clear as
+crystal. But at best the light was still feeble, and could
+be used for only about four hours of each twenty-four.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>
+If, however, the sky remained clear, the moon and stars
+would furnish enough illumination for a full day's travel.
+There was a little flush of color in the southern skies,
+and the snows were a pale purple as the sledges groaned
+in their rush over the frosty surface.</p>
+
+<p>The second party started off as auspiciously as the
+first, and news of its luck was eagerly awaited.</p>
+
+<p>They reached Cape Sabine after a long run of
+twenty hours, making a considerable detour to the north.
+The ice offered good traveling, but the cold was bitter,
+the temperature being -52&deg; F., with light, extremely
+humid and piercing winds.</p>
+
+<p>Along the land and within the bays the snow was
+found to be deep, and a bitter wind came from the west.
+Two of the party could not be persuaded to go farther,
+but Francke, with two companions, pushed on for another
+day along the shore to Cape Veile. Beyond, the
+snow was too deep to proceed. The supplies were cached
+in a snowhouse, while those at Cape Sabine were left in
+the old camp. The party returned at the end of four
+days with their object accomplished. Nothing was seen
+of the rumored shipwrecked crew.</p>
+
+<p>The next party, of eight sledges, led by Es-se-you,
+Kud-la, and Me-tek, started on February 5. The
+object was to carry advance supplies to the head of
+Flagler Bay, and hunt musk ox to feed the sledge teams
+as they moved overland. We were to meet this party at
+an appointed place in the bay.</p>
+
+<p>The light was still too uncertain to risk the fortunes
+of the entire force. With a hundred dogs, a delay of a
+day would be an expensive loss, for if fed upon the carefully
+guarded food of the advance stores, a rapid reduc<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>tion
+in supplies would follow, which could not be replaced,
+even if abundant game were secured later. It
+was, therefore, desirable to await the rising sun.</p>
+
+<p>We made our last arrangements, fastened our last
+packs, and waited impatiently for the sunrise, here at
+this northernmost outpost of human life, just seven hundred
+miles from the Pole. And this was the problem
+that now insistently and definitely confronted us after
+the months of planning and preparation: Seven hundred
+miles of advance, almost a thousand miles as our
+route was planned; one thousand miles of return; two
+thousand miles in all; allowing for detours (for the line
+to be followed could not be precisely straight), more
+than two thousand miles of struggling travel across icy
+and unknown and uninhabitable wastes of moving ice.</p>
+
+<p>On the morning of February 19, 1908, I started on
+my trip to the North Pole.</p>
+
+<p>Early, as the first real day of the year dawned,
+eleven sledges were brought to the door of our box-house
+and lashed with supplies for the boreal dash.
+There were four thousand pounds of supplies for use on
+the Polar sea, and two thousands pounds of walrus skin
+and fat for use before securing the fresh game we anticipated.
+The eleven sledges were to be driven by
+Francke, nine Eskimos, and myself. They were drawn
+by one hundred and three dogs, each in prime condition.
+The dogs had been abundantly fed with walrus
+skin and meat for several weeks, and would now be fed
+only every second day on fresh supplies.</p>
+
+<p>My heart was high. I was about to start on the
+quest which had inspired me for many years! The
+natives were naturally excited. The dogs caught the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span>
+contagious enthusiasm, and barked joyously. At eight
+o'clock in the morning our whips snapped, the spans of
+dog teams leaped forward, and we were off.</p>
+
+<p>My Polar quest had begun!</p>
+
+<p>Most of the tribe had seemed willing to go with
+me, and to take all their dogs, but the men and the dogs
+finally selected were the pick of the lot. All were in
+superb physical condition, this matter of condition
+being something that I had carefully looked out for during
+the winter months. I regard this as having been
+highly advantageous to me, that I have always been able
+to win the friendship and confidence of the Eskimos; for
+thus I found them extremely ready to follow my advice
+and instructions, and to do in general anything I desired.
+That I could speak Eskimo fairly well&mdash;well enough to
+hold ordinary conversations&mdash;was also a strong asset in
+my favor.</p>
+
+<p>When we started, a few stars were seen between
+thin clouds, but the light was good. A soft wind came
+from the south; the temperature was -36&deg; F. The
+Greenland ice-cap was outlined; a belt of orange in the
+south heralded the rising sun. The snow still retained
+the purple of twilight. The ice was covered with about
+three inches of soft snow over a hard crust, which made
+speed difficult. Before noon the sky was gray, but the
+light remained good enough for traveling until 4 P. M.
+A course was made about northwest, because a more
+direct line was still impractical.</p>
+
+<p>A water sky to the west and south denoted open
+water. At 3 P. M. we ran into bear tracks, and the
+sledges bounced along as if empty. The tracks were
+making a good course for us, so the dogs were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span>
+encouraged. By four o'clock the feeble light made it
+dangerous to proceed. Two hunters still followed the
+bear tracks, while the others built three snowhouses for
+camp. Nothing was seen of the bears.</p>
+
+<p>The dogs were tied to holes cut in the ice, and we
+crept into our snow-mounds, tired, hungry and sleepy.
+The night was extremely uncomfortable&mdash;the first
+nights from camp always are.</p>
+
+<p>The next day brought a still air with a temperature
+of -42&deg; F., and brilliant light at eight o'clock. We had
+made twenty miles through the air-line distance from
+Annoatok, and Cape Sabine was but thirty miles away.
+We had been forced so far north that we still had thirty
+miles before us to the Cape. The dogs, however, were in
+better trim, and we had no doubt about reaching the
+off-shores for the next camp. We followed the edge of
+ice which had been made in a wide open space in December.
+Here the traveling was fairly level, but above was
+a hopeless jungle of mountains and ridges of ice. We
+made about three miles an hour, and were able to ride
+occasionally.</p>
+
+<p>At noon of February 20th we stopped, and coffee
+was served from our ever-hot coffee box. A can had
+been placed in a box, and so protected by reindeer skins
+that the heat was retained for twelve hours during the
+worst weather. This proved a great luxury.</p>
+
+<p>While we sat regaling ourselves, a great ball of fire
+rose along the icy horizon. Our hearts were glad. The
+weather was bitterly cold; the temperature was 51&deg; F.:
+but the sun had risen; the long night was at end. There
+was little else to mark the glory of sunrise. The light
+was no brighter than it had been for two hours. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span>
+sky remained a purple blue, with a slight grayness in the
+south, darkening toward the horizon. The snows were
+purple, with just a few dashes of red in the road before
+us. This unpretentious burst of the sun opened our
+spirits to new delights. Even the dogs sat in graceful
+rows and sounded a chorus of welcome to the coming of
+the day.</p>
+
+<p>Although Cape Sabine, on February 20, was in
+sight, we still headed for Bache Peninsula. Impossible
+ice and open water pushed us farther and farther
+north. It was three o'clock before the Cape was
+seen over the dogs' tails. Soon after four the light
+failed, the land colored to purple and gold toward the
+rim of the horizon, and we were left to guess the direction
+of our course. But Eskimos are somewhat better
+than Yankees at guessing, for we got into no troubles
+until 9 P. M., when we tried to scale the rafted ice
+against Cape Sabine. With only the camp equipment
+and dog food, the dogs crept up and down in the black
+hills of ice, while we followed like mountain-sheep.</p>
+
+<p>Here had been the camp of the ill-fated Greely
+expedition. It recurred to me that it was a curious whim
+of fate that this ill-starred camp of famine and death, in
+earlier days, should have marked the very outset of our
+modern effort to reach the Pole. But later we were to
+learn that under similar conditions a modern expedition
+can meet the same fate as that of the Lady Franklin
+Bay Expedition.</p>
+
+<p>We turned about, took the advance supplies, and
+picked a course through Rice Strait, to avoid the rough
+ice northward. Here the surface was good, but a light
+wind, with a temperature of -52&deg; F., came with great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>
+bitterness. The dogs refused to face the wind, and required
+someone to lead the way. The men buried their
+faces in the fur mittens, leaned on the upstanders, and
+ran along.</p>
+
+<p>Passing Cape Rutherford on February 22, we followed
+the coast. Here the wind came from the right,
+caught the tip of the nose, burning with a bleaching
+effect, which, in camp later, turned black. At Cape
+Veile the cache igloo was sighted, and there camp was
+pitched.</p>
+
+<p>In the morning the minimum thermometer registered
+-58&deg; F. We were evidently passing from the
+storms and open water of Smith Sound, from warm,
+moist air to a still, dry climate, with very low temperature.
+The day opened beautifully with a glow of rose
+to the south, which colored the snows in warm tones.
+At noon the sun showed half of its face over the cliffs
+as we crossed the bay and sought better ice along
+Bache Peninsula. That night we camped near the
+Weyprecht Islands. The day, although bright, proved
+severe, for most of the natives had frostbites about the
+face. Along Bache Peninsula we saw hares staring at
+us. Four were secured for our evening meal. In the
+very low temperature of -64&deg; F. the hunters suffered
+from injuries like burns, due to the blistering cold metal
+of their guns.</p>
+
+<p>Dog food had also to be prepared. In efforts to
+divide the walrus skin, two hatchets were broken. The
+Eskimo dog is a tough creature, but he cannot be expected
+to eat food which breaks an axe. Petroleum and
+alcohol were used liberally, and during the night the
+skin was sufficiently softened by the heat to be cut with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span>
+the hatchets. This skin seems to be good food for the
+dogs. It is about one inch thick, and contains little
+water, the skin fibre being a kind of condensed nutriment,
+small quantities of which satisfy the dogs. It
+digests slowly, and therefore has lasting qualities.</p>
+
+<p>The lamps, burning at full force, made the igloos
+comfortable. The temperature fell to -68&deg; F. It was
+the first satisfying sleep of the journey for me. The
+economy of the blue fire stoves is beyond conception.
+Burning but three pounds of oil all night, the almost
+liquid air was reduced to a normal temperature of freezing
+point.</p>
+
+<p>Francke used alcohol stoves, with a double consumption
+of fuel. The natives, in their three igloos,
+used the copper lamp, shaped after the stone devices,
+but they did no cooking.</p>
+
+<p>In the morning of the 23d we heard sounds to the
+south, which at first we thought to be walrus. But after
+a time the noise was interpreted as that of the dogs of
+the advance party. They were camped a few miles
+beyond, and came to our igloos at breakfast. One musk
+ox and eleven hares had been secured. The valley had
+been thoroughly hunted, but no other game was sighted.</p>
+
+<p>The ground was nearly bare, and made sledge
+travel impossible. They were bound for Annoatok at
+once. This was sad news for us. We had counted on
+game with which to feed the dog train en route to the
+Polar sea. If animals were not secured, our project
+would fail at the very start, and this route would be impossible.
+To push overland rapidly to the west coast
+was our only chance, but the report of insufficient snow
+seemed to forbid this. Something, however, must be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span>
+tried. We could not give up without a stronger fight.
+The strong probability of our failing to find musk ox,
+and extending the expedition for another year, over
+another route, made it necessary to send Francke back
+to headquarters to guard our supplies. There was no
+objection to the return of most of the other party, but
+we took their best dogs and sledges, with some exchange
+of drivers.</p>
+
+<p>With this change in the arrangements, and the advance
+supplies from Cape Sabine and Cape Viele, each
+sledge now carried eight hundred pounds. Beyond, in
+Flagler Bay, the ice luckily became smooth and almost
+free of snow. An increased number of dogs, with good
+traveling, enabled us to make satisfactory progress,
+despite the steadily falling temperature.</p>
+
+<p>The head of Flagler Bay was reached late at night,
+after an exhausting march of twenty-five miles. A hard
+wind, with a temperature of -60&deg; F., had almost paralyzed
+the dogs, and the men were kept alive only by
+running with the dogs. Comfortable houses were built
+and preparations made for a day of rest. On the morrow
+we aimed to explore the land for an auspicious route.
+Many new frostbites were again noted in camp. One of
+the dogs died of the cold.</p>
+
+<p>The party was by no means discouraged, however.
+We were as enthusiastic as soldiers on the eve of a
+longed-for battle. The reduced numbers of the return
+party gave us extra rations to use in times of need, and
+the land did not seem as hopeless as pictured by the
+returning natives. A cache was made here of needful
+things for use on the return. Other things, which we
+had found useless, were also left here.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 100%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span></p>
+<h2>EXPLORING A NEW PASS OVER ACPOHON</h2>
+
+<p class="blockquot">FROM THE ATLANTIC WATERS AT FLAGLER BAY TO THE
+PACIFIC WATERS AT BAY FIORD&mdash;THE MECCA OF THE
+MUSK OX&mdash;BATTLES WITH THE BOVINE MONSTERS OF
+THE ARCTIC&mdash;SUNRISE AND THE GLORY OF SUNSET</p>
+
+<h3>XI<br />
+
+<br /><span class="smcap">Breaking a Trail Beyond the Haunts of Man</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>Early in the morning of February 25 the dogs were
+spanned to sledges with heavy loads, and we pushed into
+the valley of mystery ahead. Our purpose was to cross
+the inland ice and descend into Cannon Bay. The
+spread of the rush of glacial waters in summer had dug
+out a wide central plain, now imperfectly covered with
+ice and snow. Over this we lined a trail.</p>
+
+<p>On each side of us were gradual slopes rising to
+cliffs, above which I noted the blue wall of the overland
+sea of ice, at an altitude of about two thousand feet.
+Nowhere did this offer a safe slope for an ascent. We
+now explored the picturesque valley, for I knew that
+our only hope was to push overland to Bay Fiord. The
+easy slopes were enlivened with darting, downy hares.
+Some sat motionless, with their long ears erect, while
+they drank the first golden air of sunrise and watched
+the coming of new life. Others danced about in frisky
+play.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>As we pushed along, the ascent of the slope was
+gradual. The necessity for crossing from side to side
+to find ice or snow lengthened our journey. Only the
+partially bare earth gave us trouble. The temperature
+was -62&deg; F., but there was no wind. The upper slopes
+glittered with bright sunshine. Winding with a stream,
+we advanced twenty miles. Beyond there was the
+same general topography. The valley looked like a
+pass. Clouds of a different kind were seen through the
+gorges. At various places we noted old musk ox paths.
+I knew that where game trails are well marked on mountains
+one is certain to find a good crossing. This rule is
+equally good in the Arctic as elsewhere. At any rate,
+there was no alternative. The tortures of the top had to
+be risked. Pushing onward, we found no fresh signs of
+musk ox. A few bear tracks were seen, and a white fox
+followed us to camp. We shot sixteen hares, and for the
+evening meal unlimited quantities of savory hare meat
+made an appetizing broth.</p>
+
+<p>On the day following, everything was advanced to
+this point. A prolonged search for musk ox was made,
+with negative results.</p>
+
+<p>On the morning of the 27th, full loads were taken
+on our sledges. With slow progress we advanced on the
+rising bed of the stream, the valley moved, and the river
+ice was found in one channel, making better travel.
+Hare and fox tracks increased in number. The side
+slopes were grassy, and mostly swept bare of snow by
+strong winter winds. Sand dunes and gravel lines were
+also piled up, while huge drifts of pressed snow indicated
+a dangerous atmospheric agitation. Here, I
+knew, were excellent feeding grounds for musk ox and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span>
+caribou. But a careful scrutiny gave no results for a
+long time.</p>
+
+<p>To us the musk ox was now of vital importance.
+The shorter way, over Schley Land and northward
+through Nansen Sound, was possible only if game in
+abundance was secured en route. If the product of
+the chase gave us no reward, then our Polar venture was
+doomed at the outset.</p>
+
+<p>One day, with a temperature of -100&deg; below the
+freezing point, and with a light but sharp Arctic wind
+driving needles of frost to the very bone, we searched
+the rising slopes of ice-capped lands in the hope of
+spotting life.</p>
+
+<p>For three days the dogs had not been fed. They
+sniffed the air, searched the horizon, and ranged the
+wilds with all the eagerness of their wolf progenitors.
+The hare and the fox were aroused from their winter's
+sleep, but such game was not what we now desired.
+Only meat and fat in heaps could satisfy the wants of
+over a hundred empty stomachs.</p>
+
+<p>After a hard pull, ascending miniature, ice-covered
+hills, winding about big, polished boulders, we
+entered a wider section of the narrow gorge-like valley.
+Here the silurian rocks had broken down, and by the
+influence of glacier streams and glaciers, now receding,
+a good deal of rolling, grass-covered land spread from
+cliff to cliff. Strong winter gales had bared the ground.
+We sat down to rest. The dogs did likewise.</p>
+
+<p>All searched the new lands with eager eyes. The
+dog noses pointed to a series of steep slopes to the
+north. They were scenting something, but were too
+tired to display the usual animation of the chase. Soon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span>
+we detected three dark, moving objects on a snowy sun-flushed
+hill, under a huge cliff, about a thousand feet
+above us. <i>"Ah-ming-mah!"</i> shouted E-tuk-i-shook.
+The dogs jumped; the men grasped glasses; in a second
+the sledge train was in disorder.</p>
+
+<p>Fifty dogs were hitched to three sledges. Rushing
+up three different gulches, the sledges, with tumbling
+human forms as freight, advanced to battle. The musk
+oxen, with heads pointed to the attacking forces, quietly
+awaited the onrush.</p>
+
+<p>Within an hour three huge, fat carcasses were down
+in the river bed. A temporary camp was made, and
+before the meat froze most of it had passed palates
+tantalized by many days of gastronomic want.</p>
+
+<p>Continuing our course, we crossed the divide in a
+storm. Beyond, in a canyon, the wind was more uncomfortable
+than in the open. Something must be done.
+We could not long breathe that maddening air, weighted
+by frost and thickened by snows. The snow-bank gave
+no shelter whatever, and a rush of snow came over,
+which quickly buried the investigators. But it was our
+only hope.</p>
+
+<p>"Dig a hole," said Koo-loo-ting-wah.</p>
+
+<p>Now, to try to dig a hole without a shovel, and with
+snow coming more rapidly than any power of man
+could remove, seemed a waste of needed vital force.
+But I had faith in the intelligence of my savage companions,
+and ordered all hands to work. They gathered
+at one corner of the bank, and began to talk and shout,
+while I allowed myself to be buried in a pocket of the
+cliffs to keep my tender skin from turning to ice. Every
+few minutes someone came along to see if I was safe.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The igloo was progressing. Two men were now
+inside. In the course of another hour they reported
+four men inside; in another hour seven men were inside,
+and the others were piling up the blocks, cut with knives
+from the interior. A kind of vestibule was made to
+allow the wind to shoot over the entrance. Inside, the
+men were sweating.</p>
+
+<p>Soon afterward I was told that the igloo was completed.
+I lost no time in seeking its shelter. A square
+hole had been cut, large enough for the entire party if
+packed like sardines. Our fur clothing was removed,
+and beaten with sticks and stones.</p>
+
+<p>The lamps sang cheerily of steaming musk ox
+steaks. The dogs were brought into the canyon. A
+more comfortable night was impossible. We were fifty
+feet under the snow. The noise of the driving storm
+was lost. The blinding drift about the entrance was
+effectually shut out by a block of snow as a door. Two
+holes afforded ventilation, and the tremendous difference
+between the exterior and the interior air assured
+a circulation.</p>
+
+<p>When we emerged in the morning the sky was
+clear. A light wind came from the west, with a temperature
+of -78&deg; F. Two dogs had frozen during the
+storm. All were buried in the edge of a drift that was
+piled fifteen feet. An exploration of the canyon showed
+other falls and boulders impossible for sledge travel.</p>
+
+<p>A trail was picked over the hills to the side. The
+day was severe. How we escaped broken legs and
+smashed sleds was miraculous. But somehow, in our
+plunges down the avalanches, we always landed in a
+soft bed of snow. We advanced about ten miles, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span>
+made a descent of five hundred feet, first camping upon
+a glacial lake.</p>
+
+<p>The temperature now was -79&deg; F., and although
+there were about nine hours of good light, including twilight,
+we had continued our efforts too long, and were
+forced to build igloos by moonlight. Glad were we,
+indeed, when the candle was placed in the dome of snow,
+to show the last cracks to be stuffed.</p>
+
+<p>In the searchlight of the frigid dawn I noticed that
+our advance was blocked by a large glacier, which tumbled
+barriers of ice boulders into the only available line
+for a path. A way would have to be cut into this barrier
+of icebergs for about a mile. This required the full
+energy of all the men for the day. I took advantage of
+the halt to explore the country through which we were
+forcing a pass. The valley was cut by ancient glaciers
+and more modern creeks along the meeting line of two
+distinct geological formations. To the north were
+silurian and cambro-silurian rocks; to the south were
+great arch&aelig;an cliffs.</p>
+
+<p>With the camera, the field-glass, and other instruments
+in the sack, I climbed into a gorge and rose to the
+level of the mountains of the northern slopes. The
+ground was here absolutely destitute of vegetation, and
+only old musk ox trails indicated living creatures. The
+snow had all been swept into the ditches of the lowlands.
+Climbing over frost-sharpened stones, I found
+footing difficult.</p>
+
+<p>The average height of the mountains proved to be
+nineteen hundred feet. To the northeast there was land
+extending a few miles further, with a gradual rising
+slope. Beyond was the blue edge of the inland ice. To<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span>
+the northwest, the land continued in rolling hills, beyond
+which no land-ice was seen. The cliffs to the south were
+of about the same height, but they were fitted to the
+crest with an ice-cap. The overflow of perpetual snows
+descended into the gorges, making five overhanging
+glaciers.</p>
+
+<p>The first was at the divide, furnishing in summer
+the waters which started the vigorous stream to the
+Atlantic slopes. It was a huge stream of ice, about a
+mile wide, and it is marked by giant cliffs, separated by
+wide gaps, indicating the roughness of the surface over
+which it pushes its frozen height. To the stream to
+which it gives birth, flowing eastward from the divide,
+I will give the name of Schley River, in honor of Rear-Admiral
+Schley.</p>
+
+<p>The stream starting westward from the divide,
+through picturesque rocks, tumbles in icy falls into a
+huge canyon, down to the Pacific waters at Bay Fiord.
+To this I will give, in honor of General A. W. Greely,
+the name Greely River.</p>
+
+<p>The second and third glaciers were overhanging
+masses about a half-mile wide, which gave volume in
+summer time to Greely River.</p>
+
+<p>The fourth was a powerful glacier, with a discharging
+face of blue three miles long, closing up a valley
+and damming up a lake about four miles long and one
+mile wide. The lake was beyond the most precipitous
+of the descending slopes. The upper cliffs of the walled
+valley to Flagler Bay were still visible, while to the west
+was seen a line of mountains and cliffs which marked the
+head of Bay Fiord, under which was seen the ice covering
+the first water of the Pacific upon which our future<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span>
+fortunes would be told. To this sea level there was an
+easy descent of four hundred feet on the river ice and
+snowdrifts, making, with good luck, a day's run of
+twenty miles.</p>
+
+<p>Returning, at camp I was informed that not only
+had a trail been cut, but many of the sledges had been
+advanced to the good ice beyond. Two of the sledges,
+however, had been badly broken, and must be mended
+at dawn before starting.</p>
+
+<p>The day was beautiful. For the first time I felt
+the heat of the sun. It came through the thick fur of
+my shoulders with the tenderness of a warm human
+hand. The mere thought of the genial sunbeams
+brought a glow of healthful warmth, but at the same
+time the thermometer was very low, -78&frac12;&deg; F. One's
+sense of cold, under normal conditions, is a correct instrument
+in its bearing upon animal functions, but as an
+instrument of physics it makes an unreliable thermometer.
+If I had been asked to guess the temperature of
+the day I should have placed it at -25&deg; F.</p>
+
+<p>The night air had just a smart of bitterness. The
+igloo failed to become warm, so we fed our internal fires
+liberally with warming courses, coming in easy stages.
+We partook of superheated coffee, thickened with sugar,
+and biscuits, and later took butter chopped in squares,
+which was eaten as cheese with musk ox meat chopped
+by our axes into splinters. Delicious hare loins and
+hams, cooked in pea soup, served as dessert.</p>
+
+<p>The amount of sugar and fat which we now consumed
+was quite remarkable. Fortunately, during the
+journey to the edge of the Polar sea, there was no
+urgent limit to transportation, and we were well sup<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span>plied
+with the luxury of sugar and civilized foods, most
+of which later were to be abandoned.</p>
+
+<p>In this very low temperature I found considerable
+difficulty in jotting down the brief notes of our day's
+doings. The paper was so cold that the pencil barely
+left a mark. A few moments had to be spent warming
+each page and pencil before beginning to write. With
+the same operation, the fingers were also sufficiently
+warmed to hold the pencil. All had to be done by the
+light and heat of a candle.</p>
+
+<p>To economize fuel, the fires later were extinguished
+before retiring to sleep. In the morning we were buried
+in the frost falling from our own breath.</p>
+
+<p>It was difficult to work at dawn with fur-covered
+hands; but the Eskimo can do much with his glove-fitting
+mitten. The broken sledges were soon repaired.
+After tumbling over irregular ice along the face of the
+glacier, the river offered a splendid highway over which
+the dogs galloped with remarkable speed. We rode
+until cold compelled exercise. The stream descended
+among picturesque hills, but the most careful scrutiny
+found no sign of life except the ever-present musk ox
+trails of seasons gone by.</p>
+
+<p>As we neared the sea line, near the mouth of the
+river, we began to see a few fresh tracks of hare and
+musk ox. Passing out on the south of Bay Fiord, we
+noted bear and wolf tracks. Then the eyes of the hunter
+and the dog rolled with eager anticipation.</p>
+
+<p>The sun flushed the skies in flaming colors as it was
+about to sink behind a run of high peaks. The western
+sky burned with gold, the ice flashed with crimson inlets,
+but the heat was very feeble. The temperature was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span>
+-72&deg; F. We had already gone twenty-five miles, and
+were looking forward to a point about ten miles beyond
+as the next camping place, when all my companions,
+seemingly at once, espied a herd of musk ox on the sky
+line of a whale-backed mountain to the north.</p>
+
+<p>The distance was about three miles, but the eagle
+eyes of the natives detected the black spots.</p>
+
+<p>We searched the gorge with our glasses. Suddenly
+one of the Eskimos cried out in a joyous tone: "<i>Ah-ming-ma!
+Ah-ming-ma!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>I could detect only some dark specks on the snow,
+which looked like a hundred others that I knew to be
+rocks. I levelled my glasses on the whale-backed mountain
+at which the Eskimo was staring, and, sure enough,
+there were three musk oxen on a steep snow slope.
+They seemed to be digging up the winter snow fields
+to get "scrub" willows. They were not only three miles
+away, but at an altitude of perhaps a thousand feet
+above us.</p>
+
+<p>The cumbersome loads were quickly pitched from
+three sledges. Rifles and knives were securely fastened.
+In a few moments the long lashes snapped, and away
+we rushed, with two men on each of the sledges and
+with double teams of twenty dogs.</p>
+
+<p>The dogs galloped at a pace which made the sledges
+bound like rubber balls over irregularities of rocks, slippery
+ice, and hard-crusted snow, and our hold tightened
+on the hickory in the effort to keep our places. It disturbed
+the dogs not at all whether they were on rock or
+snow, or whether the sledge rested on runners or turned
+spirally; but it made considerable difference to us, and
+we lost much energy in the constant efforts to avoid<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span>
+somersaults. We did not dare release our grip for a
+moment, for to do so would have meant painful bumping
+and torn clothes, as well as being left behind in the
+chase.</p>
+
+<p>It took but a brief time to cover the three miles.
+We made our final advance by three separate ravines,
+and for a time the musk oxen were out of sight. When
+we again saw them they had not taken the alarm, nor
+did they until we were ready to attack them from three
+separate points.</p>
+
+<p>All but five dogs from each sledge were now freed
+from harness. They darted toward the oxen with fierce
+speed.</p>
+
+<p>The oxen tried to escape through a ravine, but it
+was too late. The dogs were on every side of them, and
+all the oxen could do was to grunt fiercely and jump
+into a bunch, with tails together and heads directed at
+the enemy. There were seven musk oxen in all, and they
+tried to keep the dogs scattered at a safe distance.</p>
+
+<p>The dogs would rush up to within a few feet, showing
+their teeth and uttering wolfish sounds, and every
+now and then an ox would rush out from its circle, with
+head down, in an effort to strike the dogs; but the dogs
+were always too quick to be caught by the savage thrust,
+and each time the ox, in its retreat, would feel canine
+fangs closing on its haunches.</p>
+
+<p>After a few such efforts, the bulls, with lowered
+horns, merely held to the position, while the dogs, not
+daring actually to attack under such circumstances, sat
+in a circle and sent up blood-chilling howls. Meanwhile,
+the Eskimos and myself were hurrying up.</p>
+
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 640px;">
+<img src="images/illo_203.jpg" width="640" height="426" alt="THE IGLOO BUILT, WE PREPARE FOR OUR DAILY CAMP" title="" />
+<span class="caption">&ldquo;THE IGLOO BUILT, WE PREPARE FOR OUR DAILY CAMP&rdquo;</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The strife was soon over. I snapped my camera at
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span>
+an old bull which at that moment broke through the
+dogs and, followed by a group of them, was driven
+madly over a cliff in a plunge of five thousand feet. The
+other oxen were soon killed by the hunters.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 523px;">
+<img src="images/illo_204.jpg" width="523" height="800" alt="CAMPING TO EAT AND TAKE OBSERVATIONS
+ON AGAIN!" title="" />
+<span class="caption">CAMPING TO EAT AND TAKE OBSERVATIONS<br />
+ON AGAIN!</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The sun settled under mountains of ice, and the
+purple twilight rapidly thickened. It was very cold.
+The breath of each man came like jets of steam from a
+kettle. The temperature was now -81&deg; F. No time
+could be lost in dressing the game. But the Eskimos
+were equal to the task, and showed such skill as only
+Indians possess.</p>
+
+<p>While this was being done by my companions, I
+strolled about to note the ear-marks of the home of the
+musk ox. The mountain was in line of the sweep of the
+winds, and was bared of snows. Here were grass,
+mosses, and creeping willows in abundance, descending
+into the gullies. I found fossil-stumps of large trees
+and bits of lignite coal. The land in pre-glacial times
+had evidently supported a vigorous vegetation; but now
+the general aspect offered a scene of frosty hopelessness.
+Still, in this desolation of snowy wastes, nature had supplied
+creatures with food in their hard pressure of life.</p>
+
+<p>Fox and wolf tracks were everywhere, while on
+every little eminence sat an Arctic hare, evincing ear-upraised
+surprise at our appearance. With the glasses
+I noted on neighboring hills three other herds of musk
+ox. This I did not tell the hunters, for they would not
+have rested until all were secured. Living in a land of
+cold and hunger, the Eskimo is insatiable for game. We
+had as much meat as we could possibly use for the next
+few days, and it was much easier to fill up, and secure
+more when we needed it, than now to carry almost im<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span>possible
+loads. In a remarkably short time the skins
+were removed and the meat was boned and cut in small
+strips in such a way that the axe would break it when
+frozen. Neatly wrapped in skins, the loads did not
+seem large.</p>
+
+<p>Selecting a few choice bits for later use, the balance
+was separated and allowed to cool. I looked at the
+enormous quantity of meat, and wondered how it could
+be transported to camp, but no such thought troubled
+the Eskimos. Piece after piece went down the canine
+throats with a gulp. No energy was wasted in mastication.
+With a drop of the jaws and a twist of the neck,
+the task of eating was finished and the stomach began to
+spread. The dogs had not yet reached their limit when
+the snow was cleared of its weight of dressed meat and
+a canine wrangle began for the possession of the cleaned
+bones.</p>
+
+<p>With but little meat on the sledges, we began the
+descent, but the spirit of the upward rush was lost.
+The dogs, too full to run, simply rolled down the slopes,
+and we pushed the sledges ourselves. The ox that had
+made the death plunge was picked up and taken as
+reserve meat. It was midnight before camp was
+pitched. The moon burned with a cheerful glow. The
+air was filled with liquid frost, but there was no wind
+and consequently no suffering from cold.</p>
+
+<p>Two comfortable snowhouses were built, and in
+them our feasts rivalled the canine indulgence. Thus
+was experienced the greatest joy of savage life in boreal
+wilds&mdash;the hunt of the musk ox, with the advantage of
+the complex cunning gathered by forgotten ages. The
+balance of the meat left after our feast was buried, with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span>
+the protecting skins, in the snow. On opening the meat
+on the following morning, it was still warm, although
+the minimum thermometer registered -80&deg; F. for the
+night.</p>
+
+<p>A few minutes before midday, on our next march,
+the sledge train halted. We sat on the packs, and,
+with eyes turned southward, waited. Even an Eskimo
+has an eye for color and a soul for beauty. To us there
+appeared a play of suppressed light and bleached color
+tints, as though in harmony with bars of music, which
+inspired my companions to shouts of joy.</p>
+
+<p>Slowly and majestically the golden orb lifted. The
+dogs responded in low, far-reaching calls. The Eskimos
+greeted the day god with savage chants. The sun, a
+flushed crimson ball, edged along the wintry outline of
+the mountains' purplish snowy glitter. The pack was
+suddenly screened by a moving sheet of ever-changing
+color, wherein every possible continuation of purple and
+gold merged with rainbow hues.</p>
+
+<p>Soon the dyes changed to blue, and eventually the
+sky was fired by flames of red. Then, slowly, the great
+blazing globe sank into seas of fire-flushed ice. The
+snowy mountains about glowed with warm cheer. The
+ice cooled again to purple, and again to blue, and then
+a winter blackness closed the eye to color and the soul
+to joy.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 100%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span></p>
+<h2>IN GAME TRAILS TO LAND'S END</h2>
+
+<p class="blockquot">SVERDRUP'S NEW WONDERLAND&mdash;FEASTING ON GAME EN
+ROUTE TO SVARTEVOEG&mdash;FIRST SHADOW OBSERVATIONS&mdash;FIGHTS
+WITH WOLVES AND BEARS&mdash;THE JOYS
+OF ZERO'S LOWEST&mdash;THRESHOLD OF THE UNKNOWN</p>
+
+<h3>XII<br />
+
+<br /><span class="smcap">Shores of the Circumpolar Sea</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>March 2 was bright and clear and still. The ice
+was smooth, with just snow enough to prevent the dogs
+cutting their feet. The heavy sledges bounded along
+easily, but the dogs were too full of meat to step a lively
+pace. The temperature was -79&deg; F. We found it
+comfortable to walk along behind the upstanders of the
+sledges. Some fresh bear tracks were crossed. These
+denoted that bears had advanced along the coast on an
+exploring tour, much as we aimed to do. Scenting
+these tracks, the dogs forgot their distended stomachs,
+and braced into the harness with full pulling force. We
+were still able to keep pace by running. Hard exercise
+brought no perspiration.</p>
+
+<p>After passing the last land point, we noted four
+herds of musk oxen. The natives were eager to embark
+for the chase. I tried to dissuade them, but, had we not
+crossed the bear trail, no word of mine would have kept
+them from another chase of the musk ox.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Long after sunset, as we were about to camp, a bear
+was sighted advancing on us behind a line of hummocks.
+The light was already feeble. It was the work of but a
+minute to throw our things on the ice and start the teams
+on the scent of the bear. But this bear was thin and
+hungry. He gave us a lively chase. His advance was
+checked, however, as our rush began, and he spread his
+huge paws into a step which outdistanced our dogs.
+The chase was continued on the ice for about three miles.
+Then bruin, with sublime intelligence, took to the land
+and the steep slopes, leading us over hilly, bare ground,
+rocks, and soft snows. He gained the top of the tall
+cliffs while we were still groping in the darkness among
+the rocks at the base, a thousand feet below.</p>
+
+<p>The sledges were now left, and the dogs freed.
+They flew up a gully in which the bear tracks guided an
+easy path. In a short time their satisfying howls told
+of the bear's captivity. He had taken a position on
+a table-rock, which was difficult for the dogs to climb.
+At an easy distance from this rock were steep slopes of
+snow. One after another, the dogs came tumbling
+down these slopes. With but a slight cuff of his paw,
+the bear could toss the attacking dogs over dizzy heights.
+His position was impregnable to the dogs, but, thus
+perched, he was a splendid mark for E-tuk-i-shook. That
+doughty huntsman raised his gun, and, following a shot,
+the bear rolled down the same slopes on which he had
+hurled the dogs. To his carcass a span of strong dogs
+were soon hitched, and it was hauled down to the sea
+level. Quickly dressed and distributed, the bear was
+only a teasing mouthful to the ever-hungry dogs.</p>
+
+<p>It was nearly midnight before we returned to our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span>
+sledge packs. The work of building the houses was
+rendered difficult by the failing moon and the very low
+temperature. The lowest temperature of the season,
+-83&deg;, was reached this night.</p>
+
+<p>The sun rose in the morning of March 3 with warm
+colors, painting the crystal world surrounding us with
+gorgeous tints of rose and old gold. It was odd that
+in the glare of this enrapturing glory we should note the
+coldest day of the year.</p>
+
+<p>With the returning sun in the Arctic comes the
+most frigid season. The light is strongly purple, and
+one is tempted to ascribe to the genial rays a heating
+influence which is as yet absent, owing to their slant.
+The night-darkened surfaces prevent the new sunbeams
+from disseminating any considerable heat, and the
+steadily falling temperature indicates that the crust of
+the earth, as a result of its long desertion by the sun in
+winter, is still unchecked in its cooling. Because of the
+persistence of terrestrial radiation, we have the coldest
+weather of the year with the ascending sun.</p>
+
+<p>It is a fortunate provision of nature that these icy
+days of the ascending sun are usually accompanied by a
+breathless stillness. When wind and storms come, the
+temperature quickly rises. It is doubtful if any form
+of life could withstand a storm at -80&deg; F. A quiet
+charm comes with this eye-opening period. The spirits
+rise with indescribable gladness, and, although the mercury
+is frozen, the body, when properly dressed, is perfectly
+comfortable. The soft light of purple and gold,
+or of lilac and rose, on the snowy slopes, dispels the
+chronic gloom of the long night, while the tonic of a
+brightening air of frost returns the flush to the pale<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span>
+cheeks. The stillness adds a charm, with which the
+imagination plays. It is not the music of silence, nor
+the gold solitude of summer, nor the deathlike stillness
+of the winter blackness. It is the stillness of zero's
+lowest, which has a beauty of its own.</p>
+
+<p>The ice pinnacles are lined with hoar frost, on
+which there is a play of rainbow colors. The tread of
+one's feet is muffled by feathery beds of snow. The
+mountains, raised by the new glow of light or outlined
+by colored shadows, stand against the brightened
+heavens in sculptured magnificence.</p>
+
+<p>The bear admires his shadow, the fox peeps from
+behind his bushy tail, devising a new cult, for his art of
+night will soon be a thing of the past. The hare sits,
+with forelegs bent reverently, as if offering prayers of
+gratitude. The musk ox stands in the brightest sun, with
+his beautiful coat of black and blue, and absorbs the first
+heaven-given sun bath, and man soars high in dreams of
+happiness.</p>
+
+<p>Shadows always attract the eye of primitive people
+and children. In a world such as the one we were invading,
+with little to rest the eye from perpetual glitter, they
+were to become doubly interesting. When we first
+began observing our shadows, on March 3, I did not
+dream that a thing so simple could rise to the dignity
+of a proof of the Polar conquest. But, since then, I have
+come to the conclusion that, if a proof of this much-discussed
+problem is at all possible, it is in the corroborative
+evidence of just such little things as shadows.</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly, I have examined every note and impression
+bearing on natural phenomena en route.</p>
+
+<p>To us, in our daily marches from Bay Fiord, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span>
+shadow became a thing of considerable interest and importance.
+The Eskimo soul is something apart from
+the body. The native believes it follows in the shadow.
+For this reason, stormy, sunless days are gloomy times
+to the natives, for the presence of the soul is then not in
+evidence. The night has the same effect, although the
+moon often throws a clear-cut shadow. The native believes
+the soul at times wanders from the body. When
+it does this, the many rival spirits, which in their system
+of beliefs tenant the body, get into all sorts of trouble.</p>
+
+<p>Every person, and every animal, has not only a soul
+which guards its destiny, but every part of the body has
+an individual spirit&mdash;the arm, the leg, the nose, the eye,
+the ear, and every other conceivable part of the anatomy,
+with a peculiar individuality, throbs with a separate life.
+The separate, wandering soul in the shadow is the guiding
+influence.</p>
+
+<p>Furthermore, there is no such conception as an
+absolutely inanimate thing. The land, the sea, the air,
+ice, and snow, have great individual spirits that ever
+engage in battle with each other. Even mountains, valleys,
+rocks, icebergs, wood, iron, fire&mdash;all have spirits.
+All of this gives them a keen interest in shadows in an
+otherwise desert of gloom and death.</p>
+
+<p>Their entire religious creed would require a long
+time to work out. Even that part of it which is represented
+by the shadow is quite beyond me. As I observed
+in our following marches toward Svartevoeg,
+their keen eyes detect in shadows incidents and messages
+of life, histories that would fill volumes. The shadow is
+long or short, clear-cut or vague, dark or light, blue or
+purple, violet or black. Each phase of it has a special<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span>
+significance. It presages luck or ill-luck on the chase,
+sickness and death in the future, the presence or unrest
+of the souls of parted friends. Even the souls of the
+living sometimes get mixed. Then there is love or intrigue.
+All the passions of wild life can be read from
+the shadows. The most pathetic shadows had been the
+vague, ghastly streaks of black that followed the body
+about a week before sunset in October. At that time
+all the Arctic world is sad, and tears come easily.</p>
+
+<p>The shadow does not quickly come back with the
+returning sun. Continuous storms so screen the sunbeams
+that only a vague, diffused light reaches the long
+night-blackened snows. When the joy of seeing the
+first shadows exploded among my companions I did not
+know just what intoxication infected the camp. With
+full stomachs of newly acquired musk ox loins, we had
+slept. Suddenly the sun burst through a maze of burning
+clouds and made our snow palace glow with electric
+darts. The temperature was very low. Only half-dressed,
+the men rushed out, dancing with joy.</p>
+
+<p>Their shadows were long, sharp-cut, and of a deep,
+purple blue. They danced with them. This brought
+them back to the normal life of Eskimo hilarity. Then
+followed the pleasures of the thrill of the sunny days of
+crystal air and blinding sparkle during never-to-be
+forgotten days of the enervating chill of zero's lowest at
+-83&deg; F.</p>
+
+<p>In the northward progress, for a long time the
+shadows did not perceptibly shorten or brighten to my
+eyes. The natives, however, on our subsequent marches,
+got from these shadows a never-ending variety of topics
+to talk about. They foretold storms, located game, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span>
+read the story of respective home entanglements of the
+Adamless Eden which we had left far away on the
+Greenland shore.</p>
+
+<p>Our bear adventures took us on an advance trail
+over which progress was easy. Beyond, the snow increased
+rapidly in depth with every mile. Snowshoes
+were lashed to our feet for the first mile. We halted in
+our march at noon, attacked suddenly by five wolves.
+The rifles were prepared for defense. No shots were to
+be fired, however, unless active battle was commenced.
+The creatures at close range were slightly cream-colored,
+with a little gray along their backs, but at a greater distance
+they seemed white. They came from the mountains,
+with a chilling, hungry howl that brought shivers.
+The dogs were interested, but made no offer to give
+chase.</p>
+
+<p>The wolves passed the advancing sledges at a distance,
+and gathered about the rear sledge, which was
+separated from the train. The driver turned his team
+to help in the fight. As the sledges neared, the teams
+were stopped, the wolves sat down and delivered a maddening
+chorus of chagrin. The dogs were restless, but
+only wiggled their tails. The men stood still, with
+rifles pointed. The chorus ended. The battle was declared
+off. Seeing that they were outnumbered, the
+howling creatures turned and dashed up the snowy
+slopes, from which they had come, with a storming rush.
+The train was lined up, and through the deep snow we
+plowed westward.</p>
+
+<p>In two difficult marches we reached Eureka
+Sound.</p>
+
+<p>Wolves continued on our trail nearly every day<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span>
+along the west coast of Acpohon, and also along North
+Devon.</p>
+
+<p>In the extreme North, the wolf, like the fox, is pure
+white, with black points to the ears, and spots over the
+eyes. In the regions farther south his fur is slightly
+gray. In size, he is slightly larger than the Eskimo
+dog, his body longer and thinner, and he travels with his
+tail down. Like the bear, he is a ceaseless wanderer
+during all seasons of the year.</p>
+
+<p>In winter, wolves gather in groups of six or eight,
+and attack musk ox, or anything in their line of march.
+But in summer they travel in pairs, and become scavengers.
+The wolf is alert in estimating the number of his
+combatants and their fighting qualities. Men and dogs
+in numbers he never approaches within gunshot, contenting
+himself by howling piercingly from mountains
+at a long distance. When a single sledge was separated
+from the others, he would approach to an uncomfortable
+range.</p>
+
+<p>Bear tracks were also numerous. We were, however,
+too tired to give chase. Close to a cape where we
+paused, on Eureka Sound, to cut snow-blocks for igloos
+attached to the sledges, E-tuk-i-shook noted two bears
+wandering over the lands not far away. Watching for
+a few moments with the glasses, we noted that they were
+stalking a sleeping musk ox. Now we did not care particularly
+for the bears, but the musk ox was regarded as
+our own game, and we were not willing to divide it
+knowingly. The packs were pitched into the snow, and
+the dogs rushed through deep snow, over hummocks
+and rocks, to the creeping bears.</p>
+
+<p>As the bears turned, the rear attack seemed to offer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span>
+sport, and they rose to meet us. But as one team after
+the other bounced over the nearest hills, their heads
+turned and they rushed up the steep slopes. We now
+saw twenty musk oxen asleep in scattered groups.
+These interested us more than the bears. The dogs
+were seemingly of the same mind, for they required no
+urging to change the noses from the bears to the
+musk oxen.</p>
+
+<p>As we wound around the hill upon which they
+rested, all at once arose, shook off the snow, rubbed their
+horns on their knees, and then formed a huge star. In
+a short time the entire herd was ours. The meat was
+dressed, wrapped in skins, the dogs lightly fed, and the
+carcasses hauled to camp. Then we completed our
+igloos. Bears and wolves wandered about camp all
+night, but with one hundred dogs, whose eyes were on
+the swelled larder, there was no danger from wild
+brutes.</p>
+
+<p>Early in the morning of March 4 we were awakened
+by a furious noise from the dogs. Koo-loo-ting-wah
+peeked out and saw a bear in the act of taking a choice
+strip of tenderloin from the meat. With a deft cut of the
+knife, a falling block of snow made a window, and
+through it the rifle was leveled at the animal. He was
+big, fat, and gave us just the blubber required for our
+lamps.</p>
+
+<p>A holiday was declared. It would take time to
+stuff the dogs with twenty musk oxen and a bear. Furthermore,
+our clothing needed attention. Boots, mittens,
+and stockings had to be dried and mended. Some
+of our garments were torn in places, permitting winds
+to enter. Much of the dog harness required fixing.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span>
+The Eskimos' sledges had been slightly broken. Later,
+the same day, another herd of twenty musk oxen
+were seen. Now even the Eskimo's savage thirst
+for blood was satisfied. The pot was kept boiling, and
+the igloos rang with chants of primitive joys.</p>
+
+<p>On March 7 we began a straight run to the Polar
+sea, a distance of one hundred and seventy miles. The
+weather was superb and the ice again free of heavy
+snow.</p>
+
+<p>In six marches we reached Schei Island, which we
+found to be a peninsula. We halted here and a
+feast day was declared. Twenty-seven musk oxen and
+twenty-four hares were secured in one after-dinner hunt.
+This meat guaranteed a food supply to the shores of the
+Polar sea. A weight was lifted from my load of cares,
+for I had doubted the existence of game far enough
+north to count on fresh meat to the sea. The temperature
+was still low (-50&deg; F.), but the nights were brightening,
+and the days offered twelve hours of good light.
+Our outlook was hopeful indeed.</p>
+
+<p>In the Polar campaign, the bear was unconsciously
+our best friend, and also consciously our worst enemy.
+There were times when we admired him, although he was
+never exactly friendly to us. There were other times
+when we regarded him with a savage wrath. Only beyond
+the range of life in the utmost North were we free
+from his attacks. In other places he nosed our trail
+with curious persistence. He had attacked the first
+party that was sent out to explore a route, under cover
+of night and storms. One man was wounded, another
+lost the tail of his coat and a part of his anatomy.</p>
+
+<p>In our march of glory through the musk ox land,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span>
+the bear came as a rival, and disputed not only our right
+to the chase, but also our right to the product from our
+own catch. But we had guns and dogs, and the bears
+fell easily. We were jealous of the quest of the musk
+ox. It seemed properly to belong to the domain of
+man's game. We were equal at the time to the task,
+and did not require the bear's help.</p>
+
+<p>The bears were good at figures, and quickly realized
+ours was a superior fighting force. So they joined
+the ranks in order that they might share in the division
+of the spoils. The bear's goodly mission was always
+regarded with suspicion. We could easily spare the
+bones of our game, which he delighted to pick. We were
+perfectly able to protect our booty with one hundred
+dogs, whose dinners depended on open eyes. But the
+bear did not always understand our tactics. We afterwards
+learned that we did not always understand his,
+for he drove many prizes into our arms. But man is a
+short-sighted critic&mdash;he sees only his side of the game.</p>
+
+<p>In the northern march a much more friendly spirit
+was developed. We differed on many points of ethics
+with bruin, and our fights, successful or otherwise, were
+too numerous and disagreeable to relate fully. Only
+one of these battles will be recorded here, to save the
+reputation of man as a superior fighting animal.</p>
+
+<p>We had made a long march of about forty miles.
+Already the dull purple of twilight was resting heavily
+on darkening snows. The temperature was -81&deg;.
+There was no wind. The air was semi-liquid with suspended
+crystals. When standing still we were perfectly
+comfortable, although jets of steam from our nostrils
+arranged frost crescents about our faces.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>We had been advancing towards a group of musk
+oxen for more than an hour. We were now in the habit
+of living from catch to catch, filling up on meat at the
+end of each successful hunt, and waiting for pot-luck for
+the next meal. The sledges were too heavily loaded to
+carry additional weight. Furthermore, the temperature
+was too low to split up frozen meat. Indeed, most
+of our axes had been broken in trying to divide meat as
+dog food. It was plainly an economy of axes and fuel
+to fill up on warm meat as the skin was removed, and
+wait for the next plunder.</p>
+
+<p>We had been two days without setting eyes on an
+appetizing meal of steaming meat. Not a living speck
+had crossed our horizon; and, therefore, when we noted
+the little cloud of steam rise from a side hill, and
+guessed that under it were herds of musk ox, our
+palates moistened with anticipatory joys. A camping
+place was sought. Two domes of snow were erected as
+a shelter.</p>
+
+<p>Through the glasses we counted twenty-one musk
+oxen. Some were digging up snow to find willows;
+others were sleeping. All were unsuspecting. After
+the experience we had in this kind of hunting, we confidently
+counted the game as ours. A holiday was declared
+for the morrow, to dispose of the surplus. Nourishment
+in prospect, one hundred dogs started with a
+jump, under the lashes of ten Eskimos. Our sledges
+began shooting the boreal shoots. After rushing over
+minor hills, the dog noses sank into bear tracks. A little
+farther along, we realized we had rivals. Two bears
+were far ahead, approaching the musk oxen.</p>
+
+<p>The dogs scented their rivals. The increased<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span>
+bounding of the sledges made looping-the-loop seem
+tame. But we were too late; the bears ran into the
+bunch of animals, and spoiled our game with no advantage
+to themselves. Giving a half-hearted chase, they
+rose to a bank of snow, deliberately sat down, and turned
+to a position to give us the laugh.</p>
+
+<p>The absence of musk ox did not slacken the pace
+of the dogs. The bears were quick to see the force of
+our intent. They scattered and climbed. A bear is an
+expert Alpinist; he requires no ice axe and no lantern.
+The moon came out, and the snow slopes began to glare
+with an electric incandescence.</p>
+
+<p>In this pearly light, the white bear seemed black,
+and was easily located. One bear slipped into a ravine
+and was lost. All attention was now given to the other,
+which was ascending an icy ridge to a commanding
+precipice. We cut the dogs from the sledges. They
+soared up the white slope as if they had wings. The
+bear gained the crest in time to cuff away each rising
+antagonist. The dogs tumbled over each other, down
+several hundred feet into a soft snow-padded gully.
+Other dogs continued to rise on the ridge to keep the
+bear guessing. The dogs in the pit discovered a new
+route, and made a combined rear attack. Bruin was
+surprised, and turned to face his enemies. Backing from
+a sudden assault, he stepped over a precipice, and tumbled
+in a heap into the dog-strewn pit. The battle was
+now on in full force. Finding four feet more useful
+than one mouth, the bear turned on his back and sent his
+paws out with telling effect. The dogs, although not
+giving up the battle, scattered, for the swing of the
+creature's feet did not suit their battle methods. Sit<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span>ting
+on curled tails, they filled the air with murderous
+howls and raised clouds of frozen breath in the flying
+snow.</p>
+
+<p>We were on the scene at a safe distance, each with
+a tight grip on his gun, expecting the bear to make a
+sudden plunge. But he was not given a choice of movement,
+and we could not shoot into the darting pit of
+dogs without injuring them. At this moment Ah-we-lah,
+youngest of the party, advanced. Leaving his gun,
+he descended through the dog ranks into the pit, with
+the spiked harpoon shaft. The bear threw back its
+head to meet him. A score of dogs grabbed the bear's
+feet. Ah-we-lah raised his arm. A sudden savage
+thrust sank the blunt steel into the bear's chest. Cracking
+whips, we scattered the guarding dogs. The prize
+was quickly divided.</p>
+
+<p>On our advance to the Polar sea, I found that there
+is considerable art in building snowhouses. The casual
+observer is likely to conclude that it is an easy problem
+to pile up snow-blocks, dome-shaped, but to do this
+properly, so that the igloo will withstand wind, requires
+adept work. From the lessons of my companions in
+this art I now became more alert to learn, knowing the
+necessity of protection on our Polar dash.</p>
+
+<p>The first problem is to find proper snow. One has
+often to seek for banks where the snow is just hard
+enough. If it is too hard, it cannot be easily cut with
+knives. If it is too soft, the blocks will crush, and cause
+the house to cave in. Long knives are the best instruments&mdash;one
+of fifteen inches and another about ten.
+From sixty to seventy-five blocks, fifteen by twenty-four
+inches, are required to make a house ten feet by ten.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span>
+The blocks are cut according to the snow, but fifteen by
+twenty-four by eight inches is the best size.</p>
+
+<p>The lower tiers of blocks are set in slight notches in
+the snow, to prevent the blocks from slipping out. A
+slight tilt begins from the first tiers; the next tier tilts
+still more, and so the next. The blocks are set so that
+the upper blocks cover the breaks in the lower tier. The
+fitting is done mostly with the blocks in position, the
+knife being passed between the blocks to and fro, with
+a pressure on the blocks with the other hand. The
+hardest task is to make the blocks stick without holding
+in the upper tiers. This is done by deft cuts with the
+knife and a slight thump of the blocks.</p>
+
+<p>The dome is the most difficult part to build. In
+doing this all blocks are leveled and carefully set to arch
+the roof.</p>
+
+<p>When the structure is completed, a candle is lit and
+the cracks are stuffed by cutting the edges off the nearest
+blocks, and pressing the broken snow into the cracks
+with the mittens. After this process, the interior arrangement
+is worked out. The foot space is first cut
+out in blocks. If the snow is on a slope, as it often happens,
+these blocks are raised and the upper slopes are
+cut down to a level plane.</p>
+
+<p>The foot space is a very important matter, first for
+the comfort of sitting, and also to let off the carbonic
+acid gas, which quickly settles in these temperatures and
+extinguishes the fires. It, of course, has also an important
+bearing on human breathing.</p>
+
+<p>Inhalation of very cold air at this time forced an
+unconscious expenditure of very much energy. The
+extent of this tax can be gauged only by the enormous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span>
+difference between the temperature of the body and that
+of the air. One day it was -72&deg; F. The difference
+was, therefore, 170&deg;. It is hard to conceive of normal
+breathing under such difficulties; but when properly
+clothed and fed, no great discomfort or ill-effects are
+noted. The membranes of the air passages are, however,
+overflushed with blood. The chest circulation is
+forced to its limits, and the heart beats are increased and
+strengthened. The organs of circulation and respiration,
+which do ninety per cent. of the work of the body,
+are taxed with a new burden that must be counted in
+estimating one's day's task. This loss of power in
+breathing extreme frost is certain to reduce working
+time and bodily force.</p>
+
+<p>The land whose coast we were following to the
+shores of the Polar sea is part of the American hemisphere,
+and one of the largest islands of the world,
+spreading 30&deg; longitude and rising 7&deg; of latitude. What
+is its name? The question must remained unanswered,
+for it not only has no general name, but numerous sections
+are written with names and outlines that differ to a
+large extent with the caprice of the explorers who have
+been there.</p>
+
+<p>The south is called Lincoln Land; above it,
+Ellesmere Land. Then comes Schley Land, Grinnell
+Land, Arthur Land, and Grant Land, with other lands
+of later christening by Sverdrup and others.</p>
+
+<p>No human beings inhabit the island. No nation
+assumes the responsibility of claiming or protecting it.
+The Eskimo calls the entire country Acpohon, or "the
+Land of Guillemots," which are found in great abundance
+along the southeast point. I have, therefore, to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span>
+avoid conflictions, affixed the name of Acpohon as the
+general designation.</p>
+
+<p>We had now advanced beyond the range of all
+primitive life. No human voice broke the frigid silence.
+The Eskimos had wandered into the opening of the
+musk ox pass. Sverdrup had mapped the channels of
+the west coast. But here was no trace of modern or aboriginal
+residence. There is no good reason why men
+should not have followed the musk oxen here, but the
+nearest Eskimos on the American side are those on Lancaster
+Sound.</p>
+
+<p>I found an inspiration in being thus alone at the
+world's end. The barren rocks, the wastes of snow-fields,
+the mountains stripped of earlier ice-sheets, and
+every phase of the landscape, assured a new interest.
+There was a note of absolute abandon on the part of
+nature. If our own resources failed, or if a calamity
+overtook us, there would be no trace to mark icy graves
+forever hidden from surviving loved ones.</p>
+
+<p>My Eskimo comrades were enthusiastic explorers.
+The game trails gave a touch of animation to their steps,
+which meant much to the progress of the expedition.
+We not only saw musk oxen in large herds, but tracks
+of bears and wolves were everywhere in line with our
+course. On the sea-ice we noted many seal blow-holes.
+Already the natives talked of coming here on the following
+year to cast their lot in the new wilds.</p>
+
+<p>The picturesque headland of Schie we found to be
+a huge triassic rock of the same general formation as
+that indicated along Eureka Sound. Its west offered a
+series of grassy slopes bared by persistent winds, upon
+which animal life found easy access to the winter-cured<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span>
+grass. A narrow neck of land connected what seemed
+like an island with the main land. Here caches of fur
+and fuel were left for the return. In passing Snag's
+Fiord the formation changed. Here, for several
+marches, game was scarce. The temperature rose as we
+neared the Polar sea. The snow became much deeper
+but it was hardened by stronger winds and increased
+humidity. High glacier-abandoned valleys with gradual
+slopes to the water's edge, gave the Heiberg shores
+on Nansen Sound a different type of landscape from
+that of the opposite shores. Here and there we found
+pieces of lignite coal, and as we neared Svartevoeg the
+carboniferous formation became more evident.</p>
+
+<p>Camping in the lowlands just south of Svartevoeg
+Cliffs we secured seven musk oxen and eighty-five hares.
+Here were immense fields of grass and moss bared by
+persistent winter gales. By a huge indentation here,
+through which we saw the sea-level ice of the west, the
+shores seemed to indicate that the point of Heiberg is an
+island, but of this we were not absolutely sure. To us
+it was a great surprise that here, on the shores of the
+Polar sea, we found a garden spot of plant luxuriance
+and animal delight. For this assured, in addition to the
+caches left en route, a sure food supply for the return
+from our mission to the North.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 100%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="THE_TRANS-BOREAL_DASH_BEGINS" id="THE_TRANS-BOREAL_DASH_BEGINS"></a>THE TRANS-BOREAL DASH BEGINS</h2>
+
+<p class="blockquot">BY FORCED EFFORTS AND THE USE OF AXES SPEED IS MADE
+OVER THE LAND&mdash;ADHERING PACK ICE OF POLAR SEA&mdash;THE
+MOST DIFFICULT TRAVEL OF THE PROPOSED
+JOURNEY SUCCESSFULLY ACCOMPLISHED&mdash;REGRETFUL
+PARTING WITH THE ESKIMOS</p>
+
+<h3>XIII<br />
+
+<br /><span class="smcap">Five Hundred Miles From the Pole</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>Svartevoeg is a great cliff, the northernmost point
+of Heiberg Land, which leaps precipitously into the
+Polar sea. Its negroid face of black scarred rocks
+frowns like the carven stone countenance of some hideously
+mutilated and enraged Titan savage. It expresses,
+more than a human face could, the unendurable
+sufferings of this region of frigid horrors. It is five
+hundred and twenty miles from the North Pole.</p>
+
+<p>From this point I planned to make my dash in as
+straight a route as might be possible. Starting from
+our camp at Annoatok late in February, when the curtain
+of night was just beginning to lift, when the chill
+of the long winter was felt at its worst, we had forced
+progress through deep snows, over land and frozen seas,
+braving the most furious storms of the season and traveling
+despite baffling darkness, and had covered in less
+than a month about four hundred miles&mdash;nearly half<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span>
+the distance between our winter camp and the Pole.</p>
+
+<p>Arriving at land's end my heart had cause for
+gratification. We had weathered the worst storms of
+the year. The long bitter night had now been lost. The
+days lengthened and invaded with glitter the decreasing
+nights. The sun glowed more radiantly daily, rose
+higher and higher to a continued afterglow in cheery
+blues, and sank for periods briefer and briefer in seas of
+running color. Our hopes, like those of all mankind, had
+risen with the soul-lifting sun. We had made our progress
+mainly at the expense of the land which we explored,
+for the game en route had furnished food and clothing.</p>
+
+<p>The supplies we had brought with us from Annoatok
+were practically untouched. We had stepped in
+overfed skins, were fired by a resolution which was recharged
+by a strength bred of feeding upon abundant
+raw and wholesome meat. Eating to repletion on unlimited
+game, our bodies were kept in excellent trim by
+the exigencies of constant and difficult traveling.</p>
+
+<p>As a man's mental force is the result of yesteryears'
+upbuilding, so his strength of to-day is the result of last
+week's eating. With the surge of ambition which had
+been formulating for twenty years, and my body in best
+physical shape for the supreme test, the Pole now
+seemed almost near.</p>
+
+<p>As the great cliffs of Svartevoeg rose before us my
+heart leaped. I felt that the first rung in the ladder of
+success had been climbed, and as I stood under the black
+cliffs of this earth's northernmost land I felt that I
+looked through the eyes of long experience. Having
+reached the end of Nansen Sound, with Svartevoeg on
+my left, and the tall, scowling cliffs of Lands-Lokk on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span>
+my right, I viewed for the first time the rough and heavy
+ice of the untracked Polar sea, over which, knowing the
+conditions of the sea ice, I anticipated the most difficult
+part of our journey lay. Imagine before you fields of
+crushed ice, glimmering in the rising sunlight with shooting
+fires of sapphire and green; fields which have been
+slowly forced downward by strong currents from the
+north, and pounded and piled in jagged mountainous
+heaps for miles about the land. Beyond this difficult ice,
+as I knew, lay more even fields, over which traveling,
+saving the delays of storms and open leads, would be
+comparatively easy. To encompass this rough prospect
+was the next step in reaching my goal. I felt that no
+time must be lost. At this point I was now to embark
+upon the Polar sea; the race for my life's ambition was
+to begin here; but first I had finally to resolve on the
+details of my campaign.</p>
+
+<p>I decided to reduce my party to the smallest possible
+number consistent with the execution of the problem
+in hand. In addition, for greater certainty of
+action over the unknown regions beyond, I now definitely
+resolved to simplify the entire equipment. An
+extra sled was left at the cache at this point to insure
+a good vehicle for our return in case the two sleds which
+we were to take should be badly broken en route. I
+decided to take only two men on the last dash. I had
+carefully watched and studied every one of my party,
+and had already selected E-tuk-i-shook and Ah-we-lah,
+two young Eskimos, each about twenty years old, as best
+fitted to be my sole companions in the long run of
+destiny.</p>
+
+<p>Twenty-six of the best dogs were picked, and upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span>
+two sleds were to be loaded all our needs for a trip estimated
+to last eighty days.</p>
+
+<p>To have increased this party would not have enabled
+us to carry supplies for a greater number of days.</p>
+
+<p>The sleds might have been loaded more heavily, but
+I knew this would reduce the important progress of the
+first days.</p>
+
+<p>With the character of ice which we had before us,
+advance stations were impossible. A large expedition
+and a heavy equipment would have been imprudent.
+We must win or lose in a prolonged effort at high pressure.
+Therefore, absolute control and ease of adaptability
+to a changing environment was imperative.</p>
+
+<p>From past experience I knew it was impossible to
+control adequately the complex human temperament of
+white men in the Polar wilderness. But I felt certain
+the two Eskimo boys could be trusted to follow to the
+limit of my own endurance. So our sleds were burdened
+only with absolute necessaries.</p>
+
+<p>Because of the importance of a light and efficient
+equipment, much care had to be taken to reduce every
+ounce of weight. The sleds were made of hickory, the
+lightest wood consistent with great endurance, and
+every needless fibre was gouged out. The iron shoes
+were ground thin, and up to the present had stood the
+test of half the Polar battle.</p>
+
+<p>Eliminating everything not actually needed, but
+selecting adequate food, I made the final preparations.</p>
+
+<p>The camp equipment selected included the following
+articles: One blow fire lamp (jeuel), three aluminum
+pails, three aluminum cups, three aluminum teaspoons,
+one tablespoon, three tin plates, six pocket<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span>
+knives, two butcher knives (ten inches), one saw knife
+(thirteen inches), one long knife (fifteen inches), one
+rifle (Sharp's), one rifle (Winchester .22), one hundred
+and ten cartridges, one hatchet, one Alpine axe, extra
+line and lashings, and three personal bags.</p>
+
+<p>The sled equipment consisted of two sleds weighing
+fifty-two pounds each; one twelve-foot folding canvas
+boat, the wood of which formed part of a sled; one
+silk tent, two canvas sled covers, two reindeer skin sleeping
+bags, floor furs, extra wood for sled repairs, screws,
+nails and rivets.</p>
+
+<p>My instruments were as follows: One field glass;
+one pocket compass; one liquid compass; one aluminum
+surveying compass, with azimuth attachment; one
+French surveyor's sextant, with radius 7&frac12;, divided on
+silver to 10&#697;, reading by Vernier to 10" (among the extra
+attachments were a terrestrial and an astronomical telescope,
+and an extra night telescope mounted in aluminum,
+and also double refracting prisms, thermometers,
+etc.&mdash;the instrument was made by Hurleman of France
+and bought of Keuffel &amp; Esser); one glass artificial
+horizon; three Howard pocket chronometers; one Tiffany
+watch; one pedometer; map-making material and
+instruments; three thermometers; one aneroid barometer;
+one camera and films; notebook and pencils.</p>
+
+<p>The personal bags contained four extra pairs of
+kamiks, with fur stockings, a woolen shirt, three pairs of
+sealskin mittens, two pairs of fur mittens, a piece of
+blanket, a sealskin coat (netsha), extra fox tails and dog
+harness, a repair kit for mending clothing, and much
+other necessary material.</p>
+
+<p>On the march we wore snow goggles, blue fox coats<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span>
+(kapitahs) and birdskin shirts (Ah-tea), bearskin pants
+(Nan-nooka), sealskin boots (Kam-ik), hare-skin stockings
+(Ah-tee-shah), and a band of fox tails under the
+knee and about the waist.</p>
+
+<p>The food supply, as will be seen by the following
+list, was mostly pemmican:</p>
+
+<p>Eight hundred and five pounds of beef pemmican,
+one hundred and thirty pounds of walrus pemmican,
+fifty pounds of musk ox tenderloin, twenty-five pounds
+of musk ox tallow, two pounds of tea, one pound of
+coffee, twenty-five pounds of sugar, forty pounds of
+condensed milk, sixty pounds of milk biscuit, ten pounds
+of pea soup powdered and compressed, fifty pounds of
+surprises, forty pounds petroleum, two pounds of wood
+alcohol, three pounds of candles and one pound of
+matches.</p>
+
+<p>We planned our future food supply with pemmican
+as practically the sole food; the other things were to be
+mere palate satisfiers. For the eighty days the supply
+was to be distributed as follows:</p>
+
+<p>For three men: Pemmican, one pound per day for
+eighty days, two hundred and forty pounds. For six
+dogs: Pemmican, one pound per day for eighty days,
+four hundred and eighty pounds. This necessitated a
+total of seven hundred and twenty pounds of pemmican.</p>
+
+<p>Of the twenty-six dogs, we had at first figured on
+taking sixteen over the entire trip to the Pole and back
+to our caches on land, but in this last calculation only six
+were to be taken. Twenty, the least useful, were to
+be used one after the other, as food on the march, as
+soon as reduced loads and better ice permitted. This,
+we counted, would give one thousand pounds of fresh<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span>
+meat over and above our pemmican supply. We
+carried about two hundred pounds of pemmican
+above the expected consumption, and in the final working
+out the dogs were used for traction purposes longer
+than we anticipated. But, with a cautious saving, the
+problem was solved somewhat more economically than
+any figuring before the start indicated.</p>
+
+<p>Every possible article of equipment was made to do
+double service; not an ounce of dead weight was carried
+which could be dispensed with.</p>
+
+<p>After making several trips about Svartevoeg, arranging
+caches for the return, studying the ice and land,
+I decided to make the final start on the Polar sea on
+March 18, 1908.</p>
+
+<p>The time had come to part with most of our faithful
+Eskimo companions. Taking their hands in my manner
+of parting, I thanked them as well as I could for their
+faithful service to me. "<i>Tigishi ah yaung-uluk!</i>" (The
+big nail!), they replied, wishing me luck.</p>
+
+<p>Then, in a half gale blowing from the northwest and
+charged with snow, they turned their backs upon me and
+started upon the return track. They carried little but
+ammunition, because we had learned that plenty of game
+was to be provided along the return courses.</p>
+
+<p>Even after they were out of sight in the drifting
+snowstorm their voices came cheerily back to me. The
+faithful savages had followed me until told that I could
+use them no longer; and it was not only for their simple
+pay of knives and guns, but because of a real desire to
+be helpful. Their parting enforced a pang of loneliness.<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span>With a snow-charged blast in our faces it was impossible
+for us to start immediately after the Eskimos
+returned. Withdrawing to the snow igloo, we entered
+our bags and slept a few hours longer. At noon the
+horizon cleared. The wind veered to the southwest and
+came with an endurable force. Doubly rationed the
+night before, the dogs were not to be fed again for two
+days. The time had come to start. We quickly loaded
+our sleds. Hitching the dogs, we let the whips fall, and
+with bounds they leaped around deep ice grooves in the
+great paleocrystic floes.</p>
+
+<p>Our journey was begun. Swept of snow by the
+force of the preceding storm, the rough ice crisply
+cracked under the swift speed of our sleds. Even on
+this uneven surface the dogs made such speed that I kept
+ahead of them only with difficulty. Their barking pealed
+about us and re-echoed from the black cliffs behind.
+Dashing about transparent ultramarine gorges, and
+about the base of miniature mountains of ice, we soon
+came into a region of undulating icy hills. The hard
+irregularity of the ice at times endangered our sleds.
+We climbed over ridges like walls. We jumped dangerous
+crevasses, keeping slightly west by north; the
+land soon sank in the rear of us. Drifting clouds and
+wind-driven snows soon screened the tops of black mountains.
+Looking behind, I saw only a swirling, moving
+scene of dull white and nebulous gray. On every side
+ice hummocks heaved their backs and writhed by. Be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span>hind
+me followed four snugly loaded sleds, drawn by
+forty-four selected dogs, under the lash of four expert
+Eskimo drivers. The dogs pranced; the joyous cries of
+the natives rose and fell. My heart leaped; my soul
+sang. I felt my blood throb with each gallop of the leaping
+dog teams. The sound of their feet pattering on the
+snow, the sight of their shaggy bodies tossing forward,
+gave me joy. For every foot of ice covered, every minute
+of constant action, drew me nearer, ever nearer, to
+my goal.</p>
+
+<p>Our first run was auspicious; it seemed to augur
+success. By the time we paused to rest we had covered
+twenty-six miles.</p>
+
+<p>We pitched camp on a floeberg of unusual height;
+about us were many big hummocks, and to the lee of
+these banks of hardened snow. Away from land it is
+always more difficult to find snow suitable for cutting
+building blocks. There, however, was an abundance.
+We busily built, in the course of an hour, a comfortable
+snow igloo. Into it we crept, grateful for shelter from
+the piercing wind.</p>
+
+<p>The dogs curled up and went to sleep without a call,
+as if they knew that there would be no food until to-morrow.
+My wild companions covered their faces with their
+long hair and sank quietly into slumber. For me sleep
+was impossible. The whole problem of our campaign
+had again to be carefully studied, and final plans made,
+not only to reach our ultimate destination, but for the
+two returning Eskimos and for the security of the things
+left at Annoatok, and also to re-examine the caches left
+en route for our return. These must be protected as
+well as possible against the bears and wolves.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Already I had begun to think of our return to land.
+It was difficult at this time even to approximate any
+probable course. Much would depend upon conditions
+to be encountered in the northward route. Although we
+had left caches of supplies with the object of returning
+along Nansen Sound, into Cannon Fiord and over
+Arthur Land, I entertained grave doubts of our ability
+to return this way. I knew that if the ice should drift
+strongly to the east we might not be given the choice of
+working out our own return. For, in such an event, we
+should perhaps be carried helplessly to Greenland, and
+should have to seek a return either along the east or
+the west coast.</p>
+
+<p>This drift, in my opinion, would not necessarily
+mean dangerous hardships, for the musk oxen would
+keep us alive to the west, and to the east it seemed possible
+to reach Shannon Island, where the Baldwin-Zeigler
+expeditions had abandoned a large cache of supplies.
+It appeared not improbable, also, that a large
+land extension might offer a safe return much further
+west. I fell asleep while pondering over these things. By
+morning the air was clear of frost crystals. It was intensely
+cold, not only because of a temperature of 56&deg;
+below zero, Fahrenheit, but a humid chill which pierced
+to the very bones. A light breeze came from the west.
+The sun glowed in a freezing field of blue.</p>
+
+<p>Hitching our dogs, we started. For several hours
+we seemed to soar over the white spaces. Then the ice
+changed in character, the expansive, thick fields of
+glacier-like ice giving way to floes of moderate size and
+thickness. These were separated by zones of troublesome
+crushed ice thrown into high-pressure lines, which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span>
+offered serious barriers. Chopping the pathway with
+an ice axe, we managed to make fair progress. We
+covered twenty-one miles of our second run on the Polar
+sea. I expected, at the beginning of this final effort,
+to send back by this time the two extra men, Koo-loo-ting-wah
+and In-u-gi-to, who had remained to help us
+over the rough pack-ice. But progress had not been as
+good as I had expected; so, although we could hardly
+spare any food to feed their dogs, the two volunteered
+to push along for another day without dog food.</p>
+
+<p>Taking advantage of big, strong teams and the fire
+of early enthusiasm, we aimed to force long distances
+through the extremely difficult ice jammed here against
+the distant land. The great weight of the supplies intended
+for the final two sleds were now distributed over
+four sleds. With axe and compass in hand, I led the
+way. With prodigious effort I chopped openings
+through barriers after barriers of ice. Sled after sled
+was passed over the tumbling series of obstacles by my
+companions while I advanced to open a way through the
+next. With increasing difficulties in some troublesome
+ice, we camped after making only sixteen miles. Although
+weary, we built a small snowhouse. I prepared
+over my stove a pot of steaming musk ox loins and broth
+and a double brew of tea. After partaking of this our
+two helpers prepared to return. To have taken them
+farther would have necessitated a serious drain on our
+supplies and an increased danger for their lives in a
+longer return to land.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 640px;">
+<img src="images/illo_237.jpg" width="640" height="427" alt="DASHING FORWARD EN ROUTE TO THE POLE" title="" />
+<span class="caption">DASHING FORWARD EN ROUTE TO THE POLE</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>By these men I sent back instructions to Rudolph
+Francke to remain in charge of my supplies at Annoatok
+until June 5th, 1908, and then, if we should not have
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span>
+returned by that date, to place Koo-loo-ting-wah in charge
+and go home either by a whaler or some Danish ship. I
+knew that, should we get in trouble, he could offer no
+relief to help us, and that his waiting an indefinite time
+alone would be a needless hardship.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 545px;">
+<img src="images/illo_238.jpg" width="545" height="800" alt="DEPARTURE OF SUPPORTING PARTY
+A BREATHING SPELL
+POLEWARD!" title="" />
+<span class="caption">DEPARTURE OF SUPPORTING PARTY<br />
+A BREATHING SPELL<br />
+POLEWARD!</span>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>The way before Koo-loo-ting-wah and In-u-gi-to,
+who had so cheerfully remained to the last possible moment
+that they could be of help, was not an entirely
+pleasant one. Their friends were by now well on their
+journey toward Annoatok, and they had to start after
+them with sleds empty of provisions and dogs hungry for
+food.</p>
+
+<p>They hoped to get back to land and off the ice of
+the Polar sea in one long day's travel of twenty-four
+hours. Even this would leave their fourth day without
+food for their dogs. In case of storms or moving of
+the ice, other days of famine might easily fall to their lot.
+However, they faced possible dangers cheerfully rather
+than ask me to give them anything from the stores that
+were to support their two companions, myself and our
+dogs on our way onward to the Pole and back. I was
+deeply touched by this superlative devotion. They assured
+me too (in which they were right) that they had
+an abundance of possible food in the eighteen dogs they
+took with them. If necessary, they could sacrifice a few
+at any time for the benefit of the others, as must often
+be done in the Northland.</p>
+
+<p>There were no formalities in our parting on the
+desolate ice. Yet, as the three of us who were left
+alone gazed after our departing companions, we felt a
+poignant pang in our hearts. About us was a cheerless
+waste of crushed wind-and-water-driven ice. A sharp<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span>
+wind stung our faces. The sun was obscured by clouds
+which piled heavily and darkly about the horizon. The
+cold and brilliant jeweled effects of the frozen sea were
+lost in a dismal hue of dull white and sombre gray. On
+the horizon, Svartevoeg, toward which the returning
+Eskimos were bound, was but a black speck. To the
+north, where our goal lay, our way was untrodden, unknown.
+The thought came to me that perhaps we
+should never see our departing friends. With it came
+a pang of tenderness for the loved ones I had left behind
+me. Although our progress so far had been successful,
+and half the distance was made, dangers unknown
+and undreamed of existed in the way before us.
+My Eskimos already showed anxiety&mdash;an anxiety which
+every aboriginal involuntarily feels when land disappears
+on the horizon. Never venturing themselves far
+onto the Polar sea, when they lose sight of land a panic
+overcomes them. Before leaving us one of the departing
+Eskimos had pointed out a low-lying cloud to the
+north of us. "Noona" (land), he said, nodding to the
+others. The thought occurred to me that, on our trip,
+I could take advantage of the mirages and low clouds
+on the horizon and encourage a belief in a constant nearness
+to land, thus maintaining their courage and cheer.<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p>
+
+<p>Regrets and fears were not long-lasting, however,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span>
+for the exigencies of our problem were sufficiently imperative
+and absorbing. To the overcoming of these we
+had now to devote our entire attention and strain every
+fibre.</p>
+
+<p>We had now advanced, by persistent high-pressure
+efforts, over the worst possible ice conditions, somewhat
+more than sixty miles. Of the 9&deg; between land's end
+and the Pole, we had covered one; and we had done this
+without using the pound of food per day allotted each of
+us out of the eighty days' supply transported.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;">
+<img src="images/illo_241.jpg" width="480" height="525" alt="POLAR BEAR" title="" />
+<span class="caption">POLAR BEAR</span>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 100%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="OVER_THE_POLAR_SEA_TO_THE_BIG_LEAD" id="OVER_THE_POLAR_SEA_TO_THE_BIG_LEAD"></a>OVER THE POLAR SEA TO THE BIG LEAD</h2>
+
+<p class="blockquot">WITH TWO ESKIMO COMPANIONS, THE RACE POLEWARD
+CONTINUES OVER ROUGH AND DIFFICULT ICE&mdash;THE
+LAST LAND FADES BEHIND&mdash;MIRAGES LEAP INTO
+BEING AND WEAVE A MYSTIC SPELL&mdash;A SWIRLING
+SCENE OF MOVING ICE AND FANTASTIC EFFECTS&mdash;STANDING
+ON A HILL OF ICE, A BLACK, WRITHING,
+SNAKY CUT APPEARS IN THE ICE BEYOND&mdash;THE BIG
+LEAD&mdash;A NIGHT OF ANXIETY&mdash;FIVE HUNDRED MILES
+ALREADY COVERED&mdash;FOUR HUNDRED TO THE POLE</p>
+
+<h3>XIV<br />
+
+<br /><span class="smcap">To Eighty-Third Parallel</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>Our party, thus reduced to three, went onward.
+Although the isolation was more oppressive, there were
+the advantages of the greater comfort, safety, speed and
+convenience that came from having only a small band.
+The large number of men in a big expedition always
+increases responsibilities and difficulties. In the early
+part of a Polar venture this disadvantage is eliminated
+by the facilities to augment supplies by the game en
+route and by ultimate advantages of the law of the survival
+of the fittest. But after the last supporting sleds
+return, the men are bound to each other for protection
+and can no longer separate. A disabled or unfitted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span>
+dog can be fed to his companions, but an injured or
+weak man cannot be eaten nor left alone to die. An
+exploring venture is only as strong as its weakest member,
+and increased numbers, like increased links in a
+chain, reduce efficiency.</p>
+
+<p>Moreover, personal idiosyncrasies and inconveniences
+always shorten a day's march. And, above all, a
+numerous party quickly divides into cliques, which are
+always opposed to each other, to the leader, and invariably
+to the best interests of the problem in hand.
+With but two savage companions, to whom this arduous
+task was but a part of an accustomed life of frost, I did
+not face many of the natural personal barriers which contributed
+to the failure of former Arctic expeditions.</p>
+
+<p>In my judgment, when you double a Polar party
+its chances for success are reduced one-half; when you
+divide it, strength and security are multiplied.</p>
+
+<p>We had been traveling about two and one-half miles
+per hour. By making due allowances for detours and
+halts at pressure lines, the number of hours traveled
+gave us a fair estimate of the day's distance. Against
+this the pedometer offered a check, and the compass
+gave the course. Thus, over blank charts, our course
+was marked.</p>
+
+<p>By this kind of dead reckoning our position on
+March 20 was: Latitude, 82&deg; 23&#697;; Longitude, 95&deg; 14&#697;.
+A study of our location seemed to indicate that we had
+passed beyond the zone of ice crushed by the influence
+of land pressure. Behind were great hummocks and
+small ice; ahead was a cheerful expanse of larger, clearer
+fields, offering a promising highway.</p>
+
+<p>Our destination was now about four hundred and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span>
+sixty miles beyond. Our life, with its pack environment,
+assumed another aspect. Previously we permitted
+ourselves some luxuries. A pound of coal oil
+and a good deal of musk ox tallow were burned each day
+to heat the igloo and to cook abundant food. Extra
+meals were served when occasion called for them, and
+for each man there had been all the food and drink he
+desired. If the stockings or the mittens were wet there
+was fire enough to dry them out. All of this had now
+to be changed.</p>
+
+<p>Hereafter there was to be a short daily allowance
+of food and fuel&mdash;one pound of pemmican a day for the
+dogs, about the same for the men, with just a taste of
+other things. Fortunately, we were well provided with
+fresh meat for the early part of the race by the lucky run
+through game lands. Because of the need of fuel
+economy we now cut our pemmican with an axe. Later
+it split the axe.</p>
+
+<p>At first no great hardship followed our changed
+routine. We filled up sufficiently on two cold meals
+daily and also depended on superfluous bodily tissue.
+It was no longer possible to jump on the sled for an
+occasional breathing spell, as we had done along the
+land.</p>
+
+<p>Such a journey as now confronted us is a long-continued,
+hard, difficult, sordid, body-exhausting thing.
+Each day some problem presents some peculiar condition
+of the ice or state of the weather. The effort, for
+instance, to form some shield from intense cold gives
+added interest to the game. That one thing after another
+is being met, with always the anticipation of next
+day's struggle, adds a thrill to the conquest, spurs one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span>
+to greater and ever greater feats, and really constitutes
+the actual victory of such a quest. With overloaded
+sleds the drivers must now push and pull at them to aid
+the dogs. My task was to search the troubled ice for
+easy routes, cutting away here and there with the ice-axe
+to permit the passing of the sleds.</p>
+
+<p>Finally stripping for the race, man and dog must
+walk along together through storms and frost for the
+elusive goal. Success or failure must depend mostly
+upon our ability to transport nourishment and to keep
+up the muscular strength for a prolonged period.</p>
+
+<p>As we awoke on the morning of March 21 and
+peered out of the eye-port of the igloo, the sun edged
+along the northeast. A warm orange glow suffused the
+ice and gladdened our hearts. The temperature was
+63&deg; below zero, Fahrenheit; the barometer was steady
+and high. There was almost no wind. Not a cloud
+lined the dome of pale purple blue, but a smoky streak
+along the west shortened our horizon in that direction
+and marked a lead of open water.</p>
+
+<p>Our breakfast consisted of two cups of tea, a watch-sized
+biscuit, a chip of frozen meat and a boulder of
+pemmican. Creeping out of our bags, our shivering
+legs were pushed through bearskin cylinders which
+served as trousers. We worked our feet into frozen
+boots and then climbed into fur coats. Next we kicked
+the front out of the snowhouse and danced about to
+stimulate heart action.</p>
+
+<p>Quickly the camp furnishings were tossed on the
+sleds and securely lashed. We gathered the dog traces
+into the drag lines, vigorously snapped the long whips,
+and the willing creatures bent to the shoulder straps.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span>
+The sleds groaned. The unyielding snows gave a
+metallic ring. The train moved with a cheerful pace.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Am-my noona terronga dosangwah</i>" (Perhaps
+land will be out of sight today), we said to one another.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a>
+But the words did not come with serious intent. In
+truth, each in his own way felt keenly that we were leaving
+a world of life and possible comfort for one of torment
+and suffering. Axel Heiberg Land, to the south,
+was already only a dull blue haze, while Grant Land, on
+the eastward, was making fantastic figures of its peaks
+and ice walls. The ice ran in waves of undulating blue,
+shimmering with streams of gold, before us. Behind,
+the last vestiges of jagged land rose and fell like marionettes
+dancing a wild farewell. Our heart-pulls were
+backward, our mental kicks were forward.</p>
+
+<p>Until now this strange white world had been one
+of grim reality. As though some unseen magician had
+waved his wand, it was suddenly transformed into a
+land of magic. Leaping into existence, as though from
+realms beyond the horizon, huge mirages wove a web of
+marvelous delusional pictures about the horizon. Peaks
+of snow were transformed into volcanoes, belching
+smoke; out of the pearly mist rose marvelous cities with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span>
+fairy-like castles; in the color-shot clouds waved golden
+and rose and crimson pennants from pinnacles and
+domes of mosaic-colored splendor. Huge creatures,
+misshapen and grotesque, writhed along the horizon and
+performed amusing antics.</p>
+
+<p>Beginning now, and rarely absent, these spectral
+denizens of the North accompanied us during the entire
+journey; and later, when, fagged of brain and sapped
+of bodily strength, I felt my mind swimming in a sea
+of half-consciousness, they filled me almost with horror,
+impressing me as the monsters one sees in a nightmare.</p>
+
+<p>At every breathing spell in the mad pace our heads
+now turned to land. Every look was rewarded by a
+new prospect. From belching volcanoes to smoking
+cities of modern bustle, the mirages gave a succession of
+striking scenes which filled me with awed and marveling
+delight. A more desolate line of coast could not be
+imagined. Along its edge ran low wind-swept and
+wind-polished mountains. These were separated by
+valleys filled with great depths of snow and glacial ice.</p>
+
+<p>Looking northward, the sky line was clear of the
+familiar pinnacles of icebergs. In the immediate
+vicinity many small bergs were seen; some of these were
+grounded, and the pack thus anchored was thrown in
+huge uplifts of pressure lines and hummocks. The sea,
+as is thereby determined, is very shallow for a long distance
+from land.</p>
+
+<p>This interior accumulation of snow moves slowly to
+the sea, where it forms a low ice wall, a glacier of the
+Malaspina type. Its appearance is more like that of
+heavy sea ice; hence the name of the paleocrystic ice,
+fragments from this glacier, floebergs, which, seen in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span>
+Lincoln Sea and resembling old floes, were supposed to
+be the product of the ancient upbuilding of the ice of
+the North Polar Sea.</p>
+
+<p>Snapping our whips and urging the dogs, we traveled
+until late in the afternoon, mirages constantly
+appearing and melting about us. Now the land suddenly
+settled downward as if by an earthquake. The
+pearly glitter, which had raised and magnified it, darkened.
+A purple fabric fell over the horizon and merged
+imperceptibly into the lighter purple blue of the upper
+skies. We saw the land, however, at successive periods
+for several days. This happened whenever the atmosphere
+was in the right condition to elevate the terrestrial
+contour lines by refracting sun rays.</p>
+
+<p>Every condition favored us on this march. The
+wind was not strong and struck us at an angle, permitting
+us to guard our noses by pushing a mitten under
+our hoods or by raising a fur-clad hand.</p>
+
+<p>We had not been long in the field, however, when
+the wind, that ever-present dragon guardian of the unseen
+northern monarch's demesne, began to suck
+strength from our bodies. Shortly before Grant Land
+entirely faded the monster fawned on us with gentle
+breathing.</p>
+
+<p>The snow was hard, and the ice, in fairly large
+fields separated by pressure lines, offered little resistance.
+On March 21, at the end of a forced effort of
+fourteen hours, the register indicated a progress of
+twenty-nine miles.</p>
+
+<p>Too weary to build an igloo, we threw ourselves
+thoughtlessly upon the sleds for a short rest, and fell
+asleep. I was awakened from my fitful slumber by a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span>
+feeling of compression, as if stifling arms hideously
+gripped me. It was the wind. I breathed with difficulty.
+I struggled to my feet, and about me hissed and
+wailed the dismal sound. It was a sharp warning to us
+that to sleep without the shelter of an igloo would probably
+mean death.</p>
+
+<p>On the heavy floe upon which we rested were several
+large hummocks. To the lee of one of these we
+found suitable snow for a shelter.</p>
+
+<p>Lines of snowy vapor were rushing over the pack.
+The wind came with rapidly increasing force. We
+erected the house, however, before we suffered severely
+from the blast. We crept into it out of the storm and
+nested in warm furs.</p>
+
+<p>The wind blew fiercely throughout the night. By
+the next morning, March 22, the storm had eased to
+a steady, light breeze. The temperature was 59&deg; below
+zero. We emerged from our igloo at noon. Although
+the cheerless gray veil had been swept from the frigid
+dome of the sky, to the north appeared a low black line
+over a pearly cloud which gave us much uneasiness.
+This was a narrow belt of "water-sky," which indicated
+open water or very thin ice at no great distance.</p>
+
+<p>The upper surface of Grant Land was now a mere
+thin pen line on the edge of the horizon. But a play of
+land clouds above it attracted the eyes to the last known
+rocks of solid earth. We now felt keenly the piercing
+cold of the Polar sea. The temperature gradually rose
+to 46&deg; F. below zero, in the afternoon, but there was
+a deadly chill in the long shadows which increased with
+the swing of the lowering sun.</p>
+
+<p>A life-sapping draught, which sealed the eyes and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span>
+bleached the nose, still hissed over the frozen sea. We
+had hoped that this would soften with the midday sun.
+Instead, it came with a more cutting sharpness. In the
+teeth of the wind we persistently pursued a course
+slightly west of north. The wind was slightly north of
+west. It struck us at a painful angle and brought
+tears. Our moistened lashes quickly froze together as
+we winked, and when we rubbed them and drew apart
+the lids the icicles broke the tender skin. Our breath
+froze on our faces. Often we had to pause, uncover
+our hands and apply the warm palms to the face before
+it was possible to see.</p>
+
+<p>Every minute thus lost filled me with impatience
+and dismay. Minutes of traveling were as precious as
+bits of gold to a hoarding miser.</p>
+
+<p>In the course of a brief time our noses became
+tipped with a white skin and also required nursing. My
+entire face was now surrounded with ice, but there was
+no help for it. If we were to succeed the face must be
+bared to the cut of the elements. So we must suffer.
+We continued, urging the dogs and struggling with the
+wind just as a drowning man fights for life in a storm
+at sea.</p>
+
+<p>About six o'clock, as the sun crossed the west, we
+reached a line of high-pressure ridges. Beyond these
+the ice was cut into smaller floes and thrown together
+into ugly irregularities. According to my surmises, an
+active pack and troubled seas could not be far away.
+The water-sky widened, but became less sharply defined.</p>
+
+<p>We laboriously picked a way among hummocks and
+pressure lines which seemed impossible from a distance.
+Our dogs panted with the strain; my limbs ached. In a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span>
+few hours we arrived at the summit of an unusual uplift
+of ice blocks. Looking ahead, my heart pained as if in
+the grip of an iron hand. My hopes sank within me.
+Twisting snake-like between the white field, and separating
+the packs, was a tremendous cut several miles
+wide, which seemed at the time to bar all further progress.
+It was the Big Lead, that great river separating
+the land-adhering ice from the vast grinding fields of
+the central pack beyond, at which many heroic men before
+me had stopped. I felt the dismay and heartsickness
+of all of them within me now. The wind, blowing
+with a vengeful wickedness, laughed sardonically in my
+ears.</p>
+
+<p>Of course we had our folding canvas boat on the
+sleds. But in this temperature of 48&deg; below zero I knew
+no craft could be lowered into water without fatal results.
+All of the ice about was firmly cemented together,
+and over it we made our way toward the edge of the
+water line.</p>
+
+<p>Passing through pressure lines, over smaller and
+more troublesome fields, we reached the shores of the
+Big Lead. We had, by two encouraging marches, covered
+fifty miles. The first hundred miles of our journey
+on the Polar pack had been covered. The Pole was
+four hundred miles beyond!</p>
+
+<p>Camp was pitched on a secure old ice field. Cutting
+through huge ice cliffs, the dark crack seemed like
+a long river winding between palisades of blue crystal.
+A thin sheet of ice had already spread over the mysterious
+deep. On its ebony mirrored surface a profusion of
+fantastic frost crystals arranged themselves in bunches
+resembling white and saffron-colored flowers.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Through the apertures of this young ice dark
+vapors rose like steam through a screen of porous fabrics
+and fell in feathers of snow along the sparkling shores.
+After partaking of a boulder of pemmican, E-tuk-i-shook
+went east and I west to examine the lead of water
+for a safe crossing. There were several narrow places,
+while here and there floes which had been adrift in the
+lead were now fixed by young ice. Ah-we-lah remained
+behind to make our snowhouse comfortable.</p>
+
+<p>For a long time this huge separation in the pack
+had been a mystery to me. At first sight there seemed
+to be no good reason for its existence. Peary had found
+a similar break north of Robeson Channel. It was
+likely that what we saw was an extension of the same,
+following at a distance the general trend of the northernmost
+land extension.</p>
+
+<p>This is precisely what one finds on a smaller scale
+when two ice packs come together. Here the pack of
+the central polar sea meets the land-adhering ice.
+The movement of the land pack is intermittent and
+usually along the coast. The shallows, grounded ice
+and projecting points interfere with a steady drift. The
+movement of the central pack is quite constant, in
+almost every direction, the tides, currents and winds
+each giving momentum to the floating mass. The lead
+is thus the breaking line between the two bodies of ice.
+It widens as the pack separates, and narrows or widens
+with an easterly or westerly drift, according to the
+pressure of the central pack. Early in the season, when
+the pack is crevassed and not elastic, it is probably wide;
+later, as the entire sea of ice becomes active, it may disappear
+or shift to a line nearer the land.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In low temperature new ice forms rapidly. This
+offers an obstruction to the drift of the old ice. As the
+heavy central pack is pressed against the unyielding
+land pack the small ice is ground to splinters, and even
+heavy floes are crushed. This reduced mass of small
+ice is pasted and cemented along the shores of the Big
+Lead, leaving a broad band of troublesome surface as
+a serious barrier to sled travel. It seems quite probable
+that this lead, or a condition similar to it, extends entirely
+around the Polar sea as a buffer between the land
+and the middle pack.</p>
+
+<p>In exploring the shore line, a partially bridged
+place was found about a mile from camp, but the young
+ice was too elastic for a safe track. The temperature,
+however, fell rapidly with the setting sun, and the wind
+was just strong enough to sweep off the heated vapors.
+I knew better atmospheric condition could not be
+afforded quickly to thicken the young ice.</p>
+
+<p>Returning to camp that night, we surprised our
+stomachs by a little frozen musk ox tenderloin and
+tallow, the greatest delicacy in our possession. Then
+we retired. Ice was our pillow. Ice was our bed. A
+dome of snow above us held off the descending liquid air
+of frost. Outside the wind moaned. Shudderingly,
+the deep howl of the dogs rolled over the ice. Lying on
+the sheeted deep, beneath my ears I heard the noise of
+the moving, grinding, crashing pack. It sounded terrifyingly
+like a distant thunder of guns. I could not
+sleep. Sick anxiety filled me. Could we cross the
+dreadful river on the morrow? Would the ice freeze?
+Or might the black space not hopelessly widen during
+the night? I lay awake, shivering with cold. I felt<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span>
+within me the blank loneliness of the thousands of desolate
+miles about me.</p>
+
+<p>One hundred miles of the unknown had been covered;
+five hundred miles of the journey from our winter
+camp were behind us. Beyond, to the goal, lay four
+hundred unknown miles. Nothing dearly desired of
+man ever seemed so far away.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 325px;">
+<img src="images/illo_254.jpg" width="325" height="448" alt="ESKIMO TORCH" title="" />
+<span class="caption">ESKIMO TORCH</span>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 100%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CROSSING MOVING SEAS OF ICE</h2>
+
+<p class="blockquot">CROSSING THE LEAD&mdash;THE THIN ICE HEAVES LIKE A
+SHEET OF RUBBER&mdash;CREEPING FORWARD CAUTIOUSLY,
+THE TWO DANGEROUS MILES ARE COVERED&mdash;BOUNDING
+PROGRESS MADE OVER IMPROVING ICE&mdash;THE
+FIRST HURRICANE&mdash;DOGS BURIED AND FROZEN
+INTO MASSES IN DRIFTS OF SNOW&mdash;THE ICE PARTS
+THROUGH THE IGLOO&mdash;WAKING TO FIND ONE'S SELF
+FALLING INTO THE COLD SEA.</p>
+
+<h3>XV<br />
+
+<br /><span class="smcap">The First Steps Over the Grinding Central Pack</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>Ill at ease and shivering, we rose from our crystal
+berths on March 23 and peeped out of a pole-punched
+porthole. A feeble glow of mystic color came from
+everywhere at once. Outside, toward a sky of dull purple,
+columns of steam-like vapor rose from open ice
+water, resembling vapors from huge boiling cauldrons.
+We sank with chattering teeth to our cheerless beds and
+quivered with the ghostly unreality of this great vibrating
+unknown.</p>
+
+<p>Long before the suppressed incandescent night
+changed to the prism sparkle of day we were out seeking
+a way over the miles of insecure young ice separating
+us from the central pack. On our snowshoes,
+with an easy tread, spread feet and with long life lines<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span>
+tied to each other, we ventured to the opposite shores of
+that dangerous spread of young ice. Beyond, the central
+pack glittered in moving lines and color, like quicksilver
+shot with rainbow hues.</p>
+
+<p>The Big Lead was mottled and tawny colored, like
+the skin of a great constrictor. As we stood and looked
+over its broad expanse to the solid floes, two miles off,
+there came premonitions to me of impending danger.
+Would the ice bear us? If it broke, and the life line
+was not quickly jerked, our fate would almost certainly
+be sure death. Sontag, the astronomer of Dr. Hay's
+Expedition, thus lost his life. Many others have in like
+manner gone to the bottomless deep. On two occasions
+during the previous winter I had thus gone through, but
+the life line had saved me. What would be our fate
+here? But, whatever the luck, we must cross. I knew
+delay was fatal, for at any time a very light wind or a
+change in the drift might break the new ice and delay
+us long enough to set the doom of failure upon our
+entire venture.</p>
+
+<p>Every precaution was taken to safeguard our lives.
+The most important problem was to distribute the
+weight so that all of it would not be brought to bear on
+a small area. We separated our dog teams from the
+sleds, holding to long lines which were fastened about
+our bodies and also to the sleds. The sleds were hitched
+to each other by another long line.</p>
+
+<p>With bated breath and my heart thumping, I advanced
+at the end of a long line which was attached to
+the first sled, and picked my way through the crushed
+and difficult ice along shore. With the life-saving
+line fastened to each one of us, we were insured against<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span>
+possible dangers as well as forethought could provide.
+Running from sled to sled, from dog to dog, and man
+to man, it would afford a pulling chance for life should
+anyone break through the ice. It seemed unlikely that
+the ice along the entire chain would break at once, but
+its cracking under the step of one of us seemed probable.</p>
+
+<p>I knew, as I gently placed my foot upon the thin
+yellowish surface, that at any moment I might sink into
+an icy grave. Yet a spirit of bravado thrilled my heart.
+I felt the grip of danger, and also that thrill of exultation
+which accompanies its terror.</p>
+
+<p>Gently testing the ice before me with the end of
+my axe, with spread legs, on snowshoes, with long, sliding
+steps, I slowly advanced.</p>
+
+<p>A dangerous cracking sound pealed in every direction
+under my feet. The Eskimos followed. With
+every tread the thin sheet ice perceptibly sank under
+me, and waved, in small billows, like a sheet of rubber.</p>
+
+<p>Stealthily, as though we were trying to filch some
+victory, we crept forward. We rocked on the heaving
+ice as a boat on waves of water. Now and then we
+stepped upon sheets of thicker ice, and hastily went forward
+with secure footing. None of us spoke during the
+dangerous crossing. I heard distinctly the panting of
+the dogs and the patter of their feet. We covered the
+two miles safely, yet our snail-like progress seemed to
+cover many anxious years.</p>
+
+<p>I cannot describe the exultation which filled me
+when the crossing was accomplished. It seemed as
+though my goal itself were stretching toward me. I experienced
+a sense of unbounded victory. I could have
+cheered with joy. Intoxicated with it, I and my com<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span>panions
+leaped forward, new cheer quickening our steps.
+The dangers to come seemed less formidable now, and
+as we journeyed onward it was the mastering of these,
+as did our accomplishment in crossing the Big Lead,
+which gave us a daily incentive to continue our way and
+ever to apply brain and muscle to the subduing of even
+greater difficulties with zest.</p>
+
+<p>It was in doing this that the real thrill, the real
+victory&mdash;the only thrill and victory, indeed&mdash;of reaching
+the North Pole lay. The attaining of this mythical
+spot did not then, and does not now, seem in itself to
+mean anything; I did not then, and do not now, consider
+it the treasure-house of any great scientific secrets.
+The only thing to be gained from reaching the Pole, the
+triumph of it, the lesson in the accomplishment, is that
+man, by brain power and muscle energy, can subdue the
+most terrific forces of a blind nature if he is determined
+enough, courageous enough, and undauntedly persistent
+despite failure.</p>
+
+<p>On my journey northward I felt the ever constant
+presence of those who had died in trying to reach the
+goal before me. There were times when I felt a startling
+nearness to them&mdash;a sense like that one has of the proximity
+of living beings in an adjoining room. I felt the
+goad of their hopes within me; I felt the steps of their
+dead feet whenever my feet touched the ice. I felt their
+unfailing determination revive me when I was tempted
+to turn back in the days of inhuman suffering that were
+to come. I felt that I, the last man to essay this goal,
+must for them justify humanity; that I must crown three
+centuries of human effort with success.</p>
+
+<p>With the perilous Big Lead behind us, a bounding<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span>
+course was set to reach the eighty-fifth parallel on the
+ninety-seventh meridian. What little movement was
+noted on the ice had been easterly. To allow for this
+drift we aimed to keep a line slightly west of the Pole.</p>
+
+<p>We bounded northward joyously. Under our
+speeding feet the ice reverberated and rumbled with the
+echo of far-away splitting and crashing.</p>
+
+<p>The sun sank into a haze like mother-of-pearl. Our
+pathway glowed with purple and orange. We paused
+only when the pale purple blue of night darkened the
+pack.</p>
+
+<p>Starting forward in the afternoon of March 24,
+we crossed many small floes with low-pressure lines
+separated by narrow belts of new ice. Our speed increased.
+At times we could hardly keep pace with our
+dogs. The temperature rose to forty-one below zero.
+The western sky cleared slightly. Along the horizon
+remained misty appearances resembling land. This
+low-lying fog continued during our entire second hundred
+miles over the Polar basin. Under it we daily
+expected to see new land.</p>
+
+<p>But Nature did not satisfy our curiosity for a long
+time. Both Ah-we-lah and E-tuk-i-shook were sure
+of a constant nearness to land. Because of the native
+panic out of its reassuring sight, I encouraged this belief,
+as I did concerning every other possible sign of land
+further northward. I knew that only by encouraging a
+delusion of nearness to land could I urge them ever
+farther in the face of the hardships that must inevitably
+come.</p>
+
+<p>An altitude of the sun at noon on March 24 gave
+our position as latitude 83&deg; 31&#697;. The longitude was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span>
+estimated at 96&deg; 27&#697;. The land clouds of Grant Land
+were still visible. The low bank of mist in the west
+occasionally brightened. For a while I believed this to
+be an indication of Crocker Land.</p>
+
+<p>Until midday I took observations and endeavored
+to study the appearances of land. Our dogs sniffed the
+air as if scenting game. After a diligent search, one
+seal blow-hole was located, and later we saw an old bear
+track. No alg&aelig; or other small life was detected in the
+water between the ice crevices. At the Big Lead a few
+alg&aelig; had been gathered. But here the sea seemed
+sterile. Signs of seal and bear, however, were encouraging
+to us as possible future food supply. In returning,
+I calculated the season would be more advanced,
+and it was possible that life might move northward, thus
+permitting an extension of the time allowance of our
+rations.</p>
+
+<p>Although the heat of the sun was barely felt, its
+rays began to pierce our eyes with painful effects. Reflected
+from the spotless surface of the storm-driven
+snows, the bright light could not long be endured without
+some protection, even by the Eskimos. Now came
+the time to test a simple expedient that had occurred to
+me at Annoatok. Amber-colored goggles, darkened or
+smoked glasses and ordinary automobile goggles had all
+been tried with indifferent results. They failed for one
+reason or another, mostly because of an insufficient
+range of vision or because of a faulty construction that
+made it impossible to proceed more than a few minutes
+without removing the accumulated condensation within
+them. At Annoatok I had made amber-colored goggles
+from the glass of my photographic supplies. By<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span>
+adjusting them I soon found they were a priceless discovery.
+They entirely eliminated one of the greatest
+torments of Arctic travel.</p>
+
+<p>While effectually screening the active rays that
+would have injured the eye, these amber glasses at the
+same time possessed the inestimable advantage of not
+interfering with the range of vision.</p>
+
+<p>Relieved of the snow glare, the eye was better enabled
+to see distant objects than through field glasses.
+It is frequently extremely difficult to detect icy surface
+irregularities on cloudy days. The amber glass dispelled
+this trouble perfectly, enabling the eye to search
+carefully every nook and crevice through the vague incandescence
+which blinds the observer in hazy weather.
+The glasses did not reduce the <i>quantity</i> of light, as do
+smoked glasses, but the <i>quality</i>; the actinic rays, which
+do the greatest harm, were eliminated. We were not
+only relieved of the pain and fatigue of eye strain, but
+the color imparted a touch of cheer and warmth to our
+chilled blue horizon. The usual snow goggles add to
+the ugly gray-blue of the frozen seas, which alone sends
+frosty waves through the nervous fibers.</p>
+
+<p>So thoroughly delighted were we with these goggles
+that later we wore them even in igloos while asleep, with
+the double object of screening the strong light which
+passes through the eyelids and of keeping the forehead
+warm.</p>
+
+<p>On our march in the early part of the afternoon of
+the 24th the weather proved good. The ice, though
+newly crevassed, improved as we advanced. The late
+start spread our day's work close to the chill of midnight.
+When we started the wind blew kindly. With<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span>
+glad hearts we forged forward without delays. On the
+ice I heard the soft patter of swift dog feet and the dashing,
+cutting progress of the sleds. As a scene viewed
+from a carousel, the field of ice swept around me in our
+dizzy, twisting progress. We swept resistlessly onward
+for twenty-three miles. As we had taken a zigzag
+course to follow smooth ice, I therefore recorded only
+eighteen miles to our credit.</p>
+
+<p>The night was beautiful. The sun sank into a purple
+haze. Soon, in the magic of the atmosphere,
+appeared three suns of prismatic colors. These settled
+slowly into the frozen sea and disappeared behind that
+persistent haze of obscuring mist which always rests over
+the pack when the sun is low. During the night a narrow
+band of orange was flung like a ribbon across the
+northern skies. The pack surface glowed with varying
+shades of violet, lilac and pale purplish blue. Many
+such splendid sights are to be constantly seen in the
+Arctic. Although I reveled in it now, the time was
+soon to come when weariness and hunger numbed my
+faculties into a dreary torpor in which the splendor was
+not seen.</p>
+
+<p>Signs appeared of a gale from the west before we
+were quite ready to camp. Little sooty clouds with
+ragged edges suddenly began to cover the sky, scurrying
+at an alarming pace. Beyond us a huge smoky volume
+of cloud blackened the pearly glitter.</p>
+
+<p>Suitable camping ice was sought. In the course of
+an hour we built an igloo. We made the structure
+stronger than usual on account of the threatening storm.
+We constructed double tiers of snow blocks to the windward.
+A little water was thrown over the top to cement<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span>
+the blocks. We fastened the dogs to the lee of hummocks.
+The sleds were securely lashed and fastened to
+the ice.</p>
+
+<p>We expected a hurricane, and had not to wait to
+taste its fury. Before we were at rest in our bags the
+wind lashed the snows with a force inconceivable. With
+rushing drift, the air thickened. Dogs and sleds in a
+few minutes were buried under banks of snow and great
+drifts encircled the igloo. The cemented blocks of our
+dome withstood the sweep of the blast well. Yet, now
+and then, small holes were burrowed through the snow
+wall by the sharp wind. Drift entered and covered us.
+I lay awake for hours. I felt the terrible oppression of
+that raging, life-sucking vampire force sweeping over
+the desolate world. Disembodied things&mdash;the souls of
+those, perhaps, who had perished here&mdash;seemed frenziedly
+calling me in the wind. I felt under me the surge
+of the sweeping, awful sea. I felt the desolation of this
+stormy world within my shuddering soul; but, withal, I
+throbbed with a determination to assert the supremacy
+of living man over these blind, insensate forces; to prove
+that the living brain and palpitating muscle of a finite
+though conscious creature could vanquish a hostile
+Nature which creates to kill. I burned to justify those
+who had died here; to fulfill by proxy their hopes; to
+set their calling souls at rest. The storm waked in me
+an angry, challenging determination.</p>
+
+<p>Early in the morning of the 25th the storm ceased
+as suddenly as it had come. A stillness followed which
+was appalling. It seemed as if the storm had heard my
+thoughts and paused to contemplate some more dreadful
+onslaught. The dogs began to howl desperately, as if<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span>
+attacked by a bear. We rushed out of our igloo, seeking
+guns. There was no approaching creature. It
+was, however, a signal of serious distress that we had
+heard. The dogs were in acute misery. The storm-driven
+snows had buried and bound them in unyielding
+ice. They had partly uncovered themselves. United
+by trace and harness, they were imprisoned in frozen
+masses. Few of them could even rise and stretch. They
+were in severe torment.</p>
+
+<p>We hurriedly freed their traces and beat the
+cemented snows from their furs with sticks. Released,
+they leaped about gladly, their cries, curling tails and
+pointed noses telling of gratitude. While we danced
+about, stretching our limbs and rubbing our hands to get
+up circulation, the sun rose over the northern blue, flushing
+the newly driven snows with warm tones. The temperature
+during the storm had risen to only 26&deg; below,
+but soon the thermometer sank rapidly below 40&deg;. The
+west was still smoky and the weather did not seem quite
+settled. As it was still too early to start, we again
+slipped into the bags and sought quiet slumber.</p>
+
+<p>As yet the dreadful insomnia which was to rob me
+of rest on my journey had not come, and I slept with the
+blissful soundness of a child. I must have been asleep
+several hours, when, of a sudden, I opened my eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Terror gripped my heart. Loud explosive noises
+reverberated under my head. It seemed as though
+bombs were torn asunder in the depths of the cold sea
+beneath me. I lay still, wondering if I were dreaming.
+The sounds echoingly died away. Looking about the
+igloo, I detected nothing unusual. I saw Ah-we-lah
+and E-tuk-i-shook staring at me with wide-open fright<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span>ened
+eyes. I arose and peeped through the eye port.
+The fields of ice without reflected the warm light of the
+rising sun in running waves of tawny color. The ice
+was undisturbed. An unearthly quiet prevailed. Concluding
+that the ice was merely cracking under the sudden
+change of temperature, in quite the usual harmless
+manner, I turned over again, reassuring my companions,
+and promptly fell asleep.</p>
+
+<p>Out of the blankness of sleep I suddenly wakened
+again. Half-dazed, I heard beneath me a series of
+echoing, thundering noises. I felt the ice floor on which
+I lay quivering. I experienced the sudden giddiness
+one feels on a tossing ship at sea. In the flash of a second
+I saw Ah-we-lah leap to his feet. In the same dizzy
+instant I saw the dome of the snowhouse open above me;
+I caught a vision of the gold-streaked sky. My instinct
+at the moment was to leap. I think I tried to rise, when
+suddenly everything seemed lifted from under me; I experienced
+the suffocating sense of falling, and next, with
+a spasm of indescribable horror, felt about my body a
+terrific tightening pressure like that of a chilled and closing
+shell of steel, driving the life and breath from me.</p>
+
+<p>In an instant it was clear what had happened. A
+crevasse had suddenly opened through our igloo,
+directly under the spot whereon I slept; and I, a helpless
+creature in a sleeping bag, with tumbling snow blocks
+and ice and snow crashing about and crushing me, with
+the temperature 48&deg; below zero, was floundering in the
+opening sea!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 100%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span></p>
+<h2>LAND DISCOVERED</h2>
+
+<p class="blockquot">FIGHTING PROGRESS THROUGH CUTTING COLD AND TERRIFIC
+STORMS&mdash;LIFE BECOMES A MONOTONOUS ROUTINE
+OF HARDSHIP&mdash;THE POLE INSPIRES WITH ITS
+RESISTLESS LURE&mdash;NEW LAND DISCOVERED BEYOND
+THE EIGHTY-FOURTH PARALLEL&mdash;MORE THAN TWO
+HUNDRED MILES FROM SVARTEVOEG&mdash;THE FIRST SIX
+HUNDRED MILES COVERED</p>
+
+<h3>XVI<br />
+
+<br /><span class="smcap">Three Hundred Miles to the Apex of the World</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>I think I was about to swoon when I felt hands
+beneath my armpits and heard laughter in my ears.
+With an adroitness such as only these natives possess,
+my two companions were dragging me from the water.
+And while I lay panting on the ice, recovering
+from my fright, I saw them expeditiously rescue our
+possessions.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed that all this happened so quickly that
+I had really been in the water only a few moments. My
+two companions saw the humor of the episode and
+laughed heartily. Although I had been in the water
+only a brief time, a sheet of ice surrounded my sleeping
+bag. Fortunately, however, the reindeer skin was
+found to be quite dry when the ice was beaten off. The
+experience, while momentarily terrifying, was instruc<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span>tive,
+for it taught us the danger of spreading ice, especially
+in calms following storms.</p>
+
+<p>Gratitude filled my heart. I fully realized how
+narrow had been the escape of all of us. Had we slept
+a few seconds longer we should all have disappeared in
+the opening crevasse. The hungry Northland would
+again have claimed its human sacrifice.</p>
+
+<p>The ice about was much disturbed. Numerous
+black lines of water opened on every side; from these
+oozed jets of frosty, smoke-colored vapor. The difference
+between the temperature of the sea and that of the
+air was 76&deg;. With this contrast, the open spots of ice-water
+appeared to be boiling.</p>
+
+<p>Anxious to move along, away from the troubled
+angle of ice, our usual breakfast was simplified. Melting
+some snow, we drank the icy liquid as an eye-opener,
+and began our ration of a half-pound boulder of pemmican.
+But with cold fingers, blue lips and no possible
+shelter, the stuff was unusually hard. To warm up, we
+prepared the sleds. Under our lashes the dogs jumped
+into harness with a bound. The pemmican, which we
+really found too hard to eat, had to be first broken into
+pieces with an axe. We ground it slowly with our
+molars as we trudged along. Our teeth chattered while
+the stomach was thus being fired with durable fuel.</p>
+
+<p>As we advanced the ice improved to some extent.
+With a little search safe crossings were found over new
+crevices. A strong westerly wind blew piercingly cold.</p>
+
+<p>Good progress was made, but we did not forget at
+any time that we were invading the forbidden domains
+of a new polar environment.</p>
+
+<p>Henceforth, one day was to be much like another.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span>
+Beyond the eighty-third parallel life is devoid of any
+pleasure. The intense objective impressions of cold
+and hunger assailing the body rob even the mind of inspiration
+and exhilaration. Even the best day of sun
+and gentle wind offers no balm.</p>
+
+<p>One awakes realizing the wind has abated and sees
+the cheerless sun veering about the side of the ice shelter.
+One kicks the victim upon whom, that morning, duty has
+fixed the misfortune to be up first&mdash;for we tried to be
+equals in sharing the burdens of life. And upon him
+to whose lot falls this hardship there is a loss of two
+hours' repose. He chops ice, fills the kettles, lights
+the fire, and probably freezes his fingers in doing so.
+Then he wiggles back into his bag, warms his icy hands
+on the bare skin of his own stomach; or, if he is in a two-man
+bag, and the other fellow is awake, Arctic courtesy
+permits the icy hands on the stomach of his bedfellow.</p>
+
+<p>In due time the blood runs to the hand and he sets
+about tidying up the camp. First, the hood of his own
+bag. It is loaded with icicles and frost, the result of
+the freezing of his breath while asleep. He brushes off
+the ice and snow. The ice has settled in the kettles in
+the meantime. More ice must be chopped and put into
+the kettle. The chances are that he now breaks a
+commandment and steals what to us is a great luxury&mdash;a
+long drink of water to ease his parched throat. Because
+of the need of fuel economy, limit is placed on
+drinks.</p>
+
+<p>Then the fire needs attention; the flame is imperfect
+and the gas hole needs cleaning. He thoughtlessly
+grips the little bit of metal to the end of which the priming
+needle is attached. That metal is so cold that it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span>
+burns, and he leaves a piece of his skin on it. Then
+the breakfast ration of pemmican must be divided. It
+is not frozen, for it contains no water. But it is hard.
+The stuff looks like granite. Heat would melt it&mdash;but
+there is no fuel to spare. The two slumberers
+are given a thump, and their eyes open to the stone-like
+pemmican. Between yawns the teeth are set to grind
+the pemmican. The water boils, the tea is tossed in it
+and the kettle is removed.</p>
+
+<p>We rise on elbows, still in the bags, to enjoy the
+one heavenly treat of our lives, the cup of tea which
+warms the hand and the stomach at once.</p>
+
+<p>Then we dress. It is remarkable how cold compels
+speed in dressing.</p>
+
+<p>The door of the snowhouse is now kicked out&mdash;all
+tumble about to warm up and stop chattering teeth.
+Breaking camp is a matter of but a minute, for things
+fall almost automatically into convenient packs. The
+sledges are loaded and lashed in a few minutes. Then
+the teams are gathered to the pulling lines, and off we
+go with a run. The pace for dog and man is two and a
+half miles an hour, over good ice or bad ice, hard snow
+or soft snow, or tumbling over neckbreaking irregularities.
+There is no stop for lunch, no riding, or rest, or
+anything else. It is drive&mdash;drive.</p>
+
+<p>At times it was impossible to perspire, and the toxin
+of fatigue, generating unearthly weariness, filled the
+brain with fag. When perspiration oozed from our
+pores, as we forced forward, step by step, it froze in the
+garments and the warmer portions of our bodies were
+ringed with snow. Daily, unremittingly, this was our
+agony.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In starting before the end of the winter night, and
+camping on the open ice fields in the long northward
+march, we had first accustomed our eyes to frigid darkness
+and then to a perpetual glitter. This proved to be
+the coldest season of the year, and we ought to have
+been hardened to all kinds of Arctic torment. But man
+gains that advantage only when his pulse ceases to beat.</p>
+
+<p>Continuing the steady stride of forward marches,
+far from land, far from life, there was nothing to arouse
+a warming spirit. Along the land there had been calms
+and gales and an inspiring contrast, even in the dark
+days and nights, but here the frigid world was felt at its
+worst. The wind, which came persistently from the
+west&mdash;now strong, now feeble, but always sharp&mdash;inflicted
+a pain to which we never became accustomed.</p>
+
+<p>The worst torture inflicted by the wind and humid
+air of an Arctic pack came from a mask of ice about the
+face. It was absurdly picturesque but painful. Every
+bit of exhaled moisture condensed and froze either to
+the facial hair or to the line of fox tails about the hood.
+It made comical caricatures of us.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 544px;">
+<img src="images/illo_271.jpg" width="544" height="800" alt="BRADLEY LAND DISCOVERED
+
+SUBMERGED ISLAND OF POLAR SEA
+
+GOING BEYOND THE BOUNDS OF LIFE" title="" />
+<span class="caption">BRADLEY LAND DISCOVERED<br />
+
+SUBMERGED ISLAND OF POLAR SEA<br />
+
+GOING BEYOND THE BOUNDS OF LIFE</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Frequent turns in our course exposed both sides of
+the face to the wind and covered with icicles every hair
+offering a convenient nucleus. These lines of crystal
+made an amazing dash of light and color as we looked at
+each other. But they did not afford much amusement
+to the individual exhibiting them. Such hairs as had
+not been pulled from the lips and chin were first
+weighted, and then the wind carried the breath to the
+long hair with which we protected our heads, and left a
+mass of dangling frost. Accumulated moisture from
+the eyes coated the eyelashes and brows. The humidity
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span>
+escaping about the forehead left a crescent of snow
+above, while that escaping under the chin, combined with
+falling breath, formed there a semi-circle of ice. The
+most uncomfortable icicles, however, were those that
+formed on the coarse hair within the nostrils. To keep
+the face free, the Eskimos pull the facial hair out by the
+roots, the result of which is a rarity of mustaches and
+beards. Thus, with low temperature and persistent
+winds, life was one of constant torture on the march;
+but cooped in snowhouses, eating dried beef and tallow,
+and drinking hot tea, some animal comforts were occasionally
+to be gained in the icy camps.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 531px;">
+<img src="images/illo_272.jpg" width="531" height="800" alt="SWIFT PROGRESS OVER SMOOTH ICE
+
+BUILDING AN IGLOO
+
+A LIFELESS WORLD OF COLD AND ICE" title="" />
+<span class="caption">SWIFT PROGRESS OVER SMOOTH ICE<br />
+
+BUILDING AN IGLOO<br />
+
+A LIFELESS WORLD OF COLD AND ICE</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>We forced the dogs onward during two days of
+cheery bluster, with encouraging results. At times we
+ran before the teams, calling and urging the brutes to
+leaping progress. On the evening of March 26, with
+a pedometer and other methods of dead reckoning for
+position, we found ourselves at latitude 84&deg; 24&#697;, longitude
+96&deg; 53&#697;.</p>
+
+<p>The western horizon remained persistently dark.
+A storm was gathering, and slowly moving eastward.
+Late in the evening we prepared for the anticipated
+blast. We built an igloo stronger than usual, hoping
+that the horizon would be cleared with a brisk wind by
+the morrow and afford us a day of rest. The long, steady
+marches, without time for recuperation, necessarily
+dampened our enthusiasm for a brief period of physical
+depression, which, however, was of short duration.</p>
+
+<p>Daily we had learned to appreciate more and more
+the joy of the sleeping bag. It was the only animal
+comfort which afforded a relief to our life of frigid
+hardship, and often with the thought of it we tried to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span>
+force upon the weary body in the long marches a pleasing
+anticipation.</p>
+
+<p>In the evening, after blocks of snow walled a dome
+in which we could breathe quiet air, the blue-flame lamp
+sang notes of gastronomic delights. We first indulged in
+a heaven-given drink of ice-water to quench the intense
+thirst which comes after hours of exertion and perspiration.
+Then the process of undressing began, one at
+a time, for there was not room enough in the igloo for
+all to undress at once.</p>
+
+<p>The fur-stuffed boots were pulled off and the bearskin
+pants were stripped. Then half of the body was
+quickly pushed into the bag. A brick of pemmican was
+next taken out and the teeth were set to grind on this
+bone-like substance. Our appetites were always keen,
+but a half pound of cold withered beef and tallow
+changes a hungry man's thoughts effectually.</p>
+
+<p>The tea, an hour in making, was always welcome,
+and we rose on elbows to take it. Under the influence
+of the warm drink, the fur coat with its mask of ice was
+removed. Next the shirt, with its ring of ice about the
+waist, would come off, giving the last sense of shivering.
+Pushing the body farther into the bag, the hood was
+pulled over the face, and we were lost to the world
+of ice.</p>
+
+<p>The warm sense of mental and physical pleasure
+which follows is an interesting study. The movement of
+others, the sting of the air, the noise of torturing winds,
+the blinding rays of a heatless sun, the pains of driving
+snows and all the bitter elements are absent. One's
+mind, freed of anxiety and suffering, wanders to home
+and better times under these peculiar circumstances;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span>
+there comes a pleasurable sensation in the touch of one's
+own warm skin, while the companionship of the arms
+and legs, freed from their cumbersome furs, makes a
+new discovery in the art of getting next to one's self.</p>
+
+<p>Early on March 27, a half gale was blowing, but at
+noon the wind ceased. The bright sun and rising temperature
+were too tempting to let us remain quiescent.
+Although the west was still dark with threatening
+clouds we hitched the dogs to the sleds. We braced
+ourselves. "Huk! Huk!" we called, and bounded away
+among the wind-swept hummocks. The crevices of the
+ice wound like writhing snakes as we raced on. We
+had not gone many miles before the first rush of the
+storm struck us. Throwing ourselves over the sleds, we
+waited the passing of the icy blast. No suitable snow
+with which to begin the erection of a shelter was near.
+A few miles northward, as we saw, was a promising area
+for a camp. This we hoped to reach after a few
+moments' rest. The squall soon spent its force. In
+the wind which followed good progress was made without
+suffering severely. The temperature was 41&deg; below
+zero, Fahrenheit, and the barometer 29.05.</p>
+
+<p>Once in moving order, the drivers required very
+little encouragement to prolong the effort to a fair day's
+march despite the weather. As the sun settled in the
+western gloom the wind increased in fury and forced
+us to camp. Before the igloo was finished a steady,
+rasping wind brushed the hummocks and piled the snow
+in large dunes about us, like the sand of home shores.</p>
+
+<p>The snowhouse was not cemented as usual with
+water, as was our custom when weather permitted. The
+tone of the wind did not seem to indicate danger, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span>
+furthermore, there was no open sea water near. Because
+of the need of fuel economy we did not deem it
+prudent to use oil for fire to melt snow, excepting for
+water to quench thirst.</p>
+
+<p>Not particularly anxious about the outcome of the
+storm, and with senses blunted by overwork and benumbed
+with cold, we sought the comfort of the bags.
+Awakened in the course of a few hours by drifts of
+snow about our feet, I noted that the wind had burrowed
+holes at weak spots through the snow wall. We were
+bound, however, not to be cheated of a few hours' sleep,
+and with one eye open we turned over. I was awakened
+by falling snow blocks soon after.</p>
+
+<p>Forcing my head out of my ice-encased fur hood,
+I saw the sky, cloud-swept and grey. The dome of the
+igloo had been swept away. We were being quickly
+buried under a dangerous weight of snow. In some way
+I had tossed about sufficiently during sleep to keep on
+top of the accumulating drift, but my companions were
+nowhere to be seen. About me for miles the white
+spaces were vacant. With dread in my heart I uttered a
+loud call, but there came no response.</p>
+
+<p>A short frenzied search revealed a blowhole in the
+snow. In response to another call, as from some subterranean
+place came muffled Eskimo shouts. Tearing
+and burrowing at the fallen snow blocks I made violent
+efforts to free them, buried as they were in their bags.
+But to my dismay the soft snow settled on them tighter
+with each tussle.</p>
+
+<p>I was surprised, a few moments later, as I was
+working to keep their breathing place open, to feel them
+burrowing through the snow. They had entered their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span>
+bags without undressing. Half clothed in shirt and
+pants, but with bare feet, they writhed and wriggled
+through the bags and up through the breathing hole.</p>
+
+<p>After a little digging their boots were uncovered,
+and then, with protected feet, the bag was freed and
+placed at the side of the igloo.</p>
+
+<p>Into it the boys crept, fully dressed, with the exception
+of coats. I rolled out beside them in my bag. We
+lay in the open sweep of furious wind, impotent to
+move, for twenty-nine hours. Only then the frigid blast
+eased enough to enable us to creep out into the open.
+The air came in hissing spouts, like jets of steam from
+an engine.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after noon of March 29 the air brightened.
+It became possible to breathe without being choked
+with floating crystals, and as the ice about our facial
+furs was broken, a little blue patch was detected in the
+west. We now freed the dogs of their snow entanglement
+and fed them. A shelter was made in which to
+melt snow and brew tea. We ate a double ration.</p>
+
+<p>Hitching the dogs we raced off. The monotonous
+fields of snow swept under us. Soon the sun burst
+through separating clouds and upraised icy spires before
+us. The wind died away. A crystal glory transfigured
+the storm-swept fields. We seemed traveling
+over fields of diamonds, scintillant as white fire, which
+shimmered dazzlingly about us. It is curious to observe
+an intense fiery glitter and glow, as in the North, which
+gives absolutely no impression of warmth. Fire here
+seems cold. With full stomachs, fair weather and a much
+needed rest, we moved with renewed inspiration. The
+dogs ran with tails erect, ears pricked. I and my com<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span>panions
+ran behind with the joy of contestants in a race.
+Indeed, we felt refreshed as one does after a cold bath.</p>
+
+<p>Considerable time and distance, however, were lost
+in seeking a workable line of travel about obstructions
+and making detours. Camping at midnight, we had
+made only nine miles by a day's effort. The conditions
+under which this second hundred miles were forced,
+proved to be in every respect the most exciting of the
+run of five hundred miles over the Polar sea. The mere
+human satisfaction of overcoming difficulties was a daily
+incentive to surmount obstacles and meet baffling
+problems. The weather was unsettled. Sudden storms
+broke with spasmodic force, the barometer was unsteady
+and the temperature ranged from 20&deg; below zero to 60&deg;
+below zero. The ice showed signs of recent agitation.</p>
+
+<p>New leads and recent sheets of new ice combined
+with deep snow made travel difficult. Persistently onward,
+pausing at times, we would urge the dogs to the
+limit. One dog after another went into the stomachs
+of the hungry survivors. Camps were now swept by
+storms. The ice opened out under our bodies, shelter
+was often a mere hole in the snow bank. Each of us
+carried painful wounds, frost bites; and the ever chronic
+emptiness of half filled stomachs brought a gastric call
+for food, impossible to supply. Hard work and strong
+winds sent unquenched thirst tortures to burning throats,
+and the gloom of ever clouded skies sent despair to its
+lowest reaches.</p>
+
+<p>But there was no monotony; our tortures came
+from different angles, and from so many sources, that
+we were ever aroused to a fighting spirit. With a push
+at the sled or a pull at the line we helped the wind-teased<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span>
+dogs to face the nose cutting drift that swept the pack
+mile after mile. Day after day we plunged farther and
+farther along into the icy despair and stormy bluster.</p>
+
+<p>Throughout the entire advance northward I found
+there was some advantage in my Eskimo companions
+having some slight comprehension of the meaning of
+my aim. Doubtless through information and ideas that
+had sifted from explorers to Eskimos for many generations
+past, the aborigines had come to understand that
+there is a point at the top of the globe, which is somehow
+the very top of the world, and that at this summit
+there is something which white men have long been
+anxious to find&mdash;a something which the Eskimo describe
+as the "big nail." The feeling that they were setting
+out with me in the hope of being the first to find this
+"big nail"&mdash;for, of course, I had told them of the possibility&mdash;helped
+to keep up the interest and courage of
+my two companions during long days of hardship.</p>
+
+<p>Naturally enough, I could not expect their interest
+in the Pole itself to be great. Their promised reward
+for accompanying me, a gun and knife for each, maintained
+a lively interest in them. After a ceaseless warfare
+lasting seven days, on March 30 the eastern sky
+broke in lines of cheering blue. Whipped by low winds
+the clouds broke and scurried.</p>
+
+<p>Soon the western heavens, ever a blank mystery,
+cleared. Under it, to my surprise, lay a new land. I
+think I felt a thrill such as Columbus must have felt
+when the first green vision of America loomed before
+his eye.</p>
+
+<p>My promise to the good, trusty boys of nearness to
+land was unwittingly on my part made good, and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span>
+delight of eyes opened to the earth's northernmost rocks
+dispelled all the physical torture of the long run of
+storms. As well as I could see, the land seemed an interrupted
+coast extending parallel to the line of march
+for about fifty miles, far to the west. It was snow
+covered, ice-sheeted and desolate. But it was real land
+with all the sense of security solid earth can offer. To
+us that meant much, for we had been adrift in a moving
+sea of ice, at the mercy of tormenting winds. Now came,
+of course, the immediate impelling desire to set foot
+upon it, but to do so I knew would have side-tracked
+us from our direct journey to the Polar goal. In any
+case, delay was jeopardous, and, moreover, our food
+supply did not permit our taking time to inspect the
+new land.<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span>This new land was never clearly seen. A low mist,
+seemingly from open water, hid the shore line. We saw
+the upper slopes only occasionally from our point of
+observation. There were two distinct land masses. The
+most southern cape of the southern mass bore west by
+south, but still further to the south there were vague
+indications of land. The most northern cape of the
+same mass bore west by north. Above it there was a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span>
+distinct break for 15 or 20 miles, and beyond the northern
+mass extended above the eighty-fifth parallel to the
+northwest. The entire coast was at this time placed on
+our charts as having a shore line along the one hundred
+and second meridian, approximately parallel to our line
+of travel. At the time the indications suggested two
+distinct islands. Nevertheless, we saw so little of
+the land that we could not determine whether it consisted
+of islands or of a larger mainland. The lower
+coast resembled Heiberg Island, with mountains and
+high valleys. The upper coast I estimated as being
+about one thousand feet high, flat, and covered with a
+thin sheet ice. Over the land I write "Bradley Land"
+in honor of John R. Bradley, whose generous help had
+made possible the important first stage of the expedition.
+The discovery of this land gave an electric impetus
+of driving vigor at just the right moment to
+counterbalance the effect of the preceding week of
+storm and trouble.</p>
+
+<p>Although I gazed longingly and curiously at the
+land, to me the Pole was the pivot of ambition. My
+boys had not the same northward craze, but I told them
+to reach the land on our return might be possible. We<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span>
+never saw it again. This new land made a convenient
+mile-post, for from this time on the days were counted to
+and from it. A good noon sight fixed the point of observation
+to 84&deg; 50&#697;, longitude 95&deg; 36&#698;. We had forced
+beyond the second hundred miles from Svartevoeg. Before
+us remained about three hundred more miles, to
+my alluring, mysterious goal.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 640px;">
+<img src="images/illo_283.jpg" width="640" height="328" alt="ARCTIC FOX" title="" />
+<span class="caption">ARCTIC FOX</span>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 100%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span></p>
+<h2>BEYOND THE RANGE OF LIFE</h2>
+
+<p class="blockquot">WITH A NEW SPRING TO WEARY LEGS BRADLEY LAND IS
+LEFT BEHIND&mdash;FEELING THE ACHING VASTNESS OF
+THE WORLD BEFORE MAN WAS MADE&mdash;CURIOUS
+GRIMACES OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN&mdash;SUFFERINGS INCREASE&mdash;BY
+PERSISTENT AND LABORIOUS PROGRESS
+ANOTHER HUNDRED MILES IS COVERED</p>
+
+<h3>XVII<br />
+
+<br /><span class="smcap">Two Hundred Miles From The Pole</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>A curtain of mist was drawn over the new land in
+the afternoon of March 31, and, although we gazed
+westward longingly, we saw no more of it. Day after
+day we now pushed onward in desperate northward
+efforts. Strong winds and fractured, irregular ice, increased
+our difficulties. Although progress was slow
+for several days we managed to gain a fair march between
+storms during each twenty-four hours. During
+occasional spells of icy stillness mirages spread screens
+of fantasy out for our entertainment. Curious cliffs,
+odd-shaped mountains and inverted ice walls were displayed
+in attractive colors.</p>
+
+<p>Discoveries of new land seemed often made. But
+with a clearing horizon the deception was detected.</p>
+
+<p>The boys believed most of these signs to be indications
+of real land&mdash;a belief I persistently encouraged,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span>
+because it relieved them of the panic of the terror of the
+unknown.</p>
+
+<p>On April 3, the barometer remained steady and
+the thermometer sank. The weather became settled and
+fairly clear, the horizon was freed of its smoky vapors,
+the pack assumed a more permanent aspect of glittering
+color. At noon there was now a dazzling light, while
+at night the sun kissed the frozen seas behind screens
+of mouse-colored cloud and haze. At the same moment
+the upper skies flushed with the glow of color of the
+coming double-days of joy.</p>
+
+<p>As we advanced north of Bradley Land the pack
+disturbance of land-divided and land-jammed ice disappeared.
+The fields became larger and less troublesome,
+the weather improved, the temperature ranged
+from 20&deg; to 50&deg; below zero, the barometer rose and
+remained steady, the day sky cleared with increasing
+color, but a low haze blotted out much of the night glory
+which attended the dip of the nocturnal sun. With
+dogs barking and rushing before speeding sleds, we
+made swift progress. But the steady drag and monotony
+of the never changing work and scene reduced
+interest in life.</p>
+
+<p>The blankness of the mental desert which moved
+about us as we ran along was appalling. Nothing
+changed materially. The horizon moved. Our footing
+was seemingly a solid stable ice crust, which was, however,
+constantly shifting eastward. All the world on
+which we traveled was in motion. We moved, but we
+took our landscape with us.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of the day's march we were often too
+tired to build snow houses, and in sheer exhaustion we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span>
+bivouacked in the lee of hummocks. Here the overworked
+body called for sleep, but my mind refused to
+close the eyes. My boys had the advantage of sleep.
+I envied them. Anyone who has suffered from insomnia
+may be able in a small degree to gauge my
+condition when sleep became impossible. To reach the
+end of my journey became the haunting, ever-present
+goading thought of my wakeful existence.</p>
+
+<p>As I lay painfully trying to coax slumber, my mind
+worked like the wheels of a machine. Dizzily the journey
+behind repeated itself; I again crossed the Big
+Lead, again floundered in an ice-cold open sea. Dangers
+of all sorts took form to harass me. Instead of sleep, a
+delirium of anxiety and longing possessed me.</p>
+
+<p>Beyond the eighty-fourth parallel we had passed
+the bounds of visible life. Lying wakeful in that barren
+world, with my companions asleep, I felt what few men
+of cities, perhaps, ever feel&mdash;the tragic isolation of the
+human soul&mdash;a thing which, dwelt upon, must mean
+madness. I think I realized the aching vastness of the
+world after creation, before man was made.</p>
+
+<p>For many days we had not seen a suggestion of
+animated nature. There were no longer animal trails
+to indicate life; no breath spouts of seal escaped from
+the frosted bosom of the sea. Not even the microscopic
+life of the deep was longer detected under us. We were
+alone&mdash;alone in a lifeless world. We had come to this
+blank space of the earth by slow but progressive stages.
+Sailing from the bleak land of the fisher folk along
+the out-posts of civilization, the complex luxury of metropolitan
+life was lost. Beyond, in the half savage wilderness
+of Danish Greenland, we partook of a new life<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span>
+of primitive simplicity. Still farther along, in the
+Ultima Thule of the aborigines, we reverted to a prehistoric
+plane of living. Advancing beyond the haunts
+of men, we reached the noonday deadliness of a world
+without life.</p>
+
+<p>As we pushed beyond into the sterile wastes, with
+eager eyes we constantly searched the dusky plains of
+frost, but there was no speck of life to grace the purple
+run of death.<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></p>
+
+<p>During these desolate marches, my legs working
+mechanically, my mind with anguish sought some object
+upon which to fasten itself. My eyes scrutinized the
+horizon. I saw, every day, every sleeping hour, hills
+of ice, vast plains of ice, now a deadly white, now a dull
+gray, now a misty purple, sometimes shot with gold or
+gleaming with lakes of ultramarine, moving towards and
+by me, an ever-changing yet ever-monotonous panorama
+which wearied me as does the shifting of unchanging
+scenery seen from a train window. As I paced the
+weary marches, I fortunately became unconscious of
+the painful movement of my legs. Although I walked
+I had a sensation of being lifted involuntarily onward.</p>
+
+<p>The sense of covering distance gave me a dull,
+pleasurable satisfaction. Only some catastrophe, some
+sudden and overwhelming obstacle would have aroused
+me to an intense mental emotion, to a passionate despair,
+to the anguish of possible defeat.</p>
+
+<p>I was now becoming the unconscious instrument of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span>
+my ambition; almost without volition my body was being
+carried forward by a subconscious force which had
+fastened itself upon a distant goal. Sometimes the
+wagging of a dog's tail held my attention for long
+minutes; it afforded a curious play for my morbidly
+obsessed imagination. In an hour I would forget what
+I had been thinking. To-day I cannot remember the
+vague, fanciful illusions about curiously insignificant
+things which occupied my faculties in this dead world.
+The sun, however, did relieve the monotony, and created
+in the death-chilled world skies filled with elysian
+flowers and mirages of beauty undreamed of by Aladdin.</p>
+
+<p>My senses at the time, as I have said, were vaguely
+benumbed. While we traveled I heard the sound of
+the moving sledges. Their sharp steel runners cut the
+ice and divided the snow like a cleaving knife. I became
+used to the first shudder of the rasping sound. In
+the dead lulls between wind storms I would listen with
+curious attention to the soft patter of our dogs' feet.
+At times I could hear their tiny toe nails grasping at
+forward ice ridges in order to draw themselves forward,
+and, strangely&mdash;so were all my thoughts interwoven
+with my ambition&mdash;this clenching, crunching, gritty
+sound gave me a delighted sense of progress, a sense of
+ever covering distance and nearing, ever nearing the
+Pole.</p>
+
+<p>In this mid-Polar basin the ice does not readily
+separate. It is probably in motion at all times of the
+year. In this readjustment of fields following motion
+and expansion, open spaces of water appear. These,
+during most months, are quickly sheeted with new ice.</p>
+
+<p>In these troubled areas I had frequent opportuni<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span>ties
+to measure ice-thickness. From my observation I
+had come to the conclusion that ice does not freeze to
+a depth of more than twelve or fifteen feet during a
+single year. Occasionally we crossed fields fifty feet
+thick. These invariably showed signs of many years of
+surface upbuilding.</p>
+
+<p>It is very difficult to estimate the amount of submerged
+freezing after the first year's ice, but the very
+uniform thickness of Antarctic sea ice suggests that a
+limit is reached the second year, when the ice, with its
+cover of snow, is so thick that very little is added afterward
+from below.</p>
+
+<p>Increase in size after that is probably the result
+mostly of addition to the superstructure. Frequent
+falls of snow, combined with alternate melting and
+freezing in summer, and a process similar to the upbuilding
+of glacial ice, are mainly responsible for the
+growth in thickness of the ice on the Polar sea.</p>
+
+<p>The very heavy, undulating fields, which give
+character to the mid-Polar ice and escape along the east
+and west coasts of Greenland, are, therefore, mostly
+augmented from the surface.</p>
+
+<p>Continuing north, at no time was the horizon perfectly
+clear. But the weather was good enough to permit
+frequent nautical observations. Our course was
+lined on uninteresting blank sheets. There were elusive
+signs of land frequent enough to maintain an exploring
+enthusiasm, which helped me also in satisfying my
+companions. For thus they were encouraged to believe
+in a nearness to terrestrial solidity. At every breathing
+spell, when we got together for a little chat, Ah-we-lah's
+hand, with pointed finger, was directed to some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span>
+spot on the horizon or some low-lying cloud, with the
+shout of "<i>Noona?</i>" (land), to which I always replied in
+the affirmative; but, for me, the field-glasses and later
+positions dispelled the illusion.</p>
+
+<p>Man, under pressure of circumstances, will adapt
+himself to most conditions of life. To me the other-world
+environment of the Polar-pack, far from continental
+fastness, was beginning to seem quite natural.</p>
+
+<p>We forced marches day after day. We traveled
+until dogs languished or legs failed. Ice hills rose and
+fell before us. Mirages grimaced at our dashing teams
+with wondering faces. Daily the incidents and our position
+were recorded, but our adventures were promptly
+forgotten in the mental bleach of the next day's effort.</p>
+
+<p>Night was now as bright as day. By habit, we
+emerged from our igloos later and later. On the 5th
+and 6th we waited until noon before starting, to get
+observations; but, as was so often the case, when the sun
+was watched, it slipped under clouds. This late start
+brought our stopping time close to midnight, and infused
+an interest in the midnight sun; but the persistent
+haze which clouded the horizon at night when the sun
+was low denied us a glimpse of the midnight luminary.</p>
+
+<p>The night of April 7 was made notable by the
+swing of the sun at midnight, above the usual obscuring
+mist, behind which it had, during previous days, sunk
+with its night dip of splendor. For a number of nights
+it made grim faces at us in its setting. A tantalizing
+mist, drawn as a curtain over the northern sea at midnight,
+had afforded curious advantages for celestial
+staging. We were unable to determine sharply the
+advent of the midnight sun, but the colored cloud and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span>
+haze into which it nightly sank produced a spectacular
+play which interested us immensely.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes the great luminary was drawn out into
+an egg-shaped elongation with horizontal lines of color
+drawn through it. I pictured it as some splendid fire-colored
+lantern flung from the window of Heaven.
+Again, it was pressed into a basin flaming with magical
+fires, burning behind a mystic curtain of opalescent
+frosts. Blue at other times, it appeared like a huge
+vase of luminous crystal, such as might be evoked by the
+weird genii of the Orient, from which it required very
+little imagination to see purple, violet, crimson and
+multi-colored flowers springing beauteously into the sky.</p>
+
+<p>These changes took place quickly, as by magic.
+Usually the last display was of distorted faces, some
+animal, some semi-human&mdash;huge, grotesque, and curiously
+twitching countenances of clouds and fire. At
+times they appallingly resembled the hideous teeth-gnashing
+deities of China, that, with gnarled arms upraised,
+holding daggers of flame and surrounded by
+smoke, were rising toward us from beyond the horizon.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes in our northward progress these faces
+laughed, again they scowled ominously. What the
+actual configurations were I do not know; I suppose
+two men see nothing exactly alike in this topsy-turvy
+world.</p>
+
+<p>Rushing northward with forced haste, unreal
+beauties took form as if to lure us to pause. Clouds of
+steam rising from frozen seas like geysers assumed the
+aspects of huge fountains of iridescent fire. As the
+sun rose, lines of light like quicksilver quivered and
+writhed about the horizon, and in swirling, swimming<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span>
+circles closed and narrowed about us on the increasingly
+color-burned but death-chilled areas of ice over which
+we worked. Setting amid a dance of purple radiance,
+the sun, however, instead of inspiring us, filled us with
+a sick feeling of giddiness. What beauty there was in
+these spectacles was often lost upon our benumbed
+senses.</p>
+
+<p>Nowhere in the world, perhaps, are seen such
+spectacles of celestial glory. The play of light on clouds
+and ice produces the illusion of some supernatural realm.</p>
+
+<p>We had now followed the sun's northward advance&mdash;from
+its first peep, at midday, above the southern
+ice of the Polar gateway, to its sweep over the northern
+ice at midnight. From the end of the Polar night,
+late in February, to the first of the double days and the
+midnight suns, we had forced a trail through darkness
+and blood-hardening temperature, and over leg-breaking
+irregularities of an unknown world of ice, to a spot
+almost exactly two hundred miles from the Pole! To
+this point our destiny had been auspiciously protected.
+Ultimate success seemed within grasp. But we were
+not blind to the long line of desperate effort still required
+to push over the last distance.</p>
+
+<p>Now that we had the sun unmistakably at midnight,
+its new glory before us was an incentive to onward
+efforts. Previous to this the sun had been undoubtedly
+above the horizon, but, as is well known, when the sun is
+low and the atmospheric humidity is high, as it always
+is over the pack, a dense cloud of frost crystals rests on
+the ice and obscures the horizon. During the previous
+days the sun sank into this frosty haze and was lost for
+several hours.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Observations on April 8<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> placed camp at latitude
+86&deg; 36&#697;, longitude 94&deg; 2&#697;. Although we had made long
+marches and really great speed, we had advanced only
+ninety-six miles in the nine days. Much of our hard
+work had been lost in circuitous twists around troublesome
+pressure lines and high, irregular fields of very
+old ice. The drift ice was throwing us to the east with
+sufficient force to give us some anxiety, but with eyes
+closed to danger and hardships, double days of fatigue
+and double days of glitter quickly followed one another.</p>
+
+<p>Everything was now in our favor, but here we felt
+most of the accumulating effect of long torture, in a
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span>world where every element of Nature is hostile. Human
+endurance has distinct limits. Bodily abuse will long
+be counterbalanced by man's superb recuperative power,
+but sooner or later there comes a time when out-worn
+cells call a halt.</p>
+
+<p>We had lived for weeks on a steady diet of withered
+beef and tallow. There was no change, we had no hot
+meat, and never more to eat than was absolutely necessary
+to keep life within the body. We became indifferent
+to the aching vacant pain of the stomach.
+Every organ had been whipped to serve energy to the
+all important movement of our legs. The depletion of
+energy, the lassitude of overstrained limbs, manifested
+themselves. The Eskimos were lax in the swing of the
+whip and indifferent in urging on the dogs. The dogs
+displayed the same spirit by lowered tails, limp ears,
+and drooping noses, as their shoulders dragged the sleds
+farther, ever farther from the land of life.</p>
+
+<p>A light life-sapping wind came from the west. We
+battled against it. We swung our arms to fight it and
+maintain circulation, as a swimmer in water. Veering
+a little at times, it always struck the face at a piercing
+angle. It froze the tip of my nose so often that that
+feature felt like a foreign bump on my face. Our cheeks
+had in like manner been so often bleached in spots that
+the skin was covered with ugly scars. Our eyes were
+often sealed by frozen eyelashes. The tear sack made
+icicles. Every particle of breath froze as it left the
+nostrils, and coated the face in a mask of ice.</p>
+
+<p>The sun at times flamed the clouds, while the snow
+glowed in burning tones. In the presence of all this we
+suffered the chill of death. All Nature exulted in a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span>
+wave of hysteria. Delusions took form about us&mdash;in
+mirages, in the clouds. We moved in a world of
+delusions. The heat of the sun was a sham, its light a
+torment. A very curious world this, I thought dumbly,
+as we pushed our sleds and lashed our lagging dogs.
+Our footing was solid; there was no motion. Our
+horizon was lined with all the topographic features of a
+solid land scene, with mountains, valleys and plains,
+rivers of open water; but under it all there was the
+heaving of a restless sea. Although nothing visibly
+moved, it was all in motion. Seemingly a solid crust of
+earth, it imperceptibly drifts in response to every wind.
+We moved with it, but ever took our landscape with us.</p>
+
+<p>Of the danger of this movement, of the possibility
+of its hopelessly carrying us away from our goal, and
+the possibility of ultimate starvation, I never lost consciousness.
+Although the distance may seem slight,
+now that we had gone so far, the last two hundred miles
+seemed hopelessly impossible. With aching, stiffened
+legs we started our continuing marches without enthusiasm,
+with little ambition. But marches we made&mdash;distance
+leaped at times under our swift running
+feet.</p>
+
+<p>It sometimes now seems that unknown and subtle
+forces of which we are not cognizant supported me.
+I could almost believe that there were unseen beings
+there, whose voices urged me in the wailing wind; who,
+in my success, themselves sought soul peace, and who,
+that I might obtain it, in some strange, mysterious way
+succored and buoyed me.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 100%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="OVER_POLAR_SEAS_OF_MYSTERY" id="OVER_POLAR_SEAS_OF_MYSTERY"></a>OVER POLAR SEAS OF MYSTERY</h2>
+
+<p class="blockquot">THE MADDENING TORTURES OF A WORLD WHERE ICE
+WATER SEEMS HOT, AND COLD KNIVES BURN ONE'S
+HANDS&mdash;ANGUISHED PROGRESS ON THE LAST STRETCH
+OF TWO HUNDRED MILES OVER ANCHORED LAND ICE&mdash;DAYS
+OF SUFFERING AND GLOOM&mdash;THE TIME OF
+DESPAIR&mdash;"IT IS WELL TO DIE," SAYS AH-WE-LAH;
+"BEYOND IS IMPOSSIBLE."</p>
+
+<h3>XVIII<br />
+
+<br /><span class="smcap">One Hundred Miles From the Pole</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>We pushed onward. We cracked our whips to urge
+the tiring dogs. We forced to quick steps weary leg
+after weary leg. Mile after mile of ice rolled under our
+feet. The maddening influence of the shifting desert of
+frost became almost unendurable in the daily routine.
+Under the lash of duty interest was forced, while the
+merciless drive of extreme cold urged physical action.
+Our despair was mental and physical&mdash;the result of
+chronic overwork.</p>
+
+<p>Externally there was reason for rejoicing. The
+sky had cleared, the weather improved, a liquid charm
+of color poured over the strange other-world into which
+we advanced. Progress was good, but the soul refused
+to open its eyes to beauty or color. All was a lifeless<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span>
+waste. The mind, heretofore busy in directing arm and
+foot, to force a way through miniature mountains of
+uplifted floes, was now, because of better ice, relieved
+of that strain, but it refused to seek diversion.</p>
+
+<p>The normal run of hardship, although eased, now
+piled up the accumulated poison of overwork, and when
+I now think of the terrible strain I fail to see how a
+workable balance was maintained.</p>
+
+<p>As we passed the eighty-sixth parallel, the ice increased
+in breadth and thickness. Great hummocks and
+pressure lines became less frequent. A steady progress
+was gained with the most economical human drain
+possible. The temperature ranged between 36&deg; and 40&deg;
+below zero, Fahrenheit, with higher and lower midday
+and midnight extremes. Only spirit thermometers were
+useful, for the mercury was at this degree of frost either
+frozen or sluggish.</p>
+
+<p>Although the perpetual sun gave light and color to
+the cheerless waste we were not impressed with any appreciable
+sense of warmth. Indeed, the sunbeams by
+their contrast seemed to cause the frost of the air to
+pierce with a more painful sting. In marching over
+the golden glitter, snow scalded our faces, while our
+noses were bleached with frost. The sun rose into zones
+of fire and set in burning fields of ice, but, in pain, we
+breathed the chill of death.</p>
+
+<p>In camp a grip of the knife left painful burns from
+cold metal. To the frozen fingers ice cold water was
+hot. With wine-spirits the fire was lighted, while oil
+delighted the stomach. In our dreams Heaven was hot,
+the other place was cold. All Nature was false; we
+seemed to be nearing the chilled flame of a new Hades.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>We now changed our working hours from day to
+night, beginning usually at ten o'clock and ending at
+seven. The big marches and prolonged hours of travel
+with which fortune favored us earlier were no longer
+possible. Weather conditions were more important
+in determining a day's run than the hands of the
+chronometers.</p>
+
+<p>That I must steadily keep up my notes and the
+records of observations was a serious addition to my
+daily task. I never permitted myself to be careless in
+regard to this, for I never let myself forget the importance
+of such data in plotting an accurate course.</p>
+
+<p>I kept my records in small notebooks, writing very
+fine with a hard pencil on both sides of the paper. At
+the beginning of the journey I had usually set down
+the day's record by candle light, but later, when the sun
+was shining both day and night, I needed no light even
+inside the walls of the igloo, for the sunlight shone
+strongly enough through the walls of snow. Shining
+brilliantly at times, I utilized the opportunity it
+afforded, every few marches, to measure our shadows.
+The daily change marked our advance Poleward.</p>
+
+<p>When storms threatened, our start was delayed.
+In strong gales the march was shortened. But in one
+way or another we usually found a few hours in each
+turn of the dial during which a march could be forced
+between winds. It mattered little whether we traveled
+night or day&mdash;all hours and all days were alike to us&mdash;for
+we had no accustomed time to rest, no Sundays, no
+holidays, no landmarks, or mile-posts to pass.</p>
+
+<p>To advance and expend the energy accumulated
+during one sleep at the cost of one pound of pemmican<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span>
+was our sole aim in life. Day after day our legs were
+driven onward. Constantly new but similar panoramas
+rolled by us.</p>
+
+<p>Our observations on April 11, gave latitude 87&deg;
+20&#697;, longitude 95&deg; 19&#697;. The pack disturbance of the
+new land was less and less noted as we progressed in the
+northward movement. The fields became heavier,
+larger and less crevassed. Fewer troublesome old floes
+and less crushed new ice were encountered. With the
+improved conditions, the fire of a racing spirit surged
+up for a brief spell.</p>
+
+<p>We had now passed the highest reaches of all our
+predecessors. The inspiration of the Farthest North
+for a brief time thrilled me. The time was at hand,
+however, to consider seriously the possible necessity of
+an early return.</p>
+
+<p>Nearly half of the food allowance had been used.
+In the long marches supplies had been more liberally
+consumed than anticipated. Now our dog teams were
+much reduced in numbers. Because of the cruel law of
+the survival of the fittest, the less useful dogs had gone
+into the stomachs of their stronger companions. With
+the lessening of the number of dogs had come at the
+same time a reduction of the weight of the sledge loads,
+through the eating of the food. Now, owing to food
+limitations and the advancing season, we could not prudently
+continue the onward march a fortnight longer.</p>
+
+<p>We had dragged ourselves three hundred miles
+over the Polar sea in twenty-four days. Including delays
+and detours, this gave an average of nearly thirteen
+miles daily on an airline in our course. There remained
+an unknown line of one hundred and sixty miles to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span>
+Pole. The same average advance would take us to the
+Pole in thirteen days. There were food and fuel enough
+to risk this adventure. With good luck the prize seemed
+within our grasp. But a prolonged storm, a deep snowfall,
+or an active ice-pack would mean failure.</p>
+
+<p>In new cracks I measured the thickness of the ice.
+I examined the water for life. The technical details for
+the making and breaking of ice were studied, and some
+attention was given to the altitude of uplifted and submerged
+irregularities. Atmospheric, surface water and
+ice temperatures were taken, the barometer was noted,
+the cloud formations, weather conditions and ice drifts
+were tabulated. There was a continuous routine of
+work, but like the effort of the foot in the daily drive,
+it became more or less automatic.</p>
+
+<p>Running along over seemingly endless fields of ice,
+the physical appearances now came under more careful
+scrutiny. I watched daily for possible signs of failing
+in the strength of any of us, because a serious disability
+would now mean a fatal termination. A disabled
+man could neither continue nor return. Each
+new examination gave me renewed confidence and was
+another reason to push human endurance to the limit of
+straining every fibre and cell.</p>
+
+<p>As a matter of long experience I find life in this
+extreme North is healthful so long as there is sufficient
+good food, so long as exertion is not overdone. A weakling
+would easily be killed, but a strong man is
+splendidly hardened and kept in perfect physical trim
+by sledging and tramping in this germless air. But,
+as I have said, sufficient food and not too much exertion
+are requisites to full safety, and in our case we were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span>
+working to the limit, with rations running low. Still,
+the men responded superbly.</p>
+
+<p>Our tremendous exertion in forcing daily rushing
+marches, under occasional bursts of burning sunbeams,
+provoked intense thirst. Following the habit of the
+camel, we managed to take enough water before starting
+to keep sufficient liquid in the stomach and veins for
+the ensuing day's march. Yet it was painful to await
+the melting of ice at camping time.</p>
+
+<p>In two sittings, evening and morning, each of us
+took an average of three quarts of water daily. This
+included tea and also the luxury of occasional soup.
+Water was about us everywhere in heaps, but before
+the thirst could be quenched, several ounces of precious
+fuel, which had been sledged for hundreds of miles,
+must be used. And yet, this water, so expensive and so
+necessary to us, became the cause of our greatest discomfort.
+It escaped through pores of the skin, saturated
+the boots, formed a band of ice under the knee
+and a belt of frost about the waist, while the face was
+nearly always encased in a mask of icicles from the
+moist breath. We learned to take this torture philosophically.</p>
+
+<p>With our dogs bounding and tearing onward, from
+the eighty-seventh to the eighty-eighth parallel we
+passed for two days over old ice without pressure lines
+or hummocks. There was no discernible line of demarcation
+to indicate separate fields, and it was quite
+impossible to determine whether we were on land or sea
+ice. The barometer indicated no perceptible elevation,
+but the ice had the hard, wavering surface of glacial ice,
+with only superficial crevasses. The water obtained<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span>
+from this was not salty. All of the upper surface of
+old hummock and high ice of the Polar sea resolves into
+unsalted water. My nautical observations did not
+seem to indicate a drift, but nevertheless my combined
+tabulations do not warrant a positive assertion of either
+land or sea; I am inclined, however, to put this down as
+ice on low or submerged land.</p>
+
+<p>The ice presented an increasingly cheering prospect.
+A plain of purple and blue ran in easy undulations
+to the limits of vision without the usual barriers of
+uplifted blocks. Over it a direct air-line course was
+possible. Progress, however, was quite as difficult as
+over the irregular pack. The snow was crusted with
+large crystals. An increased friction reduced the sled
+speed, while the snow surface, too hard for snowshoes,
+was also too weak to give a secure footing to the unprotected
+boot. The loneliness, the monotony, the hardship
+of steady, unrelieved travel were keenly felt.</p>
+
+<p>Day after day we pushed along at a steady pace
+over plains of frost and through a mental desert. As
+the eye opened at the end of a period of shivering
+slumber, the fire was lighted little by little, the stomach
+was filled with liquids and solids, mostly cold&mdash;enough
+to last for the day, for there could be no halt or waste
+of fuel for midday feeding. We next got into harness,
+and, under the lash of duty, paced off the day's pull;
+we worked until standing became impossible.</p>
+
+<p>As a man in a dream I marched, set camp, ate and
+tried to rest. I took observations now without interest;
+under those conditions no man could take an interest
+in mathematics. Eating became a hardship, for the
+pemmican, tasteless and hard as metal, was cold. Our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span>
+feet were numb&mdash;it seemed fortunate they no longer
+even ached.</p>
+
+<p>The arduous task of building a snowhouse meant
+physical hardship. In this the eyes, no longer able to
+wink, quickly closed. Soon the empty stomach complained.
+Then the gastric wants were half served.
+With teeth dropping to the spasm of cold and skins in
+an electric wave of shivers to force animal heat, the boys
+fell to unconscious slumbers, but my lids did not easily
+close. The anxiety to succeed, the eagerness to draw
+out our food supply and the task of infusing courage
+into my savage helpers kept the mind active while the
+underfed blood filled the legs with new power.</p>
+
+<p>There was no pleasurable mental recreation to relieve
+us; there was nothing to arouse the soul from its
+icy inclosure. To eat, to sleep, endlessly to press one
+foot ahead of the other&mdash;that was all we could do. We
+were like horses driven wearily in carts, but we had not
+their advantages of an agreeable climate and a comfortable
+stable at night. Daily our marches were much
+the same. Finishing our frigid meal, we hitched the
+dogs and lashed the sleds.</p>
+
+<p>In the daily routine of our onward struggle, there
+was an inhuman strain which neither words nor pictures
+could adequately describe. The maddening influence
+of the sameness of Polar glitter, combined as it was with
+bitter winds and extreme cold and overworked bodies,
+burned our eyes and set our teeth to a chronic chattering.
+To me there was always the inspiration of ultimate
+success. But for my young savage companions,
+it was a torment almost beyond endurance. They were,
+however, brave and faithful to the bitter end, seldom<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span>
+allowing hunger or weariness or selfish ambition or
+fierce passions seriously to interfere with the effort of
+the expedition. We suffered, but we covered distance.</p>
+
+<p>On the morning of April 13, the strain of agitating
+torment reached the breaking point. For days there
+had been a steady cutting wind from the west, which
+drove despair to its lowest reaches. The west again
+blackened, to renew its soul-despairing blast. The frost-burn
+of sky color changed to a depressing gray, streaked
+with black. The snow was screened with ugly vapors.
+The path was absolutely cheerless. All this was a dire
+premonition of storm and greater torture.</p>
+
+<p>No torment could be worse than that never-ceasing
+rush of icy air. It gripped us and sapped the life from
+us. Ah-we-lah bent over his sled and refused to move.
+I walked over and stood by his side. His dogs turned
+and looked inquiringly at us. E-tuk-i-shook came near
+and stood motionless, like a man in a trance, staring
+blankly at the southern skies. Large tears fell from
+Ah-we-lah's eyes and froze in the blue of his own
+shadow. Not a word was uttered. I knew that the
+dreaded time of utter despair had come. The dogs
+looked at us, patient and silent in their misery. Silently
+in the descending gloom we all looked over the tremendous
+dead-white waste to the southward. With a tear-streaked
+and withered face, Ah-we-lah slowly said, with
+a strangely shrilling wail, "<i>Unne-sinig-po&mdash;Oo-ah-tonie
+i-o-doria&mdash;Ooh-ah-tonie i-o-doria!</i>" ("It is well to die&mdash;Beyond
+is impossible&mdash;Beyond is impossible!")</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 536px;">
+<img src="images/illo_305.jpg" width="536" height="800" alt="&quot;TOO WEARY TO BUILD IGLOOS WE USED THE SILK TENT&quot;
+&quot;ACROSS SEAS OF CRYSTAL GLORY TO THE BOREAL CENTRE&quot;" title="" />
+<span class="caption">&ldquo;TOO WEARY TO BUILD IGLOOS WE USED THE SILK TENT&rdquo;<br />
+&ldquo;ACROSS SEAS OF CRYSTAL GLORY TO THE BOREAL CENTRE&rdquo;</span>
+</div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 640px;">
+<img src="images/illo_306.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="MENDING NEAR THE POLE" title="" />
+<span class="caption">MENDING NEAR THE POLE</span>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 100%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span></p>
+<h2>TO THE POLE&mdash;THE LAST HUNDRED
+MILES</h2>
+
+<p class="blockquot">OVER PLAINS OF GOLD AND SEAS OF PALPITATING COLOR
+THE DOG TEAMS, WITH NOSES DOWN, TAILS ERECT,
+DASH SPIRITEDLY LIKE CHARIOT HORSES&mdash;CHANTING
+LOVE SONGS THE ESKIMOS FOLLOW WITH SWINGING
+STEP&mdash;TIRED EYES OPEN TO NEW GLORY&mdash;STEP BY
+STEP, WITH THUMPING HEARTS THE EARTH'S APEX
+IS NEARED&mdash;AT LAST! THE GOAL IS REACHED! THE
+STARS AND STRIPES ARE FLUNG TO THE FRIGID
+BREEZES OF THE NORTH POLE!</p>
+
+<h3>XIX<br />
+
+<br /><span class="smcap">Boreal Center is Pierced</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>I shall never forget that dismal hour. I shall never
+forget that desolate drab scene about us&mdash;those endless
+stretches of gray and dead-white ice, that drab dull sky,
+that thickening blackness in the west which entered into
+and made gray and black our souls, that ominous, eerie
+and dreadful wind, betokening a terrorizing Arctic
+storm. I shall never forget the mournful group before
+me, in itself an awful picture of despair, of man's ambition
+failing just as victory is within his grasp. Ah-we-lah,
+a thin, half-starved figure in worn furs, lay over
+his sled, limp, dispirited, broken. In my ears I can now<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span>
+hear his low sobbing words, I can see the tears on his
+yellow fissured face. I can see E-tuk-i-shook standing
+gaunt and grim, and as he gazed yearningly onward to
+the south, sighing pitifully, shudderingly for the home,
+the loved one, An-na-do-a, left behind, whom, I could
+tell, he did not expect to see again.</p>
+
+<p>It was a critical moment. Up to this time, during
+the second week of April, we had, by intense mental
+force, goaded our wearied legs onward to the limit of
+endurance. With a cutting wind in our faces, feeling
+with each step the cold more severely to the marrow of
+our bones, with our bodily energy and our bodily heat
+decreasing, we had traveled persistently, suffering intolerable
+pains with every breath. Despite increasing
+despair, I had cheered my companions as best I could;
+I had impressed upon them the constant nearing of my
+goal. I had encouraged in them the belief of nearness
+of land; each day I had gone on, fearing what had now
+come, the utter breaking of their spirits.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Unne-sinikpo-ashuka.</i>" (Yes, it is well to die.)</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Awonga-up-dow-epuksha!</i>" (Yesterday I, too,
+felt that way), I said to myself. The sudden extinction
+of consciousness, I thought, might be indeed a blessed
+relief. But as long as life persisted, as long as human
+endurance could be strained, I determined to continue.
+Desperate as was my condition, and suffering hellish
+tortures, the sight of the despair of my companions re-aroused
+me. Should we fail now, after our long endurance,
+now, when the goal was so near?</p>
+
+<p>The Pole was only one hundred miles beyond. The
+attainment seemed almost certain.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Accou-ou-o-toni-ah-younguluk</i>" (Beyond to-mor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span>row
+it will be better), I urged, trying to essay a smile.
+"<i>Igluctoo!</i>" (Cheer up!)</p>
+
+<p>Holding up one hand, with a reach Poleward,
+bending five fingers, one after the other, I tried to convey
+the idea that in five sleeps the "Big Nail" would
+be reached, and that then we would turn (pointing with
+my fingers) homeward.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Noona-me-neulia-capa&mdash;ahmisua</i>" (For home,
+sweethearts and food in abundance), I said.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Noona-terronga, neuliarongita, ootah&mdash;peterongito</i>"
+(Land is gone; loved ones are lost; signs of life
+have vanished).</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Tig-i-lay-waongacedla&mdash;nellu ikah-amisua</i>" (Return
+will I, the sky and weather I do not understand. It
+is very cold), said Ah-we-lah.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Attuda-emongwah-ka</i>" (A little farther come),
+I pleaded. "<i>Attudu-mikisungwah</i>" (Only a little
+further).</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Sukinut-nellu</i>" (The sun I do not understand),
+said E-tuk-i-shook.</p>
+
+<p>This had been a daily complaint for some days&mdash;the
+approaching equality of the length of shadows for
+night and day puzzled them. The failing night dip of
+the sun left them without a guiding line to give direction.
+They were lost in a landless, spiritless world, in which
+the sky, the weather, the sun and all was a mystery.</p>
+
+<p>I knew my companions were brave. I was certain
+of their fidelity. Could their mental despair be alleviated,
+I felt convinced they could brace themselves for
+another effort. I spoke kindly to them; I told them
+what we had accomplished, that they were good and
+brave, that their parents and their sweethearts would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span>
+be proud of them, and that as a matter of honor we
+must not now fail.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Tigishu-conitu</i>," I said. (The Pole is near.)</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Sinipa tedliman dossa-ooahtonie tomongma ah
+youngulok tigilay toy hoy.</i>" (At the end of five sleeps
+it is finished, beyond all is well, we return thereafter
+quickly.)</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Seko shudi iokpok. Sounah ha-ah!</i>" they replied.
+(On ice always is not good. The bones ache.)</p>
+
+<p>Then I said, "The ice is flat, the snow is good, the
+sky is clear, the Great Spirit is with us, the Pole is near!"</p>
+
+<p>Ah-we-lah dully nodded his head. I noticed, however,
+he wiped his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Ka-bishuckto-emongwah</i>" (Come walk a little
+further), I went on. "<i>Accou ooahtoni-ahningahna-matluk-tigilay-Inut-noona.</i>"
+(Beyond to-morrow within
+two moons we return to Eskimo lands.)</p>
+
+<p>"<i>K i s a h iglucto-tima-attahta-annona-neuliasing-wah</i>,"
+said Ah-we-lah. (At last, then it is to laugh!
+There we will meet father and mother and little wives!)</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Ashuka-alningahna-matluk</i>," I returned. (Yes,
+in two moons there will be water and meat and all in
+plenty.)</p>
+
+<p>E-tuk-i-shook gazed at me intently. His eyes
+brightened.</p>
+
+<p>As I spoke my own spirits rose to the final effort,
+my lassitude gave way to a new enthusiasm. I felt the
+fire kindling for many years aglow within me. The
+goal was near; there remained but one step to the apex
+of my ambition. I spoke hurriedly. The two sat up
+and listened. Slowly they became inspired with my
+intoxication. Never did I speak so vehemently.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>E-tuk-i-shook gripped his whip. "<i>Ka, aga</i>" (Come,
+go!) he said.</p>
+
+<p>Ah-we-lah, determined but grim, braced his body
+and shouted to the dogs&mdash;"<i>Huk, Huk, Huk</i>," and then
+to us he said, "<i>Aga-Ka!</i>" (Go-come).</p>
+
+<p>With snapping whip we were off for that last hundred
+miles.</p>
+
+<p>The animals pricked their ears, re-curled their tails,
+and pulled at the traces. Shouting to keep up the forced
+enthusiasm, we bounded forward on the last lap. A
+sort of wild gratification filled my heart. I knew that
+only mental enthusiasm would now prevent the defeat
+which might yet come from our own bodies refusing to
+go farther. Brain must now drive muscle. Fortunately
+the sense of final victory imparted a supernormal mental
+stimulus.</p>
+
+<p>Gray ice hummocks sped by us. My feet were so
+tired that I seemed to walk on air. My body was so
+light from weakness that I suppose I should hardly
+have been surprised had I floated upward from the ice
+in a gust of wind. I felt the blood moving in my veins
+and stinging like needles in my joints as one does when
+suffering with neurasthenia. I swung my axe. The
+whip of my companions cut the air. The dogs leaped
+over the ice, with crunching progress they pulled themselves
+over hummocks much as cats climb trees. Distance
+continued to fade behind us.</p>
+
+<p>On April 14, my observations gave latitude, 88&deg;
+21&#697;; longitude, 95&deg; 52&#697;. The wind came with a satanic
+cut from the west. There had been little drift. But
+with a feeling of chagrin I saw that the ice before us
+displayed signs of recent activity. It was more ir<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span>regular,
+with open cracks here and there. These we had
+to avoid, but the sleds glided with less friction, and the
+weary dogs maintained a better speed.</p>
+
+<p>With set teeth and newly sharpened resolutions,
+we continued mile after mile of that last one hundred.
+More dogs had gone into the stomachs of their hungry
+companions, but there still remained a sufficient pull of
+well-tried brute force for each sled. Although their
+noisy vigor had been gradually lost in the long drag,
+they still broke the frigid silence with an occasional outburst
+of howls. Any fresh enthusiasm from the drivers
+was quickly responded to by canine activity.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>We were in good trim to cover distance economically.
+Our sledges were light, our bodies were thin.
+We had lost, since leaving winter camp, judging from
+appearances, from twenty-five to forty pounds each.
+All our muscles had shriveled. The dogs retained
+strength that was amazing. Stripped for the last lap,
+one horizon after another was lifted.</p>
+
+<div class="sblockquot">
+<p><b>From original field papers.</b>&mdash;<b>Observations of April 14, 1908.</b> Long.
+95-52. Bar. 29.90 Falling. Temp. -44&deg;. Clouds Cu. St. &amp; Alt. St. 4. Wind
+1-3. Mag. E.</p>
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="" width="70%">
+<tr><td align='right'>96 &nbsp;</td><td align='right'>Noo<span class="u">n 0 &nbsp;</span></td><td align='right'>=22&mdash;02&mdash;05</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>4 &nbsp;</td><td align='right'><span class="overline">&nbsp;&nbsp; 0 &nbsp;</span></td><td align='right'>=22&mdash;56&mdash;20</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>60 |<span class="overline"> 384 &nbsp;</span></td><td align='right'></td><td align='right'>2 |<span class="overline"> 44&mdash;58&mdash;25</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'><span class="overline">6&mdash;24</span></td><td align='right'></td><td align='right'><span class="overline"> 22&mdash;29&mdash;12</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>54 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</td><td align='right'></td><td align='right'>+2 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>6&frac12; &nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align='right'></td><td align='right'>2 |<span class="overline"> 22&mdash;31&mdash;12</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'><span class="overline"> &nbsp; 27 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; </span></td><td align='right'></td><td align='right'><span class="overline"> 11&mdash;15&mdash;36</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'> &nbsp;324 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; </td><td align='right'>R. &amp; P.</td><td align='right'>&mdash;9 &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>60 |<span class="overline"> 351 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</span></td><td align='right'></td><td align='right'><span class="overline"> 11&mdash;&nbsp; 6&mdash;36</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'><span class="overline">5&mdash;51 &nbsp; &nbsp;</span></td><td align='right'></td><td align='right'>90 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>9&mdash;21&mdash;50 &nbsp; &nbsp;</td><td align='right'></td><td align='right'><span class="overline"> 78&mdash;53&mdash;24</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'><span class="overline">9&mdash;27&mdash;41 &nbsp; &nbsp;</span></td><td align='right'></td><td align='right'>9&mdash;27&mdash;41</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'></td><td align='right'></td><td align='right'><span class="overline"> 88&mdash;21&mdash;&nbsp; 5</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p class="ralign">Shadow 30&frac12; ft. (of tent pole 6 ft. above snow.)</p>
+</div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In the forced effort which followed we frequently
+became overheated. The temperature was steady at 44&deg;
+below zero, Fahrenheit. Perspiration came with ease,
+and with a certain amount of pleasure. Later followed
+a train of suffering for many days. The delight of the
+birdskin shirt gave place to the chill of a wet blanket.
+Our coats and trousers hardened to icy suits of armor.
+It became quite impossible to dress after a sleep without
+softening the stiffened furs with the heat of our bare
+skin. Mittens, boots and fur stockings became quite
+useless until dried out.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately, at this time the rays of the sun were
+warm enough to dry the furs in about three days, if
+lashed to the sunny side of a sled as we marched along,
+and strangely enough, the furs dried out without apparent
+thawing. In these last days we felt more keenly
+the pangs of perspiration than in all our earlier adventures.
+We persistently used the amber-colored
+goggles. They afforded protection to the eyes, but in
+spite of every precaution, our distorted, frozen, burned
+and withered faces lined a map in relief, of the hardships
+endured en route.</p>
+
+<p>We were curious looking savages. The perpetual
+glitter of the snows induced a squint of our eyes which
+distorted our faces in a remarkable manner. The strong
+light reflected from the crystal surface threw the muscles
+about the eyes into a state of chronic contraction. The
+iris was reduced to a mere pin-hole.</p>
+
+<p>The strong winds and drifting snows necessitated
+the habit of peeping out of the corners of the eyes.
+Nature, in attempting to keep the ball from hardening,
+flushed it at all times with blood. To keep the seeing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span>
+windows of the mind open required a constant exertion
+of will power. The effect was a set of expressions of
+hardship and wrinkles which might be called the boreal
+squint.</p>
+
+<p>This boreal squint is a part of the russet-bronze
+physiognomy which falls to the lot of every Arctic
+explorer. The early winds, with a piercing temperature,
+start a flush of scarlet, while frequent frostbites leave
+figures in black. Later the burning sun browns the
+skin; subsequently, strong winds sap the moisture,
+harden the skin and leave open fissures on the face. The
+human face takes upon itself the texture and configuration
+of the desolate, wind-driven world upon which it
+looks.</p>
+
+<p>Hard work and reduced nourishment contract the
+muscles, dispel the fat and leave the skin to shrivel in
+folds. The imprint of the goggles, the set expression
+of hard times, and the mental blank of the environment
+remove all spiritual animation. Our faces assumed
+the color and lines of old, withering, russet apples,
+and would easily pass for the mummied countenances of
+the prehistoric progenitors of man.</p>
+
+<p>In enforced efforts to spread out our stiffened legs
+over the last reaches, there was left no longer sufficient
+energy at camping times to erect snow shelters. Our
+silk tent was pressed into use. Although the temperature
+was still very low, the congenial rays pierced the silk
+fabric and rested softly on our eye lids closed in heavy
+slumber. In strong winds it was still necessary to erect
+a sheltering wall, whereby to shield the tent.</p>
+
+<p>As we progressed over the last one hundred mile-step,
+my mind was divested of its lethargy. Un<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span>consciously
+I braced myself. My senses became more
+keen. With a careful scrutiny I now observed the
+phenomena of the strange world into which fortune had
+pressed us&mdash;first of all men.</p>
+
+<p>Step by step, I invaded a world untrodden and unknown.
+Dulled as I was by hardship, I thrilled with
+the sense of the explorer in new lands, with the thrill
+of discovery and conquest. "Then," as Keats says, "felt
+I like some watcher of the skies, when a new planet
+swims into his ken." In this land of ice I was master,
+I was sole invader. I strode forward with an undaunted
+glory in my soul.</p>
+
+<p>Signs of land, which I encouraged my companions
+to believe were real, were still seen every day, but I
+knew, of course, they were deceptive. It now seemed to
+me that something unusual must happen, that some line
+must cross our horizon to mark the important area into
+which we were passing.</p>
+
+<p>Through vapor-charged air of crystal, my eyes ran
+over plains moving in brilliant waves of running colors
+toward dancing horizons. Mirages turned things topsy-turvy.
+Inverted lands and queer objects ever rose and
+fell, shrouded in mystery. All of this was due to the
+atmospheric magic of the continued glory of midnight
+suns in throwing piercing beams of light through superimposed
+strata of air of varying temperature and
+density.</p>
+
+<p>Daily, by careful measurements, I found that our
+night shadows shortened and became more uniform during
+the passing hours of the day, as the shadow dial was
+marked.</p>
+
+<p>With a lucky series of astronomical observations<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span>
+our position was fixed for each stage of progress.</p>
+
+<p>Nearing the Pole, my imagination quickened. A
+restless, almost hysterical excitement came over all of
+us. My boys fancied they saw bears and seals. I had
+new lands under observation frequently, but with a
+change in the direction of light the horizon cleared. We
+became more and more eager to push further into the
+mystery. Climbing the long ladder of latitudes, there
+was always the feeling that each hour's work was bringing
+us nearer the Pole&mdash;the Pole which men had sought
+for three centuries, and which, fortune favoring, should
+be mine!</p>
+
+<p>Yet, I was often so physically tired that my mind
+was, when the momentary intoxications passed, in a
+sense, dulled. But the habit of seeing and of noting
+what I had seen, had been acquired. The habit, yes, of
+putting one foot in front of the other, mile after mile,
+through the wild dreariness of ice, the habit of observing,
+even though with aching, blurred eyes, and noting,
+methodically, however wearily, what the tired eyes had
+seen.</p>
+
+<p>From the eighty-eighth to the eighty-ninth parallel
+the ice lay in large fields, the surface was less irregular
+than formerly. In other respects it was about the same
+as below the eighty-seventh. I observed here also, an
+increasing extension of the range of vision. I seemed to
+scan longer distances, and the ice along the horizon had
+a less angular outline. The color of the sky and the ice
+changed to deeper purple-blues. I had no way of checking
+these impressions by other observations; the eagerness
+to find something unusual may have fired my imagination,
+but since the earth is flattened at the Pole, per<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span>haps
+a widened horizon would naturally be detected
+there.</p>
+
+<p>At eight o'clock on the morning of April 19, we
+camped on a picturesque old field, with convenient hummocks,
+to the top of which we could easily rise for the
+frequent outlook which we now maintained. We pitched
+our tent, and silenced the dogs by blocks of pemmican.
+New enthusiasm was aroused by a liberal pot of pea-soup
+and a few chips of frozen meat. Then we bathed
+in life-giving sunbeams, screened from the piercing air
+by the strands of the silk-walled tent.</p>
+
+<p>The day was beautiful. Had our sense of appreciation
+not been blunted by accumulated fatigue we should
+have greatly enjoyed the play of light and color in the
+ever-changing scene of sparkle. But in our condition
+it was but an inducement to keep the eyes open and to
+prolong interest long enough to dispel the growing complaint
+of aching muscles.</p>
+
+<p>Ah-we-lah and E-tuk-i-shook were soon lost in profound
+sleep, the only comfort in their hard lives. I remained
+awake, as had been my habit for many preceding
+days, to get nautical observations. My longitude
+calculations lined us at 94&deg; 3&#697;. At noon the sun's altitude
+was carefully set on the sextant, and the latitude,
+quickly reduced, gave 89&deg; 31&#697;. The drift had carried us
+too far east, but our advance was encouraging.</p>
+
+<p>I put down the instrument, wrote the reckonings in
+my book. Then I gazed, with a sort of fascination, at
+the figures. My heart began to thump wildly. Slowly
+my brain whirled with exultation. I arose jubilant.
+We were only 29 miles from the North Pole!</p>
+
+<p>I suppose I created quite a commotion about the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span>
+little camp. E-tuk-i-shook, aroused by the noise, awoke
+and rubbed his eyes. I told him that in two average
+marches we should reach the "<i>tigi-shu</i>"&mdash;the big nail.
+He sprang to his feet and shouted with joy. He kicked
+Ah-we-lah, none too gently, and told him the glad news.</p>
+
+<p>Together they went out to a hummock, and through
+glasses, sought for a mark to locate so important a place
+as the terrestrial axis! If but one sleep ahead, it must be
+visible! So they told me, and I laughed. The sensation
+of laughing was novel. At first I was quite startled. I
+had not laughed for many days. Their idea was amusing,
+but it was eminently sensible from their standpoint
+and knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>I tried to explain to them that the Pole is not visible
+to the eye, and that its position is located only by a repeated
+use of the various instruments. Although this
+was quite beyond their comprehension the explanation
+entirely satisfied their curiosity. They burst out in hurrahs
+of joy. For two hours they chanted, danced and
+shouted the passions of wild life. Their joy, however,
+was in the thought of a speedy turning back homeward,
+I surmised.</p>
+
+<p>This, however, was the first real sign of pleasure or
+rational emotion which they had shown for several
+weeks. For some time I had entertained the fear that we
+no longer possessed strength to return to land. This
+unbridled flow of vigor dispelled that idea. My heart
+throbbed with gladness. A font of new strength seemed
+to gush forth within me. Considering through what we
+had gone, I now marvel at the reserve forces latent in
+us, and I sometimes feel that I should write, not of
+human weakness, but a new gospel of human strength.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>With the Pole only twenty-nine miles distant, more
+sleep was quite impossible. We brewed an extra pot of
+tea, prepared a favorite broth of pemmican, dug up a
+surprise of fancy biscuits and filled up on good things
+to the limit of the allowance for our final feast days. The
+dogs, which had joined the chorus of gladness, were
+given an extra lump of pemmican. A few hours more
+were agreeably spent in the tent. Then we started out
+with new spirit for the uttermost goal of our world.</p>
+
+<p>Bounding joyously forward, with a stimulated
+mind, I reviewed the journey. Obstacle after obstacle
+had been overcome. Each battle won gave a spiritual
+thrill, and courage to scale the next barrier. Thus had
+been ever, and was still, in the unequal struggles between
+human and inanimate nature, an incentive to go
+onward, ever onward, up the stepping-stones to ultimate
+success. And now, after a life-denying struggle in a
+world where every element of Nature is against the
+life and progress of man, triumph came with steadily
+measured reaches of fifteen miles a day!</p>
+
+<p>We were excited to fever heat. Our feet were
+light on the run. Even the dogs caught the infectious
+enthusiasm. They rushed along at a pace which made
+it difficult for me to keep a sufficient advance to set a
+good course. The horizon was still eagerly searched
+for something to mark the approaching boreal center.
+But nothing unusual was seen. The same expanse of
+moving seas of ice, on which we had gazed for five hundred
+miles, swam about us as we drove onward.</p>
+
+<p>Looking through gladdened eyes, the scene assumed
+a new glory. Dull blue and purple expanses
+were transfigured into plains of gold, in which were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span>
+lakes of sapphire and rivulets of ruby fire. Engirdling
+this world were purple mountains with gilded crests.
+It was one of the few days on the stormy pack when all
+Nature smiled with cheering lights.</p>
+
+<p>As the day advanced beyond midnight and the
+splendor of the summer night ran into a clearer continued
+day, the beams of gold on the surface snows
+assumed a more burning intensity. Shadows of hummocks
+and ice ridges became dyed with a deeper purple,
+and in the burning orange world loomed before us Titan
+shapes, regal and regally robed.</p>
+
+<p>From my position, a few hundred yards ahead of
+the sleds, with compass and axe in hand, as usual, I
+could not resist the temptation to turn frequently to see
+the movement of the dog train with its new fire. In
+this backward direction the color scheme was reversed.
+About the horizon the icy walls gleamed like beaten
+gold set with gem-spots of burning colors; the plains
+represented every shade of purple and blue, and over
+them, like vast angel wings outspread, shifted golden
+pinions. Through the sea of palpitating color, the dogs
+came, with spirited tread, noses down, tails erect and
+shoulders braced to the straps, like chariot horses. In
+the magnifying light they seemed many times their normal
+size. The young Eskimos, chanting songs of love,
+followed with easy, swinging steps. The long whip
+was swung with a brisk crack. Over all arose a cloud
+of frosted breath, which, like incense smoke, became silvered
+in the light, a certain signal of efficient motive
+power.</p>
+
+<p>With our destination reachable over smooth ice, in
+these brighter days of easier travel our long chilled blood<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span>
+was stirred to double action, our eyes opened to beauty
+and color, and a normal appreciation of the wonders of
+this new strange and wonderful world.</p>
+
+<p>As we lifted the midnight's sun to the plane of the
+midday sun, the shifting Polar desert became floored
+with a sparkling sheen of millions of diamonds, through
+which we fought a way to ulterior and greater glory.</p>
+
+<p>Our leg cramps eased and our languid feet lifted
+buoyantly from the steady drag as the soul arose to
+effervescence. Fields of rich purple, lined with running
+liquid gold, burning with flashes of iridescent colors,
+gave a sense of gladness long absent from our weary
+life. The ice was much better. We still forced a way
+over large fields, small pressure areas and narrow leads.
+But, when success is in sight, most troubles seem lighter.
+We were thin, with faces burned, withered, frozen and
+torn in fissures, with clothes ugly from overwear. Yet
+men never felt more proud than we did, as we militantly
+strode off the last steps to the world's very
+top!</p>
+
+<p>Camp was pitched early in the morning of April
+20. The sun was northeast, the pack glowed in tones
+of lilac, the normal westerly air brushed our frosty faces.
+Our surprising burst on enthusiasm had been nursed to
+its limits. Under it a long march had been made over
+average ice, with the usual result of overpowering
+fatigue. Too tired and sleepy to wait for a cup of tea,
+we poured melted snow into our stomach and pounded
+the pemmican with an axe to ease the task of the jaws.
+Our eyes closed before the meal was finished, and the
+world was lost to us for eight hours. Waking, I took
+observations which gave latitude 89&deg; 46&#697;.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Late at night, after another long rest, we hitched
+the dogs and loaded the sleds. When action began, the
+feeling came that no time must be lost. Feverish impatience
+seized me.</p>
+
+<p>Cracking our whips, we bounded ahead. The boys
+sang. The dogs howled. Midnight of April 21 had
+just passed.</p>
+
+<p>Over the sparkling snows the post-midnight sun
+glowed like at noon. I seemed to be walking in some
+splendid golden realms of dreamland. As we bounded
+onward the ice swam about me in circling rivers of gold.</p>
+
+<p>E-tuk-i-shook and Ah-we-lah, though thin and
+ragged, had the dignity of the heroes of a battle which
+had been fought through to success.</p>
+
+<p>We all were lifted to the paradise of winners as we
+stepped over the snows of a destiny for which we had
+risked life and willingly suffered the tortures of an icy
+hell. The ice under us, the goal for centuries of brave,
+heroic men, to reach which many had suffered terribly
+and terribly died, seemed almost sacred. Constantly
+and carefully I watched my instruments in recording
+this final reach. Nearer and nearer they recorded our
+approach. Step by step, my heart filled with a strange
+rapture of conquest.</p>
+
+<p>At last we step over colored fields of sparkle, climbing
+walls of purple and gold&mdash;finally, under skies of
+crystal blue, with flaming clouds of glory, we touch
+the mark! The soul awakens to a definite triumph;
+there is sunrise within us, and all the world of night-darkened
+trouble fades. We are at the top of the world!
+The flag is flung to the frigid breezes of the North
+Pole!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 538px;">
+<img src="images/illo_323.jpg" width="538" height="800" alt="ROUTE TO THE POLE AND RETURN" title="" />
+<span class="caption">ROUTE TO THE POLE AND RETURN<br />
+A triangle of 30,000 square miles cut out of the mysterious unknown</span>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 100%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span></p>
+<h2>AT THE NORTH POLE</h2>
+
+<p class="blockquot">OBSERVATIONS AT THE POLE&mdash;METEOROLOGICAL AND ASTRONOMICAL
+PHENOMENA&mdash;SINGULAR STABILITY
+AND UNIFORMITY OF THE THERMOMETER AND
+BAROMETER&mdash;A SPOT WHERE ONE'S SHADOW IS THE
+SAME LENGTH EACH HOUR OF THE TWENTY-FOUR&mdash;EIGHT
+POLAR ALTITUDES OF THE SUN</p>
+
+<h3>XX<br />
+
+<br /><span class="smcap">Full and Final Proofs of the Attainment</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>Looking about me, after the first satisfactory observation,
+I viewed the vacant expanse. The first realization
+of actual victory, of reaching my lifetime's goal,
+set my heart throbbing violently and my brain aglow.
+I felt the glory which the prophet feels in his vision,
+with which the poet thrills in his dream. About the
+frozen plains my imagination evoked aspects of grandeur.
+I saw silver and crystal palaces, such as were
+never built by man, with turrets flaunting "pinions glorious,
+golden." The shifting mirages seemed like the
+ghosts of dead armies, magnified and transfigured, huge
+and spectral, moving along the horizon and bearing the
+wind-tossed phantoms of golden blood-stained banners.</p>
+
+<p>The low beating of the wind assumed the throb of
+martial music. Bewildered, I realized all that I had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span>
+suffered, all the pain of fasting, all the anguish of long
+weariness, and I felt that this was my reward. I had
+scaled the world, and I stood at the Pole!</p>
+
+<p>By a long and consecutive series of observations
+and mental tabulations of various sorts on our journey
+northward, continuing here, I knew, beyond peradventure
+of doubt, that I was at a spot which was as near as
+possible, by usual methods of determination, five hundred
+and twenty miles from Svartevoeg, a spot toward
+which men had striven for more than three centuries&mdash;a
+spot known as the North Pole, and where I stood first
+of white men. In my own achievement I felt, that
+dizzy moment, that all the heroic souls who had braved
+the rigors of the Arctic region found their own hopes'
+fulfilment. I had realized their dream. I had culminated
+with success the efforts of all the brave men who
+had failed before me. I had finally justified their sacrifices,
+their very death; I had proven to humanity
+humanity's supreme triumph over a hostile, death-dealing
+Nature. It seemed that the souls of these dead
+exulted with me, and that in some sub-strata of the air,
+in notes more subtle than the softest notes of music,
+they sang a p&aelig;an in the spirit with me.</p>
+
+<p>We had reached our destination. My relief was
+indescribable. The prize of an international marathon
+was ours. Pinning the Stars and Stripes to a tent-pole,
+I asserted the achievement in the name of the ninety
+millions of countrymen who swear fealty to that flag.
+And I felt a pride as I gazed at the white-and-crimson
+barred pinion, a pride which the claim of no second
+victor has ever taken from me.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 266px;">
+<img src="images/illo_326.png" width="266" height="740" alt="CLIMBING THE LADDER OF
+LATITUDES" title="" />
+<span class="caption">CLIMBING THE LADDER OF
+LATITUDES</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>My mental intoxication did not interfere with the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span>
+routine work which was
+now necessary. Having
+reached the goal, it was
+imperative that all scientific
+observations be made
+as carefully as possible, as
+quickly as possible. To
+the taking of these I set
+myself at once, while my
+companions began the
+routine work of unloading
+the sledges and building
+an igloo.</p>
+
+<p>Our course when arriving
+at the Pole, as near
+as it was possible to determine,
+was on the
+ninety-seventh meridian.
+The day was April 21,
+1908. It was local noon.
+The sun was 11&deg; 55&#698; above
+the magnetic northern
+horizon. My shadow, a
+dark purple-blue streak
+with ill-defined edges,
+measured twenty-six feet
+in length. The tent pole,
+marked as a measuring
+stick, was pushed into the
+snow, leaving six feet
+above the surface. This
+gave a shadow twenty-eight
+feet long.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Several sextant observations gave a latitude a few
+seconds below 90&deg;, which, because of unknown refraction
+and uncertain accuracy of time, was placed at 90&deg;.
+(Other observations on the next day gave similar results,
+although we shifted camp four miles toward magnetic
+south.) A broken hand-axe was tied to the end
+of a life-line; this was lowered through a fresh break in
+the ice, and the angle which it made with the surface
+indicated a drift toward Greenland. The temperature,
+gauged by a spirit thermometer, was 37.7&deg;, F. The mercury
+thermometer indicated -36&deg;. The atmospheric
+pressure by the aneroid barometer was at 29.83. It
+was falling, and indicated a coming change in the
+weather. The wind was very light, and had veered
+from northeast to south, according to the compass card.</p>
+
+<p>The sky was almost clear, of a dark purple blue,
+with a pearly ice-blink or silver reflection extending east,
+and a smoky water-sky west, in darkened, ill-defined
+streaks, indicating continuous ice or land toward Bering
+Sea, and an active pack, with some open water, toward
+Spitzbergen. To the north and south were wine-colored
+gold-shot clouds, flung in long banners, with
+ragged-pointed ends along the horizon. The ice about
+was nearly the same as it had been continuously since
+leaving the eighty-eighth parallel. It was slightly more
+active, and showed, by news cracks and oversliding,
+young ice signs of recent disturbance.</p>
+
+<p>The field upon which we camped was about three
+miles long and two miles wide. Measured at a new
+crevasse, the ice was sixteen feet thick. The tallest
+hummock measured twenty-eight feet above water. The
+snow lay in fine feathery crystals, with no surface crust.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span>
+About three inches below the soft snow was a sub-surface
+crust strong enough to carry the bodily weight.
+Below this were other successive crusts, and a porous
+snow in coarse crystals, with a total depth of about
+fifteen inches.</p>
+
+<p>Our igloo was built near one edge in the lee of an
+old hummock about fifteen feet high. Here a recent
+bank of drift snow offered just the right kind of material
+from which to cut building blocks. While a shelter was
+thus being walled, I moved about constantly to read my
+instruments and to study carefully the local environment.</p>
+
+<p>In a geographic sense we had now arrived at a
+point where all meridians meet. The longitude, therefore,
+was zero. Time was a negative problem. There
+being no longitude, there can be no time. The hour
+lines of Greenwich, of New York, of Peking, and of all
+the world here run together. Figuratively, if this position
+is the pin-point of the earth's axis, it is possible to
+have all meridians under one foot, and therefore it
+should be possible to step from midnight to midday,
+from the time of San Francisco to that of Paris, from
+one side of the globe to the other, as time is measured.</p>
+
+<p>Here there is but one day and but one night in each
+year, but the night of six months is relieved by about one
+hundred days of continuous twilight. Geographically,
+there was here but one direction. It was south on every
+line of the dial of longitude&mdash;north, east and west had
+vanished. We had reached a point where true direction
+became a paradox and a puzzle. It was south before us,
+south behind us, and south on every side. But the compass,
+pointing to the magnetic Pole along the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span>
+ninety-seventh meridian, was as useful as ever. (To avoid
+statements easily misunderstood, all our directions about
+the Pole will be given as taken from the compass, and
+without reference to the geographer's anomaly of its
+being south in every direction.)</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/illo_329.jpg" width="600" height="747" alt="WHERE ALL MERIDIANS MEET AND EVERY DIRECTION IS SOUTH" title="" />
+<span class="caption">WHERE ALL MERIDIANS MEET AND EVERY DIRECTION IS SOUTH<br />
+The Pivotal Point on which the earth turns.</span>
+<p class="center">* Magnetic Pole</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="sblockquot">
+<p><b>My first noon observations</b> gave the following result, which is copied
+from the original paper, as it was written at the Pole and reproduced
+photographically on another page. April 21, 1908: Long., 97-W.; Bar.,
+29-83; Temp., &mdash;37.7; Clouds Alt., St., 1; Wind, 1; Mag., S.; Iceblink E.;
+Water Sky W.</p>
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="" width="70%">
+<tr><td align='right'></td><td align='right'>Noon Alt.<span class="u">&nbsp; 0 &nbsp;</span></td><td align='right'>23&mdash;33&mdash;25</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</td><td align='right'></td><td align='right'>+2 &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'></td><td align='right'></td><td align='right'>2 |<span class="overline"> 23&mdash;35&mdash;25</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>50 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</td><td align='right'></td><td align='right'><span class="overline"> 11&mdash;47&mdash;42</span></td><td align='right'>5</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>6&frac12; &nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align='right'></td><td align='right'>+15&mdash;56</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'></td><td align='right'></td><td align='right'></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'><span class="overline"> &nbsp; 25 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; </span></td><td align='right'></td><td align='right'><span class="overline"> 12&mdash;&nbsp; 3&mdash;38</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'> &nbsp;300 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; </td><td align='right'></td><td align='right'>&mdash;9 &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>60 |<span class="overline"> 325 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</span></td><td align='right'></td><td align='right'><span class="overline"> 11&mdash;54&mdash;38</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'><span class="overline">5&mdash;25 &nbsp; &nbsp;</span></td><td align='right'></td><td align='right'>90 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>11&mdash;48&mdash;58 &nbsp; &nbsp;</td><td align='right'></td><td align='right'><span class="overline"> 78&mdash;&nbsp; 5&mdash;22</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'><span class="overline">11&mdash;54&mdash;23 &nbsp; &nbsp;</span></td><td align='right'></td><td align='right'>11&mdash;54&mdash;23</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'></td><td align='right'></td><td align='right'><span class="overline"> 89&mdash;59&mdash;45</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p class="ralign">Shadows 28 ft. (of 6 ft. pole).
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Taking advantage of our brief stay, the boys set
+up the ice-axe and drying sticks, and hung upon them
+their perspiration-wetted and frosted furs to dry.
+Hanging out wet clothes and an American flag at the
+North Pole seemed an amusing incongruity.</p>
+
+<p>The puzzled standpoint of my Eskimos was amusing.
+They tried hard to appreciate the advantages of
+finding this suppositious "<i>tigi shu</i>" (big nail), but
+actually here, they could not, even from a sense of deference
+to me and my judgment, entirely hide their feeling
+of disappointment.</p>
+
+<p>On the advance I had told them that an actual "big
+nail" would not be found&mdash;only the point where it ought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span>
+to be. But I think they really hoped that if it had
+actually disappeared they should find that it had come
+back into place after all!</p>
+
+<p>In building our igloo the boys frequently looked
+about expectantly. Often they ceased cutting snow-blocks
+and rose to a hummock to search the horizon for
+something which, to their idea, must mark this important
+spot, for which we had struggled against hope and
+all the dictates of personal comforts. At each breathing
+spell their eager eyes picked some sky sign which to
+them meant land or water, or the play of some god of
+land or sea. The naive and sincere interest which the
+Eskimos on occasions feel in the mystery of the spirit-world
+gives them an imaginative appreciation of nature
+often in excess of that of the more material and skeptical
+Caucasian.</p>
+
+<p>Arriving at the mysterious place where, they felt,
+something should happen, their imagination now forced
+an expression of disappointment. In a high-keyed condition,
+all their superstitions recurred to them with
+startling reality.</p>
+
+<p>In one place the rising vapor proved to be the breath
+of the great submarine god&mdash;the "<i>Ko-Koyah</i>." In another
+place, a motionless little cloud marked the land in
+which dwelt the "<i>Turnah-huch-suak</i>," the great Land
+God, and the air spirits were represented by the different
+winds, with sex relations.</p>
+
+<p>Ah-we-lah and E-tuk-i-shook, with the astuteness of
+the aborigine, who reads Nature as a book, were sharp
+enough to note that the high air currents did not correspond
+to surface currents; for, although the wind was
+blowing homeward, and changed its force and direc<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span>tion,
+a few high clouds moved persistently in a different
+direction.</p>
+
+<p>This, to them, indicated a warfare among the air
+spirits. The ice and snow were also animated. To
+them the whole world presented a rivalry of conflicting
+spirits which offered never-ending topics of conversation.</p>
+
+<p>As the foot pressed the snow, its softness, its rebound,
+or its metallic ring indicated sentiments of
+friendliness or hostility. The ice, by its color, movement
+or noise, spoke the humor of its animation, or that
+of the supposed life of the restless sea beneath it. In
+interpreting these spirit signs, the two expressed considerable
+difference of opinion. Ah-we-lah saw dramatic
+situations and became almost hysterical with
+excitement; E-tuk-i-shook saw only a monotone of the
+normal play of life. Such was the trend of interest and
+conversation as the building of the igloos was completed.</p>
+
+<p>Contrary to our usual custom, the dogs had been
+allowed to rest in their traces attached to the sleds.
+Their usual malicious inquisitiveness exhausted, they
+were too tired to examine the sleds to steal food. But
+now, as the house was completed, holes were chipped
+with a knife in ice-shoulders, through which part of a
+trace was passed, and each team was thus securely
+fastened to a ring cut in ice-blocks. Then each dog
+was given a double ration of pemmican. Their pleasure
+was expressed by an extra twist of the friendly tails and
+an extra note of gladness from long-contracted stomachs.
+Finishing their meal, they curled up and warmed
+the snow, from which they took an occasional bite to
+furnish liquid for their gastric economy. Almost two<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span>
+days of rest followed, and this was the canine celebration
+of the Polar attainment.</p>
+
+<p>We withdrew to the inside of the dome of snow-blocks,
+pulled in a block to close the doors, spread out
+our bags as beds on the platform of leveled snow, pulled
+off boots and trousers, and slipped half-length into the
+bristling reindeer furs. We then discussed, with
+chummy congratulations, the success of our long drive
+to the world's end.</p>
+
+<p>While thus engaged, the little Juel stove piped the
+cheer of the pleasure of ice-water, soon to quench our
+chronic thirst. In the meantime, Ah-we-lah and E-tuk-i-shook
+pressed farther and farther into their bags,
+pulled over the hoods, and closed their eyes to an overpowering
+fatigue. But my lids did not easily close. I
+watched the fire. More ice went into the kettle. With
+the satisfaction of an ambition fulfilled, I peeped out
+occasionally through the pole-punched port, and noted
+the horizon glittering with gold and purple.</p>
+
+<p>Quivers of self-satisfying joy ran up my spine and
+relieved the frosty mental bleach of the long-delayed
+Polar anticipation.</p>
+
+<p>In due time we drank, with grateful satisfaction,
+large quantities of ice-water, which was more delicious
+than any wine. A pemmican soup, flavored with musk
+ox tenderloins, steaming with heat&mdash;a luxury seldom
+enjoyed in our camps&mdash;next went down with warming,
+satisfying gulps. This was followed by a few strips
+of frozen fresh meat, then by a block of pemmican.
+Later, a few squares of musk ox suet gave the taste of
+sweets to round up our meal. Last of all, three cups
+of tea spread the chronic stomach-folds, after which we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span>
+reveled in the sense of fulness of the best meal of
+many weeks.</p>
+
+<p>With full stomachs and the satisfaction of a worthy
+task well performed, we rested.</p>
+
+<p>We had reached the zenith of man's Ultima Thule,
+which had been sought for more than three centuries.
+In comfortable berths of snow we tried to sleep, turning
+with the earth on its northern axis.</p>
+
+<p>But sleep for me was impossible. At six o'clock,
+or six hours after our arrival at local noon, I arose, went
+out of the igloo, and took a double set of observations.
+Returning, I did some figuring, lay down on my bag,
+and at ten o'clock, or four hours later, leaving Ah-we-lah
+to guard the camp and dogs, E-tuk-i-shook joined me to
+make a tent camp about four miles to the magnetic
+south. My object was to have a slightly different position
+for subsequent observations.</p>
+
+<p>Placing our tent, bags and camp equipment on a
+sled, we pushed it over the ice field, crossed a narrow
+lead sheeted with young ice, and moved on to another
+field which seemed to have much greater dimensions.
+We erected the tent not quite two hours later, in time
+for a midnight observation. These sextant readings of
+the sun's altitude were continued for the next twenty-four
+hours.</p>
+
+<p>In the idle times between observations, I went over
+to a new break between the field on which we were
+camped and that on which Ah-we-lah guarded the dogs.
+Here the newly-formed sheets of ice slid over each other
+as the great, ponderous fields stirred to and fro. A
+peculiar noise, like that of a crying child, arose. It
+came seemingly from everywhere, intermittently, in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span>
+successive crying spells. Lying down, and putting my
+fur-cushioned ear to the edge of the old ice, I heard a
+distant thundering noise, the reverberations of the
+moving, grinding pack, which, by its wind-driven sweep,
+was drifting over the unseen seas of mystery. In an
+effort to locate the cry, I searched diligently along the
+lead. I came to a spot where two tiny pieces of ice
+served as a mouthpiece. About every fifteen seconds
+there were two or three sharp, successive cries. With
+the ice-axe I detached one. The cries stopped; but
+other cries were heard further along the line.</p>
+
+<p>The time for observations was at hand, and I returned
+to take up the sextant. Returning later to the
+lead, to watch the seas breathe, the cry seemed stilled.
+The thin ice-sheets were cemented together, and in an
+open space nearby I had an opportunity to study the
+making and breaking of the polar ice.</p>
+
+<p>That tiny film of ice which voiced the baby cries
+spreads the world's most irresistible power. In its
+making we have the nucleus for the origin of the polar
+pack, that great moving crust of the earth which
+crunches ships, grinds rocks, and sweeps mountains into
+the sea. Beginning as a mere microscopic crystal, successive
+crystals, by their affinity for each other, unite to
+make a disc. These discs, by the same law of cohesion,
+assemble and unite. Now the thin sheet, the first sea
+ice, is complete, and either rests to make the great field
+of ice, or spreads from floe to floe and from field to
+field, thus spreading, bridging and mending the great
+moving masses which cover the mid-polar basin.</p>
+
+<p>Another law of nature was solved by a similar
+insignificant incident. In spreading our things out to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span>
+air and dry (for things will dry in wind and sun, even
+at a very low temperature), two pieces of canvas were
+thrown on a hummock. It was a white canvas sled-cover
+and a black strip of canvas, in which the boat fittings
+were wrapped. When these strips of canvas were
+lifted it was found that under the part of the black
+canvas, resting on a slope at right angles to the sun,
+the snow had melted and recongealed. Under the white
+canvas the snow had not changed. The temperature
+was -41&deg;; we had felt no heat, but this black canvas
+had absorbed enough heat from a feeble sun to melt
+the snow beneath it. This little lesson in physics began
+to interest me, and on the return many similar experiments
+were made. As the long, tedious marches were
+made, I asked myself the questions: Why is snow
+white? Why is the sky blue? And why does black
+burn snow when white does not?</p>
+
+<p>Little by little, in the long drive of monotony, satisfactory
+answers came to these questions. Thus, in
+seeking abstract knowledge, the law of radiation was
+thoroughly examined. In doing this, there came to me
+slowly the solution of various problems of animal life,
+and eventually there was uncovered what to me proved
+a startling revelation in the incidents that led up to
+animal coloring in the Arctic. For here I found that
+the creatures' fur and feathers were colored in accord
+with their needs of absorbing external heat or of conserving
+internal heat. The facts here indicated will be
+presented later, when we deal with the snow-fitted creatures
+at close range.</p>
+
+<p>One of the impressions which I carried with me of
+this night march was that the sun seemed low&mdash;lower,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span>
+indeed, than that of midday, which, in reality, was not
+true, for the observations placed it nine minutes higher.
+This was an indication of the force of habit. In the
+northward march we had noted a considerable relative
+difference in the height of the night sun and that of the
+day. Although this difference had vanished now, the
+mind at times refused to grasp the remarkable change.<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a></p>
+
+<p>At the Pole I was impressed by a peculiar uniformity
+in the temperature of the atmosphere throughout
+the twenty-four hours, and also by a strange monotone
+in color and light of sea and sky. I had begun
+to observe this as I approached the boreal center. The
+strange equability of light and color, of humidity and of
+air temperatures extended an area one hundred miles
+about the Pole. This was noted both on my coming
+and going over this district.</p>
+
+<p>Approaching the Pole, and as the night sun gradually
+lifted, an increasing equalization of the temperature
+of night and day followed. Three hundred miles
+from the Pole the thermometer at night had been from
+10&deg; to 20&deg; lower than during the day. There the shivering
+chill of midnight made a strong contrast to the burning,
+heatless glitter of midday. At the Pole the thermometer
+did not rise or fall appreciably for certain
+fixed hours of the day or night, but remained almost
+uniform during the entire twenty-four hours.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>This, to a less notable extent, was true also of the
+barometer. Farther south there had been a difference
+in the day and night range of the barometer. Here,
+although the night winds continued more actively than
+those of the day, the barometer was less variable than at
+any time on my journey.</p>
+
+<p>At the Pole the tendency of change in force and
+direction of air currents, observed farther south, for
+morning and evening periods, was no longer noted. But
+when strong winds brushed the pack, a good deal of the
+Polar equalization gave place to a radical difference,
+giving a period for high and low temperatures; which
+period, however, did not correspond to the usual hours
+of day or night. The winds, therefore, seemed to carry
+to us the sub-Polar inequality of atmospheric variation
+in temperature and pressure. Many of the facts bearing
+upon this problem were not learned until later.
+Subsequently, I learned, also, that strong winds often
+disturb the Polar atmospheric sameness; but all is given
+here because of the striking impression which it made
+upon me at this time.</p>
+
+<p>In the region about the Pole I observed that,
+although there were remarkable and beauteous color
+blendings in the sky, the intense contrasts and the spectacular
+display of cloud effects, seen in more southern
+regions, were absent.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 640px;">
+<img src="images/illo_339.jpg" width="640" height="427" alt="FIRST CAMP AT THE POLE, APRIL 21, 1908" title="" />
+<span class="caption">FIRST CAMP AT THE POLE, APRIL 21, 1908</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>A color suffusion is common throughout the entire
+Arctic zone. Light, pouring from the low-lying sun,
+is reflected from the ice in an indescribable blaze. From
+millions of ice slopes, with millions and millions of tiny
+reflecting surfaces, each one a mirror, some large, some
+smaller than specks of diamond dust, this light is sent
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span>
+back in different directions in burning waves to the sky.
+A liquid light seems forced back from the sky into every
+tiny crevice of this bejeweled wonderland. One color
+invariably predominates at a time. Sometimes the ice
+and air and sky are suffused with a hue of rose, again of
+orange, again of a light alloyed yellow, again blue; and,
+as we get farther north, more dominantly purple. Farther
+south, in our journey northward, we had viewed
+color effects in reality incomparably more beautiful than
+those in the regions about the Pole. The sun, farther
+south, in rising and setting, and with limitless changes
+of polarized and refracted light, passing through strata
+of atmosphere of varying depths of different density,
+produces kaleidoscopic changes of burning color.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 538px;">
+<img src="images/illo_340.jpg" width="538" height="800" alt="AT THE POLE&mdash;&quot;WE WERE THE ONLY PULSATING CREATURES IN A
+DEAD WORLD OF ICE&quot;" title="" />
+<span class="caption">AT THE POLE&mdash;&ldquo;WE WERE THE ONLY PULSATING CREATURES IN A
+DEAD WORLD OF ICE&rdquo;</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>At the Pole there were sunbursts, but because of
+the slight change in the sun's dip to the horizon, the prevailing
+light was invariably in shades running to purple.
+At first my imagination evoked a more glowing wonder
+than in reality existed; as the hours wore on, and as the
+wants of my body asserted themselves, I began to see
+the vacant spaces with a disillusionizing eye.</p>
+
+<p>The set of observations given here, taken every six
+hours, from noon on April 21 to midnight on April 22,
+1908, fixed our position with reasonable certainty.</p>
+
+<p>These figures do not give the exact position for the
+normal spiral ascent of the sun, which is about fifty seconds
+for each hour, or five minutes for each six hours;
+but the uncertainties of error by refraction and ice-drift
+do not permit such accuracy of observations. These
+figures are submitted, therefore, not to establish the pin-point
+accuracy of our position, but to show that we had
+approximately reached a spot where the sun, throughout
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span>
+the twenty-four hours, circled the heavens in a line
+nearly parallel to the horizon.</p>
+
+<div class="sblockquot">
+<h4>THE SUN'S TRUE CENTRAL ALTITUDE AT THE POLE.</h4>
+
+<p class="center">April 21 and 22, 1908.</p>
+
+<p>Seven successive observations, taken every six hours.</p>
+
+<p>Each observation is reduced for an instrumental error of +2&#697;.</p>
+
+<p>For semi-diameter and also for refraction and parallax, &mdash;9&#697;.</p>
+
+<p>The seven reductions are each calculated from two sextant readings,
+generally of an upper and lower limb.</p>
+
+<p class="center">(TAKEN FROM MY FIELD NOTES.)</p>
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align='left'>April 21, 1908, 97th meridian local<br />
+time&mdash;12 o'clock noon&mdash;</td><td align='right'>11&deg;&mdash;54&#697;&mdash;40&#698;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>6 P. M. (same camp).</td><td align='right'>12&mdash;00&mdash;10</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Moved camp 4 miles magnetic South</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>12 o'clock (midnight)</td><td align='right'>12&mdash;&nbsp; 3&mdash;50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>April 22nd, 6 A. M.</td><td align='right'>12&mdash;&nbsp; 9&mdash;30</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>12 o'clock noon</td><td align='right'>12&mdash;14&mdash;20</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>6 P. M.</td><td align='right'>12&mdash;18&mdash;40</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>12 o'clock (midnight)</td><td align='right'>12&mdash;25&mdash;10</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p class='ralign'>Temperature, &mdash;41. Barometer, 30.05.<br />
+Shadow 27&frac12; feet (of 6-foot pole).</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>With the use of the sextant, the artificial horizon,
+pocket chronometers, and the usual instruments and
+methods of explorers, our observations were continued
+and our positions were fixed with the most painstakingly
+careful safeguards possible against inaccuracy.
+The value of all such observations as proof of a Polar
+success, however, is open to such interpretation as the
+future may determine. This applies, not only to me,
+but to anyone who bases any claim upon them.</p>
+
+<p>To me there were many seemingly insignificant
+facts noted in our northward progress which left the
+imprint of milestones. Our footprints marked a road
+ever onward into the unknown. Many of these almost
+unconscious reckonings took the form of playful impressions,
+and were not even at the time written down.</p>
+
+<p>In the first press reports of my achievement there
+was not space to go into minute details, nor did the pres<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span>entation
+of the subject permit an elaboration on all the
+data gathered. But now, in the light of a better perspective,
+it seems important that every possible phase of
+the minutest detail be presented. For only by a careful
+consideration of every phase of every phenomena en
+route can a true verdict be obtained upon this widely
+discussed subject of Polar attainment.</p>
+
+<p>And now, right here, I want you to consider carefully
+with me one thing which made me feel sure that
+we had reached the Pole. This is the subject of shadows&mdash;our
+own shadows on the snow-covered ice. A
+seemingly unimportant phenomenon which had often
+been a topic of discussion, and so commonplace that I
+only rarely referred to it in my notebooks, our own
+shadows on the snow-cushioned ice had told of northward
+movement, and ultimately proved to my satisfaction
+that the Pole had been reached.</p>
+
+<p>In our northward progress&mdash;to explain my shadow
+observations from the beginning&mdash;for a long time after
+our start from Svartevoeg, our shadows did not perceptibly
+shorten or brighten, to my eyes. The natives,
+however, got from these shadows a never-ending variety
+of topics of conversation. They foretold storms, located
+game and read the story of home entanglements. Far
+from land, far from every sign of a cheering, solid earth,
+wandering with our shadows over the hopeless desolation
+of the moving seas of glitter, I, too, took a keen
+interest in the blue blots that represented our bodies.
+At noon, by comparison with later hours, they were
+sharp, short, of a dark, restful blue. At this time a
+thick atmosphere of crystals rested upon the ice pack,
+and when the sun sank the strongest purple rays could
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span>
+not penetrate the frosty haze. Long before the time for
+sunset, even on clear days, the sun was lost in low clouds
+of drifting needles.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 560px;">
+<img src="images/illo_344.jpg" width="560" height="800" alt="SHADOW-CIRCLES INDICATING THE APPROACH TO THE POLE" title="" />
+<p class="sblockquot">Shadow-circle about 250
+miles from the Pole. Circle
+from which extend radiating
+shadow-lines mark position
+of man.</p>
+
+<p class="sblockquot">Shadow-circle when nearing
+the Pole, showing less difference
+in length during the
+changing hours.</p>
+
+<p class="sblockquot">Shadow-circle at the Pole;
+standing on the same spot,
+at each hour, one's shadow
+is always apparently of the
+same length.</p>
+<span class="caption">SHADOW-CIRCLES INDICATING THE APPROACH TO THE POLE<br />
+Showing approximately the relative length of a man's shadow
+for each hour of the twenty-four-hour day.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>After passing the eighty-eighth parallel there was
+a notable change in our shadows. The night shadow
+lengthened; the day shadow, by comparison, shortened.
+The boys saw in this something which they could not
+understand. The positive blue grew to a permanent
+purple, and the sharp outlines ran to vague, indeterminate
+edges.</p>
+
+<p>Now at the Pole there was no longer any difference
+in length, color or sharpness of outline between the
+shadow of the day or night.</p>
+
+<p>"What does it all mean?" they asked. The Eskimos
+looked with eager eyes at me to explain, but my
+vocabulary was not comprehensive enough to give them
+a really scientific explanation, and also my brain was too
+weary from the muscular poison of fatigue to frame
+words.</p>
+
+<p>The shadows of midnight and those of midday were
+the same. The sun made a circle about the heavens in
+which the eye detected no difference in its height above
+the ice, either night or day. Throughout the twenty-four
+hours there was no perceptible rise or set in the
+sun's seeming movement. Now, at noon, the shadow
+represented in its length the altitude of the sun&mdash;about
+twelve degrees. At six o'clock it was the same. At
+midnight it was the same. At six o'clock in the morning
+it was the same.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 640px;">
+<img src="images/illo_346a.jpg" width="640" height="436" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="sblockquot">At a latitude about New York, a man's shadow lengthens
+hour by hour as the sun descends toward the horizon at
+nightfall.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 640px;">
+<img src="images/illo_346b.jpg" width="640" height="301" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="sblockquot">At the North Pole, a man's shadow is of equal length
+during the entire twenty-four hours, since the sun moves
+spirally around the heavens at about the same apparent
+height above the horizon throughout the twenty-four-hour
+day.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>A picture of the snowhouse and ourselves, taken at
+the same time and developed a year later, gives the same
+length of shadow. The compass pointed south. The
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span>
+night drop of the thermometer had vanished. Let us,
+for the sake of argument, grant that all our instrumental
+observations are wrong. Here is a condition of
+things in which I believed, and still believe, the eye, without
+instrumental assistance, places the sun at about the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span>same height for every hour of the day and night. It is
+only on the earth's axis that such an observation is
+possible.</p>
+
+<p>There was about us no land. No fixed point. Absolutely
+nothing upon which to rest the eye to give the
+sense of location or to judge distance.</p>
+
+<p>Here everything moves. The sea breathes, and
+lifts the crust of ice which the wind stirs. The pack
+ever drifts in response to the pull of the air and the
+drive of the water. Even the sun, the only fixed dot
+in this stirring, restless world, where all you see is, without
+your seeing it, moving like a ship at sea, seems to
+have a rapid movement in a gold-flushed circle not far
+above endless fields of purple crystal; but that movement
+is never higher, never lower&mdash;always in the same
+fixed path. The instruments detect a slight spiral
+ascent, day after day, but the eye detects no change.</p>
+
+<p>Although I had measured our shadows at times on
+the northward march, at the Pole these shadow notations
+were observed with the same care as the measured
+altitude of the sun by the sextant. A series was made
+on April 22, after E-tuk-i-shook and I had left Ah-we-lah
+in charge of our first camp at the Pole. We
+made a little circle for our feet in the snow. E-tuk-i-shook
+stood in the foot circle. At midnight the first
+line was cut in the snow to the end of his shadow, and
+then I struck a deep hole with the ice-axe. Every hour
+a similar line was drawn out from his foot. At the end
+of twenty-four hours, with the help of Ah-we-lah, a
+circle was circumscribed along the points, which marked
+the end of the shadow for each hour. The result is
+represented in the snow diagram on the next page.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;">
+<img src="images/illo_348.jpg" width="480" height="556" alt="SHADOW DIAL AT THE POLE" title="" />
+<span class="caption">SHADOW DIAL AT THE POLE</span>
+
+<p class="sblockquot">At the Pole, a man's shadow is about the same length for every hour of the
+double day. When a shadow line is drawn in the snow from a man's foot in a
+marked dial, the human shadows take the place of the hands of a clock and
+mark the time by compass bearing. The relative length of these shadows also
+give the latitude or a man's position north or south of the equator. When
+during two turns around the clock dial, the shadows are all of about equal length,
+the position of the earth's axis is positively reached&mdash;even if all other observations
+fail. This simple demonstration is an indisputable proof of being on
+the North Pole.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In the northward march we did not stay up all of
+bedtime to play with shadow circles. But, at this time,
+to E-tuk-i-shook the thing had a spiritual interest. To
+me it was a part of the act of proving that the Pole had
+been attained. For only about the Pole, I argued,
+could all shadows be of equal length. Because of this
+combination of keen interests, we managed to find an
+excuse, even during sleep hours, to draw a line on our
+shadow circle.</p>
+
+<p>Here, then, I felt, was an important observation
+placing me with fair accuracy at the Pole, and, unlike
+all other observations, it was not based on the impossible
+dreams of absolutely accurate time or sure corrections
+for refraction.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 640px;">
+<span class="caption">HOW THE ALTITUDE OF THE SUN ABOVE THE HORIZON
+FIXES THE POSITION OF THE NORTH POLE</span>
+<img src="images/illo_349.jpg" width="640" height="322" alt="HOW THE ALTITUDE OF THE SUN ABOVE THE HORIZON
+FIXES THE POSITION OF THE NORTH POLE" title="" />
+<p class="sblockquot">The exact altitude of the sun at noon of April 22, 1908, on the pole, was
+12&deg; 9&#697; 16&#698;, but owing to ice-drift&mdash;the impossibility of accurate time&mdash;and
+unknown error by refraction, no such pin-point accuracy can be recorded.
+At each hour the sun, circling about the horizon, cast a shadow of uniform
+length.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>At the place where E-tuk-i-shook and I camped,
+four miles south of where I had left Ah-we-lah with the
+dogs, only two big ice hummocks were in sight. There
+were more spaces of open water than at our first camp.
+After a midnight observation&mdash;of April 22&mdash;we returned
+to camp. When the dogs saw us approaching in
+the distance they rose, and a chorus of howls rang over
+the regions of the Pole&mdash;regions where dogs had never
+howled before. All the scientific work being finished,
+we began hastily to make final preparations for
+departure.</p>
+
+<p>We had spent two days about the North Pole.
+After the first thrills of victory, the glamor wore away
+as we rested and worked. Although I tried to do so, I
+could get no sensation of novelty as we pitched our last
+belongings on the sleds. The intoxication of success
+had gone. I suppose intense emotions are invariably
+followed by reactions. Hungry, mentally and physically
+exhausted, a sense of the utter uselessness of this
+thing, of the empty reward of my endurance, followed
+my exhilaration. I had grasped my <i>ignus fatuus</i>. It is
+a misfortune for any man when his <i>ignus fatuus</i> fails
+to elude him.</p>
+
+<p>During those last hours I asked myself why this
+place had so aroused an enthusiasm long-lasting through
+self-sacrificing years; why, for so many centuries, men
+had sought this elusive spot? What a futile thing, I
+thought, to die for! How tragically useless all those
+heroic efforts&mdash;efforts, in themselves, a travesty, an
+ironic satire, on much vainglorious human aspiration and
+endeavor! I thought of the enthusiasm of the people who
+read of the spectacular efforts of men to reach this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span>
+vacant silver-shining goal of death. I thought, too, in
+that hour, of the many men of science who were devoting
+their lives to the study of germs, the making of toxins;
+to the saving of men from the grip of disease&mdash;men who
+often lost their own lives in their experiments; whose
+world and work existed in unpicturesque laboratories,
+and for whom the laudations of people never rise. It
+occurred to me&mdash;and I felt the bitterness of tears in my
+soul&mdash;that it is often the showy and futile deeds of men
+which men praise; and that, after all, the only work
+worth while, the only value of a human being's efforts,
+lie in deeds whereby humanity benefits. Such work as
+noble bands of women accomplish who go into the slums
+of great cities, who nurse the sick, who teach the ignorant,
+who engage in social service humbly, patiently, unexpectant
+of any reward! Such work as does the scientist
+who studies the depredations of malignant germs,
+who straightens the body of the crippled child, who precipitates
+a toxin which cleanses the blood of a frightful
+and loathsome disease!</p>
+
+<p>As my eye sought the silver and purple desert about
+me for some stable object upon which to fasten itself, I
+experienced an abject abandon, an intolerable loneliness.
+With my two companions I could not converse; in my
+thoughts and emotions they could not share. I was
+alone. I was victorious. But how desolate, how dreadful
+was this victory! About us was no life, no spot to
+relieve the monotony of frost. We were the only pulsating
+creatures in a dead world of ice.</p>
+
+<p>A wild eagerness to get back to land seized me. It
+seemed as though some new terror had arisen from the
+icy waters. Something huge, something baneful ...<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span>
+invisible ... yet whose terror-inspiring, burning
+eyes I felt ... the master genii of the goal, perhaps ...
+some vague, terrible, disembodied spirit
+force, condemned for some unimaginable sin to solitary
+prisonment here at the top of the world, and who wove
+its malignant, awful spell, and had lured men on for centuries
+to their destruction.... The desolation of
+the place was such that it was almost palpable; it was a
+thing I felt I must touch and see. My companions
+felt the heavy load of it upon them, and from the few
+words I overheard I knew they were eagerly picturing
+to themselves the simple joys of existence at Etah and
+Annoatok. I remember that to me came pictures of my
+Long Island home. All this arose, naturally enough,
+from the reaction following the strain of striving so long
+and so fiercely after the goal, combined with the sense of
+the great and actual peril of our situation. But what a
+cheerless spot this was, to have aroused the ambition of
+man for so many ages!</p>
+
+<p>There came forcibly, too, the thought that although
+the Pole was discovered, it was not essentially discovered,
+that it could be discovered, in the eyes of the
+world, unless we could return to civilization and tell
+what we had done. Should we be lost in these wastes or
+should we be frozen to death, or buried in the snow, or
+drowned in a crevasse, it would never be known that we
+had been here. It was, therefore, as vitally necessary to
+get back in touch with human life, with our report, as it
+had been to get to the Pole.</p>
+
+<p>Before leaving, I enclosed a note, written on the
+previous day, in a metallic tube. This I buried in the
+surface of the Polar snows. I knew, of course, that this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span>
+would not remain long at the spot, as the ice was in the
+grip of a slow-drifting movement. I felt the possibility
+of this slow movement was more important than if it
+remained stationary; for, if ever found in the south, the
+destination of the tube would indicate the ice drift from
+the Pole. The following is an exact copy of the
+original note, which is reproduced photographically on
+another page:</p>
+
+<div class="sblockquot">
+<h4>COPY OF NOTE IN TUBE.</h4>
+
+<p class="center">April 21&mdash;at the North Pole.</p>
+
+<p>Accompanied by the Eskimo boys Ah-we-lah and E-tuk-i-shuk I
+reached at noon to-day 90&deg; N. a spot on the polar sea 520 miles north of
+Svartevoeg. We were 35 days en route. Hope to return to-morrow on a
+line slightly west of the northward track.</p>
+
+<p>New land was discovered along the 102 M. between 84 and 85. The
+ice proved fairly good, with few open leads, hard snow and little pressure
+trouble. We are in good health, and have food for forty days. This, with
+the meat of the dogs to be sacrificed, will keep us alive for fifty or sixty
+days.</p>
+
+<p>This note is deposited with a small American flag in a metallic tube
+on the drifting ice.</p>
+
+<p>Its return will be appreciated, to the International Bureau of Polar
+Research at the Royal Observatory, Uccle, Belgium.</p>
+
+<p class="ralign">(Signed) FREDERICK A. COOK.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 1024px;">
+<img src="images/illo_353.jpg" width="1024" height="529" alt="POLAR ADVANCE OF THE NATIONAL STANDARDS" title="" />
+<span class="caption">POLAR ADVANCE OF THE NATIONAL STANDARDS<br />
+Climax of four centuries of Arctic exploration&mdash;Stars and Stripes at the Pole.</span>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 100%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="THE_RETURN_A_BATTLE_FOR_LIFE" id="THE_RETURN_A_BATTLE_FOR_LIFE"></a>THE RETURN&mdash;A BATTLE FOR LIFE
+AGAINST FAMINE AND FROST</h2>
+
+<p class="blockquot">TURNED BACKS TO THE POLE AND TO THE SUN&mdash;THE DOGS,
+SEEMINGLY GLAD AND SEEMINGLY SENSIBLE THAT
+THEIR NOSES WERE POINTED HOMEWARD, BARKED
+SHRILLY&mdash;SUFFERING FROM INTENSE DEPRESSION&mdash;THE
+DANGERS OF MOVING ICE, OF STORMS AND SLOW
+STARVATION&mdash;THE THOUGHT OF FIVE HUNDRED AND
+TWENTY MILES TO LAND CAUSES DESPAIR</p>
+
+<h3>XXI<br />
+
+<br /><span class="smcap">Southward Over the Mid-Polar Sea</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>With few glances backward, we continued the
+homeward run in haste, crossing many new crevasses
+and bound on a course along the one hundredth meridian.</p>
+
+<p>The eagerness to solve the mystery had served its
+purpose. The memory of the adventure for a time remained
+as a reminder of reckless daring. As we now
+moved along, there came more and more strongly the
+realization of the prospective difficulties of the return.
+Although the mercury was still frozen and the sun's
+perpetual flush was lost in a frigid blue, the time was
+at hand in lower latitudes for the ice to break and drift
+southward.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>With correct reasoning, all former expeditions had
+planned to return to land and a secure line of retreat
+by May 1. We could not hope to do this until early
+in June. It seemed probable, therefore, that the ice
+along the outskirts of the Polar sea would be much disrupted
+and that open water, small ice and rapid drifts
+would seriously interfere with our return to a sure footing
+on the shores of Fridtjof Nansen Sound. This and
+many other possible dangers had been carefully considered
+before, but the conquest of the Pole was not
+possible without such risks.</p>
+
+<p>We had started earlier than all other Polar expeditions
+and no time had been lost en route. If misfortune
+came to us, it could not be because of wasted energies
+or unnecessary delay. In the last days of the onward
+rush to success there had been neither time nor opportunity
+to ponder over future dangers, but now, facing
+the southern skies, under which lay home and all for
+which we lived, the back trail seemed indescribably long.
+In cold, sober thought, freed of the intoxication of
+Polar enthusiasm, the difficulties increasingly darkened
+in color. We clearly saw that the crucial stage of the
+campaign was not the taking of the Pole. The test of
+our fitness as boreal conquerors was to be measured by
+the outcome of a final battle for life against famine and
+frost.</p>
+
+<p>Figuring out the difficulties and possibilities of
+our return, I came to the conclusion that to endeavor
+to get back by our upward trail would not afford great
+advantage. Much time would be lost seeking the trail.
+The almost continuous low drift of snow during some
+part of nearly every day would obliterate our tracks<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span>
+and render the trail useless as a beaten track in making
+travel easier. The advantage of previously constructed
+snow houses as camps did not appeal to us.</p>
+
+<p>After one is accustomed to a new, clean, bright
+dome of snow every night, as we were, the return to such
+a camp is gloomy and depressing. The house is almost
+invariably left in such a shape that, for hygienic reasons
+alone, it should not be occupied. Furthermore, the influence
+of sun and storm absolutely destroys in a few
+days two out of three of all such shelter places. Moreover,
+we were now camping in our silk tent and did not
+require other shelter. At the season of the year in
+which we were traveling, the activity of the pack farther
+south made back-tracking impossible, because of irregular
+lateral drift of individual fields. And to me the
+most important reason was an eager desire to ascertain
+what might be discovered on a new trail farther west.
+It was this eagerness which led to our being carried
+adrift and held prisoners for a year.</p>
+
+<p>The first days, however, passed rapidly. The ice
+fields became smoother. On April 24 we crossed five
+crevasses. With fair weather and favorable ice, long
+marches were made. On the 24th we made sixteen
+miles, on the 25th fifteen miles, on the 26th, 27th and
+28th, fourteen miles a day. The fire of the homing
+sentiment began to dispel our overbearing fatigue. The
+dogs sniffed the air. The Eskimos sang songs of the
+chase. To me also there came cheering thoughts of
+friends and loved ones to be greeted. I thought of delightful
+dinners, of soul-stirring music. For all of us,
+the good speed of the return chase brought a mental
+atmosphere of dreams of the pleasures of another world.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span>
+For a time we were blinded to ultimate dangers, just as
+we had been in the northward dash.</p>
+
+<p>In our return along the one hundredth meridian,
+there were three important objects to be gained by a
+route somewhat west of the northward march. The increasing
+easterly drift would thus be counterbalanced.
+We hoped to get near enough to the new lands to explore
+a part of the coast. And a wider belt would be
+swept out of the unknown area. On April 30 the pedometer
+registered one hundred and twenty-one miles, and
+by our system of dead reckoning, which was usually correct,
+we should have been at latitude 87&deg;, 59&#697;, longitude
+100&deg;. The nautical observations gave latitude
+88&deg;, 1&#697;, longitude 97&deg;, 42&#697;. We were drifting eastward,
+therefore, with increasing speed. To counterbalance
+our being moved by this drift, we turned and bounded
+southward in a more westerly course.</p>
+
+<p>The never-changing sameness of the daily routine
+was again felt. The novelty of success and the passion
+of the run for the goal were no longer operative. The
+scenes of shivering blue wearied the eye, and there was
+no inspiration in the moving sea of ice to gladden the
+heart. The thermometer rose and fell between 30 and
+40&deg; below zero, Fahrenheit, with a ceaseless wind. The
+first of May was at hand, bringing to mind the blossoms
+and smiles of a kindly world. But here all nature was
+narrowed to lines of ice.</p>
+
+<p>May 1 came with increasing color in the sunbursts,
+but without cheer. The splendor of terrestrial fire was
+a cheat. Over the horizon, mirages displayed celestial
+hysterics. The sun circled the skies in lines of glory,
+but its heat was a sham, its light a torment. The ice<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span>
+was heavy and smooth. On May 2, clouds obscured
+the sky, fog fell heavily over the ice, we struck our
+course with difficulty but made nineteen miles. On
+May 3 snow fell, but the end of the march brought
+clear skies, and, with them, the longing for my land of
+blossoming cherry and apple trees.</p>
+
+<p>With weary nerves, and with compass in hand, my
+lonely march ahead of the sledges continued day by
+day. Progress was satisfactory. We had passed the
+eighty-ninth and eighty-eighth parallels. The eighty-seventh
+and the eighty-sixth would soon be under foot,
+and the sight of the new lands should give encouragement.
+These hard-fought times were days long to be
+remembered. The lack of cerebral stimulation and nutrition
+left no cellular resource to aid the memory of
+those fateful hours of chill.</p>
+
+<p>The long strain of the march had established a
+brotherly sympathy amongst the trio of human strugglers.
+The dogs, though still possessing the savage ferocity
+of the wolf, had taken us into their community.
+We now moved among them without hearing a grunt
+of discord, and their sympathetic eyes followed until we
+were made comfortable on the cheerless snows. If they
+happened to be placed near enough, they edged up and
+encircled us, giving the benefit of their animal heat. To
+remind us of their presence, frost-covered noses were
+frequently pushed under the sleeping bag, and occasionally
+a cold snout touched our warm skin with a rude
+awakening.</p>
+
+<p>We loved the creatures, and admired their superb
+brute strength. Their superhuman adaptability was
+a frequent topic of conversation. With a pelt that was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span>
+a guarantee against all weather condition, they threw
+themselves down to the sweep of winds, in open defiance
+of death-dealing storms. Eating but a pound of pemmican
+a day, and demanding neither water nor shelter,
+they willingly did a prodigious amount of work and
+then, as bed-fellows, daily offered their fur as shelter and
+their bones as head-rests to their two-footed companions.
+We had learned to appreciate the advantage of their
+beating breasts. The bond of animal fellowship had
+drawn tighter and tighter in a long run of successive
+adventures. And now there was a stronger reason than
+ever to appreciate power, for together we were seeking
+an escape from a world which was never intended for
+creatures with pulsating hearts.</p>
+
+<p>Much very heavy ice was crossed near the eighty-eighth
+parallel, but the endless unbroken fields of the
+northward trails were not again seen. Now the weather
+changed considerably. The light, cutting winds from
+the west increased in force, and the spasmodic squalls
+came at shorter intervals. The clear purples and blues
+of the skies gradually gave place to an ugly hue of gray.
+A rush of frosty needles came over the pack for several
+hours each day.</p>
+
+<p>The inducement to seek shelter in cemented walls
+of snow and to wait for better weather was very great.
+But such delay would mean certain starvation. Under
+fair conditions, there was barely food enough to reach
+land, and even short delays might seriously jeopardize
+our return. We could not, therefore, do otherwise than
+force ourselves against the wind and drift with all possible
+speed, paying no heed to unavoidable suffering.
+As there was no alternative, we tried to persuade our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span>selves
+that existing conditions might be worse than they
+were.</p>
+
+<p>The hard work of igloo building was now a thing
+of the past&mdash;only one had been built since leaving the
+Pole, and in this a precious day was lost, while the atmospheric
+fury changed the face of the endless expanse
+of desolation. The little silk tent protected us sufficiently
+from the icy airs. There were still 50&deg; of frost,
+but, with hardened skins and insensible nerve filaments,
+the torture was not so keenly felt. Our steady diet of
+pemmican, tea and biscuits was not entirely satisfactory.
+We longed for enough to give a real filling sense, but
+the daily ration had to be slightly reduced rather than
+increased. The change in life from winter to summer,
+which should take place at about this time of the year,
+was, in our case, marked only by a change in shelter,
+from the snow house to the tent, and our beds were
+moved from the soft snow shelf of the igloo to the hard,
+wind-swept crust.</p>
+
+<p>In my watches to get a peep of the sun at just the
+right moment, I was kept awake during much of the
+resting period. For pastime, my eyes wandered from
+snorting dogs to snoring men. During one of these
+idle moments there came a solution of the utility of the
+dog's tail, a topic with which I had been at play for
+several days. It is quoted here at the risk of censure,
+because it is a typical phase of our lives which cannot
+be illustrated otherwise. Seeming trivialities were seized
+upon as food for thought. Why, I asked, has the dog a
+tail at all? The bear, the musk ox, the caribou and the
+hare, each in its own way, succeeds very well with but
+a dwarfed stub. Why does nature, in the dog, expend<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span>
+its best effort in growing the finest fur over a seemingly
+useless line of tail bones? The thing is distinctive, and
+one could hardly conceive of the creature without the
+accessory, but nature in the Arctic does not often waste
+energy to display beauties and temperament. This tail
+must have an important use; otherwise it would soon
+fall under the knife of frost and time. Yes! It was
+imported into the Arctic by the wolf progenitor of the
+dog from warmer lands, where its swing served a useful
+purpose in fly time. A nose made to breathe warm air
+requires some protection in the far north and the dog
+supplied the need with his tail. At the time when I
+made this discovery a cold wind, charged with cutting
+crystal, was brushing the pack. Each dog had his back
+arched to the wind and his face veiled with an effective
+curl of his tail. Thus each was comfortably shielded
+from icy torment by an appendage adapted to that
+very purpose.</p>
+
+<p>In the long tread over snowy wastes new lessons
+in human mechanism aroused attention. At first the
+effort to find a workable way over the troublesome pack
+surface had kept mind and body keyed to an exciting
+pitch, but slowly this had changed. By a kind of unconscious
+intuition, the eye now found easy routes, the
+lower leg mechanically traveled over yards and miles
+and degrees without even consulting the brain, while the
+leg trunk, in the effort to conserve energy, was left in
+repose at periods during miles of travel, thus saving
+much of the exertion of walking.</p>
+
+<p>The muscles, thus schooled to work automatically,
+left the mind free to work and play. The maddening
+monotone of our routine, together with the expenditure<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span>
+of every available strain of force, had left the head
+dizzy with emptiness. Something must be done to lift
+the soul out of the boreal bleach.</p>
+
+<p>The power of the mind over the horse-power of the
+body was here shown at its best. The flesh proved loyal
+to the gray matter only while mental entertainment was
+encouraged. Thus aching muscles were persuaded to
+do double duty without sending up a cry of tired feeling.
+The play of the mind with topics of its own choosing
+is an advantage worth seeking at all times. But, to us,
+it multiplied vital force and increased greatly the daily
+advance. Science, art and poetry were the heights to
+which the wings of thought soared. Beginning with the
+diversion of making curious speculations on subjects
+such as that of the use of the dog's tail and the Arctic
+law of animal coloring, the first period of this mental
+exercise closed with my staging a drama of the comedies
+and tragedies of the Eskimos.</p>
+
+<p>In the effort to frame sentiment in measured lines,
+a weird list of topics occupied my strained fancy. In
+more agreeable moods I always found pleasure in imagining
+a picture of the Polar sunrise, that budding period
+of life when all Nature awakens after its winter sleep.
+It was not difficult to start E-tuk-i-shook and Ah-we-lah
+on similar flights of fancy. A mere suggestion
+would keep up a flow of agreeable thought for several
+days.</p>
+
+<p>By such forced mental stimuli the centers of fatigue
+were deluded into insensibility. The eighty-seventh
+parallel was crossed, the eighty-sixth was neared, but
+there came a time when both mind and body wearied of
+the whole problem of forced resolution.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>On May 6 we were stopped at six in the morning by
+the approach of an unusual gale. The wind had been
+steady and strong all night, but we did not heed its
+threatening increase of force until too late. It came
+from the west, as usual, driving coarse snow with needle
+points. The ice about was old and hummocky, offering
+a difficult line of march, but some shelter. In the strongest
+blasts we threw ourselves over the sled behind hummocks
+and gathered new breath to force a few miles
+more.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, when no longer able to force the dogs
+through the blinding drift we sought the lee of an unlifted
+block of ice. Here suitable snow was found for a
+snow house. A few blocks were cut and set, but the wind
+swept them away as if they were chips. The tent was
+tried, but it could not be made to stand in the rush of
+the roaring tumult. In sheer despair we crept into the
+tent without erecting the pole. Creeping into bags, we
+then allowed the flapping silk to be buried by the drifting
+snow. Soon the noise and discomfort of the storm
+were lost and we enjoyed the comfort of an icy grave.
+An efficient breathing hole was kept open, and the wind
+was strong enough to sweep off the weight of a dangerous
+drift. A new lesson was thus learned in fighting
+the battle of life, and it was afterwards useful.</p>
+
+<p>Several days of icy despair now followed one another
+in rapid succession. The wind did not rise to the
+full force of a storm, but it was too strong and too cold
+to travel. The food supply was noticeably decreasing.
+The daily advance was less. With such weather, starvation
+seemed inevitable. Camp was moved nearly every
+day, but ambition sank to the lowest ebb. To the atmos<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span>pheric
+unrest was added the instability of broken ice
+and the depressing mystery of an unknown position.
+For many days no observations had been possible. Our
+location could only be guessed at.</p>
+
+<p>Through driving storms, with the wind wailing in
+our ears and deafening us to the dismal howling of the
+hungry dogs, we pushed forward in a daily maddening
+struggle. The route before us was unknown. We were
+in the fateful clutch of a drifting sea of ice. I could not
+guess whither we were bound. At times I even lost hope
+of reaching land. Our bodies were tired. Our legs
+were numb. We were almost insensible to the mad
+craving hunger of our stomachs. We were living on a
+half ration of food, and daily becoming weaker.<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a></p>
+
+<p>Sometimes I paused, overcome by an almost overwhelming
+impulse to lie down and drift through sleep
+into death. At these times, fortunately, thoughts of
+home came thronging, with memories as tender as are
+the memories of singing spring-time birds in winter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span>
+time. And, although the stimulating incentive of reaching
+the Pole on going north was gone, now, having
+accomplished the feat, there was always the thought that
+unless I got home no one should ever learn of that superhuman
+struggle, that final victory.</p>
+
+<p>Empty though it was, I had, as I had hoped, proved
+myself to myself; I had justified the three centuries of
+human effort: I had proven that finite human brain and
+palpitating muscle can be victorious over a cruel and
+death-dealing Nature. It was a testimony that it was
+my duty to give the world of struggling, striving men,
+and which, as a father, I hoped with pride to give to my
+little children.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 640px;">
+<img src="images/illo_365.jpg" width="640" height="433" alt="PTARMIGAN" title="" />
+<span class="caption">PTARMIGAN</span>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 100%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span></p>
+<h2>BACK TO LIFE AND BACK TO LAND</h2>
+
+<p class="blockquot">THE RETURN&mdash;DELUDED BY DRIFT AND FOG&mdash;CARRIED
+ASTRAY OVER AN UNSEEN DEEP&mdash;TRAVEL FOR
+TWENTY DAYS IN A WORLD OF MISTS, WITH THE
+TERROR OF DEATH&mdash;AWAKENED FROM SLEEP BY
+A HEAVENLY SONG&mdash;THE FIRST BIRD&mdash;FOLLOWING
+THE WINGED HARBINGER&mdash;WE REACH LAND&mdash;A
+BLEAK, BARREN ISLAND POSSESSING THE CHARM OF
+PARADISE&mdash;AFTER DAYS VERGING ON STARVATION, WE
+ENJOY A FEAST OF UNCOOKED GAME</p>
+
+<h3>XXII<br />
+
+<br /><span class="smcap">Southward Into the American Archipelago</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>On May 24 the sky cleared long enough to permit
+me to take a set of observations. I found we were on
+the eighty-fourth parallel, near the ninety-seventh
+meridian. The new land I had noted on my northward
+journey was hidden by a low mist. The ice was much
+crevassed, and drifted eastward. Many open spaces
+of water were denoted in the west by patches of water
+sky. The pack was sufficiently active to give us considerable
+anxiety, although pressure lines and open
+water did not at the time seriously impede our progress.</p>
+
+<p>Scarcely enough food remained on the sledges to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span>
+reach our caches unless we should average fifteen miles
+a day. On the return from the Pole to this point we had
+been able to make only twelve miles daily. Now our
+strength, even under fair conditions, did not seem to be
+equal to more than ten miles. The outlook was threatening,
+and even dangerous, but the sight of the cleared
+sky gave new courage to E-tuk-i-shook and Ah-we-lah.</p>
+
+<p>Our best course was to get to Fridtjof Nansen
+Sound as soon as possible. The new land westward was
+invisible, and offered no food prospects. An attempted
+exploration might cause a fatal delay.</p>
+
+<p>Still depending upon a steady easterly drift of the
+pack, a course was set somewhat west of Svartevoeg, the
+northern point of Axel Heiberg Land. In pressing onward,
+light variable winds and thick fogs prevailed.
+The ice changed rapidly to smaller fields as we advanced.
+The temperature rose to zero, and the air really began
+to be warm. Our chronic shivering disappeared. With
+light sledges and endurable weather, we made fair progress
+over the increasing pack irregularities.</p>
+
+<p>As we crossed the eighty-third parallel we found
+ourselves to the west of a large lead, extending slightly
+west of south. Immense quantities of broken and pulverized
+ice lined the shores to a width of several miles.
+The irregularities of this surface and the uncemented
+break offered difficulties over which no force of man or
+beast could move a sledge or boat. Compelled to follow
+the line of least resistance, a southerly course was set
+along the ice division. The wind now changed and came
+from the east, but there was no relief from the heavy
+banks of fog that surrounded us.</p>
+
+<p>The following days were days of desperation. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span>
+food for man and dog was reduced, and the difficulties
+of ice travel increased dishearteningly. We traveled
+twenty days, not knowing our position. A gray mystery
+enshrouded us. Terror followed in our wake. Beneath
+us the sea moved&mdash;whither it was carrying us I did not
+know. That we were ourselves journeying toward an
+illimitable, hopeless sea, where we should die of slow,
+lingering starvation, I knew was a dreadful probability.
+Every minute drew its pangs of despair and fear.</p>
+
+<p>The gray world of mist was silent. My companions
+gazed at me with faces shriveled, thinned and hardened
+as those of mummies. Their anguish was unspeakable.
+My own vocal powers seemed to have left me.
+Our dogs were still; with bowed heads, tails drooping,
+they pulled the sledges dispiritedly. We seemed like
+souls in torment, traveling in a world of the dead, condemned
+to some Dantesque torture that should never
+cease.</p>
+
+<p>After the mental torment of threatened starvation,
+which prevented, despite the awful languor of my tortured
+limbs, any sleep; after heart-breaking marches
+and bitter hunger and unquenched thirst, the baffling
+mist that had shut us from all knowledge at last cleared
+away one morning. Our hearts bounded. I felt such
+relief as a man buried alive must feel when, after struggling
+in the stifling darkness, his grave is suddenly
+opened. Land loomed to the west and south of us.</p>
+
+<p>Yet we found we had been hardly dealt with by
+fate. Since leaving the eighty-fourth parallel, without
+noticeable movement, we had been carried astray by the
+ocean drift. We had moved with the entire mass that
+covered the Polar waters. I took observations. They<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span>
+gave latitude 79&deg; 32&#697;, and longitude 101&deg; 22&#697;. At last
+I had discovered our whereabouts, and found that we
+were far from where we ought to be. But our situation
+was indeed nearly hopeless. The mere gaining a knowledge
+of where we actually were, however, fanned again
+the inextinguishable embers of hope.</p>
+
+<p>We were in Crown Prince Gustav Sea. To the
+east were the low mountains and high valleys of Axel
+Heiberg Land, along the farther side of which was our
+prearranged line of retreat, with liberal caches of good
+things and with big game everywhere. But we were
+effectually barred from all this.</p>
+
+<p>Between us and the land lay fifty miles of small
+crushed ice and impassable lines of open water. In hard-fought
+efforts to cross these we were repulsed many
+times. I knew that if by chance we should succeed in
+crossing, there would still remain an unknown course of
+eighty miles to the nearest cache, on the eastern coast of
+Axel Heiberg Land.</p>
+
+<p>We had no good reason to expect any kind of subsistence
+along the west coast of Axel Heiberg Land.
+We had been on three-fourths rations for three weeks,
+and there remained only half rations for another ten
+days. Entirely aside from the natural barriers in the
+way of returning eastward and northward, we were now
+utterly unequal to the task, for we had not the food to
+support us.</p>
+
+<p>The land to the south was nearer. Due south there
+was a wide gap which we took to be Hassel Sound. On
+each side there was a low ice-sheeted island, beyond the
+larger islands which Sverdrup had named Ellef Ringnes
+Land and Amund Ringnes Land. The ice southward<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span>
+was tolerably good and the drift was south-south-east.</p>
+
+<p>In the hope that some young seals might be seen
+we moved into Hassel Sound toward the eastern island.
+To satisfy our immediate pangs of hunger was our most
+important mission.</p>
+
+<p>The march on June 14 was easy, with a bright
+warm sun and a temperature but little under the freezing
+point. In a known position, on good ice, and with
+land rising before us, we were for a brief period happy
+and strong, even with empty stomachs. The horizon was
+eagerly sought for some color or form or movement to
+indicate life. We were far enough south to expect bears
+and seals, and expecting the usual luck of the hungry
+savage, we sought diligently. Our souls reached forth
+through our far-searching eyes. Our eyes pained with
+the intense fixity of gazing, yet no animate thing appeared.
+The world was vacant and dead. Our beating
+hearts, indeed, seemed to be the only palpitating things
+there.</p>
+
+<p>In the piercing rays of a high sun the tent was
+erected, and in it, after eating only four ounces of pemmican
+and drinking two cups of icy water, we sought
+rest. The dogs, after a similar ration, but without
+water, fell into an easy sleep. I regarded the poor creatures
+with tenderness and pity. For more than a fortnight
+they had not uttered a sound to disturb the frigid
+silence. When a sled dog is silent and refuses to fight
+with his neighbor, his spirit is very low. Finally I fell
+asleep.</p>
+
+<p>At about six o'clock we were awakened by a strange
+sound. Our surprised eyes turned from side to side.
+Not a word was uttered. Another sound came&mdash;a series<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span>
+of soft, silvery notes&mdash;the song of a creature that might
+have come from heaven. I listened with rapture. I
+believed I was dreaming. The enchanting song continued&mdash;I
+lay entranced. I could not believe this divine
+thing was of our real world until the pole of our tent
+gently quivered. Then, above us, I heard the flutter
+of wings. It was a bird&mdash;a snow bunting trilling its
+ethereal song&mdash;the first sound of life heard for many
+months.</p>
+
+<p>We were back to life! Tears of joy rolled down
+our emaciated faces. If I could tell you of the resurrection
+of the soul which came with that first bird note, and
+the new interest which it gave in our subsequent life, I
+should feel myself capable of something superhuman in
+powers of expression.</p>
+
+<p>With the song of that marvelous bird a choking
+sense of homesickness came to all of us. We spoke no
+word. The longing for home gripped our hearts.</p>
+
+<p>We were hungry, but no thought of killing this
+little feathered creature came to us. It seemed as
+divine as the bird that came of old to Noah in the ark.
+Taking a few of our last bread crumbs, we went out to
+give it food. The little chirping thing danced joyously
+on the crisp snows, evidently as glad to see us as we
+were to behold it. I watched it with fascination. At
+last we were back to life! We felt renewed vigor. And
+when the little bird finally rose into the air and flew
+homeward, our spirits rose, our eyes followed it, and, as
+though it were a token sent to us, we followed its winged
+course landward with eager, bounding hearts.</p>
+
+<p>We were now on immovable ice attached to the
+land. We directed our course uninterruptedly land<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span>ward,
+for there was no thought of further rest or sleep
+after the visit of the bird had so uplifted our hearts. Our
+chances of getting meat would have been bettered by
+following close to the open water, but the ice there was
+such that no progress could be made. Furthermore, the
+temptation quickly to set foot on land was too great to
+resist. At the end of a hard march&mdash;the last few hours
+of which were through deep snows&mdash;we mounted the ice
+edge, and finally reached a little island&mdash;a bare spot of
+real land. When my foot touched it, my heart sank.
+We sat down, and the joy of the child in digging the
+sand of the seashore was ours.</p>
+
+<p>I wonder if ever such a bleak spot, in a desert of
+death, had so impressed men before as a perfect paradise.
+In this barren heap of sand and clay, we were at
+last free of the danger, the desolation, the sterility of that
+soul-withering environment of a monotonously moving
+world of ice and eternal frost.</p>
+
+<p>We fastened the dogs to a rock, and pitched the tent
+on earth-soiled snows. In my joy I did not forget that
+the Pole was ours, but, at that time, I was ready to offer
+freely to others the future pleasures of its crystal environment
+and all its glory. Our cup had been filled too
+often with its bitters and too seldom with its sweets for
+us to entertain further thirst for boreal conquest.</p>
+
+<p>And we also resolved to keep henceforth from the
+wastes of the terrible Polar sea. In the future the position
+of lands must govern our movements. For, along
+a line of rocks, although we might suffer from hunger,
+we should no longer be helpless chips on the ocean drift,
+and if no other life should be seen, at least occasional
+shrimps would gladden the heart.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 640px;">
+<img src="images/illo_373.jpg" width="640" height="429" alt="WITH EAGER EYES WE SEARCHED THE DUSKY PLAINS OF CRYSTAL, BUT THERE WAS NO LAND, NO
+LIFE, TO RELIEVE THE PURPLE RUN OF DEATH" title="" />
+<span class="caption">&ldquo;WITH EAGER EYES WE SEARCHED THE DUSKY PLAINS OF CRYSTAL, BUT THERE WAS NO LAND, NO
+LIFE, TO RELIEVE THE PURPLE RUN OF DEATH&rdquo;</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 553px;">
+<img src="images/illo_374.jpg" width="553" height="800" alt="RECORD LEFT IN BRASS TUBE AT NORTH POLE" title="" />
+<span class="caption">RECORD LEFT IN BRASS TUBE AT NORTH POLE</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>We stepped about on the solid ground with a new
+sense of security. But the land about was low, barren,
+and shapeless. Its formation was triassic, similar to that
+of most of Heiberg land, but in our immediate surroundings,
+erosion by frost, the grind of ice sheets, and the
+power of winds, had leveled projecting rocks and
+cliffs. Part of its interior was blanketed with ice.
+Its shore line had neither the relief of a colored
+cliff nor a picturesque headland; there was not even a
+wall of ice; there were only dull, uninteresting slopes of
+sand and snow separating the frozen sea from the land-ice.
+The most careful scrutiny gave no indication of a
+living creature. The rocks were uncovered even with
+black lichens. A less inviting spot of earth could not be
+conceived, yet it aroused in us a deep sense of enthusiasm.
+A strip of tropical splendor could not have
+done more. The spring of man's passion is sprung by
+contrast, not by degrees of glory.</p>
+
+<p>In camp, the joy of coming back to earth was
+chilled by the agonizing call of the stomach. The
+effervescent happiness could not dispel the pangs of
+hunger. A disabled dog which had been unsuccessfully
+nursed for several days was sacrificed on the altar of
+hard luck, and the other dogs were thereupon given a
+liberal feed, in which we shared. To our palates the
+flesh of the dog was not distasteful, yet the dog had
+been our companion for many months, and at the same
+time that our conscienceless stomachs were calling for
+more hot, blood-wet meat, a shivering sense of guilt came
+over me. We had killed and were eating a living creature
+which had been faithful to us.</p>
+
+<p>We were hard-looking men at this time. Our fur<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span>
+garments were worn through at the elbows and at the
+knees. Ragged edges dangled in the winds. All the
+boot soles were mere films, like paper with many holes.
+Our stockings were in tatters. The bird-skin shirts had
+been fed to the dogs, and strips of our sleeping bags
+had day by day been added to the canine mess. It took
+all our spare time now to mend clothing. Dressed in
+rags, with ugly brown faces, seamed with many deep
+wind-fissures, we had reached, in our appearance, the
+extreme limit of degradation.</p>
+
+<p>At the Pole I had been thin, but now my skin was
+contracted over bones offering only angular eminences
+as a bodily outline. The Eskimos were as thin as myself.
+My face was as black as theirs. They had risen
+to higher mental levels, and I had descended to lower
+animal depths. The long strain, the hard experiences,
+had made us equals. We were, however, still in good
+health and were capable of considerable hard work. It
+was not alone the want of food which had shriveled our
+bodies, for greater pangs of hunger were reserved for a
+later run of misfortune. Up to this point persistent
+overwork had been the most potent factor.</p>
+
+<p>As we passed out of Hassel Sound, the ice drifted
+southward. Many new fractures were noted, and open
+spaces of water appeared. Here was seen the track of
+a rat&mdash;the first sign of a four-footed creature&mdash;and we
+stopped to examine the tiny marks with great interest.
+Next, some old bear tracks were detected. These simple
+things had an intense fascination for us, coming as we
+did out of a lifeless world; and, too, these signs showed
+that the possibilities of food were at hand, and the
+thought sharpened our senses into savage fierceness.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>We continued our course southward, as we followed,
+wolf-like, in the bear footprints. The sledges
+bounded over the icy irregularities as they had not done
+for months. Every crack in the ice was searched for
+seals, and with the glasses we mounted hummock after
+hummock to search the horizon for bears.</p>
+
+<p>We were not more than ten miles beyond land
+when Ah-we-lah located an auspicious spot to leeward.
+After a peep through the glasses he shouted. The dogs
+understood. They raised their ears, and jumped to the
+full length of their traces. We hurried eastward to deprive
+the bear of our scent, but we soon learned that he
+was as hungry as we were, for he made an air line for our
+changed position. We were hunting the bear&mdash;the
+bear was also hunting us.</p>
+
+<p>Getting behind a hummock, we awaited developments.
+Bruin persistently neared, rising on his
+haunches frequently so as the better to see E-tuk-i-shook,
+who had arranged himself like a seal as a decoy.
+When within a few hundred yards the dogs were freed.
+They had been waiting like entrenched soldiers for a
+chance to advance. In a few moments the gaunt creatures
+encircled the puzzled bear. Almost without a
+sound, they leaped at the great animal and sank their
+fangs into his hind legs. Ah-we-lah fired. The bear
+fell.</p>
+
+<p>Camp technique and the advantages of a fire were
+not considered&mdash;the meat was swallowed raw, with
+wolfish haste, and no cut of carefully roasted bullock
+ever tasted better. It was to such grim hunger that we
+had come.</p>
+
+<p>Then we slept, and after a long time our eyes re<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span>opened
+upon a world colored with new hope. The immediate
+threat of famine was removed, and a day was
+given over to filling up with food. Even after that, a
+liberal supply of fresh meat rested on the sledge for
+successive days of feasting. In the days which followed,
+other bears, intent on examining our larder, came near
+enough at times to enable us to keep up a liberal supply
+of fresh meat.</p>
+
+<p>With the assurance of a food supply, a course was
+set to enter Wellington Channel and push along to
+Lancaster Sound, where I hoped a Scottish whaler could
+be reached in July or August. In this way it seemed
+possible to reach home shores during the current year.
+If we should try to reach Annoatok I realized we should
+in all probability be compelled to winter at Cape Sabine.
+The ice to the eastward in Norwegian Bay offered difficulties
+like those of Crown Prince Gustav Sea, and
+altogether the easterly return to our base did not at this
+time seem encouraging. The air-line distance to Smith
+Sound and that to Lancaster Sound were about the
+same, with the tremendous advantage of a straight
+course&mdash;a direct drift&mdash;and fairly smooth ice to the
+southward.</p>
+
+<p>This conclusion to push forward for Lancaster
+Sound was reached on June 19. We were to the west
+of North Cornwall Island, but a persistent local fog
+gave only an occasional view of its icy upper slopes. The
+west was clear, and King Christian Land appeared as
+a low line of blue. About us the ice was small but free
+of pressure troubles. Bear tracks were frequently seen as
+we went along. The sea was bright. The air was delightfully
+warm, with the thermometer at 10&deg; above zero.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>At every stop, the panting dogs tumbled and rolled
+playfully on the snows, and pushed their heated muzzles
+deep into the white chill. If given time they would
+quickly arrange a comfortable bed and stretch out, seemingly
+lifeless, for a refreshing slumber. At the awakening
+call of the lash, all were ready with a quick jump
+and a daring snarl, but the need of a tight trace removed
+their newly-acquired fighting propensity. They
+had gained strength and spirit with remarkable rapidity.
+Only two days before, they stumbled along with irregular
+step, slack traces, and lowered tails, but the fill of
+juicy bear's meat raised their bushy appendages to a
+coil of pride&mdash;an advantage which counted for several
+miles in a day's travel.</p>
+
+<p>The drift carried us into Penny Strait, midway between
+Bathurst Land and Grinnell Peninsula. The
+small islands along both shores tore up the ice and piled
+it in huge uplifts. There was a tremendous pressure as
+the floes were forced through narrow gorges. Only a
+middle course was possible for us, with but a few miles'
+travel to our credit for each day. But the southerly
+movement of the groaning ice was rapid. A persistent
+fog veiled the main coast on both sides, but off-lying
+islands were seen and recognized often enough to note
+the positions. At Dundas Island the drift was stopped,
+and we sought the shores of Grinnell Peninsula. Advancing
+eastward, close to land, the ice proved extremely
+difficult. The weather, however, was delightful. Between
+snowdrifts, purple and violet flowers rose over
+warm beds of newly invigorated mosses&mdash;the first
+flowers that we had seen for a long and weary time, and
+the sight of them, with their blossoms and color, deeply<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span>
+thrilled me. From misty heights came the howl of the
+white wolf. Everywhere were seen the traces of the fox
+and the lemming. The eider-duck and the ivory gull
+had entered our horizon.</p>
+
+<p>All nature smiled with the cheer of midsummer.
+Here was an inspiring fairyland for which our hearts
+had long yearned. In it there was music which the
+long stiffened tympanums were slow in catching. The
+land was an oasis of hardy verdure. The sea was a
+shifting scene of frost and blue glitter. With the soul
+freed from its icy fetters, the soft, sunny airs came in
+bounds of gladness. In dreamy stillness we sought the
+bosom of the frozen sea, and there heard the groan of
+the pack which told of home shores. Drops of water
+from melting snows put an end to thirst tortures. The
+blow of the whales and the seals promised a luxury of
+fire and fuel, while the low notes of the ducks prepared
+the palate for dessert.</p>
+
+<p>As we neared a little moss-covered island in drifting
+southward, we saw the interesting chick footprints
+of ptarmigan in the snow. The dogs pointed their ears
+and raised their noses, and we searched the clearing skies
+with eye and ear for the sudden swoop of the boreal
+chicken. I had developed a taste for this delicate fowl
+as desperate as that of the darky for chicken, and
+my conscience was sufficiently deadened by cold and
+hunger to break into a roost by night or day to steal
+anything that offered feathery delights for the palate.</p>
+
+<p>I was courting gastric desire, but the ptarmigan
+was engaged in another kind of courtship. Two singing
+capons were cooing notes of love to a shy chick, and they
+suddenly decided that there was not room for two,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</a></span>
+whereupon a battle ensued with a storm of wings and
+much darting of bills. In this excitement they got into
+an ice crevasse, where they might have become easy victims
+without the use of ammunition. But, with empty
+stomachs, there is also at times a heart-hunger, which
+pleases a higher sense and closes the eye to gastric wants.</p>
+
+<p>Later in the same day, we saw at a great distance
+what seemed like two men in motion. We hastened to
+meet them with social anticipations. Now they seemed
+tall&mdash;now mere dots on the horizon. I thought this due
+to their movement over ice irregularities. But boreal
+optics play havoc with the eye and the sense of perspective.
+As we rose suddenly on a hummock, where
+we had a clearer view, the objects rose on wings! They
+were ravens which had been enlarged and reduced by
+reflecting and refracting surfaces and a changing atmosphere,
+in much the same manner as a curved mirror
+makes a caricature of one's self. I laughed&mdash;bitterly.
+Dazed, bewildered, there was nevertheless for me a joy
+in seeing these living creatures, denizens of the land
+toward which we were directed.</p>
+
+<p>The bears no longer sought our camp, but the seals
+were conveniently scattered along our track. A kindly
+world had spread our waistbands to fairly normal dimensions.
+The palate began to exercise its discriminating
+force. Ducks and land animals were sought with
+greater eagerness. While in this mood, three white
+caribou were secured. They were beautiful creatures,
+and as pleasing to the palate as to the eye, but owing to
+the very rough ice it was quite impossible to carry more
+than a few days' supply. Usually we took only the
+choice parts of the game, but every eatable morsel of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</a></span>
+caribou that we could carry was packed on the sledges.</p>
+
+<p>With this wealth of food and fuel we moved along
+the shores of Wellington Channel to Pioneer Bay. We
+felt that we were steadily on our way homeward. There
+was no premonition of the keen disappointment that
+awaited us, of the inevitable imprisonment for the long
+Arctic winter and the days of starvation that were to
+come.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 640px;">
+<img src="images/illo_382.jpg" width="640" height="335" alt="PTARMIGAN CHICKS" title="" />
+<span class="caption">PTARMIGAN CHICKS</span>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 100%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="OVERLAND_TO_JONES_SOUND" id="OVERLAND_TO_JONES_SOUND"></a>OVERLAND TO JONES SOUND</h2>
+
+<p class="blockquot">HOURS OF ICY TORTURE&mdash;A FRIGID SUMMER STORM IN
+THE BERG-DRIVEN ARCTIC SEA&mdash;A PERILOUS DASH
+THROUGH TWISTING LANES OF OPEN WATER IN A
+CANVAS CANOE&mdash;THE DRIVE OF HUNGER.</p>
+
+<h3>XXIII<br />
+
+<br /><span class="smcap">Adrift on an Iceberg</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>As we neared Pioneer Bay, along the coast of
+North Devon, it became quite evident that farther advance
+by sledge was quite impossible. A persistent
+southerly wind had packed the channel with a jam of
+small ice, over which the effort of sledging was a hopeless
+task. The season was too far advanced to offer the
+advantage of an ice-foot on the shore line. There was
+no open water, nor any game to supply our larder. The
+caribou was mostly used. We began to feel the craving
+pain of short rations.</p>
+
+<p>Although the distance to Lancaster Sound was
+short, land travel was impossible, and, with no food, we
+could not await the drift of the ice. The uncertainty
+of game was serious, with nothing as a reserve to await
+the dubious coming of a ship. If game should appear,
+we might remain on the ice, accumulating in the meantime
+a supply of meat for travel by canvas boat later.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>This boat had been our hope in moving south, but
+thus far had not been of service. Forced to subsist
+mainly on birds, the ammunition rapidly diminished, and
+something had to be done at once to prevent famine.</p>
+
+<p>We might have returned to the game haunts of
+Grinnell Peninsula, but it seemed more prudent to cross
+the land to Jones Sound. Here, from Sverdrup's experience,
+we had reason to expect abundant game. By
+moving eastward there would be afforded the alternative
+of pushing northward if we failed to get to the
+whalers. The temperature now remained steadily near
+the freezing point, and with the first days of July the
+barometer became unsteady.</p>
+
+<p>On the 4th of July we began the climb of the highlands
+of North Devon, winding about Devonian cliffs
+toward the land of promise beyond. The morning was
+gray, as it had been for several days, but before noon
+black clouds swept the snowy heights and poured icy
+waters over us. We were saturated to the skin, and
+shivered in the chill of the high altitude. Soon afterwards
+a light breath-taking wind from the northwest
+froze our pasty furs into sheets of ice. Still later, a
+heavy fall of snow compelled us to camp. The snowstorm
+continued for two days, and held us in a snow-buried
+tent, with little food and no fuel.</p>
+
+<p>Although the storm occasioned a good deal of suffering,
+it also brought some advantages. The land had
+been imperfectly covered with snow, and we had been
+forced to drive from bank to bank, over bared ground,
+to find a workable course. But now all was well sheeted
+with crusted snow. Soon the gaunt, dun-colored cliffs of
+North Devon ended the monotony of interior snows,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</a></span>
+and beyond was seen the cheering blue of Jones Sound.</p>
+
+<p>Much open water extended along the north shore
+to beyond Musk Ox Fiord. The southern shores
+were walled with pack-ice for a hundred miles or
+more. In bright, cold weather we made a descent to
+Eidsbotn on July 7th. Here a diligent search for food
+failed. Daily the howl of wolves and the cry of birds
+came as a response to our calling stomachs. A scant
+supply of ducks was secured for the men with an expenditure
+of some of the last rifle ammunition, but no walruses,
+no seals, and no other big game were seen. To
+secure dog food seemed quite hopeless.</p>
+
+<p>We now had the saddest incident of a long run of
+trouble. Open water ran the range of vision, sledges
+were no longer possible, game was scarce, our ammunition
+was nearly exhausted. Our future fate had to be
+worked out in a canvas boat. What were we to do with
+the faithful dog survivors? In the little boat they could
+not go with us. We could not stay with them and live.
+We must part. Two had already left us to join their
+wolf progenitors. We gave the others the same liberty.
+One sledge was cut off and put into the canvas boat
+which we had carried to the Pole and back. Our sleeping-bags
+and old winter clothing were given as food to
+the dogs. All else was snugly packed in waterproof
+packages as well as possible, and placed in the boat.
+With sad eyes, we left the shore. The dogs howled like
+crying children; we still heard them when five miles off
+shore.</p>
+
+<p>Off Cape Vera there was open water, and beyond,
+as far eastward as we could see, its quivering surface
+offered a restful prospect. As we advanced, however,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</a></span>
+the weather proved treacherous, and the seas rose with
+sudden and disagreeable thumps.</p>
+
+<p>At times we camped on ice islands in the pack, but
+the pack-ice soon became too insecure, being composed
+of small pieces, and weakened in spots by the sun. Even
+a moderate gale would tear a pack apart, to be broken
+into smaller fragments by the water. Sometimes we
+made camp in the boat, with a box for a pillow and a
+piece of bear skin for a cover.</p>
+
+<p>With great anxiety we pulled to reach the land at
+Cape Sparbo before a storm entrapped us. To the
+north, the water was free of ice as far as the shores of
+Ellesmere Land, forty miles away. To avoid the glare
+of the midday sun, we chose to travel by night, but we
+were nearing the end of the season of Arctic double-days
+and midnight suns, when the winds come suddenly
+and often.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after midnight the wind from the Pacific
+came in short puffs, with periods of calm so sudden that
+we looked about each time for something to happen. At
+about the same time there came long swells from the
+northwest. We scented a storm, although at that time
+there were no other signs. The ice was examined for a
+possible line of retreat to the land, but, with pressure
+ridges, hummocks and breaks, I knew this was impossible.
+It was equally hopeless to camp on such treacherous
+ice. Berg ice had been passed the day before, but
+this was about as far behind as the land was ahead.</p>
+
+<p>So we pulled along desperately, while the swells
+shortened and rose. The atmosphere became thick and
+steel gray. The cliffs of Ellesmere Land faded, while
+lively clouds tumbled from the highlands to the sea.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>We were left no alternative but to seek the shelter
+of the disrupted pack, and press landward as best we
+could. We had hardly landed on the ice, and drawn
+our boat after us, when the wind struck us with such
+force that we could hardly stand against it. The ice
+immediately started in a westward direction, veering off
+from the land a little and leaving open leads. These
+leads, we now saw, were the only possible places of
+safety. For, in them, the waters were easy, and the
+wind was slightly shut off by the walls of pressure lines
+and hummocks. Furthermore, they offered slants now
+and then by which we could approach the land.</p>
+
+<p>The sledge was set under the boat and lashed. All
+our things were lashed to the wooden frame of the canoe
+to prevent the wind and the sea from carrying them
+away. We crossed several small floes and jumped the
+lines of water separating them, pulling sledge and canoe
+after us. The pressure lines offered severe barriers.
+To cross them we were compelled to separate the canoe
+from its sledge and remove the baggage. All of this
+required considerable time. A sense of hopelessness
+filled my heart. In the meantime, the wind veered
+to the east and came with a rush that left us helpless.
+We sought the lee of a hummock, and hoped the violence
+of the storm would soon spend itself, but there were no
+easy spells in this storm, nor did it show signs of early
+cessation. The ice about us moved rapidly westward
+and slowly seaward.</p>
+
+<p>It was no longer possible to press toward the land,
+for the leads of water were too wide and were lined with
+small whitecaps, while the tossing seas hurled mountains
+of ice and foaming water over the pack edge.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The entire pack was rising and falling under faint
+swells, and gradually wearing to little fragments. The
+floe on which we stood was strong. I knew it would
+hold out longer than most of the ice about, but it was
+not high enough above water to give us a dry footing as
+the seas advanced.</p>
+
+<p>From a distance to the windward we noted a low
+iceberg slowly gaining on our floe. It was a welcome
+sight, for it alone could raise us high enough above the
+soul-despairing rush of the icy water.</p>
+
+<p>Its rich ultramarine blue promised ice of a sufficient
+strength to withstand the battling of the storm. Never
+were men on a sinking ship more anxious to reach a
+rock than we were to reach this blue stage of ice. It
+offered several little shelves, upon which we could rise
+out of the water upon the ice. We watched with
+anxious eyes as the berg revolved and forced the other
+ice aside.</p>
+
+<p>It aimed almost directly for us, and would probably
+cut our floe. We prepared for a quick leap upon
+the deck of our prospective craft.</p>
+
+<p>Bearing down upon us it touched a neighboring
+piece and pushed us away. We quickly pulled to the
+other pan, and then found, to our dismay, a wide band
+of mushy slush, as impossible to us for a footing as
+quicksand would have been. As the berg passed, however,
+it left a line of water behind it. We quickly threw
+boat and sledge into this, paddled after the berg, and,
+reaching it, leaped to its security. What a relief to be
+raised above the crumbling pack-ice and to watch from
+safety the thundering of the elements!</p>
+
+<p>The berg which we had boarded was square, with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span>
+rounded corners. Its highest points were about twenty
+feet above water; the general level was about ten feet.
+The ice was about eighty feet thick, and its width was
+about a hundred feet. These dimensions assured stability,
+for if the thing had turned over, as bergs frequently
+do, we should be left to seek breath among the
+whales.</p>
+
+<p>It was an old remnant of a much larger berg which
+had stood the Arctic tempest for many years. This we
+figured out from the hard blue of the ice and its many
+caverns and pinnacles. We were, therefore, on a secure
+mass of crystal which was not likely to suffer
+severely from a single storm. Its upper configuration,
+however, though beautiful in its countless shades of blue,
+did not offer a comfortable berth. There were three
+pinnacles too slippery and too steep to climb, with a
+slope leading by a gradual incline on each side. Along
+these the seas had worn grooves leading to a central
+concavity filled with water. The only space which we
+could occupy was the crater-like rim around this lake.
+At this time we had to endure only the seething pitch of
+the sea and the cutting blast of the storm.</p>
+
+<p>The small ice about kept the seas from boarding.
+To prevent our being thrown about on the slippery surface,
+we cut holes into the pinnacles and spread lines
+about them, to which we clung. The boat was securely
+fastened in a similar way by cutting a makeshift for a
+ringbolt in the floor of ice. Then we pushed from side
+to side along the lines, to encourage our hearts and to
+force our circulation. Although the temperature was
+only at the freezing point, it was bitterly cold, and we
+were in a bad way to weather a storm.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The sea had drenched us from head to foot. Only
+our shirts were dry. With hands tightly gripped to the
+line and to crevasses, we received the spray of the breaking
+icy seas while the berg ploughed the scattered pack
+and plunged seaward. The cold, though only at the
+freezing point, pierced our snow-pasted furs and
+brought shivers worse than that of zero's lowest. Thus
+the hours of physical torture and mental anguish passed,
+while the berg moved towards the gloomy black cliff of
+Hell Gate. Here the eastern sky bleached and the
+south blued, but the falling temperature froze our garments
+to coats of mail. We were still dressed in part
+of our winter garments.</p>
+
+<p>The coat was of sealskin, with hood attached; the
+shirt of camel's hair blanket, also with a hood; the trousers
+of bear fur; boots of seal, with hair removed, and
+stockings of hare fur. The mittens were of seal, and
+there were pads of grass for the palms and soles. Our
+garments, though not waterproof, shed water and excluded
+the winds, but there is a cold that comes with wet
+garments and strong winds that sets the teeth to chattering
+and the skin to quivering.</p>
+
+<p>As all was snug and secure on the berg, we began to
+take a greater interest in our wind and sea-propelled
+craft. Its exposed surface was swept by the winds,
+while its submarine surface was pushed by tides and
+undercurrents, giving it a complex movement at variance
+with the pack-ice. It ploughed up miles of sea-ice,
+crushing and throwing it aside.</p>
+
+<p>After several hours of this kind of navigation&mdash;which
+was easy for us, because the movement of the
+swell and the breaking of the sea did not inflict a hard<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</a></span>ship&mdash;the
+berg suddenly, without any apparent reason,
+took a course at right angles to the wind, and deliberately
+pushed out of the pack into the seething seas.
+This rapid shift from comfort to the wild agitation of
+the black waters made us gasp. The seas, with boulders
+of ice, rolled up over our crest and into the concavity of
+the berg, leaving no part safe. Seizing our axes, we
+cut many other anchor holes in the ice, doubly secured
+our life lines, and shifted with our boat to the edge of
+the berg turned to the wind. The hours of suspense
+and torment thus spent seemed as long as the winters of
+the Eskimo. The pack soon became a mere pearly glow
+against a dirty sky. We were rushing through a seething
+blackness, made more impressive by the pearl and
+blue of the berg and the white, ice-lined crests.</p>
+
+<p>What could we do to keep the springs of life from
+snapping in such a world of despair? Fortunately, we
+were kept too busy dodging the storm-driven missiles of
+water and ice to ponder much over our fate. Otherwise
+the mind could not have stood the infernal strain.</p>
+
+<p>Our bronze skins were adapted to cold and winds,
+but the torture of the cold, drenching water was new.
+For five months we had been battered by winds and cut
+by frosts, but water was secured only by melting ice with
+precious fuel which we had carried thousands of miles.
+If we could get enough of the costly liquid to wash our
+cold meals down, we had been satisfied. The luxury of
+a face wash or a bath, except by the wind-driven snows,
+was never indulged in. Now, in stress of danger, we
+were getting it from every direction. The torments of
+frost about the Pole were nothing compared to this boiling
+blackness.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Twenty-four hours elapsed before there was any
+change. Such calls of nature as hunger or thirst or
+sleep were left unanswered. We maintained a terrific
+struggle to keep from being washed into the sea. At
+last the east paled, the south became blue, and the land
+on both sides rose in sight. The wind came steadily, but
+reduced in force, with a frosty edge that hardened our
+garments to sheets of ice.</p>
+
+<p>We were not far from the twin channels, Cardigan
+Strait and Hell Gate, where the waters of the Pacific
+and Atlantic meet. We were driving for Cardigan
+Strait, past the fiords into which we had descended from
+the western seas two weeks before. We had, therefore,
+lost an advance of two weeks in one day, and we had
+probably lost our race with time to reach the life-saving
+haunts of the Eskimo.</p>
+
+<p>Still, this line of thought was foreign to us. Not
+far away were bold cliffs from which birds descended to
+the rushing waters. At the sight my heart rose. Here
+we saw the satisfying prospect of an easy breakfast if
+only the waves would cease to fold in white crests.
+Long trains of heavy ice were rushing with railroad
+speed out of the straits. As we watched, the temperature
+continued to fall. Soon the north blackened with
+swirling curls of smoke. The wind came with the sound
+of exploding guns from Hell Gate. What, I asked
+myself, was to be our fate now?</p>
+
+<p>We took a southwest course. Freezing seas washed
+over the berg and froze our numbed feet to the ice, upon
+which a footing otherwise would have been very difficult.
+Adrift in a vast, ice-driven, storm-thundering ocean, I
+stood silent, paralyzed with terror. After a few hours,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</a></span>
+sentinel floes of the pack slowly shoved toward us, and
+unresistingly, we were ushered into the harboring influence
+of the heavy Polar ice.</p>
+
+<p>The berg lost its erratic movement, and soon settled
+in a fixed position. The wind continued to tear along in
+a mad rage, but we found shelter in our canoe, dozing
+away for a few moments while one paced the ice as a
+sentinel. Slowly a lane of quiet water appeared among
+the floes. We heard a strangely familiar sound which
+set our hearts throbbing. The walrus and the seal, one
+by one, came up to the surface to blow. Here, right before
+us, was big game, with plenty of meat and fat. We
+were starving, but we gazed almost helplessly on
+plenty, for its capture was difficult for us.</p>
+
+<p>We had only a few cartridges and four cans of pemmican
+in our baggage. These were reserved for use to
+satisfy the last pangs of famine. That time had not yet
+arrived. Made desperate by hunger, after a brief rest
+we began to seek food. Birds flying from the land became
+our game at this time. We could secure these with
+the slingshot made by the Eskimos, and later, by entangling
+loops in lines, and in various other ways which
+hunger taught us.</p>
+
+<p>A gull lighted on a pinnacle of our berg. Quietly
+but quickly we placed a bait and set a looped line. We
+watched with bated breath. The bird peered about,
+espied the luring bait, descended with a flutter of wings,
+pecked the pemmican. There was a snapping sound&mdash;the
+bird was ours. Leaping upon it, we rapidly cut it
+in bits and ravenously devoured it raw. Few things I
+have ever eaten tasted so delicious as this meat, which
+had the flavor of cod-liver oil.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The ice soon jammed in a grinding pack against
+the land, and the wind spent its force in vain. We held
+our position, and two of us, after eating the bird, slept
+until the sentinel called us. At midnight the wind eased
+and the ice started its usual rebound, seaward and eastward,
+with the tide.</p>
+
+<p>This was our moment for escape. We were about
+ten miles off the shore of Cape Vera. If we could push
+our canvas canoe through the channels of water as they
+opened, we might reach land. We quickly prepared the
+boat. With trepidation we pushed it into the black,
+frigid waters. We hesitated to leave the sheltering berg
+which had saved our lives. Still, it had served its purpose.
+To remain might mean our being carried out to
+sea. The ultimate time had come to seek a more secure
+refuge on <i>terra firma</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Leaping into the frail, rocking canoe, we pushed
+along desperately through a few long channels to reach
+a wide, open space of water landward. Paddling frantically,
+we made a twisting course through opening lanes
+of water, ice on both sides of us, visible bergs bearing
+down at times on us, invisible bergs with spear-points of
+ice beneath the water in which our course lay. We sped
+forward at times with quick darts. Suddenly, and to
+our horror, an invisible piece of ice jagged a hole in the
+port quarter. Water gushed into the frail craft. In a
+few minutes it would be filled; we should sink to an icy
+death! Fortunately, I saw a floe was near, and while
+the canoe rapidly filled we pushed for the floe, reaching
+it not a moment too soon.</p>
+
+<p>A boot was sacrificed to mend the canoe. Patching
+the cut, we put again into the sea and proceeded.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[Pg 353]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The middle pack of ice was separated from the land
+pack, leaving much free water. But now a land breeze
+sprang up and gave us new troubles. We could not
+face the wind and sea, so we took a slant and sought the
+lee of the pans coming from the land.</p>
+
+<p>Our little overloaded canoe weathered the seas very
+well, and we had nothing to gain and everything to lose
+by turning back. Again we were drenched with spray,
+and the canoe was sheeted with ice above water. The
+sun was passing over Hell Gate. Long blue shadows
+stretched over the pearl-gray sea. By these, without
+resort to the compass, we knew it was about midnight.</p>
+
+<p>As we neared the land-ice, birds became numerous.
+The waters rose in easy swells. Still nearer, we noted
+that the entire body of land-ice was drifting away. A
+convenient channel opened and gave us a chance to slip
+behind. We pointed for Cape Vera, dashed over the
+water, and soon, to our joy, landed on a ledge of lower
+rocks. I cannot describe the relief I felt in reaching
+land after the spells of anguish through which we had
+passed. Although these barren rocks offered neither
+food nor shelter, still we were as happy as if a sentence
+of death had been remitted.</p>
+
+<p>Not far away were pools of ice water. These we
+sought first, to quench our thirst. Then we scattered
+about, our eyes eagerly scrutinizing the land for breakfast.
+Soon we saw a hare bounding over the rocks. As
+it paused, cocking its ears, one of my boys secured it with
+a sling-shot. It was succulent; we cut it with our
+knives. Some moss was found among the rocks. This
+was a breakfast for a king. I returned to prepare it.
+With the moss as fuel, we made a fire, put the dripping<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[Pg 354]</a></span>
+meat in a pot, and, with gloating eyes, watched it simmering.
+I thrilled with the joy of sheer living, with
+hunger about to be satisfied by cooked food.</p>
+
+<p>Before the hare was ready the boys came along with
+two eider-ducks, which they had secured by looped lines.
+We therefore had now an advance dinner, with a refreshing
+drink and a stomach full, and solid rocks to
+place our heads upon for a long sleep. These solid
+rocks were more delightful and secure than pillows of
+down. The world had indeed a new aspect for us. In
+reality, however, our ultimate prospect of escape from
+famine was darker than ever.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 522px;">
+<img src="images/illo_396.jpg" width="522" height="480" alt="ARCTIC HARE" title="" />
+<span class="caption">ARCTIC HARE</span>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 100%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[Pg 355]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="UNDER_THE_WHIP_OF_FAMINE" id="UNDER_THE_WHIP_OF_FAMINE"></a>UNDER THE WHIP OF FAMINE</h2>
+
+<p class="blockquot">BY BOAT AND SLEDGE, OVER THE DRIFTING ICE AND STORMY
+SEAS OF JONES SOUND&mdash;FROM ROCK TO ROCK IN
+QUEST OF FOOD&mdash;MAKING NEW WEAPONS</p>
+
+<h3>XXIV<br />
+
+<br /><span class="smcap">Imprisoned by the Hand of Frost</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>No time was lost in our onward course. Endeavoring
+at once to regain the distance lost by the drifting
+berg, we sought a way along the shores. Here, over ice
+with pools of water and slush, we dragged our sledge
+with the canvas boat ever ready to launch. Frequent
+spaces of water necessitated constant ferrying. We
+found, however, that most open places could be crossed
+with sledge attached to the boat. This saved much time.</p>
+
+<p>We advanced from ten to fifteen miles daily, pitching
+the tent on land or sleeping in the boat in pools of
+ice water, as the conditions warranted. The land rose
+with vertical cliffs two thousand feet high, and offered
+no life except a few gulls and guillemots. By gathering
+these as we went along, a scant hand-to-mouth subsistence
+daily was obtained.</p>
+
+<p>Early in August we reached the end of the land-pack,
+about twenty-five miles east of Cape Sparbo. Beyond
+was a water sky, and to the north the sea was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[Pg 356]</a></span>
+entirely free of ice. The weather was clear, and our
+ambitions for the freedom of the deep rose again.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of the last day of sledge travel, a camp
+was made on a small island. Here we saw the first
+signs of Eskimo habitation. Old tent circles, also stone
+and fox traps in abundance, indicated an ancient village
+of considerable size. On the mainland we discovered
+abundant grass and moss, with signs of musk ox, ptarmigan,
+and hare, but no living thing was detected.
+After a careful search, the sledge was taken apart to
+serve as a floor for the boat. All our things were snugly
+packed. For breakfast, we had but one gull, which was
+divided without the tedious process of cooking.</p>
+
+<p>As we were packing the things onto the edge of the
+ice, we espied an oogzuk seal. Here was a creature
+which could satisfy for a while our many needs. Upon
+it one of our last cartridges was expended. The seal
+fell. The huge carcass was dragged ashore. All of its
+skin was jealously taken. For this would make harpoon
+lines which would enable the shaping of Eskimo implements,
+to take the place of the rifles, which, with ammunition
+exhausted, would be useless. Our boots could
+also be patched with bits of the skin, and new soles
+could be made. Of the immense amount of oogzuk meat
+and blubber we were able to take only a small part; for,
+with three men and our baggage and sledge in the little
+canvas boat, it was already overloaded.</p>
+
+<p>The meat was cached, so that if ultimate want
+forced our retreat we might here prolong our existence
+a few weeks longer. There was little wind, and the
+night was beautifully clear. The sun at night was very
+close to the horizon, but the sparkle of the shimmering<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[Pg 357]</a></span>
+waters gave our dreary lives a bright side. On the
+great unpolished rocks of the point east of Cape Sparbo
+a suitable camping spot was found, a prolonged feed of
+seal was indulged in, and with a warm sun and full
+stomachs, the tent was unnecessary. Under one of the
+rocks we found shelter, and slept with savage delight
+for nine hours.</p>
+
+<p>Another search of the accessible land offered no
+game except ducks and gulls far from shore. Here the
+tides and currents were very strong, so our start had to
+be timed with the outgoing tide.</p>
+
+<p>Starting late one afternoon, we advanced rapidly
+beyond Cape Sparbo, in a sea with an uncomfortable
+swell. But beyond the Cape, the land-ice still offered
+an edge for a long distance. In making a cut across a
+small bay to reach ice, a walrus suddenly came up behind
+the canoe and drove a tusk through the canvas.
+E-tuk-i-shook quickly covered the cut, while we pulled
+with full force for a pan of drift-ice only a few yards
+away. The boat, with its load, was quickly jerked on
+the ice. Already there were three inches of water in
+the floor. A chilly disaster was narrowly averted. Part
+of a boot was sacrificed to mend the boat.</p>
+
+<p>While at work with the needle, a strong tidal current
+carried us out to sea. An increasing wind brought
+breaking waves over the edge of the ice. The wind fortunately
+gave a landward push to the ice. A sledge-cover,
+used as a sail, retarded our seaward drift. The
+leak securely patched, we pushed off for the land ice.
+With our eyes strained for breaking seas, the boat was
+paddled along with considerable anxiety. Much water
+was shipped in these dashes; constant bailing was neces<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[Pg 358]</a></span>sary.
+Pulling continuously along the ice for eight miles,
+and when the leads closed at times, jumping on cakes
+and pulling the boat after us, we were finally forced to
+seek a shelter on the ice-field.</p>
+
+<p>With a strong wind and a wet fall of snow, the ice-camp
+was far from comfortable. As the tide changed,
+the wind came from the west with a heavy, choppy sea.
+Further advance was impossible. Sleeping but a few
+minutes at a time, and then rising to note coming dangers,
+as does the seal, I perceived, to my growing dismay,
+a separation between the land and the sea ice. We
+were going rapidly adrift, with only interrupted spots
+of sea-ice on the horizon!</p>
+
+<p>There were a good many reefs about, which quickly
+broke the ice, and new leads formed on every side. The
+boat was pushed landward. We pulled the boat on the
+ice when the leads closed, lowering it again as the cracks
+opened. By carrying the boat and its load from crack
+to crack, we at last reached the land waters, in which we
+were able to advance about five miles further, camping
+on the gravel of the first river which we had seen. Here
+we were storm-bound for two days.</p>
+
+<p>There were several pools near by. Within a short
+distance from these were many ducks. With the slingshot
+a few of these were secured. In the midst of our
+trouble, with good appetites, we were feeding up for
+future contests of strength.</p>
+
+<p>With a shore clear of ice, we could afford to take
+some chance with heavy seas, so before the swell subsided,
+we pushed off. Coming out of Braebugten Bay,
+with its discharging glaciers and many reefs, the water
+dashed against the perpendicular walls of ice, and pre<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[Pg 359]</a></span>sented
+a disheartening prospect. These reefs could be
+passed over only when the sea was calm. With but a
+half-day's run to our credit, we were again stopped.</p>
+
+<p>As we neared our objective point, on the fast ice
+inside of a reef, we were greeted with the glad sight of
+what we supposed to be a herd of musk ox. About
+three miles of the winter ice was still fast to the land.
+Upon this we landed, cleared the canvas boat, and prepared
+to camp in it. I remained to guard our few belongings,
+while the two Eskimo boys rushed over the ice
+to try to secure the musk ox with the lance. It was a
+critical time in our career, for we were putting to test
+new methods of hunting, which we had partly devised
+after many hungry days of preparation.</p>
+
+<p>I followed the boys with the glasses as they jumped
+the ice crevasses and moved over the mainland with the
+stealth and ease of hungry wolves. It was a beautiful
+day. The sun was low in the northwest, throwing beams
+of golden light that made the ice a scene of joy. The
+great cliffs of North Devon, fifteen miles away, seemed
+very near through the clear air. Although enjoying the
+scene, I noted in the shadow of an iceberg a suspicious
+blue spot, which moved in my direction. As it advanced
+in the sunlight it changed from blue to a cream color.
+Then I made it out to be a Polar bear which we had
+attacked forty-eight hours previous.</p>
+
+<p>The sight aroused a feeling of elation. Gradually,
+as bruin advanced and I began to think of some method
+of defense, a cold shiver ran up my spine. The dog and
+rifle, with which we had met bears before, were
+absent. To run, and leave our last bit of food and fuel,
+would have been as dangerous as to stay. A Polar bear<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</a></span>
+will always attack a retreating creature, while it approaches
+very cautiously one that holds its position.
+Furthermore, for some reason, the bears always bore a
+grudge against the boat. None ever passed it without
+testing the material with its teeth or giving it a slap with
+its paw. At this critical stage of our adventure the boat
+was linked more closely to our destiny than the clothes
+we wore. I therefore decided to stay and play the r&ocirc;le
+of the aggressor, although I had nothing&mdash;not even a
+lance&mdash;with which to fight.</p>
+
+<p>Then an idea flashed through my mind. I lashed a
+knife to the steering paddle, and placed the boat on a
+slight elevation of ice, so as to make it and myself
+appear as formidable as possible. Then I gathered
+about me all the bits of wood, pieces of ice, and everything
+which I could throw at the creature before it came
+to a close contest, reserving the knife and the ice-ax as
+my last resort. When all was ready, I took my position
+beside the boat and displayed a sledge-runner moving
+rapidly to and fro.</p>
+
+<p>The bear was then about two hundred yards away.
+It approached stealthily behind a line of hummocks,
+with only its head occasionally visible. As it came to
+within three hundred feet, it rose frequently on its hind
+feet, dropped its forepaws, stretched its neck, and
+pushed its head up, remaining motionless for several
+seconds. It then appeared huge and beautiful.</p>
+
+<p>As it came still nearer, its pace quickened. I began
+to hurl my missiles. Every time the bear was hit, it
+stopped, turned about, and examined the object. But
+none of them proving palatable, it advanced to the opposite
+side of the boat, and for a moment stood and eyed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[Pg 361]</a></span>
+me. Its nose caught the odor of a piece of oogzuk
+blubber a few feet beyond. I raised the sledge-runner
+and brought it down with desperate force on the brute's
+nose. It grunted, but quickly turned to retreat. I followed
+until it was well on the run.</p>
+
+<p>Every time it turned to review the situation, I made
+a show of chasing it. This always had the desired effect
+of hastening its departure. It moved off, however, only
+a short distance, and then sat down, sniffed the air, and
+watched my movements. As I turned to observe the
+boys' doings, I saw them only a short distance away,
+edging upon the bear. Their group of musk oxen had
+proved to be rocks, and they had early noted my troubles
+and were hastening to enter the battle, creeping up behind
+hummocks and pressure ridges. They got to
+within a few yards of the brute, and then delivered their
+two lances at once, with lines attached. The bear
+dropped, but quickly recovered and ran for the land.
+He died from the wounds, for a month later we found
+his carcass on land, placed near camp.</p>
+
+<p>For two days, with a continuation of bad luck,
+we advanced slowly. Belcher Point was passed at midnight
+of the 7th of August, just as the sun sank under
+the horizon for the first time. Beyond was a nameless
+bay, in which numerous icebergs were stranded. The
+bend of the bay was walled with great discharging glaciers.
+A heavy sea pitched our boat like a leaf in a gale.
+But, by seeking the shelter of bergs and passing inside
+of the drift, we managed to push to an island for camp.</p>
+
+<p>With moving glaciers on the land, and the sea
+storming and thundering, sleep was impossible. Icebergs
+in great numbers followed us into the bay, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[Pg 362]</a></span>
+later the storm-ground sea-ice filled the bay. On
+August 8, following a line of water along shore, we
+started eastward.</p>
+
+<p>A strong wind on our backs, with quiet waters, sent
+the little boat along at a swift pace. After a run of ten
+miles, a great quantity of ice, coming from the east, filled
+the bay with small fragments and ensnared us.</p>
+
+<p>Now the bay was jammed with a pack as difficult
+to travel over as quicksand. We were hopelessly beset.
+The land was sought, but it offered no shelter, no life,
+and no place flat enough to lie upon. We expected that
+the ice would break. It did not; instead, new winter
+ice rapidly formed.</p>
+
+<p>The setting sun brought the winter storms and
+premonitions of a long, bitter night. Meanwhile we
+eked a meagre living by catching occasional birds, which
+we devoured raw.</p>
+
+<p>Toward the end of August we pushed out on the
+ensnaring pack to a small but solid floe. I counted on
+this to drift somewhere&mdash;any place beyond the prison
+bars of the glaciers. Then we might move east or west
+to seek food. Our last meat was used, and we maintained
+life only by an occasional gull or guillemot. This
+floe drifted to and fro, and slowly took us to Belcher
+Point, where we landed to determine our fate. To the
+east, the entire horizon was lined with ice. Belcher Point
+was barren of game and shelter. Further efforts for
+Baffin's Bay were hopeless. The falling temperature,
+the rapidly forming young ice, and the setting sun
+showed us that we had already gone too long without
+finding a winter refuge.</p>
+
+<p>Our only possible chance to escape death from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[Pg 363]</a></span>
+famine and frost was to go back to Cape Sparbo and
+compel the walrus that ripped our boat to give up his
+blubber, and then to seek our fortunes in the neighborhood.
+This was the only reachable place that had looked
+like game country. With empty stomachs, and on a
+heavy sea, we pushed westward to seek our fate. The
+outlook was discouraging.</p>
+
+<p>During all our enforced imprisonment we were
+never allowed to forget that the first duty in life was to
+provide for the stomach. Our muscles rested, but the
+signals sent over the gastric nerve kept the gray matter
+busy.</p>
+
+<p>We were near to the land where Franklin and his
+men starved. They had ammunition. We had none.
+A similar fate loomed before us. We had seen nothing
+to promise subsistence for the winter, but this cheerless
+prospect did not interfere with such preparations as we
+could make for the ultimate struggle. In our desperate
+straits we even planned to attack bears, should we find
+any, without a gun. Life is never so sweet as when its
+days seem numbered.</p>
+
+<p>The complete development of a new art of hunting,
+with suitable weapons, was reserved for the dire
+needs of later adventures. The problem was begun by
+this time. By an oversight, most of our Eskimo implements
+had been left on the returning sledges from
+Svartevoeg.</p>
+
+<p>We were thus not only without ammunition, but
+also without harpoons and lances. We fortunately had
+the material of which these could be made, and the boys
+possessed the savage genius to shape a new set of weapons.
+The slingshot and the looped line, which had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[Pg 364]</a></span>
+served such a useful purpose in securing birds, continued
+to be of prime importance. In the sledge was excellent
+hickory, which was utilized in various ways. Of this,
+bows and arrows could be made. Combined with the
+slingshot and the looped line snares, the combination
+would make our warfare upon the feathered creatures
+more effective. We counted upon a similar efficiency
+with the same weapons in our hoped-for future attacks
+upon land animals.</p>
+
+<p>The wood of the sledge was further divided to
+make shafts for harpoons and lances. Realizing that
+our ultimate return to Greenland, and to friends, depended
+on the life of the sledge, the wood was used
+sparingly. Furthermore, hickory lends itself to great
+economy. It bends and twists, but seldom breaks in
+such a manner that it cannot be repaired. We had not
+much of this precious fibre, but enough for the time to
+serve our purpose. Along shore we had found musk ox
+horns and fragments of whale bone. Out of these the
+points of both harpoon and lance were made. A part
+of the sledge shoe was sacrificed to make metal points
+for the weapons. The nails of the cooking-box served
+as rivets. The seal skin, which we had secured a month
+earlier, was now carefully divided and cut into suitable
+harpoon and lassoo lines. We hoped to use this line to
+capture the bear and the musk ox. Our folding canvas
+boat was somewhat strengthened by the leather from
+our old boots, and additional bracing by the ever useful
+hickory of the sledge. Ready to engage in battle with
+the smallest and the largest creatures that might come
+within reach, we started west for Cape Sparbo. Death,
+on our journey, never seemed so near.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 566px;">
+<img src="images/illo_407.jpg" width="566" height="800" alt="OBSERVATION DETERMINING THE POLE" title="" />
+<span class="caption">OBSERVATION DETERMINING THE POLE&mdash;PHOTOGRAPH FROM
+ORIGINAL NOTE</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 640px;">
+<img src="images/illo_408.jpg" width="640" height="429" alt="BACK TO LAND AND TO LIFE" title="" />
+<span class="caption">BACK TO LAND AND TO LIFE&mdash;AWAKENED BY A WINGED HARBINGER</span>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 100%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[Pg 365]</a></span></p>
+<h2>BEAR FIGHTS AND WALRUS BATTLES</h2>
+
+<p class="blockquot">DANGEROUS ADVENTURES IN A CANVAS BOAT&mdash;ON THE
+VERGE OF STARVATION, A MASSIVE BRUTE, WEIGHING
+THREE THOUSAND POUNDS, IS CAPTURED AFTER A
+FIFTEEN-HOUR STRUGGLE&mdash;ROBBED OF PRECIOUS
+FOOD BY HUNGRY BEARS</p>
+
+<h3>XXV<br />
+
+<br /><span class="smcap">Game Haunts Discovered</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>The stormy sea rose with heavy swells. Oceanward,
+the waves leaped against the horizon tumultuously.
+Pursuing our vain search for food along the
+southern side of Jones Sound, early in September, we
+had been obliged to skirt rocky coves and shelves of land
+on which we might seek shelter should harm come to the
+fragile craft in which we braved the ocean storms and
+the spears of unseen ice beneath water.</p>
+
+<p>We had shaped crude weapons. We were prepared
+to attack game. We were starving; yet land and
+sea had been barren of any living thing.</p>
+
+<p>Our situation was desperate. In our course it was
+often necessary, as now, to paddle from the near refuge
+of low-lying shores, and to pass precipitous cliffs and
+leaping glaciers which stepped threateningly into the
+sea. Along these were no projecting surfaces, and we
+passed them always with bated anxiety. A sudden<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[Pg 366]</a></span>
+storm or a mishap at such a time would have meant
+death in the frigid sea. And now, grim and suffering
+with hunger, we clung madly to life.</p>
+
+<p>Passing a glacier which rose hundreds of feet out of
+the green sea, heavy waves rolled furiously from the
+distant ocean. Huge bergs rose and fell against the
+far-away horizon like Titan ships hurled to destruction.
+The waves dashed against the emerald walls of the
+smooth icy Gibraltar with a thunderous noise. We rose
+and fell in the frail canvas boat, butting the waves, our
+hearts each time sinking.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly something white and glittering pierced
+the bottom of the boat! It was the tusk of a walrus,
+gleaming and dangerous. Before we could grasp the
+situation he had disappeared, and water gushed into our
+craft. It was the first walrus we had seen for several
+weeks. An impulse, mad under the circumstances, rose
+in our hearts to give him chase. It was the instinctive
+call of the hungering body for food. But each second
+the water rose higher; each minute was imminent with
+danger. Instinctively Ah-we-lah pressed to the floor of
+the boat and jammed his knee into the hole, thus partly
+shutting off the jetting, leaping inrush. He looked
+mutely to me for orders. The glacier offered no stopping
+place. Looking about with mad eagerness, I saw,
+seaward, only a few hundred yards away, a small pan of
+drift-ice. With the desire for life in our arms, we pushed
+toward it with all our might. Before the boat was
+pulled to its slippery landing, several inches of water
+flooded the bottom. Once upon it, leaping in the waves,
+we breathed with panting relief. With a piece of boot
+the hole was patched. Although we should have pre<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[Pg 367]</a></span>ferred
+to wait to give the walrus a wide berth, the increasing
+swell of the stormy sea, and a seaward drift
+forced us away from the dangerous ice cliffs.</p>
+
+<p>Launching the boat into the rough waters, we
+pulled for land. A triangle of four miles had to be
+made before our fears could be set at rest. A school of
+walrus followed us in the rocking waters for at least
+half of the distance. Finally, upon the crest of a white-capped
+wave, we were lifted to firm land. Drawing the
+boat after us, we ran out of reach of the hungry waves,
+and sank to the grass, desperate, despairing, utterly
+fatigued, but safe.</p>
+
+<p>Now followed a long run of famine luck. We
+searched land and sea for a bird or a fish. In the boat
+we skirted a barren coast, sleeping on rocks without
+shelter and quenching our thirst by glacial liquid till the
+stomach collapsed. The indifferent stage of starvation
+was at hand when we pulled into a nameless bay, carried
+the boat on a grassy bench, and packed ourselves in it
+for a sleep that might be our last.</p>
+
+<p>We were awakened by the glad sound of distant
+walrus calls. Through the glasses, a group was located
+far off shore, on the middle pack. Our hearts began to
+thump. A stream of blood came with a rush to our
+heads. Our bodies were fired with a life that had been
+foreign to us for many moons. No famished wolf ever
+responded to a call more rapidly than we did. Quickly
+we dropped the boat into the water with the implements,
+and pushed from the famine shores with teeth set for
+red meat.</p>
+
+<p>The day was beautiful, and the sun from the west
+poured a wealth of golden light. Only an occasional<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[Pg 368]</a></span>
+ripple disturbed the glassy blue through which the boat
+crept. The pack was about five miles northward. In
+our eagerness to reach it, the distance seemed spread to
+leagues. There was not a square of ice for miles about
+which could have been sought for refuge in case of an
+attack. But this did not disturb us now. We were
+blinded to everything except the dictates of our palates.</p>
+
+<p>As we advanced, our tactics were definitely arranged.
+The animals were on a low pan, which seemed
+to be loosely run into the main pack. We aimed for a
+little cut of ice open to the leeward, where we hoped to
+land and creep up behind hummocks. The splash of our
+paddles was lost in the noise of the grinding ice and the
+bellowing of walrus calls.</p>
+
+<p>So excited were the Eskimos that they could hardly
+pull an oar. It was the first shout of the wilderness
+which we had heard in many months. We were lean
+enough to appreciate its import. The boat finally shot
+up on the ice, and we scattered among the ice blocks for
+favorable positions. Everything was in our favor. We
+did not for a moment entertain a thought of failure,
+although in reality, with the implements at hand, our
+project was tantamount to attacking an elephant with
+pocket knives.</p>
+
+<p>We came together behind an unusually high icy
+spire only a few hundred yards from the herd. Ten
+huge animals were lazily stretched out in the warm sun.
+A few lively babies tormented their sleeping mothers.
+There was a splendid line of hummocks, behind which
+we could advance under cover. With a firm grip on
+harpoon and line, we started. Suddenly E-tuk-i-shook
+shouted "<i>Nannook</i>!" (Bear.)<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[Pg 369]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>We halted. Our implements were no match for a
+bear. But we were too hungry to retreat. The bear
+paid no attention to us. His nose was set for something
+more to his liking. Slowly but deliberately, he crept up
+to the snoring herd while we watched with a mad, envious
+anger welling up within us. Our position was helpless.
+His long neck reached out, the glistening fangs
+closed, and a young walrus struggled in the air. All
+of the creatures woke, but too late to give battle. With
+dismay and rage, the walruses sank into the water, and
+the bear slunk off to a safe distance, where he sat down
+to a comfortable meal. We were not of sufficient importance
+to interest either the bear or the disturbed herd
+of giants.</p>
+
+<p>Our limbs were limp when we returned to the boat.
+The sunny glitter of the waters was now darkened by
+the gloom of danger from enraged animals. We
+crossed to the barren shores in a circuitous route, where
+pieces of ice for refuge were always within reach.</p>
+
+<p>On land, the night was cheerless and cold. We
+were not in a mood for sleep. In a lagoon we discovered
+moving things. After a little study of their vague darts
+they proved to be fish. A diligent search under stones
+brought out a few handfuls of tiny finny creatures.
+With gratitude I saw that here was an evening meal.
+Seizing them, we ate the wriggling things raw. Cooking
+was impossible, for we had neither oil nor wood.</p>
+
+<p>On the next day the sun at noon burned with a real
+fire&mdash;not the sham light without heat which had kept day
+and night in perpetual glitter for several weeks. Not a
+breath of air disturbed the blue glitter of the sea. Ice
+was scattered everywhere. The central pack was far<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[Pg 370]</a></span>ther
+away, but on it rested several suspicious black
+marks. Through the glasses we made these out to be
+groups of walruses. They were evidently sound asleep,
+for we heard no calls. They were also so distributed
+that there was a hunt both for bear and man without
+interference.</p>
+
+<p>We ventured out with a savage desire sharpened
+by a taste of raw fish. As we advanced, several other
+groups were noted in the water. They gave us much
+trouble. They did not seem ill-tempered, but dangerously
+inquisitive. Our boat was dark in color and not
+much larger than the body of a full-sized bull. To
+them, I presume, it resembled a companion in distress
+or asleep. A sight of the boat challenged their curiosity,
+and they neared us with the playful intention of
+testing with their tusks the hardness of the canvas. We
+had experienced such love taps before, however, with
+but a narrow escape from drowning, and we had no
+desire for further walrus courtship.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately, we could maintain a speed almost
+equal to theirs, and we also found scattered ice-pans,
+about which we could linger while their curiosity was
+being satisfied by the splash of an occasional stone.</p>
+
+<p>From an iceberg we studied the various groups of
+walruses for the one best situated for our primitive
+methods of attack. We also searched for meddlesome
+bears. None was detected. Altogether we counted
+more than a hundred grunting, snorting creatures arranged
+in black hills along a line of low ice. There were
+no hummocks or pressure lifts, under cover of which we
+might advance to within the short range required for our
+harpoons. All of the walrus-encumbered pans were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[Pg 371]</a></span>
+adrift and disconnected from the main pack. Conflicting
+currents gave each group a slightly different motion.
+We studied this movement for a little while.</p>
+
+<p>We hoped, if possible, to make our attack from the
+ice. With the security of a solid footing, there was no
+danger and there was a greater certainty of success.
+But the speed of the ice on this day did not permit such
+an advantage. We must risk a water attack. This is
+not an unusual method of the Eskimo, but he follows it
+with a kayak, a harpoon and line fitted with a float and
+a drag for the end of his line. Our equipment was only
+a makeshift, and could not be handled in the same way.</p>
+
+<p>Here was food in massive heaps. We had had no
+breakfast and no full meal for many weeks. Something
+must be done. The general drift was eastward, but the
+walrus pans drifted slightly faster than the main pack.
+Along the pack were several high points, projecting a
+considerable distance seaward. We took our position
+in the canvas boat behind one of these floating capes, and
+awaited the drift of the sleeping monsters.</p>
+
+<p>Their movement was slow enough to give us plenty
+of time to arrange our battle tactics. The most vital
+part of the equipment was the line. If it were lost, we
+could not hope to survive the winter. It could not be
+replaced, and without it we could not hope to cope with
+the life of the sea, or even that of the land. The line was
+a new, strong sealskin rawhide of ample length, which
+had been reserved for just such an emergency. Attached
+to the harpoon, with the float properly adjusted,
+it is seldom lost, for the float moves and permits no
+sudden strain.</p>
+
+<p>To safeguard the line, a pan was selected only a few<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[Pg 372]</a></span>
+yards in diameter. This was arranged to do the duty
+of a float and a drag. With the knife two holes were
+cut, and into these the line was fastened near its center.
+The harpoon end was taken into the boat, the other end
+was coiled and left in a position where it could be easily
+picked from the boat later. Three important purposes
+were secured by this arrangement&mdash;the line was relieved
+of a sudden strain; if it broke, only half would be lost;
+and the unused end would serve as a binder to other ice
+when the chase neared its end.</p>
+
+<p>Now the harpoon was set to the shaft, and the bow
+of our little twelve-foot boat cleared for action. Peeping
+over the wall of ice, we saw the black-littered pans
+slowly coming toward us. Our excitement rose to a
+shouting point. But our nerves were under the discipline
+of famine. The pan, it was evident, would go by
+us at a distance of about fifty feet.</p>
+
+<p>The first group of walruses were allowed to pass.
+They proved to be a herd of twenty-one mammoth creatures,
+and, entirely aside from the danger of attack, their
+unanimous plunge would have raised a sea that must
+have swamped us.</p>
+
+<p>On the next pan were but three spots. At a distance
+we persuaded ourselves that they were small&mdash;for
+we had no ambition for formidable attacks. One thousand
+pounds of meat would have been sufficient for us.
+They proved, however, to be the largest bulls of the lot.
+As they neared the point, the hickory oars of the boat
+were gripped&mdash;and out we shot. They all rose to meet
+us, displaying the glitter of ivory tusks from little
+heads against huge wrinkled necks. They grunted and
+snorted viciously&mdash;but the speed of the boat did not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[Pg 373]</a></span>
+slacken. E-tuk-i-shook rose. With a savage thrust he
+sank the harpoon into a yielding neck.</p>
+
+<p>The walruses tumbled over themselves and sank
+into the water on the opposite side of the pan. We
+pushed upon the vacated floe without leaving the boat,
+taking the risk of ice puncture rather than walrus
+thumps. The short line came up with a snap. The ice
+pan began to plough the sea. It moved landward.
+What luck! I wondered if the walrus would tow us
+and its own carcass ashore. We longed to encourage
+the homing movement, but we dared not venture out.
+Other animals had awakened to the battle call, and now
+the sea began to seethe and boil with enraged, leaping
+red-eyed monsters.</p>
+
+<p>The float took a zigzag course in the offing. We
+watched the movement with a good deal of anxiety. Our
+next meal and our last grip on life were at stake. For
+the time being nothing could be done.</p>
+
+<p>The three animals remained together, two pushing
+the wounded one along and holding it up during breathing
+spells. In their excitement they either lost their
+bearings or deliberately determined to attack. Now
+three ugly snouts pointed at us. This was greatly to
+our advantage, for on ice we were masters of the
+situation.</p>
+
+<p>Taking inconspicuous positions, we awaited the assault.
+The Eskimos had lances, I an Alpine axe. The
+walruses dove and came on like torpedo boats, rising
+almost under our noses, with a noise that made us dodge.
+In a second two lances sank into the harpooned strugglers.
+The water was thrashed. Down again went the
+three. The lances were jerked back by return lines, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[Pg 374]</a></span>
+in another moment we were ready for another assault
+from the other side. But they dashed on, and pulled the
+float-floe, on which we had been, against the one on which
+we stood, with a crushing blow.</p>
+
+<p>Here was our first chance to secure the unused end
+of the line, fastened on the other floe. Ah-we-lah
+jumped to the floe and tossed me the line. The spiked
+shaft of the ice-axe was driven in the ice and the line
+fixed to it, so now the two floes were held together. Our
+stage of action was enlarged, and we had the advantage
+of being towed by the animals we fought.</p>
+
+<p>Here was the quiet sport of the fisherman and the
+savage excitement of the battle-field run together in a
+new chase. The struggle was prolonged in successive
+stages. Time passed swiftly. In six hours, during
+which the sun had swept a quarter of the circle, the twin
+floes were jerked through the water with the rush of a
+gunboat. The jerking line attached to our enraged
+pilots sent a thrill of life which made our hearts jump.
+The lances were thrown, the line was shortened, a cannonade
+of ice blocks was kept up, but the animal gave no
+signs of weakening. Seeing that we could not inflict
+dangerous wounds, our tactics were changed to a kind of
+siege, and we aimed not to permit the animal its breathing
+spells.</p>
+
+<p>The line did not begin to slacken until midnight.
+The battle had been on for almost twelve hours. But
+we did not feel the strain of action, nor did our chronic
+hunger seriously disturb us. Bits of ice quenched our
+thirst and the chill of night kept us from sweating.
+With each rise of the beast for breath now, the line
+slackened. Gently it was hauled in and secured. Then<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[Pg 375]</a></span>
+a rain of ice blocks, hurled in rapid succession, drove the
+spouting animals down. Soon the line was short enough
+to deliver the lance in the captured walrus at close range.
+The wounded animal was now less troublesome, but the
+others tore about under us like submarine boats, and at
+the most unexpected moments would shoot up with a
+wild rush.</p>
+
+<p>We did not attempt to attack them, however. All
+our attention was directed to the end of the line. The
+lance was driven with every opportunity. It seldom
+missed, but the action was more like spurs to a horse,
+changing an intended attack upon us to a desperate
+plunge into the deep, and depriving the walrus of
+oxygen.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, after a series of spasmodic encounters
+which lasted fifteen hours, the enraged snout turned
+blue, the fiery eyes blackened, and victory was ours&mdash;not
+as the result of the knife alone, not in a square fight of
+brute force, but by the superior cunning of the human
+animal under the stimulus of hunger.</p>
+
+<p>During all this time we had been drifting. Now, as
+the battle ended, we were not far from a point about
+three miles south of our camp. Plenty of safe pack-ice
+was near. A primitive pulley was arranged by passing
+the line through slits in the walrus' nose and holes in the
+ice. The great carcass, weighing perhaps three thousand
+pounds, was drawn onto the ice and divided into
+portable pieces. Before the sun poured its morning
+beams over the ice, all had been securely taken ashore.</p>
+
+<p>With ample blubber, a camp fire was now made between
+two rocks by using moss to serve as a wick. Soon,
+pot after pot of savory meat was voraciously consumed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[Pg 376]</a></span>
+We ate with a mad, vulgar, insatiable hunger. We
+spoke little. Between gulps, the huge heap of meat and
+blubber was cached under heavy rocks, and secured&mdash;so
+we thought&mdash;from bears, wolves and foxes.</p>
+
+<p>When eating was no longer possible, sleeping dens
+were arranged in the little boat, and in it, like other gluttonous
+animals after an engorgement, we closed our eyes
+to a digestive sleep. For the time, at least, we had fathomed
+the depths of gastronomic content, and were at
+ease with ourselves and with a bitter world of inhuman
+strife.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of about fifteen hours, a stir about our
+camp suddenly awoke us. We saw a huge bear nosing
+about our fireplace. We had left there a walrus joint,
+weighing about one hundred pounds, for our next meal.
+We jumped up, all of us, at once, shouting and making
+a pretended rush. The bear took up the meat in his
+forepaws and walked off, man-like, on two legs, with a
+threatening grunt. His movement was slow and cautious,
+and his grip on the meat was secure. Occasionally
+he veered about, with a beckoning turn of the head,
+and a challenging call. But we did not accept the challenge.
+After moving away about three hundred yards
+on the sea-ice, he calmly sat down and devoured our
+prospective meal.</p>
+
+<p>With lances, bows, arrows, and stones in hand, we
+next crossed a low hill, beyond which was located our
+precious cache of meat. Here, to our chagrin, we saw
+two other bears, with heads down and paws busily digging
+about the cache. We were not fitted for a hand-to-hand
+encounter. Still, our lives were equally at stake,
+whether we attacked or failed to attack. Some defense<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[Pg 377]</a></span>
+must be made. With a shout and a fiendish rush, we
+attracted the busy brutes' attention. They raised their
+heads, turned, and to our delight and relief, grudgingly
+walked off seaward on the moving ice. Each had a big
+piece of our meat with him.</p>
+
+<p>Advancing to the cache, we found it absolutely depleted.
+Many other bears had been there. The snow
+and the sand was trampled down with innumerable bear
+tracks. Our splendid cache of the day previous was entirely
+lost. We could have wept with rage and disappointment.
+One thing we were made to realize, and
+that was that life here was now to be a struggle with the
+bears for supremacy. With little ammunition, we were
+not at all able to engage in bear fights. So, baffled, and
+unable to resent our robbery, starvation again confronting
+us, we packed our few belongings and moved westward
+over Braebugten Bay to Cape Sparbo.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 640px;">
+<img src="images/illo_421.jpg" width="640" height="395" alt="A THIEF OF THE NORTH" title="" />
+<span class="caption">A THIEF OF THE NORTH</span>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 100%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[Pg 378]</a></span></p>
+<h2>BULL FIGHTS WITH THE MUSK OX</h2>
+
+<p class="blockquot">AN ANCIENT CAVE EXPLORED FOR SHELTER&mdash;DEATH BY
+STARVATION AVERTED BY HAND-TO-HAND ENCOUNTERS
+WITH WILD ANIMALS</p>
+
+<h3>XXVI<br />
+
+<br /><span class="smcap">To the Winter Camp at Cape Sparbo</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>As we crossed the big bay to the east of Cape
+Sparbo, our eyes were fixed on the two huge Arch&aelig;n
+rocks which made remarkable landmarks, rising suddenly
+to an altitude of about eighteen thousand feet.
+They appear like two mountainous islands lifted out of
+the water. On closer approach, however, we found the
+islands connected with the mainland by low grassy
+plains, forming a peninsula. The grassy lands seemed
+like promising grounds for caribou and musk ox. The
+off-lying sea, we also found, was shallow. In this, I
+calculated, would be food to attract the seal and walrus.</p>
+
+<p>In our slow movement over the land swell of the
+crystal waters, it did not take long to discover that our
+conjecture was correct.</p>
+
+<p>Pulling up to a great herd of walrus, we prepared
+for battle. But the sea suddenly rose, the wind increased,
+and we were forced to abandon the chase and
+seek shelter on the nearest land.</p>
+
+<p>We reached Cape Sparbo, on the shores of Jones<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[Pg 379]</a></span>
+Sound, early in September. Our dogs were gone. Our
+ammunition, except four cartridges which I had
+secreted for use in a last emergency, was gone. Our
+equipment consisted of a half sledge, a canvas boat, a
+torn silk tent, a few camp kettles, tin plates, knives, and
+matches. Our clothing was splitting to shreds.</p>
+
+<p>Cape Sparbo, with its huge walls of granite, was to
+the leeward. A little bay was noted where we might
+gain the rocks in quiet water. Above the rocks was a
+small green patch where we hoped to find a soft resting
+place for the boat, so that we might place our furs in it
+and secure shelter from the bitter wind.</p>
+
+<p>When we landed we found to our surprise that it
+was the site of an old Eskimo village. There was a line
+of old igloos partly below water, indicating a very ancient
+time of settlement, for since the departure of the
+builders of these igloos the coast must have settled at
+least fifteen feet. Above were a few other ruins.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly after arriving we sought an auspicious
+place, protected from the wind and cold, where later we
+might build a winter shelter. Our search disclosed a
+cave-like hole, part of which was dug from the earth,
+and over which, with stones and bones, had been constructed
+a roof which now was fallen in.</p>
+
+<p>The long winter was approaching. We were over
+three hundred miles from Annoatok, and the coming
+of the long night made it necessary for us to halt here.
+We must have food and clothing. We now came upon
+musk oxen and tried to fell them with boulders, and bows
+and arrows made of the hickory of our sledge. Day after
+day the pursuit was vainly followed. Had it not been
+for occasional ducks caught with looped lines and sling<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[Pg 380]</a></span>
+shots, we should have been absolutely without any food.</p>
+
+<p>By the middle of September, snow and frost came
+with such frequency that we omitted hunting for a day
+to dig out the ruins in the cave and cut sod before permanent
+frost made such work impossible. Bone implements
+were shaped from skeletons found on shore for
+the digging. Blown drifts of sand and gravel, with some
+moss and grass, were slowly removed from the pit. We
+found under this, to our great joy, just the underground
+arrangement which we desired; a raised platform,
+about six feet long and eight feet wide with suitable
+wings for the lamp, and footspace, lay ready for
+us. The pit had evidently been designed for a small
+family. The walls, which were about two feet high,
+required little alteration. Another foot was added,
+which leveled the structure with the ground. A good
+deal of sod was cut and allowed to dry in the sun for
+use as a roof.</p>
+
+<p>While engaged in taking out the stones and cleaning
+the dungeon-like excavation, I suddenly experienced
+a heart-depressing chill when, lifting some debris, I saw
+staring at me from the black earth a hollow-eyed human
+skull. The message of death which the weird thing
+leeringly conveyed was singularly unpleasant; the omen
+was not good. Yet the fact that at this forsaken spot
+human hands had once built shelter, or for this thing had
+constructed a grave, gave me a certain companionable
+thrill.</p>
+
+<p>On the shore not far away we secured additional
+whale ribs and with these made a framework for a roof.
+This was later constructed of moss and blocks of sod.
+We built a rock wall about the shelter to protect our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[Pg 381]</a></span>selves
+from storms and bears. Then our winter home
+was ready. Food was now an immediate necessity.
+Game was found around us in abundance. Most of it
+was large. On land there were bear and musk ox, in
+the sea the walrus and the whale. But what could we
+do without either dogs or rifles?</p>
+
+<p>The first weapon that we now devised was the bow
+and arrow, for with this we could at least secure some
+small game. We had in our sledge available hickory
+wood of the best quality, than which no wood could be
+better; we had sinews and seal lashings for strings, but
+there was no metal for tips. We tried bone, horn and
+ivory, but all proved ineffective.</p>
+
+<p>One day, however, E-tuk-i-shook examined his
+pocket knife and suggested taking the side blades for
+arrow tips. This was done, and the blade with its spring
+was set in a bone handle. Two arrows were thus tipped.
+The weapons complete, the Eskimo boys went out on
+the chase. They returned in the course of a few hours
+with a hare and an eider-duck. Joy reigned in camp as
+we divided the meat and disposed of it without the
+process of cooking.</p>
+
+<p>A day later, two musk oxen were seen grazing
+along the moraine of a wasting glacier. Now the musk
+ox is a peace-loving animal and avoids strife, but when
+forced into fight it is one of the most desperate and
+dangerous of all the fighters of the wilderness. It can
+and does give the most fatal thrust of all the horned
+animals. No Spanish bull of the pampas, no buffalo
+of the plains, has either the slant of horn or the intelligence
+to gore its enemies as has this inoffensive-looking
+bull of the ice world. The intelligence, indeed, is an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[Pg 382]</a></span>
+important factor, for after watching musk oxen for a
+time under varied conditions, one comes to admire their
+almost human intellect as well as their superhuman
+power of delivering self-made force.</p>
+
+<p>Our only means of attack was with the bow and
+arrow. The boys crept up behind rocks until within a
+few yards of the unsuspecting creatures. They bent
+the bows, and the arrows sped with the force and
+accuracy as only a hungry savage can master. But the
+beasts' pelts were too strong. The musk oxen jumped
+and faced their assailants. Each arrow, as it came, was
+broken into splints by the feet and the teeth.</p>
+
+<p>When the arrows were all used a still more primitive
+weapon was tried, for the sling shot was brought
+into use, with large stones. These missiles the musk
+oxen took good naturedly, merely advancing a few steps
+to a granite boulder, upon which they sharpened their
+horn points and awaited further developments. No
+serious injury had been inflicted and they made no
+effort to escape.</p>
+
+<p>Then came a change. When we started to give up
+the chase they turned upon us with a fierce rush. Fortunately,
+many big boulders were about, and we dodged
+around these with large stones in hand to deliver at close
+range. In a wild rush a musk ox cannot easily turn, and
+so can readily be dodged. Among the rocks two legs
+were better than four. The trick of evading the musk
+ox I had learned from the dogs. It saved our lives.</p>
+
+<p>After a while the animals wearied, and we beat a
+hasty retreat, with new lessons in our book of hunting
+adventures. The bow and arrow was evidently not the
+weapon with which to secure musk oxen.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[Pg 383]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The musk ox of Jones Sound, unlike his brother
+farther north, is every ready for battle. He is often
+compelled to meet the bear and the wolf in vicious contests,
+and his tactics are as thoroughly developed as his
+emergencies require. Seldom does he fall the victim of
+his enemies. We were a long time in learning completely
+his methods of warfare, and if, in the meantime,
+we had not secured other game our fate would have been
+unfortunate.</p>
+
+<p>Harpoons and lances were next finally completed,
+and with them we hastened to retrieve our honor in the
+"ah-ming-ma" chase. For, after all, the musk ox alone
+could supply our wants. Winter storms were coming
+fast. We were not only without food and fuel, but without
+clothing. In our desperate effort to get out of the
+regions of famine to the Atlantic, we had left behind
+all our winter furs, including the sleeping bags; and our
+summer garments were worn out. We required the fuel
+and the sinew, the fat and the horn.</p>
+
+<p>One day we saw a herd of twenty-one musk oxen
+quietly grazing on a misty meadow, like cattle on the
+western plains. It was a beautiful sight to watch them,
+divided as they were into families and in small groups.
+The males were in fur slightly brown, while the females
+and the young ones were arrayed in magnificent black
+pelts.</p>
+
+<p>To get any of them seemed hopeless, but our appalling
+necessities forced us onward. There were no
+boulders near, but each of us gathered an armful of
+stones, the object being to make a sudden bombardment
+and compel them to retreat in disorder and scatter
+among the rocks.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[Pg 384]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>We approached under cover of a small grassy
+hummock. When we were detected, a bull gave a loud
+snort and rushed toward his nearest companions, whereupon
+the entire herd gathered into a circle, with the
+young in the center.</p>
+
+<p>We made our sham rush and hurled the stones.
+The oxen remained almost motionless, with their heads
+down, giving little snorts and stamping a little when
+hit, but quickly resuming their immobile position of
+watchfulness. After our stones were exhausted, the
+animals began to shift positions slightly. We interpreted
+this as a move for action. So we gave up the
+effort and withdrew.</p>
+
+<p>The days were long and the nights still light
+enough to continue operations as long as we could keep
+our eyes open. The whip of hunger made rest impossible.
+So we determined to seek a less formidable group
+of oxen in a position more favorable. The search was
+continued until the sinking glimmer of the sun in the
+north marked the time of midnight&mdash;for with us at that
+time the compass was the timepiece.</p>
+
+<p>When E-tuk-i-shook secured a hare with the bow
+and arrow, we ascended a rocky eminence and sat down
+to appease the calling stomach without a camp fire.
+From here we detected a family of four musk oxen
+asleep not far from another group of rocks.</p>
+
+<p>This was a call to battle. We were not long in
+planning our tactics. The wind was in our favor, permitting
+an attack from the side opposite the rocks to
+which we aimed to force a retreat. We also found small
+stones in abundance, these being now a necessary part of
+our armament. Our first effort was based on the suppo<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[Pg 385]</a></span>sition
+of their remaining asleep. They were simply chewing
+their cud, however, and rose to form a ring of defence
+as we advanced. We stormed them with stones
+and they took to the shelter of the rocks. We continued
+to advance slowly upon them, throwing stones occasionally
+to obviate a possible assault from them before we
+could also seek the shelter of the rocks.</p>
+
+<p>Besides the bow and arrow and the stones, we now
+had lances and these we threw as they rushed to attack
+us. Two lances were crushed to small fragments before
+they could be withdrawn by the light line attached.
+They inflicted wounds, but not severe ones.</p>
+
+<p>Noting the immense strength of the animals, we at
+first thought it imprudent to risk the harpoon with its
+precious line, for if we lost it we could not replace it.
+But the destruction of the two lances left us no alternative.</p>
+
+<p>Ah-we-lah threw the harpoon. It hit a rib, glanced
+to a rock, and was also destroyed. Fortunately we had
+a duplicate point, which was quickly fastened. Then
+we moved about to encourage another onslaught.</p>
+
+<p>Two came at once, an old bull and a young one.
+E-tuk-i-shook threw the harpoon at the young one, and
+it entered. The line had previously been fastened to a
+rock, and the animal ran back to its associates, apparently
+not severely hurt, leaving the line slack. One of
+the others immediately attacked the line with horns,
+hoofs and teeth, but did not succeed in breaking it.</p>
+
+<p>Our problem now was to get rid of the other three
+while we dealt with the one at the end of the line. Our
+only resource was a sudden fusilade of stones. This
+proved effective. The three scattered and ascended the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[Pg 386]</a></span>
+boulder-strewn foreland of a cliff, where the oldest bull
+remained to watch our movements. The young bull
+made violent efforts to escape but the line of sealskin
+was strong and elastic. A lucky throw of a lance at
+close range ended the strife. Then we advanced on the
+old bull, who was alone in a good position for us.</p>
+
+<p>We gathered stones and advanced, throwing them
+at the creature's body. This, we found, did not enrage
+him, but it prevented his making an attack. As we
+gained ground he gradually backed up to the edge of
+the cliff, snorting viciously but making no effort whatever
+either to escape along a lateral bench or to attack.
+His big brown eyes were upon us; his sharp horns were
+pointed at us. He evidently was planning a desperate
+lunge and was backing to gain time and room, but each
+of us kept within a few yards of a good-sized rock.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly we made a combined rush into the open,
+hurling stones, and keeping a long rock in a line for
+retreat. Our storming of stones had the desired effect.
+The bull, annoyed and losing its presence of mind,
+stepped impatiently one step too far backwards and fell
+suddenly over the cliff, landing on a rocky ledge below.
+Looking over we saw he had broken a fore leg. The cliff
+was not more than fifteen feet high. From it the lance
+was used to put the poor creature out of suffering. We
+were rich now and could afford to spread out our
+stomachs, contracted by long spells of famine. The bull
+dressed about three hundred pounds of meat and one
+hundred pounds of tallow.</p>
+
+<p>We took the tallow and as much meat as we could
+carry on our backs, and started for the position of our
+prospective winter camp, ten miles away. The meat<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[Pg 387]</a></span>
+left was carefully covered with heavy stones to protect
+it from bears, wolves and foxes. On the following day
+we returned with the canvas boat, making a landing
+about four miles from the battlefield. As we neared
+the caches we found to our dismay numerous bear and
+fox tracks. The bears had opened the caches and removed
+our hard-earned game, while the foxes and the
+ravens had cleared up the very fragments and destroyed
+even the skins. Here was cause for vengeance
+on the bear and the fox. The fox paid his skin later,
+but the bear out-generaled us in nearly every
+maneuvre.</p>
+
+<p>We came prepared to continue the chase but had
+abandoned the use of the harpoon. Our main hope for
+fuel was the blubber of the walrus, and if the harpoon
+should be destroyed or lost we could not hope to attack
+so powerful a brute as a walrus with any other device.
+In landing we had seen a small herd of musk oxen at
+some distance to the east, but they got our wind and
+vanished. We decided to follow them up. One day
+we found them among a series of rolling hills, where the
+receding glaciers had left many erratic boulders. They
+lined up in their ring of defence as usual when we were
+detected. There were seven of them; all large creatures
+with huge horns. A bitter wind was blowing, driving
+some snow, which made our task more difficult.</p>
+
+<p>The opening of the fight with stones was now a
+regular feature which we never abandoned in our later
+development of the art, but the manner in which we delivered
+the stones depended upon the effect which we
+wished to produce. If we wished the musk oxen to retreat,
+we would make a combined rush, hurling the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[Pg 388]</a></span>
+stones at the herd. If we wished them to remain in position
+and discourage their attack, we advanced slowly
+and threw stones desultorily, more or less at random.
+If we wanted to encourage attacks, one man advanced
+and delivered a large rock as best he could at the head.
+This was cheap ammunition and it was very effective.</p>
+
+<p>In this case the game was in a good position for
+us and we advanced accordingly. They allowed us to
+take positions within about fifteen feet, but no nearer.
+The lances were repeatedly tried without effect, and
+after a while two of these were again broken.</p>
+
+<p>Having tried bow and arrow, stones, the lance and
+the harpoon, we now tried another weapon. We threw
+the lasso&mdash;but not successfully, owing to the bushy hair
+about the head and the roundness of the hump of the
+neck. Then we tried to entangle their feet with slip
+loops just as we trapped gulls. This also failed. We
+next extended the loop idea to the horns. The bull's
+habit of rushing at things hurled at him caused us to
+think of this plan.</p>
+
+<p>A large slip loop was now made in the center of
+the line, and the two natives took up positions on opposite
+sides of the animal. They threw the rope, with its
+loop, on the ground in front of the creature, while I
+encouraged an attack from the front. As the head was
+slightly elevated the loop was raised, and the bull put
+his horns in it, one after the other. The rope was now
+rapidly fastened to stones and the bull tightened the
+loop by his efforts to advance or retreat. With every
+opportunity the slack was taken up, until no play was
+allowed the animal. During this struggle all the other
+oxen retreated except one female, and she was in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[Pg 389]</a></span>offensive.
+A few stones at close range drove her off.
+Then we had the bull where we could reach him with the
+lance at arm's length, and plunge it into his vitals. He
+soon fell over, the first victim to our new art of musk
+ox capture.</p>
+
+<p>The others did not run very far away. Indeed,
+they were too fat to run, and two more were soon
+secured in the same way. This time we took all the meat
+we could with us to camp and left a man on guard.
+When all was removed to the bay we found the load too
+heavy for our boat, so, in two loads, we transported the
+meat and fat and skins to our camp, where we built
+caches which we believed impregnable to the bear,
+although the thieving creatures actually opened them
+later.</p>
+
+<p>Our lances repaired, we started out for another adventure
+a few days later. It was a beautiful day. Our
+methods of attack were not efficient, but we wished to
+avoid the risk of the last plunge of the lance, for our
+lives were in the balance every time if the line should
+break, and with every lunge of the animal we expected
+it to snap. In such case, we knew, the assailant would
+surely be gored.</p>
+
+<p>We were sufficiently independent now to proceed
+more cautiously. With the bull's willingness to put his
+head into the loop, I asked myself whether the line loop
+could not be slipped beyond the horns and about the
+neck, thus shutting off the air. So the line was lengthened
+with this effort in view.</p>
+
+<p>Of the many groups of oxen which we saw we
+picked those in the positions most to our advantage,
+although rather distant. Our new plan was tried with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[Pg 390]</a></span>
+success on a female. A bull horned her vigorously
+when she gasped for breath, and which aided our
+efforts. A storming of stones scattered the others of
+the group, and we were left to deal with our catch
+with the knife.</p>
+
+<p>Our art of musk ox fighting was now completely
+developed. In the course of a few weeks we secured
+enough to assure comfort and ease during the long
+night. By our own efforts we were lifted suddenly
+from famine to luxury. But it had been the stomach
+with its chronic emptiness which had lashed the mind and
+body to desperate efforts with sufficient courage to face
+the danger. Hunger, as I have found, is more potent
+as a stimulant than barrels of whiskey. Beginning with
+the bow and arrow we had tried everything which we
+could devise, but now our most important acquisition
+was our intimate knowledge of the animal's own means
+of offense and defense.</p>
+
+<p>We knew by a kind of instinct when an attack
+upon us was about to be made, because the animal made
+a forward move, and we never failed in our efforts to
+force a retreat. The rocks which the animals sought for
+an easy defense were equally useful to us, and later we
+forced them into deep waters and also deep snow with
+similar success. By the use of stones and utilizing the
+creatures' own tactics we placed them where we wished.
+And then again, by the animal's own efforts, we forced
+it to strangle itself, which, after all, was the most
+humane method of slaughter. Three human lives were
+thus saved by the invention of a new art of chase.
+This gave us courage to attack those more vicious but
+less dangerous animals, the bear and walrus.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[Pg 391]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The musk ox now supplied many wants in our
+"Robinson Crusoe" life. From the bone we made harpoon
+points, arrow pieces, knife handles, fox traps and
+sledge repairs. The skin, with its remarkable fur, made
+our bed and roofed our igloo. Of it we made all kinds
+of garments, but its greatest use was for coats with
+hoods, stockings and mittens. From the skin, with the
+fur removed, we made boots, patched punctures in our
+boat, and cut lashings. The hair and wool which were
+removed from the skins made pads for our palms in the
+mittens and cushions for the soles of our feet in lieu of
+the grass formerly used.</p>
+
+<p>The meat became our staple food for seven months
+without change. It was a delicious product. It has a
+flavor slightly sweet, like that of horseflesh, but still
+distinctly pleasing. It possesses an odor unlike musk
+but equally unlike anything that I know of. The live
+creatures exhale the scent of domestic cattle. Just why
+this odd creature is called "musk" ox is a mystery, for
+it is neither an ox, nor does it smell of musk. The
+Eskimo name of "ah-ming-ma" would fit it much better.
+The bones were used as fuel for outside fires, and the
+fat as both fuel and food.</p>
+
+<p>At first our wealth of food came with surprise and
+delight to us, for, in the absence of sweet or starchy
+foods, man craves fat. Sugar and starch are most
+readily converted into fat by the animal laboratory, and
+fat is one of the prime factors in the development and
+maintenance of the human system. It is the confectionery
+of aboriginal man, and we had taken up the lot
+of the most primitive aborigines, living and thriving
+solely on the product of the chase without a morsel of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[Pg 392]</a></span>
+civilized or vegetable food. Under these circumstances
+we especially delighted in the musk ox tallow, and more
+especially in the marrow, which we sucked from the
+bone with the eagerness with which a child jubilantly
+manages a stick of candy.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 640px;">
+<img src="images/illo_436.jpg" width="640" height="393" alt="ARCTIC WOLF" title="" />
+<span class="caption">ARCTIC WOLF</span>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 100%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[Pg 393]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="WITH_A_NEW_ART_OF_CHASE_IN_A_NEW" id="WITH_A_NEW_ART_OF_CHASE_IN_A_NEW"></a>WITH A NEW ART OF CHASE IN A NEW
+WORLD OF LIFE</h2>
+
+<p class="blockquot">THREE WEEKS BEFORE THE SUNSET OF 1908&mdash;REVELLING
+IN AN EDEN OF GAME&mdash;PECULIARITIES OF ANIMALS
+OF THE ARCTIC&mdash;HOW NATURE DICTATES ANIMAL
+COLOR&mdash;THE QUEST OF SMALL LIFE</p>
+
+<h3>XXVII<br />
+
+<br /><span class="smcap">Coming of the Second Winter</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>In two months, from the first of September to the
+end of October, we passed from a period of hunger,
+thirst and abject misery into the realm of abundant
+game. The spell for inactivity had not yet come. Up
+to this time we were too busy with the serious business
+of life to realize thoroughly that we had really discovered
+a new natural wonderland. The luck of Robinson
+Crusoe was not more fortunate than ours, although he
+had not the cut of frost nor the long night, nor the
+torment of bears to circumscribe his adventures. In
+successive stages of battle our eyes had opened to a new
+world of life.</p>
+
+<p>In searching every nook and cranny of land we had
+acquired new arts of life and a new perspective of
+nature's wonders. We slept in caves in storm; in
+the lee of icebergs in strong winds and on the mossy
+cushions of earth concavities. Here we learned to study<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[Pg 394]</a></span>
+and appreciate primal factors of both animal and plant
+life.</p>
+
+<p>In the Arctic, nature tries to cover its nakedness in
+places where the cruel winds do not cut its contour.
+The effort is interesting, not only because of the charm
+of the verdant dress, but because of the evidence of a
+motherly protection to the little life cells which struggle
+against awful odds to weave that fabric wherever a
+terrestrial dimple is exposed to the kisses of the southern
+sun. In these depressions, sheltered from the
+blasts of storms, a kindly hand spreads a beautiful
+mantle of colorful grass, moss, lichens and flowery
+plants.</p>
+
+<p>Here the lemming digs his home under the velvet
+cover, where he may enjoy the roots and material protection
+from the abysmal frost of the long night. Here
+in the protected folds of Mother Earth, blanketed by the
+warm white robe of winter, he sleeps the peace of death
+while the warring elements blast in fury outside.</p>
+
+<p>Here the Arctic hare plays with its bunnies during
+summer, and as the winter comes the young grow to
+full maturity and dress in a silky down of white. Under
+the snow they burrow, making long tunnels, still eating
+and sleeping on their loved cushions of frozen plants,
+far under the snow-skirts of Mother Earth, while the
+life-stilling blasts without expend their wintry force.</p>
+
+<p>Here the ptarmigan scratches for its food. The
+musk ox and the caribou browse, while the raven, with a
+kind word for all, collects food for its palate. The bear
+and the wolf occasionally visit to collect tribute, while
+the falcon and the fox with one eye open are ever on
+the alert for the exercise of their craft.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[Pg 395]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In these little smiling indentations of nature, when
+the sun begins to caress the gentle slopes, while the snow
+melts and flows in leaping streams&mdash;the sea still locked
+by the iron grip of the winter embrace&mdash;the Arctic incubator
+works overtime to start the little ones of the
+snow wilds. Thus in these dimples of nature rocks the
+cradle of boreal life.</p>
+
+<p>Relieved of the all-absorbing care of providing
+food, I now was often held spellbound as I wandered
+over these spots of nature's wonders. Phases of life
+which never interested me before now riveted my attention.
+Wandering from the softly cushioned gullies, the
+harsh ridge life next came under my eyes. While the
+valleys and the gullies become garden spots of summer
+glory, the very protection from winds which makes this
+life possible buries the vegetable luxuriousness in winter
+under unfathomable depths of snow. The musk ox and
+the caribou, dependent upon this plant life for food,
+therefore become deprived of the usual means of subsistence.
+But Mother Nature does not desert her
+children. The same winds which compel man and
+feebler animals to seek shelter from its death-dealing
+assault, afford food to the better fitted musk ox and
+caribou. In summer, plants, like animals, climb to
+ridges, hummocks and mountain slopes, to get air and
+light and warm sunbeams. But the battle here is hard,
+and only very strong plants survive the force of wind
+and frosts.</p>
+
+<p>The plant fibre here become tenacious; with a body
+gnarled and knotty from long conflict the roots dig
+yards deep into the soil. This leaves the breathing part
+of the plant dwarfed to a few inches. Here the winter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[Pg 396]</a></span>
+winds sweep off the snow and offer food to the musk ox
+and caribou. Thus the wind, which destroys, also gives
+means of life. The equalizing balance of nature is truly
+wonderful.</p>
+
+<p>In small, circumscribed areas we thus found ourselves
+in a new Eden of primeval life.</p>
+
+<p>The topography of North Devon, however, placed
+a sharp limit to the animated wilderness. Only a narrow
+strip of coast about Cape Sparbo, extending about
+twenty-five miles to the east and about forty miles to
+the west, presented any signs of land life. All other
+parts of the south shore of Jones Sound are more barren
+than the shores of the Polar sea.</p>
+
+<p>Although our larder was now well stocked with
+meat for food and blubber for fuel, we were still in need
+of furs and skins to prepare a new equipment with
+which to return to the Greenland shores. The animals
+whose pelts we required were abundant everywhere.
+But they were too active to be caught by the art and
+the weapons evolved earlier in the chase of the walrus,
+bear and musk ox.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 536px;">
+<img src="images/illo_441.jpg" width="536" height="800" alt="E-TUK-I-SHOOK WAITING FOR A SEAL AT A BLOW-HOLE" title="" />
+<span class="caption">E-TUK-I-SHOOK WAITING FOR A SEAL AT A BLOW-HOLE</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>A series of efforts, therefore, was directed to the
+fox, the hare, the ptarmigan and the seal. It was necessary
+to devise special methods and means of capture
+for each family of animals. The hare was perhaps the
+most important, not only because its delicately flavored
+meat furnished a pleasing change from the steady diet
+of musk ox, but also because its skin is not equalled by
+any other for stockings. In our quest of the musk ox
+we had startled little groups of creatures from many
+centers. Their winter fur was not prime until after the
+middle of October. Taking notes of their haunts and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[Pg 397]</a></span>
+their habits, we had, therefore, reserved the hare hunt
+until the days just before sunset.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 538px;">
+<img src="images/illo_442.jpg" width="538" height="800" alt="TOWARD CAPE SPARBO IN A CANVAS BOAT
+WALRUS" title="" />
+<span class="caption">TOWARD CAPE SPARBO IN A CANVAS BOAT<br />
+WALRUS&mdash;PRIZE OF A FIFTEEN HOUR BATTLE&mdash;4,000 POUNDS OF
+MEAT AND FAT</span>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>We had learned to admire this little aristocrat. It
+is the most beautiful, most delicate of northern creatures.
+Early in the summer we had found it grazing
+in the green meadows along the base of bird cliffs. The
+little gray bunnies then played with their mothers about
+crystal dens. Now the babes were full grown and
+clothed in the same immaculate white of the parents.
+We could distinguish the young only by their greater
+activity and their ceaseless curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>In the immediate vicinity of camp we found them
+first in gullies where the previous winter's snow had but
+recently disappeared. Here the grass was young and
+tender and of a flavor to suit their taste for delicacies.
+A little later they followed the musk ox to the shores of
+lagoons or to the wind-swept hills. Still later, as the
+winter snows blanketed the pastures and the bitter
+storms of night swept the cheerless drifts, they dug
+long tunnels under the snow for food, and when the
+storms were too severe remained housed in these feeding
+dugouts.</p>
+
+<p>An animal of rare intelligence, the hare is quick to
+grasp an advantage, and therefore as winter advances
+we find it a constant companion of the musk ox. For in
+the diggings of the musk ox this little creature finds
+sufficient food uncovered for its needs.</p>
+
+<p>With a skeleton as light as that of the bird and a
+skin as frail as paper it is nevertheless as well prepared
+to withstand the rigors of the Arctic as the bear with
+its clumsy anatomy. The entire makeup of the hare is
+based upon the highest strain of animal economy. It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[Pg 398]</a></span>
+expends the greatest possible amount of energy at the
+cost of the least consumption of food. Its fur is as
+white as the boreal snows and absorbs color somewhat
+more readily. In a stream of crimson light it appears
+red and white; in a shadow of ice or in the darkness of
+night it assumes the subdued blue of the Polar world.
+Nature has bleached its fur seemingly to afford the best
+protection against the frigid chill, for a suitable white
+fur permits the escape of less bodily heat than any
+colored or shaded pelt.</p>
+
+<p>The fox is its only real enemy, and the fox's chance
+of success is won only by superior cunning. Its protection
+against the fox lies in its lightning-like movement
+of the legs. When it scents danger it rises by a series
+of darts that could be followed only by birds. Its expenditure
+of muscular energy is so economical that it
+can continue its run for an almost indefinite time.
+Shooting along a few hundred paces, it then rises to rest
+in an erect posture. With its black-tipped ears in line
+with its back it makes a fascinating little bit of nature's
+handiwork. Again, when asleep, it curls up
+its legs carefully in the long fur of its body, and its ever-active
+nose, with the divided lip, is then pushed into the
+long soft fur of the breast where the frost crystals are
+screened from the breath when storms carry drift snow.
+It is a fluffy ball of animation which provokes one's
+admiration.</p>
+
+<p>Deprived as we were of most of the usual comforts
+of life, many things were taught us by the creatures
+about. From the hare, with its scrupulous attention to
+cleanliness, we learned how to cleanse our hands and
+faces. With no soap, no towels and very little water,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[Pg 399]</a></span>
+we had some difficulty in trying to keep respectable
+appearances. The hare has the same problem to deal
+with, but it is provided by nature with a cleansing apparatus.
+Its own choice is the forepaw, but with its need
+for snow shoes the hind legs serve a very useful purpose,
+and then, too, the surface is developed, a surface covered
+with tough fur which, we discovered, possessed the
+quality of a wet sponge and did not require, for efficiency,
+either soap or water. With hare paws, therefore,
+we kept clean. These paws also served as napkins. To
+take the place of a basin and a towel we therefore gathered
+a supply of hare paws, enough to keep clean for
+at least six months.</p>
+
+<p>The hare was a good mark for E-tuk-i-shook with
+the sling shot, and many fell victims to his primitive
+genius. Ah-we-lah, never an expert at stone slinging,
+became an adept with the bow and arrow. Usually he
+returned with at least a hare from every day's chase.
+Our main success resulted from a still more primitive
+device. Counting on its inquisitiveness we devised a
+chain of loop lines arranged across the hare's regular
+lines of travel. In playing and jumping through these
+loops, the animal tightened the lines and became our victim
+automatically.</p>
+
+<p>The ptarmigan chase was possible only for Ah-we-lah.
+The bird was not at all shy, for it often came close
+to our den and scattered the snow like a chicken. It was
+too small a mark for the sling shot and only Ah-we-lah
+could give the arrow the precise direction for these
+feathered creatures. Altogether, fifteen were secured
+in our locality, and all served as dessert for my special
+benefit. According to Eskimo custom, a young, un<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[Pg 400]</a></span>married
+man or woman cannot eat the ptarmigan, or
+"<i>ahr-rish-shah</i>" as they call it. That pleasure is reserved
+for the older people, and I did not for a moment
+risk the sacrilege of trying to change the custom. It
+was greatly to my advantage, for it not only impressed
+with suitable force my dignity as a superior Eskimo,
+but it enabled me to enjoy an entire bird at a time instead
+of only a teasing mouthful.</p>
+
+<p>To us the ptarmigan was at all times fascinating,
+but it proved ever a thing of mystery. Descending from
+the skies at unexpected times it embarks again for
+haunts unknown. At times we saw the birds in great
+numbers. At other times they were absent for months.
+In summer the bird has gray and brown feathers,
+mingled with white. It keeps close to the inland ice,
+making its course along the snowy coast of Noonataks,
+beyond the reach of man or fox. Late in September it
+seeks the lower ground along the sea level.</p>
+
+<p>Like the hare and the musk ox, it delights in windy
+places where the snow has been driven away. There it
+finds bits of moss and withered plants which satisfy its
+needs. The summer plumage is at first sight like that
+of the partridge. On close examination one finds the
+feathers are only tipped with color&mdash;underneath, the
+plumage is white. In winter it retains only the black
+feathers of its tail, otherwise it is as white as the hare.
+Its legs often are covered with tough fur, like that of
+the hare's lower hind legs. The meat is delicate in
+flavor and tender. It is the most beautiful of the four
+birds that remain in the white world when all is bleak
+during the night.</p>
+
+<p>We sought the fox more diligently than the ptarmi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[Pg 401]</a></span>gan.
+We had a more tangible way of securing it.
+Furthermore, we were in great need of its skin.
+E-tuk-i-shook and Ah-we-lah regarded fox hams as
+quite a delicacy&mdash;a delicacy which I never willingly
+shared when there were musk tenderloins about. We
+had no steel traps, and with its usual craft the fox usually
+managed to evade our crude weapons by keeping
+out of sight. Bone traps were made with a good deal of
+care after the pattern of steel traps. We used a musk-ox
+horn as a spring. But with these we were only partially
+successful. As a last resort, little domes were arranged
+in imitation of the usual caches, with trap stone doors.
+In these we managed to secure fourteen white and two
+blue animals. After that they proved too wise for our
+craft.</p>
+
+<p>The fox becomes shy only in the end of October,
+when its fur begins to be really worth taking. Before
+that it followed us everywhere on the musk ox quest, for
+it was not slow to learn the advantage of being near our
+battle scenes. We frequently left choice bits for its
+picking, a favor which it seemed to appreciate by a careful
+watchfulness of our camps. Although a much more
+cunning thief than the bear, we could afford its plunderings,
+for it had not so keen a taste for blubber and its
+capacity was limited. We thus got well acquainted.</p>
+
+<p>Up to the present we had failed in the quest of the
+seal. During the open season of summer, without a
+<i>kayak</i>, we could not get near the animal. As the winter
+and the night advanced, we were too busy with the land
+animals to watch the blow-holes in the new ice. When
+the sea is first spread with the thin sheet of colorless ice,
+which later thickens, the seal rises to the surface, makes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[Pg 402]</a></span>
+a breathing hole, descends to its feeding grounds on the
+sea bottom for about ten minutes, then rises and makes
+another hole. This line of openings is arranged in a
+circle or a series of connecting, oblong lines, marking
+that particular seal's favorite feeding ground. Before
+the young ice is covered with snow, these breathing holes
+are easily located by a ring of white frost crystals, which
+condense and fall as the seal blows. But now that the
+winter had sheeted the black ice evenly with a white
+cover, the seal holes, though open, could not be found.
+We were not in need of either fat or meat, but the seal
+skins were to fill an important want. We required for
+boots and sled lashing the thin, tough seal hide. How
+could we get it?</p>
+
+<p>From our underground den we daily watched the
+wanderings of the bears. They trailed along certain
+lines which we knew to be favorable feeding grounds for
+seals, but they did not seem to be successful. Could we
+not profit by their superb scenting instinct and find the
+blow-holes? The bear had been our worst enemy, but
+unconsciously it also proved to be our best friend.</p>
+
+<p>We started out to trail the bear's footprints. By
+these we were led to the blow-holes, where we found the
+snow about had been circled with a regular trail. Most of
+these had been abandoned, for the seal has a scent as keen
+as the bear, but a few "live" holes were located. Sticks
+were placed to locate these, and after a few days' careful
+study and hard work we harpooned six seals. Taking
+only the skins and blubber, we left the carcasses for
+bruin's share of the chase&mdash;to be consumed later. We did
+not hunt together with the bear&mdash;at least, not knowingly.</p>
+
+<p>In these wanderings over game lands we were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[Pg 403]</a></span>
+permitted a very close scrutiny of the animals about, and
+it was at this time that I came to certain definite conclusions
+as to prevailing laws of color and dress of our
+co-habitants of the Polar wastes.</p>
+
+<p>The animals of the Arctic assume a color in accordance
+to their need for heat transmission. The prevailing
+influence is white, as light furs permit the least
+escape of heat. It is evidently more important to confine
+the heat of the body, than to gather heat from the
+sun's feeble rays. The necessity for bleaching the furry
+raiment becomes most operative in winter when the
+temperature of the air is 150&deg; below that of the body.
+In the summer, when the continued sunshine is made
+more heating by the piercing influence of the reflecting
+snow-fields, there is a tendency to absorb heat. Then
+nature darkens the skin, which absorbs heat accordingly.</p>
+
+<p>The relative advantage of light and dark shades
+can be easily demonstrated by placing pieces of white
+and black cloth on a surface of snow, with a slope at
+right angles to the sun's rays. If, after a few hours,
+the cloth is removed the snow under the black cloth will
+be melted considerably, while that under the white cloth
+will show little effect.</p>
+
+<p>Nature makes use of this law of physics to ease
+the hard lot of its creatures fighting the weather in the
+icy world. The laws of color protection as advocated
+in the rules of natural selection are not operative here,
+because of the vitally important demand of heat economy.
+If we now seek the problem of nature's body
+colored dyes, with heat economy as the key, our calculations
+will become easy. The serwah, a species of guillemot,
+which is as black as the raven in summer, is white<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[Pg 404]</a></span>
+in winter. The ptarmigan is light as pearl in winter, but
+its feathers become tipped with amber in summer. The
+hare is slightly gray in summer, but, in winter, becomes
+white as the snow under which it finds food and shelter.</p>
+
+<p>The white fox is gray in summer, the blue fox
+darkens as the sun advances, while its under fur becomes
+lighter with increasing cold. The caribou is dark brown
+as it grazes the moss-colored fields, but becomes nearly
+white with the permanent snows. The polar bear, as
+white as nature can make it, with only blubber to mix
+its paints, basks in the midnight sun with a raiment
+suggestive of gold. The musk ox changes its dark
+under-fur for a lighter shade. The raven has a white
+under-coat in winter. The rat is gray in summer but
+bleaches to blue-gray in winter time. The laws of selection
+and heat economy are thus combined.</p>
+
+<p>While thus preparing for the coming winter by
+seeking animals with furry pelts, the weather conditions
+made our task increasingly difficult. The storm of the
+descending sun whipped the seas into white fury and
+brushed the lands with icy clouds. With the descent of
+the sun, nature again set its seal of gloom on Arctic life.
+The cheer of a sunny heaven was blotted from the skies,
+and the coming of the winter blackness was signalled by
+the beginning of a warfare of the elements. All hostile
+nature was now set loose to expend its restive battle
+energy.</p>
+
+<p>For brief moments the weather was quiet, and then
+in awe-inspiring silence we steered for sequestered gullies
+in quest of little creatures. This death-like stillness
+was in harmony with our loneliness. As the sea was
+stilled by the iron bonds of frost, as life sought protec<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[Pg 405]</a></span>tion
+under the storm-driven snows of land, the winds,
+growing even wilder, beat a maddening onslaught over
+the dead, frozen world. The thunder of elements shook
+the very rocks under which we slept. Then again would
+fall a spell of that strange silence&mdash;all was dead, the sun
+glowed no more, the creatures of the wilds were hushed.
+We were all alone&mdash;alone in a vast, white dead world.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 640px;">
+<img src="images/illo_451.jpg" width="640" height="299" alt="LEMMING" title="" />
+<span class="caption">LEMMING</span>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 100%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[Pg 406]</a></span></p>
+<h2>A HUNDRED NIGHTS IN AN UNDERGROUND
+DEN</h2>
+
+<p class="blockquot">LIVING LIKE MEN OF THE STONE AGE&mdash;THE DESOLATION
+OF THE LONG NIGHT&mdash;LIFE ABOUT CAPE SPARBO&mdash;PREPARING
+EQUIPMENT FOR THE RETURN TO GREENLAND&mdash;SUNRISE,
+FEBRUARY 11, 1909</p>
+
+<h3>XXVIII<br />
+
+<br /><span class="smcap">Life About Cape Sparbo</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>The coming night slowly fixed its seal on our field
+of activity. Early in August the sun had dipped under
+the icy contour of North Lincoln, and Jones Sound had
+then begun to spread its cover of crystal. The warm
+rays gradually melted in a perpetual blue frost. The
+air thickened. The land darkened. The days shortened.
+The night lengthened. The Polar cold and darkness
+of winter came hand in hand.</p>
+
+<p>Late in September the nights had become too dark
+to sleep in the open, with inquisitive bears on every side.
+Storms, too, increased thereafter and deprived us of the
+cheer of colored skies. Thus we were now forced to
+seek a retreat in our underground den.</p>
+
+<p>We took about as kindly to this as a wild animal
+does to a cage. For over seven months we had wandered
+over vast plains of ice, with a new camp site almost<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">[Pg 407]</a></span>
+every day. We had grown accustomed to a wandering
+life like that of the bear, but we had not developed his
+hibernating instinct. We were anxious to continue our
+curious battle of life.</p>
+
+<p>In October the bosom of the sea became blanketed,
+and the curve of the snow-covered earth was polarized
+in the eastern skies. The final period for the death of
+day and earthly glory was advancing, but Nature in her
+last throes displayed some of her most alluring phases.
+The colored silhouette of the globe was perhaps the most
+remarkable display. In effect, this was a shadow of the
+earth thrown into space. By the reflected, refracted
+and polarized light of the sun, the terrestrial shadows
+were outlined against the sky in glowing colors. Seen
+occasionally in other parts of the globe, it is only in the
+Polar regions, with its air of crystal and its surface of
+mirrors, that the proper mediums are afforded for this
+gigantic spectral show.</p>
+
+<p>We had an ideal location. A glittering sea, with a
+level horizon, lay along the east and west. The weather
+was good, the skies were clear, and, as the sun sank, the
+sky over it was flushed with orange or gold. This
+gradually paled, and over the horizon opposite there
+rose an arc in feeble prismatic colors with a dark zone
+of purple under it. The arc rose as the sun settled; the
+purple spread beyond the polarized bow; and gradually
+the heavens turned a deep purple blue to the zenith,
+while the halo of the globe was slowly lost in its own
+shadow.</p>
+
+<p>The colored face of the earth painted on the screen
+of the heavens left the last impression of worldly charm
+on the retina. In the end of October the battle of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">[Pg 408]</a></span>
+elements, storms attending the setting of the sun, began
+to blast the air into a chronic fury. By this time we
+were glad to creep into our den and await the vanishing
+weeks of ebbing day.</p>
+
+<p>In the doom of night to follow, there would at least
+be some quiet moments during which we could stretch
+our legs. The bears, which had threatened our existence,
+were now kept off by a new device which served
+the purpose for a time. We had food and fuel enough
+for the winter. There should have been nothing to have
+disturbed our tempers, but the coming of the long blackness
+makes all Polar life ill at ease.</p>
+
+<p>Early in November the storms ceased long enough
+to give us a last fiery vision. With a magnificent cardinal
+flame the sun rose, gibbered in the sky and sank behind
+the southern cliffs on November 3. It was not to
+rise again until February 11 of the next year. We were
+therefore doomed to hibernate in our underground den
+for at least a hundred double nights before the dawn of
+a new day opened our eyes.</p>
+
+<p>The days now came and went in short order. For
+hygienic reasons we kept up the usual routine of life.
+The midday light soon darkened to twilight. The moon
+and stars appeared at noon. The usual partition of time
+disappeared. All was night, unrelieved darkness, midnight,
+midday, morning or evening.</p>
+
+<p>We stood watches of six hours each to keep the
+fires going, to keep off the bears and to force an interest
+in a blank life. We knew that we were believed to be
+dead. For our friends in Greenland would not ascribe
+to us the luck which came after our run of abject
+misfortune. This thought inflicted perhaps the greatest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">[Pg 409]</a></span>
+pain of the queer prolongation of life which was permitted
+us. It was loneliness, frigid loneliness. I wondered
+whether men ever felt so desolately alone.</p>
+
+<p>We could not have been more thoroughly isolated
+if we had been transported to the surface of the moon.
+I find myself utterly unable to outline the emptiness of
+our existence. In other surroundings we never grasp
+the full meaning of the word "alone." When it is possible
+to put a foot out of doors into sunlight without the
+risk of a bear-paw on your neck it is also possible to
+run off a spell of blues, but what were we to do with
+every dull rock rising as a bear ghost and with the torment
+of a satanic blackness to blind us?</p>
+
+<p>With the cheer of day, a kindly nature and a new
+friend, it is easy to get in touch with a sympathetic
+chord. The mere thought of another human heart within
+touch, even a hundred miles away, would have eased
+the suspense of the silent void. But we could entertain
+no such hopefulness. We were all alone in a world
+where every pleasant aspect of nature had deserted us.
+Although three in number, a bare necessity had compressed
+us into a single composite individuality.</p>
+
+<p>There were no discussions, no differences of
+opinion. We had been too long together under bitter
+circumstances to arouse each other's interest. A single
+individual could not live long in our position. A selfish
+instinct tightened a fixed bond to preserve and protect
+one another. As a battle force we made a formidable
+unit, but there was no matches to start the fires of
+inspiration.</p>
+
+<p>The half darkness of midday and the moonlight still
+permitted us to creep from under the ground and seek<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[Pg 410]</a></span>
+a few hours in the open. The stone and bone fox traps
+and the trap caves for the bears which we had built during
+the last glimmer of day offered an occupation with
+some recreation. But we were soon deprived of this.</p>
+
+<p>Bears headed us off at every turn. We were not
+permitted to proceed beyond an enclosed hundred feet
+from the hole of our den. Not an inch of ground or a
+morsel of food was permitted us without a contest. It
+was a fight of nature against nature. We either actually
+saw the little sooty nostrils with jets of vicious breath
+rising, and the huge outline of a wild beast ready to
+spring on us, or imagined we saw it. With no adequate
+means of defense we were driven to imprisonment
+within the walls of our own den.</p>
+
+<p>From within, our position was even more tantalizing.
+The bear thieves dug under the snows over our
+heads and snatched blocks of blubber fuel from under
+our very eyes at the port without a consciousness of
+wrongdoing. Occasionally we ventured out to deliver
+a lance, but each time the bear would make a leap for
+the door and would have entered had the opening been
+large enough. In other cases we shot arrows through
+the peep-hole. A bear head again would burst through
+the silk covered window near the roof, where knives, at
+close range and in good light, could be driven with
+sweet vengeance.</p>
+
+<p>As a last resort we made a hole through the top of
+the den. When a bear was heard near, a long torch was
+pushed through. The snow for acres about was then
+suddenly flashed with a ghostly whiteness which almost
+frightened us. But the bear calmly took advantage of
+the light to pick a larger piece of the blubber upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">[Pg 411]</a></span>
+which our lives depended, and then with an air of superiority
+he would move into the brightest light, usually
+within a few feet of our peep-hole, where we could
+almost touch his hateful skin. Without ammunition we
+were helpless.</p>
+
+<p>Two weeks after sunset we heard the last cry of
+ravens. After a silence of several days they suddenly
+descended with a piercing shout which cut the frosty
+stillness. We crept out of our den quickly to read the
+riddle of the sudden bluster. There were five ravens on
+five different rocks, and the absence of the celestial color
+gave them quite an appropriate setting. They were
+restless: there was no food for them. A fox had preceded
+them with his usual craftiness, and had left no
+pickings for feathered creatures.</p>
+
+<p>A family of five had gathered about in October,
+when the spoils of the chase were being cached, and we
+encouraged their stay by placing food for them regularly.
+Some times a sly fox, and at other times a thieving
+bear, got the little morsels, but there were usually
+sufficient picking for the raven's little crop. They had
+found a suitable cave high up in the great cliffs of granite
+behind our den.</p>
+
+<p>We were beginning to be quite friendly. My
+Eskimo companions ascribed to the birds almost human
+qualities and they talked to them reverently, thereby displaying
+their heart's desire. The secrets of the future
+were all entrusted to their consideration. Would the
+"too-loo-ah" go to Eskimo Lands and deliver their
+messages? The raven said "ka-ah" (yes).</p>
+
+<p>E-tuk-i-shook said: "Go and take the tears from
+An-na-do-a's eyes; tell her that I am alive and well and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">[Pg 412]</a></span>
+will come to take her soon. Tell Pan-ic-pa (his father)
+that I am in Ah-ming-ma-noona (Musk Ox Land).
+Bring us some powder to blacken the bear's snout."
+"Ka-ah, ka-ah," said the two ravens at once.</p>
+
+<p>Ah-we-lah began an appeal to drive off the bears
+and to set the raven spirits as guardians of our blubber
+caches. This was uttered in shrill shouts, and then, in
+a low, trembling voice, he said: "Dry the tears of
+mother's cheeks and tell her that we are in a land of
+todnu (tallow)."</p>
+
+<p>"Ka-ah," replied the raven.</p>
+
+<p>"Then go to Ser-wah; tell her not to marry that
+lazy gull, Ta-tamh; tell her that Ah-we-lah's skin is still
+flushed with thoughts of her, that he is well and will
+return to claim her in the first moon after sunrise."
+"Ka-ah, ka-ah, ka-ah," said the raven, and rose as if to
+deliver the messages.</p>
+
+<p>For the balance of that day we saw only three
+ravens. The two had certainly started for the Greenland
+shores. The other three, after an engorgement, rose
+to their cave and went to sleep for the night as we
+thought. No more was seen of them until the dawn of
+day of the following year.</p>
+
+<p>A few days later we also made other acquaintances.
+They were the most interesting bits of life that crossed
+our trail, and in the dying effort to seek animal companionship
+our soured tempers were sweetened somewhat
+by four-footed joys.</p>
+
+<p>A noise had been heard for several successive days
+at eleven o'clock. This was the time chosen by the bears
+for their daily exercise along our foot-path, and we were
+usually all awake with a knife or a lance in hand, not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[Pg 413]</a></span>
+because there was any real danger, for our house
+cemented by ice was as secure as a fort, but because
+we felt more comfortable in a battle attitude. Through
+the peep-hole we saw them marching up and down along
+the foot-path tramped down by our daily spells of leg-stretching.</p>
+
+<p>They were feasting on the aroma of our foot-prints,
+and when they left it was usually safe for us to venture
+out. Noises, however, continued within the walls of the
+den. It was evident that there was something alive at
+close range.</p>
+
+<p>We were lonely enough to have felt a certain delight
+in shaking hands even with bruin if the theft of
+our blubber had not threatened the very foundation of
+our existence. For in the night we could not augment
+our supplies; and without fat, fire and water were impossible.
+No! there was not room for man and bear at
+Cape Sparbo. Without ammunition, however, we were
+nearly helpless.</p>
+
+<p>But noises continued after bruin's steps came with
+a decreasing metallic ring from distant snows. There
+was a scraping and a scratching within the very walls
+of our den. We had a neighbor and a companion.
+Who, or what, could it be? We were kept in suspense
+for some time. When all was quiet at the time which
+we chose to call midnight, a little blue rat came out and
+began to tear the bark from our willow lamp trimmer.</p>
+
+<p>I was on watch, awake, and punched E-tuk-i-shook
+without moving my head. His eyes opened with surprise
+on the busy rodent, and Ah-we-lah was kicked.
+He turned over and the thing jumped into a rock
+crevasse.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">[Pg 414]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The next day we risked the discomfort of bruin's
+interview and dug up an abundance of willow roots for
+our new tenant. These were arranged in appetizing
+display and the rat came out very soon and helped himself,
+but he permitted no familiarity. We learned to
+love the creature, however, all the more because of its
+shyness. By alternate jumps from the roots to seclusion
+it managed to fill up with all it could carry. Then
+it disappeared as suddenly as it came.</p>
+
+<p>In the course of two days it came back with a companion,
+its mate. They were beautiful little creatures,
+but little larger than mice. They had soft, fluffy fur of
+a pearl blue color, with pink eyes. They had no tails.
+Their dainty little feet were furred to the claw tips with
+silky hair. They made a picture of animal delight
+which really aroused us from stupor to little spasms of
+enthusiasm. A few days were spent in testing our intentions.
+Then they arranged a berth just above my
+head and became steady boarders.</p>
+
+<p>Their confidence and trust flattered our vanity and
+we treated them as royal guests. No trouble was too
+great for us to provide them with suitable delicacies.
+We ventured into the darkness and storms for hours to
+dig up savory roots and mosses. A little stage was
+arranged every day with the suitable footlights. In the
+eagerness to prolong the rodent theatricals, the little
+things were fed over and over, until they became too fat
+and too lazy to creep from their berths.</p>
+
+<p>They were good, clean orderly camp fellows, always
+kept in their places and never ventured to borrow our
+bed furs, nor did they disturb our eatables. With a keen
+sense of justice, and an aristocratic air, they passed our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">[Pg 415]</a></span>
+plates of carnivorous foods without venturing a taste,
+and went to their herbivorous piles of sod delicacies.
+About ten days before midnight they went to sleep and
+did not wake for more than a month. Again we were
+alone. Now even the bears deserted us.</p>
+
+<p>In the dull days of blankness which followed, few
+incidents seemed to mark time. The cold increased.
+Storms were more continuous and came with greater
+force. We were cooped up in our underground den
+with but a peep-hole through the silk of our old tent to
+watch the sooty nocturnal bluster. We were face to
+face with a spiritual famine. With little recreation, no
+amusements, no interesting work, no reading matter,
+with nothing to talk about, the six hours of a watch
+were spread out to weeks.</p>
+
+<p>We had no sugar, no coffee, not a particle of civilized
+food. We had meat and blubber, good and wholesome
+food at that. But the stomach wearied of its
+never changing carnivorous stuffing. The dark den,
+with its walls of pelt and bone, its floor decked with
+frosted tears of ice, gave no excuse for cheer. Insanity,
+abject madness, could only be avoided by busy hands
+and long sleep.</p>
+
+<p>My life in this underground place was, I suppose,
+like that of a man in the stone age. The interior was
+damp and cold and dark; with our pitiable lamps burning,
+the temperature of the top was fairly moderate,
+but at the bottom it was below zero. Our bed was a
+platform of rocks wide enough for three prostrate men.
+Its forward edge was our seat when awake. Before this
+was a space where a deeper hole in the earth permitted
+us to stand upright, one at a time. There, one by one,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">[Pg 416]</a></span>
+we dressed and occasionally stood to move our stiff and
+aching limbs.</p>
+
+<p>On either side of this standing space was half a tin
+plate in which musk-ox fat was burned. We used moss
+as a wick. These lights were kept burning day and
+night; it was a futile, imperceptible sort of heat they
+gave. Except when we got close to the light, it was impossible
+to see one another's faces.</p>
+
+<p>We ate twice daily&mdash;without enjoyment. We had
+few matches, and in fear of darkness tended our lamps
+diligently. There was no food except meat and tallow;
+most of the meat, by choice, was eaten raw and frozen.
+Night and morning we boiled a small pot of meat for
+broth; but we had no salt to season it. Stooped and
+cramped, day by day, I found occasional relief from the
+haunting horror of this life by rewriting the almost illegible
+notes made on our journey.</p>
+
+<p>My most important duty was the preparation of
+my notes and observations for publication. This would
+afford useful occupation and save months of time afterwards.
+But I had no paper. My three note books were
+full, and there remained only a small pad of prescription
+blanks and two miniature memorandum books. I resolved,
+however, to try to work out the outline of my
+narrative in chapters in these. I had four good
+pencils and one eraser. These served a valuable
+purpose. With sharp points I shaped the words in small
+letters. When the skeleton of the book was ready I
+was surprised to find how much could be crowded on a
+few small pages. By a liberal use of the eraser many
+parts of pages were cleared of unnecessary notes. Entire
+lines were written between all the lines of the note<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">[Pg 417]</a></span>
+books, the pages thus carrying two narrations or series
+of notes.</p>
+
+<p>By the use of abbreviations and dashes, a kind of
+short-hand was devised. My art of space economy complete,
+I began to write, literally developing the very useful
+habit of carefully shaping every idea before an attempt
+was made to use the pencil. In this way my
+entire book and several articles were written. Charts,
+films and advertisement boxes were covered. In all
+150,000 words were written, and absolute despair, which
+in idleness opens the door to madness, was averted.</p>
+
+<p>Our needs were still urgent enough to enforce much
+other work. Drift threatened to close the entrance to
+our dungeon and this required frequent clearing.
+Blubber for the lamp was sliced and pounded every day.
+The meat corner was occasionally stocked, for it required
+several days to thaw out the icy musk ox quarters.
+Ice was daily gathered and placed within reach to keep
+the water pots full. The frost which was condensed out
+of our breaths made slabs of ice on the floor, and this required
+occasional removal. The snow under our bed
+furs, which had a similar origin, was brushed out now
+and then.</p>
+
+<p>Soot from the lamps, a result of bad housekeeping,
+which a proud Eskimo woman would not have tolerated
+for a minute, was scraped from the bone rafters about
+once a week. With a difference of one hundred degrees
+between the breathing air of the den and that outside
+there was a rushing interchanging breeze through every
+pinhole and crevice. The ventilation was good. The
+camp cleanliness could almost have been called hygienic,
+although no baths had been indulged in for six months,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">[Pg 418]</a></span>
+and then only by an unavoidable, undesirable accident.</p>
+
+<p>Much had still to be done to prepare for our homegoing
+in the remote period beyond the night. It was
+necessary to plan and make a new equipment. The
+sledge, the clothing, the camp outfit, everything which
+had been used in the previous campaign, were worn out.
+Something could be done by judicious repairing, but
+nearly everything required reconstruction. In the new
+arrangement we were to take the place of the dogs at
+the traces and the sledge loads must be prepared accordingly.
+There was before us an unknown line of trouble
+for three hundred miles before we could step on Greenland
+shores. It was only the hope of homegoing, which
+gave some mental strength in the night of gloom. Musk
+ox meat was now cut into strips and dried over the
+lamps. Tallow was prepared and moulded in portable
+form for fuel.</p>
+
+<p>But in spite of all efforts we gradually sank to the
+lowest depths of the Arctic midnight. The little midday
+glimmer on the southern sky became indiscernible.
+Only the swing of the Great Dipper and other stars
+told the time of the day or night. We had fancied that
+the persistent wind ruffled our tempers. But now it was
+still; not a breath of air moved the heavy blackness. In
+that very stillness we found reasons for complaint.
+Storms were preferable to the dead silence; anything
+was desirable to stir the spirits to action.</p>
+
+<p>Still the silence was only apparent. Wind noises
+floated in the frosty distance; cracking rocks, exploding
+glaciers and tumbling avalanches kept up a muffled
+rumbling which the ear detected only when it rested on
+the floor rock of our bed. The temperature was low<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">[Pg 419]</a></span>&mdash;
+-48&deg; F.&mdash;so low that at times the very air seemed to
+crack. Every creature of the wild had been buried in
+drift; all nature was asleep. In our dungeon all was a
+mental blank.</p>
+
+<p>Not until two weeks after midnight did we awake
+to a proper consciousness of life. The faint brightness
+of the southern skies at noon opened the eye to spiritual
+dawn. The sullen stupor and deathlike stillness vanished.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly after black midnight descended I began to
+experience a curious psychological phenomenon. The
+stupor of the days of travel wore away, and I began to
+see myself as in a mirror. I can explain this no better.
+It is said that a man falling from a great height usually
+has a picture of his life flashed through his brain in the
+short period of descent. I saw a similar cycle of events.</p>
+
+<p>The panorama began with incidents of childhood,
+and it seems curious now with what infinite detail I saw
+people whom I had long forgotten, and went through
+the most trivial experiences. In successive stages every
+phase of life appeared and was minutely examined;
+every hidden recess of gray matter was opened to interpret
+the biographies of self-analysis. The hopes of
+my childhood and the discouragements of my youth
+filled me with emotion; feelings of pleasure and sadness
+came as each little thought picture took definite shape;
+it seemed hardly possible that so many things, potent
+for good and bad, could have been done in so few years.
+I saw myself, not as a voluntary being, but rather as a
+resistless atom, predestined in its course, being carried
+on by an inexorable fate.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile our preparations for return were being<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420">[Pg 420]</a></span>
+accomplished. This work had kept us busy during all
+of the wakeful spells of the night. Much still remained
+to be done.</p>
+
+<p>Although real pleasure followed all efforts of
+physical labor, the balking muscles required considerable
+urging. Musk ox meat was cut into portable
+blocks, candles were made, fur skins were dressed and
+chewed, boots, stockings, pants, shirts, sleeping bags
+were made. The sledge was re-lashed, things were
+packed in bags. All was ready about three weeks before
+sunrise. Although the fingers and the jaws were
+thus kept busy, the mind and also the heart were left
+free to wander.</p>
+
+<p>In the face of all our efforts to ward aside the ill
+effects of the night we gradually became its victims.
+Our skin paled, our strength failed, the nerves weakened,
+and the mind ultimately became a blank. The
+most notable physical effect, however, was the alarming
+irregularity of the heart.</p>
+
+<p>In the locomotion of human machinery the heart is
+the motor. Like all good motors it has a governor which
+requires some adjustment. In the Arctic, where the
+need of regulation is greatest, the facilities for adjustment
+are withdrawn. In normal conditions, as the machine
+of life pumps the blood which drives all, its force
+and its regularity are governed by the never-erring sunbeams.
+When these are withdrawn, as they are in the
+long night, the heart pulsations become irregular; at
+times slow, at other times spasmodic.</p>
+
+<p>Light seems to be as necessary to the animal as to
+the plant. A diet of fresh meat, healthful hygienic surroundings,
+play for the mind, recreation for the body,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421">[Pg 421]</a></span>
+and strong heat from open fires, will help; but only the
+return of the heaven-given sun will properly adjust the
+motor of man.</p>
+
+<p>As the approaching day brightened to a few hours
+of twilight at midday, we developed a mood for animal
+companionship. A little purple was now thrown on
+the blackened snows. The weather was good. All the
+usual sounds of nature were suspended, but unusual
+sounds came with a weird thunder. The very earth
+began to shake in an effort to break the seal of frost.
+For several days nothing moved into our horizon which
+could be imagined alive.</p>
+
+<p>About two weeks before sunrise the rats woke and
+began to shake their beautiful blue fur in graceful little
+dances, but they were not really alive and awake in a
+rat sense for several days. At about the same time the
+ravens began to descend from their hiding place and
+screamed for food. There were only three; two were
+still conversing with the Eskimo maidens far away, as
+my companions thought.</p>
+
+<p>In my subsequent strolls I found the raven den and
+to my horror discovered that the two were frozen. I
+did not deprive E-tuk-i-shook and Ah-we-lah of their
+poetic dream; the sad news of raven bereavement was
+never told.</p>
+
+<p>The foxes now began to bark from a safe distance
+and advanced to get their share of the camp spoils.
+Ptarmigan shouted from nearby rocks. Wolves were
+heard away in the musk ox fields, but they did not
+venture to pay us a visit.</p>
+
+<p>The bear that had shadowed us everywhere before
+midnight was the last to claim our friendship at dawn.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">[Pg 422]</a></span>
+There were good reasons for this which we did not learn
+until later. The bear stork had arrived. But really we
+had changed heart even towards the bear. Long before
+he returned we were prepared to give him a welcome
+reception. In our new and philosophical turn of mind
+we thought better of bruin. In our greatest distress
+during the previous summer he had kept us alive. In
+our future adventures he might perform a similar mission.
+After all he had no sporting proclivities; he
+did not hunt or trouble us for the mere fun of our discomfort
+or the chase. His aim in life was the very
+serious business of getting food. Could we blame him?
+Had we not a similar necessity?</p>
+
+<p>A survey of our caches proved that we were still
+rich in the coin of the land. There remained meat and
+blubber sufficient for all our needs, with considerable
+to spare for other empty stomachs. So, to feed the bear,
+meat was piled up in heaps for his delight.</p>
+
+<p>The new aroma rose into the bleaching night air.
+We peeped with eager eyes through our ports to spot
+results. The next day at eleven o'clock footsteps were
+heard. The noise indicated caution and shyness instead
+of the bold quick step which we knew so well. There
+was room for only one eye and only one man at a time
+at the peep-hole, and so we took turns. Soon the bear
+was sighted, proceeding with the utmost caution behind
+some banks and rocks. The blue of the snows, with
+yellow light, dyed his fur to an ugly green. He was
+thin and gaunt and ghostly. There was the stealth and
+the cunning of the fox in his movements. But he could
+not get his breakfast, the first after a fast of weeks,
+without coming squarely into our view.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423">[Pg 423]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The den was buried under the winter snows and
+did not disturb the creature, but the size of the pile of
+meat did disturb its curiosity. When within twenty-five
+yards, a few sudden leaps were made, and the ponderous
+claws came down on a walrus shoulder. His teeth began
+to grind like a stone cutter. For an hour the bear stood
+there and displayed itself to good advantage. Our
+hatred of the creature entirely vanished.</p>
+
+<p>Five days passed before that bear returned. In
+the meantime we longed for it to come back. We had
+unconsciously developed quite a brotherly bear interest.
+In the period which followed we learned that eleven
+o'clock was the hour, and that five days was the period
+between meals. The bear calendar and the clock were
+consulted with mathematical precision.</p>
+
+<p>We also learned that our acquaintance was a
+parent. By a little exploration in February we discovered
+the bear den, in a snow covered cave, less than
+a mile west. In it were two saucy little teddies in
+pelts of white silk that would have gladdened the heart
+of any child. The mother was not at home at the time,
+and we were not certain enough of her friendship, or
+of her whereabouts, to play with the twins.</p>
+
+<p>With a clearing horizon and a wider circle of friendship
+our den now seemed a cheerful home. Our spirits
+awakened as the gloom of the night was quickly lost in
+the new glitter of day.</p>
+
+<p>On the eleventh of February the snow-covered
+slopes of North Devon glowed with the sunrise of 1909.
+The sun had burst nature's dungeon. Cape Sparbo
+glowed with golden light. The frozen sea glittered with
+hills of shimmering lilac. We escaped to a joyous free<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424">[Pg 424]</a></span>dom.
+With a reconstructed sled, new equipment and
+newly acquired energy we were ready to pursue the
+return journey to Greenland and fight the last battle of
+the Polar campaign.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 640px;">
+<img src="images/illo_470.jpg" width="640" height="321" alt="GUILLEMOT" title="" />
+<span class="caption">GUILLEMOT</span>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 100%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_425" id="Page_425">[Pg 425]</a></span></p>
+<h2>HOMEWARD WITH A HALF SLEDGE AND
+HALF-FILLED STOMACHS</h2>
+
+<p class="blockquot">THREE HUNDRED MILES THROUGH STORM AND SNOW AND
+UPLIFTED MOUNTAINS OF ICE TROUBLES&mdash;DISCOVER
+TWO ISLANDS&mdash;ANNOATOK IS REACHED&mdash;MEETING
+HARRY WHITNEY&mdash;NEWS OF PEARY'S SEIZURE OF
+SUPPLIES</p>
+
+<h3>XXIX<br />
+
+<br /><span class="smcap">Back to Greenland Friends</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>On February 18, 1908, the reconstructed sledge
+was taken beyond the ice fort and loaded for the home
+run. We had given up the idea of journeying to Lancaster
+Sound to await the whalers. There were no
+Eskimos on the American side nearer than Pond's Inlet.
+It was somewhat farther to our headquarters on the
+Greenland shores, but all interests would be best served
+by a return to Annoatok.</p>
+
+<p>During the night we had fixed all of our attention
+upon the return journey, and had prepared a new equipment
+with the limited means at our command; but, traveling
+in the coldest season of the year, it was necessary
+to carry a cumbersome outfit of furs, and furthermore,
+since we were to take the place of the dogs in the traces,
+we could not expect to transport supplies for more than<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_426" id="Page_426">[Pg 426]</a></span>
+thirty days. In this time, however, we hoped to reach
+Cape Sabine, where the father of E-tuk-i-shook had
+been told to place a cache of food for us.</p>
+
+<p>Starting so soon after sunrise, the actual daylight
+proved very brief, but a brilliant twilight gave a remarkable
+illumination from eight to four. The light of
+dawn and that of the afterglow was tossed to and fro in
+the heavens, from reflecting surfaces of glitter, for four
+hours preceding and following midday. To use this
+play of light to the best advantage, it was necessary to
+begin preparations early by starlight; and thus, when
+the dim purple glow from the northeast brightened the
+dull gray-blue of night, the start was made for Greenland
+shores and for home.</p>
+
+<p>We were dressed in heavy furs. The temperature
+was -49&deg;. A light air brushed the frozen mist out of
+Jones Sound, and cut our sooty faces. The sled was
+overloaded, and the exertion required for its movement
+over the groaning snow was tremendous. A false,
+almost hysterical, enthusiasm lighted our faces, but the
+muscles were not yet equal to the task set for them.</p>
+
+<p>Profuse perspiration came with the first hours of
+dog work, and our heavy fur coats were exchanged for
+the sealskin <i>nitshas</i> (lighter coat). At noon the snows
+were fired and the eastern skies burned in great lines of
+flame. But there was no sun and no heat. We sat on
+the sledge for a prolonged period, gasping for breath
+and drinking the new celestial glory so long absent from
+our outlook. As the joy of color was lost in the cold
+purple of half-light, our shoulders were braced more
+vigorously into the traces. The ice proved good, but
+the limit of strength placed camp in a snowhouse ten<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_427" id="Page_427">[Pg 427]</a></span>
+miles from our winter den. With the new equipment,
+our camp life now was not like that of the Polar campaign.
+Dried musk ox meat and strips of musk fat
+made a steady diet. Moulded tallow served as fuel in
+a crescent-shaped disk of tin, in which carefully prepared
+moss was crushed and arranged as a wick. Over
+this primitive fire we managed to melt enough ice to
+quench thirst, and also to make an occasional pot of
+broth as a luxury. While the drink was liquefying, the
+chill of the snow igloo was also moderated, and we
+crept into the bags of musk ox skins, where agreeable
+repose and home dreams made us forget the cry of the
+stomach and the torment of the cold.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of eight days of forced marches we
+reached Cape Tennyson. The disadvantage of manpower,
+when compared to dog motive force, was clearly
+shown in this effort. The ice was free of pressure troubles
+and the weather was endurable. Still, with the best
+of luck, we had averaged only about seven miles daily.
+With dogs, the entire run would have been made easily
+in two days.</p>
+
+<p>As we neared the land two small islands were discovered.
+Both were about one thousand feet high, with
+precipitous sea walls, and were on a line about two miles
+east of Cape Tennyson. The most easterly was about
+one and a half miles long, east to west, with a cross-section,
+north to south, of about three-quarters of a mile.
+About half a mile to the west of this was a much smaller
+island. There was no visible vegetation, and no life was
+seen, although hare and fox tracks were crossed on the
+ice. I decided to call the larger island E-tuk-i-shook,
+and the smaller Ah-we-lah. These rocks will stand as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_428" id="Page_428">[Pg 428]</a></span>
+monuments to the memory of my faithful savage comrades
+when all else is forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>From Cape Tennyson to Cape Isabella the coast of
+Ellesmere Land was charted, in the middle of the last
+century, by ships at a great distance from land. Little
+has been added since. The wide belt of pack thrown
+against the coast made further exploration from the
+ship very difficult, but in our northward march over the
+sea-ice it was hoped that we might keep close enough to
+the shores to examine the land carefully.</p>
+
+<p>A few Eskimos had, about fifty years previously,
+wandered along this ice from Pond's Inlet to the Greenland
+camps. They left the American shores because
+famine, followed by forced cannibalism, threatened to
+exterminate the tribe. A winter camp had been placed
+on Coburg Island. Here many walruses and bears were
+secured during the winter, while in summer, from Kent
+Island, many guillemots were secured. In moving
+from these northward, by skin boat and <i>kayak</i>, they
+noted myriads of guillemots, or "acpas," off the southeast
+point of the mainland. There being no name in
+the Eskimo vocabulary for this land, it was called Acpohon,
+or "The Home of Guillemots." The Greenland
+Eskimos had previously called the country "Ah-ming-mah
+Noona," or Musk Ox Land, but they also adopted
+the name of Acpohon, so we have taken the liberty of
+spreading the name over the entire island as a general
+name for the most northern land west of Greenland.
+In pushing northward, many of the Eskimos starved,
+and the survivors had a bitter fight for subsistence. Our
+experience was similar.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 540px;">
+<img src="images/illo_475.jpg" width="540" height="800" alt="PUNCTURED CANVAS BOAT IN WHIH WE PADDLED 1,000 MILES
+FAMINE DAYS WHEN ONLY STRAY BIRDS PREVENTED STARVATION
+DEN IN WHICH WERE SPENT 100 DOUBLE NIGHTS" title="" />
+<span class="caption">PUNCTURED CANVAS BOAT IN WHIH WE PADDLED 1,000 MILES<br />
+FAMINE DAYS WHEN ONLY STRAY BIRDS PREVENTED STARVATION<br />
+DEN IN WHICH WERE SPENT 100 DOUBLE NIGHTS</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Near Cape Paget those ancient Eskimos made a
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_429" id="Page_429">[Pg 429]</a></span>
+second winter camp. Here narwhals and bears were
+secured, and through Talbot's Fiord a short pass was
+discovered over Ellesmere Land to the musk ox country
+of the west shores. The Eskimos who survived the second
+winter reached the Greenland shores during the
+third summer. There they introduced the <i>kayak</i>, and
+also the bow and arrow. Their descendants are to-day
+the most intelligent of the most northern Eskimos.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 536px;">
+<img src="images/illo_476.jpg" width="536" height="800" alt="BULL FIGHTS WITH THE MUSK OX ABOUT CAPE SPARBO" title="" />
+<span class="caption">BULL FIGHTS WITH THE MUSK OX ABOUT CAPE SPARBO</span>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>To my companions the environment of the new
+land which we were passing was in the nature of digging
+up ancient history. Several old camp sites were located,
+and E-tuk-i-shook, whose grandfather was one of
+the old pioneers, was able to tell us the incidents of each
+camp with remarkable detail.</p>
+
+<p>As a rule, however, it was very difficult to get near
+the land. Deep snows, huge pressure lines of ice, and
+protruding glaciers forced our line of march far from
+the Eskimo ruins which we wished to examine.
+From Cape Tennyson to Cape Clarence the ice near the
+open water proved fairly smooth, but the humid saline
+surface offered a great resistance to the metal plates of
+the sled. Here ivory or bone plates would have lessened
+the friction very much. A persistent northerly
+wind also brought the ice and the humid discomfort of
+our breath back to our faces with painful results. During
+several days of successive storms we were imprisoned
+in the domes of snow. By enforced idleness we
+were compelled to use a precious store of food and fuel,
+without making any necessary advance.</p>
+
+<p>Serious difficulties were encountered in moving
+from Cape Clarence to Cape Faraday. Here the ice
+was tumbled into mountains of trouble. Tremendous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_430" id="Page_430">[Pg 430]</a></span>
+snowdrifts and persistent gales from the west made
+traveling next to impossible, and, with no game and no
+food supply in prospect, I knew that to remain idle
+would be suicidal. The sledge load was lightened, and
+every scrap of fur which was not absolutely necessary
+was thrown away. The humid boots, stockings and
+sealskin coats could not be dried out, for fuel was more
+precious than clothing. All of this was discarded, and,
+with light sleds and reduced rations, we forced along
+over hummocks and drift. In all of our Polar march
+we had seen no ice which offered so much hardship as
+did this so near home shores. The winds again cut
+gashes across our faces. With overwork and insufficient
+food, our furs hung on bony eminences over shriveled
+skins.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of thirty-five days of almost ceaseless
+toil we managed to reach Cape Faraday. Our food
+was gone. We were face to face with the most desperate
+problem which had fallen to our long run of hard
+luck. Famine confronted us. We were far from the
+haunts of game; we had seen no living thing for a
+month. Every fiber of our bodies quivered with cold
+and hunger. In desperation we ate bits of skin and
+chewed tough walrus lines. A half candle and three
+cups of hot water served for several meals. Some
+tough walrus hide was boiled and eaten with relish.
+While trying to masticate this I broke some of my teeth.
+It was hard on the teeth, but easy on the stomach, and
+it had the great advantage of dispelling for prolonged
+periods the pangs of hunger. But only a few strips of
+walrus line were left after this was used.</p>
+
+<p>Traveling, as we must, in a circuitous route, there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_431" id="Page_431">[Pg 431]</a></span>
+was still a distance of one hundred miles between us and
+Cape Sabine, and the distance to Greenland might, by
+open water, be spread to two hundred miles. This unknown
+line of trouble could not be worked out in less
+than a month. Where, I asked in desperation, were we
+to obtain subsistence for that last thirty days?</p>
+
+<p>To the eastward, a line of black vapors indicated
+open water about twenty-five miles off shore. There
+were no seals on the ice. There were no encouraging
+signs of life; only old imprints of bears and foxes were
+left on the surface of the cheerless snows at each camp.
+For a number of days we had placed our last meat as
+bait to attract the bears, but none had ventured to pay
+us a visit. The offshore wind and the nearness of the
+open water gave us some life from this point.</p>
+
+<p>Staggering along one day, we suddenly saw a bear
+track. These mute marks, seen in the half-dark of the
+snow, filled us with a wild resurgence of hope for life.
+On the evening of March 20 we prepared cautiously for
+the coming of the bear.</p>
+
+<p>A snowhouse was built, somewhat stronger than
+usual; before it a shelf was arranged with blocks of
+snow, and on this shelf attractive bits of skin were
+arranged to imitate the dark outline of a recumbent
+seal. Over this was placed a looped line, through which
+the head and neck must go in order to get the bait.
+Other loops were arranged to entangle the feet. All
+the lines were securely fastened to solid ice. Peepholes
+were cut in all sides of the house, and a rear port was cut,
+from which we might escape or make an attack. Our
+lances and knives were now carefully sharpened. When
+all was ready, one of us remained on watch while the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_432" id="Page_432">[Pg 432]</a></span>
+others sought a needed sleep. We had not long to
+wait. Soon a crackling sound on the snows gave the
+battle call, and with a little black nose extended from a
+long neck, a vicious creature advanced.</p>
+
+<p>Through our little eye-opening and to our empty
+stomach he appeared gigantic. Apparently as hungry
+as we were, he came in straight reaches for the bait.
+The run port was opened. Ah-we-lah and E-tuk-i-shook
+emerged, one with a lance, the other with a spiked
+harpoon shaft. Our lance, our looped line, our bow
+and arrow, I knew, however, would be futile.</p>
+
+<p>During the previous summer, when I foresaw a
+time of famine, I had taken my four last cartridges and
+hid them in my clothing. Of the existence of these, the
+two boys knew nothing. These were to be used at the
+last stage of hunger, to kill something&mdash;or ourselves.
+That desperate time had not arrived till now.</p>
+
+<p>The bear approached in slow, measured steps,
+smelling the ground where the skin lay.</p>
+
+<p>I jerked the line. The loop tightened about the
+bear's neck. At the same moment the lance and the
+spike were driven into the growling creature.</p>
+
+<p>A fierce struggle ensued. I withdrew one of the
+precious cartridges from my pocket, placed it in my
+gun, and gave the gun to Ah-we-lah, who took aim
+and fired. When the smoke cleared, the bleeding bear
+lay on the ground.</p>
+
+<p>We skinned the animal, and devoured the warm,
+steaming flesh. Strength revived. Here were food
+and fuel in abundance. We were saved! With the
+success of this encounter, we could sit down and live
+comfortably for a month; and before that time should<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_433" id="Page_433">[Pg 433]</a></span>
+elapse seals would seek the ice for sun baths, and when
+seals arrived, the acquisition of food for the march to
+Greenland would be easy.</p>
+
+<p>But we did not sit down. Greenland was in sight;
+and, to an Eskimo, Greenland, with all of its icy discomforts,
+has attractions not promised in heaven. In
+this belief, as in most others, I was Eskimo by this time.
+With very little delay, the stomach was spread with
+chops, and we stretched to a gluttonous sleep, only to
+awake with appetites that permitted of prolonged stuffing.
+It was a matter of economy to fill up and thus
+make the sled load lighter. When more eating was
+impossible we began to move for home shores, dragging
+a sled overloaded with the life-saving prize.</p>
+
+<p>A life of trouble, however, lay before us. Successive
+storms, mountains of jammed ice, and deep
+snow, interrupted our progress and lengthened the
+course over circuitous wastes of snowdrifts and blackened
+our horizon. When, after a prodigious effort,
+Cape Sabine was reached, our food supply was again
+exhausted.<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_434" id="Page_434">[Pg 434]</a></span>Here an old seal was found. It had been caught
+a year before and cached by Pan-ic-pa, the father of
+E-tuk-i-shook. With it was found a rude drawing
+spotted with sooty tears. This told the story of a loving
+father's fruitless search for his son and friends.
+The seal meat had the aroma of Limburger cheese, and
+age had changed its flavor; but, with no other food possible,
+our palates were easily satisfied. In an oil-soaked
+bag was found about a pound of salt. We ate this as
+sugar, for no salt had passed over our withered tongues
+for over a year.</p>
+
+<p>The skin, blubber and meat were devoured with a
+relish. Every eatable part of the animal was packed on
+the sled as we left the American shore.</p>
+
+<p>Smith Sound was free of ice, and open water extended
+sixty miles northward. A long detour was necessary
+to reach the opposite shores, but the Greenland
+shores were temptingly near. With light hearts and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_435" id="Page_435">[Pg 435]</a></span>
+cheering premonitions of home, we pushed along Bache
+Peninsula to a point near Cape Louis Napoleon. The
+horizon was now cleared of trouble. The ascending sun
+had dispelled the winter gloom of the land. Leaping
+streams cut through crystal gorges. The ice moved;
+the sea began to breathe. The snows sparkled with the
+promise of double days and midnight suns.</p>
+
+<p>Life's buds had opened to full blossom. On the
+opposite shores, which now seemed near, Nature's incubators
+had long worked overtime to start the little ones
+of the wilds. Tiny bears danced to their mothers' call;
+baby seals sunned in downy pelts. Little foxes were
+squinting at school in learning the art of sight. In the
+wave of germinating joys our suppressed nocturnal
+passions rose with surprise anew. We were raised to
+an Arctic paradise.</p>
+
+<p>As it lay in prospect, Greenland had the charm of
+Eden. There were the homes of my savage companions.
+It was a stepping-stone to my home, still very
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_436" id="Page_436">[Pg 436]</a></span>far off. It was a land where man has a fighting chance
+for his life.</p>
+
+<p>In reality, we were now in the most desperate
+throes of the grip of famine which we had encountered
+during all of our hard experience. Greenland was but
+thirty miles away. But we were separated from it by
+impossible open water&mdash;a hopeless stormy deep. To
+this moment I do not know why we did not sit down and
+allow the blood to cool with famine and cold. We had
+no good reason to hope that we could cross, but again
+hope&mdash;"the stuff that goes to make dreams"&mdash;kept our
+eyes open.</p>
+
+<p>We started. We were as thin as it is possible for
+men to be. The scraps of meat, viscera, and skin of the
+seal, buried for a year, was now our sole diet. We traveled
+the first two days northward over savage uplifts of
+hummocks and deep snows, tripping and stumbling over
+blocks of ice like wounded animals. Then we reached
+good, smooth ice, but open water forced us northward,
+ever northward from the cheering cliffs under which our
+Greenland homes and abundant supplies were located.
+No longer necessary to lift the feet, we dragged the ice-sheeted
+boots step after step over smooth young ice.
+This eased our tired, withered legs, and long distances
+were covered. The days were prolonged, the decayed
+seal food ran low, water was almost impossible. Life
+no longer seemed worth living. We had eaten the
+strips of meat and frozen seal cautiously. We had
+eaten other things&mdash;our very boots and leather lashings
+as a last resort.</p>
+
+<p>So weak that we had to climb on hands and knees,
+we reached the top of an iceberg, and from there saw<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_437" id="Page_437">[Pg 437]</a></span>
+Annoatok. Natives, who had thought us long dead,
+rushed out to greet us. There I met Mr. Harry Whitney.
+As I held his hand, the cheer of a long-forgotten
+world came over me. With him I went to my house,
+only to find that during my absence it had been confiscated.
+A sudden bitterness rose within which it was
+difficult to hide. A warm meal dispelled this for a time.</p>
+
+<p>In due time I told Whitney: "I have reached the
+Pole."</p>
+
+<p>Uttering this for the first time in English, it came
+upon me that I was saying a remarkable thing. Yet
+Mr. Whitney showed no great surprise, and his quiet
+congratulation confirmed what was in my mind&mdash;that I
+had accomplished no extraordinary or unbelievable
+thing; for to me the Polar experience was not in the
+least remarkable, considered with our later adventures.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Whitney, as is now well known, was a sportsman
+from New Haven, Connecticut, who had been
+spending some months hunting in the North. He had
+made Annoatok the base of his operations, and had been
+spending the winter in the house which I had built of
+packing-boxes.</p>
+
+<p>The world now seemed brighter. The most potent
+factor in this change was food&mdash;and more food&mdash;a bath
+and another bath&mdash;and clean clothes. Mr. Whitney
+offered me unreservedly the hospitality of my own
+camp. He instructed Pritchard to prepare meal after
+meal of every possible dish that our empty stomachs had
+craved for a year. The Eskimo boys were invited to
+share it.</p>
+
+<p>Between meals, or perhaps we had better call meals
+courses (for it was a continuous all-night perform<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_438" id="Page_438">[Pg 438]</a></span>ance&mdash;interrupted
+by baths and breathing spells to prevent
+spasms of the jaws)&mdash;between courses, then, there
+were washes with real soap and real cleansing warm
+water, the first that we had felt for fourteen months.
+Mr. Whitney helped to scrape my angular anatomy,
+and he volunteered the information that I was the
+dirtiest man he ever saw.</p>
+
+<p>From Mr. Whitney I learned that Mr. Peary had
+reached Annoatok about the middle of August, 1908,
+and had placed a boatswain named Murphy, assisted
+by William Pritchard, a cabin boy on the <i>Roosevelt</i>, in
+charge of my stores, which he had seized. Murphy was
+anything but tactful and considerate; and in addition to
+taking charge of my goods, had been using them in trading
+as money to pay for furs to satisfy Mr. Peary's
+hunger for commercial gain. Murphy went south in
+pursuit of furs after my arrival.</p>
+
+<p>For the first few days I was too weak to inquire
+into the theft of my camp and supplies. Furthermore,
+with a full stomach, and Mr. Whitney as a warm friend
+at hand, I was indifferent. I was not now in any great
+need. For by using the natural resources of the land, as
+I had done before, it was possible to force a way back
+to civilization from here with the aid of my Eskimo
+friends.</p>
+
+<p>Little by little, however, the story of that very
+strange "Relief Station for Dr. Cook" was unraveled,
+and I tell it here with no ulterior notion of bitterness
+against Mr. Peary. I forgave him for the practical
+theft of my supplies; but this is a very important part of
+the controversy which followed, a controversy which
+can be understood only by a plain statement of the inci<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_439" id="Page_439">[Pg 439]</a></span>dents
+which led up to and beyond this so-called "Relief
+Station for Dr. Cook," which was a relief only in the
+sense that I was relieved of a priceless store of supplies.</p>
+
+<p>When Mr. Peary heard of the execution of my
+plans to try for the Pole in 1907, and before he left
+on his last expedition, he accused me of various violations
+of what he chose to call "Polar Ethics." No application
+had been filed by me to seek the Pole. Now I
+was accused of stealing his route, his Pole, and his people.
+This train of accusations was given to the press,
+and with the greatest possible publicity. A part of this
+was included in an official complaint to the International
+Bureau of Polar Research at Brussels.</p>
+
+<p>Now, what are Polar ethics? There is no separate
+code for the Arctic. The laws which govern men's
+bearing towards each other in New York are good in
+any part of the world. One cannot be a democrat in
+civilized eyes and an autocrat in the savage world. One
+cannot cry, "Stop thief!" and then steal the thief's
+booty. If you are a member of the brotherhood of
+humanity in one place, you must be in another. In
+short, he who is a gentleman in every sense of the word
+needs no memory for ethics. It is only the modern
+political reformer who has need of the cloak of the
+hypocrisy of ethics to hide his own misdeeds. An explorer
+should not stoop to this.</p>
+
+<p>Who had the power to grant a license to seek the
+Pole? If you wish to invade the forbidden regions of
+Thibet, or the interior of Siberia, a permit is necessary
+from the governments interested. But the Pole is a
+place no nation owned, by right of discovery, occupation,
+or otherwise.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_440" id="Page_440">[Pg 440]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>If pushing a ship up the North Atlantic waters to
+the limit of navigation was a trespass on Mr. Peary's
+preserve, then I am bound to plead guilty. But ships
+had gone that way for a hundred years before Mr.
+Peary developed a Polar claim. If I am guilty, then
+he is guilty of stealing the routes of Davis, Kane,
+Greely and a number of others. But as I view the situation,
+a modern explorer should take a certain pride
+in the advantages afforded by his worthy predecessors.
+I take a certain historic delight in having followed the
+routes of the early pathfinders to a more remote destination.
+This indebtedness and this honor I do now, as
+heretofore, acknowledge. The charge that I stole Mr.
+Peary's route is incorrect. For, from the limit of navigation
+on the Greenland side, my track was forced over
+a land which, although under Mr. Peary's eyes for
+twenty years, was explored by Sverdrup, who got the
+same unbrotherly treatment from Mr. Peary which he
+has shown to every explorer who has had the misfortune
+to come within the circle he has drawn about an imaginary
+private preserve.</p>
+
+<p>The charge of borrowing Peary's ideas, by which
+is meant the selection of food and supplies and the adoption
+of certain methods of travel, is equally unfounded.
+For Mr. Peary's weakest chain is his absolute lack of
+system, order, preparation or originality. This is
+commented upon by the men of every one of his previous
+expeditions. Mr. Peary early charged that my
+system of work and my methods of travel were borrowed
+from him. This was not true; but when he later, in a
+desperate effort to say unkind things, said that my system&mdash;the
+system borrowed from himself&mdash;was ineffi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_441" id="Page_441">[Pg 441]</a></span>cient,
+the charge becomes laughable. As to the Pole&mdash;if
+Mr. Peary has a prior lien on it&mdash;it is there still. We
+did not take it away. We simply left our footprints
+there.</p>
+
+<p>Now as to the charge of using Mr. Peary's supplies
+and his people&mdash;by assuming a private preserve of
+all the reachable Polar wilderness of this section, he
+might put up a plausible claim to it as a private hunting
+ground. If this claim is good, then I am guilty of
+trespass. But it was only done to satisfy the pangs of
+hunger.</p>
+
+<p>This claim of the ownership of the animals of the
+unclaimed North might be put with plausible excuses
+to The Hague Tribunal. But it is a claim no serious
+person would consider. The same claim of ownership,
+however, cannot be said of human life.</p>
+
+<p>The Eskimos are a free and independent people.
+They acknowledge no chiefs among themselves and
+submit to no outside dictators. They are likely to
+call an incoming stranger "nalegaksook," which the
+vanity of the early travelers interpreted as the "great
+chief." But the intended interpretation is "he who has
+much to barter" or "the great trader." This is what
+they call Mr. Peary. The same compliment is given to
+other traders, whalers or travelers with whom they do
+business. Despite his claims Mr. Peary has been regarded
+as no more of a benefactor than any other
+explorer.</p>
+
+<p>After delivering, early in 1907, an unreasonable
+and uncalled for attack, Mr. Peary, two months after
+the Pole had been reached by me, went North
+with two ships, with all the advantage that unlimited<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_442" id="Page_442">[Pg 442]</a></span>
+funds and influential friends could give. At about the
+same time my companion, Rudolph Francke, started
+south under my instructions, and he locked my box-house
+at Annoatok wherein were stored supplies sufficient
+for two years or more.</p>
+
+<p>The key was entrusted to a trustworthy Eskimo.
+Under his protection this precious life-saving supply
+was safe for an indefinite time. With it no relief expedition
+or help from the outside world was necessary.</p>
+
+<p>Francke had a hard time as he pushed southward,
+with boat and sledge. Moving supplies to the limit of
+his carrying capacity, he fought bravely against storms,
+broken ice and thundering seas. The route proved all
+but impossible, but at last his destination at North Star
+was reached, only for him to find that he was too late
+for the whalers he had expected. Impossible to return
+to our northern camp at that time, and having used all
+of his civilized food en route, he was now compelled to
+accept the hospitality of the natives, in their unhygienic
+dungeons. For food there was nothing but the semi-putrid
+meat and blubber eaten by the Eskimos.
+After a long and desperate task by boat and sled he
+returned to Etah but he was absolutely unable to proceed
+farther. Francke's health failed rapidly and when,
+as he thought, the time had arrived to lay down and quit
+life, a big prosperous looking ship came into the harbor.
+He had not tasted civilized food for months, and longed,
+as only a sick, hungry man can, for coffee and bread.</p>
+
+<p>Almost too weak to arise from his couch of stones,
+he mustered up enough strength to stumble over the
+rails of that ship of plenty. After gathering sufficient
+breath to speak, he asked for bread and coffee. It was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_443" id="Page_443">[Pg 443]</a></span>
+breakfast time. No answer came to that appeal. He
+was put off the ship. He went back to his cheerless
+cave and prayed that death might close his eyes to
+further trouble. Somewhat later, when it was learned
+that there was a house and a large store of supplies at
+Annoatok, and that the man had in his possession furs
+and ivory valued at $10,000, there was a change of heart
+in Mr. Peary. Francke was called on board, was given
+bread and coffee and whiskey. Too weak to resist, he
+was bullied and frightened, and forced under duress to
+sign papers which he did not understand. To get home
+to him meant life; to remain meant death. And the ship
+before him was thus his only chance for life. Under the
+circumstances he would naturally have put his name to
+any paper placed under his feeble eyes. But the law of
+no land would enforce such a document.</p>
+
+<p>In this way Mr. Peary compelled him to turn over
+$10,000 worth of furs and ivory, besides my station and
+supplies, worth at least $35,000, which were not his to
+turn over. The prized ivory tusks and furs were immediately
+seized and sent back on the returning ship.</p>
+
+<p>One of the narwhal tusks, worth to me at least
+$1,000, was polished and sent as Peary's trophy to
+President Roosevelt. Under the circumstances has not
+the President been made the recipient of stolen goods?</p>
+
+<p>When Francke, as a passenger, returned on the
+Peary supply ship, <i>Erik</i>, a bill of one hundred dollars
+was presented for his passage. This bill was presumably
+the bill for the full cost of his return. But the
+priceless furs and ivory trophies were confiscated without
+a murmur of conscious wrongdoing. This is what
+happened as the ship went south.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_444" id="Page_444">[Pg 444]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Now let us follow the ship <i>Roosevelt</i> in its piratic
+career northward. With Mr. Peary as chief it got to
+Etah. From there instructions were given to seize my
+house and supplies. This was done over the signature
+of Mr. Peary to a paper which started out with the
+following shameless hypocrisy:</p>
+
+<p>"This is a relief station for Dr. Cook."</p>
+
+<p>According to Mr. Whitney even Captain Bartlett
+quivered with indignation at the blushing audacity of
+this steal. The stores were said to be abandoned. The
+men, with Peary's orders, went to Koo-loo-ting-wah and
+forced from him the key with which to open the carefully
+guarded stores. The house was reconstructed.</p>
+
+<p>Murphy, a rough Newfoundland bruiser, who had
+been accustomed to kick sailors, was placed in charge
+with autocratic powers. Murphy could neither read
+nor write, but he was given a long letter of instruction
+to make a trading station of my home and to use my
+supplies.</p>
+
+<p>Now if Mr. Peary required my supplies for legitimate
+exploration I should have been glad to give him
+my last bread; but to use my things to satisfy his greed
+for commercial gain was, when I learned it, bitter
+medicine.</p>
+
+<p>Because Murphy could not write, Pritchard was
+left with him to read the piratic instructions once each
+week. Pritchard was also to keep account of the furs
+bought and the prices paid&mdash;mostly in my coin. Murphy
+soon forbade the reading of the instructions, and
+also stopped the stock-taking and bookkeeping. The
+hypocrisy of the thing seemed to pinch even Murphy's
+narrow brain.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_445" id="Page_445">[Pg 445]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>This same deliberate Murphy, accustomed to life in
+barracks, held the whip for a year over the head of Harry
+Whitney, a man of culture and millions. Money, however,
+was of no use there. Audacity and self-assumed
+power, it seems, ruled as it did in times of old when
+buccaneers deprived their victims of gold, and walked
+them off a plank into the briny deep.</p>
+
+<p>Murphy and Pritchard, the paid traders, fixed
+themselves cosily in my camp. Mr. Whitney had been
+invited as a guest to stay and hunt for his own pleasure.
+The party lived for a year at my expense, but the lot of
+Whitney was very hard as an invited guest, a privilege
+for which I was told he had paid Mr. Peary two thousand
+dollars or more. His decision to stay had come only
+after a disappointment in a lack of success of hunting
+during the summer season. He was, therefore, ill-provided
+for the usual Polar hardships. With no food,
+and no adequate clothing of his own, he was dependent
+on the dictates of Murphy to supply him. As time
+went on, the night with its awful cold advanced. Murphy
+gathered in all the furs and absolutely prohibited
+Whitney from getting suitable furs for winter clothing.
+He, therefore, shivered throughout the long winter in
+his sheepskin shooting outfit. Several times he was at
+the point of a hand-to-hand encounter with Murphy,
+but with young Pritchard as a friend and gentlemanly
+instincts to soften his manner, he grit his teeth and
+swallowed the insults.</p>
+
+<p>His ambition for a hunting trip was frustrated
+because it interfered with Murphy's plans for trading in
+skins. The worst and most brutal treatment was the
+almost inconceivable cruelty of his not allowing Mr.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_446" id="Page_446">[Pg 446]</a></span>
+Whitney enough food for a period of months, not even
+of my supplies, although this food was used eventually
+to feed useless dogs.</p>
+
+<p>All of this happened under Mr. Peary's authority,
+and under the coarse, swaggering Murphy, whom Mr.
+Peary, in his book, calls "a thoroughly trustworthy
+man!" Mr. Peary's later contention, in a hypocritical
+effort to clear himself (see "The North Pole," page 76)
+that he placed Murphy in charge "to prevent the
+Eskimos from looting the supplies and equipment left
+there by Dr. Cook," is a mean, petty and unworthy slur
+upon a brave, loyal people, among whom thievery is a
+thing unknown. Unknown, yes, save when white men
+without honor, without respect for property or the
+ethics of humanity, which the Eskimos instinctively
+have, invade their region and rob them and fellow explorers
+with the brazenness of middle-aged buccaneers.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 100%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_447" id="Page_447">[Pg 447]</a></span></p>
+<h2>ANNOATOK TO UPERNAVIK</h2>
+
+<p class="blockquot">ELEVEN HUNDRED MILES SOUTHWARD OVER SEA AND
+LAND&mdash;AT ETAH&mdash;OVERLAND TO THE WALRUS
+GROUNDS&mdash;ESKIMO COMEDIES AND TRAGEDIES&mdash;A
+RECORD RUN OVER MELVILLE BAY&mdash;FIRST NEWS FROM
+PASSING SHIPS&mdash;THE ECLIPSE OF THE SUN&mdash;SOUTHWARD
+BY STEAMER GODTHAAB</p>
+
+<h3>XXX<br />
+
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">Along Danish Greenland</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>A few interesting days were spent with Mr. Whitney
+at Annoatok. The Eskimos, in the meantime, had
+all gone south to the walrus hunting grounds at Nuerke.
+Koo-loo-ting-wah came along with a big team of dogs.
+Here was an opportunity to attempt to reach the Danish
+settlements&mdash;for to get home quickly was now my all-absorbing
+aim. Koo-loo-ting-wah was in my service.
+He was guarding my supplies in 1908 when the ship
+<i>Roosevelt</i> had come along. He had been compelled to
+give up the key to my box-house. He had been engaged
+to place supplies for us and search the American shores
+for our rescue. Peary, making a pretended "Relief
+Station," forced Koo-loo-ting-wah from his position as
+guardian of my supplies, and forbade him to engage in
+any effort to search for us, and absolutely prohibited<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_448" id="Page_448">[Pg 448]</a></span>
+him and everybody else, including Murphy, Prichard
+and Whitney, from engaging in any kind of succor at a
+time when help was of consequence. Koo-loo-ting-wah
+was liberally paid to abandon my interests (by Mr.
+Peary's orders, from my supplies), but, like Bartlett
+and Whitney and Prichard later, he condemned Mr.
+Peary for his unfair acts. When asked to join me in
+the long journey to Upernavik, he said, "<i>Peari an-nutu</i>"
+(Peary will be mad.) Koo-loo-ting-wah was
+now in Peary's service at my expense, and I insisted that
+he enter my service, which he did. Then we began our
+preparations for the southern trip.</p>
+
+<p>Accompanied by Whitney, I went to Etah, and for
+this part of the journey Murphy grudgingly gave me a
+scant food supply for a week, for which I gave him a
+memorandum. This memorandum was afterwards
+published by Mr. Peary as a receipt, so displayed as to
+convey the idea that all the stolen supplies had been
+replaced.</p>
+
+<p>At Etah was a big cache which had been left a
+year before by Captain Bernier, the commander of a
+northern expedition sent out by the Canadian Government,
+and which had been placed in charge
+of Mr. Whitney. In this cache were food, new equipment,
+trading material, and clean underclothes which
+Mrs. Cook had sent on the Canadian expedition. With
+this new store of suitable supplies, I now completed my
+equipment for the return to civilization.<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_449" id="Page_449">[Pg 449]</a></span>To get home quickly, I concluded, could be done
+best by going to the Danish settlements in Greenland,
+seven hundred miles south, and thence to Europe by an
+early steamer. From Upernavik mail is carried in
+small native boats to Umanak, where there is direct
+communication with Europe by government steamers.
+By making this journey, and taking a fast boat to
+America, I calculated I could reach New York in early
+July.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Whitney expected the <i>Erik</i> to arrive to take
+him south in the following August. Going, as he
+planned, into Hudson Bay, he expected to reach New
+York in October. Although this would be the easiest
+and safest way to reach home, by the route I had planned
+I hoped to reach New York four months earlier than the
+<i>Erik</i> would.</p>
+
+<p>The journey from Etah to Upernavik is about
+seven hundred miles&mdash;a journey as long and nearly as
+difficult as the journey to the North Pole. I knew it
+involved difficulties and risks&mdash;the climbing of mountains
+and glaciers, the crossing of open leads of water
+late in the season, when the ice is in motion and snow is
+falling, and the dragging of sledges through slush and
+water.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Whitney, in view of these dangers, offered to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_450" id="Page_450">[Pg 450]</a></span>
+take care of my instruments, notebooks and flag, and
+take them south on his ship. I knew that if any food
+were lost on my journey it might be replaced by game.
+Instruments lost in glaciers or open seas could not be
+replaced. The instruments, moreover, had served their
+purposes. The corrections, notes, and other data were
+also no longer needed; all my observations had been reduced,
+and the corrections were valuable only for a
+future re-examination. This is why I did not take them
+with me. It is customary, also, to leave corrections with
+instruments.</p>
+
+<p>In the box which I gave to Mr. Whitney were
+packed one French sextant; one surveying compass,
+aluminum, with azimuth attachment; one artificial horizon,
+set in a thin metal frame adjusted by spirit levels
+and thumbscrews; one aneroid barometer, aluminum;
+one aluminum case with maximum and minimum spirit
+thermometer; other thermometers, and also one liquid
+compass. All of these I had carried with me.</p>
+
+<p>Besides these were left other instruments used about
+the relief station. There were papers giving instrumental
+corrections, readings, comparisons, and other
+notes; a small diary, mostly of loose leaves, containing
+some direct field readings, and meteorological data.
+These were packed in one of the instrument cases. By
+special request of Mr. Whitney, I also left my flag.</p>
+
+<p>In addition, I placed in Mr. Whitney's charge several
+big cases of clothing and supplies which Mrs.
+Cook had sent, also ethnological collections, furs, and
+geological specimens. In one of these boxes were
+packed the instrument cases and notes.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Whitney's plans later were changed. His<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_451" id="Page_451">[Pg 451]</a></span>
+ship, the <i>Erik</i>, not having arrived when Peary returned,
+Whitney arranged with Peary to come back to civilization
+on the latter's ship, the <i>Roosevelt</i>. As I learned
+afterwards, when the <i>Roosevelt</i> arrived Mr. Whitney
+took from one of my packing boxes my instruments and
+packed them in his trunk. He was, however, prohibited
+from carrying my things, and all my belongings
+were consequently left at the mercy of the weather
+and the natives in far-off Greenland. I have had no
+means of hearing from them since, so that I do not
+know what has become of them.</p>
+
+<p>About Etah and Annoatok and on my eastward
+journey few notes were made. As well as I can remember,
+I left Annoatok some time during the third week of
+April. On leaving Whitney, I promised to send him
+dogs and guides for his prospective hunting trip. I also
+promised to get for him furs for a suitable winter suit&mdash;because,
+according to Mr. Peary's autocratic methods,
+he had been denied the privilege of trading for himself.
+He was not allowed to gather trophies, or to purchase
+absolutely necessary furs, nor was he accorded the courtesy
+of arranging for guides and dogs with the natives
+for his ambition to get big game. All of this I was to
+arrange for Whitney as I passed the villages farther
+south.</p>
+
+<p>In crossing by the overland route, over Crystal
+Palace Glacier to Sontag Bay, we were caught in a violent
+gale, which buried us in drifts on the highlands.
+Descending to the sea, we entered a new realm of
+coming summer joys.</p>
+
+<p>Moving along to Neurke, we found a big snowhouse
+village. All had gathered for the spring walrus<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_452" id="Page_452">[Pg 452]</a></span>
+chase. Many animals had been caught, and the hunters
+were in a gluttonous stupor from continued overfeeding.
+It was not long before we, too, filled up, and
+succumbed to similar pleasures.</p>
+
+<p>My boys were here, and the principal pastime was
+native gossip about the North Pole.</p>
+
+<p>Arriving among their own people here, Ah-we-lah
+and E-tuk-i-shook recounted their remarkable journey.
+They had, of course, no definite idea of where they had
+been, but told of the extraordinary journey of seven
+moons; of their reaching a place where there was no
+game and no life; of their trailing over the far-off seas
+where the sun did not dip at night, and of their hunting,
+on our return, with slingshots, string traps, and arrows.
+These were their strong and clear impressions.<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_453" id="Page_453">[Pg 453]</a></span>From Neurke we crossed Murchison Sound, along
+the leads where the walrus was being hunted, and from
+there we set a course for the eastern point of Northumberland
+Island.</p>
+
+<p>We next entered Inglefield Gulf. Our party had
+grown. Half of the natives were eager to join us on a
+pilgrimage to the kindly and beloved Danes of Southern
+Greenland; but, because of the advancing season, the
+marches must be forced, and because a large sled train
+hinders rapid advancement, I reduced the numbers
+and changed the personnel of my party as better helpers
+offered services.</p>
+
+<p>From a point near Itiblu we ascended the blue
+slopes of a snow-free glacier, and after picking a dangerous
+footing around precipitous cliffs, we rose to the
+clouds and deep snows of the inland ice. Here, for
+twenty-four hours, we struggled through deep snow,
+with only the wind to give direction to our trail. Descending
+from this region of perpetual mist and storm,
+we came down to the sea in Booth Sound. From here,
+after a good rest, over splendid ice, in good weather, we
+entered Wolstenholm Sound. At Oomonoi there was
+a large gathering of natives, and among these we
+rested and fed up in preparation for the long, hazardous
+trip which lay before us.</p>
+
+<p>In this locality, the Danish Literary Expedition,
+under the late Mylius Ericksen, had wintered. Their
+forced march northward from Upernavik proved so
+desperate that they were unable to carry important
+necessaries.</p>
+
+<p>But the natives, with characteristic generosity, had
+supplied the Danes with the meat for food and the fat<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_454" id="Page_454">[Pg 454]</a></span>
+for fuel, which kept them alive during dangerous and
+trying times.<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a></p>
+
+<p>We now started for Cape York. My-ah, Ang-ad-loo
+and I-o-ko-ti were accepted as permanent members
+of my party. All of this party was, curiously enough,
+hostile to Mr. Peary, and the general trend of conversation
+was a bitter criticism of the way the people had been
+fleeced of furs and ivory; how a party had been left to
+die of cold and hunger at Fort Conger; how, at Cape
+Sabine, many died of a sickness which had been brought
+among them, and how Dr. Dedrick was not allowed to
+save their lives; how a number had been torn from their
+homes and taken to New York, where they had died of
+barbarous ill-treatment; how their great "Iron Stone,"
+their only source of iron for centuries, the much-prized
+heritage of their nation, had been stolen from the point
+we were now nearing; and so on, throughout a long line
+of other abuses. But, at the time, all of this bitterness
+seemed to soften my own resentment, and I began to
+cherish a forgiving spirit toward Mr. Peary. After all,
+thought I, I have been successful; let us have an end of
+discord and seek a brighter side of life.</p>
+
+<p>Now I began to think for the first time of the public
+aspect of my homegoing. Heretofore my anticipations
+had been centered wholly in the joys of a family reunion,
+but now the thought was slowly forced as to the attitude<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_455" id="Page_455">[Pg 455]</a></span>
+which others would take towards me. In the wildest
+flights of my imagination I never dreamed of any
+world-wide interest in the Pole. Again I desire to
+emphasize the fact that every movement I have made
+disproves the allegation that I planned to perpetrate a
+gigantic fraud upon the world. Men had been seeking
+the North Pole for years, and at no time had any of
+these many explorers aroused any general interest in
+his expedition or the results.</p>
+
+<p>Millions of money, hundreds of lives, had been sacrificed.
+The complex forces of great nations had been
+arrayed unsuccessfully. I had believed the thing could
+be done by simpler methods, without the sacrifice of
+life, without using other people's money; and, with this
+conviction, had gone north. I now came south, with no
+expectations of reward except such as would come from
+a simple success in a purely private undertaking.</p>
+
+<p>I wish to emphasize that I regarded my entire experience
+as something purely personal. I supposed
+that the newspapers would announce my return, and
+that there would be a three days' breath of attention, and
+that that would be all. So far as I was personally concerned,
+my chief thought was one of satisfaction at having
+satisfied myself, and an intense longing for home.</p>
+
+<p>We camped at Cape York. Before us was the
+great white expanse of Melville Bay to the distant
+Danish shores. Few men had ever ventured over this.
+What luck was in store for us could not be guessed.
+But we were ready for every emergency. We moved
+eastward to an island where the natives greeted us with
+enthusiasm, and then we started over treacherous ice
+southward. The snow was not deep; the ice proved<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_456" id="Page_456">[Pg 456]</a></span>
+fairly smooth. The seals, basking in the new summer
+sun, augmented our supplies. Frequent bear tracks
+added the spirit of the chase, which doubled our speed.
+In two days we had the "Devil's Thumb" to our left, and
+at the end of three and a half days the cheer of Danish
+cliffs and semi-civilized Eskimos came under our eyes.</p>
+
+<p>The route from Annoatok to this point, following
+the circuitous twists over sea and land, was almost as
+long as that from Annoatok to the Pole, but we had covered
+it in less than a month. With a record march
+across Melville Bay, we had crossed a long line of trouble,
+in which Mylius Ericksen and his companions nearly
+succumbed after weeks of frosty torture. We had done
+it in a few days, and in comfort, with the luxury of
+abundant food gathered en route.</p>
+
+<p>Behind the Danish archipelago, traveling was good
+and safe. As we went along, from village to village,
+the Eskimos told the story of the Polar conquest. Rapidly
+we pushed along to Tassuasak, which we reached
+in the middle of May. This is one of the small trading
+posts belonging to the district of Upernavik.</p>
+
+<p>At Tassuasak I met Charles Dahl, a congenial
+Danish official, with whom I stayed a week. He spoke
+only Danish, which I did not understand. Despite the
+fact that our language was unintelligible, we talked until
+two or three o'clock in the morning, somehow conveying
+our thoughts, and when he realized what I told him he
+took my hand, offering warm, whole-souled Norse
+appreciation.</p>
+
+<p>Here I secured for Mr. Whitney tobacco and other
+needed supplies. For the Eskimos, various presents
+were bought, all of which were packed on the returning<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_457" id="Page_457">[Pg 457]</a></span>
+sleds. Then the time arrived to bid the final adieu to
+my faithful wild men of the Far North. Tears took the
+place of words in that parting.</p>
+
+<p>By sledge and oomiak (skin boat) I now continued
+my journey to Upernavik.</p>
+
+<p>Upernavik is one of the largest Danish settlements
+in Greenland and one of the most important trading
+posts. It is a small town with a population of about
+three hundred Eskimos, who live in box-shaped huts of
+turf. The town affords residence for about six Danish
+officials, who live, with their families, in comfortable
+houses.</p>
+
+<p>I reached there early one morning about May 20,
+1909, and went at once to the house of Governor Kraul.
+The governor himself&mdash;a tall, bald-headed, dignified
+man, a bachelor, about fifty years of age, of genial manner
+and considerable literary and scientific attainments&mdash;answered
+my knock on the door. He admitted
+me hospitably, and then looked me over from head to
+foot.</p>
+
+<p>I was a hard-looking visitor. I wore an old sealskin
+coat, worn bearskin trousers, stockings of hare-skin
+showing above torn seal boots. I was reasonably dirty.
+My face was haggard and bronzed, my hair was uncut,
+long and straggling. However, I felt reassured in a
+bath and clean underclothing secured a week before at
+Tassuasak. Later these clothes were replaced by new
+clothes given me by Governor Kraul, some of which I
+wore on my trip to Copenhagen. My appearance was
+such that I was not surprised by the governor's question:
+"Have you any lice on you?"</p>
+
+<p>Some years before he had entertained some Arctic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_458" id="Page_458">[Pg 458]</a></span>
+pilgrims, and a peculiar breed of parasites remained
+to plague the village for a long time. I convinced him
+that, in spite of my unprepossessing appearance, he
+was safe in sheltering me.</p>
+
+<p>At his house I had all the luxuries of a refined home
+with a large library at my disposal. I had also a large,
+comfortable feather-bed with clean sheets. I slept for
+hours every day, devoting about four or five hours to
+my work on my notes.</p>
+
+<p>At breakfast I told Governor Kraul briefly of my
+journey, and although he was polite and pleasant, I
+could see that he was skeptical as to my having reached
+the Pole. I remained with him a month, using his pens
+and paper putting the finishing touches on my narrative&mdash;on
+which I had done much work at Cape Sparbo.
+My notes and papers were scattered about, and Governor
+Kraul read them, and as he read them his doubts
+were dispelled and he waxed enthusiastic.</p>
+
+<p>Governor Kraul had had no news of the inside
+world for about a year. He was as anxious as I was for
+letters and papers. I went over his last year's news
+with a good deal of interest. While thus engaged, early
+one foggy morning, a big steamer came into port. It
+was the steam whaler <i>Morning</i> of Dundee. Her master,
+Captain Adams, came ashore with letters and news. He
+recited the remarkable journey of Shackleton to the
+South Pole as his opening item in the cycle of the year's
+incidents. After that he gave it as his opinion that
+England had become Americanized in its politics, and
+after recounting the year's luck in whaling, sealing and
+fishing, he then informed me that from America the
+greatest news was the success of "The Merry Widow"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_459" id="Page_459">[Pg 459]</a></span>
+and "The Dollar Princess." I was invited aboard to
+eat the first beefsteak and first fresh civilized food that
+I had eaten in two years. I then told him of my Polar
+conquest. He was keenly interested in my story, all
+of my reports seeming to confirm his own preconceived
+ideas of conditions about the Pole. When I went ashore
+I took a present of a bag of potatoes. To Governor
+Kraul and myself these potatoes proved to be the greatest
+delicacy, for to both the flavor and real fresh, mealy
+potatoes gave our meals the finishing touches of a fine
+dessert.</p>
+
+<p>I gave Captain Adams some information about new
+hunting grounds which, as he left, he said would be
+tried.<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a></p>
+
+<p>Life at Upernavik was interesting. Among other
+things, we noted the total eclipse of the sun on June 17.
+According to our time, it began in the evening at
+eighteen minutes past seven and ended ten minutes after
+nine.</p>
+
+<p>For a number of days the natives had looked with
+anxiety upon the coming of the mysterious darkness
+attending the eclipse, for now we were in a land of
+anxiety and uneasiness. It was said that storms would
+follow each other, displaying the atmospheric rage; that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_460" id="Page_460">[Pg 460]</a></span>
+seals could not be sought, and that all good people should
+pray. Although a violent southwest gale did rush by,
+the last days before the eclipse were clear and warm.</p>
+
+<p>Governor Kraul suggested a camp on the high
+rocks east. Mr. Anderson, the governor's assistant, and
+I joined in the expedition. We took smoked and amber
+glasses, a pen and paper, a camera and field glasses. A
+little disk was cut out of the northern side of the sun
+before we started. There was no wind, and the sky was
+cloudless. A better opportunity could not have been
+afforded. It had been quite warm. The chirp of the
+snow bunting and the buzz of bees gave the first joyous
+rebound of the short Arctic summer. Small sand-flies
+rose in clouds, and the waters glittered with midsummer
+incandescence. Small groups of natives, in gorgeous
+attire, gathered in many places, and occasionally took
+a sly glance at the sun as if something was about to
+happen. They talked in muffled undertones.</p>
+
+<p>When one-third of the sun's disk was obscured it
+was impossible to see the cut circle with the unprotected
+eye. It grew perceptibly dark. The natives quieted
+and moved toward the church. The birds ceased to
+sing; the flies sank to the ground. With the failing
+light the air quickly chilled, the bright contour of the
+land blurred, the deep blue of the sea faded to a dull
+purple-blue seemingly lighter, but the midday splendor
+of high lights and shadows was lost. The burning glitter
+of the waters under the sun now quickly changed to a
+silvery glow. The alabaster and ultramarine blue of
+the icebergs was veiled in gray.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 640px;">
+<img src="images/illo_509.jpg" width="640" height="428" alt="SAVED FROM STARVATION&mdash;THE RESULT OF ONE OF OUR LAST CARTRIDGES" title="" />
+<span class="caption">SAVED FROM STARVATION&mdash;THE RESULT OF ONE OF OUR LAST CARTRIDGES</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>When a thread of light spread the cut out, we knew
+that the total eclipse was over. In what seemed like a
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_461" id="Page_461">[Pg 461]</a></span>
+few seconds the gloom of night brightened to the sparkle
+of noon.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 541px;">
+<img src="images/illo_510.jpg" width="541" height="800" alt="MILES AND MILES OF DESOLATION.
+HOMEWARD BOUND" title="" />
+<span class="caption">&ldquo;MILES AND MILES OF DESOLATION.&rdquo;<br />
+HOMEWARD BOUND</span>
+<p class="center"><i>Copyright</i>, 1909, &ldquo;<i>New York Herald Co.</i>&rdquo;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>At the darkest time the natives had called for open
+church doors, and a sense of immediate danger came over
+the savage horizon with the force of a panic. A single
+star was visible for about a minute before and after the
+total eclipse. A slight salmon flush remained along the
+western horizon; otherwise the sky varied in tones of
+purple-blue.</p>
+
+<p>After the sea had brightened to its normal luster,
+Governor Kraul gave the entire native settlement a
+feast of figs.</p>
+
+<p>About June 20, the Danish supply ship, <i>Godthaab</i>,
+with Captain Henning Shoubye in command, arrived
+from South Greenland. Inspector Dougaard Jensen
+and Handelschef Weche were aboard on a tour of
+inspection along the Danish settlements. A corps of
+scientific observers were also aboard. Among these
+were Professors Thompsen and Steensby and Dr.
+Krabbe. Governor Kraul asked me to accompany him
+aboard the <i>Godthaab</i>. Thus I first met this group of
+men, who afterwards did so much to make my journey
+southward to Copenhagen interesting and agreeable.
+The Governor told them of the conquest of the Pole.
+At the time their interest in the news was not very
+marked, but later every phase of the entire trip was
+thoroughly discussed.</p>
+
+<p>In a few days the <i>Godthaab</i> sailed from Upernavik
+to Umanak, and I took passage on her. Captain Shoubye
+quietly and persistently questioned me as to details
+of my trip. Apparently he became convinced that I
+was stating facts, for when we arrived at Umanak, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_462" id="Page_462">[Pg 462]</a></span>
+social metropolis of North Greenland, the people enthusiastically
+received me, having been informed of my feat
+by the captain.</p>
+
+<p>After coaling at a place near Umanak we started
+south.</p>
+
+<p>At the "King's Guest House" in Eggedesminde,
+the only hotel in Greenland, I met Dr. Norman-Hansen,
+a scientist, with whom I talked. He questioned
+me, and a fraternal confidence was soon established.</p>
+
+<p>Later the <i>Godthaab</i>, which took the missionary
+expedition to the northernmost Eskimo settlement at
+North Star Bay and then returned, arrived from Cape
+York with Knud Rassmussen and other Danes aboard.
+They had a story that my two Eskimos had said I had
+taken them to the "Big Nail."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 100%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_463" id="Page_463">[Pg 463]</a></span></p>
+<h2>FROM GREENLAND TO COPENHAGEN</h2>
+
+<p class="blockquot">FOREWARNING OF THE POLAR CONTROVERSY&mdash;BANQUET
+AT EGGEDESMINDE&mdash;ON BOARD THE HANS EGEDE&mdash;CABLEGRAMS
+SENT FROM LERWICK&mdash;THE OVATION
+AT COPENHAGEN&mdash;BEWILDERED AMIDST THE GENERAL
+ENTHUSIASM&mdash;PEARY'S FIRST MESSAGES&mdash;EMBARK
+ON OSCAR II FOR NEW YORK</p>
+
+<h3>XXXI<br />
+
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">At the Danish Metropolis</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>At Eggedesminde was given the first banquet in
+my honor. At the table were about twenty people.
+Knud Rassmussen, the writer, among others spoke. In
+an excited talk in Danish, mixed with English and German,
+he foretold the return of Mr. Peary and prophesied
+discord. This made little impression at the time and
+was recalled only by later events.</p>
+
+<p>At this point I wish to express my gratitude and
+appreciation of the universal courtesy of which I was the
+recipient at every Danish settlement in my southward
+progress along the coast of Greenland.</p>
+
+<p>At Eggedesminde Inspector Daugaard-Jensen endeavored
+to secure an idle walrus schooner for me. By
+this I hoped to get to Labrador and thence to New
+York. This involved considerable official delay, and I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_464" id="Page_464">[Pg 464]</a></span>
+estimated I could make better time by going to Copenhagen
+on the <i>Hans Egede</i>. Although every berth on
+this boat, when it arrived, was engaged, Inspector
+Daugaard-Jensen, with the same characteristic kindness
+and courtesy shown me by all the Danes, secured
+for me comfortable quarters.</p>
+
+<p>On board were a number of scientific men and
+Danish correspondents. As the story of my quest had
+spread along the Greenland coast, and as conflicting
+reports might be sent out, Inspector Daugaard-Jensen
+suggested that I cable a first account to the world.</p>
+
+<p>The anxiety of the newspaper correspondents on
+board gave me the idea that my story might have considerable
+financial value. I was certainly in need of
+money. I had only forty or fifty dollars and I needed
+clothing and money for my passage from Copenhagen
+to New York.</p>
+
+<p>The suggestions and assistance of Inspector Daugaard-Jensen
+were very helpful. Iceland and the Faroe
+Islands, frequent ports of call for the Danish steamers,
+because of a full passenger list and the absence of commercial
+needs, were not visited by the <i>Hans Egede</i> on
+this return trip. The captain decided to put into Lerwick,
+in the Shetland Islands, so that I could send my
+message.</p>
+
+<p>I prepared a story of about 2,000 words, and
+went ashore at Lerwick. No one but myself and a representative
+of the captain was allowed to land. We
+swore the cable operator to secrecy, sent several official
+and private messages, and one to James Gordon Bennett
+briefly telling of my discovery. As the operator refused
+to be responsible for the press message, it was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_465" id="Page_465">[Pg 465]</a></span>
+left with the Danish consul. To Mr. Bennett I cabled:
+"Message left in care of Danish consul, 2,000 words.
+For it $3,000 expected. If you want it, send for it."</p>
+
+<p>Our little boat pulled back to the <i>Hans Egede</i>, and
+the ship continued on her journey to Copenhagen. Two
+days passed. On board we talked of my trip as quite a
+commonplace thing. I made some appointments for a
+short stay in Copenhagen.</p>
+
+<p>Off the Skaw, the northernmost point of Denmark,
+a Danish man-of-war came alongside us. There
+was a congratulatory message from the Minister of
+State. This greatly surprised me.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile a motor boat puffed over the unsteady
+sea and a half dozen seasick newspaper men, looking
+like wet cats, jumped over the rails. They had been
+permitted to board on the pretext that they had a message
+from the American Minister, Dr. Egan. I took
+them to my cabin and asked whether the New York
+<i>Herald</i> had printed my cable. The correspondent of the
+<i>Politiken</i> drew out a Danish paper in which I recognized
+the story. I talked with the newspaper men for
+five minutes and my prevailing impression was that they
+did not know what they wanted. They told me Fleet
+Street had moved to Copenhagen. I confess all of this
+seemed foolish at the time.</p>
+
+<p>They told me that dinners and receptions awaited
+me at Copenhagen. That puzzled me, and when I
+thought of my clothes I became distressed. I wore a
+dirty, oily suit. I had only one set of clean linen and
+one cap. After consulting with the Inspector we
+guessed at my measurements, and a telegram was written
+to a tailor at Copenhagen to have some clothing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_466" id="Page_466">[Pg 466]</a></span>
+ready for me. At Elsinore cables began to arrive, and
+thence onward I became a helpless leaf on a whirlwind
+of excitement. I let the people about plan and think
+for me, and had a say in nothing. A cable from Mr.
+Bennett saying that he had never paid $3,000 so willingly
+gave me pleasure. There was relief in this, too,
+for my expenses at the hotel in Eggedesminde and on
+the <i>Hans Egede</i> were unpaid.</p>
+
+<p>At Elsinore many people came aboard with whom
+I shook hands and muttered inanities in response to
+congratulations. Reporters who were not seasick
+thronged the ship, each one insisting on a special interview.
+Why should I be interviewed? It seemed silly
+to make such a fuss.</p>
+
+<p>Cablegrams and letters piled in my cabin. With
+my usual methodical desire to read and answer all communications
+I sat down to this task, which soon seemed
+hopeless. I was becoming intensely puzzled, and a
+not-knowing-where-I-was-at sensation confused me.
+I did not have a minute for reflection, and before I could
+approximate my situation, we arrived at Copenhagen.</p>
+
+<p>Like a bolt from the blue, there burst about me the
+clamor of Copenhagen's ovation. I was utterly bewildered
+by it. I found no reason in my mind for it.
+About the North Pole I had never felt such exultation.
+I could not bring myself to feel what all this indicated,
+that I had accomplished anything extraordinarily marvelous.
+For days I could not grasp the reason for the
+world-excitement.</p>
+
+<p>When I went on deck, as we approached the city,
+I saw far in the distance flags flying. Like a darting
+army of water bugs, innumerable craft of all kind were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_467" id="Page_467">[Pg 467]</a></span>
+leaping toward us on the sunlit water. Tugs and
+motors, rowboats and sailboats, soon surrounded and
+followed us. The flags of all nations dangled on the
+decorated craft. People shouted, it seemed, in every
+tongue. Wave after wave of cheering rolled over the
+water. Horns blew, there was the sound of music, guns
+exploded. All about, balancing on unsteady craft, their
+heads hooded in black, were the omnipresent moving-picture-machine
+operators at work. All this passed as a
+moving picture itself, I standing there, dazed, simply
+dazed.</p>
+
+<p>Amidst increasing cheering the <i>Hans Egede</i>
+dropped anchor. Prince Christian, the crown prince,
+Prince Waldemar, King Frederick's brother, United
+States Minister Egan, and many other distinguished
+gentlemen in good clothes greeted me. That they were
+people who wore good clothes was my predominant impression.
+Mentally I compared their well-tailored garments
+with my dirty, soiled, bagged-at-the-knees suit.
+I doffed my old dirty cap, and as I shook hands with
+the Prince Christian and Prince Waldemar, tall, splendid
+men, I felt very sheepish. While all this was going
+on, I think I forgot about the North Pole. I was most
+uncomfortable.</p>
+
+<p>For a while it was impossible to get ashore. Along
+the pier to which we drew, the crowd seemed to drag
+into the water. About me was a babel of sound, of
+which I heard, the whole time, no intelligible word. I
+was pushed, lifted ashore, the crown prince before me,
+William T. Stead, the English journalist, behind. I
+almost fell, trying to get a footing. On both sides the
+press of people closed upon us. I fought like a swimmer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_468" id="Page_468">[Pg 468]</a></span>
+struggling for life, and, becoming helpless, was pushed
+and carried along. I walked two steps on the ground
+and five on the air. Somebody grabbed my hat, another
+pulled off a cuff, others got buttons; but flowers
+came in exchange. At times Stead held me from falling.
+I was weak and almost stifled. On both sides of
+me rushed a flood of blurred human faces. I was in a
+delirium. I ceased to think, was unable to think, for
+hours.</p>
+
+<p>We finally reached the Meteorological building. I
+was pushed through the iron gates. I heard them
+slammed behind me. I paused to breathe. Somebody
+mentioned something about a speech. "My God!" I
+muttered. I could no more think than fly. I was pushed
+onto a balcony. I remember opening my mouth, but
+I do not know a word I said. There followed a lot of
+noise. I suppose it was applause. Emerging from the
+black, lonely Arctic night, the contrast of that rushing
+flood of human faces staggered me. Yes, there was another
+sensation&mdash;that of being a stranger among strange
+people, in a city where, however much I might be honored,
+I had no old-time friend. This curiously depressed
+me.</p>
+
+<p>Through a back entrance I was smuggled into an
+automobile. The late Commander Hovgaard, a member
+of the Nordenskj&ouml;ld expedition, took charge of affairs,
+and I was taken to the Phoenix Hotel. Apartments
+had also been reserved for me at the Bristol and
+Angleterre, but I had no voice in the plans, for which I
+was glad.</p>
+
+<p>I was shown to my room and, while washing my
+face and hands, had a moment to think. "What the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_469" id="Page_469">[Pg 469]</a></span>
+devil is it all about?" I remember repeating to myself.
+I was simply dazed. A barber arrived; I submitted to a
+shave. Meanwhile a manicure girl appeared and took
+charge of my hands. Through the bewildered days that
+followed, the thought of this girl, like the obsession of a
+delirious man, followed me. I had not paid or tipped
+her, and with the girl's image a perturbed feeling persisted,
+"Here is some one I have wronged." I repeated
+that over and over again. This shows the overwrought
+state of my mind at the time.</p>
+
+<p>Next the bedroom was a large, comfortable reception
+room, already filled with flowers. Beyond that was
+a large room in which I found many suits of clothes,
+some smaller, some bigger than the estimated size wired
+from the ship. At this moment there came Mr. Ralph
+L. Shainwald&mdash;an old friend and a companion of the
+first expedition to Mt. McKinley. He selected for me
+suitable things. Hastily I fell into one of these, and
+mechanically put on clean linen&mdash;or rather, the clothing
+was put on by my attendants.</p>
+
+<p>Now I was carried to the American Legation,
+where I lunched with Minister Egan, and I might have
+been eating sawdust for all the impression food made on
+me. For an hour, I have been told since, I was plied
+with questions. It is a strange phenomenon how our
+bodies will act and our lips frame words when the mind
+is blank. I had no more idea of my answers than the
+man in the moon.</p>
+
+<p>Upon my brain, with the quick, nervous twitter of
+moving-picture impressions, swam continually the
+scenes through which I moved. I have a recollection, on
+my return to the hotel, of going through hundreds of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_470" id="Page_470">[Pg 470]</a></span>
+telegrams. Just as a man looks at his watch and puts
+it in his pocket without noting the time, so I read these
+messages of congratulation. Tremendous offers of
+money from publishers, and for lecture engagements,
+and opportunities by which I might become a music-hall
+attraction excited no interest one way or another.</p>
+
+<p>My desire to show appreciation of the hospitality
+of the Danes by returning to America on a Danish
+steamer prevented my even considering some of these
+offers. If I had planned to deceive the world for money,
+is it reasonable to believe I should have thrown away
+huge sums for this simple show of courtesy?</p>
+
+<p>Having lunched with Minister Egan, I spent part
+of the afternoon of the day of my arrival hastily scanning
+a voluminous pile of correspondence. Money offers
+and important messages were necessarily pushed
+aside. I had been honored by a summons to the royal
+presence, and shortly before five o'clock repaired to the
+royal palace.</p>
+
+<p>I still retain in my mental retina a picture of the
+king. It is a gracious, kindly memory. Surrounded by
+the queen and his three daughters, Princesses Ingeborg,
+Thyra, and Dagmar, he rose, a gray-haired, fatherly old
+man, and with warmness of feeling extended his hand.
+Out of that human sea of swirling white faces and staring
+eyes, in which I had struggled as a swimmer for life,
+I remember feeling a sense of security and rest. We
+talked, I think, of general topics.</p>
+
+<p>I returned to the hotel. Into my brain came the
+words, from some one, that the newspaper correspondents,
+representing the great dailies and magazines of
+the world, were waiting for me. Would I see them? I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_471" id="Page_471">[Pg 471]</a></span>
+went downstairs and for an hour was grilled with questions.
+They came like shots, in many tongues, and only
+now and then did familiar English words strike me and
+quiver in my brain cells.</p>
+
+<p>I have been told I was self-possessed and calm.
+Had I gone through 30,000 square miles of land? Was
+I competent to take observations? Could I sit down and
+invent observations? Had I been fully possessed, I suppose,
+these sudden doubts expressed would have caused
+some wonderment; doubtless I was puzzled below the
+realm of consciousness, where, they say, the secret service
+of the mind grasps the most elusive things. I have since
+read my replies and marveled at the lucidity of certain
+answers; only my bewilderment, unless I were misquoted,
+can explain the absurdity of others.</p>
+
+<p>My impression of the banquet that night in the City
+Hall is very vague. I talked aimlessly. There were
+speeches, toasts were drunk; I replied. The North Pole
+was, I suppose, the subject, but so bewildered was I
+at the time, that nothing was further from my mind than
+the North Pole. If an idea came now and then it was
+the feeling that I must get away without offending
+these people. I felt the atmosphere of excitement about
+me for days, pressing me, crushing me.</p>
+
+<p>My time was occupied with consultations, receptions,
+lunches, and dinners, between which there was a
+feverish effort to answer increasingly accumulating
+telegrams. Mr. E. G. Wyckoff, an old friend, now
+came along and took from me certain business cares.
+By day there was excitement; by night excitement; there
+was excitement in my dreams. I slept no more than
+five hours a night&mdash;if I could call it sleep.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_472" id="Page_472">[Pg 472]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>As a surcease from this turmoil came the evening
+at King Frederick's summer palace, where I dined with
+the royal family and many notable guests. All were so
+kindly, the surroundings were so unostentatious, that
+for a short while my confusion passed.</p>
+
+<p>I remember being cornered near a piano after dinner
+by the young members of the family and plied with
+questions. I felt for once absolutely at ease and told
+them of the wild animals and exciting hunts of the north.
+Otherwise we talked of commonplace topics, and rarely
+was the North Pole mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>Until after midnight, on my return to my hotel, I
+sat up with the late Commander Hovgaard and Professor
+Olafsen, secretary of the Geographical Society.
+I clearly recall an afternoon when Professor Torp, rector
+of the university, and Professor Elis Stromgren,
+informed me that the university desired to honor me
+with a decoration. Professor Stromgren asked me about
+my methods of observation and I explained them freely.
+He believed my claim. The question of certain, absolute
+and detailed proofs never occurred to me. I was
+sure of the verity of my claim. I knew I had been as
+accurate in my scientific work as anyone could be.</p>
+
+<p>My first public account of my exploit was delivered
+before the Geographical Society on the evening of September
+7, and in the presence of the king and queen,
+Prince and Princess George of Greece, most of the
+members of the royal family, and the most prominent
+people of Copenhagen. I had outlined my talk and
+written parts of it. With the exception of these, which
+I read, I spoke extempore. Because of the probability
+of the audience not understanding English, I confined<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_473" id="Page_473">[Pg 473]</a></span>
+myself to a brief narrative. The audience listened
+quietly and their credence seemed but the undemonstrative
+acceptance of an every-day fact.</p>
+
+<p>Not knowing that a medal was to be presented to
+me at that time, I descended from the platform on concluding
+my speech. I met the crown prince, who was
+ascending, and who spoke to me. I did not understand
+him and proceeded to the floor before the stage. Embarrassed
+by my misunderstanding, he unfolded his
+papers and began a presentation speech. Confused, I
+remained standing below. Whether I ascended the
+stage and made a reply or received the medal from the
+floor, I do not now remember.</p>
+
+<p>During the several days that followed I spent most
+of my time answering correspondence and attending to
+local obligations. An entire day was spent autographing
+photographs for members of the royal family. After
+much hard work I got things in such shape that I saw
+my way clear to go to Brussels, return to Copenhagen,
+and make an early start for home.</p>
+
+<p>I had delivered my talk before the Geographical
+Society. The reporters had seen me, and assailed me
+with questions, and had packed their suit cases. Tired
+to death and exhausted with want of sleep, I viewed
+the prospect of a departure with relief. Because of my
+condition I refused an invitation to attend a banquet
+which the newspaper <i>Politiken</i> gave to the foreign correspondents
+at the Tivoli restaurant.</p>
+
+<p>They insisted that I come, if only for five minutes,
+and promised that there would be no attempt at interviewing.
+I went and listened wearily to the speeches,
+made in different languages, and felt no stir at the ap<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_474" id="Page_474">[Pg 474]</a></span>plause.
+While the representative of the <i>Matin</i> was
+speaking in French, some one tiptoed up to me and
+placed a cablegram under my plate. From all sides attendants
+appeared with cables which were quietly placed
+under the plates of the various reporters. The <i>Matin</i>
+man stopped; we looked at the cables. A deadly lull
+fell in the room. You could have heard a pin drop. It
+was Peary's first message&mdash;"Stars and Stripes nailed
+to the Pole!"</p>
+
+<p>My first feeling, as I read it, was of spontaneous belief.
+Well, I thought, he got there! On my right and
+left men were arguing about it. It was declared a hoax.
+I recognized the characteristic phrasing as Peary's. I
+knew that the operators along the Labrador coast knew
+Peary and that it would be almost impossible to perpetrate
+a joke. I told this to the dinner party. The
+speeches continued. No reference was made to the message,
+but the air seemed charged with electricity.</p>
+
+<p>My feeling at the news, as I analyze it, was not of
+envy or chagrin. I thought of Peary's hard, long years
+of effort, and I was glad; I felt no rivalry about the
+Pole; I did feel, aside from the futility of reaching the
+Pole itself, that Peary's trip possibly might be of great
+scientific value; that he had probably discovered new
+lands and mapped new seas of ice. "There is glory
+enough for all," I told the reporters.</p>
+
+<p>At the hotel a pile of telegrams six inches high,
+from various papers, awaited me. I picked eight representative
+papers and made some diplomatic reply,
+expressing what I felt. That Peary would contest my
+claim never entered my head. It did seem, and still
+seems, in itself too inconsequential a thing to make such<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_475" id="Page_475">[Pg 475]</a></span>
+a fuss about. This may be hard to believe to those who
+have magnified the heroism of such an achievement, a
+thing I never did feel and could not feel.</p>
+
+<p>While sitting at the farewell dinner of the Geographical
+Society the following day, Mr. Peary's second
+message, saying that my Eskimos declared I had
+not gone far out of sight of land, came to me. Those
+about received it with indignation. Many advised me
+to reply in biting terms. This I did not do; did not feel
+like doing.</p>
+
+<p>Peary's messages caused me to make a change in
+my plans. Previously I had accepted an invitation to
+go to Brussels, but now, as I was being attacked, I
+determined to return home immediately and face the
+charges in person. I took passage on the steamship
+<i>Oscar II</i>, sailing direct from Copenhagen to New York.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 100%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_476" id="Page_476">[Pg 476]</a></span></p>
+<h2>COPENHAGEN TO THE UNITED STATES</h2>
+
+<p class="blockquot">ACROSS THE ATLANTIC&mdash;RECEPTION IN NEW YORK&mdash;BEWILDERING
+CYCLONE OF EVENTS&mdash;INSIDE NEWS OF
+THE PEARY ATTACK&mdash;HOW THE WEB OF SHAME WAS
+WOVEN</p>
+
+<h3>XXXII<br />
+
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">Peary's Underhand Work at Labrador</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>It seemed that, coming from the companionless
+solitude of the North, destiny in the shape of crowds
+was determined to pursue me. I expected to transfer
+from the <i>Melchior</i> to the <i>Oscar II</i> at Christiansaand,
+Norway, quietly and make my way home in peace. At
+Christiansaand the noise began. On a smaller scale
+was repeated the previous ovation of Copenhagen.</p>
+
+<p>On board the <i>Oscar II</i> I really got more sleep than
+I had for months previous or months afterwards. After
+several days of seasickness I experienced the joys of
+comparative rest and slept like a child. My brain still
+seemed numbed. There were on the boat no curiosity-seekers;
+no crowds stifled me nor did applause thunder
+in my ears.</p>
+
+<p>Every few minutes, before we got out of touch with
+the wireless, there were messages; communications
+from friends, from newspapers and magazines; repeti<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_477" id="Page_477">[Pg 477]</a></span>tions
+of the early charges made against me; questions
+concerning Peary's messages and my attitude toward
+him. When the boat approached Newfoundland the
+wireless again became disturbing. Then came the "gold
+brick" cable.</p>
+
+<p>At this time, every vestige of pleasure in the
+thought of the thing I had accomplished left me. Since
+then, and to this day, I almost view all my efforts
+with regret. I doubt if any man ever lived in the
+belief of an accomplishment and got so little pleasure,
+and so much bitterness, from it. That my Eskimos had
+told Mr. Peary they had been but two days out of sight
+of land seemed probable; it was a belief I had always
+encouraged. That Mr. Peary should persistently
+attack me did arouse a feeling of chagrin and injury.</p>
+
+<p>I spent most of my time alone in my cabin or strolling
+on the deck. The people aboard considered Peary's
+messages amusing. I talked little; I tried to analyze the
+situation in my mind, but wearily I gave it up; mentally
+I was still dazed.</p>
+
+<p>During the trip Director Cold, chief of the Danish
+United Steamship Company, helped me with small details
+in every way; Lonsdale, my secretary, and Mr.
+Cold's secretary were busy copying my notes and my
+narrative story, which I had agreed to give to the New
+York <i>Herald</i>. I had made no plans; my one object
+was to see my family.</p>
+
+<p>As we approached New York the wireless brought
+me news of the ovation under way. This amazed and
+filled me with dismay. I had considered the exaggerated
+reception of Copenhagen a manifestation of local
+excitement, partly due to the interest of the Danes in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_478" id="Page_478">[Pg 478]</a></span>
+the North. New York, I concluded, was too big, too
+unemotional, too much interested in bigger matters to
+bother much about the North Pole. This I told Robert
+M. Berry, the Berlin representative of the Associated
+Press, who accompanied me on the boat. He disagreed
+with me.</p>
+
+<p>Having burned one hundred tons of coal in order
+to make time, the <i>Oscar II</i> arrived along American
+shores a day before that arranged for my reception. So
+as not to frustrate any plans, we lay off Shelter Island
+until the next day. It was my wish to send a message
+to Mrs. Cook and ask her to come out. But the sea
+was rough; and, moreover, she was not well. Now tugs
+bearing squads of reporters began to arrive. We agreed
+to let no one aboard. The New York <i>Journal</i>, with
+characteristic enterprise, had brought Anthony Fiala
+on its tug with a note from Mrs. Cook. So an exception
+had to be made. An old friend and a letter from my
+wife could not be sent away.</p>
+
+<p>That night I slept little. Outside I heard the dull
+thud of the sea. Voices exploded from megaphones
+every few minutes. Mingled emotions filled me. The
+anticipation of meeting wife and children was sweet;
+that again, after an absence of more than two years, I
+should step upon the shores of my own land filled me
+with emotions too strong for words.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning I was up with the rising of the
+sun. We arrived at Quarantine soon after seven.
+About us on the waves danced a dozen tugs with reporters.
+In the distance appeared a tug toward which
+I strained my eyes, for I was told it bore my wife and
+children. With a feeling of delight, which only long<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_479" id="Page_479">[Pg 479]</a></span>
+separation can give, I boarded this, and in a moment
+they were in my arms. I was conscious of confusion
+about me; of whistling and shrieking; uncanny magnified
+voices thundering from scores of megaphones; of a
+band playing an American air. When the <i>Grand Republic</i>,
+thrilling a metallic salute, steamed toward us,
+and the cheers of hundreds rent the air, I remembered
+asking myself what it could be all about. Why all this
+agitation?</p>
+
+<p>Again the contagion of excitement bewildered me;
+the big boat drew near to a tug, above me swirled a cloud
+of hundreds of faces; around me the sunlit sea, with
+decorated craft, whirled and danced. As I giddily
+ascended the gangplank and felt a wreath of roses flung
+about me I was conscious chiefly of an unsuitable lack
+of appreciation. I spoke briefly; friends and relatives
+greeted me; the shaking of thousands of hands began;
+and all the while a deep hurt, a feeling of soreness,
+oppressed me.</p>
+
+<p>From that day on until after I left New York, my
+life was a kaleidoscopic whirl of excitement, for which
+I found no reason. I had no time to analyze or estimate
+public enthusiasm and any change of that enthusiasm
+into doubt. I had no sense of perspective; involuntarily
+I was swept through a cyclone of events. The
+bewilderment which came upon me at Copenhagen returned,
+and with it a feeling of helplessness, of puzzlement;
+I felt much as a child might when taking its first
+ride in a carousel. Each day thereafter, from morning
+until morning there was a continuous rush of excitement;
+at no time, until I fled from it, did I get more
+than four hours' sleep at night&mdash;disturbed sleep at that.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_480" id="Page_480">[Pg 480]</a></span>
+I had not a moment for reflection, and even now, after
+recovering from the lack of mental perception which
+inevitably followed, it is with difficulty that I recall my
+impressions at the time. I suppose there are those who
+think that I was having a good time, but it was the
+hardest time of my life.</p>
+
+<p>I remember standing in the pilot house of the
+<i>Grand Republic</i>, my little ones by me, and watching
+thousands of men along the wharves of the East River,
+going mad. The world seemed engaged in some frantic
+revel. Factories became vocal and screamed hideously;
+boats became hoarse with shrieking; the megaphone
+cry was maddening. Drawing up to a gayly
+decorated pier, a thunder of voices assailed me. I felt
+crushed by the unearthly din.</p>
+
+<p>I was involuntarily shoved along, and found myself
+in an automobile&mdash;one of many, all decorated with flags.
+Cameras clicked like rapid-fire guns. A band played;
+roaring voices like beating sound waves rose and fell;
+faces swam before me.</p>
+
+<p>Through streets jammed with people we moved
+along. I hardly spoke a word to my wife, who sat near.
+Out of the scene of tumult, familiar faces peered now
+and again. I remember being touched by the sight of
+thousands of school children, assembled outside of public
+schools and waving American flags.</p>
+
+<p>In the neighborhood of the new bridge, under the
+arch, I recall seeing the eager face of my favorite boyhood
+school-teacher. It struck me at the time that she
+hardly seemed aged a day. Something swelled up within
+me, and I was conscious of a desire to lean out through
+the crowd and draw her into the machine. Through the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_481" id="Page_481">[Pg 481]</a></span>
+thick congestion it was difficult to move; even the police
+were helpless. Now and again people tried to climb
+into the machine and were torn away.</p>
+
+<p>At the Bushwick Club I lunched in a small room
+with friends, and a feeling of pleasure warmed my heart.
+During the reception words of confidence were spoken
+and somehow filtered into my mind. I shook hands
+until my arms were sore, bowed my head until my neck
+ached. I was forced to retire. Later there was dinner
+at the club, after which I received seven hundred singers.
+By this time I felt like a machine. My brain was blank.
+About midnight, utterly exhausted, I arrived at the
+Waldorf-Astoria, where I fought through a crowd in
+the lobby. I think I sat and listened to Mrs. Cook telling
+me news of home and the family until night merged
+into morning.</p>
+
+<p>Next day the storm through which I was being
+swept began again. During that and the days following
+I made many mistakes, did and said unwise things.
+I want to show you, in telling of these events, just how
+helpless I was; what a victim of circumstance; how unfitted
+to bear the physical and mental demands of a
+ceaseless procession of public functions, lectures, dinners,
+receptions, days and nights of traveling, and how
+unable to cope with the many charges. In sixty days
+there were not less than two hundred lectures, dinners,
+and receptions, not to mention the unremitting train
+of press interviews. With no club of friends or organization
+of any kind behind me, I stood the strain alone.</p>
+
+<p>I was ignorant of much that was said about me.
+I had no one to gauge my situation at any time and
+advise me. About me was an unbearable pressure from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_482" id="Page_482">[Pg 482]</a></span>
+friends and foes; I stood it until I could stand it no
+longer. There was not a minute of relief, not a minute
+to think. Coming after two years spent in the Arctic,
+at a time when nature was paying the debt of long
+starvation and hardship, the stress of events inevitably
+developed a mental strain bordering on madness.
+Where could I go to get rest from it all? This was my
+last thought at night and my first thought in the
+morning.</p>
+
+<p>During my second day at the Waldorf I had to read
+proofs of the narrative to be printed in the <i>Herald</i>, go
+over the plans of my book with the New York publishing
+house with whom I had signed a contract, and examine
+hundreds of films to select photographs. There
+were hundreds of letters and telegrams; scores of reporters
+demanding interviews; hundreds of callers, few
+of whom I was able to see. An army of publishers,
+lecture managers, and even vaudeville managers sent
+up their cards.</p>
+
+<p>The chief event of the first day in New York was
+the inquisition by newspaper reporters. They both
+interested and amused me. I had gone through the
+same ordeal in Copenhagen, and I knew that American
+interviewers are famed for their wolfish propensities.</p>
+
+<p>Before I saw the sensation-hungry press men, I got
+certain news that shocked my sense of the fairness of the
+American press. Someone interested in my case had
+sent me unsolicited copies of all telegrams, cables and
+wireless messages passing between New York and the
+Peary ship. These messages now continued to come
+daily, and thus I was afforded a splendid opportunity
+to watch an underhand game of deceit wherein Mr.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_483" id="Page_483">[Pg 483]</a></span>
+Peary was shown to be in league with a New York
+paper aiming secretly to further his claims and to cast
+doubt upon mine.</p>
+
+<p>Among these was a message asking a certain editor
+to meet Peary at Bangor, Maine, to arrange for the pro-Peary
+campaign of bribery and conspiracy which followed.
+In another, and the most remarkable message,
+Mr. Peary first showed the sneaking methods by which
+the whole controversy was conducted. A long list of
+questions had been prepared by Mr. Peary at Battle
+Harbor, covering, as rival interests dictated, every
+phase of Polar work. These questions were sent to the
+New York <i>Times</i> with instructions to compel answers
+from me on each of a series of catch phrases.</p>
+
+<p>When the <i>Times</i> reporter came to me with these, I
+recognized the Peary phraseology at once. I afterwards
+compared the copy of Peary's telegram with
+that of the <i>Times</i>, and found in it nearly every question
+asked by the reporters. While the questions were being
+read off, it required a good deal of patience to conceal
+my irritation, as I knew Mr. Peary was talking through
+the smooth-faced, smiling press cubs, none of whom
+knew that he was Peary's mouthpiece. Every one of the
+Peary questions, however, was amusing, for I had answered
+each a dozen times in Europe. But if Mr.
+Peary must question me, why did he stoop to the hypocrisy
+of doing it through others? The other reporters
+asked many questions, the reports of which I have not
+seen since. But the duplicity of this little trick left a
+strong impression of unfairness.</p>
+
+<p>At about this time I began to examine critically the
+many efforts which Mr. Peary had begun to make to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_484" id="Page_484">[Pg 484]</a></span>
+discredit my achievement. In going over such of his
+reports of his own claims as had gotten to me, I was at
+once struck with the statements parallel to mine which
+he had sent out, and since these so thoroughly proved my
+case I felt that I could be liberal and patient with Mr.
+Peary's ill-temper.</p>
+
+<p>I now learned that after Mr. Peary got the full
+reports of my attainment of the Pole at the wireless
+station at Labrador, he withdrew behind the rocks to a
+place where no one was looking, and digested that report.
+His own report came after the digestion of mine.
+In the meantime, his delay in proceeding to Sydney,
+Nova Scotia, and his silence, were explained by the official
+announcement that the ship was being washed and
+cleaned. This was manifestly absurd. No seaman returning
+from a voyage of a year, where sailors have no
+occupation whatever except such work, waits until he
+gets to port before cleaning his decks. Furthermore,
+this hiding behind the rocks of Labrador continued for
+weeks. What was the mysterious occupation of Mr.
+Peary? The <i>Roosevelt</i>, as described by visitors when
+she arrived at Sydney, was still very dirty. When Mr.
+Peary's much-heralded report was finally printed, every
+Arctic explorer at once said the astonishing parallel
+statements in Mr. Peary's narrative either proved my
+case or convicted Mr. Peary of plagiarism. My story,
+by this time, had got well along in the New York
+<i>Herald</i>. To help Mr. Peary out of his position,
+McMillan later rushed to the press. He was under
+contract not to write or talk to the press, nor to lecture,
+write magazine articles or books, as were all of Peary's
+men. But this prohibition was waived temporarily.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_485" id="Page_485">[Pg 485]</a></span>
+Then McMillan made the statement that Dr. Cook must
+have gotten the "parallel data" and inside information
+from Mr. Peary's Eskimos. Everyone acquainted with
+Greenland, including McMillan, knows that such inter-communication
+was impossible. I had left for Upernavik
+by the time Peary returned to Etah. Therefore,
+McMillan and Peary both were caught in a deliberate
+lie, as were also Bartlett<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> and Borup later. These were
+Mr. Peary's witnesses in the broadside of charges with
+which I was to be annihilated.</p>
+
+<p>A few days after my arrival in America I learned for
+the first time of the strange death of Ross Marvin.
+We were asked by Mr. Peary to believe that this young
+man of more than average intelligence, a graduate of
+Cornell University and of the New York Nautical
+School, a man of experience on the Polar seas, stepped
+over young ice alone, without a life-line, and sank
+through a film of ice to a grave in the Arctic waters.</p>
+
+<p>An idiot might do that; but Marvin, unless he went<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_486" id="Page_486">[Pg 486]</a></span>
+suddenly mad, would not do it. To cross the young ice
+of open leads, like that in which Marvin is said to have
+perished, is a daily, almost hourly, experience in Arctic
+travel. To safeguard each other's lives, and to save
+sledges and dog teams, life-lines are carried in coils on
+the upstanders of the sled. When about to risk a crossing,
+a line is always fixed from one to the other and from
+sled to sled. When this is done, and an accident happens
+such as that which is alleged to have befallen
+Marvin, the victim is saved by the pull of his companions
+on the line. This is done as unfailingly as one eats
+meals. Would a man of Marvin's experience and intelligence
+neglect such a precaution? I knew such an
+accident might have happened to the inexperienced explorers
+of the days of Franklin, but to-day it seemed
+incredible. Furthermore, Peary was boasting of what
+he styled the "Peary system," for which is claimed such
+thoroughness that without it no other explorer could
+reach the Pole. If Marvin's death was natural, then he
+is a victim of this system.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_487" id="Page_487">[Pg 487]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But let us read between the lines of this harrowing
+tragedy. After learning of my attainment of the Pole,
+Peary rushed to the wireless. With a letter in his
+pocket from Captain Adams which gave the news that
+started the ire of envy, and which also gave the news
+that convicted Peary of a lie, he thereafter for a week
+or more kept the wires busy with the famous "gold
+brick" messages.</p>
+
+<p>Marvin's death, and the duty to a bereaved family,
+which ordinary humanity would have dictated, were of
+no consequence to one making envious, vicious attacks.
+For a week all the world blushed with shame because of
+the dishonor thus brought upon our country and our
+flag. In New York there was a happy home, a loving
+mother, a fond sister; anxious friends were all busy in
+preparing surprises for the happy homecoming of the
+one beloved by all. It was a busy week, with joyous,
+heart-stirring anticipation. There was no news from
+the Peary ship. Not a word came to indicate that their
+expected returning hero had been lost in the icy seas.
+To that mother's yearning heart her boy was nearing
+home&mdash;but alas! no news came! A week passed, and
+still no news!</p>
+
+<p>At last, after Peary had digested my narrative,
+the carefully prepared press report was put on the
+wires. Ross Marvin's family, engrossed in preparations
+for a reception with flowers and flags, was about
+to see, in cold, black print, that he for whom their hearts
+beat expectantly was no more. At the last moment,
+Peary's conscience seemingly troubled him. A long
+message was sent to a friend to break the news and to
+soften the effects of the press reports on that poor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_488" id="Page_488">[Pg 488]</a></span>
+mother and sister. That message was sent "Collect."
+A man who had given years of his time and his life to
+glorify Peary was not worthy of a prepaid telegram!</p>
+
+<p>Later, an important letter from Marvin reached his
+own home. In it the stealing of my supplies is referred
+to in a way to show that Marvin condemned Peary.
+The public ought to know the wording of this part of the
+letter. Why has it been suppressed? Marvin's death,
+to my understanding, does not seem natural. With a
+good deal of empty verbiage the sacrifice of this unfortunate
+young man is explained; but two questions
+are forced at once: Why was Marvin without a life-line?
+Why were conveniently lost with him certain
+data that might disprove Peary's case?</p>
+
+<p>If Marvin sank into the ice, as Peary said he did,
+then Peary is responsible for the loss of that life, for he
+did not surround him with proper safeguards. The
+death of this man points to something more than
+tragedy. Since Marvin's soundings were made under
+the authority of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, the
+American Government is, therefore, answerable for this
+death.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Peary's treatment of Marvin wearied me of
+all the Peary talk at the time; and, furthermore, all of
+Mr. Peary's charges, of which so much fuss was made,
+carried the self-evident origin of cruel envy and selfishness.
+First, the Eskimos, put through a third degree
+behind closed doors, were reported to have said that I
+had not been more than two sleeps out of sight of land.
+This was easily explained. They had been instructed
+not to tell Mr. Peary of my affairs, and they had been
+encouraged to believe themselves always near land.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_489" id="Page_489">[Pg 489]</a></span>
+Then this charge was dropped, and the next was made,
+the one about my not reporting the alleged cache at
+"Cape Thomas Hubbard." That assertion, instead of
+injuring me, convicted Peary of trying to steal from
+Captain Sverdrup the honor of discovering and naming
+Svartevoeg. For it was shown that by deception "Cape
+Thomas Hubbard" had been written over a point discovered
+years earlier by another explorer. For this
+kind of honor Hubbard had contributed to Peary's
+expeditions. But is not the obliteration of a geographic
+name for money a kind of geographic larceny?</p>
+
+<p>Then was forced the charge that I had told no one
+of my Polar success in the North, and therefore the
+entire report was an afterthought. Whitney and Prichard
+later cleared this up, but at the very time when
+Peary made this charge he had in his possession a letter
+from Captain Adams, of the whaler <i>Morning</i>, which he
+had received in the North, wherein my attainment of the
+Pole was stated. When Peary got the Adams letter he
+put on full steam, abandoned his plan to visit other
+Greenland ports, and came direct to Labrador, to the
+wireless. Why was the Adams letter suppressed, when
+it was charged that I had told no one? And, furthermore,
+why had Mr. Peary told no one on his ship of his
+own success until he neared Battle Harbor?</p>
+
+<p>All of these charges betrayed untruthful methods
+on the part of Mr. Peary in his own method of presentation.
+Automatically, without a word of defence on
+my part, each charge rebounded on the charger.</p>
+
+<p>Then there came the page broadside of rearranged
+charges printed by every American paper. It contained
+nothing new in the text, but with it there was a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_490" id="Page_490">[Pg 490]</a></span>
+faked map, copied from Sverdrup, which was made to
+appear as though drawn by Eskimos. The best answer
+to this whole problem is that from the same tongues
+with which Mr. Peary tried to discredit me has come
+a much more formidable charge against Mr. Peary.
+For these same Eskimos have since said, without
+quizzing from me, that Mr. Peary never got to the Pole
+and that he never saw Crocker Land.</p>
+
+<p>This part of the controversy was thoroughly analyzed
+by Professor W. F. Armbruster and Dr. Henry
+Schwartz in the St. Louis <i>Mirror</i><a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a>.</p>
+
+<p>While this controversy early began to rage, the
+tremendous offers of money which came in every hour
+contributed to my bewilderment. They seemed fabu<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_491" id="Page_491">[Pg 491]</a></span>lous;
+the purport was beyond me. I imagined this as
+part of a dream from which I should awake. Were I
+the calculating monster of cupidity which some believe
+me, I suppose I should have been more circumspect in
+making my financial arrangements.</p>
+
+<p>I should hardly, for instance, have sold my narrative
+story to Mr. James Gordon Bennett for $25,000
+when there were single offers of $50,000, $75,000,
+$100,000, and more, for it. While I was in Copenhagen,
+and before the <i>Herald</i> offer was accepted, Mr.
+W. T. Stead had come with a message from W. R.
+Hearst with instructions to double any other offer presented
+for my narrative. Had I accepted Mr. Hearst's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_492" id="Page_492">[Pg 492]</a></span>
+bid he would have paid $400,000 for what I sold for
+$25,000. Here is a sacrifice of $375,000. Does that
+look as if I tried to hoax the world for sordid gain, as
+my enemies would like the public to believe? What
+Mr. Bennett asked and offered $25,000 for was a series
+of four articles on adventures in the North, for use in
+the Sunday supplement of the <i>Herald</i>. I had no such
+articles prepared at the time, nor, as I knew, should I
+have time to write these. I did have the narrative story
+of my trip, which consisted of twenty-five thousand to
+thirty thousand words, complete. I decided, when I
+heard the first reports of doubt cast on my claim, to
+publish my narrative story as an honest and sincere
+proof of my claim as soon as possible. So I gave this
+to Mr. Bennett for the sum offered purely for Sunday
+articles.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 535px;">
+<img src="images/illo_543.jpg" width="535" height="800" alt="GOVERNOR KRAUL IN HIS STUDY
+
+ARRIVAL AT UPERNAVIK" title="" />
+<span class="caption">GOVERNOR KRAUL IN HIS STUDY
+<br />
+ARRIVAL AT UPERNAVIK</span>
+</div>
+<p>&nbsp;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_493" id="Page_493">[Pg 493]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 535px;">
+<img src="images/illo_544.jpg" width="535" height="800" alt="POLAR TRAGEDY" title="" />
+<span class="caption">POLAR TRAGEDY&mdash;A DESERTED CHILD OF THE SULTAN OF THE
+NORTH AND ITS MOTHER</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Mr. Bennett offered me $5,000 additional for the
+European rights of this story. To this offer I made
+no reply, giving Mr. Bennett the sole news rights of the
+story for the entire world.</p>
+
+<p>When I reached New York, needing ready money,
+I wired Mr. Bennett for an advance on my story. He
+cabled back an immediate order for the entire sum of
+$25,000. This gave me a sudden glow, a feeling of
+pleasure at what I regarded as a display of confidence.</p>
+
+<p>With my lecture work and traveling I was kept so
+busy that I did not have time to go over the story, typewritten
+from my almost illegible notes, which was sent
+to the New York <i>Herald</i>. When I did go over the
+proofs and found many grievous errors, the <i>Herald</i> had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_494" id="Page_494">[Pg 494]</a></span>
+already syndicated the story. It was too late for any
+corrections, and thus many errors appeared.</p>
+
+<p>I made a contract with a New York publishing
+house, while in Copenhagen, with the idea of getting
+out my book and all proofs possible as soon as the
+presses would allow, in view of the imminent controversy.
+For the English and American rights to my
+book I was to receive $150,000 in a lump sum and an
+additional $150,000 in royalties. Although papers
+were signed for this, later on, when things seemed turning
+against me and I saw the publishers were getting
+"cold feet," I voluntarily freed them from the contract.</p>
+
+<p>By the time I left Copenhagen, as I figured later,
+offers for book and magazine material and lectures
+had aggregated just one and one-half million dollars.
+A prominent New York manager made me an offer of
+$250,000 for a series of lectures. During the first few
+days I had absolutely no system of caring for this correspondence,
+hundreds of important cablegrams remained
+unopened, and huge offers of money were ignored. It
+was only after Minister Egan sent Walter Lonsdale, in
+response to my request for a competent secretary, that
+some intelligible information was gleaned from the mass
+of correspondence. Most of it, as a matter of fact, was
+read only when we were on the <i>Oscar II</i>, bound for
+home.</p>
+
+<p>After making my arrangement with Mr. Bennett,
+the <i>Matin</i> of Paris had sent me an offer of $50,000 for
+the serial rights of a French translation of the story to
+appear in the <i>Herald</i>. This included a lecture under
+the auspices of the paper in Paris. My anxiety to get
+home prevented a consideration of this; and it was only<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_495" id="Page_495">[Pg 495]</a></span>
+after I sailed on the <i>Oscar II</i> that I realized I could have
+gone to Paris, delivered the lecture, and returned to
+New York by a fast boat.</p>
+
+<p>On the <i>Oscar II</i> a wireless had reached me of a
+large offer for a lecture during the convention in St.
+Louis. This I decided to accept, the simple reason
+being that I needed money.</p>
+
+<p>Much criticism has been hurled at me because I
+started on a lecture campaign when I should have prepared
+my data and submitted proof. At that time I
+was in no position to anticipate or understand this criticism.
+Every explorer for fifty years had done the same
+thing, all had delivered lectures and written articles
+about their work after a first preliminary report. Supplementary
+and detailed data were usually given long
+afterwards, not as proof but as a part of the plan of
+recording ultimate results. I had the precedents of
+Stanley, Nordenskj&ouml;ld, Nansen, Peary, and others.</p>
+
+<p>Had I anticipated the furore that was being raised
+about proofs, I probably should have taken public
+opinion into my consideration. So firm was my own
+conviction of achievement that the difficulty of supplying
+such absolute proof as the unique occasion afterwards
+demanded never occurred to me. My feeling at
+the time was that I was under no obligation to patrons,
+to the Government, to any society, or anyone, and that I
+had a right to deliver lectures at a time when public
+interest was keyed up, and to prepare my detailed reports
+at a time when I should have more leisure.</p>
+
+<p>My family needed money. Huge sums were
+offered me hourly; I should have been unwise indeed
+had I not accepted some of the offers. I am advised<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_496" id="Page_496">[Pg 496]</a></span>
+that stories of enormous lecture profits have been told.
+I am informed that the newspapers said I was to receive
+$25,000 for going to St. Louis. The truth is that I got
+less than half that, though I believe St. Louis probably
+spent more than $25,000 in preparing for my appearance
+there. All told, I delivered about twenty lectures
+in various large cities, receiving from $1,000 to $10,000
+per lecture. My expenses were heavy, so that in the
+end I netted less than $25,000. When I determined to
+stop the lecture work and prepare my data, I canceled
+$140,000 worth of lecture engagements.</p>
+
+<p>Each day there was a routine of lunches with
+speeches, dinners with speeches, suppers with speeches.
+The task of devising speeches was ever present; with me
+it did not come easy. But speeches must be made, and
+I felt a tense strain, as if something were drawing my
+mentality from me.</p>
+
+<p>Everywhere I went crowds pressed about me. I
+shook hands until the flesh of one finger was actually
+worn through to the bone. Hundreds of people daily
+came to see me.</p>
+
+<p>About this time, too, my bewildered brain began to
+realize that I was also the object of most ferocious
+attacks from many quarters. I had no time to read the
+newspapers, and these charges and suspicions filtered in
+to me through reporters and friends. Usually they
+reached me in an exaggerated or a distorted form.</p>
+
+<p>There began at this time the publication of innumerable
+fake interviews and stories misrepresenting
+me.<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> One interviewer quoted me as saying that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_497" id="Page_497">[Pg 497]</a></span>
+Dagaard Jensen had seen my records, and therefore
+confirmed my claim to the people in Copenhagen;
+another that I said Governor Kraul of Greenland had
+reported talking with my Eskimos, who had confirmed
+my report. Dagaard Jensen justly denied this by
+cable, as I had made no such statement. That about
+Governor Kraul was absurd on the face of it, as he was
+a thousand miles away from my Eskimos. I have no
+means of knowing the embarrassing statements attributed
+to me&mdash;things which were variously denied, and
+which hurt me. There was not time for me to consider
+or answer them.</p>
+
+<p>Then came the blow which almost stunned me&mdash;the
+news that Harry Whitney had not been allowed by
+Peary to bring my instruments and notes home with
+him.</p>
+
+<p>During the long night at Cape Sparbo I had carefully
+figured out and reduced most of my important
+observations. The old, rubbed, oily, and torn field<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_498" id="Page_498">[Pg 498]</a></span>
+notes, the instrumental corrections and the direct readings
+were packed with the instruments, and these were
+mostly left with Mr. Whitney. The figures were important
+for future recalculation, but otherwise had not
+seemed materially important to me, for they had served
+their purpose. I had with me all the important data,
+such as is usually given in a traveler's narrative. No
+more had ever been asked before.</p>
+
+<p>Under ordinary circumstances, these instruments
+and papers would not have been of great value, but
+under the public excitement their importance was immensely
+enhanced.</p>
+
+<p>I had publicly announced that Mr. Whitney would
+bring these with him on the boat in which he was to
+return. Had there been no notes and no instruments, I
+hardly should have said this were I perpetrating a fraud,
+for I should have known that the failure of Mr. Whitney
+to supply these would provoke widespread suspicion.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_499" id="Page_499">[Pg 499]</a></span>
+This is just what happened. Had I foreseen the trouble
+that resulted, I should have taken my instruments
+with me to Upernavik, and have supplied my observations
+and notes at once.</p>
+
+<p>As I have said before, I believed in an accomplishment
+which I felt was largely personal, for which a
+world excitement was not warranted and in which I had
+such a sure confidence that I never thought of absolutely
+accurate proof. This was my folly&mdash;for which
+fate made me pay. Imagine my dismay, the heartsickness
+which seized me when, through the din of tumult
+and excitement, in the midst of suspicion, came the news
+that Mr. Whitney had been forced by Mr. Peary to
+take from the <i>Roosevelt</i> and bury the very material
+with which I might have dispelled suspicion and quelled
+the storm of unmerited abuse.</p>
+
+<p>The instruments carried on my northern trip, and
+left with Mr. Whitney, and which he had seen, consisted
+of one French sextant; one aluminum surveying compass,
+with azimuth attachment, bought of Keuffer &amp;
+Essen, New York; one glass artifical horizon, set in a
+thin metal frame, adjusted by spirit levels and thumbscrews,
+bought of Hutchinson, Boston; one aneroid
+barometer, aluminum, bought of Hicks; an aluminum
+case with maximum and minimum spirit thermometer;
+other thermometers, and one liquid compass.</p>
+
+<p>Other instruments used about stations were also
+left. With these were papers giving some instrumental
+corrections, readings, and comparisons, and other occasional
+notes, and a small diary, mostly loose leaves, containing
+some direct field reading of instruments and
+meteorological data. These took up very little space;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_500" id="Page_500">[Pg 500]</a></span>
+and, if I remember correctly, all were snugly packed in
+one of the instrument cases.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Whitney especially asked, as a personal favor,
+the honor of caring for my flag. Later, after his return,
+he said that as Mr. Peary had refused to let him take
+aboard my things, he had no alternative but to bury
+them at Etah. I have no complaint to make against
+Mr. Peary about this. He was at liberty to pick the
+freight of his own ship. But he later said: "His [Dr.
+Cook's] leaving of his records at Etah was a scheme by
+which he could claim that they were lost." If Mr.
+Peary knew this, why did he not bring them?</p>
+
+<p>At the time I felt crippled; my feeling of disgust
+with the problem, with myself, and with the situation
+began. It would be impossible to give in my report a
+continuous line of observations. I had no corrections
+for the instruments. I knew they might vary. I had no
+means of checking them. I had some copies of the original
+data, but they were not complete. I should have to
+rest my whole case on a report with reduced observations,
+for I knew it would not be possible to send a ship
+to Etah until the following year. And I also knew that
+if Eskimos were not given strong explicit instructions
+all would be lost.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, many apparently trivial accusations
+against me were being widely discussed, which, never
+refuted, had their weight in the long run in discrediting
+my good faith. On every side I was attacked, not so
+much for unintentional error, as for deliberate falsehood.</p>
+
+<p>In the bewildering days that followed&mdash;during
+which I traveled to various cities to fulfill lecture
+en<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_501" id="Page_501">[Pg 501]</a></span>gagements&mdash;I felt alone, a victim of such pressure as, I
+believe, has seldom been the fate of any human being.</p>
+
+<p>Friends confused me as much as the attacks of foes.
+Some advised one thing; others another; my brain staggered
+with their well-meaning advice. Most of them
+wanted me to "light out," as they expressed it, and
+attack Mr. Peary. A number suggested the formation
+of an organization, the work of which would be to issue
+counter attacks on Mr. Peary, to be written by various
+men, and to reply systematically to charges made
+against me. Such a course was distasteful to me, and,
+furthermore, the selfish, envious origin of all of Mr.
+Peary's charges seemed evident.</p>
+
+<p>Many of the other attacks seemed so ridiculous that
+I felt no one would believe them&mdash;which was another of
+my many mistakes. The more serious charges I believed
+could wait until I had time to sit down and reply
+to them at length. I felt the futility of any fragmentary
+retorts. At no time did I have an intelligent grasp
+of the situation, of the excited and exaggerated interest
+of the public, or of the fluctuating state of public
+opinion.</p>
+
+<p>In my many years of Arctic work I had gathered
+pictures of almost every phase of Arctic life and scene;
+on subsequent trips, unless for some special reason, I did
+not duplicate photographs of impregnable, unmeltable
+headlands, or of walrus, or icebergs which I considered
+typical. In the early rush for illustrative material I
+gave a number of these to the <i>Herald</i>, stating they were
+scenes I had passed, but which had been taken on an
+earlier expedition. By some mistake, which is not
+unusual in newspaper offices, one of these pictures was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_502" id="Page_502">[Pg 502]</a></span>
+put under a caption, "Pictures of Dr. Cook's Polar
+Trip," or something to this effect. Whereupon, Mr.
+Herbert Bridgman, secretary of the Peary Arctic Club,
+shouted aloud, "Fraud!" and others took up the cry.
+A further charge that these pictures were not mine at
+all, but had been stolen or borrowed from Herbert Berri,
+was advanced&mdash;an absolute untruth, as I had the negatives,
+from which these pictures were made, in my possession.</p>
+
+<p>What, in those early days, had seemed a serious
+criticism offered against my claim, was that I had exceeded
+possible speed limits by asserting an average of
+about fifteen miles a day. The English critics were
+particularly severe. According to their reading, this
+had never been done before. Admiral Melville had
+taken this up in America before my arrival; by the
+time I got to New York, Mr. Peary had made a report
+of twenty to forty-five miles daily under similar conditions,
+and I asked myself the reason of the sudden hush.</p>
+
+<p>Much space was now given to the criticism by
+learned men of my giving seconds in observations. The
+point was taken that as you near the Pole the degrees
+of longitude narrow, and seconds are of no consequence.
+Therefore I was charged with trying to fake an impossible
+accuracy. I always regarded seconds as of little
+consequence, put them down as a matter of routine&mdash;for
+in that snow-blinding, bewildering North I worked
+more like a machine than a reasoning being&mdash;and now
+the inadvertent use of these was used to cast suspicion
+upon me.</p>
+
+<p>With this attack, like echoes from many places,
+came reiterations of the criticism, which, polly-like, was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_503" id="Page_503">[Pg 503]</a></span>
+taken up by Rear-Admiral Chester. Professor Stockwell
+of Cleveland had earlier brought out this academic
+discussion. Because I had seen the midnight sun for
+the first time on April 7 it was claimed I must have
+been at a more southern point of the globe than I believed.
+At the time it seemed the only serious scientific
+criticism of my reports which was used against me.</p>
+
+<p>Whether I was on a more southerly point of the
+globe than I believed or not, I had not used the midnight
+sun, seen through a mystic maze of unknowable refraction,
+to determine position; to do so would have been
+impossible. With a constant moving and grinding of
+the ice, causing opening lanes of water, from which the
+inequality of temperature drew an evaporation like
+steam from a volcano, it is impossible at this season to
+see a low sun with a clear horizon. One looks through
+an opaque veil of blinding crystals. Every Arctic traveler
+knows that even when the sun is seen on a clear
+horizon, as it returns after the long night, his eyes are
+deceived&mdash;he does not see the sun at all, but a refracted
+image caused by the optical deception of atmospheric
+distortions. For this reason, as I knew, all observations
+of the sun when very low are worthless as a means
+of determining position. The assumption that I had
+done this seemed mere foolishness to me at the time.</p>
+
+<p>Staggered by the blow that Whitney had buried my
+instruments in the North, the recurring thoughts of
+these harassing charges certainly had no soothing effect.</p>
+
+<p>Alone, I was unable to cope with matters, anyway.
+I under-estimated the effect of the cumulating attacks.
+Oppressed by the undercurrent feeling that it was all a
+fuss about very little, a thing of insignificant worth, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_504" id="Page_504">[Pg 504]</a></span>
+disturbed by the growing uncertainty of proving such a
+claim to the point of hair-breadth accuracy by any
+figures, despair overcame me.</p>
+
+<p>I was so busy I could not pause to think, and was
+conscious only of the rush, the labor, the worry. I no
+longer slept; indigestion naturally seized me as its victim.
+A mental depression brought desperate premonitions.</p>
+
+<p>I developed a severe case of laryngitis in Washington;
+it got worse as I went to Baltimore and Pittsburg.
+At St. Louis, where I talked before an audience said to
+number twelve thousand persons, I could hardly raise
+my voice above a whisper. The lecture was given with
+physical anguish. I was feverish and mentally dazed.
+Thereafter, day by day, my thoughts became less coherent;
+I, more like a machine.</p>
+
+<p>I do not exaggerate when I say that there was
+practically not one hour of pleasure in those troubled
+days. The dinner which was given by the Arctic
+travelers at the Waldorf-Astoria pleased me more than
+anything during the entire experience. I felt the close
+presence of hundreds of warm friends; I was conscious
+of their good will.</p>
+
+<p>I can recall the ceremony of presenting the keys of
+the City of New York to me, but I was so confused and
+half ill that I was not in a condition to appreciate the
+honor.</p>
+
+<p>After I had been on my lecture tour for a few
+weeks, I began to feel persecuted. On every side I
+sensed hostility; the sight of crowds filled me with a
+growing sort of terror. I did not realize at the time
+that I was passing from periods of mental depression to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_505" id="Page_505">[Pg 505]</a></span>
+dangerous periods of nervous tension. I was pursued
+by reporters, people with craning necks, good-natured
+demonstrations of friendliness that irritated me. In the
+trains I viewed the whirling landscape without, and felt
+myself part of it&mdash;as a delirious man swept and hurtled
+through space.</p>
+
+<p>I suppose I answered questions intelligently; like
+an automaton delivered my lectures, shook hands. I
+have been told I smiled pleasantly always&mdash;mentally I
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_506" id="Page_506">[Pg 506]</a></span>
+was never conscious of a smile. It is strange how, machine-like,
+a man can conduct himself like a reasonable
+being when, mentally, he is at sea. I have read a great
+deal about the subconscious mind; on no other theory
+can I account for my rational conduct in public at the
+time. Really, as I view myself from the angle of the
+present, I marvel that a man so distraught did not do
+desperate things.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 10%;" />
+<div class="sblockquot">
+<p><i>Author's Note.</i>&mdash;I have never attempted to disprove Mr. Peary's
+claim to having reached the North Pole. I prefer to believe that Mr.
+Peary reached the North Pole.</p>
+
+<p>So avid have been my enemies, however, to cast discredit upon my
+own achievement, by such trivial and petty charges, that it seems curious
+they have never noticed or have remained silent about many striking and
+staggering discrepancies in Mr. Peary's own published account of his
+journey.</p>
+
+<p>In Mr. Peary's book, entitled "The North Pole; Its Discovery, 1909,"
+published by Frederick A. Stokes Company, on page 302, appears the
+following:</p>
+
+<p>"We turned our backs upon the Pole at about four o'clock of the
+afternoon of April 7."</p>
+
+<p>According to a statement made on page 304, Mr. Peary took time on
+his return trip to take a sounding of the sea five miles from the Pole.</p>
+
+<p>On page 305, Mr. Peary says: "Friday, April 9, was a wild day. All
+day long the wind blew strong from the north-northeast, increasing finally
+to a gale." And on page 306: "We camped that night at 87&deg; 47&#697;."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Peary thus claims to have traveled from the Pole to this point, a
+distance of 133 nautical miles, or 153 statute miles, in a little over two
+days. This would average 76&frac12; statute miles a day. Could a pedestrian
+make such speed? During this time Mr. Peary camped twice, to make
+tea, eat lunch, feed the dogs, and rest&mdash;several hours in each camp.</p>
+
+<p>Why I should never have gone out of sight of land for more than
+two days, as he has charged, when such miraculous speed can be made on the
+circumpolar sea, is something Mr. Peary might find interesting reasons to
+explain.</p>
+
+<p>On page 310, Mr. Peary says: "We were coming down the North
+Pole hill in fine shape now, and another double march, April 16-17, brought
+us to our eleventh upward camp at 85&deg; 8&#697;, one hundred and twenty-one
+miles from Cape Columbia."</p>
+
+<p>According to this, Mr. Peary covered the distance from 87&deg; 47&#697;, on
+April 9, to 85&deg; 8&#697;, on April 17&mdash;a distance of 159 nautical miles in eight
+day. This averaged twenty miles a day.</p>
+
+<p>On page 316, he says: "It was almost exactly six o'clock on the
+morning of April 23 when we reached the igloo of 'Crane City,' at Cape
+Columbia, and the work was done."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Peary left 85&deg; 8&#697; on April 17, according to his statement, and
+traveled 121 miles to Cape Columbia in six days, arriving on April 23.
+This last stretch was at the rate of twenty miles a day. To sum up, he
+traveled from the North Pole, according to his statements, to land, as
+follows:</p>
+
+<p>The first 133 nautical miles southward in two days, at the rate of
+66 nautical miles, or 76&frac12; statute miles, a day; the last 279 nautical miles
+in fourteen days, an average of 20 miles a day.</p>
+
+<p>According to Peary's book, Bartlett left him at 87&deg; 46&#697;, and Mr.
+Peary started on his final spurt to the Pole a little after midnight on the
+morning of April 2. By arriving at the point where he left Bartlett on the
+evening of April 9, he would have made the distance of 270 miles to
+the Pole from this point and back, in a little over seven days.</p>
+
+<p>In the New York <i>World</i> of October 3, 1910, page 3, column 6, Matthew
+Henson makes the following statement: "On the way up we had to break
+a trail, and averaged only eighteen to twenty miles a day. On the way
+back we had our own trail to within one hundred miles of land, and then
+Captain Bartlett's trail. We made from twenty to forty miles a day."</p>
+
+<p>At the rate of twenty miles a day on the way up, which Henson
+claims was made, it would have taken 6 days and 18 hours to cover the
+distance of 135 miles from 87&deg; 47&#697; to the Pole. Adding the thirty hours
+Mr. Peary claims he spent at the Pole for observations, eight days would
+have elapsed before they started back. Peary says the round trip of 270
+miles from 87&deg; 47&#697; N. to the Pole and the return to the same latitude was
+done in seven days and a few hours.</p>
+
+<p>Why has Mr. Peary never been asked to explain his miraculous speed
+and the discrepancy between his statement and Henson's?</p>
+
+<p>Henson was Mr. Peary's sole witness. When Mr. Peary, in a framed-up
+document, endeavors to disprove my claim by quoting my Eskimos, it
+would be just as fair to apply Henson's words to disprove Peary.</p>
+
+<p>Moreover, inasmuch as Mr. Peary's partisans attacked my speed
+limits when I made my first reports, does it not seem curious indeed that
+they now accept as infallible, and <i>ex cathedra</i>, the published reports of
+the almost supernatural feat in covering distance made by Mr. Peary?</p></div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 100%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_507" id="Page_507">[Pg 507]</a></span></p>
+<h2>THE KEY TO THE CONTROVERSY</h2>
+
+<p class="blockquot">PEARY AND HIS PAST&mdash;HIS DEALING WITH RIVAL EXPLORERS&mdash;THE
+DEATH OF ASTRUP&mdash;THE THEFT OF THE
+"GREAT IRON STONE," THE NATIVES' SOLE SOURCE OF
+IRON</p>
+
+<h3>XXXIII<br />
+
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">Actions Which Call for Investigation</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>Aiming to be retired from the Navy as a Captain,
+with a comfortable pension; aiming eventually to wear
+the stripes of a Rear-Admiral, which necessitated a promotion
+over the heads of others in the normal line of
+advancement, a second Polar victory, which was all that
+Peary could honestly claim, was not sufficient. Something
+must be done to destroy in the public eye the
+merits of my achievement for the first attainment of the
+Pole. I had reached the Pole on April 21, 1908. Mr.
+Peary's claims were for April 6, 1909, a year later. To
+destroy the advantage of priority of my conquest, and
+to establish himself as the first and only one who had
+reached the Pole, was now the one predominant effort
+to which Mr. Peary and his coterie of conspirators set
+themselves. To this end the cables were now made to
+burn with an abusive campaign, which the press, eager
+for sensations, took up from land's end to land's end,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_508" id="Page_508">[Pg 508]</a></span>
+even to the two worlds. The wireless operators picked
+up messages that were being thrown from ship to ship
+and from point to point. Each carried unkind insinuations
+coming from the lips of Mr. Peary. The press
+and the public were induced to believe that Peary's
+words came from one who was himself above the shadow
+of suspicion. Their efforts, however, as we will see
+later, did not differ from the battle of envy forced
+against others before me, but it was now done more
+openly.</p>
+
+<p>It was difficult to remain silent against such world-wide
+slanders. But I reasoned that truth would ultimately
+prevail, and that the rebound of the American
+spirit of fair play would quell the storm.</p>
+
+<p>I had known for nearly a quarter of a century the
+man for whom the press now attacked me. I had served
+on two of his expeditions without pay; I had watched
+his successes and his failures; I had admired his strong
+qualities, and I had shivered with the shocks of his
+wrongdoings. But still I did not feel that anything
+was to be gained by retaliative abuse; and the truth
+about him, out of charity, I hesitated to tell. No, I
+argued, this warfare of the many against one, under the
+dictates of envy, must ultimately bring to light its own
+injustice.</p>
+
+<p>I had always reasoned that a quiet, dignified, non-assailing
+bearing would be most effective in a battle of
+this kind. Contrary to the general belief at the time,
+this was not done out of respect for Mr. Peary; it
+seemed the best means to a worthier end. But I did not
+know at this time that the press, dog-like, jumps upon
+him who maintains a non-attacking attitude. In mod<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_509" id="Page_509">[Pg 509]</a></span>ern
+times, the old Christian philosophy of turning the
+other cheek, as I have found, does not give the desired
+results.</p>
+
+<p>The press, which, at my home-coming, had lavished
+praise and glowing panegyric, now, as promptly, swung
+completely around and heaped upon my head terms
+of opprobrium and obloquy. Faked news items were
+issued to discredit me by Peary's associates; editors
+devoted space to jibes and sarcasms at my expense;
+clever writers and cartoonists did their best to make my
+name a humorous byword with my countrymen. Much
+of this I did not know until long after.</p>
+
+<p>The suddenness of all this&mdash;the terrible injustice
+and unreasonableness of it&mdash;simply overwhelmed me.
+Arriving from the cruel North, completely spent in
+body and in mind, the rest that I was urgently in need
+of had been constantly denied me. Instead, I had been
+caught up and held within a perfect maelstrom of excitement.
+That excitement still ran like fever in my veins.
+The plaudits of the multitude were still ringing in my
+ears when this horror of a world's contumely burst on
+my head. I could only bow my head and let the storm
+spend itself about me. Sick at heart and dazed in mind,
+conscious only of a vague disgust with all the world and
+myself, I longed for respite and forgetfulness within
+the bosom of my family.</p>
+
+<p>So, quietly, I decided to retire for a year, out of
+reach of the yellow papers; out of reach of the grind of
+the pro-Peary mill of infamy, still maintaining silence
+rather than stoop to the indignity of showing up the
+dark side of Mr. Peary's character. Having returned,
+I hesitate to do it now; but the weaving of the leprous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_510" id="Page_510">[Pg 510]</a></span>
+blanket of infamy with which Peary and his supporters
+attempted to cover me cannot be understood unless we
+look through Mr. Peary's eyes&mdash;regard other explorers
+as he regarded them; regard the North as his inalienable
+property as he did, and regard his infamous, high-handed
+injustices as right.</p>
+
+<p>I have now decided to uncover the incentive of this
+one-sided fight to which I have so long maintained a
+non-attacking attitude. I had hoped, almost against
+hope, that the public would ultimately understand,
+without a word from me, the humbug of the mudslingers
+who were attempting to defame my character. I had
+felt sure that the hand which did the besmearing was
+silhouetted clearly against the blackness of its own making.
+But the storm of a sensation-seeking press later
+so thickened the atmosphere that the public, from which
+one has a sure guarantee of fair play, was denied a
+clear view.</p>
+
+<p>Now that the storm has spent its force; now that
+the hand which did the mudslinging has within its grasp
+the unearned gain which it sought; now that a clear
+point of observation can be presented, I am compelled,
+with much reluctance and distaste, to reveal the
+unpleasant and unknown past of the man who tried to
+ruin me; showing how unscrupulous and brutal he was
+to others before me; with evidence in hand, I shall
+reveal how he wove his web of defamation and how his
+friends conspired with him in the darkest, meanest and
+most brazen conspiracy in the history of exploration.</p>
+
+<p>In doing this, my aim is not to challenge Mr.
+Peary's claim, but to throw light on unwritten pages of
+history, which pages furnish the key to unlock the long<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_511" id="Page_511">[Pg 511]</a></span>closed
+door of the Polar controversy and the pro-Peary
+conspiracy.</p>
+
+<p>From the earliest days, Mr. Peary's effort to reach
+the Pole was undertaken primarily for purposes of
+personal commercial gain. For twenty years he has
+passed the hat along lines of easy money. That hat
+would be passing to-day if the game had not been, in the
+opinion of many, spoiled by my success.</p>
+
+<p>For nearly twenty years he sought to be promoted
+over the heads of stay-at-home but hardworking naval
+officers. During all of this time, while on salary as a
+naval officer, he was away engaged in private enterprises
+from which hundreds of thousands of dollars went
+into his pockets. By wire-pulling and lobbying he
+succeeded in having the American Navy pay him an unearned
+salary. Such a man could not afford to divide
+the fruits of Polar attainment with another.</p>
+
+<p>In 1891, as the steamer <i>Kite</i> went north, Mr. Peary
+began to evince the brutal, selfish spirit which later was
+shown to every explorer who had the misfortune to cross
+his trail. Nansen had crossed Greenland; his splendid
+success was in the public eye. Mr. Peary attempted to
+belittle the merited applause by saying that Nansen had
+borrowed the "Peary system." But Peary had borrowed
+the Nordenskiold system, without giving credit.
+A few months later, Mr. John M. Verhoeff, the meteorologist
+of the <i>Kite</i> expedition, was accorded such unbrotherly
+treatment that he left his body in a glacial
+crevasse in preference to coming home on the same ship
+with Mr. Peary. This man had paid $2,000 for the
+privilege of being Peary's companion.</p>
+
+<p>Eivind Astrup, another companion of Peary, a few<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_512" id="Page_512">[Pg 512]</a></span>
+years later was publicly denounced because he had
+written a book on his own scientific observations and
+did work which Peary had himself neglected to do.
+This attempt to discredit a young, sensitive explorer
+was followed by his mental unbalancement and suicide.</p>
+
+<p>About 1897, Peary took from the people of the
+Farthest North the Eskimos' treasured "Star Stone."
+At some remote period in the unknown history of the
+frigid North, thousands of years ago, when, possibly,
+the primitive forefathers of the Eskimos were perishing
+from inability to obtain food in that fierce war waged
+between Nature and crude, blindly struggling, aboriginal
+life because of a lack of weapons with which to
+kill, there swiftly, roaringly, descended from the mysterious
+skies a gigantic meteoric mass of burning, white-hot
+iron. Whence it came, those dazed and startled
+people knew not; they regarded it, as their descendants
+have regarded it, with baffled mystified terror; later,
+with reverence, gratitude, and a feeling akin to awe.
+Gazing skyward, in the long, starlit nights, there undoubtedly
+welled up surgingly in the wild hearts of
+these innocent, Spartan children of nature, a feeling of
+vague, instinctive wonder at the Power which swung
+the boreal lamps in heaven; which moves the worlds in
+space; which sweeps in the northern winds, and which,
+for the creatures of its creation, apparently consciously,
+and often by means seemingly miraculous, provides
+methods of obtaining the sources of life. As the meteor
+and its two smaller fragments cooled, the natives, by
+the innate and adaptive ingenuity of aboriginal man,
+learned to chip masses from it, from which were shaped
+knives and arrows and spearheads. It became their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_513" id="Page_513">[Pg 513]</a></span>
+mine of treasure, more precious than gold; it was their
+only means of making weapons for obtaining that which
+sustained life. With new weapons, they developed the
+art of spear-casting and arrow-throwing. As the centuries
+passed, animals fell easy prey to their skill; the
+starvation of elder ages gave way to plenty.</p>
+
+<p>The arm of God, it is said in the Scriptures, is long.
+From the far skies it extended to these people of an
+ice-sheeted, rigorous land, that they might survive, this
+miraculous treasure. It seemed, however, that the arm
+of man, in its greed, proved likewise long; and as the
+strange providence which gave these people their chief
+means of killing was kind, so the arm of man was cruel.</p>
+
+<p>In 1894, R. E. Peary, regarding the Arctic world
+as his own, the people as his vassals, came north, and a
+year later took from these natives, without their consent,
+the two smaller fragments. In 1897 he took "The
+Tent," or Great Iron Stone, the natives' last and one
+source of mineral wealth and ancestral treasure. That
+it was these people's great source of securing metal
+meant nothing to him; that it was a scientific curio,
+whereby he might secure a specious credit from the
+well-fed armchair gentlemen of science at home, meant
+much to the man who later did not hesitate to employ
+methods of dishonor to try to secure exclusive credit of
+the achievement of the Pole. Just as he later tried to
+rob me of honor, so he ruthlessly took from these people
+a thing that meant abundance of game&mdash;and game
+there meant life.</p>
+
+<p>The great "Iron Stone" was hauled aboard the
+S. S. <i>Hope</i>, and brought to New York. Today it reposes
+in the Museum of Natural History&mdash;a bulky,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_514" id="Page_514">[Pg 514]</a></span>
+black heap of metal, which can be viewed any day by the
+well-fed and curious. In the North, where he will
+not go again to give his mythical "abundance of guns
+and ammunition," the Eskimos need the metal which
+was sold to Mrs. Morris K. Jesup (who presented it to
+the museum) for $40,000. That money went into Mr.
+Peary's pockets. In a land where laws existed this act
+would be regarded as a high-handed, monumental and
+dishonorable theft. One who might attempt now to
+purloin the ill-gotten hulk from the museum would be
+prosecuted. Taken from the people to whose ancestors
+it was sent, as if by a providence that is divine, and
+to whom it meant life, it gave Mr. Peary so-called scientific
+honors among his friends. In the name of religion,
+it has been said, many crimes have been committed. It
+remained for this man to reveal what atrocious things
+could be done in the fair name of science.</p>
+
+<p>At about the same time a group of seven or eight
+Eskimos were put aboard a ship against their will and
+brought to New York for museum purposes. They
+were locked up in a cellar in New York, awaiting a
+market place. Before the profit-time arrived, because
+of unhygienic surroundings and improper food, all but
+one died. When in the grip of death, through a Mrs.
+Smith, who ministered to their last wants, they
+appealed with tears in their eyes for some word from
+Mr. Peary. They begged that he extend them the
+attention of visiting them before their eyes closed to a
+world of misery and trouble. There came no word and
+no responsive call from the man who was responsible
+for their suffering. Of seven or eight innocent wild
+people, but one little child survived. That one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_515" id="Page_515">[Pg 515]</a></span>&mdash;Mene&mdash;was
+later even denied a passage back to his
+fathers' land by Mr. Peary.</p>
+
+<p>A few years later, the Danish Literary Expedition
+visited the northernmost Eskimos in their houses. The
+splendid hospitality shown the Danes by the Eskimos
+saved their lives. The Danish people, aiming to
+express their gratitude for this unselfish Eskimo kindness,
+sent a ship to their shores on the following year,
+loaded with presents, at an expenditure of many thousands
+of kroner. That ship, under the direction of Captain
+Schoubye, left at North Star great quantities of
+food, iron and wood. After the Danes had turned their
+backs, Mr. Peary came along and deliberately, high-handedly,
+took many of the things. This story is told
+today by every member of the tribe whom Peary claims
+to have befriended, whom he calls "my people."</p>
+
+<p>The sad story of the unavoidable deaths by starvation
+of the members of General Greely's Expedition has
+for years been issued and reissued to the press by Mr.
+Peary and his press agents, in such form as to discredit
+General Greely and his co-workers. His own inhuman
+doings about Cape Sabine and the old Greely stamping-grounds
+have been suppressed.</p>
+
+<p>In 1901 the ship <i>Erik</i> left Mr. Peary, with a large
+group of native helpers, near Cape Sabine. An
+epidemic, brought by the Peary ship, soon after attacked
+the Eskimos. Many died; others survived to endure a
+slow torture. Peary had no doctor and no medicine.
+In the year previous, Peary had shown the same spirit
+to the ever faithful Dr. Dedrick that he had shown to
+Verhoeff, to Astrup, and to others. Although Dedrick
+could not endure Peary's unfairness, he remained,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_516" id="Page_516">[Pg 516]</a></span>
+against instructions, within reach for just such an
+emergency as this epidemic presented. He offered his
+services when the epidemic broke out, but Peary refused
+his offer, and allowed the natives to die rather than
+permit a competent medical expert to attend the
+afflicted.</p>
+
+<p>Near the same point, a year later, Captain Otto
+Sverdrup wintered with his ship. His mission was to
+explore the great unknown to the west. This unexplored
+country had been under Mr. Peary's eye for ten
+years; but instead of exploring it, his time was spent in
+an easy and comparatively luxurious life about a
+comfortable camp. When Sverdrup's men visited the
+Peary ship, they were denied common brotherly courtesy
+and were refused the hospitality which is universally
+granted, by an unwritten law, to all field workers. Mr.
+Peary even refused to send him, on his returning ship,
+important letters and papers which Sverdrup desired
+taken back. He also refused to allow Sverdrup to take
+native guides and dogs-which did not belong to Mr.
+Peary. This same courtesy was later denied to Captain
+Bernier, of the Canadian Expedition.</p>
+
+<p>Thus attempting to make a private preserve of the
+unclaimed North, he attempted to discredit and thwart
+every other explorer's effort. In line with the same
+policy, every member of every Peary expedition has
+been muzzled with a contract which prevented talking
+or writing after the expedition's return&mdash;contracts by
+which Mr. Peary derived the sole credit, the entire
+profit, and all the honor of the results of the men who
+volunteered their services and risked their lives. This
+same spirit was shown at the time when, at 87&deg; 45&#698;, he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_517" id="Page_517">[Pg 517]</a></span>
+turned Captain Bartlett back, because he (Peary), to
+use his own words, "wanted all the honors."</p>
+
+<p>In profiting by his long quest for funds for legitimate
+exploration, we find Peary engaged in private
+enterprises for which public funds were used. Much of
+this money was, in my judgment, used to promote a
+lucrative fur and ivory trade, while the real effort of
+getting to the Pole was delayed, seemingly, for commercial
+gain. I believe the Pole might have been
+reached ten years earlier. But delay was profitable.</p>
+
+<p>After being thus engaged for years in a propaganda
+of self-exploitation, in assailing other explorers
+whom he regarded as rivals, in committing deeds in the
+North unworthy of an American and officer of the
+Navy, Peary, knowing that I had started Poleward,
+knowing that relief must inevitably be required, ultimately
+appropriated my supplies, and absolutely prevented
+any effort to reach me, which even the natives
+themselves might have made. Peary knew he was
+endangering my life. He knew that he was getting
+ivory and furs in return for supplies belonging to me,
+and which I should need. He knew, also, that it would
+not coincide with his selfish purposes of appropriating
+all honor and profit if I reached the Pole and should
+return and tell the world. His deliberate act was in
+itself&mdash;whether so designed or not&mdash;an effort to kill a
+brother explorer. The stains of at least a dozen other
+lives are on this man.</p>
+
+<p>The property which Peary took from Francke and
+myself, with the hand of a buccaneer and the heart of a
+hypocrite, was worth thirty-five thousand dollars. This
+was done, not to insure expedition needs, but to satisfy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_518" id="Page_518">[Pg 518]</a></span>
+a hunger for commercial gain, and to inflict a cowardly,
+underhanded injury on a rival. All of my caches, my
+camp equipment, my food, were taken; and under his
+own handwriting he gave the orders which deprived me
+of all relief efforts at a time when relief was of vital
+importance. Certainly to all appearances this was a
+deliberate, preconceived plan to kill a rival worker by
+starvation. Here we find an American naval officer
+stooping to a trick for which he would be hanged in a
+mining camp.</p>
+
+<p>Many members of his expeditions, some rough seamen,
+speak with shuddering of his actions in that far-away
+North. In my possession are affidavits, voluntarily
+made and given to me by members of Mr. Peary's
+expeditions, revealing gross actions, which, in an officer
+of the Navy, call for investigation. Mention has been
+made of certain facts, because, only by knowing these
+things, can people understand the spirit and character
+of the man and the unscrupulous attacks made upon
+me, and understand, also, why, out of a sense of delicacy
+and dislike for mudslinging, I remained silent so
+long. It is only because the public has been misled by
+a sensational press, because I realize I have suffered by
+my own silence, in order that history may know the full
+truth and accord a just verdict, that with reluctance,
+with a sense of shuddering distaste, I have been compelled
+to present these unpleasant pages of unwritten
+Arctic history.</p>
+
+<p>When Mr. Peary and his partisans attacked me
+they hesitated at nothing that was untrue, cruel and
+dishonorable&mdash;forgery and perjury even seemed justifiable
+to them in their effort to discredit me. I still<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_519" id="Page_519">[Pg 519]</a></span>
+hesitate to speak of certain unworthy, unblushing and
+utterly cruel acts of which Mr. Peary is guilty. I
+would have preferred to remain silent about the actions
+of which I have told.</p>
+
+<p>Assuming the attitude of one above reproach, Peary,
+upon his return, assailed me as a dishonest person who
+tried to rob him of honor. Had the actual and full
+truths been told at the time about Peary's life in the
+North, his charges would have rebounded annihilatingly
+upon himself. For certain things the people of this
+country, who are clean, honest and fair, will not stand.
+The facts told about Peary in the affidavits given me
+make his charges of dishonor and dishonesty against
+me a travesty, indeed. Yet, at a time when I might
+have profited by revealing phases of Mr. Peary's personal
+character, I preferred to remain silent. Of certain
+things men do not care to speak. Although Mr. Peary
+and his friends endeavored to make the Polar
+controversy a personal one, I regarded Mr. Peary's
+personal actions as having no bearing upon his, or my,
+having attained the Pole. He and his friends forced a
+personal fight; they tried to injure my veracity, my
+reputation for truth-telling, my personal honor. I had
+hoped against hope that the truth would resolve itself
+without any necessity of my revealing elements of Mr. Peary's
+character. I have herein recited pages from his
+past, known to Arctic explorers but not to the general
+public, so that his attitude toward me may be understood.
+Yet all, indeed, has not been told. Although
+Mr. Peary did not scruple to lie about me, I still hesitate
+to tell the full truth about him.</p>
+
+<p>In the white, frozen North a tragedy was enacted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_520" id="Page_520">[Pg 520]</a></span>
+which would bring tears to the hearts of all who possess
+human tenderness and kindness. This has never been
+written. To write it would still further reveal the ruthlessness,
+the selfishness, the cruelty of the man who tried
+to ruin me. Yet here I prefer the charity of silence,
+where, indeed, charity is not at all merited.</p>
+
+<p>The knowledge of these facts tempered the shocks
+I felt when the Peary campaign of defamation was
+first made against me. I told myself that a man who
+had done these things would, in the nature of things, be
+branded by the truth, as he deserved.</p>
+
+<p>I was not so greatly surprised that Peary tried to
+steal my honor. I knew that he had stolen tangible
+things. Yet the theft of food, even though a man's life
+depends upon it, is not so awful as the attempt to steal
+the good name a father hopes to bequeath his children.
+Yet Peary has attempted to do this.</p>
+
+<p>He has attempted to blacken me in the eyes of
+my family; but, with the conscience of a brute, he has
+deserted two of his own children&mdash;left them to starve
+and freeze in the cheerless north. They are there
+today crying for food and a father, while he enjoys a
+life of luxury at the expense of the American tax-payers.
+This statement calls for an investigation by
+the Secretary of the Navy. See photograph of the
+deserted child of the Sultan of the North, facing page
+493.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 100%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_521" id="Page_521">[Pg 521]</a></span></p>
+<h2>THE MT. McKINLEY BRIBERY</h2>
+
+<p class="blockquot">THE BRIBED, FAKED AND FORGED NEWS ITEMS&mdash;THE PRO-PEARY
+MONEY POWERS ENCOURAGE PERJURY&mdash;MT.
+M'KINLEY HONESTLY CLIMBED&mdash;HOW, FOR PEARY,
+A SIMILAR PEAK WAS FAKED</p>
+
+<h3>XXXIV<br />
+
+<br />
+
+<span class="smcap">How a Man's Soul Was Marketed</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>After Mr. Peary had done his utmost to try to
+disprove my Polar attainment; after the chain of newspapers
+which, for him, in conjunction with the New
+York <i>Times</i>, had printed the same egregious lies on the
+same days, from the Atlantic to the Pacific; after they
+had expended all possible ammunition, the damages
+inflicted were still insufficient. My narrative, as published
+in the New York <i>Herald</i>, was still more generally
+credited than Mr. Peary's. To gain his end, something
+else had to be done. Something else was done. The
+darkest page of defamation in the world's history of
+exploration was now written by the hands of bribers
+and perjurers.</p>
+
+<p>The public suddenly turned from the newspaper-inculcated
+idea of "proof" in figures to a more sane
+examination of personal veracity. To destroy my
+reputation for truth in the public mind was the next<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_522" id="Page_522">[Pg 522]</a></span>
+unscrupulous effort decided upon. The selfish and
+self-evident press campaign, obviously managed by the
+Peary cabal, to that end had given unsatisfactory results.
+Some vital blow must be delivered by fair means
+or otherwise.</p>
+
+<p>The climb of Mt. McKinley was now challenged.</p>
+
+<p>I had made a first ascent of the great mid-Alaskan
+peak in 1906. The record of that conquest was published
+during my absence in the North, under the title,
+"To the Top of the Continent." The book, being
+printed at a time when I was unable to see the proofs,
+contained some mistakes; but in it was all the data that
+could be presented for such an undertaking.</p>
+
+<p>The Board of Aldermen of the City of New York
+decided to honor me by offering the keys and the freedom
+of the metropolis on October 15. This was to be
+an important event. The pro-Peary conspiracy aiming
+to deliver striking blows through the press, their propaganda
+was so planned that the bribed, faked and forged
+news items were issued on days which gave them
+dramatic and psychologic climaxes. Two days before
+the New York demonstration in my favor, the pretentious
+full-page broadside of distorted Eskimo information
+was issued. This fell flat; for it was instantly seen
+to be a pretentious rearrangement of old charges. But
+it was so played up as to fill columns of newspaper
+space and impress readers by its magnitude. This was
+followed by the Barrill affidavit, similarly played up so
+as to fill a full newspaper page, which I shall analyze
+later. All this was done to draw a black cloud
+over the day of honor in New York, the 15th day of
+October.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_523" id="Page_523">[Pg 523]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Since the published affidavit of my old associate,
+Barrill, was a document which proved him a self-confessed
+liar; since the affidavit carried with it the
+earmarks of pro-Peary bribery and perjury, I reasoned
+again that fair-minded people would in time see through
+this moneyed campaign of dishonor. In all history it
+has been shown that he who seeks to besmear others
+usually leaves the greatest amount of mud on himself.
+But again I had not counted on the unfairness of the
+press.</p>
+
+<p>The only reason given that I should have faked the
+climb of Mt. McKinley is that, in some vague way, I
+was to profit mightily by a successful report. The
+expedition was to have been financed by a rich Philadelphia
+sportsman. He did advance the greater portion
+of the sum required. We were to prepare a game
+trail for him. Something interfered, he relinquished his
+trip, and did not send the balance of money promised.</p>
+
+<p>The result was that many checks I had given out
+went to protest. Harper &amp; Brothers had agreed, before
+starting, to pay me $1,500 for an account of the expedition,
+whether successful or not. On my return this was
+paid, and went to meet outstanding debts&mdash;debts to pay
+which I embarrassed myself. Instead of "profits" from
+this alleged "fake," I suffered a loss of several thousand
+dollars.</p>
+
+<p>As is quite usual in all exploring expeditions, some
+of the members of my Mt. McKinley expedition, who
+did not share in the final success, were disgruntled.
+Chief among these was Herschell Parker. Owing to
+ill-health and inexperience, Parker had proved himself
+inefficient in Alaskan work. Climbing a little peak<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_524" id="Page_524">[Pg 524]</a></span>
+forty miles from the great mountain, when he was with
+me, he had pronounced Mt. McKinley unclimbable.
+Climbing a similar hill, four years later, he stooped to
+the humbug of offering a photograph of it as a parallel
+to my picture of the top of Mt. McKinley. This man
+was so ill-fitted for such work that two men were required
+to help him mount a horse. But I insisted that
+we continue at least to the base of the mountain. At
+the first large glacier, Parker and his companion,
+Belmore Brown, balked, halting in front of an insignificant
+ice-wall. The ascent of Mt. McKinley, still thirty-five
+miles off, they said, was impossible. Parker returned,
+and in a trail of four thousand miles to New
+York told every press representative how impossible was
+the ascent of Mt. McKinley. By the time Parker
+reached New York a cable went through that the thing
+was done. At a point four thousand miles from the
+scene of action, he again cried, "Impossible!" When I
+returned to New York, however, a month later, and
+Parker learned the details, he publicly and privately
+credited my ascent of Mt. McKinley. Nothing further
+was said to doubt the climb until two years later, when
+he lined up with the Peary interests.</p>
+
+<p>Using Parker as a tool, Peary's Arctic Club,
+through him, first forced the side-issue of Mt. McKinley.
+With the Barrill affidavit, made later, were
+printed other affidavits by Barrill's friends, who had not
+been within fifty miles of the mountain when it was
+climbed. This act, to me, was a bitter climax of injustice.
+But I have since learned that Printz got $500 of
+pro-Peary money; that both Miller and Beecher were
+promised large amounts, but were cheated at the "show<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_525" id="Page_525">[Pg 525]</a></span>down."
+Printz afterwards wrote that he would make
+an affidavit for me for $300, and at Missoula he made
+an affidavit in which he attempted to defend me.<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> This
+he offered to sell to Roscoe Mitchell for $1,000.</p>
+
+<p>While easy pro-Peary money was passing in the
+West, Parker came forward with his old grudge. His
+chief contention was that, because he had taken home
+with him in deserting the object of the expedition a
+hypsometer, I could not have measured the high altitudes
+claimed. The altitude had been measured by
+triangulation by the hydrographer of the expedition,
+but I had other methods of measuring the ascent.</p>
+
+<p>I had two aneroid barometers, specially marked for
+very high climbing, thermometers, and all the usual
+Alpine instruments. The hypsometer was not at that
+time an important instrument. Parker also showed
+unfair methods by allowing the press repeatedly to print
+that he had been the leader and the organizer of the
+expedition. This he knew to be false. I had organized
+two expeditions to explore Mt. McKinley, at a cost of
+$28,000. Of this Parker had furnished $2,500. Parker
+took no part in the organization of the last expedition,
+had given no advice to help supply an adequate equipment,
+and in the field his presence was a daily handicap
+to the progress of the expedition. Heretofore, this was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_526" id="Page_526">[Pg 526]</a></span>
+never indicated. But when he allows himself to be
+quoted as the leader of an expedition upon which he
+attempts to throw discredit, then it is right that all the
+facts be known.</p>
+
+<p>In the press reports, when Parker was first heard
+from, came the news that on the Pacific coast, at
+Tacoma, a lawyer by the name of J. M. Ashton was
+retained by someone. To the press Ashton said he was
+engaged "to look into the McKinley business," but he
+did not know by whom&mdash;whether by Cook or Peary.
+He was "engaged" in a business too questionable to tell
+who furnished the money.</p>
+
+<p>In the final ascent of Mt. McKinley there was with
+me Edward Barrill, the affidavit-maker. He was a
+good-natured and hard-working packer, who had
+proved himself a most able climber. Together we
+ascended the mountain in September, 1906. To this
+time (1909) there was not the slightest doubt about the
+footprints on the top of the great mountain. Barrill
+had told everybody that he knew, and all who would
+listen to him, that the mountain was climbed. He went
+from house to house boastfully, with my book under his
+arm, telling and retelling the story of the ascent of Mt.
+McKinley. That anyone should now believe the affidavit,
+secured and printed for Peary, did not to me
+seem reasonable.</p>
+
+<p>Parker, filling the position of betrayer and traitor
+to one who had saved his life many times, had decided,
+as the Polar controversy opened, to direct the Mt.
+McKinley side-issue of the pro-Peary effort.</p>
+
+<p>The first news of bribery in the matter came from
+Darby, Montana. This was Barrill's home town. A<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_527" id="Page_527">[Pg 527]</a></span>
+Peary man from Chicago was there. He frankly said
+that he would pay Barrill $1,000 to offer news that
+would discredit the climb of Mt. McKinley. Other
+news of the dishonest pro-Peary movement induced me
+to send Roscoe Mitchell, of the New York <i>Herald</i>, to
+the working ground of the bribers. Mitchell was
+working under the direction of my attorneys, H. Wellington
+Wack, of New York, Colonel Marshal, of
+Missoula, and General Weed, of Helena, Montana.</p>
+
+<p>Mitchell secured testimony and evidence regarding
+the buying of Barrill, but was unable to put the conspirators
+in jail. At Hamilton, Montana, there had
+appeared a man with $5,000 to pass to Barrill. Barrill's
+first reply was that he had climbed the mountain;
+that Dr. Cook had climbed the mountain; that to take
+that $5,000, in his own words, he "would have to sell his
+own soul." Barrill's business partner, Bridgeford,
+was present. He later made an affidavit for Mr.
+Mitchell covering this part of the pro-Peary perjury
+effort.</p>
+
+<p>A little later, however, Barrill said to his partner
+he "might as well see what was in it." Five thousand
+dollars to Barrill meant more than five million dollars to
+Mr. Peary or his friends. To Barrill, ignorant, poor,
+good-natured, but weak, it was an irresistible
+temptation.</p>
+
+<p>Barrill now went to Seattle. He visited the office
+of the Seattle <i>Times</i>. In the presence of the editor,
+Mr. Joe Blethen, he dickered for the sale of an affidavit
+to discredit me. He knew such an affidavit had news
+value. Indefinite offers ranging from $5,000 to $10,000
+were made. Not getting a lump sum off-hand, Barrill,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_528" id="Page_528">[Pg 528]</a></span>
+dissatisfied, then went over to Tacoma, to the mysterious
+Mr. Ashton. That all this was done, was told me on
+my trip west shortly afterward, by Mr. Blethen himself.</p>
+
+<p>After visiting Ashton, Barrill was seen in a bank
+in Tacoma. Barrill had said to his partner that to make
+an affidavit denying my climb would be "selling his
+soul." Barrill, ill at ease, reluctant, appeared. It is a
+terrible thing to lure a weak man to dishonor; it is still
+more tragic and awful when that man is bought so his
+lie may hurt another. The time for the parting of his
+soul had arrived in the bank. With the sadness of a
+funeral mourner Barrill was pushed along. The talk was
+in a muffled undertone. But it all happened. In the presence
+of a witness, whose evidence I am ready to produce,
+$1,500 was passed to him. This money was paid in
+large bills, and placed in Barrill's money-belt. There
+were other considerations, and I know where some of
+this money was spent. His soul was marketed at last.
+The infamous affidavit was then prepared.</p>
+
+<p>This affidavit was printed first in the New York
+<i>Globe</i>. The <i>Globe</i> is partly owned and entirely controlled
+by General Thomas H. Hubbard, the President
+of the Peary Club. With General Hubbard, Mr. Peary
+had consulted at Bar Harbor immediately after his
+return from Sydney. Together they had outlined their
+campaign. General Hubbard is a multi-millionaire.
+A tremendous amount of money was spent in the Peary
+campaign. In the Mt. McKinley affidavit of Barrill
+we can trace bribery, a conspiracy, and black dishonor,
+right up to the door of R. E. Peary.</p>
+
+<p>If Peary is not the most unscrupulous self-seeker
+in the history of exploration, caught in underhand, sur<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_529" id="Page_529">[Pg 529]</a></span>reptitious
+acts too cowardly to be credited to a thief,
+caught in the act of bartering for men's souls and honor
+in as ruthless a way as he high-handedly took others'
+property in the North; if he, drawing an unearned
+salary from the American Navy, has not brindled his
+soul with stripes that fit his body for jail, let him come
+forward and reply. If Peary is not the most conscienceless
+of self-exploiters in all history, caught in the
+act of stealing honor by forcing dishonor, let him come
+forward and explain the Mt. McKinley perjury.</p>
+
+<p>Now let us examine the others who were lined up
+in this desperate black hand movement. In New
+York there is a club, at first organized to bring explorers
+together and to encourage original research. It
+bore the name of Explorers' Club; but, as is so often the
+case with clubs that monopolize a pretentious name, the
+membership degenerated. It is now merely an association
+of museum collectors. Among real explorers,
+this club to-day is jocularly known as the "Worm
+Diggers' Union." In 1909 Mr. Peary was president.
+His press agent, Bridgman, was the moving spirit, and
+one of Colonel Mann's muck-rakers was secretary. Of
+course, such a society, committed to Peary, had no use
+for Dr. Cook.</p>
+
+<p>In a spirit of helping along the pro-Peary conspiracy,
+and after the Barrill affidavit was secured, the
+Explorers' Club took upon itself the supererogatory
+duty of appointing a committee to pass on my ascent of
+Mt. McKinley. There was but one real explorer on
+this committee. The others were kitchen geographers,
+whose honor and fairness had been bartered to the Peary
+interests before the investigation began. Without a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_530" id="Page_530">[Pg 530]</a></span>
+line of data before them, they decided, with glee and
+gusto, that Mt. McKinley had not been climbed. This
+was what one would expect from such an honor-blind
+group of meddlers. But Mr. Peary's press worker,
+Bridgman, who himself had engineered the investigation,
+used this seeming verdict of experts to Mr. Peary's
+advantage.<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a></p>
+
+<p>Still all these combined underhanded efforts failed
+to reach vital spots and to turn the entire public Mr.
+Peary's way. Something more must still be done,
+Peary's press agent offered $3,000, and the cowardly
+Ashton, of Tacoma, offered another $3,000, to send an
+expedition to Alaska, to further the pro-Peary effort to
+down a rival. The traitor, Parker, responded. He was
+joined by the other quitter, Belmore Brown, who has
+conveniently forgotten to return borrowed money to me.
+This Peary-Parker-Brown combination went to Alaska
+in 1910, engaged in mining pursuits and hunting adventures.
+They returned with the expected and framed report
+that Mt. McKinley had not been climbed, and that
+they had climbed a snow-hill, had photographed it, and
+that the photograph was similar to mine of the topmost
+peak of Mt. McKinley. Mt. McKinley has a base twenty-five
+miles wide; it has upon the various slopes of its
+giant uplift hundreds of peaks, all glacial, polished, and
+of a similar contour. No one peak towers gigantically
+above the others. On the top are many peaks, no par<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_531" id="Page_531">[Pg 531]</a></span>ticular
+one of which can with any accuracy of inches be
+decided arbitrarily as the very highest. The top of a
+mountain does not converge to a pin-point apex. One
+looks out, not into immediate space on all sides, but
+over an area, as I have said, of many peaks. My
+photograph of the peak, which loomed highest among
+the others on the top, possesses a profile not unusual
+among ice-cut rocks. The Peary-Parker-Brown seekers
+tried hard to duplicate this photograph, so as to
+show I had faked my picture. The thing might have
+been done easily in the Canadian Rockies. It could be
+done in a dozen more accessible places in Alaska; but,
+without real work, it could be only crudely done near
+Mt. McKinley. The photograph which Peary's friends
+offered to discredit the first ascent is one of a double
+peak, part of which vaguely suggests but a poor outline
+of Mt. McKinley, and in which a rock has been faked.
+Who is responsible for this humbug? Where is the
+negative? The photograph bears no actual semblance
+to my picture of the top of Mt. McKinley whatever.
+But why was the negative faked? Parker excuses the
+evident unfairness of the dissimilar photograph by saying
+that he could not get the same position as I must
+have had. But is laziness or haste an excuse when a
+man's honor is assailed.<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a></p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_532" id="Page_532">[Pg 532]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Let us follow the Peary high-handed humbugs
+further. To the southeast of Mt. McKinley is a huge
+mountain, which I named Mt. Disston in 1905. This
+peak was robbed of its name, and over it Parker wrote
+Mt. Huntington. To the northeast of Mt. McKinley
+is another peak, charted on my maps, to which Peary
+gave the name of the president of the Peary Arctic
+Trust. To this peak was given the same name, by the
+same methods of stealing the credit of other explorers,
+as that adopted by Peary when, in response to $25,000
+of easy money, he wrote the same name, "Thomas Hubbard,"
+over Sverdrup's northern point of Heiberg
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_533" id="Page_533">[Pg 533]</a></span>Land. Can it be doubted that the Peary-Parker-Brown
+propaganda of hypocrisy and dishonor in Alaska
+is guided by no other spirit than that of Mr. Peary?</p>
+
+<p>Many persons say: "We will credit Dr. Cook's
+attainment of the Pole if this Mt. McKinley matter is
+cleared up." I have heard this often. I have offered
+in my book proofs of the climb&mdash;the same proofs any
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_534" id="Page_534">[Pg 534]</a></span>mountain-climber offers. To discredit these, my enemies
+stooped to bribery. I have in my possession, and
+have stated here, proofs of this. Such proofs are even
+more tangible than the climbing of a far-away mountain.
+Is any other clarifier or any other evidence
+required to prove the pro-Peary frauds?</p>
+
+
+<div class="sblockquot">
+<h4>THE PEARY-PARKER-BROWN HUMBUG UP TO DATE</h4>
+
+<p>This chapter is best closed by an analysis of the second effort of Parker
+and Brown. It will be remembered that in their first venture as hirelings of the
+Peary propaganda, they balked at the north-east ridge, without making a serious
+attempt. This ridge&mdash;(the ridge upon which I had climbed to the top of Mt.
+McKinley) was pronounced impossible and therefore my claim in their judgment
+was false, for such a statement $3,000.00 had been paid. During the spring
+of 1912, again with $5,000 of Pro-Peary money to discredit me&mdash;The same hirelings
+went through the range, attacked the same ridge from the west and by the
+really able efforts of their guide, La Voy, a point near the top was reached. The
+Associated Press report of this effort said that the principal result of the expedition
+was to show that the north-east ridge (the ridge which I had climbed), was
+climbable. The very men sent out and paid, therefore, by my enemies to disprove
+my work have proven, against their will, my first ascent of Mt. McKinley.</p>
+
+
+<p>Two other exploring parties were about the slopes of Mt. McKinley during
+the time of the Peary-Parker defamers. The first, a group of hardy Alaskan
+pioneers, whose report is written in the Overland Magazine for February, 1913,
+by Ralph H. Cairns&mdash;after an unbiased study of reports both for and against,
+Cairns credits my first ascent. The well known Engineer R. C. Bates, who as a
+U. S. revenue inspector of mines and an explorer and mountain climber, did much
+pioneer work about Mt. McKinley. He also goes on record in the Los Angeles
+Tribune of February 13th, 1913, as saying: "Dr. Cook really succeeded in ascending
+the north-east ridge of Mt. McKinley as claimed in 1906." Bates confirms
+the charge of $5,000 being paid the Parker-Brown expedition to refute my 1906
+ascent, and says: "In 1906 Dr. Cook claimed he climbed Mt. McKinley by the
+north-east ridge. In the account of the 1910 expedition, Parker claimed that
+'the north-east ridge, the one used by Dr. Cook, was absolutely unsurmountable'.
+I, with a party of two, explored the mountain in 1911 and selected the north-east
+ridge as the only feasible route to the top. I ascended to 11,000 feet, according
+to barometric measure. I told of the exploit to members of the Parker party,
+who took the same course in 1912. Mr. Parker now contradicts his former statement
+by saying, 'The north-east ridge is the only feasible ridge, and whoever
+goes up will follow in my footsteps.'" It is important to note that Dr. Cook's
+previous footsteps were eliminated, $5,000 had been paid for that very purpose.</p>
+
+<p>In a personal interview Mr. Bates made the very grave change that one
+of the leaders of the very expedition sent out to discredit me, had offered him
+a bribe to swear falsely to certain assessment work on claims which had not been
+done. The Peary-Parker-Brown movement is therefore from many sources a
+proven propaganda of bribery, conspiracy and perjury. That such men can escape
+the doom of prison cells is a parody upon human decency, and yet such are the
+men who are responsible for the distrust which has been thrown on my work.</p></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 100%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_535" id="Page_535">[Pg 535]</a></span></p>
+<h2>THE DUNKLE-LOOSE FORGERY</h2>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="center">ITS PRO-PEARY MAKING</p></div>
+
+<h3>XXXV<br />
+
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">The Last Perjured Defamation</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>With the bitterness of the money-bought document
+to shatter my veracity regarding the ascent of Mt.
+McKinley ever before me, I canceled in November all
+my lecture engagements. Mr. William M. Grey, then
+managing my tour, broke contracts covering over
+$140,000. But, for the time being, these could not be
+filled. I was nearing a stage of mental and physical
+exhaustion, and required rest. Seeking a quiet retreat,
+my wife and I left the Waldorf-Astoria and secured
+quarters at the Gramatan Inn, in Bronxville, N. Y.
+Here was prepared my report and data to be sent to
+Copenhagen.</p>
+
+<p>At this time, as if again destined by fate, innocently
+I made my greatest error, opened myself to what became
+the most serious and damaging charge against my
+good faith, and the misstated account of which, published
+later, was used by my enemies in their efforts
+to brand me as a conscious faker and deliberate fraud.</p>
+
+<p>When I now think of the incidents leading up to
+the acquaintance of Dunkle and Loose, it does seem
+that I had lost all sense of balance, and that my brain<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_536" id="Page_536">[Pg 536]</a></span>
+was befogged. Shortly before I had started West,
+Dunkle was brought to me by Mr. Bradley on the pretext
+of wanting to talk life insurance.</p>
+
+<p>During my lecture tour threats from fanatics
+reached me, and in my nervous condition it was not
+hard for me to believe that my life was in danger.
+Then, too, it seemed that all the money I had made
+might be spent in efforts to defend myself. I decided
+to protect my wife and children by life insurance. How
+Dunkle guessed this&mdash;if he did&mdash;I do not know. But
+at just the right moment he appeared, and I fell into the
+insurance trap.</p>
+
+<p>At the time I did not know that Dunkle had been
+a professional "subscription-raiser," who, while I was
+in the North, had volunteered to raise money for a relief
+expedition&mdash;provided he was given an exorbitant percentage.</p>
+
+<p>For this reason both Anthony Fiala and Dillon
+Wallace had refused to introduce him to me before he
+secured the introduction by Mr. Bradley. When Mrs.
+Cook first saw him, with feminine intuition she said:</p>
+
+<p>"Don't have anything to do with that man. I
+don't like his looks."</p>
+
+<p>I did not heed this, however. After some futile
+life insurance talk, he surprised me by saying irrelevantly:</p>
+
+<p>"By the way, I have an expert navigator, a friend
+of mine, who can prove that Peary was not at the Pole."</p>
+
+<p>"I have not challenged Mr. Peary's claim," I replied,
+"and do not wish to. The New York <i>Herald</i>,
+however, may listen to what you have to say." That
+was all that was said at the time.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_537" id="Page_537">[Pg 537]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>After my return from the western lecture tour,
+Dunkle seemed to be always around, and at every opportunity
+spoke to me. He gained a measure of confidence
+by criticising the press campaign waged against me. I
+naturally felt kindly toward anyone who was sympathetic.
+At this time, when the problem of accurate
+observations was worrying me, when my mind was
+beginning to weigh the problem of scientific accuracy&mdash;again
+just at the psychological moment&mdash;Dunkle
+brought Loose out to the Gramatan Inn and introduced
+him to me, saying that he was an expert
+navigator.</p>
+
+<p>Pretending a knowledge of the situation in Europe,
+Loose told me the Danes were becoming impatient. I
+replied that I was busy preparing my report.</p>
+
+<p>"Something ought to be done in the meantime," he
+said. "Now, I have connections with some of the Scandinavian
+papers, and I think some friendly articles in
+the meantime would allay this unrest."</p>
+
+<p>The idea seemed reasonable; anything that would
+help me was welcome, and I told Loose, if he wanted to,
+that he might go ahead. He visited me several times,
+and broached the subject of the possible outcome of the
+Copenhagen verdict. By this time I felt fairly friendly
+with him. Finally he brought me several articles.
+They seemed weak and irrelevant. Lonsdale read
+them, said there was not much to them, but that they
+might help. Loose mailed the articles&mdash;or said he did.
+Then, to my amazement, he made the audacious suggestion
+that I let him go over my material. I flatly
+refused.</p>
+
+<p>He pointed out, what I myself had been thinking<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_538" id="Page_538">[Pg 538]</a></span>
+about, that all observations were subject to extreme
+inaccuracy. He suggested his working mine out backward
+to verify them. As I regarded him as an experienced
+navigator, I thought this of interest. I was not
+a navigator, and, moreover, had had no chance of checking
+my figures. So, desiring an independent view, and
+thinking that another man's method might satisfy any
+doubts, I told him to go ahead, using the figures published
+in my story in the New York <i>Herald</i>.</p>
+
+<p>At the time I told him to purchase for me a "Bowditch
+Navigator," which I lacked, and any other almanacs
+and charts he needed for himself. He came out to
+the Gramatan to live. Arrangements for his stay had
+been made by Dunkle&mdash;under the name of Lewis, I have
+been told since&mdash;but I knew nothing of this at the time.
+I gave Loose $250, which was to compensate him in full
+for the articles and his running expenses. It struck me
+that he took an unnecessarily long time to finish his
+work of checking my calculations.</p>
+
+<p>Late one night, returning from the city, I went to
+his room. Dunkle was there. Papers were strewn all
+over the room.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Loose, "I think we have this thing all
+fixed up."</p>
+
+<p>Dunkle, smooth-tongued and friendly as ever, said,
+"Now, Doctor, I want to advise you to put your own
+observations aside. <i>Send these to Copenhagen!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>I looked up amazed, incredulous. I felt stunned
+for the moment, and said little. I then took the trouble
+to look over all the papers carefully. There was a full
+set of faked observations. The examination took me
+an hour. During that time Dunkle and Loose were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_539" id="Page_539">[Pg 539]</a></span>
+talking in a low tone. I did not hear what they said.
+I saw at once the game the rascals had been playing.
+The insinuation of their nefarious suggestion for the
+moment cleared my mind, and a dull anger filled me.</p>
+
+<p>"Gentlemen," I said, "pack up every scrap of this
+paper in that dress-suit case. Take all of your belongings
+and leave this hotel at once."</p>
+
+<p>I stood there while they did so. Not a word was
+spoken. Sheepish and silent, they shuffled from the
+room, ashamed and taken aback. Sick at heart at the
+thought that these men should have considered me
+unscrupulous enough to buy and use their faked figures,
+I went to my room. From that day&mdash;November 22&mdash;I
+have not received a letter or telegram from either.</p>
+
+<p>Months later, in South America, I read with horrified
+amazement a summary of the account of this occurrence,
+sold by Dunkle and Loose to the New York
+<i>Times</i>. Distorted and twisted as it was I doubt if even
+the <i>Times</i> would have used it had Dunkle and Loose not
+forced the lie that these faked figures were sent to
+Copenhagen. They knew, as God knows, that every
+scrap of paper on which they wrote was packed in a
+suit-case as dirty as the intent of their sin-blotted paper.</p>
+
+<p>If my report to the Copenhagen University proved
+anything, it was, by comparison, figure by figure, with
+the affidavits published, that in this at least I was guilty
+of no fraud.</p>
+
+<p>In a re-examination later, a handwriting expert has
+come to the conclusion that the name of Loose was
+forged, and Loose was later put in jail for another
+offense. To the city editor of a New York evening
+paper Loose offered to sell a story retracting the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_540" id="Page_540">[Pg 540]</a></span>
+charges published in the <i>Times</i>. Dunkle admitted to
+witnesses that he had been paid for the affidavit published
+in the New York <i>Times</i>. Loose, willing to discredit
+the <i>Times</i> story, said, however, he "wanted big
+money" for a retraction. One question that is forced in
+the interest of fair-play is, Why did the New York
+<i>Times</i>, without investigation, print a news item by
+which a man's honor is attacked, which is not only a
+perjury but a forgery? The managing editor was
+shown the evidence of this forgery, admitted its force,
+but not a word was printed to counteract the harm done
+by printing false news.</p>
+
+<p>Captain E. B. Baldwin, a year later, discovered
+that this pro-Peary faked stuff was in possession of
+Professor James H. Gore, one of Mr. Peary's friends in
+the National Geographic Society, which prostituted its
+name for Peary by passing upon valueless "proofs."
+From the methods pursued by this society later, I am
+inclined to the belief that the Dunkle-Loose fake was
+concocted for members of this society. If not, how does
+it happen that Professor Gore is in possession of this
+faked, forged, and perjured stuff?</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 100%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_541" id="Page_541">[Pg 541]</a></span></p>
+<h2>HOW A GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY PROSTITUTED ITS NAME</h2>
+
+<h3>XXXVI<br />
+
+<br />
+
+<span class="smcap">The Washington Verdict&mdash;The Copenhagen Verdict</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>While one group of pro-Peary men were early
+engaged in various conspiracies, extending from New
+York to the Pacific coast, fabricating false charges,
+faking, and forging news items designed to injure me,
+men higher up in Washington were planning other
+deceptions behind closed doors. The Mt. McKinley
+bribery and the Dunkle-Loose humbug had the desired
+effect in reducing the opposition in Washington, and by
+December of 1909 the controversy was settled to Mr.
+Peary's satisfaction by a group of men who, by deception,
+betrayed public trust.</p>
+
+<p>The National Geographic Society very early
+assumed a meddlesome air in an effort to dictate the
+distribution of Polar honors. With the excuse that
+they would give a gold medal to him who could prove
+priority to the claim of Polar discovery, they began a
+series of movements that would put a dishonorable
+political campaign to shame. In the light of later
+developments, medals from this society are regarded by
+true scientific workers as badges of dishonor. By way<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_542" id="Page_542">[Pg 542]</a></span>
+of explanation, one of the officers said that they made
+it a rule to examine all original field observations before
+the society honored an explorer. This was a deliberate
+falsehood, for no explorer going to Washington had
+previously packed his field papers and instruments for
+inspection. If so, then this society again convicts itself
+of a humbug, as it did later. Mr. Peary had been given
+a gold medal for his claim of having reached the farthest
+north in 1906. Peary admitted that his position
+rested on one imperfect observation. I happened,
+quite by accident, to be in a position, soon after Peary's
+return, to examine the instruments with which the
+farthest north observations had been made. Every
+apparatus was so bent and bruised that further observations
+were impossible. Of course Peary will say that
+the instruments were injured en route on the return.
+But this does not excuse the idle boast of the members
+of the National Geographic Society, who said that they
+always examined a returning explorer's field notes and
+apparatus, when in this case they did not see Mr.
+Peary's observations nor his instruments.</p>
+
+<p>As a matter of fact, the National Geographic, like
+every other geographic society, had previously rated the
+merits of an explorer's work by his published reports.
+Their tactics were now changed to bring about a position
+where they might focus the controversy to Mr. Peary's
+and their advantage. There would have been no harm
+in this effort, if it had been honest; but, as we will see
+presently, falsehood and deception were evident in
+every move.</p>
+
+<p>The position of the National Geographic Society
+is very generally misunderstood because of its preten<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_543" id="Page_543">[Pg 543]</a></span>tious
+use of the word "National." In reality, it is
+neither national nor geographic. It is a kind of self-admiration
+society, which serves the mission of a
+lecture bureau. It has no connection with the Government
+and has no geographic authority save that which it
+assumes. As a lecture bureau it had retained Mr. Peary
+to fill an important position as its principal star for
+many years. To keep him in the field as their head-line
+attraction they had paid $1,000 to Mr. Peary for the
+very venture now in question. This so-called "National"
+Geographic Society was, therefore, a stock owner
+in the venture upon which they passed as an unbiased
+jury.</p>
+
+<p>Of course Mr. Peary consented to rest his case in
+their hands; but, for reasons above indicated and for
+others given below, I refused to have any dealings with
+such an unfair combination. The Government was
+appealed to, and every political and private wire was
+pulled to compel me to submit my case to a packed
+jury. During all the time when this was done, its
+moving spirits, Gilbert Grosvenor and Admiral Chester,
+were publicly and privately saying things about me and
+my attainment of the Pole that no gentleman would
+utter. That Mr. Peary was a member of this society;
+that his friends were absolute dictators of the power of
+appointment; that they were stock owners in Mr.
+Peary's enterprise&mdash;all of this, and a good many other
+facts, were carefully suppressed. To the public this
+society declared they were "neutral, unbiased and scientific"&mdash;no
+more deliberate lie than which was ever forced
+upon the public.</p>
+
+<p>Of course I refused to place my case in dishonest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_544" id="Page_544">[Pg 544]</a></span>
+pro-Peary hands. With shameless audacity this society
+helped Mr. Peary carry along his press campaign by
+disseminating the cowardly slurs of Grosvenor, Chester,
+and others. They watched and encouraged the
+McKinley bribery; they closed their eyes to the Kennan
+lies. Through Chester and others, they faked pages of
+sensational pseudo-scientific news, all with the one centered
+aim of forcing doubt on opposing interests before
+the crucial moment, when, behind closed doors, the matter
+could be settled to their liking.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, when Peary, his club, and his affiliated
+boosters at Washington were carrying their press slanders
+to a focus, there came a loud cry from the National
+Geographic Society for proofs.</p>
+
+<p>With some wrangling, and a good deal of protest
+from half-hearted men, like Professor Moore, a jury
+was appointed to pass upon Mr. Peary's claims and
+mine. My claims were to be passed upon against my
+will. Unbiased and real Arctic explorers like General
+Greely and Admiral Schley were carefully excluded
+from this jury. Instead, armchair geographers, who
+were closely related to the Peary interests, were appointed
+as a "neutral jury," as follows:</p>
+
+<p><i>Henry Gannett</i>, a close personal friend of Mr.
+Peary.</p>
+
+<p><i>C. M. Chester</i>, related to Mr. Peary's fur trader, a
+member of a coterie that divided the profits of fleecing
+the Eskimos.</p>
+
+<p><i>O. H. Tittman</i>, chief of a department under which
+part of Mr. Peary's work was done.</p>
+
+<p>With a flourish of trumpets, including pages of
+self-boosting news distributed by Mr. Peary's press<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_545" id="Page_545">[Pg 545]</a></span>
+agents, this commission began its important investigation.
+At the time, it was said that all of Mr. Peary's
+original field papers and instruments were under careful
+scrutiny. Later it was shown that one of the jury saw
+only COPIES. On November 4, 1909, was issued the
+verdict of this jury: "That Commander Peary reached
+the North Pole on April 6, 1909."</p>
+
+<p>This verdict, at its face value, was fair; but the
+circumstances which surrounded it before and after
+were such as to raise a doubt that can never be removed.
+With the verdict came the insinuation that no one else
+had reached the Pole before Peary; that my claim of
+priority was dishonest. A nagging press campaign
+continued to emanate from Washington.</p>
+
+<p>I have no objection to Mr. Peary's friends
+endorsing him&mdash;a friend who will stretch a point is not
+to be condemned. But when such friends stoop to dishonorable
+methods to inflict injury upon others, then a
+protest is in order. My aim here is not to deny that
+Mr. Peary reached the Pole near enough for all practical
+purposes, but to show how men sacrificed their
+word of honor to boost Mr. Peary and to discredit me.</p>
+
+<p>The verdict of this jury which was to settle the
+controversy for all time was sent out on wires that
+encircled the globe. Soon after there was a call for the
+data upon which that jury passed. The public called
+for it; the Government called for it; foreign geographical
+societies asked for it. No one was allowed to see
+the wonderful "proofs." Why?</p>
+
+<p>Officially, that commission said that Mr. Peary's
+contract with a magazine prevented the publication of
+the "proofs." But every member of the commission<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_546" id="Page_546">[Pg 546]</a></span>
+was on the Government pay-roll. Why, may we ask,
+should a Government official be muzzled with a bid for
+commercial gain? This contract was held by Benjamin
+Hampton, of <i>Hampton's Magazine</i>. If Hampton's
+contract muzzled the Government officials, Mr. Hampton
+thought so little of the so-called "proofs" that he
+did not print them. For, in <i>Hampton's</i> installment,
+with the eye-attracting title, "Peary Proofs Positive,"
+the real data upon which the Peary case rests were
+eliminated. Why? In Mr. Peary's own book that
+material is again suppressed. Why? For the same
+reason that the jury was muzzled. <i>The material would
+not bear public scrutiny!</i></p>
+
+<p>The real difficulty is that, in the haste to floor rival
+claims, Mr. Peary and all his biased helpers fixed as the
+crucial test of Polar attainment an examination of field
+observations. Mr. Peary had his; he had refused to let
+Whitney bring part of mine from the North; and,
+therefore, he and his friends supposed that I was helpless,
+by assuming this false position. But when Mr.
+Peary's own material was examined, it was found that
+his position rested on a set of worthless observations&mdash;calculations
+of altitudes of the sun so low that it is
+questionable if the observation could have been made at
+all. So long as three men, behind closed doors, could
+be made to say "Yes, Peary reached the Pole," and so
+long as this verdict came with the authority of a Geographic
+Society and the seeming endorsement of
+national prestige, the false position could be impressed
+upon the pubic as a <i>bona-fide</i> verdict. But, with publicity,
+the whole railroading game would be spoiled.
+These three men could be influenced. But there are a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_547" id="Page_547">[Pg 547]</a></span>
+hundred thousand other men in the world whose lives
+depend upon their knowledge of just such observations
+as were here involved. They knew publicity would
+bring the attention of these men to the fact that Mr.
+Peary's polar claim rests upon the impossible observations
+of a sun at an altitude less than 7&deg; above the
+horizon. The three armchair geographers, seldom out
+of reach of dusty book-shelves, passed upon these
+worthless observations. Not one of one hundred
+thousand honest sextant experts would credit such an
+observation as that upon which Mr. Peary's case rests&mdash;not
+even in home regions, where for centuries tables for
+corrections have been gathered.</p>
+
+<p><a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a>A year later, at the Congressional investigation of
+the Naval Committee in Washington, Mr. Peary and
+two of his jurors admitted that in the much-heralded
+Peary proofs "there was no proof." Members of the
+Geographic Society acknowledged their "examination"
+of Peary's instruments was made in the Pennsylvania<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_548" id="Page_548">[Pg 548]</a></span>
+Station, when they opened Mr. Peary's trunk and
+casually looked over its contents. Therefore, Mr.
+Peary's claim for a second victory now rests upon his
+book.</p>
+
+<p>In forcing the controversy, the press and the public
+have come to the conclusion that one or the other report
+must be discredited. This is an incorrect point of view.
+Each case must be judged upon its own merits. To
+prove my case, it is not necessary to disprove Peary's;
+nor, to prove Peary's, should it have been necessary to
+try to disprove mine.</p>
+
+<p>Much has been said about my case resting in foreign
+hands. This came about in a natural way. It was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_549" id="Page_549">[Pg 549]</a></span>
+not intended to convey the idea that my own countrymen
+were incompetent or dishonest. In the case of the
+National Geographic Society they have irretrievably
+prostituted their name; but the same is not true of other
+American authorities.</p>
+
+<p>When I came to Copenhagen, the Danish Geographic
+Society gave me a first spontaneous hearing.
+The Copenhagen University honored me. It was,
+therefore, but proper that the Danes should be the first
+to pass upon the merits of my claim. While these
+arrangements were in progress, I met Professor Thorp,
+the Rector of the University of Copenhagen, at the
+American Legation. I did not know the purport of
+that meeting, nor of his detailed, careful questions; but
+on the 6th of September appeared an official statement
+in the press reports. In these it was stated that the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_550" id="Page_550">[Pg 550]</a></span>
+meeting had been arranged to satisfy the University
+authorities as to whether the Pole had been reached.
+Among other things, Professor Thorp said:</p>
+
+<p>"As there were certain questions of a special astronomical
+nature with which I myself was not sufficiently
+acquainted, I called in our greatest astronomical scientist,
+Professor Stromgren, who put an exhaustive series
+of mathematical, technical and natural scientific questions
+to Dr. Cook, based particularly on those of his
+contentions on which some doubts had been cast.</p>
+
+<p>"Dr. Cook answered all to our full satisfaction.
+He showed no nervousness or excitement at any time.
+I dare say, therefore, that there is no justification for
+anybody to throw the slightest doubt on his claim to
+have reached the Pole and the means by which he did it.
+Professor Stromgren and I are entirely satisfied with
+the evidence."</p>
+
+<p>I have always maintained that the proof of an
+explorer's doings was not to be found in a few disconnected
+figures, but in the continuity of his final
+book which presents his case. To this end I prepared
+a report, accompanied by the important part of the
+original field notes and a complete set of reduced
+observations. These were submitted to the University
+of Copenhagen in December of 1909. The verdict on
+this was that in such material there was no absolute
+proof of the attainment of the Pole.</p>
+
+<p>The Peary press agents were in Copenhagen, and
+sent this news out so as to convey the idea that Copenhagen
+had denounced me; that, in their opinion, the
+Pole had not been reached as claimed, and that I had
+hoaxed the world for sordid gain; all of which was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_551" id="Page_551">[Pg 551]</a></span>
+untrue. But the press flaunted my name in big headlines
+as a faker.</p>
+
+<p>"In the Cook data there is no proof," they repeated
+as the verdict of Copenhagen.</p>
+
+<p>A year later Mr. Peary and his jurors confessed
+unwillingly in Congress that in the Peary data there
+was no proof.</p>
+
+<p>This was reported in the official Congressional
+pamphlets, but, so far as I know, not a single newspaper
+displayed the news. The two cases, therefore, so far as
+verdicts go, are parallel.</p>
+
+<p>Wearied of the whole problem of undesirable publicity;
+mentally and physically exhausted; disgusted
+with the detestable and slanderous campaign, which, for
+Mr. Peary, the press forced unremittingly, I decided to
+go away for a year, to rest and recuperate. This could
+not be done if I took the press into my confidence; and,
+therefore, I quietly departed from New York, to be
+joined by my family later. Out of the public eye, life,
+for me, assumed a new interest. In the meantime, the
+public agitation was stilled. Time gave a better perspective
+to the case; Mr. Peary got that for which his
+hand had reached. He was made a Rear-Admiral, with
+a pension of $6,000 under retirement.</p>
+
+<p>By the time I had resolved my case, I received
+through my brother, William L. Cook, of Brooklyn,
+and my London solicitor, various offers from newspapers
+and magazines for any statement I desired to
+make. Because I had gone away quietly and remained
+in seclusion, the newspapers had inflamed the public
+with an abnormal curiosity in my so-called mysterious
+disappearance. This fact imparted a great sensational<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_552" id="Page_552">[Pg 552]</a></span>
+value to any news of my public reappearance or to any
+statement which I might make. Eager to secure a
+"beat," newspapers were offering my brother as high as
+one thousand dollars merely for my address. The
+New York newspaper which had led the attack against
+me sent an offer, through my London solicitor, of any
+figure which I might make for my first exclusive statement
+to the public. One magazine offered me ten
+thousand dollars for a series of articles.</p>
+
+<p>While in London I received a message from Mr.
+T. Everett Harry, of <i>Hampton's Magazine</i>, concerning
+the publication of a series of articles explaining my
+case. Mr. Harry came to London and talked over
+plans for these. The opportunity of addressing the
+same public, through the same medium, as Mr. Peary
+had in his serial story, strongly influenced me&mdash;in fact,
+so strongly that, while I had a standing offer of ten
+thousand dollars, I finally gave my articles to <i>Hampton's</i>
+for little more than four thousand dollars.</p>
+
+<p>In order that <i>Hampton's Magazine</i> might benefit
+by the publicity attaching to my first statement, and in
+response to the editor's request, I came quietly to the
+United States with Mr. Harry, by way of Canada, to
+consult with the editor before making final arrangements.
+Mr. Harry and I had agreed upon the outline
+for the articles. They were to be a series of heart-to-heart
+talks, embodying the psychological phases of the
+Polar controversy and my own actions. In these I
+determined fully to state my case, explain the ungracious
+controversy, and analyze the impossibility of
+mathematically ascertaining the Pole or of proving such
+a claim by figures. The articles that eventually<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_553" id="Page_553">[Pg 553]</a></span>
+appeared in <i>Hampton's</i>, with the exception of unauthorized
+editorial changes and excisions of vitally important
+matter concerning Mr. Peary, were practically the same
+as planned in London.</p>
+
+<p>Coming down from Quebec, I stopped in Troy,
+New York, to await Mr. Hampton, who was to come
+from New York. While there, a sub-editor, with all
+a newspaper man's sensational instincts, came to see me.
+He communicated, it seems, a brilliant scheme for a
+series of articles. As he outlined it, I was to go secretly
+to New York, submit myself to several employed alienists
+who should pronounce me insane, whereupon I was
+to write several articles in which I should admit having
+arrived at the conclusion that I reached the Pole while
+mentally unbalanced! This admission was to be supported
+by the alienists' purchased report! This plan, I
+was told, would "put me right" and make a great
+sensational story!</p>
+
+<p>When I was told of this I felt staggered. Did
+people&mdash;could they&mdash;deem me such a hoax that, in
+order to obtain an unwarranted sympathy, or to make
+money, I should be willing to admit to such a shameful,
+mad, atrocious and despicable lie? I said nothing when
+the suggestion was made. At heart, I felt achingly
+hurt. I felt that this newspaper man, not hesitating
+at deceiving the public in order to get a sensation,
+regarded me as a scoundrel. I was learning, too, as I
+had throughout the heart-bitter controversy, the
+duplicity of human nature.</p>
+
+<p>After a talk with Mr. Hampton, who finally
+arrived, and who, I am glad to say, had no such suggestion
+himself to offer, I got to work on my articles after<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_554" id="Page_554">[Pg 554]</a></span>
+the general plan spoken of in London. These
+were written at the Palatine Hotel, in Newburgh.
+The articles finished, I returned to London to
+settle certain business matter prior to my public return
+to America by Christmas.</p>
+
+<p>Imagine my amazed indignation when, shortly
+before sailing, the cables brought the untrue news, "Dr.
+Cook Confesses." Imagine my heart-aching dismay
+when, on reaching the shores of my native country, I
+found the magazine which was running the articles in
+which I hoped to explain myself, had blazoned the
+sensation-provoking lie over its cover&mdash;"Dr. Cook's
+Confession."</p>
+
+<p>I had made no confession. I had made the admission
+that I was uncertain as to having reached the exact
+mathematical Pole. That same admission Mr. Peary
+would have to make had he been pinned down. He did
+make this admission, in fact, while his own articles, a
+year before, were being prepared, in the <i>Hampton's</i>
+office.</p>
+
+<p>In order to advertise itself, the magazine employed
+the trick of construing a mere admission of uncertainty
+as to the exact pin-point attainment of the Pole as a
+"confession." To the public I had apparently authorized
+this. The misrepresentation hurt me, and for a
+time placed me in an unhappy dilemma.</p>
+
+<p>Before the appearance of the January <i>Hampton's</i>,
+in which the first instalment of my articles appeared,
+a series of press stories supposedly based upon my forthcoming
+articles were prepared and sent out by the sub-editor
+who had suggested the insanity plan. These were
+prepared during the absence of Mr. Harry in Atlantic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_555" id="Page_555">[Pg 555]</a></span>
+City. By picking garbled extracts from my articles
+about the impossibility of a pin-point determination of
+the Pole, and the crazy mirage-effects of the Arctic
+world, these news-stories were construed to the effect
+that I admitted I did not know whether I had been at
+the North Pole or whether I had not been at the North
+Pole, and also that I admitted to a plea of insanity.
+These stories were printed on the first pages of hundreds
+of newspaper all over the country, under scareheads
+of "Dr. Cook Admits Fake!" and "Dr. Cook
+Makes Plea of Insanity!"</p>
+
+<p>In these reports, written by the sub-editor, he gave
+himself credit for the "discovery" of Dr. Cook and the
+securing of his articles for <i>Hampton's</i>. This claim for
+the magazine "beat" was as dishonest as his handling of
+the press matter for <i>Hampton's</i>. My dealings with the
+magazine were entirely through Mr. Harry, whose
+frankness and fair-dealing early disposed me to give
+my story to the publication he represented.</p>
+
+<p>The widespread dissemination of the untrue and
+cruelly unfair "confession" and "insanity-plea" stories
+dazed me. I felt impotent, crushed. In my very
+effort to explain myself I was being irretrievably hurt.
+I was being made a catspaw for magazine and newspaper
+sensation.</p>
+
+<p>But misrepresentations do not make history. The
+American people cannot always be hoodwinked. The
+reading public soon realized that my story was no more
+a confession than the "Peary Proof Positive" instalment
+in Hampton's had been the embodiment of any
+real Polar proofs.</p>
+
+<p>Finding that it was impossible, in magazines and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_556" id="Page_556">[Pg 556]</a></span>
+newspapers, to tell the full truth; finding that what I
+did say was garbled and distorted, I concluded to
+reserve the detailed facts for this book. There were
+truths about Mr. Peary which, I suppose, no paper
+would have dared to print. I have told them here.
+There were truths about myself which, because they
+explain me, the papers, preferring to attack me, would
+not have printed. I have told them here.</p>
+
+<p>I climbed Mt. McKinley, by my own efforts, without
+assistance; I reached the Pole, save for my Eskimos,
+alone. I had spent no one's money, lost no lives. I
+claimed my victory honestly; and as a man believing in
+himself and his personal rights, at a time when I was
+nervously unstrung and viciously attacked, I went
+away to rest, rather than deal in dirty defamation,
+alone. At a time when the tables seemed turned, when
+the wolves of the press were desirous of rending me, I
+came back to my country&mdash;alone.</p>
+
+<p>I have now made my fight; I have been compelled
+to extreme measures of truth-telling that are abhorrent
+to me. I have done this because, otherwise, people
+would not understand the facts of the Polar controversy
+or why I, reluctant, remained silent so long. I
+have done this single-handedly. I have confidence in
+my people; more than that, I have implicit and
+indomitable confidence in&mdash;Truth.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 100%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_557" id="Page_557">[Pg 557]</a></span></p>
+<h2>RETROSPECT</h2>
+
+
+<p>Returning from the North, in September, 1909,
+while being honored in Copenhagen for my success in
+reaching the North Pole, there came, by wireless from
+Labrador, messages from Robert E. Peary, claiming
+the attainment exclusively as his own, and declaring
+that in my assertion I was, in his vernacular, offering
+the world a "gold brick."</p>
+
+<p>On April 21, 1908, I had reached a spot which I
+ascertained, with as scientific accuracy as possible, to be
+the top of the axis around which the world spins&mdash;the
+North Pole.</p>
+
+<p>On April 6, 1909, a year later, Mr. Peary claimed
+to have reached the same spot.</p>
+
+<p>To substantiate his charge of fraud, Peary declared
+that my Eskimo companions had said I had been only
+two sleeps from land. Why, he further asked, had I
+not taken reputable witnesses with me on such a trip?</p>
+
+<p>I had taken, on my final dash, two expert Eskimos.
+Mr. Peary had four Eskimos and a negro body servant.</p>
+
+<p>Before launching further charges, Mr. Peary delayed
+his ship, the <i>Roosevelt</i>, at Battle Harbor, on the
+pretext of cleaning it, that he might digest my New
+York <i>Herald</i> story, compare it with his own, and fabricate
+his broadside of abuse. There he was in constant
+communication with the New York <i>Times</i>, General
+Thomas Hubbard&mdash;president of the Peary Arctic Club
+and financial sponsor of the "trust"&mdash;and Herbert L.
+Bridgman. The <i>Times</i>, eager to "beat" the <i>Herald</i>,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_558" id="Page_558">[Pg 558]</a></span>
+was desirous of descrediting me and launching Peary's
+as the <i>bona-fide</i> North Pole discovery story. General
+Hubbard, Mr. Bridgman, and the "trust" were eager
+for a publicity and acclaim greater than that which
+might attach to any honorable second victor. Dishonor
+and perjury, to secure first honors, were not even to be
+weighed in the balance.</p>
+
+<p>When I arrived in New York, I was confronted
+by a series of technical questions, designed to baffle me.
+These questions, I learned, had been sent to the <i>Times</i>
+by Mr. Peary with instructions that the <i>Times</i> "get
+after" me.</p>
+
+<p>I answered these questions. I had answered them
+in Europe. Mr. Peary, when he arrived at Sydney,
+and afterward, refused to answer any questions. He
+continued simply to attack me, to make insinuations
+aspersing my honesty, playing the secret back-hand
+game of defamation conducted by his friends of his
+Arctic Club.</p>
+
+<p>Why had I not, on my return from my Polar trip,
+told anyone of the achievement, Mr. Peary asked in an
+interview, aiming to show that my Polar attainment
+was an afterthought.</p>
+
+<p>On my return to Etah I had told Harry Whitney
+and Pritchard. They, in turn, told Captain Bob
+Bartlett. Captain Bartlett, as well as the Eskimos,
+in turn told Peary at Etah that I claimed to have
+reached the Pole. At the very moment when this
+charge was made, Peary had in his pocket Captain
+Adams' letter which gave the same information. Why
+did Mr. Peary suppress this information, convicting
+himself of insinuating an untruth from three different<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_559" id="Page_559">[Pg 559]</a></span>
+sources to challenge my claim. Returning from the
+North with the negro, Henson, and Eskimos, Mr.
+Peary himself had not told his own companions on the
+<i>Roosevelt</i> of his own success. Why was this?</p>
+
+<p>In a portentous statement Mr. Peary and his party
+declared my Eskimos said I had not been more than
+two sleeps from land.</p>
+
+<p>I had instructed my companions not to tell Peary
+of my achievement. He had stolen my supplies. I felt
+him unworthy of the confidence of a brother explorer.
+I had encouraged the delusion of E-tuk-i-shook and
+Ah-we-lah that almost daily mirages and low-lying
+clouds were signs of land, so as to prevent the native
+panic and desertion on the circumpolar sea. They
+had possibly told this to Peary in all honesty; but other
+natives also told him that we had reached the "Big
+Nail."</p>
+
+<p>Why was the news to Mr. Peary's liking given,
+while that which he did not like was ignored?</p>
+
+<p>Not long ago, Matthew Henson, interviewed in the
+south, was quoted as saying that Peary did not get to
+the Pole. In another interview he said that Peary,
+like a tenderfoot, rode in a fur-cushioned sledge
+until they got to a place which was "far enough." I
+still prefer to believe Peary rather than Henson.
+Peary's Eskimo companions of a former trip positively
+deny Peary's claimed discovery of Crocker Land. I
+still prefer to believe that Crocker Land does deserve a
+place on the map. Peary's last Eskimo companions
+say that he did not reach the Pole. But I prefer to
+credit his claim. Mr. Peary's spirit has never been that
+of fairness to others when a claim impinges upon his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_560" id="Page_560">[Pg 560]</a></span>
+own. He has always adopted the tactics of the claim-jumper.</p>
+
+<p>In a like manner, and with similar intent, Mr.
+Peary had attacked many explorers before me. To
+prevent his companions from profiting by their own
+work, members of each expedition were forced to sign
+contracts that barred press interviews, eliminated cameras,
+prohibited lecturing or writing, or even trading for
+trophies. To insure Mr. Peary all the honor, his men
+were made slaves to his cause.</p>
+
+<p>In a quarrel which resulted from these impossible
+conditions, Eivind Astrup was assailed. Broken-hearted,
+he committed suicide. Captain Otto Sverdrup
+was made to feel the sting of the same grasping spirit.
+General A. W. Greely has been unjustly attacked.
+All of this detestable selfishness culminated in the treatment
+of Captain Bob Bartlett. When the Pole, to
+Peary, seemed within reach, and the glory of victory
+was within grasp, the ever-faithful Bartlett was turned
+back and his place was taken by a negro, that Peary
+might be, to quote his own words, "the only white man
+at the Pole."</p>
+
+<p>When, on my return to New York, I found myself
+attacked by a man of this caliber, I decided that the
+public, without any counter-defamation on my part,
+would read him aright and see through the unscrupulous
+and dishonest campaign. So I remained silent.</p>
+
+<p>Coming down to Portland from Sydney, where he
+had landed, Mr. Peary gave out an interview insinuating
+that I had had no instruments with which to take
+observations. "Would Dr. Cook," he asked, "if he had
+had instruments, have left them in the hands of a stran<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_561" id="Page_561">[Pg 561]</a></span>ger
+(Harry Whitney), when upon these depended his
+fame or his dishonor?"</p>
+
+<p>On his return to this country, Mr. Whitney corroborated
+my statement of leaving my instruments with
+him. Mr. Peary's own captain, who had cross-questioned
+my Eskimos for Mr. Peary, later stated to two
+magazine editors that my companions had described to
+him the instruments I had had. Is it reasonable to
+suppose that Mr. Peary did not know of this? I know
+that he knew. If he is an honest man, why did he stoop
+to this dishonesty? Even if he believed me to be dishonest,
+dishonest methods only placed him in the class
+of the one he attacked as dishonest.</p>
+
+<p>By using the same underhand methods, as when he
+got the New York <i>Times</i> to cross-question me for himself,
+Peary now got his friends of the Geographic
+Society, who had boosted him, to call for "proofs."
+Such proofs, it appeared, should always be presented
+before public honors were accepted or the returns of a
+lecture tour considered. But Peary had engaged in
+exploration for twenty years, and had always given
+lectures at once, without ever offering proofs. I was
+asked to cancel lecture engagements and furnish what
+Peary knew neither he nor anybody else could furnish
+offhand. For the proof of an explorer's doings is his
+final book, which requires months and years to prepare.</p>
+
+<p>With much blaring of trumpets, the Peary
+"proofs" were submitted to his friends of the National
+Geographic Society. With but a casual examination
+of copies of data, claimed at the time to be original field
+notes, with no explanation of the wonderful instruments
+upon which it had been earlier claimed Polar honors<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_562" id="Page_562">[Pg 562]</a></span>
+rested, an immediate and favorable verdict was rendered.</p>
+
+<p>A huge picture was published, showing learned,
+bewhiskered gentlemen examining the Peary "proofs,"
+and reaching their verdict. Mr. Peary's case for a
+rediscovery of the Pole was won&mdash;for the time. The
+public were deceived into believing that positive proofs
+had been presented; that the society, acting as a competent
+and neutral jury, was honest. Later it was shown
+that its members were financially interested in Mr.
+Peary's expedition, and still later it was admitted that
+the Peary proofs contained no proof. All of this later
+development has had no publicity.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime, I was attacked for delay. My
+data was finally sent to the University of Copenhagen.
+A verdict of "Unproven" was rendered.</p>
+
+<p>Thereupon, Mr. Peary and his friends at once
+shouted "Fraud!" The press parrot-like re-echoed that
+shout. With this unfair insinuation there came to me
+the biting sting of a burning electric shock as the wires
+quivered all around the world. At the Congressional
+investigation, a year later, the Peary data was shown to
+be useless as proof. It was a verdict precisely like that
+of Copenhagen on mine, but the press did not print it.
+Did the Peary interests have any control over the
+American press or its sources of news distribution?</p>
+
+<p>After the call for "proof" came charges, from
+members of the Peary cabal, that I was unable to take
+observations. Mr. Peary was so much better equipped
+than I to do so! Moreover, he had had the able scientific
+assistance of Bartlett and&mdash;the negro.</p>
+
+<p>When I was at the Pole the sun was 12&deg; above the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_563" id="Page_563">[Pg 563]</a></span>
+horizon. At the time Peary claims he was there it was
+less than 7&deg;. Difficult as it is to take observations at 12&deg;,
+because of refracted light, any accurate observation at
+7&deg; is impossible. It is indeed, questionable if an observation
+could be made at all at the time when Peary
+claims to have been at the Pole.</p>
+
+<p>Finding that, despite all charges, the public believed
+in me, Mr. Peary, through his co&ouml;perators,
+attempted to discredit my veracity. An affidavit, which
+was bought, as I have evidence to prove, was made by
+Barrill to the effect that I had not climbed Mt.
+McKinley. The getting of this affidavit is placed at
+the door of Mr. Peary.</p>
+
+<p>Do honest men, with honest intentions, buy perjured
+documents?</p>
+
+<p>Do honest men, believing in themselves, besmirch
+their own honor by deliberate lying?</p>
+
+<p>Dunkle and Loose came to me, offered to look over
+the observations in my <i>Herald</i> story, and&mdash;suddenly&mdash;to
+my amazement&mdash;offered a set of faked observations,
+manufactured at the instigation of someone. I refused
+the batch of faked papers, and turned the two
+nefarious conspirators out of my hotel.</p>
+
+<p>A comparison of my Copenhagen report with the
+Dunkle perjured story, later printed in the New York
+<i>Times</i>, proves I used not one of their figures.
+Mr. R. J. McLouglin later proved that the hand
+which signed "Dunkle" also signed "Loose" to that
+lying document. It is, therefore, not only a perjury,
+but a forgery.</p>
+
+<p>Recently, Professor J. H. Gore, a member of the
+National Geographic Society, and one of Peary's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_564" id="Page_564">[Pg 564]</a></span>
+friends, acknowledged to Evelyn B. Baldwin that he
+had in his possession the faked observations which were
+made by Dunkle and Loose.</p>
+
+<p>How did he come by them? Why does he have
+them? What were the relations between Dunkle and
+Loose, Peary's friends, the New York <i>Times</i>, and the
+National Geographic Society? Do honest men, with
+honest intentions, conspire with men of this sort, men
+who offered to sell me faked figures&mdash;most likely to
+betray me had I been dishonest enough to buy them&mdash;and
+who, failing, perjured themselves?</p>
+
+<p>Disgusted, I decided to let my enemies exhaust
+their abuse. I knew it eventually would rebound. Determined
+to retire to rest, to resolve my case in quietude
+and secrecy, I left America. My enemies gleefully proclaimed
+this an admission of imposture.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, after they had turned almost every newspaper
+in the country against me, having rested, having
+resolved my case, having secured damaging proofs of
+the facts of the conspiracy against me, I returned to
+America.</p>
+
+<p>Realizing my error in so long remaining silent;
+realizing the power of a sensation-seeking press, which
+has no respect for individuals or of truth, I determined,
+painful as would be the task, to tell the unpleasant,
+distasteful truth about the man who tried to besmirch
+my name. This may seem unkind. But I was kind too
+long. Truth is often unpleasant, but it is less malicious
+than the sort of lies hurled at me.</p>
+
+<p>After I had left America, the newspapers, desirous
+of sensation, had played into the hands of those
+who, with seeming triumph, assailed me. But mean<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_565" id="Page_565">[Pg 565]</a></span>while,
+however, I was taking advantage of the opportunity
+to rest and gain an accurate perspective of the
+situation. I thought out my case, considered it pro
+and con, puzzled out the reasons for, and the source of,
+the newspaper clamor against me. Through friends in
+America who worked quietly and effectively, I secured
+evidence, which is embodied in affidavits, which laid
+bare the methods employed to discredit me in the Mt.
+McKinley affair. I learned of the methods used, and
+just what charges were made, to discredit my Polar
+claim. Damaging admissions were secured concerning
+Mr. Peary's fabricated attacks from the mouths of Mr.
+Peary's own associates. Knowing these facts, at the
+proper time, I returned to my native country to confront
+my enemies. I have proceeded in detail to state
+my case and reveal the hitherto unknown inside facts
+of the entire Polar controversy. I have stated certain
+facts before the public. Neither Mr. Peary nor his
+friends have replied. One point in the Polar controversy
+has never reached the public. Both Mr. Peary
+and many of his friends asserted that I left the country
+just in time to escape criminal prosecution. They said
+the charge was to be that I had obtained money on a
+false pretence by accepting fees for lecturing on my discovery.
+I returned to America. I have been lecturing
+for fees on my discovery since; I have not yet been
+prosecuted.</p>
+
+<p>Were Mr. Peary not the sort of man who would
+stoop to dishonor, to discredit a rival in order to gain
+an unfair advantage for himself, were he not guilty
+of the gross injustice I have stated, he would have had
+all the opportunity in the world for effectively<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_566" id="Page_566">[Pg 566]</a></span>
+coming back at me. But he has remained silent. Why?</p>
+
+<p>I have, as I have said, absolute confidence in the
+good sense, spirit of fair-play, and ability of reasoning
+judgment of my people. My case rests, not with any
+body of armchair explorers or kitchen geographers, but
+with Arctic travelers who can see beyond the mist of
+selfish interests, and with my fellow-countrymen, who
+breathe normal air and view without bias the large open
+fields of honest human endeavor.</p>
+
+<p>In this book I have stated my case, presented my
+proofs. As to the relative merits of my claim, and Mr.
+Peary's, place the two records side by side. Compare
+them. I shall be satisfied with your decision.</p>
+
+<p class="ralign"><span class="smcap">Frederick A. Cook.</span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 483px;">
+<img src="images/illo_618.jpg" width="483" height="480" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 100%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_567" id="Page_567">[Pg 567]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;">
+<img src="images/illo_619.jpg" width="480" height="583" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 100%;" />
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Accused of being the most colossal liar of history, I sometimes
+feel that more lies have been told about me than about anyone ever
+born. I have been guilty of many mistakes. Most men really true to
+themselves admit that. My claim to the North Pole may always be questioned.
+Yet, when I regard the lies great and small attached to me, I am
+filled almost with indifference.
+</p><p>
+As a popular illustration of the sort of yarns that were told, let me
+refer to the foolish fake of the gum drops. Someone started the story
+that I expected to reach the Pole by bribing the Eskimos with gum
+drops&mdash;perhaps the idea was that I was to lure them on from point to
+point with regularly issued rations of these confections.
+</p><p>
+Wherever I went on my lecture tour after my return to the United
+States, much to my irritation I saw "Cook" gum drops conspicuously
+displayed in confectionery store windows. Hundreds of pounds of gum
+drops were sent to my hotel with the compliments of the manufacturers.
+On all sides I heard the gum-drop story, and in almost every paper read
+the reiterated tale of leading the Eskimos to the Pole by dangling a gum
+drop on a string before them. I never denied this, as I never denied
+any of the fakes printed about me. The fact is, that I never heard
+the gum-drop yarn until I came to New York. We took no gum drops
+with us on our Polar trip, and, to my knowledge, no Eskimo ate a gum
+drop while with me.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Among the many things which the public has been misled into
+believing is that Mr. Bradley and I together connived the trip for the
+purpose of essaying this quest of the Pole. The fact is, not until I
+reached Annoatok, and saw that conditions were favorable for a long
+sledge journey, did I finally determine to make a Poleward trip; not
+until then did I tell my decision definitely to Mr. Bradley.
+</p><p>
+One of the big mistakes which has been pounded into the public mind
+is that the proposed Polar exploit was expensively financed. It did cost
+a great deal to finance the planned hunting trip. Mr. Bradley's expenses
+aggregated, perhaps, $50,000, but my journey Northward, which was
+but an extension of this yachting cruise, cost comparatively little.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> The killing of Astrup.&mdash;The head of Melville Bay was explored by
+Eivind Astrup while a member of the Peary expedition of 1894-1895.
+Astrup had been a member of the first expedition, serving without pay,
+during 1891 and 1892 and proving himself a loyal supporter and helper of
+Mr. Peary, when he crossed the inland ice in 1892. As a result of eating
+pemmican twenty years old, in 1895, Astrup was disabled by poisoning,
+due to Peary's carelessness in furnishing poisoned food. Recovering from
+this illness, he selected a trustworthy Eskimo companion, went south, and
+under almost inconceivable difficulties, explored and mapped the ice walls,
+with their glaciers and mountains, and the off-lying islands of Melville Bay.
+This proved a creditable piece of work of genuine discovery. Returning,
+he prepared his data and published it, thus bringing credit and honor on
+an expedition which was in other respects a failure.
+</p><p>
+Astrup's publication of this work aroused Peary's envy. Publicly,
+Peary denounced Astrup. Astrup, being young and sensitive, brooded
+over this injustice and ingratitude until he had almost lost his reason.
+The abuse was of the same nature as that heaped on others, the same as
+that finally hurled at me in the wireless "Gold Brick" slurs. For days and
+weeks, Astrup talked of nothing but the infamy of Peary's attack on himself
+and the contemptible charge of desertion which Peary made against
+Astrup's companions. Then he suddenly left my home, returned to Norway,
+and we next heard of his suicide. Here is one life directly chargeable to
+Peary's narrow and intolerant brutality. Directly this was not murder
+with a knife&mdash;but it was as heinous&mdash;for a young and noble life was
+cut short by the cowardly dictates of jealous egotism.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> The Death of John M. Verhoeff.&mdash;As we passed Robertson Bay,
+there came up memories of the tragedy of Verhoeff. This young
+man was a member of Peary's first expedition, in 1891. He had paid $2,000
+toward the fund of the expedition. Verhoeff was young and enthusiastic.
+He gave his time, his money, and he risked his life for Peary. He was
+treated with about the same consideration as that accorded the Eskimo
+dogs. When I last saw him in camp, he was in tears, telling of Peary's
+injustice. Mrs. Peary&mdash;I advert to this with all possible reluctance&mdash;had
+done much to make his life bitter, and over this he talked for days.
+Finally he said: "I will never go home in the same ship with that man
+and that woman." It was the last sentence he uttered in my hearing.
+He did not go home in that ship. Instead, he wandered off over the
+glacier, where he left his body in the blue depths of a crevasse.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Before he sailed on his last Northern expedition Mr. Peary, learning
+that I had preceded him, took the initial step in his campaign to discredit
+me by issuing a statement to the effect that I was bent upon the unfair
+and dishonest purpose of enlisting in my aid Eskimos which he had the
+exclusive right to command. Mr. Peary's attitude that the Eskimos,
+because he had given them guns, powder and needles, belong to him, is as
+absurd as his pretension to the sole ownership of the North Pole. Although
+Mr. Peary had spent about a quarter of a century essaying the
+task by means of luxurious expeditions, he had done little more than other
+explorers and did not, in my opinion, either secure an option on the Pole
+or upon the services of the natives. In giving guns, etc., to the natives
+he also did no more than other explorers, and the Danes for many years,
+have done. Nor was this with him a magnanimous matter of gracious
+bounty, for, in prodigal return for all he gave them, Mr. Peary on every
+expedition secured a fortune in furs and ivory. The Eskimos belong to no
+one. For ages they have worked out their rigorous existence without
+the aid of white men, and Mr. Peary's pretension becomes not only
+absurd but grotesque when one realizes that following the arrival of ships
+with white crews, the natives have fallen easy victims of loathsome
+epidemics, mostly of a specific nature, for which the trivial gifts of any
+explorer would ill repay them.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> One of the charges which Mr. Peary circulated before he returned
+North in 1908, was, that I violated a rule of Polar ethics by not applying
+for a license to seek the Pole, nor giving notice of my proposed trip.
+There is no such rule in Polar ethics. The following letter, however, to his
+press agent, Mr. Herbert Bridgman, dated Etah, August 26, 1907, answers
+the charge:
+</p><p>
+"My dear Bridgman: I have hit upon a new route to the North Pole
+and will stay to try it. By way of Buchanan Bay and Ellesmere Land
+and northward through Nansen Strait over the Polar sea seems to me
+to be a very good route. There will be game to the 82&deg;, and here are
+natives and dogs for the task. So here is for the Pole. Mr. Bradley
+will tell you the rest. Kind regards to all&mdash;F. A. Cook."
+</p><p>
+"It will be remembered," continued Mr. Bridgman, in his press reports,
+"that Dr. Cook, accompanied by John R. Bradley, Captain Moses Bartlett,
+and a number of Eskimos, left North Sidney, N. S., early last July on
+the American Auxiliary Schooner Yacht <i>John R. Bradley</i>, which landed
+the party at Smith Sound. Mr. Bradley returned to North Sydney on the
+yacht on October 1. <i>The expedition is provisioned for two years and fully
+equipped with dogs and sledges for the trip. The party is wintering thirty
+miles further north than Peary did two years ago.</i>"
+</p><p>
+And yet Bridgman, in line with the indefatigable pro-Peary
+boosters, later tried to lead the public to believe that I had nothing but
+gum drops with which to undertake a trip to the Pole. This same Bridgman
+also printed in what Brooklyn people call the "Standard Liar" the
+fake about my using, as my own, photographs said to belong to the newspaper
+cub, Herbert Berri.
+</p><p>
+For fifteen years Bridgman used my photographs and my material for
+his lectures on the Arctic and Antarctic, generally without giving credit.
+Evidently, my work and my results were good enough for him to borrow
+as Peary did. So long as my usefulness served the Bridgman-Peary interests,
+there was no question of my credibility, but when my success interfered
+with the monopoly of the fruits of Polar attainment, then I was to
+be striped with dark lines of dishonor.
+</p><p>
+The most amusing and also the most significant incident of the Bridgman-Peary
+humbug was the faked wireless message which Bridgman
+printed for Peary in his paper. Peary claims he reached the Pole on April
+6, 1909. In the Standard Union, Brooklyn, of April 14, 1909 (eight days
+after the alleged discovery), Peary's friend H. L. Bridgman, one of the
+owners, printed the following:
+</p><p class="center">
+"PEARY DUE NORTH POLE TWELVE M., THURSDAY"
+(APRIL 15, 1909).
+</p><p>
+Is Mr. Bridgman a psychic medium? How, with Peary thousands of
+miles away, hundreds of miles from the most northerly wireless station,
+did he sense the amazing feat? Were he and Peary in telepathic communication?
+Or, rather, does this not seem to point to an agreement entered
+into before the departure of Peary, about a year before the attempt was
+made, to announce on a certain day the "discovery" of the Pole?
+</p><p>
+From other sources we learn that the timing of the arrival of the ship
+at Cape Sheridan seems to have been made good, but in an apparent effort
+on the part of Peary to keep faith with Bridgman on April 15, we find
+him in trouble. If Peary arranged his "discovery" for this agreed date, he
+would have had to take nine days for his return trip from the Pole. This
+would increase his speed limit 50 per cent., and since he is regarded with
+suspicion on his speed limits, to make his "Pole Discovery" story fit in
+between the known time when he left Bartlett and the time when he got
+back to the ship, he was compelled to break faith with Bridgman and went
+back nine days on his calendar, placing the date of Pole reaching at April 6.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> <i>Game List.</i>&mdash;The following animals were captured from August 15,
+1907, to May 15, 1909:
+</p><p>
+Two thousand four hundred and twenty-two birds, 311 Arctic hares,
+320 blue and white foxes, 32 Greenland reindeer, 4 white reindeer, 22 polar
+bears, 52 seals, 73 walrus, 21 narwhals, 3 white whales, and 206 musk oxen.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Auroras in the Arctic are best seen in more southern latitudes. The
+display here described was the brightest observed on this trip. Not more
+than three or four others were noted during the following year, but in
+previous trips I have witnessed some very wonderful color and motion
+displays.
+</p><p>
+The best illustrations of this remarkable color of aurora and night
+come from the brush of Mr. Frank Wilbert Stokes. These were reproduced
+in the <i>Century Magazine</i> of February, 1903. After their appearance,
+Mr. Peary accorded to Mr. Stokes (a member of his expedition) the
+same sort of treatment as he had accorded Astrup&mdash;the same as that
+shown to others. In a letter to the late Richard Watson Gilder, editor of
+the <i>Century</i>, he denounced and did his utmost to discredit Mr. Stokes by
+insisting that no such remarkable colors are displayed by the aurora
+borealis. Mr. Gilder replied, in defense of Mr. Stokes, by quoting from
+Peary's own book, "Northward," Vol. II, pages 194, 195, 198 and 199,
+descriptions of even more remarkable color effects.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> The so-called "Jesup" sled, which Mr. Peary used on his last Polar
+trip, is a copy of the Eskimo sledge, a lumbering, unwieldy thing weighing
+over one hundred pounds and which bears the same relation to a refined
+bent-hickory vehicle that a lumber cart does to an express wagon. In this
+"Jesup" sledge there is a dead weight of over fifty pounds of useless wood.
+The needless weight thus carried can, in a better sledge, be replaced by
+fifty pounds of food. This fifty pounds will feed one man over the entire
+route to the Pole. Mr. Peary claims that the Pole is not reachable without
+this sled, but Borup, in his book, reports that most of the sledges were
+broken at the first trial.
+</p><p>
+Since an explorer's success is dependent upon his ability to transport
+food it behooves him to eliminate useless weight. Therefore, the solid
+runner sled is as much out of place as a solid wood wheel would be in an
+automobile.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> A great deal of careful search and study was prosecuted about
+Svartevoeg, for here Peary claims to have left a cache, the alleged placing
+of which he has used as a pretext for attempting to take from the map
+the name of Svartevoeg, given by Sverdrup, when he discovered it, to the
+northern part of Heiberg Land. Peary, coming later, put on his map the
+name Cape Thomas Hubbard, for one who had put easy money in his
+hands. But no such cache was found, and I doubt very much if Peary ever
+reached this point, except through a field-glass at very long range.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> On their return to Etah, and after I had left for Upernavik, my
+Eskimos, questioned by Mr. Peary, who was anxious to secure anything
+that might serve towards discrediting me, answered innocently that they
+had been only a few sleeps from land. This unwilling and naive admission
+was published in a pretentious statement, the purpose of which was to cast
+doubt on my claim. Other answers of my Eskimos, to the effect that I
+had instruments and had made constant observations, it is curious to note,
+were suppressed by Mr. Peary and his party on their return. Every
+insinuation was made to the effect that I had had no instruments, had consequently
+taken no observations, and had, therefore, no means of ascertaining
+the Pole even had I wished to do so.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> My enemies credit me with a journey of two thousand miles, which
+is double Peary's greatest distance; but then, to deny my Polar attainment,
+they keep me sitting here, on a sterile waste of ice, for three months.
+Would any man sit down there and shiver in idleness, when the reachable
+glory of Polar victory was on one side and the get-at-able gastronomic
+joy of game land on the other? Only a crazy man would do that, and
+we were too busy to lose our mental balance at that time. When leg-force
+controls human destiny, and a half-filled stomach clears the brain for
+action, for a long time, at least, insanity is very remote. Furthermore,
+the Eskimo boys said we traveled on the ice-pack for seven moons, and
+that we reached a place where the sun does not dip at night; where the
+day and night shadows were of equal length. Has Mr. Peary reached that
+point? If so, neither he nor his Eskimos have noted it.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> After my return to Copenhagen I was widely quoted as declaring that
+I had discovered and traversed 30,000 square miles of new land. What I
+did report was that in my journey I had passed through an area wherein
+it was possible to declare 30,000 square miles&mdash;a terrestrial unknown of
+water and ice&mdash;cleared from the blank of our charts. I have been quoted
+as describing this land as "a paradise for hunters" and criticised on the
+ground that animal life does not exist so far north. Whether animal life
+existed there, I do not know, for the impetus of my quest left no time to
+investigate. I passed the last game at Heiberg Land.
+</p><p>
+In my diary of the day's doings, only the results of observations were
+written down. The detail calculations were made on loose sheets of paper
+and in other note books&mdash;wherein was recorded all instrumental data. Later
+all my observations were reduced in the form in which they were to be
+finally presented. Therefore, these field papers with their miscellaneous
+notes had served their purpose, as had the instruments; and for this reason
+most of the material was left with Harry Whitney. A few of the important
+calculations were kept more as a curiosity. These will be presented
+as we go along. Those left I thought might later be useful for a
+re-examination of the results; but it never occurred to me that Whitney
+would be forced to bury the material, as he was by Peary. I do not regard
+those buried notes as being proof or as being particularly valuable, except
+as proving Peary to be one of the most ungracious and selfish characters
+in history.
+</p><p>
+In the subsequent excitement, because Peary cried fraud on the very
+papers which he had buried for me, an agitated group of American armchair
+explorers came to the conclusion against the dictates of history that
+the proof of the Polar quest was to be found in the re-examination of the
+figures of the observations for position.
+</p><p>
+Part of mine were buried. Peary had his. Thus handicapped, because
+blocks of my field calculations were absent, with the instruments and
+chronometer corrections, I rested my case at Copenhagen on a report, the
+original notes giving the brief tabulations of the day's doings, and the
+complete set of reduced observations.
+</p><p>
+My friends have criticised me for not sending the data given below
+and similar observations to Copenhagen to prove my claim, but I did not
+deem it worth while to present more, taking the ground that if in this
+there was not sufficient material to explain the movement step by step of
+the Polar quest, then no academic examination could be of any value. This
+viewpoint, as I see it at present, was a mistake. I am now presenting
+every scrap of paper and every isolated fact, not as proof but as part of
+the record of the expedition, with due after-thought, and the better perspective
+afforded by time. Every explorer does this. Upon such a record
+history has always given its verdict of the value of an explorer's work.
+It will do the same in estimating the relative merits of the Polar quest.
+</p><p>
+<b>Observation as figured out in original field paper for March 30, 1908</b>:
+Longitude 95.36. Bar. 30.10 had risen from 29.50 in 2 hours. Temp. &mdash;34&deg;.
+Wind 2. Mag. N. E. Clouds Mist W.-Water bands E.
+</p>
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="" width="70%">
+<tr><td align='right'>95&frac12;</td><td align='right'>Noon, <span class="overline">0 &nbsp;</span></td><td align='right'>18&mdash;46&mdash;10</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>4 &nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align='right'><span class="overline">0 &nbsp;</span></td><td align='right'>18&mdash;48&mdash;20</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>60 |<span class="overline"> 382 &nbsp;</span></td><td align='right'></td><td align='right'>2 |<span class="overline"> 37&mdash;34&mdash;30</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'><span class="overline">6&mdash;22</span></td><td align='right'></td><td align='right'><span class="overline"> 18&mdash;47&mdash;15</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'></td><td align='right'>I. E.</td><td align='right'>+2 &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'></td><td align='right'></td><td align='right'>2 |<span class="overline"> 18&mdash;49&mdash;15</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>58 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</td><td align='right'></td><td align='right'><span class="overline"> &nbsp; 9&mdash;24&mdash;38</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>6&frac12; h.</td><td align='right'></td><td align='right'>&mdash;16&mdash;&nbsp; 2</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'><span class="overline"> &nbsp; 29 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; </span></td><td align='right'></td><td align='right'><span class="overline"> &nbsp; 9&mdash;&nbsp; 8&mdash;36</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'> &nbsp;348 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; </td><td align='right'>R. &amp; P.</td><td align='right'>&mdash;&nbsp; 9 &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>60 |<span class="overline"> 377 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</span></td><td align='right'></td><td align='right'><span class="overline"> &nbsp; 8&mdash;59&mdash;36</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'><span class="overline">6&mdash;17 &nbsp; &nbsp;</span></td><td align='right'></td><td align='right'>90 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>3&mdash;43&mdash;15 &nbsp; &nbsp;</td><td align='right'></td><td align='right'><span class="overline"> 81&mdash;00&mdash;24</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'><span class="overline">3&mdash;49&mdash;32 &nbsp; &nbsp;</span></td><td align='right'></td><td align='right'>3&mdash;49&mdash;32</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'></td><td align='right'></td><td align='right'><span class="overline"> 84&mdash;49&mdash;56</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p class="ralign">Shadows 39 ft. (of tent pole 6 ft. above snow).<br />
+(Directions Magnetic.)</p>
+<p>
+Because of the impossibility of making correct allowances for refraction,
+I have made a rough allowance of -9&#697; for refraction and parallax
+in all my observations.
+</p><p>
+The tent pole was a hickory floor slat of one of the sledges. It was
+6 ft. 6 ins. high, 2 ins. wide, and 1/2 in. thick. This stick was marked in
+feet and inches, to be used as a measuring stick. It also served as a
+paddle and steering oar for the boat.
+</p><p>
+By pressing this tent pole 6 ins. into the snow, it served as a 6 ft.
+pole to measure the shadows. These measurements were recorded on the
+observation blanks. Absolute accuracy for the measurements is not
+claimed, because of the difficulty of determining the line of demarcation
+in long, indistinct shadows; but future efforts will show that my shadow
+measurements are an important check on all sun observations by which
+latitude and longitude are determined.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> Peary claims to have seen life east of this position. This is perfectly
+possible, for Arctic explorers have often noted when game trails were
+abundant one year, none were seen the next. In these tracks of foxes and
+bears, as noted by Baldwin, are positive proofs of the position of Bradley
+Land&mdash;for such animals work only from a land base.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Observation on April 8, from original field-papers. April 8, 1908,
+Longitude 94&deg;-2&#697;. Bar. 29.80, rising. Temp. &mdash;31&deg;. Wind 2, Mag. N. E.
+Clouds St. 3.
+</p>
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="" width="70%">
+<tr><td align='right'>94&deg; &nbsp; &nbsp; </td><td align='right'><span class="overline">&nbsp; 0 &nbsp;</span></td><td align='right'>21&deg;&mdash;59&acute;&mdash;30&acute;&acute;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>4&acute; &nbsp; &nbsp; </td><td align='right'><span class="overline">&nbsp; 0 &nbsp;</span></td><td align='right'>21&nbsp;&mdash;08&nbsp;&mdash;20&nbsp;&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>60 |<span class="overline"> 376&acute; &nbsp; &nbsp; </span></td><td align='right'></td><td align='right'>2 |<span class="overline"> 43&nbsp;&mdash;&nbsp; 7&nbsp;&mdash;50&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'><span class="overline"> &nbsp;&nbsp; 6&mdash;16</span></td><td align='right'></td><td align='right'><span class="overline">&nbsp; 21&nbsp;&mdash;33&nbsp;&mdash;55&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>56&acute;&acute;</td><td align='right'>I. E.</td><td align='right'>+2 &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>&times; 6&frac14;</td><td align='right'></td><td align='right'>2 |<span class="overline"> 21&nbsp;&mdash;35&nbsp;&mdash;50&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'><span class="overline"> &nbsp; 14 &nbsp;&nbsp; </span></td><td align='right'></td><td align='right'><span class="overline">&nbsp; 10&nbsp;&mdash;47&nbsp;&mdash;55&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>336 &nbsp;&nbsp; </td><td align='right'></td><td align='right'>&mdash;9 &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>60 |<span class="overline"> 350 &nbsp;&nbsp; </span></td><td align='right'></td><td align='right'><span class="overline"> 10&nbsp;&mdash;38&nbsp;&mdash;55&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'><span class="overline">5&mdash;50&nbsp;</span></td><td align='right'></td><td align='right'>90&mdash;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>7&mdash;&nbsp; 9&mdash;33&nbsp;</td><td align='right'></td><td align='right'><span class="overline">79&nbsp;&mdash;21&nbsp;&mdash;&nbsp; 5&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'><span class="overline">7&mdash;15&mdash;23&nbsp;</span></td><td align='right'></td><td align='right'>7&nbsp;&mdash;15&nbsp;&mdash;23&nbsp;&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'></td><td align='right'></td><td align='right'><span class="overline">86&nbsp;&mdash;36&nbsp;&mdash;28&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p class="ralign">Shadows 32 ft. (of pole 6 ft. above snow).</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> After trying to explain this impression fifteen months later to a
+Swiss professor, who spoke little English, he quoted me as saying that the
+sun at night about the Pole was much lower than at noon. No such
+ridiculous remark was ever made. In reality the eye did not detect any
+difference in the distance between the sun and the horizon through the next
+twenty-four hours. There was no visible rise or set, the night dip of the
+nocturnal swing of the sun was entirely eliminated. We had, however,
+several ways of checking this important phenomena, which will be introduced
+later.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> <i>The Fall of Body Temperature</i>&mdash;The temperature of the body was frequently
+taken. Owing to the breathing of very cold air, the thermometer placed
+in the mouth gave unreliable results, but by placing the bulb in the armpits, when
+in the sleeping bag, fairly accurate records were kept. These proved that extreme
+cold had little influence on bodily heat; but when long-continued overwork was
+combined with insufficient food, the temperature gradually came down. On
+the route to the Pole the bodily temperature ranged from 97&deg; 5&#697; to 98&deg; 4&#697;. In
+returning, the subnormal temperature fell still lower. When the worry of being
+carried adrift and the danger of never being able to return became evident, then
+the mental anguish, combined as it was with prolonged overwork, continued
+thirst and food insufficiency, was strikingly noted by our clinical thermometer.
+During the last few weeks, before reaching land at Greenland in 1909, the subnormal
+temperature sank to the remarkable minimum of 96&deg; 2&#697; F. The Eskimos
+usually remained about half a degree warmer. The respiration and heart action
+was at this time fast and irregular.
+</p><p>
+In the summer period of famine about Jones Sound the temperature was
+normal. At that time we had an abundance of water and an interesting occupation
+in quest of game, but we often felt the cold more severely than in the coldest
+season of winter.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> <i>The Tragedies of Cape Sabine.</i>&mdash;Cape Sabine has been the scene of
+one of the saddest Arctic tragedies&mdash;the death by starvation of most of
+the members of the Greely Expedition. Several modern travelers, including
+Mr. Peary, have, in passing here, taken occasion to criticise adversely the
+management of this expedition. In his last series of articles in <i>Hampton's
+Magazine</i>, Peary has again attempted to throw discredit on General Greely.
+It is easy, after a lapse of forty years, to show the mistakes of our
+predecessors, and thereby attempt to belittle another's effort; but is it
+right? I have been at Cape Sabine in a half-starved condition, as General
+Greely was. I have watched the black seas of storm thunder the ice and
+rock walls, as he did; and I have looked longingly over the impassable
+stretches of death-dealing waters to a land of food and plenty, as he did.
+I did it, possessing the accumulated knowledge of the thirty years which
+have since passed, and I nearly succumbed in precisely the same manner
+as did the unfortunate victims of that expedition. The scientific results
+of the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition were so carefully and so thoroughly
+gathered that no expedition to the Arctic since has given value of equal
+importance. Greely's published record is an absolute proof of his ability
+as a leader and a vindication of the unfair insinuations of later rivals.
+</p><p>
+In passing along this same coast, E-tuk-i-shook called my attention to
+several graves, some of which we opened. In other places we saw human
+bones which had been left unburied. They were scattered, and had been
+picked by the ravens, the foxes and the wolves. With a good deal of
+sorrow and reserve I then learned one of the darkest imprinted pages of
+Arctic history. When the steamer <i>Erie</i> returned, in 1901, a large number
+of Eskimos were left with Mr. Peary near Cape Sabine. They soon after
+developed a disease which Mr. Peary's ship brought to them. There
+was no medicine and no doctor to save the dying victims. Dr. T. F.
+Dedrick, who had served Mr. Peary faithfully, was dismissed without the
+payment of his salary, because of a personal grudge, but Dedrick refused
+to go home and leave the expedition without medical help. He remained
+at Etah, living with the Eskimos in underground holes, as wild men do,
+sacrificing comfort and home interests for no other purpose except to
+maintain a clean record of helpfulness. As the winter and the night
+advanced, Dr. Dedrick got news that the Eskimos were sick and
+required medical assistance. He crossed the desperate reaches of Smith
+Sound at night, and offered Mr. Peary medical assistance to save the
+dying natives. Peary refused to allow Dedrick to attempt to cure the
+afflicted, crying people. Dedrick had been without civilized food for
+months, and was not well himself after the terrible journey over the
+storm-swept seas of ice. Before returning, he asked for some coffee, a
+little sugar and a few biscuits. These Mr. Peary refused him. Dr. Dedrick
+returned. The natives, in fever and pain, died. Theirs are the bones
+scattered by the wild beasts. Who is responsible for these deaths?
+</p><p>
+"<i>Peary-tiglipo-savigaxua</i>" (Peary has stolen the iron stone), was now
+repeated with bitterness by the Eskimos. In 1897 it occurred to Mr.
+Peary that the museums would be interested in the Eskimos, and also in
+the so-called "Star Stone," owned by the Eskimos. It had been passed
+down from generation to generation as a tribal property; from it the
+natives, from the Stone Age, had chipped metal for weapons. This
+"meteorite" was, without Eskimo consent, put by Mr. Peary on his ship;
+without their consent, also, were put a group of men and women and
+children on the ship. All were taken to New York for museum purposes.
+In New York the precious meteorite was sold, but the profits were not
+divided with the rightful owners. The men, women and children (merchandise
+of similar value) were placed in a cellar, awaiting a marketplace.
+Before the selling time arrived, all but one died of diseases directly
+arising out of inhuman carelessness, due to the dictates of commercialism.
+Who is responsible for the death of this group of innocent wild folk?</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> These supplies had, fortunately, been left in the care of Mr. Whitney.
+In the months that followed, Murphy several times threatened to take
+these things, but Whitney's sense of justice was such that no further
+pilfering was allowed.
+</p><p>
+The unbrotherly tactics which Mr. Peary had shown to Sverdrup and
+other explorers were here copied by his representative. Captain Bernier
+was bound for the American coast, to explore and claim for Canada the
+land to the west. He desired a few native helpers. There were at Etah
+descendants of Eskimo emigrants from the very land which Bernier
+aimed to explore. These men were anxious to return to their fathers'
+land, and would have made splendid guides for Bernier. Murphy volunteered
+to ask the Eskimos if they would go. He went ashore, pretending
+that he would try to secure guides, but, in reality, he never asked a single
+Eskimo to join Bernier. Returning, he said that no one would go. Later
+he boasted to Whitney and Prichard of the intelligent way in which he
+had deceived Captain Bernier. Was this under Mr. Peary's instructions?</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> I now learned, also, that the Eskimos had told their tribesmen of
+their arrival at the mysterious "Big Nail," which, of course, meant less
+to them than the hardship and unique methods of hunting.
+</p><p>
+Among themselves the Eskimos have an intimate way of conveying
+things, a method of expression and meaning which an outsider never grasps.
+At most, white men can understand only a selected and more simple language
+with which the Eskimos convey their thoughts. This partly accounts
+for the unreliability of any testimony which a white man extracts from them.
+There is also to be considered an innate desire on the part of these simple
+people to answer any question in a manner which they think will please.
+In all Indian races this desire to please is notoriously stronger than a
+sense of truth. The fact that my Eskimos, when later questioned as to
+my whereabouts, are reported to have answered that I had not gone far
+out of sight of land, was due partly to my instructions and partly to this
+inevitable wish to answer in a pleasing way.
+</p><p>
+While they spoke among themselves of having reached the "Big Nail,"
+they also said&mdash;what they later repeated to Mr. Peary&mdash;that they had
+passed few days beyond the sight of land, a delusion caused by mirages,
+in which, to prevent any panic, I had with good intentions encouraged
+an artificial belief in a nearness to land.
+</p><p>
+But we were for weeks enshrouded in dense fogs, where nothing could
+be seen. The natives everywhere had heard of this, and inquired about it.
+Why has Mr. Peary suppressed this important information? We traveled
+and camped on the pack for "seven moons." Why was this omitted? We
+reached a place where the sun did not dip at night; where there was not
+enough difference in the height of the day and night sun to give the
+Eskimo his usual sense of direction. Why was this fact ignored?</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> In appreciation of this kind helpfulness, the Danes later sent a
+special ship loaded with presents, which were left for distribution among
+the good-natured Eskimos who had helped Ericksen. Mr. Peary came along
+after the Danes had turned their backs, and picked from the Danish presents
+such things as appealed to his fancy, thus depriving the Eskimos of
+the merited return for their kindness. What right had Mr. Peary to
+take these things? The Danes, who have since placed a mission station
+here, in continuation of their policy to guard and protect the Eskimos, are
+awaiting an answer to this question to-day.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> When Captain Adams arrived off the haunts of the northernmost
+Eskimos, he sent ashore a letter to be passed along to Mr. Peary, as he
+was expected to return south during that summer. In his letter Captain
+Adams told of my attainment of the Pole. The letter got into Mr.
+Peary's hands before he returned to Labrador. With this letter in his
+pocket, Mr. Peary gave as his principal reason for doubting my success
+that nobody else had been told that I had reached the Pole. I told Whitney,
+I had told Pritchard&mdash;thus Peary's charge was proven false later. But
+why did he suppress the information which Captain Adams' letter contained?
+With this letter in his pocket, why did Mr. Peary say that no
+one had been told?</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> Captain Robert A. Bartlett, of the Peary ship <i>Roosevelt</i>, has figured
+much in this controversy. Most of his reported statements, I am
+inclined to believe, are distorted. But he has allowed the words attributed
+to him to stand; therefore, the harm done is just as great as if the
+charges were true. He allowed Henry Rood, in <i>The Saturday Evening
+Post</i>, to say that my expedition was possible only through the advice of
+Bartlett. Every statement which Rood made, as Bartlett knows, is a lie.
+He has allowed this to stand, and he thereby stands convicted as party to
+a faked article written with the express purpose of inflicting an injury.
+</p><p>
+Bartlett cross-questioned my Eskimos about instruments. By showing
+them a sextant and other apparatus he learned that I not only had a full
+set, but he also learned how I used them. Peary, although having Bartlett's
+report on this, insinuated that I had no instruments, and that I
+made no observations. Bartlett knew this to be a lie, but he remained
+silent. He is therefore a party to a Peary lie.
+</p><p>
+In the early press reports Bartlett is credited with saying that "Cook
+had no instruments." A year later, after Bartlett returned from another
+trip north, faked pictures and faked news items were printed with the
+Bartlett interviews and reports. There was no protest, and at the same
+time Bartlett said that books, instruments, and things belonging to me
+had been destroyed. In the following year Bartlett announced that he was
+"going after Cook's instruments." Has the press lied, or has Bartlett
+lied? Next to Henson, Mr. Peary's colored servant, Captain Bartlett is
+Peary's star witness.
+</p><p>
+George Borup, in "A Tenderfoot With Peary," after repeating in his
+book many pro-Peary lies, tried to prove his assertion by an alleged study
+of my sledge (P. 300): "Except for its being shortened, the sledge was
+the same as when it had left Annoatok. It weighed perhaps thirty pounds,
+and was very flimsy."
+</p><p>
+This is a deliberate lie, for it was only a half-sled, reassembled and
+repaired by old bits of driftwood. After this first lie he says, in the
+same paragraph: "Yet it had only two cracks in it." The upstanders had
+been cracked in a dozen places, the runners were broken, and every part
+was cracked.
+</p><p>
+Borup shows by his orthography of Eskimo words that he knows almost
+nothing of the Eskimo language. Therefore he may be dismissed as incompetent
+where Eskimo reports are to be interpreted. He is committed to
+the Peary interests, which also eliminates him from the jury. But in his
+report of my sled he has stooped to lies which forever deprive him of
+being credited with any honest opinion on the Polar controversy.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> Professor Armbruster and Dr. Schwartz, of St. Louis, at a time
+when few papers had the courage to print articles in my defence, appealed
+to W. R. Reedy, of the <i>Mirror</i>, for space to uncover the unfair methods of
+the Pro-Peary conspiracy. This space was liberally granted, and the
+whole controversy was scientifically analyzed by the <i>Mirror</i> in an unbiased
+manner. Here is shown an important phase of the Peary charges,
+from the <i>Mirror</i>, April 21, 1910. As it clearly reveals the facts, I present
+part of it as follows:
+</p><p>
+The point made by Dr. Schwartz, that there is a contradiction between
+Peary's statements of September 28 and October 13, is well taken. The
+statement of October 13 is a point-blank contradiction of the previous one.
+Dr. Schwartz notes that when Peary made, on September 28, what Peary
+called his strongest indictment of Dr. Cook, Peary must have had with
+him at Bar Harbor the chart with the trail of Cook's route, and infers
+that, as the later charge was by far the stronger indictment of the two,
+there must be some other explanation of the contradiction.
+</p><p>
+Analysis of this contradiction develops one of the most serious propositions
+of the whole Polar controversy. Mr. Peary might now say that he
+was holding his strongest point in reserve, but such explanation would
+not be sufficient, for he stated that the indictment of September 28 is "the
+strongest that has been advanced in Arctic exploration ever since the
+great expedition was sent there," and no child is so simple as to believe that
+the indictment of September 28 is at all comparable in magnitude to the
+one of October 13. Upon analysis, we find that there is indeed another
+explanation, and only one, and that is, that <i>when the indictment of September
+28 was made, the one of October 13 had not been conceived or concocted</i>,
+and it will show that Peary, Bartlett, McMillan, Borup and Henson,
+<i>all</i> who signed the statement of October 13, perpetrated a gross falsehood
+and imposition upon the public. All are caught in the one net.
+</p><p>
+If this coterie had received from the Eskimos such information as is
+claimed by them in their statement of October 13, then they must have
+received it from the Eskimos <i>before Peary and his party left Etah on their
+return to America</i>. If they had the information when they left the
+Eskimos at Etah, on their return to America, then they had it when
+they arrived at Indian Harbor, and before their statement of September
+28 was made.
+</p><p>
+In their statement of October 13, 1909, Peary, Bartlett, McMillan,
+Borup and Henson state, and sign their names to the statement made to
+the world and copyrighted, that they had a map on which E-tuk-i-shook
+and Ah-we-lah, Dr. Cook's two Eskimos, had traced for them the route
+taken by Dr. Cook, and that this was also supported by the verbal statements
+of the two Eskimos, <i>that Dr. Cook had reached the northern point
+of Heiberg Land, or Cape Thomas Hubbard; that he had gone two sleeps
+north of it, had then turned to the west or southwest, and returned to the
+northern headland of Heiberg Land, but on the west or northwest side,
+and had sent back one of the Eskimos to the cache left on the headland,
+but on the east side of the point, and remained at this new place on the
+west side of the point for four or five sleeps</i>. Then, all the time that
+Peary was challenging and impugning that Dr. Cook had reached even the
+northern point of Heiberg Land, according to their own statement of
+October 13, <i>they had in their pockets the map and information from the
+Eskimos that Dr. Cook had not only reached the northern point of Heiberg
+Land, but traveled above it and turned around the point</i>. In so challenging
+that Dr. Cook had reached even the northern point of said land, and
+thereby discrediting Dr. Cook with all the force and influence at their
+command, when, according to their own later statement, they had then and
+at that time, and before such time (since they left Etah on their return
+to America), the statements, trail of route and testimony of the Eskimos
+entirely to the contrary, <i>Peary and his coterie deliberately and knowingly
+perpetrated on the public the grossest of falsehoods and impositions</i>.
+</p><p>
+There are several other contradictions in the statement of October 13.
+One is the statement that Pan-ic-pa (the father of E-tuk-i-shook), was
+familiar with the first third and last third of the journey of Dr. Cook
+and his two Eskimos. Pan-ic-pa may be familiar with the territory of the
+last third of the route, but not with the journey made by Dr. Cook and
+E-tuk-i-shook and Ah-we-lah over this part of the route, for these three
+alone made the journey from Cape Sparbo to Annoatok. Pan-ic-pa went
+only as far as the northern point of Heiberg Land, and returned from there
+nearly a year before Dr. Cook and his two Eskimos arrived from Cape
+Sparbo. This is shown by Peary and his party themselves in their statement
+that Pan-ic-pa, the father of E-tuk-i-shook, a very intelligent man,
+<i>who was in the party of Eskimos that came back from Dr. Cook from
+the northern end of Nansen's Strait</i> (Sound), came in and indicated the
+same localities and details as the two boys. Of course Pan-ic-pa could
+only indicate the localities that he had himself journeyed to with Dr. Cook,
+and not any after he had left Dr. Cook and the two Eskimos at the
+northern point of Heiberg Land, or the northern end of Nansen's Sound,
+which is the same thing.
+</p><p>
+Another contradiction, a very serious one indeed, as important as the
+first of the foregoing contradictions is, that if Peary and his party had
+such information from the Eskimos as they claimed in their statement of
+October 13, then they knew that the little sledge of Dr. Cook which
+they saw at Etah was not the sledge that made the trip to the Pole.
+The printed reports show that long before October 13 Peary and all his
+henchmen were challenging and charging to the public that the little sled
+in question left with Whitney, could not possibly have made the trip to the
+Pole. In the statement of October 13, Peary and his party state that,
+according to the Eskimos, Dr. Cook and his two Eskimos started from the
+northern point of Heiberg Land with only two sledges. Further on in the
+statement, that the dogs and one sledge were abandoned in Jones Sound,
+and that at Cape Vera&mdash;western end of Jones Sound&mdash;Peary and his party
+say that E-tuk-i-shook and Ah-we-lah, Dr. Cook's two Eskimos, informed
+them that (quoting Peary and his party's statement verbatim), "here they
+cut the remaining sledge off&mdash;that is, shortened it, as it was awkward to
+transport with the boat, and near here they killed a walrus."
+</p><p>
+<i>During all the time then, before October 13, that Peary and his party
+were belittling this sled, and referring to its character as a positive proof
+that Dr. Cook could not have reached the Pole, and stating that it would
+have been knocked to pieces in a few days, they, according to their own
+statement of October 13, knew, even while using such argument against
+Dr. Cook, that the little sled was not the original sled, but only a part
+of one which the desperate and fearfully hard-pressed wanderers had themselves&mdash;having
+no dogs&mdash;dragged their food for three hundred miles over
+one of the roughest and most terrible stretches of the frozen zone, never
+before traveled by man.</i> According to their own statement of October 13,
+Peary and his clique convict themselves of boldly and deliberately perpetrating
+gross falsehoods against Dr. Cook and upon the people. Then shall
+we believe anything further from them?
+</p><p>
+There is only one rational view to take of their statement of October
+13. That, knowing their first charges were certain to fail, the statement
+of October 13 was concocted for their own base purposes. <i>No sane person
+can believe that if they had had such exceedingly damaging information as
+is claimed by them in their statement of October 13, they could have instead
+made use of charges far less damaging and known to them to be false.</i>
+</p>
+<p class="ralign"><span class="smcap">W. J. Armbruster.</span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">St. Louis, Mo.</span>, April 13, 1910.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> One of the meanest and pettiest charges concocted for Mr. Peary at a
+time when personal veracity was regarded as the test of rival claims was
+that I had attempted to steal the scientific work of a missionary while I
+was on the Belgica Antarctic Expedition. Director Townsend, of the
+New York Aquarium, who, like Mr. Peary, was drawing a salary from
+the taxpayers while his energies were spent in another mission, declared
+I had taken a dictionary, compiled by Thos. Bridges, of Indian words,
+and had put it forth as my own work. Dalenbagh, of the American
+Geographical Society, and of the "Worm Diggers' Union," polly-like, also
+repeated this charge. "Of the other charges against Dr. Cook we are at
+sea," he said, "but here is something that we know about." By expending
+five cents in stamps, five minutes with the pen, both Townsend and
+Dalenbaugh might have learned that the dishonor which they were trying to
+attach to some one else was on themselves.
+</p><p>
+Under big headlines, "Dr. Cook Steals a Missionary's Work," the
+New York <i>Times</i> and other pro-Peary papers printed columns of absolute
+lies in what purported to be interviews with Townsend. Dalenbaugh, pointing
+to this gleefully, said "Dr. Cook has been guilty of wrong-doing for
+many years."
+</p><p>
+Now what were the facts? Among the scientific collections of the
+Belgian Expedition, was a series of notes, embodying a Yahagan Indian
+Dictionary, made by the missionary, Thomas Bridges. Although this was
+of little use to anybody, it was a scientific record worthy of preservation.
+In a friendly spirit toward the late Mr. Bridges and his Indians, I persuaded
+the Belgians at great expense to publish the work. It was written
+in the old Ellis system of orthography, which is not generally understood.
+Working on this material for one year without pay, I changed it to
+ordinary English orthography, but made few other alterations. The book
+is not yet printed, but part of it is in press. The introduction was printed
+five years ago, and among the first paragraphs appear these words:
+</p><p>
+"My visit among the tribe of Fuegians was not of sufficient length to
+make a thorough study, nor had I the opportunity to collect much data
+from Indians, but I was singularly fortunate in being in the company of
+Mr. Thomas Bridges and Mr. John Lawrence, men who have made these
+people their life study. The credit of collecting and making this Yahagan
+Grammar and Vocabulary belongs solely to Mr. Bridges, who devoted most
+of his time during thirty-seven years to recording this material. My work
+is limited to a slight re-arrangement of the words, a few additions of notes
+and words, and a conversion of the Ellis phonetic characters in which the
+native words were written into ordinary English orthography. It is hoped
+that this study of Yahagan language, with a few of their tales and traditions,
+will, with a report of the French Expedition, make a fitting end to
+an important record of a vanishing people."
+</p><p>
+Then follows a short favorable biography of the man whose work I
+was accused of stealing.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> Letter from Barrill's associate:
+</p><p class="ralign"><span class="smcap">Missoula, Mont.</span>, Oct. 12, 1909.</p>
+<p>
+Friend Cook&mdash;I am sorry that I can't come at present. But will come
+and see you in about fifteen days if you will send me Three Hundred and
+Fifty ($350.00), and I will say that the report in the papers (that Dr.
+Cook did not ascend Mt. McKinley), from what I have, is not true.
+</p><p>
+Hoping to see you soon.
+</p>
+<p class="ralign">
+<span style="margin-right: 6em;">Your friend,</span><br />
+(Signed) <span class="smcap">Fred Printz</span>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> While this book was going through the press, several chapters of the
+proof-sheets, stolen from the printers, Messrs. Lent &amp; Graff, were found
+on the table of the Explorers' Club on June 27, 1911. It is important to
+note that this pro-Peary repository of bribed, faked and forged writings,
+which were issued to defame me, is also the den for stolen goods. Who are
+the thieves who congregate there to deposit their booty? Why the theft
+of a part of my book? What humbug has this club and its shameless
+president next to offer?</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> Letter from an onlooker when Mt. McKinley was climbed:
+</p><p class="noin">
+To Dr. Cook's Friends:
+</p><p>
+Professor Parker says "regretfully" that Dr. Cook's evidence as to the
+ascent of Mt. McKinley was unconvincing.
+</p><p>
+I was located in the foothills of Mt. McKinley, and had been for
+about a year, when Dr. Cook, Professor H. C. Parker, Mr. Porter, the
+topographer of the party, and Mr. Miller, Fred Printz and the rest of the
+party, landed at the head-waters of the Yentna River, in the foothills of
+Mt. McKinley.
+</p><p>
+I met Professor Parker and the rest of the party, and saw a great
+deal of them while they were up there, as I had three mining camps in
+the foothills from which they made their try for the top of the mountain.
+I let Dr. Cook have one of my Indian hunters, who knew every foot of
+the country around there, for a guide. Dr. Cook also had some of his
+caches in my camps, leaving supplies which he did not take along with
+his pack-trains. Some of Dr. Cook's party were in our camps nearly every
+day or so, and consequently I became very well posted in regard to Dr.
+Cook's affairs, and very well acquainted with him. Dr. Parker should be
+the last one to say anything about mountain-climbing or anything else
+connected with the expedition, or anything where it takes a man and pluck
+to accomplish results&mdash;good results; as he showed himself to be the rankest
+kind of a tenderfoot while in the foothills of Mt. McKinley, and was the
+laughing stock of the country. Mt. McKinley and the country around
+there was too rough for him. He got "cold feet," and started back for
+the States, before he had even seen much of the country around there.
+</p><p>
+Looking over my memoranda, I find that Dr. Cook had given up his
+attempt to climb Mt. McKinley for the time being, and had sent Printz
+and Miller on a hunting expedition, and the rest of the party was scattered
+out to hunt up something new.
+</p><p>
+At that time I came into Youngstown, and the boys were getting ready
+to strike out on their different routes, and Dr. Cook was going down to
+Tyonic, in Cook's Inlet, with his launch, to meet a friend, Mr. Disston,
+who expected to go on a hunting trip with him. The friend did not
+arrive, so Dr. Cook returned to the head-waters of the Yentna River, to
+Youngstown, arriving there on Monday, August 27. On Sunday, August
+28, he started down to the Sushitna River. I went down with him as far
+as the Sushitna Station, and he told me he was going to run up the river
+and strike Fish Creek, which ran up on another side of Mt. McKinley, and
+see what the chances were to make the top of the continent from that side.
+He made it. I was one of the last to see him start on the ascent, and one
+of the first to see him when he returned after he had made the ascent.
+</p><p>
+Dr. Cook proved to be a man in every respect, as unselfish as he was
+courageous, always giving the other fellow a thought before thinking of
+himself.
+</p><p>
+Upon his arrival from the ascent of the mountain, although tired and
+worn and in a bad physical condition himself, he gave his unlimited attention
+to a party of prospectors who had been picked up from a wreck in
+the river, and brought into camp in an almost dying condition just before
+his arrival. He spent hours working over these men, and did not give
+himself a thought until they were properly cared for.
+</p><p>
+<i>Evidence?</i> No man who has known Dr. Cook, been with him, worked
+with him, and learned by personal experience of his courage, energy and
+perseverance, would ask for evidence beyond his word.
+</p><p>
+Dr. Cook is one of the most daring men, and can stand more hardships
+than any man I have ever met, and I believe I have met some of the most
+able men of the world when it comes to roughing it over the trails in
+Alaska and the North.
+</p><p>
+Dr. Cook climbed Mt. McKinley. Of course there are always skeptics&mdash;men
+who have a wishbone instead of a backbone, and who, when
+wishing has brought to them no good results, their last effort is pushed
+forth in criticism of the things which have been constructed or accomplished
+by men, their superiors.
+</p><p>
+If Professor Parker wants evidence to convince him, I think he can
+find it, provided he will put himself to as much trouble in looking for
+evidence as he has in criticising such evidence as he has obtained.
+</p>
+<p class="center"><span style="margin-right: 12em;">Respectfully yours,</span></p>
+<p class="ralign"><span class="smcap">J. A. MacDonald</span>.</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Vontrigger, California.</span></p>
+
+<p><i>Author's Note.</i>&mdash;It is a curious fact that most men who have assailed
+me are themselves sailing under false colors. Herschell Parker was an
+assistant professor and instructor in the Department of Physics in Columbia
+University. This gave him the advantage of using the title, "Professor,"
+but, like many others, his university association was mostly for the prestige
+it gave him. His professorship assumption was, therefore, a deception.
+Instead of devoting himself conscientiously to university interests, he was,
+like Peary, engaged in private enterprises&mdash;such as the Parker-Clark light,
+and other ventures&mdash;and employed substitute instructors to do the work
+for which he drew a salary, and for which he claimed the honor and the
+prestige. A man who thus sails falsely under the banner of a professorship
+is just the man to try to steal the honor of other men. Here is a
+make-believe professor who is not a professor; whose dwarfed conscience is
+eased by drippings from the Arctic Trust; who has stooped to a photographic
+humbug. He is a fitting exponent of the bribing pro-Peary
+propaganda.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> When Mr. Peary first returned from the North, and began his
+attacks upon me, he caused a demand for "proofs" through the New York
+<i>Times</i> and its affiliated papers; he had them call for my instruments; he
+insinuated that I had had no instruments with me in the North (despite
+the fact that Captain Bartlett had informed him that my own Eskimos
+had testified that I had); he declared that any Polar claim must be established
+by an examination of observations and an examination of the
+explorer's instruments.
+</p><p>
+In view of the unwarranted newspaper call for "proofs," I was embarrassed
+by having left my instruments with Whitney. Mr. Peary had
+his, however. But were they carefully examined by the august body who
+so eagerly decided he reached the Pole? Was the verdict of the self-appointed
+arbiters of the so-called National Geographic Society based
+upon such examination as Mr. Peary&mdash;concerning my case&mdash;had declared
+necessary?
+</p><p>
+Testifying before the subcommittee of the Committee on Naval Affairs,
+when the move was on to have Peary made a Rear-Admiral, Henry Gannett,
+one of the three members of the National Geographic Society, who
+had passed on Peary's claim, admitted that their examination of Mr. Peary's
+instruments was casually and hastily made in the Pennsylvania Station at
+Washington. When Peary later appeared in person before the committee,
+he admitted having come to Washington from Portland, Maine, to consult
+with the members of the National Geographic Society who were to examine
+his proofs, and that he had brought his instruments with him in a trunk,
+which was left at the station. The following took place (See official Congressional
+Report, Private Calendar No. 733, Sixty-first Congress, Third
+Session, House of Representatives, Report No. 1961, pages 21 and 22):
+</p><p>
+"Mr. Roberts&mdash;How did the instruments come down?
+</p><p>
+"Captain Peary&mdash;They came in a trunk.
+</p><p>
+"Mr. Roberts&mdash;Your trunk?
+</p><p>
+"Captain Peary&mdash;Yes.
+</p><p>
+"Mr. Roberts&mdash;After you reached the station and found the trunk,
+what did you and the committee do regarding the instruments?
+</p><p>
+"Captain Peary&mdash;I should say that we opened the trunk there in the
+station.
+</p><p>
+"Mr. Roberts&mdash;That is, in the baggage-room of the station?
+</p><p>
+"Captain Peary&mdash;Yes.
+</p><p>
+"Mr. Roberts&mdash;Were the instruments all taken out?
+</p><p>
+"Captain Peary&mdash;<i>That I could not say. Members of the committee
+will probably remember better than I.</i>
+</p><p>
+"Mr. Roberts&mdash;Well, do you not have any recollection of whether
+they took them out and examined them?
+</p><p>
+"Captain Peary&mdash;Some were taken out, I should say; whether all were
+taken out I could not say.
+</p><p>
+"Mr. Roberts&mdash;Was any test of those instruments made by any member
+of the committee to ascertain whether or not the instruments were
+inaccurate?
+</p><p>
+"Captain Peary&mdash;<i>That I could not say. I should imagine that it would
+not be possible to make tests there.</i>
+</p><p>
+"Mr. Roberts&mdash;Were those instruments ever in the possession of the
+committee other than the inspection at the station?
+</p><p>
+"Captain Peary&mdash;NOT TO MY KNOWLEDGE."
+</p><p>
+<span class="smcap">Note.</span>&mdash;This, then, was the basis of the glorious verdict of the packed
+jury which assailed me; which demanded as necessary instruments of me
+which had been left in the North, and which posed as a fair body of
+experts!
+</p><p>
+All important questions asked of Peary, Tittman and Gannett were
+hedged, their aim being to avoid publicity. In substance, they admitted
+that in the "Peary Proofs," passed upon a year before, there was no
+proof. They admitted that their favorable verdict was reached upon an
+examination of COPIES of Mr. Peary's observations, and that the examination
+and decision occurred at a sort of social gathering in the house of
+Admiral Chester, who had attacked me. Chairman Roberts, commenting
+on the testimony, wrote (see page 15):
+</p><p>
+"From these extracts from the testimony it will be seen that Mr.
+Gannett, after his careful examination of Captain Peary's proofs and
+records, did not know how many days it took Captain Peary from the
+time he left Bartlett to reach the Pole and return to the <i>Roosevelt</i>, that
+information being supplied by a Mr. Grosvenor. It will be also observed
+that Mr. Gannett, as a result of his careful examination of Captain
+Peary's proofs and records, gives Captain Peary, in his final dash to the
+Pole, the following equipment: Two sledges, 36 or 32 dogs, 2 Eskimos,
+and Henson. It will be seen later from Captain Peary's testimony, that
+he had on that final dash 40 dogs, 5 sledges, and a total of six men in
+his party. This discrepancy on so vital a point must seem quite conclusive
+that the examination of the Geographic Society's committee was
+anything but careful."</p></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 100%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_568" id="Page_568">[Pg 568]</a></span></p>
+<h1>APPENDIX</h1>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 100%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_569" id="Page_569">[Pg 569]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>COPY OF THE FIELD NOTES</h2>
+
+<p>The following copy of the daily entries in one of my
+original note-books takes the expedition step by step from
+Svartevoeg to the Pole and back to land.</p>
+
+<p>As will be seen by those here reproduced, the original
+notes are mostly abbreviations and suggestions, hasty tabulations
+and reminders, memoranda to be later elaborated. The
+hard environment, the scarcity of materials, and cold fingers
+did not encourage extensive field notes. Most of these field
+notes were rewritten while in Jones Sound, and some were also
+copied and elaborated in Greenland.</p>
+
+<p>In planning this expedition, every article of equipment
+and every phase of effort was made subordinate to the one
+great need of covering long distances. We deliberately set
+out for the Pole, with a desperate resolution to succeed, and
+although appreciating the value of detail scientific work, I
+realized that such work could not be undertaken in a pioneer
+project like ours. We therefore did not burden ourselves
+with cumbersome instruments, nor did we allow ourselves to be
+side-tracked in attractive scientific pursuits. Elaborate
+results are not claimed, but the usual data of Arctic expeditions
+were gathered with fair success.</p>
+
+<h4>(Notes usually written at end of day's march.)</h4>
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="1" cellpadding="8" cellspacing="2" summary="" rules="cols">
+
+<tr><th class="tentry">&nbsp;</th><th class="tentry">Date.</th><th class="tentry">Miles Covered.</th><th class="tentry">OBSERVATIONS, ETC.<br />
+(Exact copy from original Field Papers)</th></tr>
+
+<tr><td valign="top">March 1908.</td><td valign="top">18</td><td valign="top">26</td><td align="justify">Svartevoeg. Made cache here for return. Supporting
+party goes back. Noon start; 4 men, 46 dogs, 4 sleds; 26 miles. Ice heavy, wavy; little snow; crystals hard;
+land screened by drift. Camp on old field. Night uncomfortable;
+air humid, penetrating. Snowhouse of hard snow imperfectly made. (Other notes of this
+date so dim that they cannot be read. <i>Compass directions,
+unless otherwise noted, are true.</i>)</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td valign="top"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_570" id="Page_570">[Pg 570]</a></span></td><td valign="top">19</td><td valign="top">21</td>
+<td align="justify">Clearer, overland thick; -56&deg; F.; Wind 2 W.; sun
+feeble; blue haze. On march, ice smaller; use of axe;
+crossings troublesome. Camp lee of big hummock.
+Cannot send supply back; must follow for another day.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">20</td><td valign="top">16</td>
+<td align="justify">Land more clearly visible; sky overcast; wind W. S. W.
+1; ice worse. Small igloo. The last feed men return.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">21</td><td valign="top">29</td>
+<td align="justify">Awoke, sun N. E.; orange glow; -63&deg; F.; bar. 30.10,
+steady; no clouds; sky pale purple. More snow (on
+ice); groaning sledges; mirages, lands, mountains,
+volcanoes. Air light; wind sky N.; Grant Land a mere
+line; -46&deg;. Torture of light snow; march 14 hours.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">22</td><td valign="top">22</td>
+<td align="justify">A. M.; wind E. 3; -59&deg;. Start 12 (noon); sky clearer;
+wind 2; water sky N. Grant Land visible P. M.
+(Later) Temp. rose to -46&deg;. Wind tolerably high;
+pressure lines; the big lead. Camp on old field on
+bank; ice noises; search for the crossing. Young,
+elastic ice.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">23</td><td valign="top">17</td>
+<td align="justify">Cross the big lead. Young ice elastic and dangerous;
+western sky again threatening; ice movement east;
+fields small; narrow open lanes. Course for 85th on
+97th; -40&deg;; march 11 hours; 23 miles, credit 17 miles.
+Ice noises; night beautiful; sun sank into pearly haze.
+(Later) Orange glow; pack violet and pale purple
+blue; sky late&mdash;partly cl. appearance of land W.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">24</td><td valign="top">18</td>
+<td align="justify">Observations 83.31&mdash;96.27; -41&deg;; bar. 29.70.
+West bank of fog and haze. Start afternoon; no life; old
+seal hole and bear tracks; long march; ice improving.
+10 h.; pedometer 21 m.; camp in coming storm; rushing
+clouds; signs of land W. 18 m. (credited on
+course).</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">25</td><td valign="top">18</td>
+<td align="justify">Early awakened by dogs. Storm spent soon; sunrise
+temp. -26&deg;, later -41&deg;; west again smoky. Back to
+the bags; cracking ice; the breaking and separating
+ice and the crevasse episode; in a bag and in water;
+ice-water and pemmican; masks of ice. Good march
+over newly-fractured ice; ice in motion.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">26</td><td valign="top">17</td>
+<td align="justify">Still windy; some drift snow; another storm threatening.
+How we need rest! Strong wind during the
+night. Position D. R. 84.24&mdash;96.53.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_571" id="Page_571">[Pg 571]</a></span></td><td valign="top">27</td><td valign="top">16</td>
+<td align="justify">In camp until noon. Strong winds all night; eased at
+noon; clearing some; sun; weather unsettled. Short
+run; squally en route; made early camp. Bar. 29.05.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">28</td><td valign="top">0</td>
+<td align="justify">Weather still unsettled. Temp. -41&deg;; Bar. 29.15; west
+ugly. No progress. The drift. In camp. Anxious
+about stability of igloo. The collapsed camp. Midnight;
+north cloudy, but ice bright; many hummocks.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">29</td><td valign="top">9</td>
+<td align="justify">Start early P. M. A little blue in the west; sun bursts;
+pack disturbed; hard traveling, due to fresh crevasses.
+Camp midnight; only 9 miles.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">30</td><td valign="top">10</td>
+<td align="justify">Land, 9 A. M., cleared; land was seen; westerly clouds
+settled over it. Observations 84.50, 95.36; bearing of
+land, southern group, West by South to West by North true. Other bearings taken later place a coast line
+along the 102 meridian from lat. 84&deg; 20&acute; to 85&deg; 10&acute;. There
+must be much open water about the land, for banks of vapor persistently hide part. A low fog persistent;
+cannot see shore; for days we have expected to see something W., but never a clear horizon. Probably two
+island S. like Heiberg, 1,800 ft. high, valleys, mountains,
+snow N., table 1,000, thin ice sheet, bright nights.
+From observation paper: Bar. 30.10, had risen from
+29.50 in 2 hours; wind 2-3 mag. S.; clouds mist, East,
+water-bands W.; shadow (of 6 ft. pole) 39 ft.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">31</td><td valign="top">10</td>
+<td align="justify">Land screened by mist; wind W. 2-0. Ice fracture; no
+sign of life&mdash;none since 83.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">April 1908.</td><td valign="top">1</td><td valign="top">26</td>
+<td align="justify">(Time of traveling) 9 to 6; ice better; fields larger;
+crevasses less troublesome; temp. -32&deg;. There is no
+more darkness at night.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">2</td><td valign="top">12</td>
+<td align="justify">(Start) 9.30; (stop) 8. Smooth ice; hard snow; ice 28
+ft. and 32. Night bright but cloudy. Temp. -35&deg;;
+bar. 30.10; leads difficult.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">3</td><td valign="top">10</td>
+<td align="justify">8.30 to 6.30. Temp. -39&deg;; bar. 30.12; sky clearing at
+noon, but low clouds and frosty haze persist in the W.
+and N. Night bright; sun at midnight under cloud and
+haze.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">4</td><td valign="top">14</td>
+<td align="justify">8.45 to 6.10. Snow softer; used snowshoes; have
+crossed 11 crevasses; much chopping; brash and small
+hummocks.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">5</td><td valign="top">14</td>
+<td align="justify">9 (A. M.) to 5.45 (P. M.). Snow better. Ice larger.
+Oh, so tired! Snowshoes.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">6</td><td valign="top">14</td>
+<td align="justify">8.10 (A. M.) to 6.15 (P. M.). Snow hard. Ice flat.
+Few hummocks. Less wavy. Snow (shoes). Sun
+faces.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td valign="top"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_572" id="Page_572">[Pg 572]</a></span></td><td valign="top">7</td><td valign="top">14</td>
+<td align="justify">11 to 10. Beautiful clear weather; even the night sky
+clear. Midnight sun first seen. Ice 36 ft. (thick).
+(Another measurement gave 21 feet.)</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">8</td><td valign="top">9</td>
+<td align="justify">Observation before starting, 86.36, 94.2. In spite of
+what seemed like long marches we made only 106 miles
+in 9 days. Much distance lost in crossings. (From
+field paper) bar. 29.50, rising; temp. -37&deg;; wind mag.
+N. E., 2; clouds St. 3; shadow (6 ft. pole), 32 feet.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">9</td><td valign="top">14</td>
+<td align="justify">9 A. M. to 5.30 P. M.; snow hard; ice about the same;
+wind cutting; frost bites. Clothes humid.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">10</td><td valign="top">16</td>
+<td align="justify">10 P. M. to 7 A. M. Working hours changed; big
+marches and long hours no longer possible; snow good;
+ice steadily improving; bodily fatigue much felt; wind
+1-28 W.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">11</td><td valign="top">15</td>
+<td align="justify">10.30 to 8 A. M. Observation end of March, 87.20, 95.19;
+the pack disturbance of B. Ld. lost; farthest north;
+little crushed ice; old floes less irregular; anxious
+about food; wind 3 W. (true); 300 miles in 24 days; work
+intermittent; too tired to read instruments. (From
+other field notes, Temp. -39&deg;; bar. 29.90&deg;.)</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">12</td><td valign="top">21</td>
+<td align="justify">11 P. M. to 7 A. M. Thoughts of return. Food
+supply reduced. Hope to economize in warmer weather.
+Very heavy ice. Much like land ice. Wind 2 W. S. W.
+The awful monotony!</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">13</td><td valign="top">17</td>
+<td align="justify">12 P. M. to 7 A. M. The same heavy glacier-like ice....
+The occasional soup.
+Hummocks 15-20 ft. Ahwelah in tears at start. W.
+black. Sun under rushing vapors. Ice changes. Leads.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">14</td><td valign="top">23</td>
+<td align="justify">11 P. M. to 7.10 A. M. 88.21, 95.52. Wind light but
+penetrating. Off the big field, ice smaller. Some open
+leads. Little sign of pressure. Snow soft, but less
+precipitation. Dogs get up better speed. 100 miles
+from Pole. (From other observation papers: Bar. 29.90,
+falling; temp., -44&deg;; shadow (6 ft. pole) 30&frac12; feet.)</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">15</td><td valign="top">14</td>
+<td align="justify">10 P. M. to 7 A. M. Ice same. Wind -1, S. W. Working
+to the limit of muscle capacity. So tired and weary
+of the never ceasing tread!</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">16</td><td valign="top">15</td>
+<td align="justify">10.30 to 8 A. M. Ice passed. Several heavy old floes.
+Made 6 crossings. Wind 1-3, W. S. W.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td valign="top"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_573" id="Page_573">[Pg 573]</a></span></td><td valign="top">17</td><td valign="top">13</td>
+<td align="justify">10.15 to 8 A. M. Ice same. Crevasses new. 7 crossings
+Saw several big hummocks. Ice less troublesome.
+Temp., -40&deg;; bar., 30.00. Sled friction less.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">18</td><td valign="top">14</td>
+<td align="justify">9 P. M. to 6. Ice, though broken, smooth. The horizon
+line not so irregular as that of more S. ice. Sky and
+ice of a dark purple blue. (Bar. 30.02.)</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">19</td><td valign="top">16</td>
+<td align="justify">11 P. M. to 8 A. M. (Position) 89.31. D. R. 94.03.
+Camp on an old field&mdash;the only one on the horizon with
+big hummocks. Ice in very large fields; surface less
+irregular, but in other respects not different from
+farther S. Eskimos told that in two average marches Pole
+would be reached. Extra rations served. Camp in tent.
+(Bar., 29.98; Temp., -46&deg;.)</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">20</td><td valign="top">15&frac12;</td>
+<td align="justify">8 P. M. to 4 A. M. An exciting run; ice aglow in
+purple and gold; Eskimos chanting. Wind, S. 1 89; 46.45.
+(D. R.) 94.52. New enthusiasm; good march. Temp.,
+-36&deg;; bar. (not legible on notes); course set for 97th.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">21</td><td valign="top">13&frac12;</td>
+<td align="justify">1 A. M. to 9 A. M. Observations noon: 89; 59.45; ped.
+14. Camp; sleep in tent short time; after observations
+advance; pitch tent; (also) made camp&mdash;snow&mdash;prepared
+for two rounds of observations. Temp., 37.7&deg;;
+bar., 29.83. Nothing wonderful; no Pole; a sea of
+unknown depth; ice more active; new cracks; open
+leads; but surface like farther south. Overjoyed but
+find no words to express pleasure. So tired and weary!
+How we need a rest! 12, night. Sun seems as high as
+at noon, but in reality is a little higher, owing to its
+spiral ascent. The mental elation&mdash;the drying of furs,
+and (making) photos&mdash;Eskimos' ideas and disappointment
+of no Pole&mdash;thoughts of home and its cheer. But
+oh, such monotony of sky, wind and ice! The dangers
+of getting back. (From other observation papers:
+Temp, ranged from -36&deg; by mercury thermometer to
+-39&deg; by spirit thermometer; clouds Alt. St., 1; wind
+mag. S., 1; ice blink E.; water sky, W.; shadow (of 6
+ft. pole) 28 feet.)</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">22</td><td valign="top">0</td>
+<td align="justify">Moved camp 4 m. magnetic S. Made 4 observations for
+altitude; S. at noon, W. at 6, N. at 12M, E. at 6 A. M.
+Ice same; more open water; wind 2-3; temp., -41&deg;;
+(from field paper) W. S. W., 1 to 2. There are only
+two big hummocks in sight. (Made a series of observations
+for the sun's altitude, 2 on the 21st at the first
+camp, 4 on the 22nd at W. M. camp, and another midnight
+22-23. Before we left deposited tube.)</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td valign="top"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_574" id="Page_574">[Pg 574]</a></span></td><td valign="top">23</td><td valign="top">20</td>
+<td align="justify">Start for home. 12.30 to noon. Fairly clear&mdash;ice
+smooth, but many new crevasses. Temp., -41&deg;. Course
+for 100 mer.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">24</td><td valign="top">16</td>
+<td align="justify">11 P. M. to 9 A. M. These records, being made at the
+end of the day's journey, give the doings of the day
+previous&mdash;this note for the 24th is in reality written
+on the morning of the 25th, when comfortable in camp.
+Wind 1-2 W. Temp., -36&deg;. Ice smooth&mdash;fields larger;
+5 crossings; the pleasure of facing home.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">25</td><td valign="top">15</td>
+<td align="justify">8-8. Temp., -37&deg;; Wind 1-2 W. S. W.; ice same. The
+worry of ice breaking up for me, signs of joy for the
+Eskimo.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">26</td><td valign="top">14</td>
+<td align="justify">9 to 7. Still much worried about return; possibility of
+ice disruption and open water near land; wind light;
+ice shows new cracks, but few have opened; seems to
+be little pressure; few hummocks; snow hard and
+traveling all that could be desired.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">27</td><td valign="top">14</td>
+<td align="justify">9.30 to 8. Ice same; wind S. E. 1; good going; crossings
+not troublesome; dogs in good spirits; Eskimos
+happy; but all very tired. Temp., -40&deg;.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">28</td><td valign="top">14</td>
+<td align="justify">9.15 to 7.45. Ice same; wind 1 W.; snow moderately
+hard; few hummocks and no pressure lines.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">29</td><td valign="top">13</td>
+<td align="justify">Midnight to 8.45 A. M. Ice more active; fresh cracks;
+some open cracks but no leads. Wind 1 S.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">30</td><td valign="top">15</td>
+<td align="justify">Midnight to 8 A. M. Ped. registered 121 m. from Pole;
+camp by D. R., 87.59-100; observations 88.01, 97.42.
+Course half point more W. Temp., -34&deg;. Start more
+westerly.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">May 1908.</td><td valign="top">1</td><td valign="top">18</td>
+<td align="justify">12.30 to 9 A. M. Much color to the sunbursts, but the
+air humid; the temperature persistently near -40&deg;, but<br />
+considerable range with the direction of the light winds
+and mists when they come over leads. Much very heavy
+smooth ice&mdash;undulating, not hummocky like S.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">2</td><td valign="top">12</td>
+<td align="justify">2 A. M. to 11 A. M. Fog, clouds and wet air. Temp.,
+-15&deg;. Hard to strike a course.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">3</td><td valign="top">13</td>
+<td align="justify">1 A. M. to 10 A. M. Thick weather; wind E. 2; ice
+friction less; occasional light snow fall.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">4</td><td valign="top">14</td>
+<td align="justify">3 to 11 A. M. Air clear but sky obscured; ice very
+good, but hummocks appearing on the horizon.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td valign="top"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_575" id="Page_575">[Pg 575]</a></span></td><td valign="top">5</td><td valign="top">11</td>
+<td align="justify">11 P. M. to 6 A. M. Strong wind; occasional breathing
+spell behind hummocks; squally with drifts.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">6</td><td valign="top">0</td>
+<td align="justify">In camp. Stopped by signs of storm; tried to build
+igloo but wind prevented; in a collapsed tent for 24
+hours; eat only half ration of pemmican.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">7</td><td valign="top">10</td>
+<td align="justify">8 A. M. to 3 P. M. Wind detestable; ice bad; life a
+torture; sky persistently obscured; no observations;
+pedometer out of order, only time to gauge our distance.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">8</td><td valign="top">12</td>
+<td align="justify">2 A. M. to 10. Weather bad; windy, S. W.; some
+drift; heavy going.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">9</td><td valign="top">13</td>
+<td align="justify">1 to 8 A. M. (Weather) thick; wind easier; ice in big
+fields; snow a little harder, snowshoes steady.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">10</td><td valign="top">13</td>
+<td align="justify">11 P. M. of the 9th to 6 A. M. Heavy going but little
+friction on sled; some drift; see more hummocks.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">11</td><td valign="top">0</td>
+<td align="justify">May 11. In camp. Strong wind; heavy drift; encircle
+tent with snow blocks.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">12</td><td valign="top">11</td>
+<td align="justify">12.30 to 8.30 A. M. Wind still strong; cestrugi troublesome,
+but temperature moderate; sled loads getting
+light.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">13</td><td valign="top">12</td>
+<td align="justify">11 P. M. of 12th, to 7.30 A. M. of 13th. Wind easier,
+S. S. W.; snow harder; ice very thick and very large
+fields; fog.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">14</td><td valign="top">9</td>
+<td align="justify">3 A. M. to 9 A. M. No sky; strong wind compelled to
+camp early.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">15</td><td valign="top">13</td>
+<td align="justify">1 A. M. to 10. Fog; ice much crevassed; passed over
+several cracks&mdash;some opening.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">16</td><td valign="top">14</td>
+<td align="justify">May 16. 11 P. M. of the 15th to 6 A. M. Cl. 10; wind
+again troublesome; light diffused, making it difficult to
+find footing.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">17</td><td valign="top">11</td>
+<td align="justify">2 A. M. to 10. Thick; ice more and more broken;
+smaller and more cracked&mdash;cracks give much trouble.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">18</td><td valign="top">11</td>
+<td align="justify">1 A. M. to 9.30. Wind more southerly and strong; ice
+separating; some open water in leads.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">19</td><td valign="top">12</td>
+<td align="justify">11 P. M. to 7.30. Wind veering east; fog thicker;
+ice very much broken, but snow surface good.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td valign="top"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_576" id="Page_576">[Pg 576]</a></span></td><td valign="top">20</td><td valign="top">6</td>
+<td align="justify">Midnight to 9 A. M. Open water; active pack; almost impossible.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">21</td><td valign="top">8</td>
+<td align="justify">11 P. M. to 9. Conditions the same; our return seems
+almost hopeless; no observations&mdash;cannot even guess at
+the drift.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">22</td><td valign="top">0</td>
+<td align="justify">In camp. Gale N. E.; temp, high; air wet; ice breaking
+and grinding; worried about the ultimate return; food
+low.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">23</td><td valign="top">5</td>
+<td align="justify">3 A. M. to 7 A. M. Still squally, but forced a short
+march.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">24</td><td valign="top">12</td>
+<td align="justify">12 noon to 8 A. M. Short clearing at noon; the first clear
+mid-day sky for a long time; west still in haze. Water
+sky W. and S. W.; no land in sight&mdash;though the boys
+saw the land later when I was asleep; ice much broken.
+84&deg; 02&#697;-97&deg; 03&#697;.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">25</td><td valign="top">14</td>
+<td align="justify">10 P. M. to 6 A. M. Ice better; no wind; thick fog;
+snow hard. Temp., -10&deg;.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">26</td><td valign="top">12</td>
+<td align="justify">11 P. M. to 7.45 A. M. Ice in fields of about 1 M.
+somewhat hummocky; crossings hard; no wind.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">27</td><td valign="top">11</td>
+<td align="justify">11.30 P. M. to 9.30 A. M. Ice same; thick fog.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">28</td><td valign="top">13</td>
+<td align="justify">12 m. night to 10 A. M. Ice still same; fog; wind 3,
+shifting E. S. E. and S. W.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">29</td><td valign="top">11</td>
+<td align="justify">11.30 P. M. to 9.30 A. M. As we came here the water
+sky in the southwest to which we had aimed, gradually
+working west, led to a wide open lead, extending from
+north to south, and almost before knowing it, in the
+general plan of the ice arrangement, we found ourselves
+to the east of this lead. Temp. rose to zero. Ice much
+broken; air thick; light vague; impossible to see irregularities.
+Food 3/4 rations; and straight course for Nansen
+Sound.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">30</td><td valign="top">10</td>
+<td align="justify">12 to 11 A. M. Ice in heaps; open water; brash the
+worst trouble; little fog.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">31</td><td valign="top">11</td>
+<td align="justify">11.15 P. M. to 9 A. M. Ice little better; snow hard;
+sleds go easy; much helping required (over pressure
+lines).</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td>June 1908.</td><td>1</td><td>12</td>
+<td align="justify">10.45 to 8. Ice in large fields; many hummocks; few heavy fields.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td valign="top"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_577" id="Page_577">[Pg 577]</a></span></td><td valign="top">2</td><td valign="top">12</td>
+<td align="justify">10 P. M. to 9 A. M. Ice steadily improving.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">3</td><td valign="top">11</td>
+<td align="justify">10 P. M. to 8 A. M. Ice begins to show action of sun.
+Temperature occasionally above freezing.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">4</td><td valign="top">10</td>
+<td align="justify">9.30 P. M. to 7.30 A. M. Fog; ice offering much trouble,
+but friction little and load light.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">5</td><td valign="top">11</td>
+<td align="justify">9.45 P. M. to 7 A. M. Hummocks exposed to sun have
+icicles.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">6</td><td valign="top">0</td>
+<td align="justify">In camp. Strong N. W. gale.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">7</td><td valign="top">0</td>
+<td align="justify">In camp. Gale continues, with much snow; the ice
+about breaks up; anxious about map. (Not knowing
+either drift or position, were puzzled as to proper
+course to set.)</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">8</td><td valign="top">14</td>
+<td align="justify">1 A. M. to noon. Ice bad, but snow hard, and after
+rest progress good; wind still blowing west.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">9</td><td valign="top">10</td>
+<td align="justify">11 P. M. to 9 A. M. With thick ice and this kind of
+traveling it is hard to guess at distances.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">10</td><td valign="top">0</td>
+<td align="justify">10.30 P. M. to 8. Bad ice; open leads; still no sun.
+</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">11</td><td valign="top">14</td>
+<td align="justify">10 P. M. to 8 A. M. Large smooth ice; little snow;
+wind S. W., 1; no fog, but sky still of lead.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">12</td><td valign="top">15</td>
+<td align="justify">10.30 to 5. Small fields but good going; sky black
+to the east.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td valign="top">&nbsp;</td><td valign="top">13</td><td valign="top">14</td>
+<td align="justify">10 to 8 A. M. Fog cleared first time since last observation.
+Land in sight south and east. Heiberg and
+Ringnes Land; water sky; small ice; brash and drift
+eastward. We have been carried adrift far to the south
+and west, and examination of ice eastward proves that
+all is small ice and open water. Heiberg Island is impossible
+to us. What is our fate? Food and fuel is
+about exhausted, though we still have 10 bony dogs.
+Upon these and our little pemmican we can possibly
+survive for 20 days. In the meantime we must go
+somewhere. To the south is our only hope.</td></tr>
+
+</table></div>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Note.</span>&mdash;<i>June 14</i> and thereafter to <i>September 1</i>, all notes were briefly
+jotted down in another diary, a collection of loose leaves in which the
+observations of the return were made. This diary was left with the instruments
+at Etah with Mr. Whitney. The data, however, had been rewritten
+at Cape Sparbo, so that the notes had served their purpose and were of
+no further value when no pretentious publication was anticipated.</p>
+
+<p>Other notes were made on loose sheets of paper or on leaves of the
+note books. Many of these were destroyed, others were rubbed out to
+make room for recording what was regarded as more important data, and
+a few were retained quite by accident.</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 100%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_578" id="Page_578">[Pg 578]</a></span></p>
+<h2>QUESTIONS THAT ENTER CALCULATIONS FOR<br />
+POSITION OF THE NORTH POLE.</h2>
+
+<h4>By <span class="smcap">Frederick A. Cook.</span></h4>
+
+
+<p>Much abstruse, semi-scientific and academic material has
+been forced into the polar discussions about proofs by observation.
+The problem presented is full of interesting points, and
+to elucidate these I will ask the reader to go back with me to
+that elusive imaginary spot, the North Pole. Here we find
+no pole&mdash;and absolutely nothing to mark the spot for hundreds
+of miles. We are in the center of a great moving sea of ice and
+for 500 miles in every direction it is the same hopeless desert of
+floating, shifting crystal. I believed then that we had reached
+the Pole, and it never occurred to me that there would be a cry
+for absolute proof. Such a demand had never been presented
+before. The usual data of the personal narrative of the explorers
+had always been received with good faith. But let us
+reopen the question and examine the whole problem.</p>
+
+<p>Is there any positive proof for a problem of this kind?
+Is there any one sure shoulder upon which we can hang the
+mantle of polar conquest? We are deprived of the usual landmarks
+of terrestrially fixed points. The effort to furnish proof
+is like trying to fix a point in Mid-Atlantic. But here you
+have the tremendous advantage of known compass variation,
+sure time, reasonably accurate corrections. Not only by careful
+observation at sea of fixed stars and other astronomical
+data, but by an easy and quick access to and from each shore,
+and by reliable tables for reductions gathered during scores of
+years of experience.</p>
+
+<p>All this is denied in the mid-polar basins at the time when
+it is possible to arrive there. There is no night, there are no
+stars, and the sun, the only fixed object by which a position
+can be calculated, is not absolutely fixable. It is low on the
+horizon. Its rays are bent in getting to the recording instruments
+while passing through the thick maze of floating ice mist.
+This mist always rests on the pack even in clear days. The
+very low temperature of the atmosphere and the distorting,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_579" id="Page_579">[Pg 579]</a></span>
+twisting mirage effect of different strata of air, with radically
+different temperatures, wherein each stratum has a different
+density, carry different quantities of frosted humidity.</p>
+
+<p>All of this gives to the sunbeam, upon which the calculation
+for latitude and longitude is based, the deceptive appearance
+of a paddle thrust into clear water. The paddle in such
+case seems bent. The sunbeam is bent in a like manner, since
+it passes through an unknown depth of refractory air
+for the correction of which no law can be devised until modern
+aerial navigation brings to a science that very complex problem
+of the geography of the atmosphere. For this reason, and for
+others which we will presently show, this whole idea of proof by
+figures as devised by Mr. Peary and the armchair geographers,
+falls to pieces.</p>
+
+<p>Let us take the noon observation&mdash;a fairly certain method
+to determine latitude in most zones of the earth where for
+hundreds of years we have learned to make certain corrections,
+which by use have been incorporated as laws in the art of
+navigation. About five minutes before local noon the sea captain
+goes to the bridge with sextant in hand. His time is
+certain, but even if it were not, the sun rises and sets and
+therefore changes its altitude quickly. The captain screws the
+sun down to a fixed angle on his sextant; he puts the instrument
+aside; then takes it up again, brings the sun to the
+horizon, examines his instrument. The sun has risen a little
+further; it is not yet noon. This is repeated again and again,
+and at last the sun begins to descend. It is now local noon.
+This gives a rough check for his time. There is a certain sure
+moment for his observation at just the second when it is
+accurate,&mdash;when the sun's highest ascent has been reached.
+Such advantages are impossible when nearing the Pole. The
+chronometers have been shooting the shoots of the pack for
+weeks. The sudden changes of temperature also disturb the
+mechanism, and therefore time, that very important factor upon
+which all astronomical data rest, is at best only a rough guess.
+For this reason alone, if for no other, such as unknown refraction
+and other optical illusions, the determination of longitude
+when nearing the Pole becomes difficult and unreliable. All
+concede this, but latitude, we are told by the armchair observer,
+is easy and sure. Let us see.</p>
+
+<p>The time nears to get a peep of the sun at noon, but what<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_580" id="Page_580">[Pg 580]</a></span>
+is local noon? The chronometers may be, and probably are,
+far off. And there is no way to correct even approximately.
+I do not mean on hours, but there may be unknowable differences
+of minutes, and each minute represents a mile. Let us
+see how this affects our noon observation. Five or ten minutes
+before local noon the observer levels his artificial horizon and
+with sextant in hand lies down on the snow. A little drift and
+nose bleaching wind complicate matters. The fingers are cold;
+the instrument must be handled with mittens; the cold is such
+that at best a shiver runs up the spine, the eye blinks with
+snow glitter and frost. The arms, hands and legs become stiff
+from cold and from inaction. He tries exactly what the sea
+captain does in comfort on the bridge, but his time is a guess,
+he watches the sun, he tries to catch it when it is highest,
+but this is about as difficult as it is to catch a girl in the act of
+winking when her back is turned.</p>
+
+<p>The sun does not rise and set as it does in temperate
+climes&mdash;it circles the horizon day and night in a spiral ascent
+so nearly parallel to the line of the horizon that it is a practical
+impossibility to determine by any possible means at hand when
+it is highest. One may lie on that snow for an hour, and
+though steadied with the patience of Job, the absolute determination
+of the highest point of the sun's altitude or the local
+noon is almost a physical impossibility.</p>
+
+<p>This observation is not accurate and gives only results of
+use in connection with other calculations. These results at
+best are also subject to that unknown allowance for really
+great atmospheric refraction. The geographic student will, I
+am sure, agree that against this the magnetic needle will offer
+some check, for if you can be certain that when the needle
+points to a positive direction, then it is a simple matter to get
+approximate time with it and the highest noon altitude; but
+since the correction for the needle, like that of latitude and
+longitude, is based on accurate time, and since it is further
+influenced by other local and general unknown conditions&mdash;therefore
+even the compass, that sheet anchor of the navigator,
+is as uncertain as other aids to fixing a position in the polar
+basin.</p>
+
+<p>In making such observations an artificial horizon must be
+used. This offers an uncontrollable element of inaccuracy in all
+Arctic observations when the sun is low.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_581" id="Page_581">[Pg 581]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>My observations were made with the sun about 12&deg; above
+the horizon. At this angle the image of the sun is dragged
+over the glass or mercury with no sharp outlines, a mere streak
+of light, and not a perfect, sharp-cut image of the sun which
+an important observation demands.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Peary's altitudes were all less than 7&deg;. I challenge
+any one to produce a clear cut image of the sun on an artificial
+horizon with the sun at that angle. All such observations
+therefore are unreliable because of imperfect contact, for which
+there can be no correction.</p>
+
+<p>The question of error by refraction is one of very great
+importance. In the known zones the accumulated lesson of ages
+has given us certain tables for correction, but even with these
+advantages few navigators would take an observation when the
+sun is but 7&deg; above the horizon and count it of any value
+whatever.</p>
+
+<p>In the Arctic the problem of refraction presents probable
+inaccuracies, not of seconds or minutes, but possibly of degrees.
+Every Arctic traveler has seen in certain atmospheric conditions
+a dog enlarged to the image of a bear. A raven frequently
+looks like a man, and a hummock, but 25 feet high, a
+short distance away, will at times rise to the proportions of a
+mountain. Mirages turn things topsy-turvy, and the whole
+polar topography is distorted by optical illusions. Many explorers
+have seen the returning sun over a sea horizon after the
+long night one or two days before the correct time for its
+reappearance. This gives you an error in observations which
+can be a matter of 60 miles.</p>
+
+<p>Here is a tangle in optics, which cannot under the present
+knowledge of conditions be elucidated, and yet with all these
+disadvantages, the group of armchair geographers of the National
+Geographic Society pronounces a series of sun altitudes
+less than 7&deg; above the horizon as proof positive of the attainment
+of the Pole. Furthermore these men are personal friends
+of Mr. Peary, and the society for whom they act is financially
+interested in the venture which they indorsed.</p>
+
+<p>Is this verdict based upon either science or justice, or
+honor?</p>
+
+<p>In response to a public clamor for a peep at these papers,
+a more detestable unfairness was forced on the public. The
+venerable director of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, who was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_582" id="Page_582">[Pg 582]</a></span>
+one of Mr. Peary's jurors, instead of showing his hand, and
+thus freeing himself from a dishonest entanglement, asked his
+underlings, H. C. Mitchell and C. R. Duval, to stoop to a
+dishonor to veil the humbug previously perpetrated. Under
+the instruction of their chief, the first figures of Mr. Peary's
+sextant readings have been taken, and by manipulating these
+they have helped Mr. Peary by saying that their calculation
+placed Mr. Peary within two miles of the Pole.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps Mr. Peary was at the pin-point of the Pole, but
+when he allows his friends to use questionable methods to give a
+false security to his claim, then his claim is insecure indeed.</p>
+
+<p>Mitchell and Duval took the sextant readings at face value.
+If Mr. Peary or his computers had frankly admitted the uncertainty
+of the grounds upon which these sextant readings rested,
+then one would be inclined to grant the benefit of doubt; but
+as was the case regarding the verdict of the National Geographic
+Society, the public was carefully excluded from a
+knowledge of the shaky grounds upon which these calculations
+are based. The impossibility of correct time and adequate
+allowance for refraction render such figures useless as proof of
+a position. But what about the image of the sun upon the
+artificial horizon?</p>
+
+<p>An important observation demands that this should be
+sharp and clear, otherwise the observation is worthless. Mitchell
+and Duval have surely thought of this. Perhaps they have
+tried an experiment. As real scientific students they should
+have experimented with the figures with which they played. If
+the experiment has not been made they are incompetent. In
+either case a trick has been used to bolster up the deceptive
+verdict of the National Geographic Society.</p>
+
+<p>A dish of molasses, a bull's eye lantern and a dark room are
+all that is necessary to prove how the public has been deceived
+by men in the Government pay as scientific computers. With
+the bull's eye as the sun, the molasses or any other reflecting
+surface as a horizon, with the light striking the surface at less
+than 7 degrees, as Mr. Peary's sun did, it will be found that the
+sun's image is an oblong streak of light with ill-defined edges.
+Such an image cannot be recorded on a sextant with sufficient
+accuracy to make it of any use as an observation. Mitchell and
+Duval must know this. If so, they are dishonest, for they did
+not tell the public about it. If they did not know it they are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_583" id="Page_583">[Pg 583]</a></span>
+incompetent and should be dismissed from the Government
+service.</p>
+
+<p>With all of these uncertainties a course which gives a
+workable plan of action can be laid over the blank charts, but
+there always remains the feebly guarded mystery of the ice
+drift. When the course is set, the daily run of distance can be
+checked by estimating speed and hourly progress with the
+watches. Against this there is the check of the pedometer or
+some other automatic measure for distance covered. The shortening
+night shadows and the gradual coming to a place where
+the night and day shadows are of about equal length is a
+positive conviction to him who is open to self-conviction, as a
+polar aspirant is likely to be. But frankly and candidly, when
+I now review one and all of these methods of fixing the North
+Pole, or the position of a traveler en route to it, I am bound
+to admit that all attempt at proof represented by figures is
+built on a foundation of possible and unknowable inaccuracy.
+Figures may convince an armchair geographer who has a preconceived
+opinion, but to the true scientist with the many
+chances for mistakes above indicated there is no real proof.
+The verdict on such data must always be "not proven" if the
+evidence rests on a true scientific examination of material which
+at best and in the very nature of things is not checked by the
+precision which science demands. The real proof&mdash;if proof is
+possible&mdash;is the continuity of the final printed book that gives
+all the data with the consequent variations.</p>
+
+
+<h4>FROM A CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE POLAR CLAIMS IN A
+FORTHCOMING BOOK<br />
+
+<br />By <span class="smcap">Captain Thomas F. Hall</span> of Omaha, Neb.</h4>
+
+<div class="sblockquot">
+<h4>DR. COOK'S VALID CLAIM.</h4>
+
+<p>Cook's narrative has been before the public nearly two years. It has
+been subject to the most minute scrutiny that invention, talent and money
+could give. It is to-day absolutely unscathed. Not one item in it from
+beginning to end has been truthfully discredited. It stands unimpeached.
+Mud enough has been thrown. Bribery and conspiracy have done their
+worst. A campaign of infamy has been waged, and spent its force; but
+not one solitary sentence has been proven wrong. Musk-ox fakes, starved
+dogs, fictitious astronomical or other calculations may have some effect on
+popular opinion; but they have none on the actual facts. They do not
+budge the truth a hair's breadth and they do not make history.</p>
+
+<p>Cook's claim to the Discovery of the North Pole is as sound and as
+valid as the other claims of discovery, or the achievement of any one
+preceding him in the Arctic or the Antarctic.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_584" id="Page_584">[Pg 584]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<h4>VERDICT OF GEN. A. W. GREELY, REAR ADMIRAL W. S. SCHLEY
+AND OTHER ARCTIC EXPERTS</h4>
+
+<p>Dr. Cook is the discoverer of the North Pole.&mdash;<span class="smcap">General A. W. Greely.</span></p>
+
+<p>No one familiar with the Polar problem doubts Dr. Cook's success. Peary
+never tried to get to the Pole. He copied Cook's data and then, by official intrigue
+tried to "put it over." A study of Peary's deception on compass variation will
+prove that.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Clark Brown.</span></p>
+
+<p>You can prove the discovery of Northermost Land. The Eskimo talk is
+nonsense. The Polar discussion should be settled by an International Commission&mdash;<span class="smcap">Prof.
+Otto Nordenskjold.</span></p>
+
+<p>Dr. Cook was the first and only man to reach the North Pole&mdash;<span class="smcap">Chas. E.
+Rilliet.</span></p>
+
+<p>I have gone over all of Dr. Cook's data, and, in spite of the statements to
+the contrary, I believe he reached the Pole.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Maurice Connell.</span></p>
+
+<p>It has always been my pleasure to support Dr. Cook. I can see no reason
+for doubting his success. Who are his accusers, surely not Arctic Explorers?&mdash;<span class="smcap">Captain
+Otto Sverdrup.</span></p>
+
+<p>I am convinced that if anyone reached the Pole, Dr. Cook got there.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Andrew
+J. Stone.</span></p>
+
+<p>From first to last I have championed Dr. Cook's cause, and after going
+over the printed records of both claimants I am doubly convinced that he reached
+the Pole.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Captain Edward A. Haven.</span></p>
+
+<p>Dr. Cook reached the Pole, I doubt Peary, his observations bear the stamp
+of inexcusable inaccuracy and bunglesome carelessness. One cannot read Peary's
+book and believe in him.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Captain John Menander.</span></p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="ralign">Washington, D. C., &nbsp; &nbsp; <br />
+Jan. 7th, 1911.</p>
+
+<p class="noin">Dear Dr. Cook:</p>
+
+<p>... I would assure you that I have never varied in the belief that you reached the Pole.
+After reading the published accounts, daily and critically, of both claimants, I was forced
+to the conclusion from their striking similarity that each of you was the eye witness
+of the other's success.</p>
+
+<p>Without collusion it would have been impossible to have written accounts
+so similar, and yet in view of the ungracious controversy that has occurred since
+that view (collusion) would be impossible to imagine.</p>
+
+<p>While I have never believed that either of you got within a pin-point of the
+Pole, I have steadfastly held that both got as near the goal as was possible to
+ascertain considering the imperfections of the instruments used and the personal
+errors of individuals under circumstances as adverse to absolute accuracy.</p>
+
+<p>Again I have been broad enough in my views to believe that there was
+room enough at the Pole for two; and never narrow enough to believe that only
+one man got there.</p>
+
+<p>I believe that both are entitled to the honor of the achievement.</p>
+
+<p class="ralign">
+<span style="margin-right: 9em;">Very truly yours,</span><br />
+(Signed)  <span class="smcap">W. S. Schley.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 100%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_585" id="Page_585">[Pg 585]</a></span></p>
+<h2>POSITIVE PROOF OF DR. COOK'S ATTAINMENT
+OF THE POLE</h2>
+
+<h4><span class="smcap">By CAPTAIN EVELYN BRIGGS BALDWIN</span></h4>
+
+
+<p class="blockquot">METEOROLOGIST PEARY EXPEDITION, 1893-4, SECOND-IN-COMMAND
+WELLMAN EXPEDITION 1898-9, AND ORGANIZER AND
+LEADER OF THE BALDWIN-ZIEGLER POLAR EXPEDITION,
+1901-2, ETC.</p>
+
+
+<p>I can prove the truth of Dr. Cook's statements in regard
+to his discovery of the North Pole from Peary's own official
+record of his last dash to the Northward.</p>
+
+<p>So far as I can learn, Dr. Cook has never made a "confession"
+in regard to his trip to the Pole in the sense that he
+denied his first statements. He has merely said that, in view of
+the great difficulty in determining the exact location of the
+Pole, he may not have been exactly upon the northernmost
+pin-point of the world. Peary, under pressure at the Congressional
+investigation, was forced to admit the same.</p>
+
+<p>For three hundred years there has been a rivalry among
+civilized men to be the first to reach the North Pole. I believe
+that the honor of having succeeded in the attempt should go&mdash;not
+to Peary&mdash;but to the man who reached the Pole a year
+before Peary claims to have been there.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Cook is now in New York City, and I have talked with
+him several times recently. With the information that I myself
+have gathered, I believe that he really did reach the Pole,
+or came so close to that point that he is entitled to the credit
+of the Pole's discovery.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_586" id="Page_586">[Pg 586]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/illo_638.jpg" width="600" height="719" alt="THE LAND-DIVIDED ICE-PACK REPORTED BY PEARY
+PROVES COOK&#39;S ATTAINMENT OF THE POLE" title="" />
+<span class="caption">THE LAND-DIVIDED ICE-PACK REPORTED BY PEARY
+PROVES COOK&rsquo;S ATTAINMENT OF THE POLE</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Bradley Land is located between latitude 84 and 85.
+It was discovered by Cook in his Poleward march. The land
+ice, or glacial ice, which Cook also discovered, is located
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_587" id="Page_587">[Pg 587]</a></span>
+between latitude 87 and latitude 88. Cook's line of march carried
+him thirty or forty miles to the east of Bradley Land and
+then upon the glacial ice. The proximity to the new land
+gave Cook a favorable land-protected surface upon which to
+travel, and also afforded him protection from gales and from
+the consequent movements of the pack-ice westward of the new
+lands. Cook traveled in the lee of the groups of islands and
+over ice floes more stationary than the ice farther to the east,
+over which Peary traveled.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Evidence of Cook's Travels</span></h3>
+
+<p>A critical examination of Peary's book not only reveals
+a remarkable corroboration of Cook's discovery of Bradley
+Land and the glacial island north of it, but also seems to indicate
+the existence of islands farther west between the same
+parallels of latitude.</p>
+
+<p>Referring to page 250, when beyond the 86th parallel,
+Peary says: "In this march there was some pretty heavy going.
+Part of the way was over some old floes, which had been broken
+up by many seasons of unceasing conflict with the winds and
+tides. Enclosing these more or less level floes were heavy pressure
+ridges over which we and the dogs were obliged to climb."
+In other words, the floes which Peary describes in this part of
+his journey clearly indicate that they were just such floes as
+one would expect to find after having passed through a group
+of islands, and, therefore, contrasting naturally with the immense
+size of the floes which both Cook and Peary traversed
+north of the 88th parallel.</p>
+
+<p>Beginning with page 258, we have a most instructive description
+by Peary of the ice between the parallels wherein
+Cook locates the glacial ice and upon which he traveled for two
+days. It is such ice as one would expect to find after having
+passed around the north and south ends of an island from forty
+to sixty miles to the westward. This particular area Peary designates
+as a veritable "Arctic Phlegethon," and it is inconceivable
+to believe in this Phlegethon without also believing in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_588" id="Page_588">[Pg 588]</a></span>
+existence of the glacial ice, as located and described by Dr.
+Cook. Let us, therefore, examine Peary's narrative minutely. He
+says, on page 259, "When I awoke the following day, March
+28, the sky was apparently clear; but, ahead of us, was a thick,
+smoky, ominous haze drifting low over the ice, and a bitter
+northeast wind, which, in the orthography of the Arctic, plainly
+spelled 'Open Water'...."</p>
+
+<p>Also, on the same page: "After traveling at a good rate
+for six hours along Bartlett's trail, we came upon his camp beside
+a wide lead, with a dense black, watery sky to the northwest,
+north and northeast."</p>
+
+<p>Again, on page 260: "... The break in the ice had
+occurred within a foot of the fastening of one of my dog teams,
+... Bartlett's igloo was moving east on the ice raft, which
+had broken, and beyond it, as far as the belching fog from the
+lead would let us see, there was nothing but black water."</p>
+
+<p>Finally, on page 262, Peary says: "This last march had
+put us well beyond my record of three years before, probably
+87&deg; 12&#697;. The following day, March 29, was not a happy
+one for us. Though we were all tired enough to rest, we
+did not enjoy picnicing beside this Arctic Phlegethon which,
+hour after hour, to the north, northeast and northwest, seemed
+to belch black smoke like a prairie fire.... Bartlett
+made a sounding of one thousand two hundred and sixty
+fathoms, but found no bottom."</p>
+
+<p>In the foregoing we have positive proof that this almost
+open water area was not caused by shoals at that immediate
+point.</p>
+
+<p>Peary's concern as regards this big hole in the ice-pack is
+set forth further on page 265, as follows: "The entire region
+through which we had come during the last four marches was
+full of unpleasant possibilities for the future. Only too well
+we knew that violent winds, for only a few hours, would send
+the ice all abroad in every direction. Crossing such a zone on
+a journey north is only half the problem, for there is always
+the return to be figured on. Though the motto of the Arctic
+must be 'Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof,' we ardently<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_589" id="Page_589">[Pg 589]</a></span>
+hoped there might not be violent winds until we were south of
+this zone again on the return."</p>
+
+<p>From this it is apparent that Peary realized fully the permanent
+character of this Phlegethon over which he was traveling.
+With astonishing persistency, he refers again and again
+to this particular locality. Quoting from page 303, when on
+his return march, he says: "There was one region just above
+the 87th parallel, a region about fifty-seven miles wide, which
+gave me a great deal of concern until we had passed it. Twelve
+hours of strong wind blowing from any quarter excepting the
+north would have turned that region into an open sea. I
+breathed a sigh of relief when we left the 87th parallel behind."</p>
+
+<p>And, as though the Phlegethon had not already been sufficiently
+described, on page 307 we find recorded: "Inspired by
+our good fortune we pressed on again completing two marches,
+and when we camped we were very near the 87th parallel. The
+entry that I made in my diary that night is perhaps worth quoting:
+'Hope to reach the Marvin Igloo (86&deg; 38&#697;) to-morrow.
+I shall be glad when we get there on to the big ice
+again. This region here was open water during February and
+the early part of March and is now covered with young ice
+which is thoroughly unreliable as a means of return. A few
+hours of a brisk wind east, west, or south, would make this entire
+region open water for some fifty to sixty miles north and
+south, and an unknown extent east and west. Only calm
+weather or a northerly wind keeps it practicable.'"</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Absolute Proof of Cook's Claim</span></h3>
+
+<p>From the foregoing it is self-evident that Peary's observations
+by sextant could not be more corroborative of Cook's
+latitude than that the Phlegethon is proof of the existence of
+a glacial island between the same two parallels traversed by both
+explorers. Cook had discovered the <i>cause</i>, and Peary followed
+to discover the effect of that <i>cause</i>. To one familiar with the
+conditions of ice-floes in the vicinity of islands in the Arctic
+the reasons for this are as clear as it would be to the lay mind<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_590" id="Page_590">[Pg 590]</a></span>
+should it be suddenly announced that on a certain date
+an astronomer had discovered the head of a comet, which
+being doubted by rival investigators, might lead to the unhappy
+discrediting of the original discoverer; but should it be
+as suddenly announced that a rival astronomer had observed
+the tail of a comet in the same locality there would quite certainly
+follow a reversal of public sentiment.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Evidence of His Travels</span></h3>
+
+<p>Of first importance also in proving the existence of new
+lands discovered by Cook is the evidence derived from the existence
+of animal life, since Arctic game clings close to the
+shore line in its search for food. Birds must find their nesting
+places on lands. Foxes live upon birds and the refuse left in
+the trails of polar bears and seals. Seals feed upon shrimps
+and find the chief source of food in waters close to the land.
+Polar bears in turn feed upon seals, and necessarily are found
+more numerously about lands or islands.</p>
+
+<p>For this reason we will examine Peary's official narrative
+of his journey north for evidence of Dr. Cook's discovery of
+land to within 2&deg; of the North Pole. Having noted
+Dr. Cook's statement relative to the blow hole of a seal near
+Bradley Island, we will follow in Peary's trail for corroboration
+of Cook's journey eleven months previous, and a comparatively
+short distance westward of Peary's line of march.
+Referring to Peary's "North Pole" on page 249, while in latitude
+85&deg; 48&#697; he records:</p>
+
+<p>"While we were engaged in this business we saw a seal
+disporting himself in the open water of the lead."</p>
+
+<p>Still farther along, when in latitude 86&deg; 13&#697;, Peary
+states, on page 252: "Along the course of one of those leads
+we saw the fresh tracks of a polar bear going west."</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Animal Trails Verify Cook's Report</span></h3>
+
+<p>Arctic travelers will well appreciate the force of this statement
+relative to the polar bear, who, scenting the land a few<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_591" id="Page_591">[Pg 591]</a></span>
+miles to the westward, was in search of seals. The freshness of
+the bear's tracks is proof that it had not drifted on some ice floe
+from remote parts of the Arctic basin.</p>
+
+<p>Again, referring to page 257, we find that Peary while
+traveling through deep snow March 28, records: "During the
+day we saw the tracks of two foxes in this remote and icy wilderness,
+nearly two hundred and forty nautical miles beyond
+the northern coast of Grant Land."</p>
+
+<p>It is worthy of note that Peary does not state just how
+far from the glacial or land ice upon the submerged island over
+which Cook traveled the fox tracks were. But it is evident
+that the foxes were less than two sleeps from land, since Peary
+states that Marvin's observation placed them in about latitude
+86&deg; 38&#697;, the very latitude in which Cook traveled upon the stationary
+land ice.</p>
+
+<p>Still again, page 307, while on his return march and near
+the 88th parallel Peary observes: "Here we noticed some fox
+tracks that had just been made. The animal was probably
+disturbed by our approach. These are the most northerly
+animal tracks ever seen."</p>
+
+<p>Certainly. Why not? Since they were so near the northern
+termination of the land ice discovered by Dr. Cook. In
+this connection it is also important to remark that between
+latitude 88 and his approximate approach to the Pole, Dr.
+Cook makes no mention of animal life, and this is corroborated
+by Peary's own statement that he observed no tracks of animals
+beyond the 88th parallel. Thus Peary corroborated Cook by
+the very absence of animal life in the very region where Cook
+states he saw no land.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Peary's Statements Prove Cook's</span></h3>
+
+<p>On Peary's return journey he states that as they approached
+Grant Land the fresh tracks of foxes and other evidences
+of animal life were very numerous. And if the nearness
+of land was evidenced in this case it is also clear that the tracks
+and appearance of animals on his journey in the high latitudes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_592" id="Page_592">[Pg 592]</a></span>
+should be given equal weight as evidence of the lands discovered
+by Cook.</p>
+
+<p>The line of deep sea soundings taken by Peary from Cape
+Columbia northward indicates a steady increase in depth to
+latitude 84&deg; 24&#697;, where the lead touched bottom at eight hundred
+and twenty-five fathoms, until, in latitude 85&deg; 23&#697;, the
+sounding showed a depth of but three hundred and ten fathoms.
+Referring to this, we find that Peary says, on page 338 of his
+narrative: "This diminution in depth is a fact of considerable
+interest in reference to the possible existence of land to the
+westward."</p>
+
+<p>It seems to me that it is not impertinent to remark that this
+land to the westward was scarcely two sleeps distant, as Dr.
+Cook has steadfastly maintained. Finally, on page 346, Peary
+says: "Taking various facts into consideration it would seem
+that an obstruction (lands, islands or shoals) containing nearly
+half a million square statute miles probably exists, and another
+at or near Crocker Land."</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">More Accurate Observations by Cook Than by Peary</span></h3>
+
+<p>And this is all that Dr. Cook claims in his location of land
+to the northward of the very Crocker Land to which Peary
+alludes.</p>
+
+<p>As to Dr. Cook's and Peary's observations when in the
+immediate vicinity of the Pole, I would call attention to the
+following facts: Cook's determination by the sextant of the
+sun's altitude was made April 21, 1908; Peary's final observations
+were taken April 7 of the following year. The sun being
+thus two weeks higher at the time Cook made his observations,
+he was able to secure a more accurate series of altitudes, and
+this will have an important bearing in substantiation of his
+claims.</p>
+
+<p>Considering the difficulty which Peary has had in proving
+whether he was at 1.6 miles from the Pole on the Grant Land
+side or the Bering Strait side, and whether he was ten or fifteen
+miles away, I think Dr. Cook was justified in saying that, al<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_593" id="Page_593">[Pg 593]</a></span>though
+he believed he was at the North Pole, he is not claiming
+that he had been exactly at the pin-point of the North Pole.
+At any rate, it places Dr. Cook in the position of endeavoring
+to tell the truth.</p>
+
+<p>In this connection I feel like replying to a criticism which
+Mr. Grosvenor, editor of the National Geographic Magazine,
+published over his own signature immediately following Dr.
+Cook's return from the Pole. "Cook's story reads like that of a
+man who had filled his head with the contents of a few books on
+polar expeditions and especially the writings of Sverdrup."</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Armchair Criticisms Unfair</span></h3>
+
+<p>Now, since Sverdrup is a real navigator, having accompanied
+Nansen during his three years' drift on the Fram, and,
+following this, having himself organized and led an expedition
+during three years to the westward of Grinnell Land, in the
+course of which he discovered and charted, in 1902, Heiberg
+Land and contiguous islands (which, however, Peary charted
+four years later and named Jessup Land), I do not consider
+Mr. Grosvenor's armchair criticism of the writings of Capt.
+Sverdrup and of Dr. Cook quite in keeping with the principles
+of a square deal and fair play.</p>
+
+<p>Among the reasons which Peary assigns for doubting
+Dr. Cook is one pertaining to the original records which Dr.
+Cook unwillingly left at Etah. The leaving behind of these
+papers, according to Peary, was merely a scheme on Cook's
+part, so that he might claim they had been lost or destroyed
+and thus escape being forced to produce them in substantiation
+of his claim. Recently, when I asked Dr. Cook about this, his
+reply was: "This does not sound very manly. If this was
+so in Peary's belief, why did he not bring them back? Here
+was absolute proof in his own hands. Why did he bury it?"</p>
+
+<p>Armchair geographers and renegades may endeavor to
+discredit Dr. Cook, but the seals and polar bears and little foxes
+will bear testimony of unimpeachable character to substantiate
+his claims as the discoverer of the North Pole. The reading<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_594" id="Page_594">[Pg 594]</a></span>
+public will not forget that when Paul Du Chaillu, returning
+from his expedition to Africa, reported the discovery of the
+pigmies, he was denounced as a faker and a liar. For three
+years Du Chaillu, as he has told me himself, sought in vain to re-establish
+his credibility, and when at the end of that time he
+succeeded in bringing some of the pigmies and exhibiting them
+before the scientific bodies of the world, then the "doubting
+Thomases" were obliged to give him credit as the discoverer of
+the African dwarfs. The yellow press and sensation mongers
+will decry Dr. Cook as they did Du Chaillu, for some years to
+come, but Arctic explorers endorse him to-day.</p>
+
+<p>Rear Admiral W. S. Schley, General A. W. Greely, Captain
+Otto Sverdrup, Captain Roald Amundsen, and all the
+world's greatest explorers have indorsed Dr. Cook.</p>
+
+<p>I have seen Dr. Cook's original field notes, his observations,
+and the important chapters of his book, wherein his claim
+is presented in such a way that the scientific world must accept
+it as the record and the proof of the greatest geographic accomplishment
+of modern times.</p>
+
+<p>Putting aside the academic and idle argument of pin-point
+accuracy&mdash;the North Pole has been honestly reached by Dr.
+Cook 350 days before anyone else claimed to have been there.</p>
+
+<p class="ralign">(Signed) <span class="smcap">Evelyn Briggs Baldwin.</span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 100%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_595" id="Page_595">[Pg 595]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<h2>VERDICT OF THE GEOGRAPHIC HISTORIAN</h2>
+
+<h4>DR. COOK'S RECORD IS ACCURATE<br />
+IT IS CERTIFIED&mdash;IT IS CORROBORATED</h4>
+
+<h4>HE IS THE DISCOVERER OF<br />
+THE NORTH POLE</h4>
+
+<h4>By <span class="smcap">Edwin Swift Balch</span></h4>
+
+<p class="center">(From the N. Y. Tribune, April 14, 1913)</p>
+
+
+<p>Which was it: Cook or Peary? Who discovered the North
+Pole? Everybody thought the question had been settled long
+ago, but now comes an eminent geographer and explorer, who
+says, over his name, that both got to the "Big Nail," and that it
+was the Brooklyn doctor who did it first. And in defense of his
+belief he cites chapter and verse, and uses Peary's own story
+to prove that his hated rival it was who first stood at the top
+of the earth, "where every one of the cardinal points is South."</p>
+
+<p>The intrepid defender of Cook is Edwin Swift Balch, fellow
+of the Association for the Advancement of Science, member of
+the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society, the Franklin
+Institute, American Philosophical, American Geographical and
+Royal Geographical Societies, writer on arctic, antarctic geographical
+and ethnological topics for the learned societies of the
+world. Dr. Balch lives at No. 1412 Spruce street, Philadelphia,
+and the title of his book, just published by Campion &amp; Co., of
+Philadelphia, is "The North Pole and Bradley Land."</p>
+
+
+<h3>"<span class="smcap">All Travellers Called Liars</span>"</h3>
+
+<p>"From time immemorial travellers have been called liars,"
+says Mr. Balch in a chapter devoted to "travellers who were
+first doubted and afterward vindicated," and it is on this general
+assumption of their Munchausen-like proclivities that much of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_596" id="Page_596">[Pg 596]</a></span>
+the weight of argument depends. But most of all the truthfulness
+of the doctor's assertion that on April 21, 1908, he and his
+two Eskimo boys, E-tuk-i-shook and Ah-we-lah, reached the
+goal and "were the only pulsating creatures in a dead world of
+ice," is shown by the fact that conditions reported by Cook as
+existing there were corroborated by Peary.</p>
+
+<p>"The man who breaks into the unknown may say what
+he chooses and present such astronomical observations as he
+sees fit," says Mr. Balch, "but his proof rests on his word. But
+if the next traveller corroborated the discoverer, instantly the
+first man's statements are immeasurably strengthened.</p>
+
+<p>"To solve such a problem as that of who discovered the
+North Pole, this comparative method seems to the writer the
+only one available. It is not a matter of belief, it is a matter
+of comparison and reasoning. It is not the evidence which Cook
+produces <i>which in itself alone could prove Cook's claims</i>. It is
+the geographical evidence offered by both Cook and Peary,
+which, when carefully compared, affords, in the writer's judgment,
+the only means of arriving at a conclusion. It is Peary's
+statements and observations which prove, as far as can be proved
+at present, Cook's statements."</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">All Discoverers First Doubted</span></h3>
+
+<p>The writer then mentions a score of the great discoverers
+and explorers of history who have been defamed and berated
+by their contemporaries, yet whose achievements have in time
+proved them to be truth tellers. Marco Polo, "greatest of mediaeval
+travellers, was generally discredited." Amerigo Vespucci
+"to this day remains under a cloud for things he did not do."
+Fernao Mendes Pinto, Nathaniel B. Palmer, Robert Johnson,
+James Weddell, von Drygalski, Nordenskjold, Bruce, Charcot,
+Dr. Krapf, Dr. Robmann, Du Chaillu, Stanley, Livingstone,
+Colter, all have been reviled as fabricators, yet all have been
+honored by those who came later, he says.</p>
+
+<p>"There are three records of Dr. Cook's journey of 1908,"
+says the writer. "Cook's first announcement was a long cable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_597" id="Page_597">[Pg 597]</a></span>gram
+sent from Lerwick, Shetland Islands, and published in the
+'New York Herald' of September 2, 1909. The full original
+narrative was sent immediately after this and published in the
+'New York Herald' between September 15 and October 7, 1909,
+with the title 'The Conquest of the Pole.'</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Both of these were written and sent before Cook could, by
+any possibility, have seen or heard of any of the results of Peary's
+last expedition.</i></p>
+
+<p>The third record is Cook's book "My Attainment of the
+Pole," which is simply an enlargement on the earlier story.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Cook Must Have Been First</span></h3>
+
+<p>The point here emphasized is that Cook could not have
+had anything on which to base his description of conditions
+north of 83:20 north latitude, and as his description agreed with
+that later given by Peary, there could be no doubt that Cook
+was there first.</p>
+
+<p>"The reason for this is that these statements can be based
+on nothing but Cook's own observations," says Mr. Balch, "for
+Cook started for Denmark from South Greenland before Peary
+started for Labrador from North Greenland, and therefore everything
+Cook stated or wrote or published immediately after his
+arrival in Europe must be based on what Cook observed or
+experienced himself.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Cook's original narrative stands on its own merits; it is the
+first and most vital proof of Cook's veracity, and yet it has passed
+almost unnoticed.</i></p>
+
+<p>The points on which the two accounts, Cook's and Peary's,
+of conditions at 90 degrees north agree most fundamentally, and
+hence most definitely establish the truthfulness of Cook, are
+first the "account of the land sighted in 84:20 north to 85:11
+north (Bradley Land). The second is the glacial land ice in
+87-88 degrees north. The third is the account of the discovery
+of the North Pole and the description of the ice at the North
+Pole."</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_598" id="Page_598">[Pg 598]</a></span></p>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Cook's Three Achievements</span></h3>
+
+<p>Cook's first great discovery, the writer holds, was Bradley
+Land, named after his friend and backer. This land, Cook
+declared, had a great crevasse in it, making it appear like two
+islands, the southerly one starting at 84:20 north. Peary made
+no mention of land north of 83:20 north.</p>
+
+<p>"Whether there is land or water in the intervening sixty
+geographical miles is a problem," says the writer, "but in order
+to be perfectly fair to both explorers and to allow for errors in
+observation one might split the difference at 83:50 north and
+consider that latitude as a dividing line between the lands discovered
+respectively by Cook and Peary."</p>
+
+<p>"The second important discovery of Cook's is the glacial
+land ice in 87 north to 87 north-88 north," says the writer. "A
+closely similar occurrence was observed by Peary on his 1906
+trip in about 86 north, 60 west."</p>
+
+<p>But the most important particular in which the two men
+agree, in the mind of Mr. Balch, is in their description of the
+ice at the pole. Cook reported that it was "a smooth sheet of
+level ice." The writer adds: "if that description of the North
+Pole is accurate, the writing of it by Cook, first of all men, on
+the face of it is proof that Cook is the discoverer of the North
+Pole."</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Snow Was Purple</span></h3>
+
+<p>But not only was the ice at the pole smooth and level, but
+the snow there was "purple" in the story of Cook, a detail in
+which he is again borne out by Peary.</p>
+
+<p>"Purple snow," says the writer, "is a linguistic expression,
+an attempt to suggest with words what Frank Wilbert Stokes
+has done with paints in his superb pictures of the polar regions.
+Hence," he says, "the use of the word 'purple' by Dr. Cook,
+who is not a trained artist, proves that he has the eye of an
+impressionist painter and that he is an extremely accurate observer
+of his surroundings....<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_599" id="Page_599">[Pg 599]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>That Cook's description is accurate is in the next place
+certified to by Peary. Peary corroborates Cook absolutely
+about conditions enroute to the North Pole; and Cook is corroborated
+by Peary, not only by what Peary saw, but by what
+Peary did. If there was anything in the Western Arctic between
+the North Pole and 87:47 north but 'an endless field of purple
+snows,' smooth and slippery, Peary could not have covered the
+intervening 133 geographical miles in two days and a few hours.
+Peary, therefore, from observation and from actual physical
+performance proves that Cook's most important statement is
+true."</p>
+
+<p>The evidence is thus examined, step by step. The statements
+of the two men are compared, word by word, and this is
+the conclusion reached:</p>
+
+<p>"In view of all these facts it becomes certain that Cook
+must have written his description of the North Pole from his
+own observations, for until Cook actually traversed the Western
+Arctic between 88 degrees north and the North Pole, and told
+the world the facts, no one could have said whether in that area
+there was land or sea, nor have stated anything of the conditions
+of its ice, with its unusual, perhaps unique, flat surface.</p>
+
+<p>"But Cook, in his first cable dispatch, stated definitely and
+positively and finally that at the North Pole there was no land,
+but sea, frozen over into smooth ice, and Peary confirmed Cook's
+statements.</p>
+
+<p>"Cook was accurate, and the only possible inference is that
+Cook was accurate because Cook knew; and the further inevitable
+conclusion is that since Cook knew, Cook had been at the North
+Pole."</p>
+
+<p>(<i>Ed.</i>) In personal letters Balch further says, "I have tried
+to look at it as if this were the year 2013, and all of us in heaven....
+It is only a question of time till Dr. Cook is recognized
+as the discoverer of the North Pole."</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 100%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_600" id="Page_600">[Pg 600]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<h2>FOR A NATIONAL INVESTIGATION<br />
+
+<br />A REQUEST</h2>
+
+<h4>By <span class="smcap">Dr. Frederick A. Cook</span></h4>
+
+
+<p>For three years I have sought in various ways to bring about
+a National investigation of the relative merits of the Polar Attainment
+and the unjust propaganda of distrust which followed.
+Such an investigation would do no harm if the original work and
+the later criticism has been done in good faith. Why has it
+been refused? To take the ground that it is a private matter
+and that the Government has taken no official part in the Polar
+race is to assume a false position. The injustice of this evasive
+policy is brought out in my telegram to former President Taft&mdash;and
+again in my letter to President Wilson. To compel such
+an investigation and to appoint Arctic explorers as National
+experts has been my main mission on the platform. Much
+against my will I have been forced to adopt the usual political
+tactics of getting to the voters to force action by Congress and
+the official circles of Washington.</p>
+
+<p>When in 1911 the bill was introduced in Congress to retire
+Peary as a Rear Admiral with a pension, I supposed that this
+would automatically bring about a thorough scientific examination
+of the merits of the rival Polar claims. And such an investigation
+I then believed would surely bring about the only reward
+I have ever claimed&mdash;The appreciation of my fellow countrymen.
+It was however, as I learned later, a bold Pro-Peary movement
+fostered by lobbyists whose conscience was eased by drippings
+from the Hubbard-Bridgeman Arctic Trust, but I still believed
+that the dictates of National prestige were such that the usual
+white-washing and rail-roading process could not be adopted
+in a question of such International importance. I did not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_601" id="Page_601">[Pg 601]</a></span>
+begrudge Mr. Peary a pension if honest methods were pursued
+to adjust the bitterly fought contention in the eyes of the world.
+My friends made no protest in Congress. As matters progressed,
+however, I saw that such men as Prof. Willis Moore and others
+of his kind&mdash;men I had previously trusted as honest, really proved
+themselves, double-faced, political back-scratchers. Then I
+changed my tactics. When one's honor is bartered by thieves
+under the guise of friends&mdash;and when these thieves are part of a
+government from which justice is expected&mdash;Then one is bound
+to uncover the leprous spots of one's accusers. I am glad to
+note that Prof. Moore, the President of the National Geographic
+Society, has since been exposed as being too crooked to fit into
+a berth of the present administration. There are others whose
+long fingers have been in the Polar-pie who will also meet their
+fate as time exposes their flat-heads.</p>
+
+<p>To call a halt on this National Humbug where only official
+chair-warmers and political crooks served as experts, I sent
+the following telegram to former President Taft:</p>
+
+
+<h4>COPY OF TELEGRAM SENT TO
+FORMER PRESIDENT TAFT</h4>
+
+<div class="sblockquot">
+<p class="ralign">Omaha, Neb., March 4, 1911</p>
+
+<p class="noin">The President&mdash;The White House,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Washington, D. C.</span></p>
+
+<p>When you sign the Peary bill you are honoring a man with sin-soiled hands
+who has taken money from our innocent school children. A part of this money
+I believe was used to make Arctic concubines comfortable. I am ready to produce
+others of the same opinion. Thus for twenty years while in the pay of the
+navy, supplied with luxuries from the public purse, Peary has enjoyed, apparently
+with National consent, the privilege denied the Mormons.</p>
+
+<p>There are at least two children now in the cheerless north crying for bread
+and milk and a father. These are growing witnesses of Peary's leprous character.
+Will you endorse it?</p>
+
+<p>By endorsing Peary you are upholding the cowardly verdict of Chester,
+Tittman and Gannett, who bartered their souls to Peary's interests by suppressing
+the worthlessness of the material upon which they passed. These men on the
+Government pay-roll have stooped to a dishonor that should make all fair-minded
+people blush with shame. This underhanded performance calls for an investigation.
+Will you close these dark chamber doings to the light of justice?</p>
+
+<p>In this bill you are honoring one, who in seeking funds for legitimate
+exploration, has passed the hat along the line of easy money for twenty years. Much
+of this money was in my judgment used to promote a lucrative fur and ivory
+trade, while the real effort of getting to the pole was delayed seemingly for commercial
+gain. Thus engaged in a propaganda of hypocrisy he stooped to immer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_602" id="Page_602">[Pg 602]</a></span>ality
+and dishonor and ultimately when his game of fleecing the public was threatened,
+he tried to kill a brother explorer. The stain of at least two other lives is
+on this man. This bill covers a page in history against which the spirits of murdered
+men cry for redress.</p>
+
+<p>Peary is covered with the scabs of unmentionable indecency, and for him
+your hand is about to put the seal of clean approval upon the dirtiest campaign
+of bribery, conspiracy and black-dishonor that the world has ever known.</p>
+
+<p>If you can close your eyes to this, sign the Peary bill.</p>
+
+<p class="ralign">(Signed) <span class="smcap">Frederick A. Cook</span></p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>The telegram was received but not acknowledged&mdash;the
+Peary bill was signed. But the false assumption of Peary's
+"Discovery of the Pole" was eliminated from the bill. There is
+therefore no National endorsement of Peary; though he was given
+an evasive Old Age Pension which the newspapers quoted incorrectly
+as an official recognition of Peary's claim to polar priority.</p>
+
+<p>I now appeal to President Wilson and the present administration
+to make some official endeavor to clear our National
+emblem of the stain of the envious Polar contention. To that
+end I have written the following letter:</p>
+
+<h4>AN APPEAL TO PRESIDENT WILSON</h4>
+
+<p class="center">(COPY OF A LETTER)</p>
+
+<div class="sblockquot">
+<p class="ralign">Chicago, May 1, 1913</p>
+<p class="noin">Honored Sir:</p>
+
+<p>I appeal to you to forward a movement which will adjust in the eyes of
+the world the contention regarding the rival Polar claims. The American Eagle
+has spread its wings of glory over the world's top. It would seem to be a National
+duty to determine officially whether there is room for one or two under those
+wings.</p>
+
+<p>The graves of our worthy ancestors are marks in the ascent of the ladder
+of latitudes. Hundreds of lives, millions of dollars, have been sacrificed in the
+quest of the Pole. The success at last attained has lifted the United States to
+the first ranks as a Nation of Scientific Pioneers. Every true American has
+quivered with an extra thrill of pride with the knowledge that the unknown boreal
+center has been pierced and that the stars and stripes have been put to the virgin
+breezes of the North Pole. The unjustified and ungracious controversy which
+followed has wounded our National honor; it has left a stain upon our flag. Is it
+not, therefore, our duty as a Nation to dispel the cloud of contention resting over
+the glory of Polar attainment?</p>
+
+<p>I have given twenty years to the life-sapping task of Polar exploration&mdash;all
+without pay&mdash;all for the benefit of future man. Returning&mdash;asking for nothing,
+expecting only brotherly appreciation of my fellow countrymen, I am compelled
+to face an unjust battle of political intrigues by men in the pay of the Government.
+My effort now is not for money nor for a pension, but to defend my honor and
+that of my family. The future of my children demands an exposition of the
+unfair methods of the arm-chair geographers in Washington. However, I do
+not ask the administration to defend me or my posterity, but do ask that the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_603" id="Page_603">[Pg 603]</a></span>
+men who draw a salary from the National treasury be made answerable for a
+propaganda of character assassination, among these is Prof. Willis Moore and
+others of the so-called National Geographic Society.</p>
+
+<p>The National Geographic Society with Prof. Moore as President is responsible
+for the false interpretation of the rival Polar claims. This society is a private
+organization used mostly for political purposes; for two dollars per year a college
+professor or a street-sweeper becomes with equal facility a "national geographer."
+It is, therefore, not "national" nor "geographic," and when this society poses as
+a scientific body, it is an imposition upon American intelligence, and yet it is this
+society, with the well-known political trickery of Prof. Moore, which has attempted
+to decide for the world the merits of Polar attainment. An investigation of the
+wrong doings of this society will quickly bring to light the injustice of the Polar
+controversy.</p>
+
+<p>A commission of Polar explorers appointed by National authority will
+end for all times the problem of the rival Polar claims. There is an abundance
+of material on both sides by which such a commission could come to a reasonable
+conclusion. The general impression that the Polar contention has been scientifically
+determined is not true. There has been no real investigation into either
+claim. Such an investigation could only be made by Arctic explorers, and to
+bring about this end I would suggest the appointment of an International Commission
+of such men as General A. W. Greely, U. S. A., Captain Otto Sverdrup
+of Norway and Professor Georges Lecointe of Belgium. Their decision would
+be accepted everywhere. Greely and Sverdrup have each spent four years in
+the very region under discussion, and Lecointe is the Secretary of the International
+Bureau for Polar Research and also director of the Royal Observatory of Belgium.
+Such men will render a decision free from personal bias, free from National prejudice
+and their verdict will be accepted by the Nations of the world.</p>
+
+<p>Though I am an interested party I insist that my appeal is not altogether
+a personal one. In the interest of that deep-seated American sense of fair play,
+in the interest of National honor, in the interest of the glory of our flag, it would
+seem to be a National duty to have the distrust of the Polar attainment cleared
+by an International commission.</p>
+
+<p class="ralign">
+<span style="margin-right: 5em;">Respectfully submitted,</span><br />
+(Signed) <span class="smcap">Frederick A. Cook</span></p>
+
+<p class="noin">
+To the President,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">The White House,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Washington, D. C.</span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>Thousands of requests similar to those reproduced below
+have gone to various officials in Washington. Such appeals
+demand action.</p>
+
+<div class="sblockquot">
+<p class="ralign">Chicago, May 7, 1913</p>
+
+<p class="noin">Mr. Josephus Daniels, Secretary of the Navy,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Washington, D. C.</span></p>
+
+<p class="noin">Dear Sir:</p>
+
+<p>Rear Admiral Peary wears the stripes of the Navy, he is drawing a pension
+of $6,000.00 per year from the tax-payers&mdash;The National dictates of honor compel
+such a man to be clean morally&mdash;honest and upright officially. Dr. Cook has
+publicly made charges against Peary which relegate this Naval Officer to the rank
+of a common thief and degenerate. In his book, "My Attainment of the Pole,"
+(Mitchell-Kennedy, N. Y.) there are specific charges made which call for an
+investigation. These charges have remained unanswered for three years&mdash;Why?</p>
+
+<p>In the Polar controversy the flag has been dragged through muck, and this
+dishonor seems to rest upon a man for whose actions you are responsible.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_604" id="Page_604">[Pg 604]</a></span></p>
+<p>The American people have a right to demand an investigation into the
+intrigue of the Peary Polar Propaganda, and as one believing in justice at the
+bar of public opinion, I ask that you take steps to clear this cloud in the eyes of
+the world.</p>
+
+<p class="ralign">
+<span style="margin-right: 10em;">Respectfully,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-right: 7em;"><span class="smcap">Fred High</span></span><br />
+<span style="margin-right: 4em;">Editor of <i>The Platform</i>,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-right: 1em;">The Lyceum and Chautauqua Magazine,</span><br />
+Steinway Hall, Chicago.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="ralign">Chicago, May 22, 1913.</p>
+
+<p class="noin">To Congressman James R. Mann,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Washington, D. C.</span></p>
+
+<p class="noin">Dear Sir:</p>
+
+<p>The conquest of the North Pole has lifted the United States to a first
+position as a Nation of scientific pioneers. The controversy which followed is a
+blot on our flag and it is a slur at our National honor. From the Government
+purse and from private resources we have spent millions to reach the top of the
+earth; it would appear therefore to be our duty as a Nation to adjust the Polar
+contention in the eyes of the world.</p>
+
+<p>If Dr. Cook has reached the Pole, a year earlier than Peary, as most Arctic
+explorers believe, then the seeming endorsement and the pension of the Naval
+officer is an injustice to Dr. Cook and an imposition on the public; if both have
+reached the Pole then there should be a suitable recognition and reward extended
+to each. As one of thousands of American citizens, I beg of you to forward a
+movement which will bring about a National investigation into this problem,
+with a suitable provision for a proper recognition.</p>
+
+<p class="ralign">
+<span style="margin-right: 10em;">Respectfully,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-right: 5em;">CHARLES W. FERGUSON,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-right: 4em;">Pres.,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-right: 2em;">The Chautauqua Managers Association,</span><br />
+Orchestra Bldg., Chicago.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 100%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_605" id="Page_605">[Pg 605]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<h2>CAN THE GOVERNMENT ESCAPE THE
+RESPONSIBILITY?</h2>
+
+<h4><span class="smcap">By Fred High</span></h4>
+
+
+<p>While the Danes were royally entertaining Dr. Cook on
+September 4th, 1909, telegrams were being showered upon him
+by all the world. The King of Sweden sent this message:</p>
+
+<p class="center">"A BRILLIANT DEED, OF WHICH THE AMERICAN PEOPLE MAY
+RIGHTLY BE PROUD."</p>
+
+<p>The American minister to Denmark made Dr. Cook's visit
+state business and joined in the effort to share Cook's honors.
+Dr. Cook paused in the midst of all this splendor to cable the following
+message to our President:</p>
+
+<div class="sblockquot">
+<p class="ralign">Copenhagen, Sept. 4, 1909.</p>
+
+<p class="noin">President,<br />
+&nbsp; &nbsp;The White House, Washington.</p>
+
+<p>I have the honor to report to the chief magistrate of the United States
+that I have returned, having reached the North Pole."</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>To which President Taft cabled the following reply:</p>
+
+<div class="sblockquot">
+<p class="ralign">Beverly, Mass., Sept. 4, 1909.</p>
+
+<p class="noin">Frederick A. Cook,<br />
+&nbsp; &nbsp;Copenhagen, Denmark.</p>
+
+<p>Your dispatch received. Your report that you have reached the North
+Pole calls for my heartiest congratulations, and stirs the pride of all Americans
+that this feat which has so long baffled the world has been accomplished by the
+intelligent energy and wonderful endurance of a fellow countryman."</p>
+
+<p class="ralign"><span class="smcap">William H. Taft.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>Was President Taft speaking for the American people when
+he called Dr. Cook's achievement the pride of all Americans?
+Were we ready to share Cook's joys? Share his honors? If so,
+then in all fairness, should we not share in his trials and tribulations?
+Are we like the crazy base ball fan who cheers a pitching
+hero when he wins and insults him with all kinds of vile epithets
+when he loses?</p>
+
+<p>For one I shared in that thrill of pride and was glad to know
+that I had had dealings with Dr. Cook before he went in search
+of the Pole, consequently, I felt in honor bound to withhold any
+hasty criticisms that I might feel tempted to hurl at Dr. Cook.
+All who joined in his praises should insist upon it that he be given
+a chance to disprove every charge that has been brought against
+him, that he be given a chance to explain his every act before<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_606" id="Page_606">[Pg 606]</a></span>
+we join in the cry to crucify him. "Crucify him, or give us the
+most contemptible coward, moral leper and political crook that
+has lived in our time," if Dr. Cook's charges are true.</p>
+
+<p>Believing that this is a matter that ought to be fairly settled
+by competent and orderly methods, I have written to several
+congressmen and senators, and the following correspondence
+speaks for itself:</p>
+
+<div class="sblockquot">
+<p class="ralign">Chicago, Illinois, May 7, 1913.</p>
+
+<p class="noin">Hon. Wooda N. Carr,<br />
+&nbsp; &nbsp; Washington, D. C.</p>
+
+<p class="noin">Dear Sir:</p>
+
+<p>I wish to ask a personal favor of you, one that I think the public is interested
+in and one that I think the world ought to know more about. It is the
+Cook-Peary controversy. I have given this considerable thought and study.
+I have heard Dr. Cook lecture a number of times and have talked to him personally
+and tried to find out from every angle the facts as to whether or not his story
+is true. So far I have been unable to find a flaw in any of his statements, and Mr.
+Peary by his actions has given every evidence that Dr. Cook is telling the truth.
+Therefore, as a citizen who is interested in the larger affairs of this country, and
+as the editor of The Platform, which is devoted to the Lyceum and Chautauqua
+movement, I am asking whether or not it would be compatible with fair play and
+our sense of justice and real national dignity to take this controversy out of the
+hands of individuals and settle it by an official tribunal, or by a commission of
+arctic explorers.</p>
+
+<p>I shall be very glad, indeed, if you will inform me of what steps could best
+be taken to bring about the settlement of this controversy. If there are any
+authoritative facts developed along this line, I will be glad to know where to
+locate them as my sole object is to learn the truth.</p>
+
+<p>Under separate cover I am sending you copy of The Platform which contains
+Doctor Cook's letter to President Wilson, which I hope you will read.</p>
+
+<p class="ralign">
+<span style="margin-right: 4em;">Yours very truly,</span><br />
+(Signed) <span class="smcap">Fred High</span>.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="ralign">
+<span style="margin-right: 6em;">House of Representatives, U. S.</span><br />
+Washington, D. C., May 13, 1913.</p>
+
+<p class="noin">Mr. Fred High,<br />
+&nbsp; &nbsp; 602 Steinway Hall,<br />
+&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Chicago, Ill.</p>
+
+<p class="noin">Dear Sir:
+</p>
+
+<p>Your letter of the 7th inst., regarding the Cook-Peary controversy, received.
+I do not think it would be possible to get Congress to interfere in this
+matter. It is a question of little concern to many who discovered the Pole, or
+whether it was discovered at all. It seems to be a personal matter, the settlement
+of which should be determined by the persons interested.</p>
+
+<p class="ralign">
+<span style="margin-right: 5em;">Very truly yours,</span><br />
+(Signed) <span class="smcap">Wooda N. Carr</span>.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>Is it a matter of no concern whether or not the North Pole
+has been discovered? Is it a matter of no concern whether a man
+can fake a story about having discovered the North Pole, receive
+the homage of the world, fleece the American public out of thousands
+of dollars for fees to hear his lecture and go unpunished?
+If Dr. Cook has hoaxed the world as so many have charged him
+with having done, this is more than a private matter.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_607" id="Page_607">[Pg 607]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>If Dr. Cook has discovered the North Pole, are we acting
+the part of fellow countrymen by shirking our duty? Shall Congress
+say that the clique at Washington either make good its
+charges against Dr. Cook, or be made to retract and stand disgraced
+in the eyes of the world? We shared Cook's honors.
+Will we shirk when he calls upon his countrymen for a square
+deal?</p>
+
+<p>The following letter was received from Senator Miles
+Poindexter and should be carefully studied:</p>
+
+<div class="sblockquot">
+<p class="center">United States Senate, Committee on Expenditures in the War Department.</p>
+
+<p class="ralign">Washington, D. C. May 9, 1913.</p>
+
+<p class="noin">Mr. Fred High, Editor,<br />
+&nbsp; &nbsp; The Platform, 602 Steinway Hall,<br />
+&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 64 E. Van Buren St.,<br />
+&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Chicago, Illinois.</p>
+
+<p class="noin">My dear Mr. High:</p>
+
+<p>I have yours of 7th inst., and was very much pleased to know that you are
+interested in securing a fair examination, officially if possible, into Dr. Cook's
+claims of discovery.</p>
+
+<p>Ever since the Cook-Peary controversy began, I have paid more or less
+close attention to the questions involved therein. I have talked with a number
+of residents around the neighborhood of Mt. McKinley, Alaska, some of whom
+are friendly and some unfriendly to Dr. Cook; have read with great care Dr.
+Cook's book describing his polar expedition; and have followed through the newspapers
+and otherwise the various phases of the controversy and happenings in
+connection therewith. As a lawyer, I have always been especially interested in
+the study of the credibility of witnesses, the weight of evidence; and in deducing
+logical conclusions therefrom. From the careful consideration of the comparative
+character of the witnesses for and against Dr. Cook, their motives, and the attitude
+and hearing throughout the controversy of Cook and Peary themselves, I
+have a very fixed and firm conviction that Dr. Cook's story is true. I believe
+the majority of the people of the country who are interested in the subject are
+of the same opinion.</p>
+
+<p>From my observation of the miserable petty cliques and factional squabbles
+in official circles of the Government, such for instance as the Sampson-Schley
+controversy and innumerable smaller disputes, I have long ago ceased to accept,
+as necessarily correct, official evidence merely because it is official.</p>
+
+<p>I have not yet seen a copy of The Platform containing Dr. Cook's letter
+to President Wilson which you say you are forwarding me under separate cover,
+and when received will read it with much interest. Not having read it, I do not
+know just what plan Dr. Cook proposes for an official investigation. I will be glad
+however, to learn the basis upon which it is proposed to make the test an official
+investigation. It occurs to me that it is entirely a private matter and that the
+Government officially has nothing to do with it. Every man has as much right
+as any other man to form a conclusion in the case; public opinion, if the facts
+can be presented to the public, is the best judgment. I would be apprehensive of
+submitting the absolute determination of the question to an official tribunal for
+the reasons, among others, which I have mentioned above. However, will be
+glad to learn further as stated of the proposal.</p>
+
+<p>With kind regards.</p>
+
+<p class="ralign">
+<span style="margin-right: 7em;">Very truly yours,</span><br />
+(Signed) <span class="smcap">Miles Poindexter.</span></p>
+</div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_608" id="Page_608">[Pg 608]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Senator Poindexter's letter is a stricture on official Washington
+that ought to cause every true patriot to blush with shame.
+Are we at the point where even an impartial investigation can
+not be had into the controversy as to who discovered the North
+Pole?</p>
+
+<p>There are thousands who believe this is a question that
+touches our national honor and therefore is a rightful subject for
+a Congressional Investigation. Those who believe this, ought
+to write to their representatives at Washington and urge such
+action as will lay the facts before the world.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 15%;' />
+
+<p>The following letter from Hon. Champ Clark is worthy of
+much consideration as it reveals the real status of this controversy
+as it exists in official circles.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Cook is a private citizen with no Cook Arctic club to
+back him and share his gains. No National Geographical Society
+helped to finance his venture with the hope of managing his
+lectures as a sort of bureau graft. He is a private citizen.</p>
+
+<p>Speaker Clark's letter furnishes us with the reason for
+asking Congress to take a hand in this affair for it shows how
+ready our statesmen are to give ear when the people speak:</p>
+
+<h4>THE SPEAKER'S ROOM<br />
+HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES</h4>
+
+<h5>WASHINGTON, D. C.</h5>
+
+<div class="sblockquot">
+<p class="ralign">May 10, 1913.</p>
+
+<p class="noin">
+Mr. Fred High,<br />
+&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Editor of The Platform,<br />
+&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Chicago, Illinois.
+</p>
+
+<p class="noin">My dear Mr. High:</p>
+
+<p>I have your letter touching the Cook-Peary controversy. I note what
+you say. I do not see clearly what it is that you are suggesting. That is, whether
+you want Congress to formulate some plan to determine the matter by appointing
+a commission of Arctic explorers, or exactly what it is that you do want.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, I do not know very much about Arctic explorations and do not
+set a very high store on them as I never could understand what sort of good would
+come of locating the North Pole. I am a good deal of a utilitarian, and am a
+disciple of the Baconian philosophy rather than of the philosophy of Aristotle
+and the Greek school. To tell the truth, I have always had a hazy sort of an
+idea that both Cook and Peary discovered the North Pole. I have not valued
+my opinion highly enough to undertake to exploit it or to induce anybody else
+to believe it as I have enough other matters on hand to employ the time and
+attention of one man.</p>
+
+<p>Wishing you success, I am</p>
+
+<p class="ralign">
+<span style="margin-right: 7em;">Your friend,</span><br />
+(Signed) <span class="smcap">Champ Clark</span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_609" id="Page_609">[Pg 609]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The following opinion of the men on the Chautauqua platform
+is attributed to our good friend from Missouri:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">"The Chautauqua has been a powerful force in
+directing the political thought of the country, which is
+largely sociological in these latter days. I approve the
+Chautauqua lecturers, with whom I have been associated,
+because they constitute as fine a group of men
+and women as can be found among the splendid citizenship
+of America. I have a deep and abiding interest
+in them, and bid them a hearty godspeed in their
+work."</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Cook is perhaps the leading Chautauqua lecturer of
+the present season. He is now booked to appear at seventy
+Chautauquas this Summer and it is certain that even the genial
+Speaker of the House wouldn't want to associate with a man
+who would hoax the world for gain. Certainly he wouldn't
+want "The greatest liar of the Century" to be one of the powerful
+forces directing the political thoughts of the Century. If Dr.
+Cook discovered the North Pole he should be given the credit
+for that great achievement.</p>
+
+<p>We certainly have a right to see to it that neither Dr. Cook
+nor Mr. Peary are treated as though they were the scum of the
+earth. Dr. Cook has brought charges against Mr. Peary as a
+Naval officer. He still brings these charges, and he should be
+made to prove them. Peary, an officer of the Navy, has brought
+charges against Cook and he should be made to prove them.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Peary is an officer of our navy, drawing an old age pension.
+His position is such that he cannot ignore Dr. Cook's open
+charges. He is honor bound to protect the good name of this
+great country by asking an investigation of these charges. To
+remain silent, is to stand to be branded as the arch-degenerate
+of our day. Don't forget it was he who opened up the mud batteries
+and caused this undignified controversy.</p>
+
+<p>No honorable man can allow such open charges of gross
+immorality as Dr. Cook preferred against Mr. Peary in his telegram
+to President Taft. These have been printed in magazines
+and newspapers as well as appearing in Dr. Cook's books, now
+in the sixtieth thousand edition.</p>
+
+<p>Here in Illinois press stories of improper conduct implicating
+Lieutenant-Governor Barrett O'Hara were circulated and he
+immediately asked the state legislature to investigate them. The
+legislature appointed a committee that took testimony and reported
+these stories were groundless and false.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_610" id="Page_610">[Pg 610]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Is a retired Admiral less important in the eyes of the world
+than the Lieutenant-Governor of Illinois, or has the "old tar"
+taken an immunity bath?</p>
+
+<p>Are we any farther along than were those who put Columbus in
+chains and stoned the Prophets and nailed the Christ to the Cross?
+Are we so engrossed in the material things that all questions of
+honor are of no concern to us?</p>
+
+<p>It is true that the bar of public opinion is the court of last
+resort in a real democracy, but it is equally true that it is essential
+to see that the source of public opinion be not polluted. Should
+our school children be taught that Peary discovered the Pole if
+Dr. Cook was there first?</p>
+
+<p>Senator Robert M. LaFollette says: "You can't buy,
+you can't subsidize the Lyceum. At least, it never has been
+done. The Press has been subsidized. Papers and magazines
+which were printing the bad records of public officials and political
+parties have, in many instances, been forced out of the field or
+silenced. Special privilege organized as a System has its own
+press.</p>
+
+<p>But the Lyceum platform is free. Really, I sometimes
+think that, from the days of Wendell Phillips to now, the Lyceum
+has pretty nearly been the salvation of the country."</p>
+
+<p>The Lyceum and the Chautauqua have given Dr. Cook a
+fair hearing, and it is now a matter of National pride that when
+the press was silent or hostile, Congress indifferent, the Chautauqua,
+the one distinctively American institution, gave him an
+honest, impartial hearing.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 15%;' />
+
+<p>I write as I do because, being the editor of The Lyceum and
+Chautauqua Magazine, I have tried to give Dr. Cook the same
+opportunity to present his case as I would expect him to do by
+me were I in his place and he in mine.</p>
+
+<p>AFTER YOU HAVE READ THIS BOOK KINDLY WRITE
+YOUR CONGRESSMAN CALLING FOR AN INVESTIGATION.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 100%;" />
+<h2>INDEX</h2>
+
+
+<div class="sblockquot">
+<p class="noin">
+Acpohon, Trail Along, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"The Land of Guillemots," <a href="#Page_191">191</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Acponie Island, <a href="#Page_50">50</a><br />
+<br />
+Adams, Captain, <a href="#Page_458">458</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Peary Suppressed Letter Presented by, <a href="#Page_459">459</a>, <a href="#Page_487">487</a>, <a href="#Page_489">489</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Advance Bay, <a href="#Page_106">106</a><br />
+<br />
+Ah-tah, Turns Away Ma-nee, <a href="#Page_58">58</a><br />
+<br />
+Ah-we-lah, Told Bartlett That Observations Were Made, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Chosen for Dash to Pole, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sure of Nearness of Land, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Prevents Boat From Sinking, <a href="#Page_366">366</a>, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Recounts Remarkable Journey to the Pole, <a href="#Page_452">452</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Ahwynet, <a href="#Page_96">96</a><br />
+<br />
+Alaskan Wilds, <a href="#Page_29">29</a><br />
+<br />
+Alexander, Cape, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a><br />
+<br />
+Al-leek-ah, <a href="#Page_95">95</a><br />
+<br />
+American Legation, <a href="#Page_469">469</a><br />
+<br />
+Amund Ringnes Land, <a href="#Page_329">329</a><br />
+<br />
+Anderson, Mr., <a href="#Page_460">460</a><br />
+<br />
+Annoatok, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Supplies Stored at, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Started for, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">First Day at, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Erected a House of Packing Boxes at, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>, <a href="#Page_437">437</a>, <a href="#Page_442">442</a>, <a href="#Page_443">443</a>, <a href="#Page_447">447</a>, <a href="#Page_451">451</a>, <a href="#Page_456">456</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Antarctic Exploration, <a href="#Page_28">28</a><br />
+<br />
+Arctic, Bradley, Expedition, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a><br />
+<br />
+Arctic Circle Crossed, <a href="#Page_34">34</a><br />
+<br />
+Armbruster, Professor W. F., Defense of Dr. Cook by, <a href="#Page_490">490</a><br />
+<br />
+Armour of Chicago, Food Supplies by, <a href="#Page_135">135</a><br />
+<br />
+Arthur Land, <a href="#Page_191">191</a><br />
+<br />
+Ashton, J. M., <a href="#Page_526">526</a>, <a href="#Page_530">530</a><br />
+<br />
+Astrup, Eivind, Death of, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_511">511</a>, <a href="#Page_515">515</a>, <a href="#Page_560">560</a><br />
+<br />
+Atholl, Cape, Sailed Around, <a href="#Page_46">46</a><br />
+<br />
+Auckland, Cape, <a href="#Page_60">60</a><br />
+<br />
+Auks, <a href="#Page_62">62</a><br />
+<br />
+Auroras, <a href="#Page_112">112</a><br />
+<br />
+Axel Heiberg Land, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>, <a href="#Page_333">333</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Bache Peninsula, Headed for, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_435">435</a><br />
+<br />
+Baffin's Bay, <a href="#Page_362">362</a><br />
+<br />
+Baldwin, Captain Evelyn B., <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_540">540</a>, <a href="#Page_564">564</a><br />
+<br />
+Baldwin-Zeigler, Cache of Supplies Left by, <a href="#Page_203">203</a><br />
+<br />
+Bancroft Bay, <a href="#Page_103">103</a><br />
+<br />
+Bangor, <a href="#Page_483">483</a><br />
+<br />
+Barrill Affidavit, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_522">522</a>, <a href="#Page_523">523</a>, <a href="#Page_524">524</a><br />
+<br />
+Bartlett, Capt. Robt. A., Learns from Eskimos That Observations Were Made, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Assisted Peary in His Lies, <a href="#Page_485">485</a>, <a href="#Page_558">558</a>, <a href="#Page_560">560</a>, <a href="#Page_562">562</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Bathurst Land, <a href="#Page_337">337</a><br />
+<br />
+Battle Harbor, Arrival at, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Questions Prepared by Peary at, <a href="#Page_483">483</a>, <a href="#Page_489">489</a>, <a href="#Page_557">557</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Bay, Baffin's, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bancroft, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Braebugten, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Buchanan, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cannon, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dallas, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Flagler, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Melville, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Entered, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">North Star, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Anchored in, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_462">462</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Olrick's, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Pioneer, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Robertson, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sontag, <a href="#Page_451">451</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Bay Fiord, Overland to, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a><br />
+<br />
+Bear Hunting, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_432">432</a><br />
+<br />
+Belcher Point, Passed, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>, <a href="#Page_362">362</a><br />
+<br />
+Belgian Antarctic Expedition, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_497">497</a><br />
+<br />
+Belle Isle, Straits of, Entering, <a href="#Page_31">31</a><br />
+<br />
+Bennett, James Gordon, Cable to, <a href="#Page_464">464</a>, <a href="#Page_465">465</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Selling Narrative Story to, <a href="#Page_491">491</a>, <a href="#Page_492">492</a>, <a href="#Page_493">493</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Bernier, Captain, <a href="#Page_448">448</a>, <a href="#Page_516">516</a><br />
+<br />
+Berri, Herbert, <a href="#Page_502">502</a><br />
+<br />
+Berry, Robert M., <a href="#Page_478">478</a><br />
+<br />
+"Big Lead," Peary's Eskimos Become Panic-Stricken at, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dr. Cook Reaches the Shores of, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Crossing the, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a></span><br />
+<br />
+"Big Nail," <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a><br />
+<br />
+Blethen, J., <a href="#Page_527">527</a><br />
+<br />
+Bonsall Island, <a href="#Page_106">106</a><br />
+<br />
+Booth Sound, <a href="#Page_453">453</a><br />
+<br />
+Borup, George, <a href="#Page_485">485</a>, <a href="#Page_486">486</a><br />
+<br />
+Bradley, John R., Compact Made for Expedition, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Expedition, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Join Party, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Called to Action, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Assumed Direction, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Shoots Duck, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_537">537</a></span><br />
+<br />
+"<i>Bradley, John R.</i>," S. S., Sailed July 3, 1907, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Going Northward, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Aboard the, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sailing Qualities of the, <a href="#Page_31">31</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Bradley Land, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Positive Proof of, <a href="#Page_251">251</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Braebugten Bay, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>, <a href="#Page_377">377</a><br />
+<br />
+Breton, Cape, <a href="#Page_30">30</a><br />
+<br />
+Bridgeford, <a href="#Page_527">527</a><br />
+<br />
+Bridgman, Herbert L., Kitchen Explorer, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_502">502</a>, <a href="#Page_529">529</a>, <a href="#Page_557">557</a><br />
+<br />
+Bridges, Thomas, Yahgan Dictionary, <a href="#Page_497">497</a>, <a href="#Page_498">498</a><br />
+<br />
+Brooklyn Dairy Business, <a href="#Page_27">27</a><br />
+<br />
+Brooke's Island, <a href="#Page_106">106</a><br />
+<br />
+Brown, Belmore, <a href="#Page_524">524</a><br />
+<br />
+Buchanan Bay, <a href="#Page_77">77</a><br />
+<br />
+Bushwick Club, <a href="#Page_481">481</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Cairn Point, Passed, <a href="#Page_68">68</a><br />
+<br />
+Camped for the Winter, <a href="#Page_393">393</a><br />
+<br />
+Cannon Bay, <a href="#Page_162">162</a><br />
+<br />
+Cannon Fiord, <a href="#Page_203">203</a><br />
+<br />
+Cape Alexander, Passed, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Athol, Sailed Around, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Auckland, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Breton, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Clarence, <a href="#Page_429">429</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Faraday, <a href="#Page_429">429</a>, <a href="#Page_430">430</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hatherton, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Inglefield, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Isabella, <a href="#Page_428">428</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Louis Napoleon, <a href="#Page_435">435</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Paget, <a href="#Page_428">428</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Parry, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Robertson, Proceeded to, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Rutherford, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sabine, Note Left at, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>, <a href="#Page_426">426</a>, <a href="#Page_431">431</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tragedies of, <a href="#Page_433">433</a>, <a href="#Page_434">434</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Seiper, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sheridan, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sparbo, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>, <a href="#Page_363">363</a>, <a href="#Page_364">364</a>, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>, <a href="#Page_378">378</a>, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>, <a href="#Page_497">497</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tennyson, <a href="#Page_427">427</a>, <a href="#Page_428">428</a>, <a href="#Page_429">429</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Thomas Hubbard," <a href="#Page_201">201</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Veile, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Vera, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">York, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_454">454</a>, <a href="#Page_455">455</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Cardigan Strait, <a href="#Page_350">350</a><br />
+<br />
+Caribou Hunting, <a href="#Page_109">109</a><br />
+<br />
+Chester, Rear-Admiral, <a href="#Page_502">502</a>, <a href="#Page_543">543</a>, <a href="#Page_544">544</a><br />
+<br />
+Christiansaand, <a href="#Page_476">476</a><br />
+<br />
+Clarence, Cape, <a href="#Page_429">429</a><br />
+<br />
+Coast and Geodetic Survey, <a href="#Page_488">488</a><br />
+<br />
+Coburg Island, <a href="#Page_428">428</a><br />
+<br />
+Cold, Director, <a href="#Page_477">477</a><br />
+<br />
+Columbus, Christopher, <a href="#Page_7">7</a><br />
+<br />
+Conger, Fort, Party Left by Peary to Die of Cold and Hunger at, <a href="#Page_454">454</a><br />
+<br />
+Congress, Investigation of, Admission of Peary Witnesses in, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_547">547</a><br />
+<br />
+Contracts, Book, <a href="#Page_494">494</a><br />
+<br />
+Controversy, Polar, <a href="#Page_5">5</a><br />
+<br />
+Cook, Mrs., <a href="#Page_478">478</a><br />
+<br />
+Copenhagen, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_465">465</a>, <a href="#Page_466">466</a>, <a href="#Page_476">476</a>, <a href="#Page_479">479</a>, <a href="#Page_482">482</a>, <a href="#Page_494">494</a>, <a href="#Page_497">497</a>, <a href="#Page_538">538</a>, <a href="#Page_539">539</a>, <a href="#Page_540">540</a>, <a href="#Page_549">549</a>, <a href="#Page_550">550</a>, <a href="#Page_551">551</a>, <a href="#Page_557">557</a>, <a href="#Page_563">563</a><br />
+<br />
+Copenhagen, University of, <a href="#Page_549">549</a>, <a href="#Page_562">562</a><br />
+<br />
+Cornell University, <a href="#Page_485">485</a><br />
+<br />
+Crocker Land, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a href="#Page_490">490</a>, <a href="#Page_559">559</a><br />
+<br />
+Crown Prince Gustav Sea, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>, <a href="#Page_336">336</a><br />
+<br />
+Crystal Palace Glacier, <a href="#Page_451">451</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Dahl, Charles, <a href="#Page_456">456</a><br />
+<br />
+Dallas Bay, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a><br />
+<br />
+Danes, Hospitality of the, <a href="#Page_515">515</a><br />
+<br />
+Danish Literary Expedition, <a href="#Page_453">453</a>, <a href="#Page_515">515</a><br />
+<br />
+Davis Straits, Entered, <a href="#Page_31">31</a><br />
+<br />
+Dedrick, Dr., Harshly Treated by Peary, <a href="#Page_434">434</a>, <a href="#Page_454">454</a>, <a href="#Page_515">515</a><br />
+<br />
+De Gerlache, <a href="#Page_134">134</a><br />
+<br />
+"Devil's Thumb," <a href="#Page_456">456</a><br />
+<br />
+Dial Shadow, at the Pole, <a href="#Page_308">308</a><br />
+<br />
+Disco, Island of, Sighted, <a href="#Page_34">34</a><br />
+<br />
+Dundas Island, <a href="#Page_337">337</a><br />
+<br />
+Dunkle, Faked Observations of, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_535">535</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Introduced to, <a href="#Page_536">536</a>, <a href="#Page_537">537</a>, <a href="#Page_538">538</a>, <a href="#Page_539">539</a>, <a href="#Page_540">540</a>, <a href="#Page_563">563</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Dunkle-Loose Forgery, Explanation of, <a href="#Page_355">355</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Egan, Dr., <a href="#Page_465">465</a>, <a href="#Page_469">469</a>, <a href="#Page_470">470</a>, <a href="#Page_494">494</a><br />
+<br />
+Eggedesminde, <a href="#Page_462">462</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">First Banquet in Honor of Discovery of the Pole at, <a href="#Page_463">463</a>, <a href="#Page_466">466</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Eidsbotn, Descended to, <a href="#Page_343">343</a><br />
+<br />
+Ellef Ringnes Land, <a href="#Page_329">329</a><br />
+<br />
+Ellesmere Land, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Promised Land, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_344">344</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Elsinore, <a href="#Page_466">466</a><br />
+<br />
+Endor, <a href="#Page_2">2</a><br />
+<br />
+Equipment, Examination of, <a href="#Page_149">149</a><br />
+<br />
+Eric the Red, <a href="#Page_33">33</a><br />
+<br />
+"<i>Erik</i>," S. S., Peary Supply Ship, <a href="#Page_443">443</a>,
+<a href="#Page_449">449</a>, <a href="#Page_451">451</a>, <a href="#Page_515">515</a><br />
+<br />
+Eskimos, Delusions of, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Testimony of, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Married Life Among the, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tents, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bargaining, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Study of Walrus Habits, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Customs Pertaining to Children, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Romance, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Have No Salutation, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Equality of Children and Dogs to the, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Prosperity Measured by the Number of Dogs, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Engaged in Request of Reserve Supplies, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Making Clothes, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gloom When the Long Night Begins, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mourning for the Dead, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dancing, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Joy in Killing a Bear, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Christmas Festivities, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ice Cream, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Coming of the Stork to the, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Love for Children, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Belief in Shadows, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Show Anxiety, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Questioned by Peary, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Comedies and Tragedies of the, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Weird Customs of the, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Describe Trip to Pole, <a href="#Page_452">452</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hostility to Peary, <a href="#Page_454">454</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Put Through the Third Degree by Peary, <a href="#Page_488">488</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Put on Board Peary's Ship Against their Will, <a href="#Page_514">514</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Etah, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Steered for, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Landing Difficult at, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Eskimos Return to, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>, <a href="#Page_448">448</a>, <a href="#Page_449">449</a>, <a href="#Page_451">451</a>, <a href="#Page_558">558</a></span><br />
+<br />
+E-tuk-i-shook, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Told Bartlett That Observations Were Made, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sights Bears, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Chosen for Dash to Pole, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sure of Nearness to Land, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Kills a Walrus, <a href="#Page_373">373</a>, <a href="#Page_381">381</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Secures a Hare, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">An Adept With a Sling Shot, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Recounts Remarkable Journey to the Pole, <a href="#Page_452">452</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Eureka Sound, Reached, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a><br />
+<br />
+Explorers' Club, <a href="#Page_529">529</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Faraday, Cape, <a href="#Page_429">429</a>, <a href="#Page_430">430</a><br />
+<br />
+Faroe Islands, <a href="#Page_464">464</a><br />
+<br />
+Fenker, Governor, <a href="#Page_36">36</a><br />
+<br />
+Fiala, Anthony, <a href="#Page_478">478</a>, <a href="#Page_536">536</a><br />
+<br />
+Fiord Umanak, Reached, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bay, Overland to, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Snag's, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cannon, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Musk Ox, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Talbot's, <a href="#Page_429">429</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Floundering in the Open Sea, <a href="#Page_231">231</a><br />
+<br />
+Flagler Bay, Advance Supplies Sent to, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a><br />
+<br />
+Foulke Fiord, Entered, <a href="#Page_66">66</a><br />
+<br />
+Fox, Arctic, <a href="#Page_398">398</a><br />
+<br />
+Francke, Rudolph, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Selected as Companion to Dr. Cook, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hunting, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Meat Gathered and Dried in Strips by, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Prepared a Feast, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Asked to Join Party, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Remained in Charge of Supplies at Annoatok, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Starving Condition Refused Bread and Coffee by Peary, <a href="#Page_442">442</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Compelled by Peary to Turn Over Furs and Ivory, <a href="#Page_443">443</a>, <a href="#Page_517">517</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Franklin Bay Expedition, Lady, <a href="#Page_158">158</a><br />
+<br />
+Fridtjof Nansen Sound, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>, <a href="#Page_327">327</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Game, Captured, <a href="#Page_100">100</a><br />
+<br />
+Gannett, Henry, <a href="#Page_544">544</a><br />
+<br />
+"Gates of Hades," <a href="#Page_66">66</a><br />
+<br />
+Gilder, Richard Watson, <a href="#Page_112">112</a><br />
+<br />
+Glacier, Crystal Palace, <a href="#Page_451">451</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Humboldt, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Petowik, Sighted, <a href="#Page_45">45</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Gloucester, <a href="#Page_23">23</a><br />
+<br />
+"<i>Godthaab</i>," S. S., Supply Ship, <a href="#Page_461">461</a><br />
+<br />
+Godhaven, Sheltered in, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a><br />
+<br />
+Goggles, Amber-Colored, Used to Protect the Eyes, <a href="#Page_226">226</a><br />
+<br />
+"Gold Brick," Slurs, <a href="#Page_39">39</a><br />
+<br />
+Gore, Professor, <a href="#Page_540">540</a>, <a href="#Page_563">563</a><br />
+<br />
+Gramatan Inn, <a href="#Page_535">535</a><br />
+<br />
+Grand Republic, <a href="#Page_479">479</a>, <a href="#Page_480">480</a><br />
+<br />
+Grant Land, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a><br />
+<br />
+Great Iron Stone, <a href="#Page_513">513</a><br />
+<br />
+Greely Expedition, Camp of, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Peary Throws Discredit Upon the, <a href="#Page_433">433</a>, <a href="#Page_515">515</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Greely, General A. W., <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_544">544</a>, <a href="#Page_560">560</a><br />
+<br />
+Greely River, <a href="#Page_168">168</a><br />
+<br />
+Greenland, Steered for, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Interior, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_364">364</a>, <a href="#Page_408">408</a>, <a href="#Page_433">433</a>, <a href="#Page_436">436</a>, <a href="#Page_489">489</a>, <a href="#Page_497">497</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Grinnell Land, <a href="#Page_191">191</a><br />
+<br />
+Grinnell Peninsula, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>, <a href="#Page_342">342</a><br />
+<br />
+Grosvenor, Gilbert, <a href="#Page_543">543</a>, <a href="#Page_544">544</a><br />
+<br />
+Gulf, Inglefield, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Crossing, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_453">453</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of St. Lawrence, Sailed Over, <a href="#Page_31">31</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Gum Drop Story, Explanation of, <a href="#Page_30">30</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Hague Tribunal, The, <a href="#Page_441">441</a><br />
+<br />
+Hampton, Benjamin, <a href="#Page_546">546</a>, <a href="#Page_553">553</a><br />
+<br />
+Hampton's Magazine, <a href="#Page_546">546</a>, <a href="#Page_552">552</a>, <a href="#Page_553">553</a><br />
+<br />
+"<i>Hans Egede</i>," S. S., Sailed on, <a href="#Page_464">464</a>, <a href="#Page_466">466</a>, <a href="#Page_467">467</a><br />
+<br />
+Hansen, Dr. Norman, <a href="#Page_462">462</a><br />
+<br />
+Hares, Arctic, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a><br />
+<br />
+Harry, T. Everett, <a href="#Page_552">552</a>, <a href="#Page_554">554</a><br />
+<br />
+Hassel Sound, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>, <a href="#Page_334">334</a><br />
+<br />
+Hatherton, Cape, <a href="#Page_67">67</a><br />
+<br />
+Hayes, Dr., <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a><br />
+<br />
+Hearst, W. R., Offer From, <a href="#Page_491">491</a><br />
+<br />
+Hell Gate, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Drifting Towards, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>, <a href="#Page_353">353</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Henson, Matthew, Statement of, <a href="#Page_506">506</a>, <a href="#Page_559">559</a><br />
+<br />
+Holland House, Compact Made at, <a href="#Page_24">24</a><br />
+<br />
+Holsteinborg, <a href="#Page_32">32</a><br />
+<br />
+"<i>Hope</i>," S. S., <a href="#Page_513">513</a><br />
+<br />
+Hovgaard, Commander, <a href="#Page_468">468</a>, <a href="#Page_472">472</a><br />
+<br />
+"Hubbard, Cape Thomas," <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_489">489</a><br />
+<br />
+Hubbard, General Thomas, <a href="#Page_528">528</a>, <a href="#Page_558">558</a><br />
+<br />
+Humboldt Glacier, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a><br />
+<br />
+Hunting, Caribou, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bear, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_432">432</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hare, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Musk Ox, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_378">378-392</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Narwhal, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Walrus, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_367">367-373</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In the Moonlight, <a href="#Page_114">114-129</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Icarus, <a href="#Page_43">43</a><br />
+<br />
+Ice, Explosion of, <a href="#Page_124">124</a><br />
+<br />
+Iceberg, Adrift on an, <a href="#Page_346">346</a><br />
+<br />
+Iceland, <a href="#Page_464">464</a><br />
+<br />
+Igloo, Building an, <a href="#Page_166">166</a><br />
+<br />
+Ik-wa, the Cruelty of, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a><br />
+<br />
+Inglefield, Cape, <a href="#Page_68">68</a><br />
+<br />
+Inglefield, Gulf, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Crossing, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_453">453</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Instruments, Carried on Journey to Pole, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Left With Whitney, <a href="#Page_450">450</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Buried, <a href="#Page_499">499</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Investigation of Peary's So-Called Proofs, <a href="#Page_544">544</a>, <a href="#Page_545">545</a><br />
+<br />
+Isabella Cape, <a href="#Page_428">428</a><br />
+<br />
+Island, Bonsall, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Brook's, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Coburg, <a href="#Page_428">428</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Disco, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Littleton, Passing Inside of, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dundas, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Faroe, <a href="#Page_464">464</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">North Cornwall, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Saunders, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Schei, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Shannon, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Shelton, <a href="#Page_478">478</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Weyprecht, <a href="#Page_159">159</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Itiblu, Near, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_453">453</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Jensen, Inspector Dougaard, <a href="#Page_461">461</a>, <a href="#Page_463">463</a>, <a href="#Page_464">464</a>, <a href="#Page_497">497</a><br />
+<br />
+Jesup, Mrs. Morris K., <a href="#Page_514">514</a><br />
+<br />
+Jones Sound, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>, <a href="#Page_426">426</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Kraul, Governor, <a href="#Page_457">457</a>, <a href="#Page_458">458</a>, <a href="#Page_459">459</a>, <a href="#Page_460">460</a>, <a href="#Page_461">461</a>, <a href="#Page_497">497</a><br />
+<br />
+Kane Basin, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a><br />
+<br />
+Kane, Dr., <a href="#Page_66">66</a><br />
+<br />
+Kanga, <a href="#Page_59">59</a><br />
+<br />
+Karnah, <a href="#Page_60">60</a><br />
+<br />
+Kennedy Channel, <a href="#Page_66">66</a><br />
+<br />
+King Christian Land, <a href="#Page_336">336</a><br />
+<br />
+"King's Guest House," Only Hotel in Greenland, <a href="#Page_462">462</a><br />
+<br />
+"<i>Kite</i>," S. S., <a href="#Page_511">511</a><br />
+<br />
+Kookaan, <a href="#Page_63">63</a><br />
+<br />
+Koo-loo-ting-wah, Leading Man, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Took Instructions to Francke, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Paid by Peary to Abandon Supplies, <a href="#Page_448">448</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Ky-un-a, the Death of, <a href="#Page_127">127</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Labrador, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_463">463</a>, <a href="#Page_484">484</a>, <a href="#Page_557">557</a><br />
+<br />
+Lancaster Sound, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>, <a href="#Page_425">425</a><br />
+<br />
+Lands-Lokk, <a href="#Page_195">195</a><br />
+<br />
+Lerwick, Sent First Cable to New York From, <a href="#Page_464">464</a><br />
+<br />
+Lonsdale, <a href="#Page_477">477</a>, <a href="#Page_494">494</a>, <a href="#Page_537">537</a><br />
+<br />
+Loose, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Faked Observations, <a href="#Page_535">535</a>, <a href="#Page_537">537</a>, <a href="#Page_538">538</a>, <a href="#Page_539">539</a>, <a href="#Page_540">540</a>, <a href="#Page_563">563</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Louis Napoleon, Cape, <a href="#Page_435">435</a><br />
+<br />
+Lifeboat Cove, Searched for Relics Along, <a href="#Page_67">67</a><br />
+<br />
+Lincoln Land, <a href="#Page_191">191</a><br />
+<br />
+Lincoln Sea, <a href="#Page_214">214</a><br />
+<br />
+Littleton Island, Passing Inside of, <a href="#Page_67">67</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+MacDonald, J. A., Describes the Mt. McKinley Ascent, <a href="#Page_531">531</a>, <a href="#Page_532">532</a>, <a href="#Page_533">533</a><br />
+<br />
+McLaughlin, A. J., <a href="#Page_563">563</a><br />
+<br />
+Ma-nee, the Romance of, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a><br />
+<br />
+Mann, Colonel, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_529">529</a><br />
+<br />
+Marshal, Colonel, <a href="#Page_527">527</a><br />
+<br />
+Marvin, Ross, the Suspicious Death of, <a href="#Page_485">485</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Letters Suppressed, <a href="#Page_488">488</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<i>Matin</i>, Paris, offer $50,000, <a href="#Page_494">494</a><br />
+<br />
+McMillan, Makes False Statements, <a href="#Page_484">484</a><br />
+<br />
+"<i>Melchior</i>," S. S., <a href="#Page_476">476</a><br />
+<br />
+Melville, Admiral, <a href="#Page_502">502</a><br />
+<br />
+Melville Bay, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Entered, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_455">455</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Meteorite, "Star Stone," Stolen by Peary, <a href="#Page_435">435</a>, <a href="#Page_454">454</a>, <a href="#Page_512">512</a><br />
+<br />
+<i>Mirror</i>, St. Louis, the Only Paper to Grant Space to Uncover the Unfair Methods of the Pro-Peary Conspiracy, <a href="#Page_490">490</a>, <a href="#Page_491">491</a>, <a href="#Page_492">492</a><br />
+<br />
+Mitchell, Roscoe, <a href="#Page_525">525</a>, <a href="#Page_527">527</a><br />
+<br />
+"<i>Morning</i>," S. S., <a href="#Page_458">458</a><br />
+<br />
+Mountain, Table, "Oomanaq," <a href="#Page_46">46</a><br />
+<br />
+Mt. McKinley, Affidavit, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Scaled, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_522">522</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Description of ascent, <a href="#Page_531">531</a>, <a href="#Page_535">535</a>, <a href="#Page_541">541</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Murchison Sound, <a href="#Page_453">453</a><br />
+<br />
+Museum of Natural History, <a href="#Page_513">513</a><br />
+<br />
+Musk Ox Fiord, <a href="#Page_343">343</a><br />
+<br />
+Musk Ox Hunting, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_387">387</a><br />
+<br />
+My-ah, Disposes of Wives to Gain Dogs, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Direct Hunting, <a href="#Page_51">51</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Mylius Erickson, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_453">453</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Nansen, introduced the Kayak, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_495">495</a><br />
+<br />
+Nansen Sound, Through, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a><br />
+<br />
+Nansen Straits, <a href="#Page_77">77</a><br />
+<br />
+Narwhal Hunt, Description of, <a href="#Page_87">87</a><br />
+<br />
+Naval Committee, <a href="#Page_10">10</a><br />
+<br />
+National Geographic Society, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_540">540</a>, <a href="#Page_541">541</a>, <a href="#Page_542">542</a>, <a href="#Page_544">544</a>, <a href="#Page_549">549</a>, <a href="#Page_561">561</a>, <a href="#Page_564">564</a><br />
+<br />
+Needles, Eskimo, How They are Made, <a href="#Page_91">91</a><br />
+<br />
+Newfoundland Boats, <a href="#Page_31">31</a><br />
+<br />
+New York <i>Globe</i>, <a href="#Page_528">528</a><br />
+<br />
+New York <i>Herald</i>, <a href="#Page_465">465</a>, <a href="#Page_482">482</a>, <a href="#Page_493">493</a>, <a href="#Page_527">527</a>, <a href="#Page_538">538</a>, <a href="#Page_557">557</a><br />
+<br />
+New York <i>Times</i>, Published Lying Document, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Peary's Questions Sent to, <a href="#Page_483">483</a>, <a href="#Page_521">521</a>, <a href="#Page_540">540</a>, <a href="#Page_557">557</a>, <a href="#Page_561">561</a>, <a href="#Page_564">564</a></span><br />
+<br />
+New York <i>World</i>, <a href="#Page_506">506</a><br />
+<br />
+New York, University of, Graduated From, <a href="#Page_27">27</a><br />
+<br />
+Nordenskjold, <a href="#Page_495">495</a><br />
+<br />
+Nordenskjold, Expedition, <a href="#Page_468">468</a><br />
+<br />
+Nordenskjold System Borrowed by Peary, <a href="#Page_511">511</a><br />
+<br />
+North Cornwall Island, <a href="#Page_336">336</a><br />
+<br />
+North Devon, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>, <a href="#Page_423">423</a><br />
+<br />
+North Lincoln, <a href="#Page_406">406</a><br />
+<br />
+North Pole, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>, <a href="#Page_449">449</a>, <a href="#Page_452">452</a>, <a href="#Page_455">455</a>, <a href="#Page_557">557</a><br />
+<br />
+North Star Bay, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Anchored in, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_462">462</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Norwegian Bay, <a href="#Page_336">336</a><br />
+<br />
+Nuerke, <a href="#Page_447">447</a>, <a href="#Page_451">451</a>, <a href="#Page_453">453</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Observations, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>, <a href="#Page_302">302</a><br />
+<br />
+Olafsen, Professor, <a href="#Page_472">472</a><br />
+<br />
+Olrik's Bay, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a><br />
+<br />
+"Oomanaq," Table Mountain, <a href="#Page_46">46</a><br />
+<br />
+Oomanooi, Village of, Visited, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_453">453</a><br />
+<br />
+<i>Oscar II</i>, S. S., Sailed on to New York, <a href="#Page_475">475</a>, <a href="#Page_476">476</a>, <a href="#Page_477">477</a>, <a href="#Page_494">494</a>, <a href="#Page_495">495</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Paget, Cape, <a href="#Page_428">428</a><br />
+<br />
+Palatine Hotel, <a href="#Page_554">554</a><br />
+<br />
+Parker, Professor Herschell, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_523">523</a>, <a href="#Page_524">524</a><br />
+<br />
+Parry, Cape, <a href="#Page_59">59</a><br />
+<br />
+Peary, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>, <a href="#Page_433">433</a>, <a href="#Page_438">438</a>, <a href="#Page_439">439</a>, <a href="#Page_440">440</a>, <a href="#Page_441">441</a>, <a href="#Page_443">443</a>, <a href="#Page_444">444</a>, <a href="#Page_447">447</a>, <a href="#Page_448">448</a>, <a href="#Page_451">451</a>, <a href="#Page_452">452</a>, <a href="#Page_454">454</a>, <a href="#Page_459">459</a>, <a href="#Page_463">463</a>, <a href="#Page_474">474</a>, <a href="#Page_477">477</a>, <a href="#Page_482">482</a>, <a href="#Page_483">483</a>, <a href="#Page_484">484</a>, <a href="#Page_485">485</a>, <a href="#Page_487">487</a>, <a href="#Page_490">490</a>, <a href="#Page_491">491</a>, <a href="#Page_492">492</a>, <a href="#Page_493">493</a>, <a href="#Page_496">496</a>, <a href="#Page_499">499</a>, <a href="#Page_500">500</a>, <a href="#Page_501">501</a>, <a href="#Page_502">502</a>, <a href="#Page_505">505</a>, <a href="#Page_506">506</a>, <a href="#Page_507">507</a>, <a href="#Page_508">508</a>, <a href="#Page_509">509</a>, <a href="#Page_510">510</a>, <a href="#Page_511">511</a>, <a href="#Page_512">512</a>, <a href="#Page_513">513</a>, <a href="#Page_514">514</a>, <a href="#Page_516">516</a>, <a href="#Page_517">517</a>, <a href="#Page_518">518</a>, <a href="#Page_519">519</a>, <a href="#Page_527">527</a>, <a href="#Page_528">528</a>, <a href="#Page_529">529</a>, <a href="#Page_530">530</a>, <a href="#Page_540">540</a>, <a href="#Page_542">542</a>, <a href="#Page_543">543</a>, <a href="#Page_544">544</a>, <a href="#Page_545">545</a>, <a href="#Page_557">557</a>, <a href="#Page_558">558</a>, <a href="#Page_563">563</a>, <a href="#Page_565">565</a><br />
+<br />
+Peary, Mrs., <a href="#Page_63">63</a><br />
+<br />
+Pennsylvania R. R. Station (Washington), Casual Examination of Peary's Instruments in, <a href="#Page_10">10</a><br />
+<br />
+Penny Strait, <a href="#Page_337">337</a><br />
+<br />
+Petowik Glacier, <a href="#Page_45">45</a><br />
+<br />
+Phoenix Hotel, Stayed at, <a href="#Page_468">468</a><br />
+<br />
+Pioneer Bay, <a href="#Page_340">340</a>, <a href="#Page_341">341</a><br />
+<br />
+Polar Ethics, Accused of Violating, <a href="#Page_439">439</a><br />
+<br />
+Poe, Edgar Allen, <a href="#Page_140">140</a><br />
+<br />
+"<i>Polaris</i>," S. S., Stranded in Sinking Condition, <a href="#Page_67">67</a><br />
+<br />
+Pole, Copy of Note Left in Tube at, <a href="#Page_313">313</a><br />
+<br />
+Pole Star, <a href="#Page_136">136</a><br />
+<br />
+<i>Politiken</i>, <a href="#Page_465">465</a>, <a href="#Page_473">473</a><br />
+<br />
+Pond's Inlet, <a href="#Page_425">425</a><br />
+<br />
+Portland, <a href="#Page_560">560</a><br />
+<br />
+Press, Injustice of the, <a href="#Page_19">19</a><br />
+<br />
+Printz, F., <a href="#Page_525">525</a><br />
+<br />
+Proofs, Peary's Demands for, <a href="#Page_547">547</a>, <a href="#Page_548">548</a>, <a href="#Page_549">549</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Quebec, <a href="#Page_553">553</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Rassmussen, Knud, Lived Among Eskimos, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Heard Story From Eskimos of Finding the "Big Nail," <a href="#Page_462">462</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Foretold Return of Peary and Prophesied Discord, <a href="#Page_463">463</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Rensselaer Harbor, <a href="#Page_101">101</a><br />
+<br />
+Rice Strait, Through, <a href="#Page_158">158</a><br />
+<br />
+Roberts, Mr., <a href="#Page_548">548</a><br />
+<br />
+Robertson Bay, <a href="#Page_63">63</a><br />
+<br />
+Robertson, Cape, Proceed to, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a><br />
+<br />
+Robeson Channel, <a href="#Page_218">218</a><br />
+<br />
+"Robinson Crusoe" Life, <a href="#Page_391">391</a><br />
+<br />
+Rocky Mountains, <a href="#Page_33">33</a><br />
+<br />
+Rood, Henry, <a href="#Page_485">485</a><br />
+<br />
+Roosevelt, Stolen Tusk Presented to, <a href="#Page_443">443</a><br />
+<br />
+"<i>Roosevelt</i>," S. S., <a href="#Page_438">438</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Piratical Career of the, <a href="#Page_444">444</a>, <a href="#Page_447">447</a>, <a href="#Page_451">451</a>, <a href="#Page_484">484</a>, <a href="#Page_557">557</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Route to the Pole, <a href="#Page_285">285</a><br />
+<br />
+Royal Geographical Society, <a href="#Page_472">472</a>, <a href="#Page_473">473</a>, <a href="#Page_475">475</a><br />
+<br />
+Rutherford, Cape, <a href="#Page_159">159</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Sabine, Cape, Notes Left at, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tragedies of, <a href="#Page_426">426</a>, <a href="#Page_431">431</a>, <a href="#Page_433">433</a>, <a href="#Page_434">434</a>, <a href="#Page_515">515</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Saunders Island, <a href="#Page_54">54</a><br />
+<br />
+Schei Land, <a href="#Page_185">185</a><br />
+<br />
+Schley Land, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a><br />
+<br />
+Schley, Rear-Admiral, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_544">544</a>, <a href="#Page_584">584</a><br />
+<br />
+Schley River, <a href="#Page_168">168</a><br />
+<br />
+Schwartz, Dr. Henry, <a href="#Page_490">490</a><br />
+<br />
+Seattle <i>Times</i>, <a href="#Page_527">527</a><br />
+<br />
+Seiper, Cape, <a href="#Page_103">103</a><br />
+<br />
+Ser-wah-ding-wah, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a><br />
+<br />
+Shackleton's Journey to the South Pole, <a href="#Page_458">458</a><br />
+<br />
+Shadows at the Pole, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a><br />
+<br />
+Shainwald, Ralph L., <a href="#Page_469">469</a><br />
+<br />
+Shakespeare, <a href="#Page_140">140</a><br />
+<br />
+Shelter Island, <a href="#Page_478">478</a><br />
+<br />
+Shannon Island, <a href="#Page_203">203</a><br />
+<br />
+Sheridan, Cape, <a href="#Page_78">78</a><br />
+<br />
+Schoubye, Captain Henning, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_515">515</a><br />
+<br />
+Sledges, Making of, <a href="#Page_128">128</a><br />
+<br />
+Smith, Mrs., <a href="#Page_514">514</a><br />
+<br />
+Smith Sound, Entered, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Left, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Snag's Fiord, <a href="#Page_193">193</a><br />
+<br />
+Sontag, Astronomer, Lost Life, <a href="#Page_222">222</a><br />
+<br />
+Sontag Bay, <a href="#Page_451">451</a><br />
+<br />
+Sound, Booth, <a href="#Page_453">453</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Eureka, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fridtjof Nansen, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hassel, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Jones, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>, <a href="#Page_426">426</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lancaster, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>, <a href="#Page_425">425</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Murchison, <a href="#Page_453">453</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nansen, Through, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Smith, Entered, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Left, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Whale, Entered, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Wolstenholm, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Walrus Adventure in, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_433">433</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Sparbo, Cape, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>, <a href="#Page_363">363</a>, <a href="#Page_364">364</a>, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>, <a href="#Page_378">378</a>, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>, <a href="#Page_497">497</a><br />
+<br />
+Speed Limits, Criticized, <a href="#Page_502">502</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Peary's, <a href="#Page_505">505</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Spitzbergen, <a href="#Page_289">289</a><br />
+<br />
+Squint, Boreal, <a href="#Page_275">275</a><br />
+<br />
+Stanley, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_495">495</a><br />
+<br />
+"Star Stone," <a href="#Page_435">435</a>, <a href="#Page_454">454</a>, <a href="#Page_512">512</a><br />
+<br />
+Stars and Stripes Pinned to the North Pole, <a href="#Page_287">287</a><br />
+<br />
+Stead, William T., <a href="#Page_467">467</a>, <a href="#Page_468">468</a>, <a href="#Page_491">491</a><br />
+<br />
+Steinsby, Professor, <a href="#Page_461">461</a><br />
+<br />
+St. Lawrence, Gulf of, <a href="#Page_31">31</a><br />
+<br />
+St. Louis, Lecture, <a href="#Page_496">496</a><br />
+<br />
+Stockwell, Professor, <a href="#Page_503">503</a><br />
+<br />
+Stokes, Frank Wilbert, <a href="#Page_112">112</a><br />
+<br />
+Straits, Davis, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Belle Isle, Entering, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Rice, Through, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Vaigat, Passed, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cardigan, <a href="#Page_350">350</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Stromgren, Professor Elis, <a href="#Page_472">472</a>, <a href="#Page_550">550</a><br />
+<br />
+Stork, Visits at Christmas, <a href="#Page_142">142</a><br />
+<br />
+Supplies, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Taken for Journey to Pole, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Seized by Peary, <a href="#Page_444">444</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Sydney, Harry Whitney, Arrives at, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Journey to, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a href="#Page_558">558</a>, <a href="#Page_561">561</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Svarten Huk, <a href="#Page_38">38</a><br />
+<br />
+Svartevoeg, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Camped South of, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>, <a href="#Page_363">363</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Sverdrup, Captain Otto, Exploration of, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mapped Channels by, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Peary Stole the Honor of the Naming of Svartevoeg From, <a href="#Page_489">489</a>, <a href="#Page_490">490</a>, <a href="#Page_516">516</a>, <a href="#Page_560">560</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Table Mountain, "Oomanaq," <a href="#Page_46">46</a><br />
+<br />
+Tacoma, <a href="#Page_528">528</a>, <a href="#Page_530">530</a><br />
+<br />
+Talbot's Fiord, <a href="#Page_429">429</a><br />
+<br />
+Tassuasak, Arrived at, <a href="#Page_456">456</a><br />
+<br />
+Temperature of the Body, <a href="#Page_324">324</a><br />
+<br />
+Tennyson, Cape, <a href="#Page_427">427</a>, <a href="#Page_428">428</a>, <a href="#Page_429">429</a><br />
+<br />
+"Tent, The," Meteorite, <a href="#Page_513">513</a><br />
+<br />
+Tents, Eskimo, <a href="#Page_49">49</a><br />
+<br />
+Thompsen, Professor, <a href="#Page_461">461</a><br />
+<br />
+"Thumb, The Devil's," <a href="#Page_39">39</a><br />
+<br />
+Tittman, O. H., <a href="#Page_544">544</a><br />
+<br />
+Torp, Professor, <a href="#Page_472">472</a>, <a href="#Page_549">549</a>, <a href="#Page_560">560</a><br />
+<br />
+Townsend, Director, of the New York Aquarium, Falsely Accused Dr. Cook of Stealing a Dictionary Compiled by Thomas Bridges of Indian Words, <a href="#Page_497">497</a>, <a href="#Page_498">498</a><br />
+<br />
+To-ti-o, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Joy in Killing of Bear, <a href="#Page_108">108</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Troy, <a href="#Page_553">553</a><br />
+<br />
+Tung-wing-wah, <a href="#Page_95">95</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Umanak, <a href="#Page_449">449</a>, <a href="#Page_461">461</a>, <a href="#Page_462">462</a><br />
+<br />
+Umanak Fiord, <a href="#Page_38">38</a><br />
+<br />
+United Steamship Company, <a href="#Page_477">477</a><br />
+<br />
+Upernavik, Island, Appeared, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_448">448</a>, <a href="#Page_449">449</a>, <a href="#Page_457">457</a>, <a href="#Page_459">459</a>, <a href="#Page_461">461</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Vaigat Straits, Passed, <a href="#Page_38">38</a><br />
+<br />
+Veile, Cape, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a><br />
+<br />
+Vera, Cape, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>, <a href="#Page_353">353</a><br />
+<br />
+Verhoeff, John M., the Death of, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_511">511</a>, <a href="#Page_515">515</a><br />
+<br />
+Vespucci, Amerigo, <a href="#Page_7">7</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Wack, H. Wellington, <a href="#Page_527">527</a><br />
+<br />
+Waldorf-Astoria, Arrived at, <a href="#Page_481">481</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dinner Given at, <a href="#Page_504">504</a>, <a href="#Page_535">535</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Wallace, Dillon, <a href="#Page_536">536</a><br />
+<br />
+Walrus Hunting, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_367">367-373</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In the Moonlight, <a href="#Page_114">114-129</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Whale Sound, Entered, <a href="#Page_59">59</a><br />
+<br />
+Whitney, Harry, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Instruments left with, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_437">437</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ill Treated by Peary's Boatswain Murphy, <a href="#Page_445">445</a>, <a href="#Page_449">449</a>, <a href="#Page_451">451</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Peary Refused Permission to Bring From the North Instruments and Data Left in His Hands, <a href="#Page_497">497</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Forced to Bury Instruments, <a href="#Page_499">499</a>, <a href="#Page_558">558</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Weapons, Making, <a href="#Page_381">381</a><br />
+<br />
+Weche, Handelschef, <a href="#Page_461">461</a><br />
+<br />
+Weed, General, <a href="#Page_527">527</a><br />
+<br />
+Wellington, Channel, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>, <a href="#Page_340">340</a><br />
+<br />
+Weyprecht Island, <a href="#Page_159">159</a><br />
+<br />
+Wolstenholm Sound, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_453">453</a><br />
+<br />
+"Worm Diggers' Union," <a href="#Page_529">529</a><br />
+<br />
+Wyckoff, E. G., <a href="#Page_471">471</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+York, Cape, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_454">454</a>, <a href="#Page_455">455</a><br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<h2>INDEX OF NEW MATERIAL</h2>
+
+<div class="sblockquot">
+<p class="noin">
+Arctic Club of America (<a href="#Page_v">b</a>)<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Balch, Edwin Swift, Article by, <a href="#Page_595">595-599</a> (<a href="#Page_v">b</a>)<br />
+<br />
+Bates, R. C., Credits Mt. McKinley ascent, <a href="#Page_534">534</a> (<a href="#Page_v">b</a>)<br />
+<br />
+Bradley Land, <a href="#Page_597">597-598</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Chautauqua Managers Association, Article by (<a href="#Page_iv">a</a>, <a href="#Page_v">b</a>, <a href="#Page_vi">c</a>)<br />
+<br />
+Caines, Ralph H., Credits Mt. McKinley ascent, <a href="#Page_534">534</a> (<a href="#Page_v">b</a>)<br />
+<br />
+Cook-Peary Controversy, <a href="#Page_606">606</a>, <a href="#Page_607">607</a>, <a href="#Page_608">608</a><br />
+<br />
+Cook Must Have Been First, <a href="#Page_597">597</a><br />
+<br />
+Cook's Three Achievements, <a href="#Page_598">598</a><br />
+<br />
+Carr, Wooda N. Letter to and from, <a href="#Page_606">606</a><br />
+<br />
+Can Government Escape Responsibility, <a href="#Page_605">605</a><br />
+<br />
+Clark, Champ, Letter from, <a href="#Page_608">608</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Danish Geographical Society (<a href="#Page_v">b</a>)<br />
+<br />
+"Discoverer of the Pole," Peary denied title (<a href="#Page_iv">a</a>)<br />
+<br />
+Daniels, Josephus, Card to, <a href="#Page_603">603</a><br />
+<br />
+Discoverers Doubted, <a href="#Page_596">596</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Explorers, Verdicts of, <a href="#Page_584">584</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Geographic Societies, European, Forced to Honor Peary (<a href="#Page_iv">a</a>)<br />
+<br />
+Greely, Gen. A. W., <a href="#Page_603">603</a> (<a href="#Page_v">b</a>)<br />
+<br />
+Glacial Land, Discovery of, <a href="#Page_598">598</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Hubbard-Bridgeman, Arctic Trust, <a href="#Page_600">600</a><br />
+<br />
+Hoax the World, <a href="#Page_606">606</a><br />
+<br />
+High, Fred, Editor of Platform, Article by, <a href="#Page_604">604</a>, <a href="#Page_605">605</a>, <a href="#Page_610">610</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+King of Belgium (<a href="#Page_v">b</a>)<br />
+<br />
+Kill Brother Explorer, Tried to, <a href="#Page_602">602</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Lecointe, Prof. Georges, <a href="#Page_603">603</a><br />
+<br />
+Lyceum and Chautauqua Magazine, <a href="#Page_604">604</a>, <a href="#Page_610">610</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Mann, Congressman James R., Card to, <a href="#Page_604">604</a><br />
+<br />
+Mt. McKinley Expedition, <a href="#Page_534">534</a><br />
+<br />
+Moore, Prof. Willis, <a href="#Page_601">601</a>, <a href="#Page_603">603</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+North Pole, <a href="#Page_595">595</a>, <a href="#Page_604">604</a>, <a href="#Page_606">606</a><br />
+<br />
+National Investigation, Desired by Cook, <a href="#Page_600">600</a><br />
+<br />
+National Geographical Society, <a href="#Page_601">601</a>, <a href="#Page_603">603</a>, (<a href="#Page_iv">a</a>)<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Overland Magazine, Article by R. H. Caines, <a href="#Page_534">534</a><br />
+<br />
+Official Evidence not Necessarily Correct, <a href="#Page_607">607</a><br />
+<br />
+O'Hara, Barrett, <a href="#Page_609">609</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Pension Peary, Old Age, <a href="#Page_602">602</a>, <a href="#Page_603">603</a><br />
+<br />
+Purple Snow, <a href="#Page_598">598</a>, <a href="#Page_599">599</a><br />
+<br />
+Peary's Data proves Cook's, <a href="#Page_596">596</a>, <a href="#Page_597">597</a>, <a href="#Page_599">599</a><br />
+<br />
+Poindexter, Miles, Letter from, <a href="#Page_607">607</a><br />
+<br />
+Petty Cliques in Washington, <a href="#Page_607">607</a><br />
+<br />
+Peary-Parker-Brown Humbug up to date, <a href="#Page_534">534</a><br />
+<br />
+Parker-Brown Mt. McKinley Expedition, <a href="#Page_534">534</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Schley, Rear Admiral W. S. (<a href="#Page_v">b</a>)<br />
+<br />
+Sverdrup, Capt. Otto, <a href="#Page_603">603</a> (<a href="#Page_v">b</a>)<br />
+<br />
+Sampson-Schley Controversy, <a href="#Page_607">607</a><br />
+<br />
+Scientific Pioneers, U. S. first rank, <a href="#Page_602">602</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Tribune, N. Y., Article from, <a href="#Page_595">595</a><br />
+<br />
+Travelers Called Liars, <a href="#Page_595">595</a><br />
+<br />
+Taft, Wm. H., Telegram to, <a href="#Page_606">606</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+University of Copenhagen, Conferred Degree, Ph. D. (<a href="#Page_iv">a</a>, <a href="#Page_v">b</a>)<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Wilson, Woodrow, Letter to, <a href="#Page_602">602</a><br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="bbox">
+<h3>OTHER BOOKS BY DR. COOK</h3>
+
+<p>You have read Dr. Cook's narrative of his expedition to the North Pole. His other
+books are of equal interest.</p>
+
+
+<h3>Through the First Antarctic Night</h3>
+
+<p>A narrative of the Belgian South Pole Expedition of 1897, in charge of Commander
+de Gerlache, with Dr. Cook as surgeon.</p>
+
+<p>This expedition came near sharing the fate of Captain Scott of the English expedition.
+Captain Roald Amundsen, discoverer of the South Pole, in speaking to the Press of the
+hardships which the members of the Belgica expedition withstood says: "During the
+winter scurvy broke out and at the same time several of the party showed signs of mental
+trouble. Dr. Cook proved himself a surgeon equal to the situation. All of his patients
+recovered. Here I learned to know Dr. Cook and to appreciate him as one of the ablest,
+most honest, most reliable men I have ever met. Members of the Belgica expedition owe
+their lives to Dr. Cook, as it was through his ingenious plan of sawing the channel through
+the pack-ice to open water, thus releasing the ice locked ship, that saved the entire party
+from death."</p>
+
+<p>The above is covered in detail in similar words on pages 19, 20, 23 Volume One of "The
+South Pole" a late book by Captain Amundsen. On page 24 of the same volume he says:</p>
+
+<p>"Upright, honorable, capable and consciencious in the extreme; such is the memory we
+retain of Dr. Frederick A. Cook."</p>
+
+
+<h3>To the Top of the Continent</h3>
+
+<p>Exploration in Sub-Artic Alaska. A thrilling account of the first ascent of America's
+highest mountain&mdash;Mount McKinley.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Cook has been engaged in exploration for twenty years&mdash;the best part of his life&mdash;all
+without pay. He has furnished his own money for most of his expeditions. He is a
+quiet, unassuming man and has done all of his work with little thought of personal gain
+or honorary publicity. Quietly he came forward and told us that one of the greatest exploits
+ever made in mountain climbing was now accomplished. It did not occur to him to beat a
+drum or blow a trumpet to make this known to the world. The work was accomplished;
+this was sufficient for him. Little was known of the Mt. McKinley trip until Peary brought
+it up as a side issue to throw doubt on Dr. Cook's Polar Claim; see page 534 of this book.</p>
+
+
+<h3>My Attainment of the Pole<br />
+
+<br /><small>Edition de Luxe</small></h3>
+
+<p>Captain Amundsen in speaking of Dr. Cook's Polar trip says: "It was a pity that
+Peary should besmirch his beautiful work by circulating outrageous accusations against
+a competitor who had WON THE BATTLE in open field. If Peary is to prove the accusation
+by the evidence of Cook's two followers, I must confess it is a very weak foundation."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 15%;' />
+
+<p>The above books by Dr. Frederick A. Cook have been printed in edition de Luxe,
+especially for subscription purposes. The regular price is $5.00 each, but to accommodate
+those further interested in exploration, we have arranged to make a special reduced price;
+see next page.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class="bbox">
+<p class="ralign">
+<span style="margin-right: 1em;">....................................</span><br />
+....................................</p>
+
+<p class="noin">
+The Polar Publishing Co.,<br />
+&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 601 Steinway Hall,<br />
+&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Chicago, Ill.</p>
+
+<p class="noin">Gentlemen:</p>
+<p>Enclosed find three dollars ($3.00) for which please send me postpaid, one copy of
+"Through the First Antarctic Night," by Dr. Frederick A. Cook, and oblige</p>
+
+<p class="ralign">
+<span style="margin-right: 6em;">Yours truly,</span><br />
+........................................<br />
+....................................</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 95%;' />
+
+<p class="ralign">
+........................................<br />
+....................................</p>
+
+<p class="noin">
+The Polar Publishing Co.,<br />
+&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 601 Steinway Hall,<br />
+&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Chicago, Ill.</p>
+
+<p class="noin">Gentlemen:</p>
+<p>Enclosed find three dollars ($3.00) for which please send me postpaid, one copy of "To
+the Top of the Continent," by Dr. Frederick A. Cook, and oblige</p>
+
+<p class="ralign">
+<span style="margin-right: 6em;">Yours truly,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-right: 1em;">....................................</span><br />
+....................................</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 95%;' />
+
+<p class="ralign">
+<span style="margin-right: 1em;">....................................</span><br />
+....................................</p>
+
+<p class="noin">The Polar Publishing Co.,<br />
+&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 601 Steinway Hall,<br />
+&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Chicago, Ill.</p>
+
+<p class="noin">Gentlemen:</p>
+<p>Enclosed find three dollars ($3.00) for which please send me postpaid, one copy of
+"My Attainment of the Pole," Edition de Luxe, by Dr. Frederick A. Cook, and oblige</p>
+
+<p class="ralign">
+<span style="margin-right: 6em;">Yours truly,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-right: 1em;">....................................</span><br />
+....................................</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 95%;' />
+<p>Remove this sheet, clip and fill out any or all of the above coupons and mail to this
+office and we will forward the books at once.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
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+</pre>
+
+</body>
+</html>
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@@ -0,0 +1,20633 @@
+Project Gutenberg's My Attainment of the Pole, by Frederick A. Cook
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: My Attainment of the Pole
+
+Author: Frederick A. Cook
+
+Release Date: August 3, 2011 [EBook #36962]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY ATTAINMENT OF THE POLE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Greg Bergquist and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration: Frederick A. Cook]
+
+
+
+
+  _Press Edition_
+
+  MY ATTAINMENT
+  OF THE POLE
+
+
+  _Being the Record of the Expedition that First Reached the Boreal
+  Center, 1907-1909. With the Final Summary of the Polar Controversy_
+
+
+  _By_
+
+  DR. FREDERICK A. COOK
+
+
+  THIRD PRINTING, 60TH THOUSAND
+
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+
+  NEW YORK AND LONDON
+  MITCHELL KENNERLEY
+  MCMXIII
+
+  By Special arrangements this edition is marketed by
+  The Polar Publishing Co., 601 Steinway Hall, Chicago
+
+
+
+  COPYRIGHT 1913
+  BY
+  DR. FREDERICK A. COOK
+
+
+
+
+_OTHER BOOKS BY DR. COOK_
+
+
+  Through the First Antarctic Night
+    A Narrative of the Belgian South Polar Expedition.
+
+  To the Top of the Continent
+    Exploration in Sub-Arctic Alaska--The First Ascent of Mt. McKinley
+
+  My Attainment of the Pole
+    Edition de Luxe
+
+
+  Each of above series will be sent post paid for $5.00. All to one
+  address for $14.00.
+
+  Address: THE POLAR PUBLISHING CO.
+  601 Steinway Hall, Chicago
+
+
+
+
+_To the Pathfinders_
+
+
+  To the Indian who invented pemmican and snowshoes;
+  To the Eskimo who gave the art of sled traveling;
+  To this twin family of wild folk who have no flag
+  Goes the first credit.
+  To the forgotten trail makers whose book of experience has been a
+    guide;
+  To the fallen victors whose bleached bones mark steps in the ascent
+    of the ladder of latitudes;
+  To these, the pathfinders--past, present and future--I inscribe the
+    first page.
+  In the ultimate success there is glory enough
+  To go to the graves of the dead and to the heads of the living.
+
+
+
+
+THE PRESENT STATUS OF THE POLAR CONTROVERSY
+
+
+DR. COOK IS VINDICATED. HIS DISCOVERY OF THE NORTH POLE IS ENDORSED BY
+THE EXPLORERS OF ALL THE WORLD.
+
+In placing Dr. Cook on the Chautauqua platform as a lecturer, we have
+been compelled to study the statements issued for and against the rival
+polar claims with special reference to the facts bearing upon the
+present status of the Polar Controversy.
+
+Though the question has been argued during four years, we find that it
+is almost the unanimous opinion of arctic explorers today, that Dr. Cook
+reached the North Pole on April 21, 1909.
+
+With officer Peary's first announcement he chose to force a press
+campaign to deny Dr. Cook's success and to proclaim himself as the sole
+Polar Victor. Peary aimed to be retired as a Rear-Admiral on a pension
+of $6,000 per year. This ambition was granted; but the American Congress
+rejected his claim for priority by eliminating from the pension bill the
+words "Discovery of the Pole." The European geographical societies,
+forced under diplomatic pressure to honor Peary, have also refused him
+the title of "Discoverer." By a final verdict of the American government
+and of the highest European authorities, Peary is therefore denied the
+assumption of being the discoverer of the Pole, though his claim as a
+re-discoverer is allowed. The evasive inscriptions on the Peary medals
+prove this statement.
+
+Following the acute excitement of the first announcement, it seemed to
+be desirable to bring the question to a focus by submitting to some
+authoritative body for decision. Such an institution, however, did not
+exist. Previously, explorers had been rated by the slow process of
+historic digestion and assimilation of the facts offered, but it was
+thought that an academic examination would meet the demands. Officer
+Peary first submitted his case to a commission appointed by the National
+Geographical Society of Washington, D. C. This jury promptly said that
+in their "opinion" Peary reached the Pole on April 6, 1909; but a year
+later in congress the same men unwillingly admitted that in the Peary
+proofs there was no positive proof.
+
+Dr. Cook's data was sent to a commission appointed by the University of
+Copenhagen. The Danes reported that the material presented was
+incomplete and did not constitute positive proof. This verdict, however,
+did not carry the interpretation that the Pole had not been reached. The
+Danes have never said, as they have been quoted by the press, that Dr.
+Cook did not reach the Pole; quite to the contrary, the University of
+Copenhagen conferred the degree of Ph. D. and the Royal Danish
+Geographical Society gave a gold medal, both in recognition of the
+merits of the Polar effort.
+
+This early examination was based mostly upon the nautical calculations
+for position, and both verdicts when analyzed gave the version that in
+such observations there was no positive proof. The Washington jury
+ventured an opinion. The Danes refused to give an opinion, but showed
+their belief in Dr. Cook's success by conferring honorary degrees.
+
+It is the unfair interpretation of the respective verdicts by the
+newspapers which has precipitated the turbulent air of distrust which
+previously rested over the entire Polar achievement. All this, however,
+has now been cleared by the final word of fifty of the foremost Polar
+explorers and scientific experts.
+
+In so far as they were able to judge from all the data presented in the
+final books of both claimants the following experts have given it as
+their opinion that Dr. Cook reached the Pole, and that officer Peary's
+similar report coming later is supplementary proof of the first victory:
+
+General A. W. Greely, U. S. A., commander of the Lady Franklin Bay
+Expedition, who spent four years in the region under discussion.
+
+Rear Admiral W. S. Schley, U. S. N., commander of the Greely Relief
+Expedition.
+
+Capt. Otto Sverdrup, discoverer of the land over which Dr. Cook's route
+was forced.
+
+Capt. J. E. Bernier, commanding the Canadian Arctic Expeditions.
+
+Prof. G. Frederick Wright, author of the "Ice Age of North America."
+
+Capt. E. B. Baldwin, commanding the Baldwin-Ziegler Expedition.
+
+Prof. W. H. Brewer for 16 years president of the Arctic Club of America.
+
+Prof. Julius Payer of the Weyprecht-Payer Expedition.
+
+Prof. L. L. Dyche, member of various Peary and Cook Expeditions.
+
+Mr. Maurice Connell, Greely Expedition, and U. S. Weather Bureau.
+
+Capt. O. C. Hamlet, U. S. A. Arctic Revenue Service.
+
+Capt. E. A. Haven, Baldwin-Ziegler Expedition.
+
+Mr. Andrew J. Stone, Explorer of North Coast of America.
+
+Mr. Dillon Wallace, Labrador Explorer.
+
+Mr. Edwin Swift Balch, author of "The North Pole and Bradley Land."
+
+Captains Johan Menander, B. S. Osbon and Thomas F. Hall.
+
+Messrs. Henry Biederbeck, Frederick B. Wright, F. F. Taylor, Ralph H.
+Cairns, Theodore Lerner, M. Van Ryssellberghe, J. Knowles Hare, Chas. E.
+Rilliet, Homer Rogers, R. C. Bates, E. C. Rost, L. C. Bement, Clarence
+Wychoff, Alfred Church, Archibald Dickinson, Robert Stein, J. S.
+Warmbath, Geo. B. Butland, Ralph Shainwald, Henry Johnson, S. J.
+Entrikin, Clark Brown, W. F. Armbruster, John R. Bradley, Harry Whitney
+and Rudolph Franke.
+
+Drs. T. F. Dedrick, Middleton Smith, J. G. Knowlton, H. J. Egbert, W. H.
+Axtell, A. H. Cordier and Henry Schwartz.
+
+Judge Jules Leclercq, and Prof. Georges Lecointe, Secretary of the
+International Bureau of Polar Research.
+
+Thus endorsed by practically all Polar Explorers, Dr. Cook's attainment
+of the Pole and his earlier work of discovery and exploration is farther
+established by the following honorary pledges of recognition. (These are
+now in the possession of Dr. Cook, the press reports to the contrary
+being untrue).
+
+By the King of Belgium, decorated as Knight of the Order of Leopold.
+
+By the University of Copenhagen in conferring the degree of Ph. D.
+
+By the Royal Danish Geographical Society, presentation of a gold medal.
+
+By the Arctic Club of America, presentation of a gold medal.
+
+By the Royal Geographical Society of Belgium, presentation of a gold
+medal.
+
+By the Municipality of the City of Brussels, presentation of a gold
+medal.
+
+By the Municipality of the City of New York, with the ceremony of
+presenting the keys and offering the freedom of the city.
+
+Without denying officer Peary's success, we note that his case rests
+upon the opinion of three of his official associates in Washington.
+Three men acting for a society financially interested--three men who
+have never seen a piece of Polar ice--have given it as their "opinion"
+that Mr. Peary (a year later than Dr. Cook) reached the Pole. By many
+this was accepted as a final verdict of experts for Peary. But are such
+men dependable experts?
+
+Dr. Cook now offers in substantiation of his work the support and the
+final verdict of fifty of the foremost explorers and scientific experts.
+Each in his own way has during the past four years examined the polar
+problem and pronounced in favor of Dr. Cook.
+
+He is therefore vindicated of the propaganda of insinuation and distrust
+which his enemies forced, and his success in reaching the Pole is
+conceded and endorsed by his own peers.
+
+In his book, "My Attainment of the Pole," Dr. Cook offers with thrilling
+vividness a most remarkable series of adventures in the enraptured
+wilderness at the top of the globe. And in his lectures he takes his
+audience step by step over the haunts of northernmost man and beyond to
+the sparkling sea of death at the pole. Above all he leaves in the
+hearts of his listeners the thrills of a fresh vigor and a new
+inspiration, which opens the way for other worlds to conquer. By his
+books and by his lectures, Dr. Cook seeks justice at the bar of public
+opinion, and three million people have applauded his effort on the
+platform. One hundred thousand people will read his book during the
+coming year. We are inclined to agree with Capt. E. B. Baldwin and other
+Arctic explorers who say--"Putting aside the academic and idle argument
+of pin-point accuracy, the North Pole has been honestly reached by Dr.
+Cook, three hundred and fifty days before any one else claimed to have
+been there."
+
+  May 22, 1913.
+
+                           THE CHAUTAUQUA MANAGERS' ASSOCIATION,
+                                        ORCHESTRA BUILDING, CHICAGO.
+
+  Chas. W. Ferguson, Pres.                       A. L. Flude, Sec'y.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+This narrative has been prepared as a general outline of my conquest of
+the North Pole. In it the scientific data, the observations, every phase
+of the pioneer work with its drain of human energy has been presented in
+its proper relation to a strange cycle of events. The camera has been
+used whenever possible to illustrate the progress of the expedition as
+well as the wonders and mysteries of the Arctic wilds. Herein, with due
+after-thought and the better perspective afforded by time, the rough
+field notes, the disconnected daily tabulations and the records of
+instrumental observations, every fact, every optical and mental
+impression, has been re-examined and re-arranged to make a concise
+record of successive stages of progress to the boreal center. If I have
+thus worked out an understandable panorama of our environment, then the
+mission of this book has served its purpose.
+
+Much has been said about absolute geographic proof of an explorer's
+work. History demonstrates that the book which gives the final
+authoritative narrative is the test of an explorer's claims. By it every
+traveler has been measured. From the time of the discovery of America to
+the piercing of darkest Africa and the opening of Thibet, men who have
+sought the truth of the claims of discovery have sought, not abstract
+figures, but the continuity of the narrative in the pages of the
+traveler's final book. In such a narrative, after due digestion and
+assimilation, there is to be found either the proof or the disproof of
+the claims of a discoverer.
+
+In such narratives as the one herewith presented, subsequent travelers
+and other experts, with no other interests to serve except those of fair
+play, have critically examined the material. With the lapse of time
+accordingly, when partisanship feelings have been merged in calm and
+conscientious judgment, history has always finally pronounced a fair and
+equitable verdict.
+
+In a similar way my claim of being first to reach the North Pole will
+rest upon the data presented between the covers of this book.
+
+In working out the destiny of this Expedition, and this book which
+records its doings, I have to acknowledge my gratitude for the
+assistance of many people. First among those to whom I am deeply
+indebted is John R. Bradley. By his liberal hand this Expedition was
+given life, and by his loyal support and helpfulness I was enabled to
+get to my base of operations at Annoatok. By his liberal donations of
+food we were enabled to live comfortably during the first year. To John
+R. Bradley, therefore, belong the first fruits of the Polar conquest.
+
+A tribute of praise must be placed on record for Rudolph Francke. After
+the yacht returned, he was my sole civilized helper and companion. The
+faithful manner in which he performed the difficult duties assigned to
+him, and his unruffled cheerfulness during the trying weeks of the long
+night, reflect a large measure of credit.
+
+The band of little people of the Farthest North furnished without pay
+the vital force and the primitive ingenuity without which the quest of
+the Pole would be a hopeless task. These boreal pigmies with golden
+skins, with muscles of steel, and hearts as finely human as those of the
+highest order of man, performed a task that cannot be too highly
+commended. The two boys, Ah-we-lah and E-tuk-i-shook, deserve a place on
+the tablet of fame. They followed me with a perseverance which
+demonstrates one of the finest qualities of savage life. They shared
+with me the long run of hardship; they endured without complaint the
+unsatisfied hunger, the unquenched thirst, and the maddening isolation,
+with no thought of reward except that which comes from an unselfish
+desire to follow one whom they chose to regard as a friend. If a noble
+deed was ever accomplished, these boys did it, and history should record
+their heroic effort with indelible ink.
+
+At the request of Mrs. Cook, the Canadian Government sent its ship, the
+"Arctic," under Captain Bernier, with supplementary supplies for me, to
+Etah. These were left under the charge of Mr. Harry Whitney. The return
+to civilization was made in comfort, by the splendid manner in which
+this difficult problem was carried out. To each and all in this
+combination I am deeply indebted.
+
+With sweet memories of the warm hospitality of Danes in Greenland, I
+here subscribe my never-to-be-forgotten appreciation. I am also indebted
+to the Royal Greenland Trading Company and to the United S. S. Company
+for many favors; and, above all, am I grateful to the Danes as a nation,
+for the whole-souled demonstrations of friendship and appreciation at
+Copenhagen.
+
+In the making of this book, I was relieved of much routine editorial
+work by Mr. T. Everett Harry, associate editor of Hampton's Magazine,
+who rearranged much of my material, and by whose handling of certain
+purely adventure matter a book of better literary workmanship has been
+made.
+
+I am closing the pages of this book with a good deal of regret, for, in
+the effort to make the price of this volume so low that it can go into
+every home, the need for brevity has dictated the number of pages. My
+last word to all--to friends and enemies--is, if you must pass judgment,
+study the problem carefully. You are as capable of forming a correct
+judgment as the self-appointed experts. One of Peary's captains has said
+"that he knew, but never would admit, that Peary did not reach the
+Pole." Rear Admiral Chester has said the same about me, but he "admits"
+it in big, flaming type. With due respect to these men, in justice to
+the cause, I am bound to say that these, and others of their kind, who
+necessarily have a blinding bias, are not better able to judge than the
+average American citizen.
+
+If you have read this book, then read Mr. Peary's "North Pole." Put the
+two books side by side. When making comparisons, remember that my
+attainment of the Pole was one year earlier than Mr. Peary's claim; that
+my narrative was written and printed months before that of Mr. Peary;
+that the Peary narrative is such that Rear Admiral Schley has
+said--"After reading the published accounts daily and critically of
+both claimants, I was forced to the conclusion from their striking
+similarity that each of you was the eye-witness of the other's success.
+Without collusion, it would have been impossible to have written
+accounts so similar."
+
+This opinion, coming as it does from one of the highest Arctic and Naval
+authorities, is endorsed by practically all Arctic explorers. Captain E.
+B. Baldwin goes even further, and proves my claim from the pages of
+Peary's own book. Governor Brown of Georgia, after a critical
+examination of the two reports, says, "If it is true, as Peary would
+like us to believe, that Cook has given us a gold brick, then Peary has
+offered a paste diamond."
+
+Since my account was written and printed first, the striking analogy
+apparent in the Peary pages either proves my position at the Pole or it
+convicts Peary of using my data to fill out and impart verisimilitude to
+his own story of a second victory.
+
+Much against my will I find myself compelled to uncover the dark pages
+of the selfish unfairness of rival interests. In doing so my aim is not
+to throw doubt and distrust on Mr. Peary's success, but to show his
+incentive and his methods in attempting to leave the sting of discredit
+upon me. I would prefer to close my eye to a long series of wrong doings
+as I have done in the passing years, but the Polar controversy cannot be
+understood unless we get the perspective of the man who has forced it.
+Heretofore I have allowed others to expend their argumentative
+ammunition. The questions which I have raised are minor points. On the
+main question of Polar attainment there is not now room for doubt. The
+Pole has been honestly reached--the American Eagle has spread its wings
+of glory over the world's top. Whether there is room for one or two or
+more under those wings, I am content to let the future decide.
+
+                                                  FREDERICK A. COOK.
+
+The Waldorf-Astoria,
+
+    New York, June 15, 1911.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+TABLE OF CONTENTS
+
+
+                                                                  PAGE
+  I THE POLAR FIGHT                                                  1
+
+  II INTO THE BOREAL WILDS                                          23
+
+    THE YACHT BRADLEY LEAVES GLOUCESTER--INVADES THE MAGIC WATERS
+    OF THE ARCTIC SEAS--RECOLLECTIONS OF BOYHOOD AMBITIONS--BEYOND
+    THE ARCTIC CIRCLE--THE WEAVING OF THE POLAR SPELL
+
+  III THE DRIVING SPUR OF THE POLAR QUEST                           42
+
+    ON THE FRIGID PATHWAY OF THREE CENTURIES OF HEROIC MARTYRS--
+    MEETING THE STRANGE PEOPLE OF THE FARTHEST NORTH--THE LIFE
+    OF THE STONE AGE--ON THE CHASE WITH THE ESKIMOS--MANEE AND
+    SPARTAN ESKIMO COURAGE
+
+  IV TO THE LIMITS OF NAVIGATION                                    62
+
+    EXCITING HUNTS FOR GAME WITH THE ESKIMOS--ARRIVAL AT ETAH--
+    SPEEDY TRIP TO ANNOATOK, THE WINDY PLACE, WHERE SUPPLIES ARE
+    FOUND IN ABUNDANCE--EVERYTHING AUSPICIOUS FOR DASH TO THE
+    POLE--DETERMINATION TO ESSAY THE EFFORT--BRADLEY INFORMED--
+    DEBARK FOR THE POLE--THE YACHT RETURNS
+
+  V PREPARATIONS FOR THE POLAR DASH                                 73
+
+    AN ENTIRE TRIBE BREATHLESSLY AND FEVERISHLY AT WORK--MAPPING
+    OUT THE POLAR CAMPAIGN
+
+  VI THE CURTAIN OF NIGHT DROPS                                     81
+
+    TRIBE OF TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY NATIVES BUSILY BEGIN
+    PREPARATIONS FOR THE POLAR DASH--EXCITING HUNTS FOR THE
+    UNICORN AND OTHER GAME FROM ANNOATOK TO CAPE YORK--EVERY
+    ANIMAL CAUGHT BEARING UPON THE SUCCESS OF THE VENTURE--THE
+    GRAY-GREEN GLOOM OF TWILIGHT IN WHICH THE ESKIMO WOMEN
+    COMMUNICATE WITH THE SOULS OF THE DEAD
+
+  VII FIRST WEEK OF THE LONG NIGHT                                  99
+
+    HUNTING IN THE ARCTIC TWILIGHT--PURSUING BEAR, CARIBOU AND
+    SMALLER GAME IN SEMI-GLOOM
+
+  VIII THE MOONLIGHT QUEST OF THE WALRUS                           114
+
+    DESPERATE AND DANGEROUS HUNTING, IN ORDER TO SECURE ADEQUATE
+    SUPPLIES FOR THE POLAR DASH--A THRILLING AND ADVENTUROUS
+    RACE IS MADE OVER FROZEN SEAS AND ICY MOUNTAINS TO THE WALRUS
+    GROUNDS--TERRIFIC EXPLOSION OF THE ICE ON WHICH THE PARTY
+    HUNTS--SUCCESS IN SECURING OVER SEVEN SLED-LOADS OF BLUBBER
+    MAKES THE POLE SEEM NEARER--AN ARCTIC TRAGEDY
+
+  IX MIDNIGHT AND MID-WINTER                                       130
+
+    THE EQUIPMENT AND ITS PROBLEMS--NEW ART IN THE MAKING OF
+    SLEDGES COMBINING LIGHTNESS--PROGRESS OF THE PREPARATIONS--
+    CHRISTMAS WITH ITS GLAD TIDINGS AND AUGURIES FOR SUCCESS
+    IN QUEST OF THE POLE
+
+  X EN ROUTE FOR THE POLE                                          149
+
+    THE CAMPAIGN OPENS--LAST WEEKS OF THE POLAR NIGHT--ADVANCE
+    PARTIES SENT OUT--AWAITING THE DAWN
+
+  XI EXPLORING A NEW PASS OVER ACPOHON                             162
+
+    FROM THE ATLANTIC WATERS AT FLAGLER BAY TO THE PACIFIC WATERS
+    AT BAY FIORD--THE MECCA OF THE MUSK OX--BATTLES WITH THE
+    BOVINE MONSTERS OF THE ARCTIC--SUNRISE AND THE GLORY OF SUNSET
+
+  XII IN GAME TRAILS TO LAND'S END                                 176
+
+    SVERDRUP'S NEW WONDERLAND--FEASTING ON GAME EN ROUTE TO
+    SVARTEVOEG--FIRST SHADOW OBSERVATIONS--FIGHTS WITH WOLVES AND
+    BEARS--THE JOYS OF ZERO'S LOWEST--THRESHOLD OF THE UNKNOWN
+
+  XIII THE TRANS-BOREAL DASH BEGINS                                194
+
+    BY FORCED EFFORTS AND THE USE OF AXES SPEED IS MADE OVER
+    THE LAND-ADHERING PACK ICE OF POLAR SEA--THE MOST DIFFICULT
+    TRAVEL OF THE PROPOSED JOURNEY SUCCESSFULLY ACCOMPLISHED--
+    REGRETFUL PARTING WITH THE ESKIMOS
+
+  XIV OVER THE POLAR SEA TO THE BIG LEAD                           208
+
+    WITH TWO ESKIMO COMPANIONS, THE RACE POLEWARD CONTINUES OVER
+    ROUGH AND DIFFICULT ICE--THE LAST LAND FADES BEHIND--MIRAGES
+    LEAP INTO BEING AND WEAVE A MYSTIC SPELL--A SWIRLING SCENE OF
+    MOVING ICE AND FANTASTIC EFFECTS--STANDING ON A HILL OF ICE,
+    A BLACK, WRITHING, SNAKY CUT APPEARS IN THE ICE BEYOND--THE
+    BIG LEAD--A NIGHT OF ANXIETY--FIVE HUNDRED MILES ALREADY
+    COVERED--FOUR HUNDRED TO THE POLE
+
+  XV CROSSING MOVING SEAS OF ICE                                   221
+
+    CROSSING THE LEAD--THE THIN ICE HEAVES LIKE A SHEET OF
+    RUBBER--CREEPING FORWARD CAUTIOUSLY, THE TWO DANGEROUS MILES
+    ARE COVERED--BOUNDING PROGRESS MADE OVER IMPROVING ICE--THE
+    FIRST HURRICANE--DOGS BURIED AND FROZEN INTO MASSES IN DRIFTS
+    OF SNOW--THE ICE PARTS THROUGH THE IGLOO--WAKING TO FIND
+    ONE'S SELF FALLING INTO THE COLD SEA
+
+  XVI LAND DISCOVERED                                              232
+
+    FIGHTING PROGRESS THROUGH CUTTING COLD AND TERRIFIC STORMS--
+    LIFE BECOMES A MONOTONOUS ROUTINE OF HARDSHIP--THE POLE
+    INSPIRES WITH ITS RESISTLESS LURE--NEW LAND DISCOVERED BEYOND
+    THE EIGHTY-FOURTH PARALLEL--MORE THAN TWO HUNDRED MILES FROM
+    SVARTEVOEG--THE FIRST SIX HUNDRED MILES COVERED
+
+  XVII BEYOND THE RANGE OF LIFE                                    248
+
+    WITH A NEW SPRING TO WEARY LEGS BRADLEY LAND IS LEFT BEHIND--
+    FEELING THE ACHING VASTNESS OF THE WORLD BEFORE MAN WAS MADE--
+    CURIOUS GRIMACES OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN--SUFFERINGS INCREASE--BY
+    PERSISTENT AND LABORIOUS PROGRESS ANOTHER HUNDRED MILES IS
+    COVERED
+
+  XVIII OVER POLAR SEAS OF MYSTERY                                 260
+
+    THE MADDENING TORTURES OF A WORLD WHERE ICE WATER SEEMS HOT,
+    AND COLD KNIVES BURN ONE'S HANDS--ANGUISHED PROGRESS ON THE
+    LAST STRETCH OF TWO HUNDRED MILES OVER ANCHORED LAND ICE--
+    DAYS OF SUFFERING AND GLOOM--THE TIME OF DESPAIR--"IT IS
+    WELL TO DIE," SAYS AH-WE-LAH; "BEYOND IS IMPOSSIBLE"
+
+  XIX TO THE POLE--LAST HUNDRED MILES                              269
+
+    OVER PLAINS OF GOLD AND SEAS OF PALPITATING COLOR THE DOG
+    TEAMS, WITH NOSES DOWN, TAILS ERECT, DASH SPIRITEDLY LIKE
+    CHARIOT HORSES--CHANTING LOVE SONGS THE ESKIMOS FOLLOW WITH
+    SWINGING STEP--TIRED EYES OPEN TO NEW GLORY--STEP BY STEP,
+    WITH THUMPING HEARTS THE EARTH'S APEX IS NEARED--AT LAST!
+    THE GOAL IS REACHED! THE STARS AND STRIPES ARE FLUNG TO THE
+    FRIGID BREEZES OF THE NORTH POLE!
+
+  XX AT THE NORTH POLE                                             286
+
+    OBSERVATIONS AT THE POLE--METEOROLOGICAL AND ASTRONOMICAL
+    PHENOMENA--SINGULAR STABILITY AND UNIFORMITY OF THE
+    THERMOMETER AND BAROMETER--A SPOT WHERE ONE'S SHADOW IS THE
+    SAME LENGTH EACH HOUR OF THE TWENTY-FOUR--EIGHT POLAR
+    ALTITUDES OF THE SUN
+
+  XXI THE RETURN--A BATTLE FOR LIFE                                314
+
+    TURNED BACKS TO THE POLE AND TO THE SUN--THE DOGS, SEEMINGLY
+    GLAD AND SEEMINGLY SENSIBLE THAT THEIR NOSES WERE POINTED
+    HOMEWARD, BARKED SHRILLY--SUFFERING FROM INTENSE DEPRESSION--
+    THE DANGERS OF MOVING ICE, OF STORMS AND SLOW STARVATION--THE
+    THOUGHT OF FIVE HUNDRED AND TWENTY MILES TO LAND CAUSES
+    DESPAIR
+
+  XXII BACK TO LIFE AND BACK TO LAND                               326
+
+    THE RETURN--DELUDED BY DRIFT AND FOG--CARRIED ASTRAY OVER
+    AN UNSEEN DEEP--TRAVEL FOR TWENTY DAYS IN A WORLD OF MISTS,
+    WITH THE TERROR OF DEATH--AWAKENED FROM SLEEP BY A HEAVENLY
+    SONG--THE FIRST BIRD--FOLLOWING THE WINGED HARBINGER--WE
+    REACH LAND--A BLEAK, BARREN ISLAND POSSESSING THE CHARM OF
+    PARADISE--AFTER DAYS VERGING ON STARVATION, WE ENJOY A FEAST
+    OF UNCOOKED GAME
+
+  XXIII OVERLAND TO JONES SOUND                                    341
+
+    HOURS OF ICY TORTURE--A FRIGID SUMMER STORM IN THE BERG-DRIVEN
+    ARCTIC SEA--A PERILOUS DASH THROUGH TWISTING LANES OF OPENING
+    WATER IN A CANVAS CANOE--THE DRIVE OF HUNGER
+
+  XXIV UNDER THE WHIP OF FAMINE                                    355
+
+    BY BOAT AND SLEDGE, OVER THE DRIFTING ICE AND STORMY SEAS OF
+    JONES SOUND--FROM ROCK TO ROCK IN QUEST OF FOOD--MAKING NEW
+    WEAPONS
+
+  XXV BEAR FIGHTS AND WALRUS BATTLES                               365
+
+    DANGEROUS ADVENTURES IN A CANVAS BOAT--ON THE VERGE OF
+    STARVATION, A MASSIVE BRUTE, WEIGHING THREE THOUSAND POUNDS,
+    IS CAPTURED AFTER A FIFTEEN-HOUR STRUGGLE--ROBBED OF PRECIOUS
+    FOOD BY HUNGRY BEARS
+
+  XXVI BULL FIGHTS WITH THE MUSK OX                                378
+
+    AN ANCIENT CAVE EXPLORED FOR SHELTER--DEATH BY STARVATION
+    AVERTED BY HAND-TO-HAND ENCOUNTERS WITH WILD ANIMALS
+
+  XXVII A NEW ART OF CHASE                                         393
+
+    THREE WEEKS BEFORE THE SUNSET OF 1908--REVELLING IN AN EDEN
+    OF GAME--PECULIARITIES OF ANIMALS OF THE ARCTIC--HOW NATURE
+    DICTATES ANIMAL COLOR--THE QUEST OF SMALL LIFE
+
+  XXVIII A HUNDRED NIGHTS IN AN UNDERGROUND DEN                    406
+
+    LIVING LIKE MEN OF THE STONE AGE--THE DESOLATION OF THE LONG
+    NIGHT--LIFE ABOUT CAPE SPARBO--PREPARING EQUIPMENT FOR THE
+    RETURN TO GREENLAND--SUNRISE, FEBRUARY 11, 1909
+
+  XXIX HOMEWARD WITH A HALF SLEDGE AND HALF-FILLED STOMACHS        425
+
+    THREE HUNDRED MILES THROUGH STORM AND SNOW AND UPLIFTED
+    MOUNTAINS OF ICE TROUBLES--DISCOVER TWO ISLANDS--ANNOATOK IS
+    REACHED--MEETING HARRY WHITNEY--NEWS OF PEARY'S SEIZURE OF
+    SUPPLIES
+
+  XXX ANNOATOK TO UPERNAVIK                                        447
+
+    ELEVEN HUNDRED MILES SOUTHWARD OVER SEA AND LAND--AT ETAH--
+    OVERLAND TO THE WALRUS GROUNDS--ESKIMO COMEDIES AND TRAGEDIES--
+    A RECORD RUN OVER MELVILLE BAY--FIRST NEWS FROM PASSING SHIPS--
+    THE ECLIPSE OF THE SUN--SOUTHWARD BY STEAMER GODTHAAB
+
+  XXXI FROM GREENLAND TO COPENHAGEN                                463
+
+    FOREWARNING OF THE POLAR CONTROVERSY--BANQUET AT
+    EGGEDESMINDE--ON BOARD THE HANS EGEDE--CABLEGRAMS SENT FROM
+    LERWICK--THE OVATION AT COPENHAGEN--BEWILDERED AMIDST THE
+    GENERAL ENTHUSIASM--PEARY'S FIRST MESSAGES--EMBARK ON OSCAR
+    II FOR NEW YORK
+
+  XXXII COPENHAGEN TO THE UNITED STATES                            476
+
+    ACROSS THE ATLANTIC--RECEPTION IN NEW YORK--BEWILDERING
+    CYCLONE OF EVENTS--INSIDE NEWS OF THE PEARY ATTACK--HOW
+    THE WEB OF SHAME WAS WOVEN
+
+  XXXIII THE KEY TO THE CONTROVERSY                                507
+
+    PEARY AND HIS PAST--HIS DEALING WITH RIVAL EXPLORERS--THE
+    DEATH OF ASTRUP--THE THEFT OF THE "GREAT IRON STONE," THE
+    NATIVES' SOLE SOURCE OF IRON
+
+  XXXIV THE MT. MCKINLEY BRIBERY                                   521
+
+    THE BRIBED, FAKED AND FORGED NEWS ITEMS--THE PRO-PEARY
+    MONEY POWERS ENCOURAGE PERJURY--MT. MCKINLEY HONESTLY
+    CLIMBED--HOW, FOR PEARY, A SIMILAR PEAK WAS FAKED
+
+  XXXV THE DUNKLE-LOOSE FORGERY                                    535
+
+    ITS PRO-PEARY MAKING
+
+  XXXVI HOW A GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY PROSTITUTED ITS NAME              541
+
+    THE WASHINGTON VERDICT--THE COPENHAGEN VERDICT
+
+
+  RETROSPECT      557
+
+  THE PRESENT STATUS OF THE POLAR CONTROVERSY (Preceding Preface)  (a)
+
+    Dr. Cook Vindicated--His Discovery of the North Pole Endorsed
+    by the Explorers of all the World.
+
+  THE PEARY-PARKER-BROWN HUMBUG UP TO DATE (To Finish Page)        534
+
+    Parker contradicts former Statement--Says he climbed Mt.
+    McKinley by Northeast Ridge.--The Ridge used by Dr. Cook.
+
+  VERDICT OF THE GEOGRAPHIC HISTORIAN (By Edwin Swift Balch)       595
+
+    Dr. Cook's Record is Accurate--It is Certified--It is
+    Corroborated--He is the Discoverer of the North Pole.
+
+  A REQUEST FOR A NATIONAL INVESTIGATION (By Dr. Frederick A.
+  Cook)                                                            600
+
+    Nation should decide--Congress Should Investigate Rival
+    Claims--Letter to the President.
+
+  CAN THE GOVERNMENT ESCAPE THE RESPONSIBILITY (By Fred High,
+  Editor of the Platform)                                          605
+
+    Cook Should Have a Fair Deal--An Unbiased Comparison--Letters
+    to and from Prominent Men.
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+  FREDERICK A. COOK                                     _Frontispiece_
+
+                                                           FACING PAGE
+  RUDOLPH FRANCKE IN ARCTIC COSTUME                                 12
+
+  MIDNIGHT--"A PANORAMA OF BLACK LACQUER AND SILVER"                13
+
+  ON THE CHASE FOR BEAR--THE BOX-HOUSE AT ANNOATOK AND ITS
+  WINTER ENVIRONMENT                                                76
+
+  MAN'S PREY OF THE ARCTIC SEA--WALRUS ASLEEP                       77
+
+  THE HELPERS--NORTHERNMOST MAN AND HIS WIFE                       108
+
+  A MECCA OF MUSK OX ALONG EUREKA SOUND--A NATIVE
+  HELPER--AH-WE-LAH'S PROSPECTIVE WIFE                             109
+
+  THE CAPTURE OF A BEAR--ROUNDING UP A HERD OF MUSK OXEN           140
+
+  SVARTEVOEG--CAMPING 500 MILES FROM THE POLE                      141
+
+  "THE IGLOO BUILT, WE PREPARE FOR OUR DAILY CAMP"                 172
+
+  CAMPING TO EAT AND TAKE OBSERVATIONS--ON AGAIN                   173
+
+  DASHING FORWARD EN ROUTE TO THE POLE                             204
+
+  DEPARTURE OF SUPPORTING PARTY--A BREATHING SPELL--POLEWARD       205
+
+  BRADLEY LAND DISCOVERED--SUBMERGED ISLAND OF POLAR
+  SEA--GOING BEYOND THE BOUNDS OF LIFE                             236
+
+  SWIFT PROGRESS OVER SMOOTH ICE--BUILDING AN IGLOO--A
+  LIFELESS WORLD OF COLD AND ICE                                   237
+
+  "TOO WEARY TO BUILD IGLOOS, WE USED THE SILK TENT"
+  "ACROSS SEAS OF CRYSTAL GLORY TO THE BOREAL CENTRE"              268
+
+  MENDING NEAR THE POLE                                            269
+
+  FIRST CAMP AT THE POLE, APRIL 21, 1908                           300
+
+  AT THE POLE--"WE WERE THE ONLY PULSATING CREATURES IN A
+  DEAD WORLD OF ICE"                                               301
+
+  "WITH EAGER EYES WE SEARCHED THE DUSKY PLAINS OF CRYSTAL, BUT
+  THERE WAS NO LAND, NO LIFE, TO RELIEVE THE PURPLE RUN OF DEATH"  332
+
+  RECORD LEFT IN BRASS TUBE AT NORTH POLE                          333
+
+  OBSERVATION DETERMINING THE POLE--PHOTOGRAPH FROM ORIGINAL NOTE  364
+
+  BACK TO LAND AND BACK TO LIFE--AWAKENED BY A WINGED HARBINGER    365
+
+  E-TUK-I-SHOOK WAITING FOR A SEAL AT A BLOW HOLE                  396
+
+  TOWARD CAPE SPARBO IN CANVAS BOAT--WALRUS--(PRIZE OF 15-HOUR
+  BATTLE) 4,000 LBS. OF MEAT AND FAT                               397
+
+  PUNCTURED CANVAS BOAT IN WHICH WE PADDLED 1,000 MILES--FAMINE
+  DAYS, WHEN ONLY STRAY BIRDS PREVENTED STARVATION--DEN IN WHICH
+  WE SPENT 100 DOUBLE NIGHTS                                       428
+
+  BULL FIGHTS WITH THE MUSK OX ABOUT CAPE SPARBO                   429
+
+  SAVED FROM STARVATION--THE RESULT OF ONE OF OUR LAST CARTRIDGES  460
+
+  "MILES AND MILES OF DESOLATION"--HOMEWARD BOUND                  461
+
+  GOVERNOR KRAUL IN HIS STUDY--ARRIVAL AT UPERNAVIK                492
+
+  POLAR TRAGEDY--A DESERTED CHILD OF THE SULTAN OF THE NORTH AND
+  ITS MOTHER                                                       493
+
+
+
+
+My Attainment of the Pole
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+THE POLAR FIGHT
+
+
+On April 21, 1908, I reached a spot on the silver-shining desert of
+boreal ice whereat a wild wave of joy filled my heart. I can remember
+the scene distinctly--it will remain one of those comparatively few
+mental pictures which are photographed with a terribly vivid
+distinctness of detail, because of their emotional effect, during
+everyone's existence, and which reassert themselves in the brain like
+lightning flashes in stresses of intense emotion, in dreams, in the
+delirium of sickness, and possibly in the hour of death.
+
+I can see the sun lying low above the horizon, which glittered here and
+there in shafts of light like the tip of a long, circular, silver blade.
+The globe of fire, veiled occasionally by purplish, silver-shot mists,
+was tinged with a faint, burning lilac. Through opening cracks in the
+constantly moving field of ice, cold strata of air rose, deflecting the
+sun's rays in every direction, and changing the vision of distant ice
+irregularities with a deceptive perspective, as an oar blade seen in the
+depth of still water.
+
+Huge phantom-shapes took form about me; they were nebulous, their color
+purplish. About the horizon moved what my imagination pictured as the
+ghosts of dead armies--strange, gigantic, wraith-like shapes whose heads
+rose above the horizon as the heads of a giant army appearing over the
+summits of a far-away mountain. They moved forward, retreated,
+diminished in size, and titanically reappeared again. Above them, in the
+purple mists and darker clouds, shifted scintillantly waving flashes of
+light, orange and crimson, the ghosts of their earthly battle banners,
+wind-tossed, golden and bloodstained.
+
+I stood gazing with wonder, half-appalled, forgetting that these were
+mirages produced by cold air and deflected light rays, and feeling only
+as though I were beholding some vague revelation of victorious hosts,
+beings of that other world which in olden times, it is said, were
+conjured at Endor. It seemed fitting that they should march and remarch
+about me; that the low beating of the wind should suddenly swell into
+throbbing martial music. For that moment I was intoxicated. I stood
+alone, apart from my two Eskimo companions, a shifting waste of purple
+ice on every side, alone in a dead world--a world of angry winds,
+eternal cold, and desolate for hundreds of miles in every direction as
+the planet before man was made.
+
+I felt in my heart the thrill which any man must feel when an almost
+impossible but dearly desired work is attained--the thrill of
+accomplishment with which a poet must regard his greatest masterpiece,
+which a sculptor must feel when he puts the finishing touch to inanimate
+matter wherein he has expressed consummately a living thought, which a
+conqueror must feel when he has mastered a formidable alien army.
+Standing on this spot, I felt that I, a human being, with all of
+humanity's frailties, had conquered cold, evaded famine, endured an
+inhuman battling with a rigorous, infuriated Nature in a soul-racking,
+body-sapping journey such as no man perhaps had ever made. I had proved
+myself to myself, with no thought at the time of any worldy applause.
+Only the ghosts about me, which my dazzled imagination evoked,
+celebrated the glorious thing with me--a thing in which no human being
+could have shared. Over and over again I repeated to myself that I had
+reached the North Pole, and the thought thrilled through my nerves and
+veins like the shivering sound of silver bells.
+
+That was my hour of victory. It was the climacteric hour of my life. The
+vision and the thrill, despite all that has passed since then, remain,
+and will remain with me as long as life lasts, as the vision and the
+thrill of an honest, actual accomplishment.
+
+That I stood at the time on the very pivotal pin-point of the earth I do
+not and never did claim; I may have, I may not. In that moving world of
+ice, of constantly rising mists, with a low-lying sun whose rays are
+always deflected, such an ascertainment of actual position, even with
+instruments in the best workable condition, is, as all scientists will
+agree, impossible. That I reached the North Pole approximately, and
+ascertained my location as accurately, as painstakingly, as the
+terrestrial and celestial conditions and the best instruments would
+allow; that I thrilled with victory, and made my claim on as honest, as
+careful, as scientific a basis of observations and calculations as any
+human being could, I do emphatically assert. That any man, in reaching
+this region, could do more than I did to ascertain definitely the
+mathematical Pole, and that any more voluminous display of figures could
+substantiate a claim of greater accuracy, I do deny. I believe still
+what I told the world when I returned, that I am the first white man to
+reach that spot known as the North Pole as far as it is, or ever will
+be, humanly possible to ascertain the location of that spot.
+
+Few men in all history, I am inclined to believe, have ever been made
+the subject of such vicious attacks, of such malevolent assailing of
+character, of such a series of perjured and forged charges, of such a
+widespread and relentless press persecution, as I; and few men, I feel
+sure, have ever been made to suffer so bitterly and so inexpressibly as
+I because of the assertion of my achievement. So persistent, so
+egregious, so overwhelming were the attacks made upon me that for a time
+my spirit was broken, and in the bitterness of my soul I even felt
+desirous of disappearing to some remote corner of the earth, to be
+forgotten. I knew that envy was the incentive to all the unkind abuses
+heaped upon me, and I knew also that in due time, when the public
+agitation subsided and a better perspective followed, the justice of my
+claim would force itself to the inevitable light of truth.
+
+With this confidence in the future, I withdrew from the envious,
+money-waged strife to the calm and restfulness of my own family circle.
+The campaign of infamy raged and spent its force. The press lined up
+with this dishonest movement by printing bribed, faked and forged news
+items, deliberately manufactured by my enemies to feed a newspaper
+hunger for sensation. In going away for a rest it did not seem prudent
+to take the press into my confidence, a course which resulted in the
+mean slurs that I had abandoned my cause. This again was used by my
+enemies to blacken my character. In reality, I had tried to keep the
+ungracious Polar controversy within the bounds of decent, gentlemanly
+conduct; but indecency had become the keynote, and against this, mild
+methods served no good purpose. I preferred, therefore, to go away and
+allow the atmosphere to clear of the stench stirred up by rival
+interest; but while I was away, my enemies were watched, and I am here
+now to uncover the darkest campaign of bribery and conspiracy ever
+forged in a strife for honor.
+
+Now that my disappointment, my bitterness has passed, that my hurt has
+partly healed, I have determined to tell the whole truth about myself,
+about the charges made against me, and about those by whom the charges
+were made. Herein, FOR THE FIRST TIME, I will tell how and why I
+believed I reached the North Pole, and give fully the record upon which
+this claim is based. Only upon such a complete account of day-by-day
+traveling and such observations, can any claim rest.
+
+Despite the hullabaloo of voluminous so-called proofs offered by a
+rival, I am certain that the unprejudiced reader will herein find as
+complete a story, and as valuable figures as those ever offered by
+anyone for any such achievement in exploration as mine. Herein, for the
+first time, shall I answer _in toto_ all charges made against me, and
+this because the entire truth concerning these same charges I have not
+succeeded in giving the world through other channels. Because of the
+power of those who arrayed themselves against me, I found the columns of
+the press closed to much that I wished to say; articles which I wrote
+for publication underwent editorial excision, and absolutely necessary
+explanations, which in themselves attacked my assailants, were
+eliminated.
+
+Only by reading my own story, as fully set down herein, can anyone judge
+of the relative value of my claim and that of my rival claimant; only by
+so doing can anyone get at the truth of the plot made to discredit me;
+only by doing so can one learn the reason for all of my actions, for my
+failure to meet charges at the time they were made, for my disappearing
+at a time when such action was unfairly made to confirm the worst
+charges of my detractors. That I have been too charitable with those who
+attempted to steal the justly deserved honors of my achievement, I am
+now convinced; when desirable, I shall now, having felt the smarting
+sting of the world's whip, and in order to justify myself, use the
+knife. I shall tell the truth even though it hurts. I have not been
+spared, and I shall spare no one in telling the unadorned and unpleasant
+story of a man who has been bitterly wronged, whose character has been
+assailed by bought and perjured affidavits, whose life before he
+returned from the famine-land of ice and cold--the world of his
+conquest--was endangered, designedly or not, by a dishonest
+appropriation of food supplies by one who afterwards endeavored
+to steal from him his honor, which is more dear than life.
+
+To be doubted, and to have one's honesty assailed, has been the
+experience of many explorers throughout history. The discoverer of our
+own continent, Christopher Columbus, was thrown into prison, and
+another, Amerigo Vespucci, was given the honor, his name to this day
+marking the land which was reached only through the intrepidity and
+single-hearted, single-sustained confidence of a man whose vision his
+own people doubted. Even in my own time have explorers been assailed,
+among them Stanley, whose name for a time was shrouded with suspicion,
+and others who since have joined the ranks of my assailants.
+Unfortunately, in such cases the matter of proof and the reliability of
+any claim, basicly, must rest entirely upon the intangible evidence of a
+man's own word; there can be no such thing as a palpable and indubitable
+proof. And in the case when a man's good faith is aspersed and his
+character assailed, the world's decision must rest either upon his own
+word or that of his detractors.
+
+Returning from the North, exhausted both in body and brain by a savage
+and excruciating struggle against famine and cold, yet thrilling with
+the glorious conviction of a personal attainment, I was tossed to the
+zenith of worldly honor on a wave of enthusiasm, a world-madness, which
+startled and bewildered me. In that swift, sudden, lightning-flash
+ascension to glory, which I had not expected, and in which I was as a
+bit of helpless drift in the thundering tossing of an ocean storm, I was
+decorated with unasked-for honors, the laudations of the press of the
+world rang in my ears, the most notable of living men hailed me as one
+great among them. I found myself the unwilling and uncomfortable guest
+of princes, and I was led forward to receive the gracious hand of a
+King.
+
+Returning to my own country, still marveling that such honors should be
+given because I had accomplished what seemed, and still seems, a merely
+personal achievement, and of little importance to anyone save to him who
+throbs with the gratification of a personal success, I was greeted with
+mad cheers and hooting whistles, with bursting guns and blaring bands. I
+was led through streets filled with applauding men and singing children
+and arched with triumphal flowers. In a dizzy whirl about the
+country--which now seems like a delirious dream--I experienced what I am
+told was an ovation unparalleled of its kind.
+
+Coincident with my return to civilization, and while the world was
+ringing with congratulations, there came stinging through the cold air
+from the North, by wireless electric flashes, word from Mr. Peary that
+he had reached the North Pole and that, in asserting such a claim
+myself, I was a liar. I did not then doubt the good faith of Peary's
+claim; having reached the boreal center myself, under extremely
+favorable weather conditions, I felt that he, with everything in his
+favor, could do as much a year later, as he claimed. I replied with all
+candor what I felt, that there was glory enough for two. But I did, of
+course, feel the sting of my rival's unwarranted and virulent attacks.
+In the stress of any great crisis, the average human mind is apt to be
+carried away by unwise impulses.
+
+Following Mr. Peary's return, I found myself the object of a campaign to
+discredit me in which, I believe, as an explorer, I stand the most
+shamefully abused man in the history of exploration. Deliberately
+planned, inspired at first, and at first directed, by Mr. Peary from
+the wireless stations of Labrador, this campaign was consistently and
+persistently worked out by a powerful and affluent organization, with
+unlimited money at its command, which has had as its allies dishonest
+pseudo-scientists, financially and otherwise interested in the success
+of Mr. Peary's expedition. With a chain of powerful newspapers, a
+financial backer of Peary led a campaign to destroy confidence in me. I
+found myself in due time, before I realized the importance of underhand
+attacks, in a quandary which baffled and bewildered me. Without any
+organization behind me, without any wires to pull, without, at the time,
+any appreciable amount of money for defence, I felt what anyone who is
+not superhuman would have felt, a sickening sense of helplessness, a
+disgust at the human duplicity which permitted such things, a sense of
+the futility of the very thing I had done and its little worth compared
+to the web of shame my enemies were endeavoring to weave about me.
+
+One of the remarkable things about modern journalism is that, by
+persistent repetition, it can create as a fact in the public mind a
+thing which is purely immaterial or untrue. Taking the cue from Peary,
+there was at the beginning a widespread and unprecedented call for
+"proofs," which in some vague way were to consist of unreduced
+reckonings. Mr. Peary had his own--he had buried part of mine. I did not
+at the time instantly produce these vague and obscure proofs, knowing,
+as all scientists know, that figures must inevitably be inadequate and
+that any convincing proof that can exist is to be found only in the
+narrative account of such a quest. I did not appreciate that in the
+public mind, because of the newspapers' criticisms, there was growing a
+demand for this vague something. For this reason, I did not consider an
+explanation of the absurdity of this exaggerated position necessary.
+
+Nor did I appreciate the relative effect of the National Geographic
+Society's "acceptance" of Mr. Peary's so-called "proofs" while mine were
+not forthcoming. I did not know at the time, what has since been brought
+out in the testimony given before the Naval Committee in Washington,
+that the National Geographic Society's verdict was based upon an
+indifferent examination of worthless observations and a few seconds'
+casual observation of Mr. Peary's instruments by several members of the
+Society in the Pennsylvania Railroad Station at Washington. With many
+lecture engagements, I considered that I was right in doing what every
+other explorer, including Mr. Peary himself, had done before me; that
+is, to fulfill my lecture and immediate literary opportunities while
+there was a great public interest aroused, and to offer a narrative of
+greater length, with field observations and extensive scientific data,
+later.
+
+Following the exaggerated call for proofs, there began a series of
+persistently planned attacks. So petty and insignificant did many of
+them seem to me that I gave them little thought. My speed limits were
+questioned, this charge being dropped when it was found that Mr. Peary's
+had exceeded mine. The use by the newspaper running my narrative story
+of photographs of Arctic scenes--which never change in character--that
+had been taken by me on previous trips, was held up as visible evidence
+that I was a faker! Errors which crept into my newspaper account
+because of hasty preparation, and which were not corrected because there
+was no time to read proofs, were eagerly seized upon, and long, abstruse
+and impressive mathematical dissertations were made on these to prove
+how unscrupulous and unreliable I was.
+
+The photograph of the flag at the Pole was put forth by one of Mr.
+Peary's friends to prove on _prima facie_ evidence that I had faked.
+Inasmuch as the original negative was vague because of the non-actinic
+light in the North, the newspaper photographers retouched the print and
+painted on it a shadow as being cast from the flag and snow igloos. This
+shadow was seized upon avidly, and after long and learned calculations,
+was cited as showing that the picture was taken some five hundred miles
+from the Pole.
+
+A formidable appearing statement, signed by various members of his
+expedition, and copyrighted by the clique of honor-blind boosters, was
+issued by Mr. Peary. In this he gave statements of my two Eskimo
+companions to the effect that I had not gotten out of sight of land for
+more than one or two "sleeps" on my trip. I knew that I had encouraged
+the delusion of my Eskimos that the mirages and low-lying clouds which
+appeared almost daily were signs of land. In their ignorance and their
+eagerness to be near land, they believed this, and by this innocent
+deception I prevented the panic which seizes every Arctic savage when he
+finds himself upon the circumpolar sea out of sight of land. I have
+since learned that Mr. Peary's Eskimos became panic-stricken near the
+Big Lead on his last journey and that it was only by the
+life-threatening announcement to them of his determination to leave
+them alone on the ice (to get back to land as best they might or starve
+to death) that he compelled them to accompany him.
+
+In any case, I did not consider as important any testimony of the
+Eskimos which Mr. Peary might cite, knowing as well as he did that one
+can get any sort of desired reply from these natives by certain adroit
+questioning, and knowing also that the alleged route on his map which he
+said they drew was valueless, inasmuch as an Eskimo out of sight of land
+and in an unfamiliar region has no sense of location. I felt the whole
+statement to be what it was, a trumped-up document in which my helpers,
+perhaps unwittingly, had been adroitly led to affirm what Mr. Peary by
+jesuitical and equivocal questioning planned to have them say, and that
+it was therefore unworthy of a reply.
+
+I had left my instruments and part of the unreduced reckonings with Mr.
+Harry Whitney, a fact which Mr. Whitney himself confirmed in published
+press interviews when he first arrived--in the heat of the controversy
+and after I left Copenhagen--in Sidney. When interviews came from Mr.
+Peary insinuating that I had left no instruments in the North, this
+becoming a definite charge which was taken up with great hue and cry,
+I bitterly felt this to be a deliberate untruth on Mr. Peary's part.
+I have since learned that one of Mr. Peary's officers cross-questioned
+my Eskimos, and that by showing them Mr. Peary's own instruments he
+discovered just what instruments I had had with me on my trip, and that
+by describing the method of using these instruments to E-tuk-i-shook
+and Ah-we-lah, Bartlett learned from them that I did take observations.
+This information he conveyed to Mr. Peary before his expedition left
+Etah for America, and this knowledge Mr. Peary and his party,
+deliberately and with malicious intent, concealed on their return. At
+the time I had no means of refuting this insinuation; it was simply my
+word or Mr. Peary's.
+
+[Illustration: RUDOLPH FRANCKE IN ARCTIC COSTUME]
+
+[Illustration: MIDNIGHT--"A PANORAMA OF BLACK LACQUER AND SILVER."]
+
+I had no extraordinary proofs to offer, but, such as they were, I now
+know, by comparison with the published reports of Mr. Peary himself,
+they were as good as any offered by anyone. I was perhaps unfortunate in
+not having, as Mr. Peary had, a confederate body of financially
+interested friends to back me up, as was the National Geographic
+Society.
+
+Not satisfied with unjustly attacking my claim, Mr. Peary's associates
+proceeded to assail my past career, and I was next confronted by an
+affidavit made by my guide, Barrill, to the effect that I had not scaled
+Mt. McKinley, an affidavit which, as I later secured evidence, had been
+bought. A widely heralded "investigation" was announced by a body of
+"explorers" of which Peary was president. One of Colonel Mann's
+muck-rakers was secretary, while its moving spirit was Mr. Peary's press
+agent, Herbert L. Bridgman. In a desperate effort to help Peary, a
+cowardly side issue was forced through Professor Herschell Parker, who
+had been with me on the Mt. McKinley trip but who had turned back after
+becoming panic-stricken in the crossing of mountain torrents. Mr. Parker
+expressed doubt of my achievements because he differed with me as to the
+value of the particular instrument to ascertain altitude which I, with
+many other mountain climbers, used. I had offered all possible proofs
+as to having climbed the mountain, as full and adequate proofs as any
+mountaineer could, or ever has offered.
+
+I resented the meddlesomeness of this pro-Peary group of kitchen
+explorers, not one of whom knew the first principles of mountaineering.
+From such an investigation, started to help Peary in his black-hand
+effort to force the dagger, with the money power easing men's
+conscience--as was evident at the time everywhere--no fair result could
+be expected. And as to the widely printed Barrill affidavit--this
+carried on its face the story of pro-Peary bribery and conspiracy. I
+have since learned that for it $1,500 and other considerations were
+paid. Here was a self-confessed liar. I did not think that a sane public
+therefore could take this underhanded pro-Peary charge as to the climb
+of Mt. McKinley seriously. Indeed, I paid little attention to it, but by
+using the cutting power of the press my enemies succeeded in inflicting
+a wound in my side.
+
+I was thus plunged into the bewildering chaos which friends and enemies
+created, and swept for three months through a cyclone of events which I
+believe no human being could have stood. Before returning, I felt
+weakened mentally and physically by the rigors of the North, where for a
+year I barely withstood starvation. I was now whirled about the country,
+daily delivering lectures, greeting thousands of people, buffeted by
+mobs of well-meaning beings, and compelled to attend dinners and
+receptions numbering two hundred in sixty days. The air hissed about me
+with the odious charges which came from every direction. I was alone,
+helpless, without a single wise counsellor, under the charge of the
+enemies' press, mud-charged guns fired from every point of the compass.
+Unlimited funds were being consumed in the infamous mill of bribery.
+
+I had not the money nor the nature to fight in this kind of battle--so I
+withdrew. At once, howls of execration gleefully rose from the ranks of
+my enemies; my departure was heralded gloriously as a confession of
+imposture. Advantage was taken of my absence and new, perjured, forged
+charges were made to blacken my name. Far from my home and unable to
+defend myself, Dunkle and Loose swore falsely to having manufactured
+figures and observations under my direction. When I learned of this,
+much as it hurt me, I knew that the report which I had sent to
+Copenhagen would, if it did anything, disprove by the very figures in it
+the malicious lying document published in the New York _Times_. This,
+combined with the verdict rendered by the University of Copenhagen--a
+neutral verdict which carried no implication of the non-attainment of
+the Pole, but which was interpreted as a rejection--helped to stamp me
+in the minds of many people as the most monumental impostor the world
+has ever seen.
+
+I fully realized that under the circumstances the only verdict of an
+unprejudiced body on any such proofs to such a claim must be favorable
+or neutral. The members of the University of Copenhagen who examined my
+papers were neither personal friends nor members of a body financially
+interested in my quest. Their verdict was honest. Mr. Peary's Washington
+verdict was dishonest, for two members of the jury admitted a year later
+in Congress, under pressure, that in the Peary data there was no
+absolute proof.
+
+By the time I determined to return to my native country and state my
+case, I had been placed, I am certain, in a position of undeserved
+discredit unparalleled in history. No epithet was too vile to couple
+with my name. I was declared a brazen cheat who had concocted the most
+colossal lie of ages whereby to hoax an entire world for gain. I was
+made the subject of cheap jokes. My name in antagonistic newspapers had
+become a synonym for cheap faking. I was compelled to see myself held up
+gleefully as an impostor, a liar, a fraud, an unscrupulous scoundrel,
+one who had tried to steal honors from another, and who, to escape
+exposure, had fled to obscurity.
+
+All the scientific work which scientists themselves had accepted as
+valuable, all the necessary hardships and the inevitable agonies of my
+last Arctic journey were forgotten; I was coupled with the most
+notorious characters in history in a press which panders to the lowest
+of human emotions and delights in men's shame. When I realized how
+egregious, how frightful, how undeserved was all this, my soul writhed;
+when I saw clearly, with the perspective which only time can give, how
+I, stepping aside, in errors of confused judgment which were purely
+human, had seemingly contributed to my unhappy plight, I felt the sting
+of ignominy greater than that which has broken stronger men's hearts.
+
+For the glory which the world gives to such an accomplishment as the
+discovery of the North Pole, I care very little, but when the very
+result of such a victory is used as a whip to inflict cuts that mark my
+future destiny, I have a right to call a halt. I have claimed no
+national honors, want no medals or money. My feet stepped over the
+Polar wastes with a will fired only by a personal ambition to succeed in
+a task where all the higher human powers were put to the test of
+fitness. That victory was honestly won. All that the achievement ever
+meant to me--the lure of it before I achieved it, the only satisfaction
+that remains since--is that it is a personal accomplishment of brain and
+muscle over hitherto unconquered forces, a thought in which I have
+pride. From the tremendous ovations that greeted me when I returned to
+civilization I got not a single thrill. I did thrill with the handclasp
+of confident, kindly people. I still thrill with the handclasp of my
+countrymen.
+
+Insofar as the earthly glory and applause are concerned, I should be
+only too glad to share them, with all material accruements, to any
+honest, manly rivals--those of the past and those of the future. But
+against the unjust charges which have been made against me, against the
+aspersions on my personal integrity, against the ignominy with which my
+name has been besmirched, I will fight until the public gets a normal
+perspective.
+
+I have never hoaxed a mythical achievement. Everything I have ever
+claimed was won by hard labor, by tremendous physical fortitude and
+endurance, and by such personal sacrifice as only I, and my immediate
+family, will ever know.
+
+For this reason, I returned to my country in the latter part of 1910, as
+I always intended to do, after a year's rest. By this time I knew that
+my enemies would have said all that was possible about me; the
+excitement of the controversy would have quieted, and I should have the
+advantage of the last word.
+
+In the heat of the controversy, only just returned in a weakened
+condition from the North, and mentally bewildered by the unexpected
+maelstrom of events, I should not have been able, with justice to
+myself, to have met all the charges, criminal and silly, which were made
+against me. Even what I did say was misquoted and distorted by a
+sensational press which found it profitable to add fuel to the
+controversy. Sometimes I feel that no man ever born has been so
+variedly, so persistently lied about, misrepresented, made the butt of
+such countless untruths as myself. When I consider the lies, great and
+small, which for more than a year, throughout the entire world, have
+been printed about me, I am filled almost with hopelessness. And
+sometimes, when I think how I have been unjustly dubbed as the most
+colossal liar of history, I am filled with a sort of sardonic humor.
+
+Returning to my country, determined to state my case freely and frankly,
+and making the honest admission that any claim to the definite, actual
+attainment of the North Pole--the mathematical pin-point on which the
+earth spins--must rest upon assumptions, because of the impossibility of
+accuracy in observations, I found that this admission, which every
+explorer would have to make, which Mr. Peary was unwillingly forced to
+make at the Congressional investigation, was construed throughout the
+country and widely heralded as a "confession," that garbled extracts
+were lifted from the context of my magazine story and their meaning
+distorted. In hundreds of newspapers I was represented as confessing to
+a fraudulent claim or as making a plea of insanity. A full answer to the
+charges made against me, necessary in order to justly cover my case,
+because of the controversial nature of certain statements which
+involved Mr. Peary, was prohibited by the contract I found it necessary
+to sign in order to get any statement of a comparatively ungarbled sort
+before a public which had read Mr. Peary's own account of his journey.
+
+I found the columns of the press of my country closed to the publication
+of statements which involved my enemies, because of the unfounded
+prejudice created against me during my absence and because of the power
+of Mr. Peary's friends. It is almost impossible in any condition for
+anyone to secure a refutation for an unfounded attack in the American
+papers. With the entire press of the country printing misstatements, I
+was almost helpless. The justice, kindliness and generous spirit of fair
+dealing of the American people, however, was extended to me--I found the
+American people glad--nay, eager--to listen.
+
+It is this spirit which has encouraged me, after the shameful campaign
+of opprobrium which well-nigh broke my spirit, to tell the entire and
+unalterable truth about myself and an achievement in which I still
+believe--in fairness to myself, in order to clear myself, in order that
+the truth about the discovery of the North Pole may be known by my
+people and in order that history may record its verdict upon a full,
+free and frank exposition. I do not address myself to any clique of
+geographers or scientists, but to the great public of the world, and
+herein, for the first time, shall I give fully whatever proofs there may
+be of my conquest. Upon these records must conviction rest.
+
+Did I actually reach the North Pole? When I returned to civilization and
+reported that the boreal center had been attained, I believed that I
+had reached the spot toward which valiant men had strained for more than
+three hundred years. I still believe that I reached the boreal center as
+far as it is possible for any human being to ascertain it. If I was
+mistaken in approximately placing my feet upon the pin-point about which
+this controversy has raged, I maintain that it is the inevitable mistake
+any man must make. To touch that spot would be an accident. That any
+other man has more accurately determined the Pole I do deny. That Mr.
+Peary reached the North Pole--or its environs--with as fair accuracy as
+was possible, I have never denied. That Mr. Peary was better fitted to
+reach the Pole, and better equipped to locate this mythical spot, I do
+not admit. In fact, I believe that, inasmuch as the purely scientific
+ascertainment is a comparatively simple matter, I stood a better chance
+of more scientifically and more accurately marking the actual spot than
+Mr. Peary. I reached my goal when the sun was twelve degrees above the
+horizon, and was therefore better able to mark a mathematical position
+than Mr. Peary could have with the sun at less than seven degrees. Mr.
+Peary's case rests upon three observations of sun altitude so low that,
+as proof of a position, they are worthless.
+
+Besides taking observations, which, as I shall explain in due course in
+my narrative, cannot be adequate, I also ascertained what I believed to
+be my approximate position at the boreal center and en route by
+measuring the shadows each hour of the long day. Inasmuch as one's
+shadow decreases or increases in length as the sun rises toward the
+meridian or descends, at the boreal center, where the sun circles the
+entire horizon at practically the same height during the entire day,
+one's shadow in this region of mystery is of the same length. In this
+observation, which is so simple that a child may understand it, is a
+sure and certain means of approximately ascertaining the North Pole. I
+took advantage of this method, which does not seem to have occurred to
+any other Arctic traveler, and this helped to bring conviction.
+
+I shall in this volume present with detail the story of my Arctic
+journey--I shall tell how it was possible for me to reach my goal, why I
+believe I attained that goal; and upon this record must the decision of
+my people rest. I shall herein tell the story of an unfair and unworthy
+plot to ruin the reputation of an innocent man because of an achievement
+the full and prior credit of which was desired by a brutally selfish,
+brutally unscrupulous rival. I shall tell of a tragedy compared with
+which the North Pole and any glory accruing to its discoverer pales into
+insignificance--the tragedy of a spirit that was almost broken, of a man
+whose honor and pride was cut with knives in unclean hands.
+
+When you have read all this, then, and only then, in fairness to
+yourself and in fairness to me, do I ask you to form your opinion. Only
+by reading this can you learn the full truth about me, about my claim
+and about the plot to discredit me, of the charges made against me, and
+the reason for all of my own actions. So persistent, so world-wide has
+been the press campaign made by my enemies, and so egregious have the
+charges seemed against me, so multitudinous have the lies, fake stories,
+fake interviews, fake confessions been, so blatant have rung the
+hideous cries of liar, impostor, cheat and fraud, that the task to right
+myself, explain myself, and bring the truth into clean relief has seemed
+colossal.
+
+To return to my country and face the people in view of all that was
+being said, with my enemies exultant, with antagonistic press men
+awaiting me as some beast to be devoured, required a determined gritting
+of the teeth and a reserve temperament to prevent an undignified battle.
+
+For against such things nature dictates the tactics of the tiger. I
+faced my people, I found them fair and kindly. I accused my enemies of
+their lies, and they have remained silent. Titanic as is this effort of
+forcing fair play where biased abuse has reigned so long, I am confident
+of success. I am confident of the honesty and justice of my people; of
+their ability spiritually to sense, psychically to appreciate the
+earmarks of a clean, true effort--a worthy ambition and a real
+attainment.
+
+
+
+
+INTO THE BOREAL WILDS
+
+THE YACHT BRADLEY LEAVES GLOUCESTER--INVADES THE MAGIC OF THE WATERS
+OF THE ARCTIC SEAS--RECOLLECTION OF BOYHOOD AMBITIONS--BEYOND THE
+ARCTIC CIRCLE--THE WEAVING OF THE POLAR SPELL
+
+II
+
+OVER THE ARCTIC CIRCLE
+
+
+On July 3, 1907, between seven and eight o'clock in the evening, the
+yacht, which had been renamed the _John B. Bradley_, quietly withdrew
+from the pier at Gloucester, Massachusetts, and, turning her prow
+oceanward, slowly, quietly started on her historic journey to the Arctic
+seas.
+
+In the tawny glow of sunset, which was fading in the western sky, she
+looked, with her new sails unfurled, her entire body newly painted a
+spotless white, like some huge silver bird alighting upon the sunshot
+waters of the bay. On board, all was quiet. I stood alone, gazing back
+upon the picturesque fishing village with a tender throb at my heart,
+for it was the last village of my country which I might see for years,
+or perhaps ever.
+
+Along the water's edge straggled tiny ramshackle boat houses,
+dun-colored sheds where fish are dried, and the humble miniature homes
+of the fisherfolk, in the windows of which lights soon after appeared.
+On the bay about us, fishing boats were lazily bobbing up and down; in
+some, old bearded fishermen with broad hats, smoking clay and corncob
+pipes, were drying their seines. Other boats went by, laden with
+wriggling, silver-scaled fish; along the shore I could still see tons of
+fish being unloaded from scores of boats. Through the rosy twilight,
+voices came over the water, murmurous sounds from the shore, cries from
+the sea mixed with the quaint oaths of fisherfolk at work. Ashore, the
+boys of the village were testing their firecrackers for the morrow;
+sputtering explosions cracked through the air. Occasionally a faint fire
+rocket scaled the sky. But no whistles tooted after our departure. No
+visiting crowds of curiosity-seekers ashore were frenziedly waving us
+good-bye.
+
+An Arctic expedition had been born without the usual clamor. Prepared in
+one month, and financed by a sportsman whose only mission was to hunt
+game animals in the North, no press campaign heralded our project, no
+government aid had been asked, nor had large contributions been sought
+from private individuals to purchase luxuries for a Pullman jaunt of a
+large party Poleward. For, although I secretly cherished the ambition,
+there was no definite plan to essay the North Pole.
+
+At the Holland House in New York, a compact was made between John R.
+Bradley and myself to launch an Arctic expedition. Because of my
+experience, Mr. Bradley delegated to me the outfitting of the
+expedition, and had turned over to me money enough to pay the costs of
+the hunting trip. A Gloucester fishing schooner had been purchased by
+me and was refitted, covered and strengthened for ice navigation. To
+save fuel space and to gain the advantage of a steamer, I had a Lozier
+gasoline motor installed. There had been put on board everything of
+possible use and comfort in the boreal wild. As it is always possible
+that a summer cruising ship is likely to be lost or delayed a year,
+common prudence dictated a preparation for the worst emergencies.
+
+So far as the needs of my own personal expedition were concerned, I had
+with me on the yacht plenty of hard hickory wood for the making of
+sledges, instruments, clothing and other apparatus gathered with much
+economy during my former years of exploration, and about one thousand
+pounds of pemmican. These supplies, necessary to offset the danger of
+shipwreck and detention by ice, were also all that would be required for
+a Polar trip. When, later, I finally decided on a Polar campaign, extra
+ship supplies, contributed from the boat, were stored at Annoatok.
+There, also, my supply of pemmican was amplified by the stores of walrus
+meat and fat prepared during the long winter by myself, Rudolph Francke
+and the Eskimos.
+
+As the yacht slowly soared toward the ocean, and night descended over
+the fishing village with its home lights glimmering cheerfully as the
+stars one by one flecked the firmament with dots of fire, I felt that at
+last I had embarked upon my destiny. Whether I should be able to follow
+my heart's desire I did not know; I did not dare hazard a guess. But I
+was leaving my country, now on the eve of celebrating its freedom,
+behind me; I had elected to live in a world of ice and cold, of hunger
+and death, which lay before me--thousands of miles to the North.
+
+Day by day passed monotonously; we only occasionally saw writhing curves
+of land to the west of us; about us was the illimitable sea. That I had
+started on a journey which might result in my starting for the Pole,
+that my final chance had come, vaguely thrilled me. Yet the full purport
+of my hope seemed beyond me. On the journey to Sydney my mind was full.
+I thought of the early days of my childhood, of the strange ambition
+which grew upon me, of my struggles, and the chance which favored me in
+the present expedition.
+
+In the early days of my childhood, of which I now had only indistinct
+glimmerings, I remembered a restless surge in my little bosom, a
+yearning for something that was vague and undefined. This was, I
+suppose, that nebulous desire which sometimes manifests itself in early
+youth and later is asserted in strivings toward some splendid, sometimes
+spectacular aim. My boyhood was not happy. As a tiny child I was
+discontented, and from the earliest days of consciousness I felt the
+burden of two things which accompanied me through later life--an innate
+and abnormal desire for exploration, then the manifestation of my
+yearning, and the constant struggle to make ends meet, that sting of
+poverty, which, while it tantalizes one with its horrid grind, sometimes
+drives men by reason of the strength developed in overcoming its
+concomitant obstacles to some extraordinary accomplishment.
+
+As a very small boy, I remember being fascinated by the lure of a
+forbidden swimming pool. One day, when but little over five, I, impelled
+to test the depth, plunged to the center, where the water was above my
+head, and nearly lost my life. I shall never forget that struggle, and
+though I nearly gave out, in that short time I learned to swim. It seems
+to me now I have been swimming and struggling ever since.
+
+Abject poverty and hard work marked my school days. When quite a boy,
+after the death of my father, I came to New York. I sold fruit at one of
+the markets. I saved my money. I enjoyed no luxuries. These days vividly
+occur in my mind. Later I engaged in a dairy business in Brooklyn, and
+on the meager profits undertook to study medicine.
+
+At that time the ambition which beset me was undirected; it was only
+later that I found, almost by accident, what became its focusing point.
+I graduated from the University of New York in 1890. I felt (as what
+young man does not?) that I possessed unusual qualifications and
+exceptional ability. An office was fitted up, and my anxiety over the
+disappearing pennies was eased by the conviction that I had but to hang
+out my shingle and the place would be thronged with patients. Six months
+passed. There had been about three patients.
+
+I recall sitting alone one gloomy winter day. Opening a paper, I read
+that Peary was preparing his 1891 expedition to the Arctic. I cannot
+explain my sensations. It was as if a door to a prison cell had opened.
+I felt the first indomitable, commanding call of the Northland. To
+invade the Unknown, to assail the fastness of the white, frozen
+North--all that was latent in me, the impetus of that ambition born in
+childhood, perhaps before birth, and which had been stifled and starved,
+surged up tumultuously within me.
+
+I volunteered, and accompanied Peary, on this, the expedition of
+1891-92, as surgeon. Whatever merit my work possessed has been cited by
+others.
+
+Unless one has been in the Arctic, I suppose it is impossible to
+understand its fascination--a fascination which makes men risk their
+lives and endure inconceivable hardships for, as I view it now, no
+profitable personal purpose of any kind. The spell was upon me then. It
+was upon me as I recalled those early days on the _Bradley_ going
+Northward. With a feeling of sadness I realize that the glamor is all
+gone now.
+
+On the Peary and all my subsequent expeditions I served without pay.
+
+On my return from that trip I managed to make ends meet by meager
+earnings from medicine. I was nearly always desperately hard pressed for
+money. I tried to organize several cooeperative expeditions to the
+Arctic. These failed. I then tried to arouse interest in Antarctic
+exploration, but without success. Then came the opportunity to join the
+Belgian Antarctic Expedition, again without pay.
+
+On my return I dreamed of a plan to attain the South Pole, and for a
+long time worked on a contrivance for that end--an automobile arranged
+to travel over ice. Financial failure again confronted me.
+Disappointment only added to my ambition; it scourged me to a
+determination, a conviction that--I want you to remember this, to bear
+in mind the mental conviction which buoyed me--I must and should
+succeed. It is always this innate conviction which encourages men to
+exceptional feats, to tremendous failures or splendid, single-handed
+success.
+
+A summer in the Arctic followed my Antarctic trip, and I returned to
+invade the Alaskan wilds. I succeeded in scaling Mt. McKinley. After my
+Alaskan expeditions, the routine of my Brooklyn office work seemed like
+the confinement of prison. I fretted and chafed at the thought. Let me
+have a chance, and I would succeed. This thought always filled my mind.
+I convinced myself that in some way the attainment of one of the
+Poles--the effort on which I had spent sixteen years--would become
+possible.
+
+I had no money. My work in exploration had netted me nothing, and all my
+professional income was soon spent. Unless you have felt the goading,
+devilish grind of poverty hindering you, dogging you, you cannot know
+the mental fury into which I was lashed.
+
+I waited, and fortune favored me in that I met Mr. John R. Bradley. We
+planned the Arctic expedition on which I was now embarked. Mr. Bradley's
+interest in the trip was that of a great sportsman, eager to seek big
+game in the Arctic. My immediate purpose was to return again to the
+frozen North. The least the journey would give me was an opportunity to
+complete the study of the Eskimos which I had started in 1891.
+
+Mr. Bradley and I had talked, of course, of the Pole; but it was not an
+important incentive to the journey. Back in my brain, barely above the
+subconscious realm, was the feeling that this, however, might offer
+opportunity in the preparation for a final future determination. I,
+therefore, without any conscious purpose, and with my last penny, paid
+out of my purse for extra supplies for a personal expedition should I
+leave the ship.[1]
+
+Aboard the _Bradley_, going northward, my plans were not at all
+definite. Even had I known before leaving New York that I should try for
+the Pole, I should not have sought any geographical license from some
+vague and unknown authority. Though much has since been made by critics
+of our quiet departure, I always felt the quest of the Pole a personal
+ambition[2], a crazy hunger I had to satisfy.
+
+Fair weather followed us to Sydney, Cape Breton.
+
+From this point we sailed over the Gulf of St. Lawrence, then entered
+the Straits of Belle Isle at a lively speed. On a cold, cheerless day in
+the middle of July we arrived at Battle Harbor, a little town at the
+southeastern point of Labrador, where Mr. Bradley joined us. He had
+preceded us north, by rail and coasting vessels, after watching a part
+of the work of outfitting the schooner.
+
+On the morning of July 16 we left the rockbound coast of North America
+and steered straight for Greenland. In this region a dense and heavy fog
+almost always lies upon the sea. Then nothing is visible but
+slow-swaying gray masses, which veil all objects in a shroud of ghostly
+dreariness. Through the fog can be heard the sound of fisher-boat horns,
+often the very voices of the fishermen themselves, while their crafts
+are absolutely hidden from view. On this trip, however, from time to
+time, great fragments of fog slowly lifted, and we saw, emerging out of
+the gray mistiness, islands, bleak and black and weathertorn, and
+patches of ocean dotted with scores of Newfoundland boats, which invade
+this region to fish for cod. We entered the Arctic current, and
+breasting its stream, a fancy came that perhaps this current, flowing
+down from out of the mysterious unknown, came from the very Pole itself.
+
+Continuing, we entered Davis Straits, where we encountered headwinds
+that piled up the water in great waves. It was a good test of the
+sailing qualities of the _Bradley_, and well did the small craft
+respond.
+
+Long before the actual coast line of Greenland could be seen we had a
+first glimpse of the beauties that these northern regions can show.
+Like great sapphires, blue ice floated in a golden sea; towering masses
+of crystal rose gloriously, dazzling the eye and gladdening the heart
+with their superb beauty. The schooner sailed into this wonderful yellow
+sea, which soon became a broad and gleaming surface of molten silver.
+Although this striking beauty of the North, which it often is so chary
+of displaying, possesses a splendor of color equal to the gloriousness
+of tropical seas, it always impresses one with a steely hardness of
+quality suggestive of the steely hardness of the heart of the North. And
+it somehow seemed, curiously enough, as if all this wonderful glitter
+was a shimmering reflection from the ice-covered mountains of the
+Greenland interior, although the mountains themselves were still
+invisible.
+
+We swung from side to side, dodging icebergs. We steered cautiously
+around low-floating masses, watching to see that the keel was not caught
+by some treacherous jutting spur just beneath the water-line. Through
+this fairyland of light and color we sailed slowly into a region rich in
+animal life, a curious and striking sight. Seals floundered in the
+sunbeams or slumbered on masses of ice, for even in this Northland there
+is a strange commingling and contrast of heat and cold. Gulls and
+petrels darted and fluttered about us in every direction, porpoises were
+making swift and curving leaps, even a few whales added to the magic and
+apparent unreality of it all.
+
+At length the coast showed dimly upon the horizon, veiled in a glow of
+purple and gold. The wind freshened, the sails filled, and the speed of
+the schooner increased. We were gradually nearing Holsteinborg, and the
+course was set a point more in towards shore. The land was thrown into
+bold relief by the brilliancy of lights and shadows, and in the
+remarkably clear air it seemed as if it could be reached in an hour. But
+this was an atmospheric deception, of the kind familiar to those who
+know the pure air of the Rocky Mountains, for, although the land seemed
+near, it was at least forty miles away. The general color of the land
+was a frosty blue, and there were deep valleys to be seen, gashes cut by
+the slow movement of centuries of glaciers, with rocky headlands leaping
+forward, bleak and cold. It appeared to be a land of sublime desolation.
+
+The course was set still another point nearer the coast; the wind
+continued fair and strong; and, with every possible stitch of canvas
+spread, the schooner went rapidly onward.
+
+We saw rocky islands, drenched by clouds of spray and battered by
+drifting masses of ice. There the eider duck builds its nest and spends
+the brief summer of the Arctic. We saw dismal cliffs, terra cotta and
+buff in color, in the crevasses of which millions of birds made their
+homes, and from which they rose, frightened, in dense clouds, giving
+vent to a great volume of clamorous hoarseness.
+
+Through our glasses we could see a surprising sight in such a
+land--little patches of vegetation, seal brown or even emerald green.
+Yet, so slight were these patches of green that one could not but wonder
+what freak of imagination led the piratical Eric the Red, one thousand
+years ago, to give to this coast a name so suggestive of luxuriant
+forests and shrubs and general lushness of growth as "Greenland." Never,
+surely, was there a greater misnomer, unless one chooses to regard the
+old-time Eric as a practical joker.
+
+Between the tall headlands there were fiords cutting far into the
+interior; arms of the sea, these, winding and twisting back for miles.
+Along these quiet land-locked waters the Eskimos love to hunt and fish,
+just as their forefathers have done for centuries. Shaggy looking
+fellows are these Eskimos, clothed in the skins of animals, relieved by
+dashes of color of Danish fabric, most of them still using spears, and
+thus, to outward appearance, in the arts of life almost like those that
+Eric saw.
+
+Although this rugged coast, with its low-lying islands, its icebergs and
+floating icefields, its bleak headlands, its picturesque scenes of
+animal life, is a continuous delight, it presents the worst possible
+dangers to navigation, not only from reefs and under-water ice, but
+because there are no lighthouses to mark permanent danger spots and
+because signs of impending storm are ever on the horizon. While
+navigating the coast, our officers spent sleepless nights of anxiety;
+but the shortening of the nights and lengthening of the days, the daily
+night brightening resulting from the northerly movement, combined with
+an occasional flash of the aurora, gradually relieved the tension of the
+situation.
+
+By the time the island of Disco rose splendidly out of the northern
+blue, the Arctic Circle had been crossed, and a sort of celestial
+light-house brightened the path of the schooner. Remaining on deck until
+after midnight, we were rewarded by a sight of the sun magnified to many
+times its normal size, glowing above the rim of the frosty sea. A light
+wind blew gently from the coast, the sea ran in swells of gold, and the
+sky was streaked with topaz and crimson.
+
+Bathed in an indescribable glow, the towering sides of the greatest
+icebergs showed a medley of ever-changing, iridescent colors. The
+jutting pinnacles of others seemed like oriental minarets of alabaster
+fretted with old gold. Here and there, as though flung by an invisible
+hand from the zenith, straggled long cloud ribbons of flossy crimson and
+silver. Gradually, imperially, the sun rose higher and flushed sky and
+sea with deeper orange, more burning crimson, and the bergs into vivid
+ruby, chalcedony and chrysophase walls. This suddenly-changing,
+kaleidoscopic whirl of color was rendered more effective because, in its
+midst, the cliffs of Disco rose frowningly, a great patch of blackness
+in artistic contrast. A pearly vapor now began to creep over the
+horizon, and gradually spread over the waters, imparting a gentle and
+restful tone of blue. This gradually darkened into irregular shadows;
+the brilliant color glories faded away. Finally we retired to sleep with
+a feeling that sailing Poleward was merely a joyous pleasure journey
+over wonderful and magic waters. This, the first glorious vision of the
+midnight sun, glowed in my dreams--the augury of success in that for
+which my heart yearned. The glow never faded, and the weird lure
+unconsciously began to weave its spell.
+
+Next morning, when we went on deck, the schooner was racing eastward
+through heavy seas. The terraced cliffs of Disco, relieved by freshly
+fallen snow, were but a few miles off. The cry of gulls and guillemots
+echoed from rock to rock. Everything was divested of the glory of the
+day before. The sun was slowly rising among mouse-colored clouds. The
+bergs were of an ugly blue, and the sea ran in gloomy lines of ebony.
+Although the sea was high, there was little wind, but we felt that a
+storm was gathering and sought to hasten to shelter in Godhaven--a name
+which speaks eloquently of the dangers of this coast and the precious
+value of such a harbor.
+
+As we entered the narrow channel, which turns among low, polished rocks
+and opens into the harbor, two Eskimos in kayaks came out to act as
+pilots. Taking them aboard, we soon found a snug anchorage, secure from
+wind and sea. The launch was lowered, and in it we left the schooner for
+a visit to the Governor.
+
+Coming up to a little pier, we were cordially greeted by Governor
+Fenker, who escorted us to his home, where his wife, a cultivated young
+Danish woman, offered us sincere hospitality.
+
+The little town itself was keenly alive. All the inhabitants, and all
+the dogs as well, were jumping about on the rocks, eagerly gazing at our
+schooner. The houses of the Governor and the Inspector were the most
+important of the town. They were built of wood imported from Denmark,
+and were covered with tarred paper. Though quite moderate in size, the
+houses seemed too large and out of place in their setting of
+ice-polished rocks. Beyond them were twenty Eskimo huts, nearly square
+in shape, constructed of wood and stone, the cracks of which were filled
+tightly with moss.
+
+We deferred our visit to the native huts, and invited Governor Fenker
+and his wife to dine aboard the schooner. The surprise of the evening
+for these two guests was the playing of our phonograph, the tunes of
+which brought tears of homesickness to the eyes of the Governor's gentle
+wife.
+
+Anywhere on the coast of Greenland, the coming of a ship is always one
+of the prime events of the season. So uneventful is life in these
+out-of-the-way places that such an arrival is the greatest possible
+social enlivener. The instant that the approach of our schooner had been
+noted, the Eskimo girls--queer little maids in queer little
+trousers--decided upon having a dance, and word was brought us that
+everyone was invited to take part. The sailors eagerly responded, and
+tumbled ashore as soon as they were permitted, leaving merely enough for
+a watch on board ship. Then, to the sound of savage music, the dance was
+continued until long after midnight. A curious kind of midnight dance it
+was, with the sun brightly shining in a night unveiled of glitter and
+color glory. The sailors certainly found pleasure in whirling about,
+their arms encircling fat and clumsy waists. They did admit, however,
+when back on board the schooner, that the smell of the furs within which
+the maidens had spent the past winter was less agreeable than the savor
+of fish. The name of this scattered settlement of huts, Godhaven, comes,
+clearly enough, from its offering fortunate refuge from storms; that the
+place is also known as Lively is not in the least to be wondered at, if
+one has watched a midnight dance of the little population and their
+visitors.
+
+Before hauling in anchor in the harbor of Godhaven, we made some
+necessary repairs to the yacht and filled our tanks with water. With a
+free wind speeding onward to the west of Disco, we passed the narrow
+strait known as the Vaigat early the following morning. As I stood on
+deck and viewed the passing of icebergs, glittering in the limpid,
+silvery light of morning like monstrous diamonds, there began to grow
+within me a feeling--that throbbed in pulsation with the onward movement
+of the boat--that every minute, every mile, meant a nearing to that
+mysterious center, on the attaining of which I had set my heart, and
+which, even now, seemed unlikely, improbable. Yet the thought gave me a
+thrill.
+
+Before noon we reached the mouth of Umanak Fiord, into the delightful
+waters of which we were tempted to enter. The lure of the farther North
+decided us against this, and soon the striking Svarten Huk (Black Hook),
+a great rock cliff, loomed upon the horizon. Beyond it, gradually
+appeared a long chain of those islands among which lies Upernavik, where
+the last traces of civilized or semi-civilized life are found. The wind
+increased in force but the horizon remained remarkably clear. Over a
+bounding sea we sped rapidly along to the west, into the labyrinth of
+islands that are sprinkled along the southern shore of Melville Bay.[3]
+Beyond, we were to come into the true boreal wilderness of ice, where
+there were only a few savage aborigines, its sole inhabitants.
+
+On the following day, with reduced sail and the help of the auxiliary
+engine, we pushed far up into Melville Bay, where we ran into fields of
+pack-ice. Here we decided to hunt for game. With this purpose it was
+necessary to keep close to land. Here also came our first realistic
+experience with the great forces of the North. The pack-ice floated
+close around us, young ice cemented the broken masses together, and for
+several days we were thus closely imprisoned in frozen seas.
+
+These days of enforced delay were days of great pleasure, for the bears
+and seals on the ice afforded considerable sport. The constant danger of
+our position, however, required a close watch for the safety of the
+schooner. The Devil's Thumb, a high rock shaped like a dark thumb
+pointing at the sky, loomed darkly and beckoningly before us. A biting
+wind descended from the interior.
+
+The ice groaned; the eiderducks, guillemots and gulls uttered shrill and
+disturbing cries, seemingly sensing the coming of a storm.
+
+For three days we were held in the grip of the relentless pack; then the
+glimmer of the land ice changed to an ugly gray, the pack around us
+began to crack threateningly, and the sky darkened to the southward.
+
+The wind ominously died away. The air thickened rapidly. A general
+feeling of anxiety came over us, although my familiarity with storms in
+the North made it possible for me to explain that heavy seas are seldom
+felt within the zone of a large ice-pack, for the reason that the
+icebergs, the flat ice masses, and even the small floating fragments,
+ordinarily hold down the swells. Even when the pack begins to break, the
+lanes of water between the fragments thicken under the lower temperature
+like an oiled surface, and offer an easy sea. Furthermore, a really
+severe wind would be sure to release the schooner, and it would then be
+possible to trust it to its staunch qualities in free water.
+
+Hardly had we finished dinner when we heard the sound of a brisk wind
+rushing through the rigging. Hurrying to the deck, we saw coils of what
+looked like smoky vapor rising in the south as if belched from some
+great volcano. The gloom on the horizon was rapidly growing deeper. The
+sound of the wind changed to a threatening, sinister hiss. In the
+piercing steel-gray light we saw the ice heave awesomely, like moving
+hills, above the blackening water. The bergs swayed and rocked, and the
+massed ice gave forth strange, troublous sounds.
+
+Suddenly a channel began to open through the ice in front of us. The
+trisail was quickly set, the other sails being left tightly furled, and
+with the engine helping to push us in the desired direction, we drew
+deep breaths of relief as we moved out into the free water to the
+westward.
+
+We felt a sense of safety now, although, clear of the ice, the sea rose
+about us with a sickening suddenness. Black as night, the water seemed
+far more dangerous because the waves were everywhere dashing angrily
+against walls of ice. Already strong, the wind veered slightly and
+increased to a fierce, persistent gale. Like rubber balls, the bergs
+bounded and rolled in the sea. The sound of the storm was now a thunder
+suggestive of constantly exploding cannons. But, fortunately, we were
+snug aboard, and, keeping the westerly course, soon escaped the dangers
+of ensnaring ice.
+
+We were still in a heavy storm, and had we not had full confidence in
+the ship, built as she was to withstand the storms of the Grand Banks,
+we should still have felt anxiety, for the schooner rolled and pitched
+and the masts dipped from side to side until they almost touched the
+water.
+
+Icy water swept the deck. A rain began to fall, and quickly sheathed the
+masts and ropes in ice. Snow followed, giving a surface as of sandpaper
+to the slippery, icy decks. The temperature was not low, but the cutting
+wind pierced one to the very marrow. Our men were drenched with spray
+and heavily coated with ice. Although suffering severely, the sailors
+maintained their courage and appeared even abnormally happy. Gradually
+we progressed into the open sea. In the course of four hours the storm
+began to abate, and, under a double-reefed foresail, at last we
+gleefully rode out the finish of the storm in safety.
+
+
+
+
+THE DRIVING SPUR OF THE POLAR QUEST
+
+ON THE FRIGID PATHWAY OF THREE CENTURIES OF HEROIC MARTYRS--MEETING THE
+STRANGE PEOPLE OF THE FARTHEST NORTH--THE LIFE OF THE STONE AGE--ON THE
+CHASE WITH THE ESKIMOS--MANEE AND SPARTAN ESKIMO COURAGE
+
+III
+
+STRANGE TRAITS OF NORTHERNMOST MAN
+
+
+I have often wondered of late about the dazzling white, eerie glamor
+with which the Northland weaves its spell about the heart of a man. I
+know of nothing on earth so strange, so wonderful, withal so sad.
+Pursuing our course through Melville Bay, I felt the fatal magic of it
+enthralling my very soul. For hours I stood on deck alone, the midnight
+sun, like some monstrous perpetual light to some implacable
+frozen-hearted deity, burning blindingly upon the horizon and setting
+the sea aflame. The golden colors suffused my mind, and I swam in a sea
+of molten glitter.
+
+I was consumed for hours by but one yearning--a yearning that filled and
+intoxicated me--to go on, and on, and ever onward, where no man had ever
+been. Perhaps it is the human desire to excel others, to prove, because
+of the innate egotism of the human unit, that one possesses qualities of
+brain and muscle which no other possesses, that has crazed men to
+perform this, the most difficult physical test in the world. The lure of
+the thing is unexplainable.
+
+During those dizzy hours on deck I thought of those who had preceded me;
+of heroic men who for three centuries had braved suffering, cold and
+famine, who had sacrificed the comforts of civilization, their families
+and friends, who had given their own lives in the pursuit of this
+mysterious, yea, fruitless quest. I remembered reading the thrilling
+tales of those who returned--tales which had flushed me with excitement
+and inspired me with the same mad ambition. I thought of the noble,
+indefatigable efforts of these men, of the heart-sickening failures, in
+which I too had shared. And I felt the indomitable, swift surge of their
+awful, goading determination within me--to subdue the forces of nature,
+to cover as Icarus did the air those icy spaces, to reach the
+silver-shining vacantness which men called the North Pole.
+
+As we cut the shimmering waters, I felt, as it were, the wierd, unseen
+presence of those who had died there--died horribly--men whose bodies
+had withered, with slow suffering, in frigid blasts and famine, who
+possibly had prolonged their suffering by feeding upon their own doomed
+companions--and of others who had perished swiftly in the sudden yawning
+of the leprous white mouth of the hungry frozen sea. It is said by some
+that souls live only after death by the energy of great emotions, great
+loves, or great ambitions generated throughout life. It seemed to me, in
+those hours of intoxication, that I could feel the implacable,
+unsatisfied desire of these disembodied things, who had vibrated with
+one aim and still yearned in the spirit for what now they were
+physically unable to attain. It seemed that my brain was fired with the
+intensity of all these dead men's ambition, that my heart in sympathy
+beat more turbulently with the throb of their dead hearts; I felt
+growing within me, irresistibly, what I did not dare, for fear it might
+not be possible, to confide to Bradley--a determination, even in the
+face of peril, to essay the Pole!
+
+From this time onward, and until I turned my back upon the fruitless
+silver-shining place of desolation at the apex of the world, I felt the
+intoxication, the intangible lure of the thing exhilarating, buoying me
+gladsomely, beating in my heart with a singing rhythm. I recall it now
+with marveling, and am filled with the pathos of it. Yet, despite all
+that I have suffered since because of it, I regret not those enraptured
+hours of perpetual glitter of midnight suns.
+
+One morning we reached the northern shore of Melville Bay, and the bold
+cliffs of Cape York were dimly outlined through a gray mist. Strong
+southern winds had carried such great masses of ice against the coast
+that it was impossible to make a near approach, and as a strong wind
+continued, there was such a heavy sea along the bobbing line of outer
+ice as to make it quite impossible to land and thence proceed toward the
+shore.
+
+We were desirous of meeting the natives of Cape York, but these ice
+conditions forced us to proceed without touching here, and so we set our
+course for the next of the northernmost villages, at North Star Bay. By
+noon the mist had vanished, and we saw clearly the steep slopes and warm
+color of crimson cliffs rising precipitously out of the water. The coast
+line is about two thousand feet high, evidently the remains of an old
+tableland which extends a considerable distance northward. Here and
+there were short glaciers which had worn the cliffs away in their
+ceaseless effort to reach the sea. The air was full of countless gulls,
+guillemots, little auks and eider-ducks.
+
+As the eye followed the long and lofty line of crimson cliffs, there
+came into sight a towering, conical rock, a well-known guidepost for the
+navigator. Continuing, we caught sight of the long ice wall of Petowik
+Glacier, and behind this, extending far to the eastward, the
+scintillating, white expanse of the overland-ice which blankets the
+interior of all Greenland.
+
+The small and widely scattered villages of the Eskimos of this region
+are hemmed in by the ice walls of Melville Bay on the southward, the
+stupendous cliffs of Humboldt Glacier on the north, an arm of the sea to
+the westward, and the hopelessly desolate Greenland interior toward the
+east.
+
+There is really no reason why many Eskimos should not live here, for
+there is abundant food in both sea and air, and even considerable game
+on land. Blue and white foxes are everywhere to be seen. There is the
+seal, the walrus, the narwhal, and the white whale. There is the white
+bear, monarch of the Polar wilds, who roams in every direction over his
+kingdom. The principal reason why the population remains so small lies
+in the hazardous conditions of life. Children are highly prized, and a
+marriageable woman or girl who has one or more of them is much more
+valuable as a match than one who is childless.
+
+The coast line here is paradoxically curious, for although the coast
+exceeds but barely more than two hundred miles of latitude it presents
+in reality a sea line of about four thousand miles when the great
+indentations of Wolstenholm Sound, Inglefield Gulf, and other bays,
+sounds and fiords are measured.
+
+We sailed cautiously now about Cape Atholl, which we were to circle; a
+fog lay upon the waters, almost entirely hiding the innumerable
+icebergs, and making it difficult to pick our course among the dangerous
+rocks in this vicinity.
+
+Rounding Cape Atholl, we sailed into Wolstenholm Sound and turned our
+prow toward the Eskimo village on North Star Bay.
+
+North Star Bay is guarded by a promontory expressively named Table
+Mountain, "Oomanaq." As we neared this headland, many natives came out
+in kayaks to meet us. Inasmuch as I knew most of them personally, I felt
+a singular thrill of pleasure in seeing them. Years before, I learned
+their simple-hearted faithfulness. Knud Rasmussen, a Danish writer,
+living as a native among the Eskimos, apparently for the sake of getting
+local color, was in one of the canoes and came aboard the ship.
+
+As it was necessary to make slight repairs to the schooner, we here had
+to follow the primitive method of docking by preliminary beaching her.
+This was done at high tide when the propeller, which had been bent--the
+principal damage to the ship--was straightened. At the same time we gave
+the yacht a general looking-over, and righted a universal joint whose
+loosening had disabled the engine.
+
+Meanwhile the launch kept busy scurrying to and fro, our quest being
+occasionally rewarded with eider-ducks or other game. Late at night, a
+visit was made to the village of Oomanooi. It could hardly be called a
+village, for it consisted merely of seven triangular sealskin tents,
+conveniently placed on picturesque rocks. Gathered about these in large
+numbers, were men, women and children, shivering in the midnight chill.
+
+These were odd-looking specimens of humanity. In height, the men
+averaged but five feet, two inches, and the women four feet, ten. All
+had broad, fat faces, heavy bodies and well-rounded limbs. Their skin
+was slightly bronzed; both men and women had coal-black hair and brown
+eyes. Their noses were short, and their hands and feet short, but thick.
+
+A genial woman was found at every tent opening, ready to receive
+visitors in due form. We entered and had a short chat with each family.
+Subjects of conversation were necessarily limited, but after all, they
+were about the same as they would have been in a civilized region. We
+conversed as to whether or not all of us had been well, of deaths,
+marriages and births. Then we talked of the luck of the chase, which
+meant prosperity or need of food. Even had it been a civilized
+community, there would have been little questioning regarding national
+or international affairs, because, in such case, everyone reads the
+papers. Here there was no comment on such subjects simply because nobody
+cares anything about them or has any papers to read.
+
+That a prominent Eskimo named My-ah had disposed of a few surplus wives
+to gain the means whereby to acquire a few more dogs, was probably the
+most important single item of information conveyed. I was also informed
+that at the present time there happened to be only one other man with
+two wives.
+
+Marriage, among these folk, is a rather free and easy institution. It
+is, indeed, not much more than a temporary tie of possession. Men
+exchange partners with each other much in the manner that men in other
+countries swap horses. And yet, the position of women is not so humble
+as this custom might seem to indicate, for they themselves are
+permitted, not infrequently, to choose new partners. These exceedingly
+primitive ideas work out surprisingly well in practice in these isolated
+regions, for such exchanges, when made, are seemingly to the advantage
+and satisfaction of all parties; no regrets are expressed, and the feuds
+of divorce courts, of alimony proceedings, of damages for alienation of
+affection, which prevail in so-called civilization, are unknown.
+
+It is certainly a curious thing that these simple but intelligent people
+are able to control their own destinies with a comfortable degree of
+success, although they are without laws or literature and without any
+fixed custom to regulate the matrimonial bond.
+
+It would seem as if there ought to be a large population, for there is
+an average of about three fat, clever children for each family, the
+youngest as a rule picturesquely resting in a pocket on the mother's
+back. But the hardships of life in this region are such that accidents
+and deaths keep down the population.
+
+Each tent has a raised platform, upon which all sleep. The edge of this
+makes a seat, and on each side are placed stone lamps in which blubber
+is burned, with moss as a wick. Over this is a drying rack, also a few
+sticks, but there is no other furniture. Their dress of furs gives the
+Eskimos a look of savage fierceness which their kindly faces and easy
+temperament do not warrant.
+
+On board the yacht were busy days of barter. Furs and ivory were
+gathered in heaps in exchange for guns, knives and needles. Every
+seaman, from cabin boy to captain, suddenly got rich in the gamble of
+trade for prized blue-fox skins and narwhal tusks.
+
+The Eskimos were equally elated with their part of the bargain. For a
+beautiful fox skin, of less use to a native than a dog pelt, he could
+secure a pocket knife that would serve him half a lifetime!
+
+A woman exchanged her fur pants, worth a hundred dollars, for a red
+pocket handkerchief with which she would decorate her head or her igloo
+for years to come.
+
+Another gave her bearskin mits for a few needles, and she conveyed the
+idea that she had the long end of the trade! A fat youth with a fatuous
+smile displayed with glee two bright tin cups, one for himself and one
+for his prospective bride. He was positively happy in having obtained
+nine cents' worth of tin for only an ivory tusk worth ninety dollars!
+
+With the coming of the midnight tide we lifted the schooner to an even
+keel from the makeshift dry-dock on the beach. She was then towed out
+into the bay by the launch and two dories, and anchored.
+
+Our first walrus adventures began in Wolstenholm Sound during the
+beautiful nightless days of mid-August. The local environment was
+fascinating. The schooner was anchored in North Star Bay, a lake of
+glitter in which wild men in skin canoes darted after seals and
+eider-ducks. On grassy shores were sealskin tents, about which fur-clad
+women and children vied with wolf-dogs for favorite positions to see the
+queer doings of white men. A remarkable landmark made the place
+conspicuous. A great table-topped rock rose suddenly out of a low
+foreland to an altitude of about six hundred feet. About this giant
+cliff, gulls, guillemots and ravens talked and winged uproariously. The
+rock bore the native name of Oomanaq. With the unique Eskimo manner of
+name-coining, the village was called Oomanooi.
+
+Wolstenholm Sound is a large land-locked body of water, with arms
+reaching to the narrow gorges of the overland sea of ice, from which
+icebergs tumble ceaslessly. The sparkling water reflected the
+surroundings in many shades of blue and brown, relieved by strong
+contrasts of white and black. On the western sky line were the chiseled
+walls of Acponie and other islands, and beyond a steel-gray mist in
+which was wrapped the frozen sea of the Polar gateway. Fleets of
+icebergs moved to and fro, dragging tails of drift bejeweled with blue
+crystal.
+
+Far out--ten miles from our outlook--there was a meeting of the
+currents. Here, small pieces of sea-ice slowly circled in an eddy, and
+upon them were herds of walruses. We did not see them, but their shrill
+voices rang through the icy air like a wireless message. This was a
+call to action which Mr. Bradley could not resist, and preparations were
+begun for the combat.
+
+The motor boat--the most important factor in the chase--had been
+especially built for just such an encounter. Covered with a folding
+whale-back top entirely painted white to resemble ice, we had hoped to
+hunt walrus under suitable Arctic cover.
+
+Taking a white dory in tow, two Eskimo harpooners were invited to
+follow. The natives in kayaks soon discovered to their surprise that
+their best speed was not equal to ours--for the first time they were
+beaten in their own element. For ages the Eskimos had rested secure in
+the belief that the kayak was the fastest thing afloat. They had been
+beaten by big ships, of course, but these had spiritual wings and did
+not count in the race of man's craft. This little launch, however, with
+its rapid-fire gas explosions, made their eyes bulge to a wondering,
+wide-open, seal-like curiosity. They begged to be taken aboard to watch
+the loading of the engines; they thought we fed it with cartridges.
+
+After a delightful run of an hour, a pan of ice was sighted with black
+hummocks on it. "_Ahwek! Ahwek!_" the Eskimos shouted. A similar sound
+floated over the oily waters from many walrus throats. The walruses were
+about three miles to the southwest. At a slower speed we advanced two
+miles more. In the meantime Mr. Bradley cleared the deck for action. The
+direction of the hunting tactics was now turned over to My-ah. The mate
+was at the wheel. I pushed the levers of the gasoline kicker. Our line
+of attack was ordered at right angles to the wind. As we neared the
+game, the engines were stopped.
+
+Looking through glasses, the sight of the gregarious herd made our
+hearts quicken. They were all males of tremendous size, with glistening
+tusks with which they horned one another in efforts for favorable
+positions. Some were asleep, others basked in the sun with heads turning
+lazily from side to side. Now and then, they uttered sleepy, low grunts.
+They were quivering in a gluttonous slumber, while the organs piled up
+their bank account of fat to pay the costs of the gamble of the coming
+winter night.
+
+With muffled paddles the launch was now silently propelled forward,
+while the kayaks stealthily advanced to deliver the harpoons. The Eskimo
+reason for this mode of procedure is based on a careful study of the
+walrus' habits. Its nose in sleep is always pointed windwards. Its ears
+are at all times sensitive to noises from every direction, while the
+eyes during wakeful moments sweep the horizon. But its horizon is very
+narrow. Only the nose and the ear sense the distant alarm. We advanced
+very slowly and cautiously, and that only when all heads were down. Our
+boat slowly got within three hundred yards of the herd. Preparing their
+implements to strike, the Eskimos had advanced to within fifty feet. The
+moment was tense. Of a sudden, a tumultuous floundering sound smote the
+air. The sleeping creatures awoke, and with a start leaped into the sea.
+Turning their kayaks, the Eskimos paddled a wild retreat and sought the
+security of the launch. The sport of that herd was lost to us. Although
+they darted about under water in a threatening manner, they only rose to
+the surface at a safe distance.
+
+Scanning the surroundings with our glasses, about two miles to the
+south another group was sighted. This time Bradley, as the chief nimrod,
+assumed direction. The kayaks and the Eskimos were placed in the dory.
+Tactics were reversed. Instead of creeping up slowly, a sudden rush was
+planned. No heed was taken of noise or wind. The carburetor was opened,
+the spark lever of the magneto was advanced to its limit, and we shot
+through the waters like a torpedo boat. As we neared the herd, the dory,
+with its Eskimos, was freed from the launch. The Eskimos were given no
+instructions, and they wisely chose to keep out of the battle.
+
+As we got to within two hundred yards, the canvas top of the launch fell
+and a heavy gun bombardment began. The walruses had not had time to
+wake; the suddenness of the onslaught completely dazed them. One after
+another dropped his ponderous head with a sudden jerk as a prize to the
+marksmen, while the launch, at reduced speed, encircled the
+walrus-encumbered pan. Few escaped. There were heads and meat and skins
+enough to satisfy all wants for a long time to follow. But the game was
+too easy--the advantage of an up-to-date sportsman had been carried to
+its highest degree of perfection. It was otherwise, however, in the
+walrus battles that followed later--battles on the success of which
+depended the possibility of my being able to assail the northern ice
+desert, in an effort to reach the Polar goal.
+
+Oomanooi was but one of six villages among which the tribe had divided
+its two hundred and fifty people for the current season. To study these
+interesting folk, to continue the traffic and barter, and to enjoy for a
+short time the rare sport of sailing and hunting in this wild region,
+we decided to visit as many of the villages as possible.
+
+In the morning the anchor was raised and we set sail in a light wind
+headed for more northern villages. It was a gray day, with a quiet sea.
+The speed of the yacht was not fast enough to be exciting, so Mr.
+Bradley suggested lowering the launch for a crack at ducks, or a chase
+at walrus or a drive at anything that happened to cut the waters. His
+harpoon gun was taken, as it was hoped that a whale might come our way,
+but the gun proved unsatisfactory and did not contribute much to our
+sport. In the fleet launch we were able to run all around the schooner
+as she slowly sailed over Wolstenholm Sound.
+
+Ducks were secured in abundance. Seals were given chase, but they were
+able to escape us. Nearing Saunders Island, a herd of walruses was seen
+on a pan of drift ice far ahead. The magneto was pushed, the carburetor
+opened, and out we rushed after the shouting beasts. Two, with splendid
+tusks, were obtained, and two tons of meat and blubber were turned over
+to our Eskimo allies.
+
+The days of hunting proved quite strenuous, and in the evening we were
+glad to seek the comfort of our cosy cabin, after dining on eider-ducks
+and other game delicacies.
+
+A few Eskimos had asked permission to accompany us to a point farther
+north. Among them was a widow, to whom, for herself and her children, we
+had offered a large bed, with straw in it, between decks, but which,
+savage as she was, she had refused, saying she preferred the open air on
+deck. There she arranged a den among the anchor chains, under a shelter
+of seal skins.
+
+In tears, she told us the story of her life, a story which offered a
+peep into the tragedy and at the same time the essential comedy of
+Eskimo existence. It came in response to a question from me as to how
+the world had used her, for I had known her years before. At my simple
+question, she buried her face in her hands and for a time could only
+mutter rapidly and unintelligibly to her two little boys. Then, between
+sobs, she told me her story.
+
+Ma-nee--such was her name--was a descendant of the Eskimos of the
+American side. A foreign belle, and, although thin, fair to look upon,
+as Eskimo beauty goes, her hand was sought early by the ardent youths of
+the tribe, who, truth to tell, look upon utility as more desirable than
+beauty in a wife. The heart of Ma-nee throbbed to the pleadings of one
+Ik-wa, a youth lithe and brave, with brawn and sinews as resilient as
+rubber and strong as steel, handsome, dark, with flashing eyes, yet with
+a heart as cruel as the relentless wind and cold sea of the North.
+Ma-nee married Ik-wa and bore to him several children. These, which
+meant wealth of the most valuable kind (children even exceeding in value
+dogs, tusks and skins), meant the attainment of Ik-wa's selfish purpose.
+Ma-nee was fair, but her hands were not adroit with the needle, nor was
+she fair in the plump fashion desirable in wives.
+
+Ik-wa met Ah-tah, a good seamstress, capable of much toil, not
+beautiful, but round and plump. Whereupon, Ik-wa took Ah-tah to wife,
+and leading Ma-nee to the door of their igloo, ordered her to leave.
+Cruel as can be these natives, they also possess a persistence and a
+tenderness that manifest themselves in strange, dramatic ways. Ma-nee,
+disconsolate but brave, departed. There being at the time a scarcity of
+marriageable women in the village, Ma-nee was soon wooed by another, an
+aged Eskimo, whose muscles had begun to wither, whose eyes no longer
+flashed as did Ik-wa's, but whose heart was kind. To him Ma-nee bore two
+children, those which she had with her on deck. To them, unfortunately,
+descended the heritage of their father's frailities; one--now
+eight--being the only deaf and dumb Eskimo in all the land; the other,
+the younger, aged three, a weakling with a pinched and pallid face and
+thin, gaunt arms. Ma-nee's husband was not a good hunter, for age and
+cold had sapped his vigor. Their home was peaceful if not prosperous;
+the two loved one another, and, because of their defects, Ma-nee grew to
+love her little ones unwontedly.
+
+Just before the beginning of the long winter night, the old father,
+anxious to provide food and deer skins for the coming months of
+continuous darkness, ventured alone in search of game among the
+mountains of the interior. Day after day, while the gloom descended,
+Ma-nee, dry eyed waited. The aged father never came back. Returning
+hunters finally brought news that he had perished alone, from a gun
+accident, in the icy wilderness, and they had found him, his frozen,
+mummied face peeping anxiously from the mantle of snow. Ma-nee wept
+broken-heartedly.
+
+Ma-nee gazed into the faces of the two children with a wild, tragic
+wistfulness. By the stern and inviolable law of the Eskimos, Ma-nee knew
+her two beloved ones were condemned to die. In this land, where food is
+at a premium, and where every helpless and dependent life means a
+sensible drain upon the tribe's resources, they have evolved that
+Spartan law which results in the survival of only the fittest. The one
+child, because of its insufficient senses, the other because it was
+still on its mother's back and under three at the time its father died,
+and with no father to support them, were doomed. Kind-hearted as the
+Eskimos naturally are, they can at times, in the working out of that
+code which means continued existence, be terribly brutal. Their fierce
+struggle with the elements for very existence has developed in them an
+elemental fierceness. From probable experience in long-past losses of
+life from contagion, they instinctively destroy every igloo in which a
+native dies, or, at times, to save the igloo, they heartlessly seize the
+dying, and dragging him through the low door, cast him, ere breath has
+ceased, into the life-stilling outer world.
+
+This inviolable custom of ages Ma-nee, with a Spartan courage,
+determined to break. During the long night which had just passed,
+friends had been kind to Ma-nee, but now that she was defying Eskimo
+usage, she could expect no assistance. Brutal as he had been to her,
+hopeless as seemed such prospects, Ma-nee thought of the cruel Ik-wa and
+determined to go to him, with the two defective children of her second
+husband, beg him to accept them as his own and to take her, as a
+secondary wife, a servant--a position of humiliation and hard labor. In
+this determination, which can be appreciated only by those who know how
+implacable and heartless the natives can be, Ma-nee was showing one of
+their marvellous traits, that indomitable courage, persistence and
+dogged hopefulness which, in my two later companions, E-tuk-i-shook and
+Ah-we-lah, enabled them, with me, to reach the Pole.
+
+I admired the spirit of Ma-nee, and promised to help her, although the
+mission of reuniting the two seemed dubious.
+
+Ma-nee was not going to Ik-wa entirely empty-handed, however, for she
+possessed some positive wealth in the shape of several dogs, and three
+bundles of skins and sticks which comprised her household furniture.
+
+We soon reached the village where Ma-nee was to be put ashore. Very
+humbly, the heroic mother and her two frail children went to Ik-wa's
+tent. Ik-wa was absent hunting, and his wife, who had supplanted Ma-nee,
+a fat, unsociable creature, appeared. Weeping, Ma-nee told of her plight
+and begged for shelter. The woman stolidly listened; then, without a
+word, turned her back on the forlorn mother and entered her tent. For
+the unintentional part we had played she gave us exceedingly cold,
+frowning looks which were quite expressive.
+
+Ma-nee now went to the other villagers. They listened to her plans, and
+their primitive faces lighted with sympathy. I soon saw them serving a
+pot of steaming oil meat in her honor--a feast in which we were urgently
+invited to partake, but which we, fortunately, found some good excuse
+for avoiding. Although she had violated a custom of the tribe, these
+people, both stern-hearted and tender, recognized the greatness of a
+mother-love which had braved an unwritten law of ages, and they took her
+in. Several months later, on a return to the village, I saw Ik-wa
+himself. Although he did not thank me for the unwitting part I had
+played in their reunion, he had taken Ma-nee back, and near his own
+house was a new igloo in which the mother lived with her children.
+
+Resuming our journey, a snow squall soon frosted the deck of the yacht,
+and to escape the icy air we retired early to our berths. During the
+night the speed of the yacht increased, and when we appeared on deck
+again, at four o'clock in the morning, the rays of the August sun seemed
+actually warm.
+
+We passed the ice-battered and storm-swept cliffs of Cape Parry and
+entered Whale Sound. On a sea of gold, strewn with ice islands of
+ultramarine and alabaster, whales spouted and walrus shouted. Large
+flocks of little auks rushed rapidly by.
+
+The wind was light, but the engine took us along at a pace just fast
+enough to allow us to enjoy the superb surroundings. In the afternoon we
+were well into Inglefield Gulf, and near Itiblu. There was a strong head
+wind, and enough ice about to make us cautious in our prospect.
+
+We aimed here to secure Eskimo guides and with them seek caribou in
+Olrik's Bay. While the schooner was tacking for a favorable berth in the
+drift off Kanga, the launch was lowered, and we sought to interview the
+Eskimos of Itiblu. The ride was a wet one, for a short, choppy sea
+poured icy spray over us and tumbled us about.
+
+There were only one woman, a few children, and about a score of dogs at
+the place. The woman was a remarkably fast talker, long out of practice.
+She told us that her husband and the other men were absent on a caribou
+hunt, and then, with a remarkably rapid articulation and without a
+single question from us, plunged incessantly on through all the news of
+the tribe for a year. After gasping for breath like a smothered seal,
+she then began with news of previous years and a history of forgotten
+ages. We started back for the launch, and she invited herself to the
+pleasure of our company to the beach.
+
+We had gone only a few steps before it occurred to her that she was in
+need of something. Would we not get her a few boxes of matches in
+exchange for a narwhal tusk? We should be delighted, and a handful of
+sweets went with the bargain. Her boy brought down two ivory tusks, each
+eight feet in length, the two being worth one hundred and fifty dollars.
+Had we a knife to spare? Yes; and a tin spoon was also given, just to
+show that we were liberal.
+
+The yacht was headed northward, across Inglefield Gulf. With a fair
+wind, we cut tumbling seas of ebony with a racing dash. Though the wind
+was strong, the air was remarkably clear.
+
+The great chiselled cliffs of Cape Auckland rose in terraced grandeur
+under the midnight sun. The distance was twelve miles, and it was twelve
+miles of submerged rocks and shallow water.
+
+It was necessary to give Karnah a wide berth. There were bergs enough
+about to hold the water down, though an occasional sea rose with a
+sickening thump. At Karnah we went ashore. There was not a man in town,
+all being absent on a distant hunting campaign. But, though there were
+no men, the place was far from being deserted, for five women, fifteen
+children and forty-five dogs came out to meet us.
+
+Here we saw five sealskin tents pitched among the bowlders of a glacial
+stream. An immense quantity of narwhal meat was lying on the rocks and
+stones to dry. Skins were stretched on the grass, and a general air of
+thrift was evidenced about the place. Bundles of seal-skins, packages of
+pelts and much ivory were brought out to trade and establish friendly
+intercourse. We gave the natives sugar, tobacco and ammunition in
+quantities to suit their own estimate of value.
+
+Would we not place ourselves at ease and stay for a day or two, as their
+husbands would soon return? We were forced to decline their hospitality,
+for without the harbor there was too much wind to keep the schooner
+waiting. Eskimos have no salutation except a greeting smile or a parting
+look of regret. We got both at the same time as we stepped into the
+launch and shouted good-bye.
+
+The captain was told to proceed to Cape Robertson. The wind eased, and a
+descending fog soon blotted out part of the landscape, horizon and sky.
+It hung like a gray pall a thousand feet above us, leaving the air below
+this bright and startlingly clear.
+
+
+
+
+TO THE LIMITS OF NAVIGATION
+
+EXCITING HUNTS FOR GAME WITH THE ESKIMOS--ARRIVAL AT ETAH--SPEEDY
+TRIP TO ANNOATOK, THE WINDY PLACE, WHERE SUPPLIES ARE FOUND IN
+ABUNDANCE--EVERYTHING AUSPICIOUS FOR DASH TO THE POLE--DETERMINATION
+TO ESSAY THE EFFORT--BRADLEY INFORMED--DEBARK FOR THE POLE--THE
+YACHT RETURNS
+
+IV
+
+ALONE WITH OUR DESTINY, SEVEN HUNDRED MILES FROM THE POLE
+
+
+We awoke off Cape Robertson early on August 13, and went ashore before
+breakfast. The picturesque coast here rises suddenly to an altitude of
+about two thousand feet, and is crowned with a gleaming, silver ice cap.
+Large bays, blue glacial walls and prominent headlands give a pleasing
+variety. It is much like the coast of all Greenland. On its southern
+exposure the eroded Huronian rocks provide shelter for millions of
+little auks. They dart incessantly from cliff to sea in a chattering
+cloud of wings. Rather rich and grassy verdure offers an oasis for the
+Arctic hare, while the blue fox finds life easy here, for he can fill
+his winter den with the fat feathered creatures which teem by millions.
+
+The Eskimos profit by the combination, and pitch their camp at the foot
+of the cliffs, for the chase on sea is nearly as good here as in other
+places, while land creatures literally tumble into the larder.
+
+As we approached the shore, ten men, nine women, thirty-one children and
+one hundred and six dogs came out to meet us. I count the children and
+dogs for they are equally important in Eskimo economy. The latter are by
+far the most important to the average Caucasian in the Arctic.
+
+Only small game had fallen to the Eskimos' lot, and they were eager to
+venture out with us after big game. Mr. Bradley gathered a suitable
+retinue of native guides, and we were not long in arranging a compact.
+
+Free passage, the good graces of the cook, and a knife each were to be
+their pay. A caribou hunt was not sufficiently novel to merit a return
+to Olrik's Bay, where intelligent hunting is always rewarded, but it was
+hoped we might get a hunt at Kookaan, near the head of Robertson Bay.[4]
+
+Although hunting in the bay was not successful from a practical
+standpoint, it afforded exciting pleasure in perilous waters. Even
+during these hours of sport, my mind was busy with tentative plans for a
+Polar journey. Whenever I aimed my gun at a snorting walrus, or at some
+white-winged Arctic bird, I felt a thrill in the thought that upon the
+skill of my arms, of my aim, and upon that of the natives we were later
+to join, would depend the getting of food sufficient to enable me to
+embark upon my dream. Everything I did now began to have some bearing
+upon this glorious, intoxicating prospect; it colored my life, day and
+night. I realized how easily I might fail even should conditions be
+favorable enough to warrant the journey; for this reason, because of the
+unwelcome doubt which at times chilled my enthusiasm, I did not yet
+confide to Bradley my growing ambition.
+
+Returning to the settlement, we paid our hunting guides, made presents
+to the women and children, and set sail for Etah. An offshore breeze
+filled the big wings of the canvas. As borne on the back of some great
+white bird, we soared northward into a limpid molten sea. From below
+came the music of our phonograph, curiously shouting its tunes, classic
+and popular, in that grim, golden region of glory and death.
+
+It is curious how ambition sets the brain on fire, and quickens the
+heart throbs. As we sped over the magical waters, the wild golden air
+electric about me, I believe I felt an ecstasy of desire such as mystics
+achieved from fasting and prayer. It was the surge of an ambition which
+began to grow mightily within me, which I felt no obstacle could
+withstand, and which, later, I believe carried me forward with its wings
+of faith when my body well nigh refused to move. We passed Cape
+Alexander and entered Smith Sound. We sped by storm-chiselled cliffs,
+whereupon the hand of nature had written a history, unintelligible to
+humans, as with a pen of iron. The sun was low. Great bergs loomed up in
+the radiant distance, and reflecting silver-shimmering halos, seemed to
+me as the silver-winged ghosts of those who died in this region and who
+were borne alone on the wind and air.
+
+Nature seemed to sing with exultation. Approaching a highland of emerald
+green and seal brown, I heard the wild shouting of hawks from the
+summit, and from below the shrill chattering of millions of auks with
+baby families. And nearer, from the life enraptured waters, the minor
+note of softly cooing ducks and mating guillemots. From the interior
+land of ice, rising above the low booming of a sapphire glacier moving
+majestically to the sea, rang the bark of foxes, the shrill notes of the
+ptarmigan, and from an invisible farther distance the raucous wolf howl
+of Eskimo dogs.
+
+Before us, at times, would come a burst of spouting spray, and a whale
+would rise to the surface of the sea. Nearby, on a floating island of
+ice, mother walrus would soothingly murmur to her babies. From invisible
+places came the paternal voices of the oogzook, and as we went forward,
+seals, white whales and unicorns appeared, speaking perhaps the sign
+language of the animal deaf and dumb in the blue submarine.
+
+Occasionally, there was an explosion, when thunder as from a hundred
+cannons echoed from cliff to cliff. A berg was shattered to ruins.
+Following this would rise the frightened voices of every animal above
+water. Now and then, from ultramarine grottoes issued weird, echoing
+sounds, and almost continually rising to ringing peals and shuddering
+into silence, reiterant, incessant, came nature's bugle-calls--calls of
+the wind, of sundering glaciers, of sudden rushes of ice rivers, of
+exploding gases and of disintegrating bergs. With those sounds pealing
+in our ears clarion-like, we entered the "Gates of Hades," the Polar
+gateway, bound for the harbor where the last fringe of the world's
+humanity straggles finally up on the globe.
+
+As we entered Foulke Fiord, half a gale came from the sea. We steered
+for the settlement of Etah. A tiny settlement it was, for it was
+composed of precisely four tents, which for this season, had been
+pitched beside a small stream, just inside of the first projecting point
+on the north shore. Inside this point there was sheltered water for the
+Eskimo's kayaks, and it also made a good harbor for the schooner. It is
+possible in favorable seasons to push through Smith Sound, over Kane
+Basin, into Kennedy Channel, but the experiment is always at the risk of
+the vessel.
+
+So, as there was no special reasons for us to hazard life in making this
+attempt, we decided to prepare the schooner here for the return voyage.
+
+These preparations would occupy several days. We determined to spend as
+much of this time as possible in sport, since much game abounded in this
+region. Before we landed we watched the Eskimos harpoon a white whale.
+There were no unexplored spots in this immediate vicinity, as both
+Doctor Kane and Doctor Hayes, in the middle of the last century, had
+been thoroughly over the ground. The little auks kept us busy for a day
+after our arrival, while hares, tumbling like snowballs over
+wind-polished, Archaean rocks, gave another day of gun recreation. Far
+beyond, along the inland ice, were caribou, but we preferred to confine
+our hunting to the seashore. The bay waters were alive with eider-ducks
+and guillemots, while, just outside, walruses dared us to venture in
+open contest on the wind-swept water.
+
+After satisfying our desire for the hunt, we prepared to start for
+Annoatok, twenty-five miles to the northward. This is the northernmost
+settlement of the globe, a place beyond which even the hardy Eskimos
+attempt nothing but brief hunting excursions, and where, curiously,
+money is useless because it has no value.
+
+We decided to go in the motor boat, so the tanks were filled with
+gasoline and suitable food and camp equipment were loaded. On the
+morning of August 24, we started for Annoatok.
+
+It was a beautiful day. The sun glowed in a sky of Italian blue. A light
+air crossed the sea, which glowed dully, like ground glass. Passing
+inside of Littleton Island, we searched for relics along Lifeboat Cove.
+There the _Polaris_ was stranded in a sinking condition in 1872, with
+fourteen men on board. The desolate cliffs of Cape Hatherton were a
+midsummer blaze of color and light that contrasted strongly with the
+cold blue of the many towering bergs.
+
+As we went swiftly past the series of wind-swept headlands, the sea and
+air became alive with seals, walruses and birds. We did little shooting
+as we were eagerly bent on reaching Annoatok.
+
+As we passed the sharp rocks of Cairn Point, we saw a cluster of nine
+tents on a small bay under Cape Inglefield.
+
+"Look, look! There is Annoatok!" cried Tung-we, our native guide.
+Looking farther, we saw that the entire channel beyond was blocked with
+a jam of ice. Fortunately we were able to take our boat as far as we
+desired. A perpendicular cliff served as a pier to which to fasten it.
+Here it could rise and fall with the tide, and in little danger from
+drifting ice.
+
+Ordinarily, Annoatok is a town of only a single family or perhaps two,
+but we found it unusually large and populous, for the best hunters had
+gathered here for the winter bear hunt. Their summer game catch had been
+very lucky. Immense quantities of meat were strewn along the shore,
+under mounds of stone. More than a hundred dogs, the standard by which
+Eskimo prosperity is measured, yelped a greeting, and twelve
+long-haired, wild men came out to meet us as friends.
+
+It came strongly to me that this was the spot to make the base for a
+Polar dash. Here were Eskimo helpers, strong, hefty natives from whom I
+could select the best to accompany me; here, by a fortunate chance, were
+the best dog teams; here were plenty of furs for clothing; and here was
+unlimited food. These supplies, combined with supplies on the schooner,
+would give all that was needed for the campaign. Nothing could have been
+more ideal.
+
+For the past several days, having realized the abundance of game and the
+auspicious weather, I had thought more definitely of making a dash for
+the Pole. With all conditions in my favor, might I not, by one powerful
+effort, achieve the thing that had haunted me for years? My former
+failures dogged me. If I did not try now, it was a question if an
+opportunity should ever again come to me.
+
+Now every condition was auspicious for the effort. I confess the task
+seemed audacious almost to the verge of impossibility. But, with all
+these advantages so fortunately placed in my hands, it took on a new and
+almost weird fascination. My many years of schooling in both Polar zones
+and in mountaineering would now be put to their highest test.
+
+Yes, I would try, I told myself; I believed I should succeed. I informed
+Mr. Bradley of my determination. He was not over-optimistic about
+success, but he shook my hand and wished me luck. From his yacht he
+volunteered food, fuel, and other supplies, for local camp use and
+trading, for which I have been thankful.
+
+"Annoatok" means "a windy place." There is really nothing there to be
+called a harbor; but we now planned to bring the schooner to this point
+and unload her on the rocky shore, a task not unattended with danger.
+However, the base had to be made somewhere hereabout, as Etah itself is
+still more windy than Annoatok. Moreover, at Etah the landing is more
+difficult, and it was not nearly so convenient for my purpose as a base.
+
+Besides, there were gathered at Annoatok, as I have described, with
+needed food and furs in abundance, the best Eskimos[5] in all Greenland,
+from whom, by reason of the rewards from civilization which I could
+give them, such as knives, guns, ammunition, old iron, needles and
+matches, I could select a party more efficient, because of their
+persistence, tough fibre, courage and familiarity with Arctic traveling,
+than any party of white men could be.
+
+The possible combination of liberal supplies and valiant natives left
+absolutely nothing to be desired to insure success, so far as
+preliminaries were concerned. It was only necessary that good health,
+endurable weather and workable ice should follow. The expenditure of a
+million dollars could not have placed an expedition at a better
+advantage. The opportunity was too good to be lost. We therefore
+returned to Etah to prepare for the quest.
+
+At Etah, practically everything that was to be landed at Annoatok was
+placed on deck, so that the dangerous stop beside the rocks of Annoatok
+could be made a brief one. The ship was prepared for the contingency of
+a storm.
+
+Late in the evening of August 26, the entire population of Etah was
+taken aboard, the anchor was tripped, and soon the _Bradley's_ bow put
+out on the waters of Smith Sound for Annoatok. The night was cold and
+clear, brightened by the charm of color. The sun had just begun to dip
+under the northern horizon, which marks the end of the summer double
+days of splendor and begins the period of storms leading into the long
+night. Early in the morning we were off Annoatok.
+
+The launch and all the dories were lowered and filled. Eskimo boats were
+pressed into service and loaded. The boats were towed ashore. Only a few
+reached Annoatok itself, for the wind increased and a troublesome sea
+made haste a matter of great importance. Things were pitched ashore
+anywhere on the rocks where a landing could be found for the boats.
+
+The splendid efficiency of the launch proved equal to the emergency, and
+in the course of about thirteen hours all was safely put on shore in
+spite of dangerous winds and forbidding seas. That the goods were spread
+along the shore for a distance of several miles did not much matter, for
+the Eskimos willingly and promptly carried them to the required points.
+
+Now the time had come for the return of the schooner to the United
+States. Unsafe to remain longer at Annoatok at this advanced stage of
+the season, it was also imperative that it go right on with barely a
+halt at any other place. The departure meant a complete severance
+between the civilized world and myself. But I do not believe, looking
+back upon it, that the situation seemed as awesome as might be supposed.
+Other explorers had been left alone in the Northland, and I had been
+through the experience before.
+
+The party, so far as civilized men were concerned, was to be an
+unusually small one. That, however, was not from lack of volunteers, for
+when I had announced my determination many of the crew had volunteered
+to accompany me. Captain Bartlett himself wished to go along, but
+generously said that if it seemed necessary for him to go back with the
+schooner, he would need only a cook and engineer, leaving the other men
+with me.
+
+I wanted only one white companion, however, for I knew that no group of
+white men could possibly match the Eskimos in their own element. I had
+the willing help of all the natives, too, at my disposal. More than that
+was not required. I made an agreement with them for their assistance
+throughout the winter in getting ready, and then for as many as I wanted
+to start with me toward the uttermost North. For my white companion I
+selected Rudolph Francke, now one of the Arctic enthusiasts on the
+yacht. He had shipped for the experience of an Arctic trip. He was a
+cultivated young German with a good scientific schooling. He was strong,
+goodnatured, and his heart was in the prospective work. These were the
+qualities which made him a very useful man as my sole companion.
+
+Early on the morning of September 3, I bade farewell to Mr. Bradley, and
+not long afterward the yacht moved slowly southward and faded gradually
+into the distant southern horizon. I was left alone with my destiny,
+seven hundred miles from the Pole.
+
+
+
+
+BEGINNING PREPARATIONS FOR THE POLAR DASH
+
+THE ARCTIC SOLITUDE--RETROSPECTION AND INTROSPECTION--THE DETERMINATION
+TO ACHIEVE--PLANNING OUT THE DETAILS OF THE CAMPAIGN--AN ENTIRE TRIBE
+BUSILY AT WORK
+
+V
+
+THE POLE, THE ROUTE, AND THE INCENTIVE
+
+
+When the yacht disappeared I felt a poignant pang at my heart. After it
+had faded, I stood gazing blankly at the sky, and I felt the lure of the
+old world. The yacht was going home--to the land of my family and
+friends. I was now alone, and, with the exception of Francke, there was
+no white man among this tribe of wild people with whom to converse
+during the long Arctic night that was approaching. I knew I should not
+be lonely, for there was a tremendous lot of work to do, although I had
+unstinted assistance. In every detail, the entire six months of labor
+including the catching of animals, the drying of meat, the making of
+such clothes and sledges as would be necessary, and the testing of them,
+would have to be managed by myself. Turning from the rocky highland
+where I stood, a wild thrill stirred my heart. The hour of my
+opportunity had come. After years of unavailing hopes and depressing
+defeats my final chance was presented! In the determination to succeed,
+every drop of blood in my body, every fibre of me responded.
+
+Why did I desire so ardently to reach the North Pole? What did I hope to
+gain? What, if successful, did I expect to reap as the result of my
+dreams? These questions since have been asked by many. I have searched
+the chambers of my memory and have tried to resolve replies to myself.
+The attaining of the North Pole meant at the time simply the
+accomplishing of a splendid, unprecedented feat--a feat of brain and
+muscle in which I should, if successful, signally surpass other men. In
+this I was not any more inordinately vain or seekful of glory than one
+who seeks pre-eminence in baseball, running tournaments, or any other
+form of athletics or sport.
+
+At the time, any applause which the world might give, should I succeed,
+did not concern me; I knew that this might come, but it did not enter
+into my speculations.
+
+For years I had felt the lure of the silver glamor of the North, and I
+can explain this no more than the reason why a poet is driven to express
+himself in verse, or why one child preternaturally develops amazing
+proficiency in mathematics and another in music. Certain desires are
+born or unconsciously developed in us. I, with others before me, found
+my life ambition in the conquest of the Pole. To reach it would mean, I
+knew, an exultation which nothing else in life could give.
+
+This imaginary spot held for me the revealing of no great scientific
+secrets. I never regarded the feat as of any great scientific value.
+The real victory would lie, not in reaching the goal itself, but in
+overcoming the obstacles which exist in the way of it. In the battle
+with these I knew there would be excitement, danger, necessary
+expedients to tax the brain and heroic feats to tax the muscles, the
+ever constant incentive which the subduing of one difficulty after
+another excites.
+
+During the first day at Annoatok, after the yacht left, I thought of the
+world toward which it was going, of the continents to the south of me,
+of the cities with their teeming millions, and of the men with their
+multitudinous, conflicting ambitions. I could see, in my mind, the
+gigantic globe of my world swinging in cloud-swept emerald spaces, and
+far in the remote, vast, white regions in the north of it, far from the
+haunts of men, thousands of miles from its populous cities, beyond the
+raging of its blue-green seas, myself, alone, a wee, small atom on its
+vast surface, striving to reach its hitherto unattained goal. I felt, as
+I thought of my anticipation and lonely quest, a sense of the terrible
+overwhelming hugeness of the earth, and the poignant loneliness any soul
+must feel when it embarks upon some splendid solitary destiny.
+
+Beyond and above me I visioned the unimaginable, blinding white regions
+of ice and cold, about which, like a golden-crowned sentinel, with face
+of flame, the circling midnight sun kept guard. Upon this desolate,
+awe-inspiring stage--unchanged since the days of its designing--I saw
+myself attempting to win in the most spectacular and difficult marathon
+for the testing of human strength, courage and perseverance, of body and
+brain, which God has offered to man. I could see myself, in my fancy
+pictures, invading those roaring regions, struggling over icy lands in
+the dismal twilight of the Arctic morning, and venturing, with a few
+companions, upon the lifeless, wind-swept Polar sea. A black mite, I saw
+myself slowly piercing those white and terrible spaces, braving terrific
+storms, assailing green, adamantine barriers of ice, crossing the
+swift-flowing, black rivers of those ice fields, and stoutly persisting
+until, successful, I stood alone, a victor, upon the world's pinnacle!
+
+This thought gave me wild joy. That I, one white man, might alone
+succeed in this quest gave me an impetus which only single-handed effort
+and the prospect of single-handed success can give. There was pleasure
+in the thought that, in this effort, I was indebted to no one; no one
+had expended money for me or my trip; no white men were to risk their
+lives with me. Whether it resulted in success or defeat, I alone should
+exult or I alone should suffer. I was the mascot of no clique of
+friends, nor the pawn of scientists who might find a suppositious and
+mythical glory in the reflected light of another's achievement. The
+quest was personal; the pleasure of success must be personal.
+
+Yet, I want you to understand this thing was no casual jaunt with me.
+All my life hinged about it, my hopes were bent upon it; the doing of it
+was part of me. My plans of action were not haphazard and hair-brained.
+Logically and clearly, I mapped out a campaign. It was based upon
+experience in known conditions, experience gathered after years of
+discouragement and failure.
+
+At Annoatok we erected a house of packing boxes.[6] The building of the
+house, which was to be both storehouse and workshop, was a simple
+matter. The walls were made of the packing boxes, especially selected of
+uniform size for this purpose.
+
+[Illustration: ON THE CHASE FOR BEAR
+
+THE BOX-HOUSE AT ANNOATOK AND ITS WINTER ENVIRONMENT]
+
+[Illustration: MAN'S PREY OF THE ARCTIC SEA--WALRUS ASLEEP]
+
+Enclosing a space thirteen by sixteen feet, the cases were quickly piled
+up. The walls were held together by strips of wood, the joints sealed
+with pasted paper, with the addition of a few long boards. A really good
+roof was made by using the covers of the boxes as shingles. A blanket of
+turf over this confined the heat and permitted, at the same time,
+healthful circulation of air.
+
+We slept under our own roof at the end of the first day. Our new house
+had the great advantage of containing within it all our possessions
+within easy reach at all times. When anything was needed in the way of
+supplies, all we had to do was to open a box in the wall.
+
+The house completed, we immediately began the work of building sledges,
+and the equally important work, at which a large proportion of the
+Eskimos were at once set, of making up furs into clothing. According to
+my plans, each one of us embarking in the Polar journey would have to
+carry two suits of fur clothing. In the Arctic regions, especially when
+men are marching to the limit of their strength every day, the bodily
+heat puts the clothing into such condition that the only safe way, if
+health is to be preserved, is to change suits frequently, while the
+perspiration-soaked furs are laid out to dry.
+
+The Eskimos had also to prepare for winter. Tents of sealskin are
+inhabitable only in the summer time. For the coming period of darkness
+and bitter cold, they made igloos of stone and snow.
+
+Meanwhile, they were not in the least averse to agreeable relaxation. I
+had with me a good supply of tea, and was in the habit of drinking a cup
+of it with Francke about four o'clock every afternoon. Observing this,
+the Eskimos at once began to present themselves at the tea hour.
+Fortunately, tea was one of the supplies of which I had brought a good
+deal for the sake of pleasing the natives, and it was not long before I
+had a very large and gossipy afternoon tea party every day, in this
+northernmost human settlement of the globe.
+
+I planned to superintend every detail of progress, as far as it
+concerned our journey. I could watch the men, too, and see which ones
+promised to be the best to accompany me. And, what was a most important
+point, I could also perfect my final plans for the advance right at my
+final base.
+
+I aimed to reach the top of the globe in the angle between Alaska and
+Greenland, a promising route through a new and lonesome region which had
+not been tried, abandoning what has come to be called the "American
+Route." I should strike westward and then northward, working new trails.
+With Annoatok as a base of operations, I planned to carry sufficient
+supplies over Schley Land and along the west coast of the game lands,
+trusting that the game along this region would furnish sufficient
+supplies en route to the shores of the Polar sea. This journey to land's
+end would also afford a test of every article of equipment needed in the
+field work, and would enable us to choose finally from a selected
+number of Eskimos those most able to endure the rigors of the unlimited
+journey which lay before us.
+
+I sent out a few hunters along the intended line to seek for haunts of
+game, but I was not surprised that their searching in the dark was
+practically unsuccessful, and it merely meant that I must depend upon my
+previous knowledge of conditions. I knew from the general reports of the
+natives, and from the explorations of Sverdrup, that the beginning of
+the intended route offered abundant game, and the indications were that
+further food would likewise be found as we advanced. The readiness with
+which the Eskimos declared themselves ready to trust to the food supply
+of the unknown region was highly encouraging.
+
+To start from my base with men and dogs in superb condition, with their
+bodies nourished with wholesome fresh meat instead of the nauseating
+laboratory stuff too often given to men in the North, was of vital
+importance; and if the men and dogs could afterwards be supported in
+great measure by the game of the region through which we were to pass,
+it would be of an importance more vital still. If my information was
+well founded and my general conjectures correct, I should have
+advantages which had not been possessed by any other leader of a Polar
+expedition. The new route seemed to promise, also, immunity from the
+highly disturbing effects of certain North Greenland currents. In all,
+the chances seemed not unfavorable.
+
+With busy people hard at work about me, I knew that the months of the
+long night would pass rapidly by. There was much to do, and with the
+earliest dawn of the morning of the next year we must be ready to start
+for the Pole.
+
+
+
+
+THE CURTAIN OF NIGHT DROPS
+
+TRIBE OF TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY NATIVES BUSILY BEGIN PREPARATIONS FOR THE
+POLAR DASH--EXCITING HUNTS FOR THE UNICORN AND OTHER GAME FROM ANNOATOK
+TO CAPE YORK--EVERY ANIMAL CAUGHT BEARING UPON THE SUCCESS OF THE
+VENTURE--THE GREY-GREEN GLOOM OF TWILIGHT IN WHICH THE ESKIMO WOMEN
+COMMUNICATE WITH THE SOULS OF THE DEAD
+
+VI
+
+THE SUNSET OF 1907
+
+
+Winter, long-lasting, dark and dismal, approached. To me it was to be a
+season of feverish labor in which every hand at work and every hour
+employed counted in the problem of success. While the hands of the
+entire tribe would be busy, and while I should direct and help in the
+making of sleds, catching of game, preparing of meat, I knew that my
+mind would find continual excitement in dreams of my quest, in
+anticipating and solving its difficulties, in feeling the bounding pulse
+of the dash over the ice of the Polar sea, with dogs joyously barking,
+whips cracking the air, and the reappearing sun paving our pathway with
+liquid gold. In the labor of the long winter which I began to map out I
+knew I should find ceaseless zest, for the pursuit of every narwhal,
+every walrus, every fox I should regard with abated suspense, each one
+bearing upon my chances; in the employment of every pair of hands I
+should hang with an eager interest, the expediency and excellence of the
+work making for success or failure. From this time onward everything of
+my life, every native, every occurrence began to have some bearing upon
+the dominating task to which I had set myself.
+
+With the advance of winter, storms of frightful ferocity began to arise.
+Inasmuch as we had stored meat and blubber in large quantities about our
+camp, it was not necessary at these times to venture out to dig up
+supplies from great depths of snow drift. During these periods hands
+were employed busily inside the igloos. Although a large quantity of
+animals and furs had been gathered by the hunters before our arrival, we
+now unexpectedly discovered that the supply was inadequate. According to
+my plans, a large party of picked natives would accompany me to land's
+end and somewhat beyond on the Polar sea when I started for my dash in
+the coming spring. As spring is the best hunting season, it was
+therefore imperative to secure sufficient advance provisions for the
+families of these men in addition to preparing requisites for my
+expedition. So the early days of the winter would have to be busily
+occupied by the men in a ceaseless hunt for game, and later, even when
+the darkness had fully fallen, the moonlight days and nights would thus
+have to be utilized also.
+
+In the Polar cycle of the seasons there are peculiar conditions which
+apply to circumstances and movements. As the word, seasons, is
+ordinarily understood, there are but two, a winter season and a summer
+season--a winter season of nine months and a summer of three months.
+
+But, for more convenient division of the yearly periods, it is best to
+retain the usual cycle of four seasons. Eskimos call the winter
+"ookiah," which also means year, and the summer "onsah." Days are
+"sleeps." The months are moons, and the periods are named in accord with
+the movements of various creatures of the chase.
+
+In early September at Annoatok the sun dips considerably under the
+northern horizon. There is no night. At sunset and at sunrise storm
+clouds hide the bursts of color which are the glory of twilight, and the
+electric afterglow is generally lost in a dull gray.
+
+The gloom of the coming winter night now thickens. The splendor of the
+summer day has gone. A day of six months and a night of six months is
+often ascribed to the Polar regions as a whole, but this is only true of
+a very small area about the Pole.
+
+As we come south, the sun slips under the horizon for an ever-increasing
+part of each twenty-four hours. Preceding and following the night, as we
+come from the Pole, there is a period of day and night which lengthens
+with the descent of latitude.
+
+It is this period which enables us to retain the names of the usual
+seasons--summer for the double days, fall for the period of the setting
+sun. This season begins when the sun first dips under the ice at
+midnight for a few moments. These moments increase rapidly, yet one
+hardly appreciates that the sun is departing until day and night are of
+equal length, for the night remains light, though not cheerful. Then the
+day rapidly shortens and darkens, and the sun sinks until at last there
+is but a mere glimmer of the glory of day. Winter is limited to the
+long night, and spring applies to the days of the rising sun, a period
+corresponding to the autumn days of the setting sun.
+
+At Annoatok the midnight sun is first seen on April 23. It dips in the
+sea on August 19. It thus encircles the horizon, giving summer and
+continuous day for one hundred and eighteen days. It sets at midday on
+October 24, and is absent a period of prolonged night corresponding to
+the day, and it rises on February 19. The Arctic air, with its low
+temperature and its charge of frosted humidity, so distorts the sun's
+rays that when low it is frequently lifted one or two diameters;
+therefore, the exact day or hour for sunrise or sunset does not
+correspond to mathematical calculations. Then follow days of spring.
+
+In the fall, when the harmonizing influence of the sun is withdrawn,
+there begins a battle of the elements which continues until stilled by
+the hopeless frost of early night.
+
+At this time, although field work was painful, the needs of our venture
+forced us to persistent action in the chase of walrus, seal, narwhal and
+white whale. We thus harvested food and fuel.
+
+Before winter ice spread over the sea, ptarmigan, hare and reindeer were
+sought on land to supply the table during the long night with
+delicacies, while bear and fox pleased the palates of the Eskimos, and
+their pelts clothed all.
+
+Many long journeys were undertaken to secure an important supply of
+grass to pad boots and mittens and also to secure moss, which serves as
+wick for the Eskimo lamp. During the months of September and October,
+along the entire Greenland coast, the Eskimos were engaged in a feverish
+quest for reserve supplies. Shortly after my arrival, word had been
+carried from village to village that I was at Annoatok, and, intending
+to make a dash for the "Big Nail," desired the help of the entire tribe.
+Intense and spontaneous activity followed. Knowing the demands of the
+North, and of such work as I planned, the natives, without specific
+instructions from me and with only a brief outline of the planned Polar
+campaign which was sent from village to village, immediately got busy
+gathering the needed things. They knew better than I where to go for
+certain game, and where certain desirable things were obtainable. This
+relieved me of a great responsibility. Each local group of natives was
+to perform some important duty, suited to its available resources, in
+gathering the tremendous amount of material required for our trip. Each
+village had its peculiar game advantages.
+
+In some places foxes and hares, the skins of which were necessary for
+coats and stockings, were abundant, and the Eskimos must not only gather
+the greatest number possible, but prepare the skins and make them into
+properly fitting garments. In other places reindeer were plentiful. The
+skin of these was needed for sleeping bags, while the sinew was required
+for thread. In still other places seal was the luck of the chase; its
+skin was one of our most important needs. Of it boots were made, and an
+immense amount of line and lashings prepared.
+
+Thus, in one way or another, every man and woman and most of the
+children of this tribe of two hundred and fifty people were kept busy in
+the service of the expedition. The work was well done, and with much
+better knowledge of the fitness of things than could have been possessed
+by any possible gathering of alien white men.
+
+The quest of the walrus and the narwhal came in our own immediate plan
+of adventure, although the narwhal, called by whale fishers the unicorn,
+does not often come under the eye of the white man. It afforded for a
+brief spell good results in sport and useful material. Its blubber is
+the pride of every housekeeper, for it gives a long, hot flame to the
+lamp, with no smoke to spot the igloo finery. The skin is regarded as
+quite a delicacy. Cut into squares, it looks and tastes like scallops,
+with only a slight aroma of train oil. The meat dries easily, and is
+thus prized as an appetizer or as a lunch to be eaten en route in sled
+or kayak. In this shape it was an extremely useful thing for us, for it
+took the place of pemmican on our less urgent journeys.
+
+Narwhals played in schools, far off shore, and usually along the edges
+of some large ice field, their long ivory tusks rising under spouts of
+breath and spray. Whenever this glad sight was noted, every kayak about
+camp was manned, and the skin canoes went flittering like birds over the
+water. Some of the Eskimos climbed to the ice fields and delivered their
+harpoons from a secure footing. Others hid behind floating fragments of
+heavy ice and made a sudden rush as the animals passed. Still others
+came up in the rear, for the narwhal cannot easily see backward, and
+does not often turn to watch its enemies, its speed being so fast that
+it can easily keep ahead of them.
+
+In these exciting hunts I participated with eager delight, and by proxy
+mentally engaged in every encounter. For, in this sea game, existed
+food supplies which, instead of entirely confining myself to pemmican, I
+planned also to use on my Polar journey. As the skin boats, like bugs,
+sped over the water, I felt the movement of them surge in my brain; with
+the upraising of each swift-darting native's arm I felt, as it were, my
+heart stop with bated suspense. With every failure I experienced a throb
+of dismay. With the hauling in of each slimy beast I felt, as it were,
+nearer my goal.
+
+Narwhal hunting, in itself, and without the added spur of personal
+interest, which I had, is brimful of thrilling sport. The harpoon is
+always delivered at close range. Whenever the dragging float marks the
+end of the line in tow of the frightened creature, the line of skin
+canoes follows. Timid by nature and fearing to rise for breath, the
+narwhal plunges along until nearly strangled. When he does come up,
+there are likely to be several Eskimos near with drawn lances, which
+inflict deep gashes.
+
+Again the narwhal plunges deep down, with but one breath, and hurries
+along as best it can. But its speed slackens and a line of crimson marks
+its hidden path. Loss of blood and want of air do not give it a chance
+to fight. Again it comes up with a spout. Again the lances are hurled.
+
+The battle continues for several hours, with many exciting adventures,
+but in the end the narwhal always succumbs, offering a prize of several
+thousands of pounds of meat and blubber. Victory as a rule is not gained
+until the hunters are far from home, and also far from the shore line.
+But the Eskimo is a courageous hunter and an intelligent seaman.
+
+To the huge carcass frail kayaks are hitched in a long line. Towing is
+slow, wind and sea combining to make the task difficult and dangerous.
+One sees nothing of the narwhal and very little of the kayak, for
+dashing seas wash over the little craft, but the double-bladed paddles
+see-saw with the regularity of a pendulum. Homecoming takes many hours
+and demands a prodigious amount of hard work, but there is energy to
+spare, for a wealth of meat and fat is the culmination of all Eskimo
+ambition.
+
+Seven of these ponderous animals were brought in during five days,
+making a heap of more than forty thousand pounds of food and fuel. The
+sight of this tremulous, blubbering mass filled my heart with joy. Our
+success was not too soon, for now the narwhals suddenly disappeared, and
+we saw no more of them. About this time three white whales were also
+obtained at Etah by a similar method of hunting.
+
+With the advent of actual winter, storms swept over the land and sea
+with such fury that it was no longer safe to venture out on the water in
+kayaks. After the catching of several walruses from boats, sea hunting
+now was confined to the quest of seal through young ice. As such hunting
+would soon be limited to only a few open spaces near prominent
+headlands, an industrious pursuit was feverishly engaged in at every
+village from Annoatok to Cape York, and hour by hour, day by day, until
+the hunt of necessity changed from sea to land, the husky natives
+engaged in seal catching. As yet we had no caribou meat, and the little
+auks, which had been gathered in nets during the summer, with the
+eider-duck bagged later, soon disappeared as a steady diet. We must now
+procure such available land game as hare, ptarmigan and reindeer, for we
+had not yet learned to eat with a relish the fishy, liver-like substance
+which is characteristic of all marine mammals.
+
+Guns and ammunition were now distributed, and when the winds were easy
+enough to allow one to venture out, every Eskimo sought the neighboring
+hills. Francke also took his exercise with a gun on his shoulder.
+
+The combined efforts resulted in a long line of ptarmigan, two reindeer
+and sixteen hares. As snow covered the upper slopes, the game was forced
+down near the sea, where we could still hope to hunt in the feeble light
+of the early part of the night.
+
+With a larder fairly stocked and good prospects for other tasty meats,
+we were spared the anxiety of a winter without supplies. Francke was an
+ideal chef in the preparation of this game to good effect, for he had a
+delightful way of making our primitive provisions quite appetizing.
+
+In the middle of October fox skins were prime, and then new steel traps
+were distributed and set near the many caches. By this time all the
+Eskimos had abandoned their sealskin tents and were snugly settled in
+their winter igloos. The ground was covered with snow, and the sea was
+almost entirely frozen.
+
+Everybody was busy preparing for the coming cold and night. The
+temperature was about 20 deg. below zero. Severe storms were becoming less
+frequent, and the air, though colder, was less humid and less
+disagreeable. An ice-foot was formed by the tides along shore, and over
+this the winter sledging was begun by short excursions to bait the fox
+traps and gather the foxes.
+
+Our life now resolved itself into a systematic routine of work, which
+was practically followed throughout the succeeding long winter night.
+About the box-house in which Francke and I lived were igloos housing
+eight to twelve families. The tribe of two hundred and fifty was
+distributed in a range of villages along the coast, an average of four
+families constituting a community. Early each morning Koo-loo-ting-wah
+would bang at my door, enter, and I would drowsily awaken while he
+freshened the fire. Rising, we would prepare hot coffee and partake of
+breakfast with biscuits. By seven o'clock--according to our standard of
+time--five or six of the natives would arrive, and, after a liberal
+libation of coffee, begin work. I taught them to help me in the making
+of my hickory sleds. Some I taught to use modern carpentering
+instruments, which I had with me. Another group was schooled in bending
+the resilient but tough hickory. This was done by wrapping old cloths
+about the wood and steeping it in hot water. Others engaged, as the days
+went by, in making dog harness, articles of winter clothing, and drying
+meat. Not an hour was lost during the day. At noon we paused for a bite
+of frozen meat and hot tea. Then we fell to work again without respite
+until five or six o'clock.
+
+Meanwhile, beginning in the early morning of our steadily darkening
+days, other male members of the tribe pursued game. Others again
+followed a routine of scouring of the villages and collecting all the
+furs and game which had been caught. The women of the tribe, in almost
+every dimly lighted igloo, were no less industrious. To them fell the
+task of assisting in drying the fur skins, preparing dried meat and
+making our clothing. Throughout the entire days they sat in their snow
+and stone houses, masses of ill-smelling furs before them, cutting the
+skins and sewing them into serviceable garments. This work I often
+watched, passing from igloo to igloo, with an interest that verged on
+anxiety; for upon the strength, thickness and durability of these
+depended my life, and that of the companions I should choose, on the
+frigid days which would inevitably come on my journey Poleward. But
+these broad-faced, patient women did their work well. Their skill is
+quite remarkable. They took my measurements, for instance, by roughly
+sizing up my old garments and by measuring me by sight. Garments were
+made to fit snugly after the preliminary making by cutting out or
+inserting patches of fur. Needles among the natives are indeed precious.
+So valuable are they that if a point or eye is broken, with infinite
+skill and patience the broken end is heated and flattened, and by means
+of a bow drill a new eye is bored. A new point is with equal skill
+shaped on local stones. With marvelous patience they make their own
+thread by drying and stripping caribou or narwhale sinews.
+
+Were it not for their extraordinary eyesight, such work, under such
+conditions, would be impossible. But in the dark the natives can espy
+things invisible to white men. This owl-sight enables them to hunt, if
+necessary, in almost pitch darkness, and to perform tedious feats of
+hand skill which, in such dim light, an alien would bungle. I noticed,
+with much curiosity, that when the natives inspected any photograph or
+object which I gave them they always held it upside down. All objects,
+as is well known, are reflected in the retina thus, and it is our
+familiarity with the size and comparative relations of things which
+enables the brain to visualize an object or scene at its proper angle.
+This strange, instinctive act of the natives might form an interesting
+chapter in optics.
+
+Meanwhile, busy and interested in the beginning of our various pursuits,
+the great crust which was to hold down the sea for so many months,
+closed and thickened.
+
+During the last days of brief sunshine the weather cleared, and at noon
+on October 24 everybody sought the open for a last glimpse of the dying
+day. There was a charm of color and glitter, but no one seemed quite
+happy as the sun sank under the southern ice, for it was not to rise
+again for one hundred and eighteen days.
+
+Just prior to the falling of darkness, with that instinctive and forced
+hilarity with which aboriginal beings seek to ward off an impending
+calamity, the Eskimos engaged in their annual sporting event. It is a
+curious sight, indeed, to behold a number of excited, laughing Eskimos
+gathering about two champion dogs which are to fight. Although the zest
+of betting is unknown, the natives regard dog fights with much the same
+eager excitement as a certain type of sporting man does a cock
+encounter. Sometimes the dogs do not fight fairly, a number of the
+animals bunching together and attacking a single dog. Dogs selected for
+the fight are, of course, the best of the teams. A dog which maintains
+his fighting supremacy becomes a king dog, and when beaten becomes a
+first lieutenant to the king.
+
+After the forced enthusiasm of this brief period of excitement, the
+Eskimos begin to succumb to the inevitable melancholia of nature, when
+the sun, the source of natural life, disappears and darkness descends.
+A gloom descends heavily upon their spirits. A subtle sadness tinctures
+their life, and they are possessed by an impulse to weep. At this
+season, hour by hour, the darkness thickens; the cold increases and
+chills their igloos; the wind, exultant while the sun shines, now whines
+and sobs dolorously--there is something gruesome, uncanny, supernatural,
+in its siren sorrow. Outside, the snow falls, the sea closes. Its
+clamant beat of waves is silenced. Sea animals mostly disappear; land
+animals are rare. Their source of physical supply vanished, the Eskimos
+unconsciously feel the grim hand of want, of starvation, which means
+death, upon them. The psychology of this period of depression partly
+lies, undoubtedly, in this instinctive dread of death from lack of food
+and the natural depression of unrelieved gloom. Moreover, there is a
+grief, born of the native superstition that, when the sea freezes, the
+souls of all who have perished in the waters are imprisoned during the
+long night. Too fierce is the struggle of these people with the
+elemental forces to permit them, like many other aboriginal peoples to
+be obsessed greatly with superstitions. Although their religion is a
+very primitive and native one, it is usually only at the inception of
+night that they feel the appalling nearness of a world that is
+supernatural. As the last rim of the sun sank over the southern ice, the
+natives entered upon a formal period of melancholy, during which the
+bereavements of each family, and the discomforts and disasters of the
+year, were memoralized.
+
+I shall never forget that long, sad evening, which lasted many normal
+days. The sun had descended. A sepulchral, gray-green curtain of gloom
+hung over the chilled earth. In the dim semi-darkness could be vaguely
+seen the outlines of the igloos, of the heaving curvatures of
+snow-covered land, and the blacker, snake-like twistings of open lanes
+of water, where the sea had not yet frozen. Sitting in my box-house, I
+was startled suddenly by a sound that made my flesh for the instant
+creep. I walked to the door and threw it open. Over the bluish,
+snow-covered land, formed by the indentures and hollows, stretched
+dark-purplish shapes--Titan shadows, sepulchral and ominous, some with
+shrouded heads, others with spectral arms threateningly upraised.
+Nebulous and gruesome shreds of blue-fog like wraiths shifted over the
+sea. Out of the sombre, heavy air began to issue a sound as of many
+women sobbing. From the indistinct distance came moaning, crooning
+voices. Sometimes hysterical wails of anguish rent the air, and now and
+then frantic choruses shrieked some heart-aching despair. My impression
+was that I was in a land of the sorrowful dead, some mid-strata of the
+spirit world, where, in this gray-green twilight, formless things in the
+distance moved to and fro.
+
+There is, I believe, in the heart of every man, an instinctive respect
+for sorrow. With muffled steps, I left the igloo and paced the
+dreariness of ice, treading slowly, lest, in the darkness, I slip into
+some unseen crevasse of the open sea. A strange and eerie sight
+confronted me. Along the seashore, bending over the lapping black water,
+or standing here and there by inky, open leads in the severed ice, many
+Eskimo women were gathered. Some stood in groups of two or three. Bowed
+and disconsolate, her arms about them, with almost every hundred steps,
+I saw a weeping mother and her children. Standing rigid and stark,
+motionless graven images of despair, or frantically writhing to and fro,
+others stood far apart in desolate places, alone.
+
+The dull, opaque air was tinged with a strange phosphorescent green,
+suggestive of a place of dead things; and now, like the flutterings of
+huge death-lamps, along the horizon, where the sun had sunk, gashes of
+crimson here and there fitfully glowed blood-red in the pall-like sky.
+
+To the left, as I walked along, I recognized Tung-wingwah, with a child
+on her back and a bag of moss in her hand. She stood behind a cheerless
+rock, with her face toward the faint red flushes of the sun. She stood
+motionless. Big tears rolled from her eyes, but not a sound was uttered.
+To my low queries she made no response. I invited her to the camp to
+have a cup of tea, thinking to change her sad thoughts and loosen her
+tongue. But still her eyes did not leave that last distant line of open
+water. From another, I later learned that in the previous April her
+daughter of five, while playing on the ice-foot, slipped and was lost in
+the sea. The mother now mourned because the ice would bury her little
+one's soul.
+
+A little farther along was Al-leek-ah, a woman of middle age, with two
+young children by her side. She was hysterical in her grief, now
+laughing with a weird giggle, now crying and groaning as if in great
+pain, and again dancing with emotions of madness. I learned her story
+from a chatter that ran through all her anguish. Towanah, her first
+husband, had been drawn under the ice, by the harpoon line, twenty years
+ago. And though she had been married three times since, she was trying
+to keep alive the memory of her first love. I went on, marveling at a
+primitive fidelity so long enduring.
+
+Still farther along towards the steep slopes of the main coast, I saw
+Ahwynet, all alone in the gloomy shadow of great cliffs. Her story was
+told in chants and moans. Her husband and all her children had been
+swept by an avalanche into the stormy seas. There was a kind of wild
+poetry in the song of her bereavement. Tears came to my eyes. The rush
+of the avalanche, the hiss of the wind, the pounding of the seas, were
+all indicated. And then, in heart-breaking tones, came "blood of her
+blood, flesh of her flesh, under the frozen waters," and other
+sentiments which I could not catch in the undertone of sobs.
+
+Cold shivers began to run up my spine, and I turned to retreat to camp.
+Here was a scene that perhaps a Dante might adequately write about. I
+cannot. I felt that I, an alien, was intruding into the realm of some
+strange and mystic sorrow. I felt the sombre thrill of a borderland
+world not human. These women were communicating with the souls of their
+dead. To those who had perished in the sea they were telling, ere the
+gates of ice closed above them, all the news of the past year--things of
+interest and personal, and even of years before, as far back as they
+could remember. Almost every family each year loses someone in the sea;
+almost every family was represented by these weeping women, overburdened
+with their own naive sorrow, and who yet strangely sought to cheer the
+souls of the disconsolate and desolate dead.
+
+Meanwhile, while the women were weeping and giving their parting
+messages to the dead, the male members of the tribe, in chants and
+dramatic dances, were celebrating, in the igloos, the important events
+of the past year.
+
+Inside, the igloos were dimly lighted with stone blubber lamps. These,
+during the entire winter, furnish light and heat. The lamp consists of a
+crescent-shaped stone with a concavity, in which there is animal oil and
+a line of crushed moss as a wick. Lighted early in the season, for an
+entire winter, these lamps cast a faint, perpetual, flickering light.
+Shadows dance grotesquely about on the rounded walls. An oily stench
+pervades the unventilated enclosure. In this weird, yellow-blackish
+radiance the men engage in their fantastic dances. Moving the central
+parts of their bodies to and fro, they utter weird sing-song chants.
+They recite, in jerky, curious singing, the history of the big events of
+the year; of successful chases; of notable storms; of everything that
+means much in their simple lives. As they dance, their voices rise to a
+high pitch of excitement. Their eyes flash like smoldering coals. Their
+arms move frantically. Some begin to sob uncontrollably. A hysteria of
+laughter seizes others. Finally the dance ends; exhausted, they pass
+into a brief lethargy, from which they revive, their melancholia
+departed. The women return from the shores of the sea; they wipe their
+tears, and, with native spontaneity, forget their depression and smile
+again.
+
+While I was interested in the curious spectacles presented, the sunset
+of 1907 to me was inspiration for the final work in directing the
+completion of the outfit with which to begin the conquest of the Pole at
+sunrise of 1908. Fortunately, I was not handicapped by the company of
+the usual novices taken on Polar expeditions. There were only two of us
+white men, and white men, at the best, must be regarded as amateurs
+compared with the expert efficiency of Eskimos in their own environment.
+Our food supply contained only the prime factors of primitive
+nourishment. Special foods and laboratory concoctions and canned
+delicacies did not fill an important space in our larder. Nor had we
+balloons, automobiles, motor sleds or other freak devices. We did,
+however, I have said, have what was of utmost importance, an abundance
+of the best hickory and metal for the making of the sleds upon which our
+destinies were vitally to depend.
+
+
+
+
+FIRST WEEK OF THE LONG NIGHT
+
+HUNTING IN THE ARCTIC TWILIGHT--PURSUING BEAR, CARIBOU AND SMALLER GAME
+IN SEMI-GLOOM
+
+VII
+
+THE GLORY OF THE AURORA
+
+
+The sun had dropped below the horizon. The gloom continued steadily to
+thicken. Each twenty-four hours, at the approximate approach of what was
+the noon hour when the sun had been above the horizon, the sky to the
+south of us glowed with marvelous, subdued sunset hues. By this time our
+work had gone ahead by progressive stages. Furs, to protect us from the
+cold of the uttermost North on my prospective trip, had been prepared
+and were being made into clothing; meat and fat, for food and fuel, were
+being dried and stored in numerous caches about Annoatok; several of the
+sledges and part of the equipment were ready.
+
+We still had need of large quantities of supplies, and, while some of
+the natives were busy with their routine work, we planned that as many
+others as possible should use the twilight days pursuing bear, caribou,
+fox, hare and other game far beyond the usual Eskimo haunts. Before the
+dawn of the sun's afterglow, on the morning of October 26, seven sledges
+with sixty dogs were on the ice-foot near our camp, ready to start for
+hunting grounds near Humboldt Glacier, a distance of one hundred miles
+northward.[7]
+
+While the teamsters waited for the final password the dogs chafed
+fiercely. I could barely see the outlines of my companions in the gloom,
+and it was difficult, in the irregular snow and tide-lifted ice
+descending to sea level, to find footing.
+
+The word to start was given. My companions took up the cry.
+
+"_Huk! Huk! Huk!_" (Go! Go!) they shouted.
+
+The dogs responded in leaps and howls.
+
+"_Howah! Howah!_" (Right! Right!) "_Egh! Egh!_" (Stop! Stop!)
+"_Aureti!_" (Behave!) came echoingly along the line of teams. Finally
+the wild dash slackened, the dogs regulated their paces to an easy trot,
+and we swept steadily along the frozen highway of the tide-made shelf of
+the ice-foot. The sledges dodged stones and ice-blocks, edged along
+dangerous precipices, in the depths of which I heard the swish of water,
+and glided miraculously over crevices and along deep gorges. Jumping
+about the sledges, guiding, pushing, or retarding their speed, cracking
+their whips in the air, the natives, with that art which only aborigines
+seem to have, picked the way and controlled the dogs, but a few
+generations removed from their wolf progenitors, with amazing dexterity.
+
+A low wind blew down the slopes and froze our breath in lines of frost
+about our heads. The temperature was 35 deg. below zero. To the left of us
+was Kane Basin, recalling its history of human strife northward. It was
+filled with serried ranges of crushed ice, a berg here and there, all in
+the light of the kindling sky, aglow with purple and blue. To the far
+west I saw the dim outline of Ellesmere, my promised land, over which I
+hoped to force a new route to the Pole; upon its snowy highlands was
+poured a soft creamy light from encouraging skies. To the right was the
+rugged coast of Greenland, its huge, ice-chiselled cliffs leaping
+portentously forward in the gloom. Thrilling with the race, we made a
+run of twenty miles and reached Rensselaer Harbor, where Dr. Kane had
+spent his long nights of misfortune.
+
+We pitched camp at the ice-foot at the head of the bay. Although we
+found traces of hare and fox, it was too dark to venture on the chase.
+The temperature had fallen to -40 deg., the wind pierced with a sharp sting.
+For my shelter I erected a new tent which I had invented, and the
+efficiency of which I desired to test. Taking the sledge frame work as a
+platform, a folding top of strong canvas was fastened, and spread
+between two bars of hickory from each end. The entrance was in front.
+Inside was a space eight feet long and three and one-half feet wide,
+with a round whaleback top. Inside this a supplementary wall was
+constructed of light blankets, offering an air space of an inch between
+the outer wall as a non-conductor to confine the little heat generated
+within. As there was ample room for only two persons, Koo-loo-ting-wah,
+my leading man, was invited to share the tent. The natives had not
+provided themselves with shelter of any kind. They had counted on either
+building an igloo or seeking the shelter of the snows, as do the
+creatures of the wilds.
+
+Inside my tent I prepared a meal on the little German stove, burning the
+vapor of alcohol. The meal consisted of a pail of hot corn meal, fried
+bacon and a liberal all-round supply of steaming tea. To accomplish
+this, which included melting the snow, heating the water, and cooking
+everything separately, required about two hours. As I considered eating
+outside with any degree of comfort impossible, my companions were
+invited to crowd inside the tent. The vapor of their breath and that of
+the cooking soon condensed into snow, and a miniature snowstorm covered
+everything within. After this was swept out, the Eskimos were invited to
+enter again. All partook of the meal ravenously, and then emerged to
+reconnoiter the surroundings. Tracks of ptarmigan, hare and foxes were
+found, and as we moved about with seeking, owl eyes, ravens shouted
+notes of welcome.
+
+We then retired to rest. As there was no snow about that was
+sufficiently hard to cut blocks with which to erect snow houses, the
+natives placed themselves in semi-reclining positions on their sledges
+and slept in their traveling clothes. After a few hours they awoke and
+partook of chopped frozen meat and blubber; two hours later, they made a
+fire in a tin can, with moss and blubber as fuel, and over this prepared
+a pot of parboiled meat. A crescent-shaped wall of snow was built to
+break the wind; in the shelter of this they sat, grinning delightedly,
+and eating savagely, with much smacking of the lips, the steaming broth
+and walrus meat. All this I studied with intense interest. I desired on
+this trip not only to test my tent, but to learn more of the native
+arts of the Eskimo, knowing that I, on my Polar trip, must, if I would
+be successful, adapt myself to just such methods of living.
+
+This was my first winter experience of camping out in the night season
+for this year, and, with only a diet of meal and bacon, I was miserably
+cold. I was now testing also for the first time the new winter clothing
+with which I and all my companions were dressed. Our shirts were made of
+bird skins. Over these were coats of blue fox or caribou skins; our
+trousers were of bear, our boots of seal, and our stockings of hare
+skins. This was the usual native winter costume, but under it I had
+added a suit of underwear.
+
+Retiring again for rest, I left instructions to be called for an early
+start. It seemed that I had hardly settled comfortably in my sleeping
+bag when the call for action came.
+
+We hastily partook of tea and biscuits, harnessed our teams and started
+through the dark. The Eskimos, having eaten their fill of fat and frozen
+meat, to which I must yet accustom myself, were thoroughly comfortable.
+I was miserably cold.
+
+By running behind my sledge I produced sufficient bodily heat after
+awhile to feel comfortable. My face suffered severely from the cutting
+slant of the winds. We passed the perpendicular walls of Cape Seiper at
+dawn. We ran along the long, straight coast into Bancroft Bay during the
+six hours of twilight. The journey was continued to Dallas Bay by a
+forced march of fifty miles before we halted.
+
+The scene displayed the rare glory of twilight charms as it had the day
+before, but the snow was deeper, the temperature lower. The wind
+steadily increased and veered northward. We made several efforts to
+cross the bay ice, but cracked ice, huge uplifted blocks and deep snows
+compelled a retreat to the ice-foot.
+
+The ice-foot along Smith Sound is a superb highway, where otherwise
+sledge travel would be quite impossible along the coast.
+
+Along Dallas Bay we found a great deal of grass-covered land in
+undulating valleys and on low hills, which offered grazing for caribou
+and hare. The preceding glimmer of the new moon, which was to rise a few
+days hence, offered sufficient light to search for game.
+
+We now fed our dogs for the first time since leaving Annoatok. After a
+liberal drink of snow water, we started to seek our luck in the chase.
+In the course of an hour my companions returned with four hares which,
+when dressed, weighed about forty-eight pounds. Two of these were
+cached. The others were eaten later.
+
+Before dawn of the day-long twilight the wind increased to a full gale.
+The sky to the north, smoky all night, now blackened as with soot. The
+wind came with a howl that brought to mind the despairing cries of the
+dying explorers whose bleached bones were strewn along the shore. The
+gloomy outline of the coast remained visible for awhile; but soon the
+air thickened and came weighted with snow that piled up in huge drifts.
+
+The Eskimos took a few of their favorite dogs and sought shelter to the
+lee of the tent, where drift covered their blankets with snow. Breathing
+holes were kept open over their faces. Buried in snow drifts, they were
+imprisoned for twenty-eight hours. But this tent sled sheltered
+Koo-loo-ting-wah and myself. When the rush of the storm had abated we
+began digging our way out. In this effort we dug up men and dogs like
+potatoes from a patch. The northern sky had paled, the south was
+brightening. The pack was lined with long lines beyond each hummock; the
+snow was covered with a strong crust. But the ice-foot was a hopeless
+line of drifts which made travel over it quite impossible.
+
+The work of pounding snow from the dogs and freeing the sledges brought
+to our faces beads of perspiration which rolled off and froze in lines
+of ice on our furs. We were none the worse as a result of the storm, and
+although hungry as wolves, time was too precious to stop for a full
+meal.
+
+We now pushed out of the bay, on to the sea ice. At this point the dogs
+scented a bear and soon crossed its track. Rested and hungry, they were
+in condition for a desperate chase. Their sharp noses pointed keenly
+into the huge bear foot-prints, their little ears quivered, while, with
+howls, they started onward in a mad rush.
+
+Neither our voices nor the whips made an impression on their wild speed.
+We crossed banks and ridges of snow and swirled about slopes of ice,
+gripping sledges violently. Now we were thrown to one side, again to the
+other, dragging resistlessly beside the sleds. Rising, we gripped the
+rear upstanders with fierce determination.
+
+Just how we escaped broken limbs, and our sledges utter destruction, is
+a mystery to me. After a run of an hour we sighted the bear. The animal
+had evidently sighted us, for he was galloping for the open water
+toward the northwest. We cut the fleetest dogs loose from each team.
+Freed, they rushed over the snow like race-horses. But the bear had an
+advantage. As the first dog nipped his haunches he plunged into the
+black waters. We advanced and waited for him to rise. But this bruin had
+sense enough to emerge on the opposite shore, where he shook off the
+freezing waters vigorously, and then sat down as if to have a laugh at
+us.
+
+I knew that to plunge into the waters would have been fatal to dog or
+man and equally fatal to a boat, as ice, in the intense cold, would form
+about it so rapidly that it could not be propelled.
+
+The dogs sat down and howled a chorus of sad disappointment. For miles
+about, the men sought fruitlessly for a way to cross. Outwitted, we
+returned to continue our journey Northward.
+
+Advance Bay and its islands were in sight. Among these, we aimed to
+place our central camp. The light was fading fast, and a cold wind came
+from Humboldt Glacier, which at this time was located by a slight
+darkening of the sky. Many grounded icebergs were about, and the sea ice
+was much crossed. The hummocks and the snow were not as troublesome as
+farther south.
+
+Two ravens followed us, their shrill cries echoing from berg to berg.
+The Eskimos inferred from their presence that bears were near, but we
+saw no tracks.
+
+The cries of the ravens were nearly as provoking to the dogs as the bear
+tracks, and we moved along rapidly to Brook's Island. This was rather
+high, with a plateau and sharp cliffs. Bonsall Island near by was
+rounded by glacial action. Between them we found a place to camp
+somewhat sheltered from the wind.
+
+While eating our ration of corn meal and bacon, howls of the dogs rose
+to a fierce crescendo. I supposed they were saluting the coming of the
+moon, as is their custom, but the howls changed to tones of increasing
+excitement. We went out to inquire, but saw nothing. It was so dark that
+I could not see the dogs twenty feet away, and the cold wind made
+breathing difficult.
+
+"_Nan nook_" (Bear), the Eskimos said in an undertone. I looked around
+for some position of defense. But the dense night-blackness rendered
+this hopeless, so we took our position behind the tent, rifles in hand.
+The bear, of an inquisitive turn of mind, deliberately advanced upon us.
+"_Taokoo! taokoo! igloo dia oo-ah-tonie!_" (Look! look! beyond the
+iceberg!) said the Eskimos. Neither the iceberg nor the bear was
+visible. After a cold and exciting wait, the bear turned and hid behind
+another iceberg. We separated a few of the best bear dogs from each
+other. Bounding off, they disappeared quietly in the darkness. The other
+dogs were fastened to the sledges, and away we started.
+
+I sat on To-ti-o's sledge, as he had the largest team. We jumped
+crevasses, and occasionally dipped in open water.
+
+The track of the bear wound about huge bergs which looked in the
+darkness like nebulous shadows. The dogs, of themselves, followed the
+invisible line of tracks.
+
+Soon the wolfish dogs ahead began to shout the chorus of their battle.
+We left the track in an air-line course for the dark mystery out of
+which the noise came. To-ti-o took the lead. As we neared the noise,
+all but two dogs of his sledge were cut loose. The sledge overturned, I
+under it. As Koo-loo-ting-wah came along, he freed all his dogs. I
+passed him my new take-down Winchester.
+
+Hurrying after To-ti-o, he had advanced only a few steps when To-ti-o
+fired. Koo-loo-ting-wah, noting an effort of the bear to rise, fired the
+new rifle.
+
+A flash of fire lit the darkness. Koo-loo-ting-wah rushed to me, asking
+for the folding lantern. The smokeless powder had broken the new gun.
+To-ti-o had no more cartridges. The bear, however, was quiet. We
+advanced, lances in hand.
+
+The dogs danced wildly about the bear, but he managed to throw out his
+feet with sufficient force to keep the canine fangs disengaged. The
+other Eskimos now came, with rushing dogs in advance. To-ti-o dashed
+forward and delivered the lance under the bear's shoulder. The bear was
+his. He thereby not only gained the prize for the expedition, but, by
+the addition of the bear to his game list, completed his retinue of
+accomplishments whereby he could claim the full privileges of manhood.
+
+Among other things, it gave him the right to marry. He had already
+secured a bride of twelve, but, without this bear conquest, the match
+would not have been permanent. He danced with the romantic joy of a
+young lover. We drove the dogs off from the victim with lashes, and fell
+to and skinned and dressed the carcass. A taste was given to each dog.
+The balance was placed on the sledges. Soon we were to camp, waiting for
+the sled loads of bear meat.
+
+[Illustration: THE HELPERS--NORTHERNMOST MAN AND HIS WIFE]
+
+[Illustration: A MECCA OF MUSK OX ALONG EUREKA SOUND
+
+A NATIVE HELPER
+
+AH-WE-LAH'S PROSPECTIVE WIFE]
+
+On the day following we started to hunt caribou. The sky was beautifully
+clear; the glacial wind was lost as we left the ice. The party scattered
+among numerous old bergs of the glacier. Koo-loo-ting-wah accompanied
+me. We aimed to rise to a small tableland from which I might make a
+study of the surroundings.
+
+We had not gone inland more than a mile when we saw numerous fresh
+caribou tracks. Following these, we moved along a steep slope to the
+tableland above at an altitude of about one thousand feet. We peeped
+over the crest. Below us were two reindeer digging under the snow for
+food. The light was good, and they were in gun range. An Eskimo,
+however, gets very near his game before he chances a shot, so, winding
+about under the crest of a cliff or a snow-covered shelf of rocks, we
+got to their range and fired.
+
+The creatures fell. They were nearly white, young, and possessed long
+fur and thick skins, which we needed badly for sleeping bags. With
+pocket knives, the natives skinned the animals and divided the meat in
+three packs while I examined the surroundings.
+
+Part of the face of Humboldt Glacier, which extends sixty miles north,
+was clearly visible in cliffs of a dark blue color. The interior ice ran
+in waves like the surface of stormy seas, perfectly free of snow, with
+many crevasses. An odd purplish-blue light upon it was reflected to the
+skies, resembling to some extent a water sky. The snow of the sea ice
+below was of a delicate lilac. Otherwise, sky and land were flooded with
+the usual dominant purple of the Arctic twilight.
+
+This glacier, the largest in Arctic America, had at one time extended
+very much farther south. All the islands, including Brook's, had at one
+time been under its grinding influence. As a picture it was a charming
+study in purple and blue, but the temperature was too low and the light
+too nearly spent to venture a further investigation.
+
+The Eskimos fixed for me an extremely light pack. This was comfortably
+placed on my back, with a bundle of thongs over the forehead. The
+natives took their huge bundles, and, together, we started for camp. At
+every rest we cut off slices of caribou tallow. I was surprised to find
+that I had acquired a taste for a new delicacy. At camp we found the
+natives, all in good humor, awaiting us beside heaps of meat and skins.
+All had been successful in securing from one to two animals each in
+regions nearer by. In a further search they had failed to find promising
+tracks, so we proposed to return on the morrow, hoping to meet bears en
+route.
+
+With the stupor of the gluttony of reindeer meat and the fatigue of the
+long chase, we slept late. Awaking, we partook each of a cup of tea, and
+packed and loaded the meat. Drawing heavy loads, the dogs gladly leaped
+forward. The twilight flush already suffused the sky with incandescence.
+Against the southeastern sky, glowing with rose, the great glaciers of
+Humboldt loomed in walls of violet, while the sea displayed many shades
+of rose and lilac, according to the direction of the light on the slope
+of the drifts.
+
+Knowing that their noses pointed to a land of walrus, the dogs kept up a
+lively pace. Not a breath of air was stirring. The temperature was -42 deg..
+Aiming to make Annoatok in two marches, we ran behind the sledges to
+save dog energy as much as possible. The cold enforced vigorous
+exercise. But, weighted down by furs, the comfort of the sledges was
+often sought to escape the tortures of perspiration. The source of light
+slowly shifted along shadowed mountains under the frozen sea. Our path
+glowed with electric, multi-colored splendor.
+
+By degrees, the rose-colored sky assumed the hue of old gold, the violet
+embroideries of clouds changed to purple. The gold, in running bands,
+darkened; the purple thickened. Soon new celestial torches lighted the
+changing sheen of the snows. Into the dome of heaven swam stars of
+burning intensity, each of which rivalled the sun in a miniature way. In
+this new illumination the twilight fires lost flame and color. Cold
+white incandescence electrically suffused the frigid sky.
+
+I strode onward, in that white, blazing air, the joy and beauty of it
+enthralling my soul. I felt as though I were walking in a world of
+heatless fire, a half supernatural realm such as that wherein reigned
+the gods of ancient peoples. I felt as an old Norseman must have felt
+when the glory of Valhalla burst upon him. For a long time I was
+unconscious of the fatigue which was growing upon me. Finally, overcome
+by the long forced march, I sank on my sled. The Eskimos, chanting
+songs, loomed ahead, their forms magnified in the unearthly light.
+Slowly a subtle change appeared along the horizon. Silent and impressed,
+I watched the changing scenes and evolving lights as if all were some
+divine and awe-inspiring stage arranged by God for some heroic drama of
+man.
+
+New and warm with shimmering veils of color, attended by four radiant
+satellites, the golden face of the moon rose majestically over the
+sparkling pinnacles of the Greenland glaciers. Below, the lovely
+planet-deflected images formed rainbow curves like rubied necklaces
+about her invisible neck. As the moon ascended in a spiral course the
+rose hues paled, the white light from the stars softened to a rich,
+creamy glow.
+
+We continued our course, the Eskimos singing, the dogs occasionally
+barking. Hours passed. Then we all suddenly became silent. The last, the
+supreme, glory of the North flamed over earth and frozen sea. The divine
+fingers of the aurora,[8] that unseen and intangible thing of flame, who
+comes from her mysterious throne to smile upon a benighted world, began
+to touch the sky with glittering, quivering lines of glowing silver.
+With skeins of running, liquid fire she wove over the sky a shimmering
+panorama of blazing beauty. Forms of fire, indistinct and unhuman, took
+shape and vanished. From horizon to zenith, cascades of milk-colored
+fire ascended and fell, as must the magical fountains of heaven.
+
+In the glory of this other-world light I felt the insignificance of
+self, a human unit; and, withal I became more intensely conscious than
+ever of the transfiguring influence of the sublime ideal to which I had
+set myself. I exulted in the thrill of an indomitable determination,
+that determination of human beings to essay great things--that human
+purpose which, throughout history, has resulted in the great deeds, the
+great art, of the world, and which lifts men above themselves.
+Spiritually intoxicated, I rode onward. The aurora faded. But its glow
+remained in my soul.
+
+We arrived at camp late on November 1.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+THE MOONLIGHT QUEST OF THE WALRUS
+
+DESPERATE AND DANGEROUS HUNTING, IN ORDER TO SECURE ADEQUATE SUPPLIES
+FOR THE POLAR DASH--A THRILLING AND ADVENTUROUS RACE IS MADE OVER FROZEN
+SEAS AND ICY MOUNTAINS TO THE WALRUS GROUNDS--TERRIFIC EXPLOSION OF THE
+ICE ON WHICH THE PARTY HUNTS--SUCCESS IN SECURING OVER SEVEN SLED-LOADS
+OF BLUBBER MAKES THE POLE SEEM NEARER--AN ARCTIC TRAGEDY
+
+VIII
+
+FIVE HUNDRED MILES THROUGH NIGHT AND STORM
+
+
+The early days of November were devoted to routine work about Annoatok.
+Meat was gathered and dried in strips by Francke; a full force of men
+were put to the work of devising equipment; the women were making
+clothing and dressing skins; and then a traveling party was organized to
+go south to gather an additional harvest of meat and skins and furs. For
+this purpose we planned to take advantage of the November moon. Thus, in
+the first week of the month, we were ready for a five-hundred-mile run
+to the southern villages and to the night-hunting grounds for walrus.
+
+A crack of whips explosively cut the taut, cold air. The raucous, weird
+and hungry howl of the wolf-dogs replied: "_Ah-u-oo, Ah-u-oo,
+Ah-u-oo!_" rolled over the ice; "_Huk-huk!_" the Eskimos shouted. There
+was a sudden tightening of the traces of our seven sledges; fifty lithe,
+strong bodies leaped forward; and, holding the upstanders, the rear
+upright framework of the native sledges, I and my six companions were
+off. In a few moments the igloos of the village, with lights shining
+through windows where animal membranes served as glass, had sped by us.
+The cheering of the natives behind was soon lost in the grind of our
+sledges on the irregular ice and the joyous, unrestrained barking of the
+leaping, tearing, restless dog-teams.
+
+To the south of us, a misty orange flush suffused the dun-colored sky.
+The sun, which we had not seen for an entire month, now late in November
+far below the horizon, sent to us the dim radiance of a far-away smile.
+After its setting it had, about noon time of each day, set the sky
+faintly aglow, this radiance decreasing until it was lost in the
+brightness of the midday moon. Rising above the horizon, a suspended
+lamp of frosty, pearl-colored glass, the moon for ten days of
+twenty-four hours, each month, encircled about us, now lost behind
+ice-sheeted mountains, again subdued under colored films of frost
+clouds, but always relieving the night of its gloom, and permitting,
+when the wind was not too turbulent, outside activity.
+
+A wonderful animal is the sea-horse, or whale-horse, as the Icelanders
+and Dutch (from whom we have borrowed "walrus") call it. In the summer
+its life is easy and its time is spent in almost perpetual sunny dreams,
+but in winter it would be difficult to conceive of a harder existence
+than its own. Finding food in shallow Polar seas, it comes to permanent
+open water, or to the crevasses of an active pack for breath. With but a
+few minutes' rest on a storm-swept surface, it explores, without other
+relief for weeks, the double-night darkness of unknown depths under the
+frozen sea. At last, when no longer able to move its huge web feet, it
+rises on the ice or seeks ice-locked waters for a needed rest. In
+winter, the thump of its ponderous head keeps the young ice from closing
+its breathing place. If on ice, its thick skin, its blanket of blubber,
+and an automatic shiver, keep its blood from hardening. This is man's
+opportunity to secure meat and fuel, but the quest involves a task to
+which no unaided paleface is equal. The night hunt of the walrus is
+Eskimo sport, but it is nevertheless sport of a most engaging and
+exciting order.
+
+So that I might not be compelled to start on my dash stintedly equipped,
+we now prepared for such an adventure by moonlight. Before this time
+there had not been sufficient atmospheric stability and ice continuity
+to promise comparative safety. My heart exulted as I heard the crack of
+the whips in the electric air and felt the earth rush giddily under my
+feet as I leaped behind the speeding teams. The fever of the quest was
+in my veins; its very danger lent an indescribable thrill, for success
+now meant more to me than perhaps hunting had ever meant to any man.
+
+Not long after we started, darkness descended. The moon slowly passed
+behind an impenetrable curtain of inky clouds; the orange glow of the
+sun faded; and we were surrounded on every side by a blackness so thick
+that it was almost palpable.
+
+As I now recall that mad race I marvel how we escaped smashing sledges,
+breaking our limbs, crushing our heads. We tumbled and jumped in a
+frantic race over the broken, irregular pack-ice from Annoatok to Cape
+Alexander, a distance of thirty miles as the raven moves, but more than
+forty miles as we follow the sledge trail. Here the ice became thin; we
+felt cold mist rising from open water; and now and then, in an
+occasional breaking of the darkness, we could discern vast sheets or
+snaky leads of open sea ahead of us.
+
+To reach the southern waters where the walrus were to be found, we now
+had to seek an overland route, which would take us over the frozen
+Greenland mountains and lead us through the murky clouds, a route of
+twisting detours, gashed glaciers, upturned barriers of rock and ice,
+swept by blinding winds, unmarked by any trail, and which writhed
+painfully beyond us for forty-seven miles.
+
+Arriving at the limit of traversable sea-ice, we now paused before
+sloping cliffs of glacial land-ice which we had to climb. Picture to
+yourself a vast glacier rising precipitously, like a gigantic wall,
+thousands of feet above you, and creeping tortuously up its glassy,
+purple face, if such that surface could be called, formed by the piling
+of one glacial formation upon the other in the descent through the
+valleys, a twisting, retreating road of jagged ice strata, of earth and
+stone, blocked here and there by apparently impassable impediments,
+pausing at almost unscalable, frozen cliffs, and at times no wider than
+a few yards. Imagine yourself pausing, as we suddenly did, and viewing
+the perilous ascent, the only way open to us, revealed in the passing
+glimmer of the pale, circling moon, despair, fear and hope tugging at
+your heart. Whipped across the sky by the lashing winds, the torn
+clouds, passing the face of the moon, cast magnified and grotesquely
+gesticulating shadows on the glistening face of the icy Gibraltar before
+us. Some of these misty shapes seemed to threaten, others shook their
+rag-like arms, beckoning forward. Upon the face of the towering,
+perpendicular ice-wall, great hummocks like the gnarled black limbs of a
+huge tree twisted upwards.
+
+I realized that the frightful ascent must be made. The goal of my single
+aim suddenly robbed the climb of its terrors. I dropped my whip. Six
+other whips cracked through the air. Koo-loo-ting-wah said, "_Kah-Kah!_"
+(Come, come!) But Sotia said, "_Iodaria-Iodaria!_" (Impossible,
+impossible!) The dogs emitted shrill howls. Holding the rear upstanders
+of the sledges, we helped to push them forward.
+
+Before us, the fifty dogs climbed like cats through narrow apertures of
+the ice, or took long leaps over the serried battlements that barred our
+way. We stumbled after, sometimes we fell. Again we had to lift the
+sledges after the dogs.
+
+From the top of the glacier a furious wind brushed us backwards. We felt
+the steaming breath of the laboring dogs in our faces. My heart thumped
+painfully. Now and then the moon disappeared; we followed the unfailing
+instinct of the animals. I realized that a misstep might plunge me to a
+horrible death in the ice abysm below. With a howl of joy from drivers,
+the dogs finally leaped to the naked surface of the wind-swept glacier.
+Panting in indescribable relief, we followed. But the worst part of the
+journey lay before us. The sable clouds, like the curtain of some
+cyclopean stage, seemed suddenly drawn aside as if by an invisible hand.
+
+Upon the illimitable stretch of ice rising before us like the slopes of
+a glass mountain, the full rays of the moon poured liquid silver. Only
+in dreams had such a scene as this been revealed to me--in dreams of the
+enchanted North--which did not now equal reality. The spectacle filled
+me with both awed delight and a sense of terror.
+
+Beyond the fan-shaped teams of dogs the eyes ran over fields of
+night-blackened blue, gashed and broken by bottomless canyons which
+twisted like purple serpents in every direction. Vast expanses of smooth
+surface, polished by the constant winds, reflected the glow of the moon
+and gleamed like isles of silver in a motionless, deep, sapphire sea;
+but all was covered with the air of night. In the moonlight, the jagged
+irregular contours of the broken ice became touched with a burning gilt.
+A constant effect like running quicksilver played about us as the moon
+sailed around the heavens.
+
+Above us the ice pinnacles were lost in the clouds, huge billowy masses
+that were blown in the wind troublously, like the heavy black tresses of
+some Titan woman. I thrilled with the beauty of the magical spectacle,
+yet, when I viewed the perilous pathway, I felt the grip of terror again
+at my heart.
+
+I was aroused from my brief reverie by the familiar "_Huk-huk! Ah-gah!
+Ah-gah!_" of the Eskimos, and placing our hands upon the sledges, we
+leaped forward into the purple-gashed sea, with its blinding sheets of
+silver. I seemed carried through a world such as the old Norsemen sang
+of in the sagas.
+
+Of a sudden, as though extinguished, the moonlight faded, huge shadows
+leaped onto the ice before us, frenziedly waved their arms and melted
+into the pitch-black darkness which descended. I had read imaginative
+tales of wanderings in the nether region of the dead, but only now did I
+have a faint glimmering of the terror (with its certain, exultant
+intoxication) which lost souls must feel when they wander in a darkness
+beset with invisible horrors.
+
+Over the ice, cut with innumerable chasms and neck-breaking
+irregularities, we rushed in the dark. The wind moaned down from the
+despairing cloud-enfolded heights above; it tore through the bottomless
+gullies on every side with a hungry roar. Beads of perspiration rolled
+down my face and froze into icicles on my chin and furs. The temperature
+was 48 deg. below zero.
+
+Occasionally we stopped a moment to gasp for breath. I could hear the
+panting of my companions, the labor of the dogs. A few seconds' inaction
+was followed by convulsive shivering; the pain of stopping was more
+excruciating than that of climbing. In the darkness, the calls of the
+invisible Eskimos to the dogs seemed like the weird appeals of
+disembodied things. I felt each moment the imminent danger of a
+frightful death; yet the dogs with their marvelous intuition, twisting
+this way and that, and sometimes retreating, sensed the open leads ahead
+and rushed forward safely.
+
+At times I felt the yawning depth of ice canyons immediately by my
+side--that a step might plunge me into the depths. Desperately I held
+on to the sledges, and was dragged along. Such an experience might well
+turn the hair of the most expert Alpinist white in one night; yet I did
+not have time to dwell fully upon the dangers, and I was carried over a
+trip more perilous than, later, proved the actual journey on sea-ice to
+the Pole.
+
+Occasionally the moon peered forth from its clouds and brightened the
+gloom. In its light the ice fields swam dizzily by us, as a landscape
+seen from the window of a train; the open gashed gullies writhed like
+snakes, pinnacles dancing like silver spears. By alternate running and
+riding we managed to keep from freezing and sweating. We finally reached
+an altitude of inland ice exceeding two thousand feet. Silver fog crept
+under our feet. We were traveling now in a world of clouds.
+
+We paced twelve miles at a rapid speed. In the light of the moon-burned
+clouds which rolled about our heads, I could see the forms of my
+companions only indistinctly. The dogs ahead were veiled in the argent,
+tremulous mists; the ice sped under me; I was no longer conscious of an
+earthly footing; I might have been soaring in space.
+
+We began to descend. Suddenly the dogs started in leaps to fly through
+the air. Our sleds were jerked into clouds of cutting snow. We jabbed
+our feet into the drift to check the mad speed. On each side we saw a
+huge mountain, seemingly thousands of feet above us, but ahead was
+nothing but the void of empty space. Soon the sledges shot beyond the
+dogs. We threw ourselves off to check the momentum. With dog
+intelligence and savage strength judiciously expended, we reached the
+sea level by flying flights over dangerous slopes, and, like cats, we
+landed on nimble feet in Sontag Bay.
+
+A bivouac was arranged under a dome of snow-blocks, and exhausted by the
+mad journey, a sleep of twenty-four hours was indulged in.
+
+Now, for a time, our task was easier. A course was set along the land,
+southward. Each of the native settlements was visited. The season's
+gossip was exchanged. Presents went into each household, and a return of
+furs and useful products filled our sledges. Thus the time was occupied
+in profitable visits during the feeble light of the November moon. With
+the December moon we returned northward to Ser-wah-ding-wah.
+
+Then our struggle began anew for the walrus grounds. The Polar drift,
+forcing through Smith Sound, left an open space of water about ten miles
+south of Cape Alexander. This disturbed area was our destination. It was
+marked by a dark cloud, a "water-sky"--against the pearly glow of the
+southern heavens. The ice surface was smooth. We did not encounter the
+crushed heaps of ice of the northern route, but there were frequent
+crevasses which, though cemented with new ice, gave us considerable
+anxiety, for I realized that if a northwesterly storm should suddenly
+strike the pack we might be carried helplessly adrift.
+
+The urgency of our mission to secure dog food, however, left no
+alternative. It was better to brave death now, I thought, than to perish
+from scant supplies on the Polar trip. We had not gone far before the
+ever-keen canine noses detected bear tracks on the ice. These we shot
+over the pack surface in true battle spirit. As the bears were evidently
+bound for the same hunting grounds, this course was accepted as good
+enough for us. Although the trail was laid in a circuitous route, it
+avoided the most difficult pressure angles. We traveled until late in
+the day. The moon was low, and the dark purple hue of the night
+blackened the snows.
+
+Of a sudden we paused. From a distance came a low call of walrus bulls.
+The bass, nasal bellow was muffled by the low temperature, and did not
+thump the ear drums with the force of the cry in sunny summer. My six
+companions shouted with glee, and became almost hysterical with
+excitement. The dogs, hearing the call, howled and jumped to jerk the
+sledges. We dropped our whips, and they responded with all their brute
+force in one bound. It was difficult to hold to the sledges as we shot
+over the blackening snows.
+
+The ice-fields became smaller as we advanced; dangerous thin ice
+intervened; but the owl-eyes of the Eskimos knew just where to find safe
+ice. The sounds increased as we approached. We descended from the
+snow-covered ice to thin, black ice and for a time I felt as if we were
+flying over the open surface of the deep. With a low call, the dogs were
+stopped. They were detached from the sledges and tied to holes drilled
+with a knife in ice boulders.
+
+Pushing the sledges upon which rested the harpoon, the lance, the gun
+and knives, each one of us advanced at some distance from his neighbor.
+Soon, lines of mist told of dangerous breaks, and the ice was carefully
+tested with the spiked shaft before venturing farther. I was behind
+Koo-loo-ting-wah's sledge. While he was creeping up to the water's edge,
+there came the rush of a spouting breath so near that we seemed to feel
+the crystal spray. I took his place and pushed the sledge along.
+
+Taking the harpoon, with stealthy strides Koo-loo-ting-wah moved to the
+water's edge and waited for the next spout. We heard other spouts in
+various directions, and in the dark water, slightly lighted by the
+declining moon, we saw other dark spots of spray. Suddenly a burst of
+steam startled me. It was near the ice where Koo-loo-ting-wah lay. I was
+about to shout, but the Eskimo turned, held up his hand and whispered
+"_Ouit-ou._" (Wait.)
+
+Then, very slowly, he lowered his body, spread out his form on the ice,
+and startlingly imitated the walrus call. His voice preternaturally
+bellowed through the night. Out of the inky water, a walrus lifted its
+head. I saw its long, white, spiral, ivory tusk and two phosphorescent
+eyes. Koo-loo-ting-wah did not stir. I shivered with cold and
+impatience. Why did he not strike? Our prey seemed within our hands. I
+uttered an exclamation of vexed disappointment when, with a splash, the
+head disappeared, leaving on the water a line of algae fire.
+
+For several minutes I stood gazing seaward. Far away on the black ocean,
+to my amazement, I saw lights appearing like distant lighthouse signals,
+or the mast lanterns on passing ships. They flashed and suddenly faded,
+these strange will-o'-the wisps of the Arctic sea. In a moment I
+realized that the lights were caused by distant icebergs crashing
+against one another. On the bergs as on the surface of the sea, as it
+happened now, were coatings of a teeming germ life, the same which
+causes phosphorescence in the trail of an ocean ship. The effect was
+indescribably weird.
+
+Suddenly I jumped backward, appalled by a noise that reverberated
+shudderingly under the ice on which I stood. The ice shook as if with an
+earthquake. I hastily retreated, but Koo-loo-ting-wah, lying by the
+water's edge, never stirred. A dead man could not have been less
+responsive. While I was wondering as to the cause of the upheaval, the
+ice, within a few feet of Koo-loo-ting-wah, was suddenly torn asunder as
+if by a submarine explosion. Koo-loo-ting-wah leaped into the air and
+descended apparently toward the distending space of turbulent open
+water. I saw him raise his arm and deliver a harpoon with amazing
+dexterity; at the same instant I had seen also the white tusk and
+phosphorescent eyes of a walrus appear for a moment in the black water
+and then sink.
+
+The harpoon had gone home; the line was run out; a spiked lance shaft
+was driven into the ice through a loop in the end of the line, and the
+line was thus fastened. We knew the wounded beast would have to rise for
+air. With rifle and lance ready, we waited, intending, each time a spout
+of water arose, to drive holes into the tough armor of skin until the
+beast's vitals were tapped. By feeling the line, I could sense the
+struggles of the wild creature below in the depths of the sea. Then the
+line would slacken, a spout of steam would rise from the water,
+Koo-loo-ting-wah would drive a spear, I a shot from my gun. The air
+would become oppressive with the creature's frightful bellowing. Then
+would come an interval of silence.
+
+For about two hours we kept up the battle. Then the line slackened,
+Koo-loo-ting-wah called the others, and together we drew the huge
+carcass, steaming with blood, to the surface of the ice. Smelling the
+odorous wet blood, the dogs exultantly howled.
+
+Falling upon the animal, the natives, trained in the art, with sharp
+knives had soon dressed the thick meat and blubber from the bones and
+lashed the weltering mass on a sledge. This done, with quick despatch,
+they separated, dashed along the edge of the ice, casting harpoons
+whenever the small geysers appeared on the water. We were in excellent
+luck. One walrus after another was dragged lumberingly on the ice, and
+in the course of several hours the seven sledges were heavily loaded
+with the precious supplies which would now enable me, liberally
+equipped, to start Poleward. We gave our dogs a light meal, and started
+landward, leaving great piles of walrus meat behind us on the ice.
+
+Although we were tired on reaching land, we began to build several
+snow-houses in which to sleep. Not far away was an Eskimo village.
+Summoning the natives to help us bring in the spoils of the hunt which
+had been left on the ice, we first indulged in a gluttonous feast of
+uncooked meat, in which the dogs ravenously joined. The meat tasted like
+train-oil. The work of bringing in the meat and blubber and caching it
+for subsequent gathering was hardly finished when, from the ominous,
+glacial-covered highlands, a winter blast suddenly began to come with
+terrific and increasing fury.
+
+Blinding gusts of snow whipped the frozen earth. The wind shrieked
+fiendishly. Above its roar, not three hours after our last trip on the
+ice, a resounding, crashing noise rose above the storm. Braving the
+blasts, I went outside the igloo. Through the darkness I could see white
+curvatures of piling sea-ice. I could hear the rush and crashing of huge
+floes and glaciers being carried seaward. Had we waited another day, had
+we been out on the ice seeking walrus just twenty-four hours after our
+successful hunt, we should have been carried away in the sudden roaring
+gale, and hopelessly perished in the wind-swept deep.
+
+During the night, or hours usually allotted to rest, the noise continued
+unabated. I failed to sleep. Now and then, a crashing noise shivered
+through the storm. An igloo from the nearby settlement was swept into
+the sea. During the gale many of the natives who had retired with their
+clothes hung out to dry, awoke to find that the wind had robbed them of
+their valuable winter furs.
+
+Some time along in the course of the night, I heard outside excited
+Eskimos shouting. There was terror in the voices. Arising and dressing
+hastily, I rushed into the teeth of the storm. Not far away were a
+number of natives rushing along the land some twenty feet beneath which
+the sea lapped the land-ice with furious tongues. They had cast lines
+into the sea and were shouting, it seemed, to someone who was struggling
+in the hopeless, frigid tumult of water.
+
+I soon learned of the dreadful catastrophe. Ky-un-a, an old and cautious
+native, awakened by the storm a brief while before, after dressing
+himself, ventured outside his stone house to secure articles which he
+had left there. As was learned later, he had just tied his sledge to a
+rock when a gust of wind resistlessly rushed seaward, lifted the aged
+man from his feet, and dropped him into the sea. Through the storm, his
+dreadful cries attracted his companions. Some who were now tugging at
+the lines, were barely covered with fur rugs which they had thrown about
+them, and their limbs were partly bare. Now and then, a blinding gust of
+wind, filled with freezing snow crystals, almost lifted us from our
+feet. The sea lapped its tongues sickeningly below us.
+
+Finally a limp body, ice-sheeted, dripping with water, yet clinging with
+its mummied frozen hands to the line, was hauled up on the ice. Ky-un-a,
+unconscious, was carried to his house about five hundred feet away.
+There, after wrapping him in furs, in a brave effort to save his life,
+the natives cut open his fur garments. The fur, frozen solid by the
+frigid blasts in the brief period which had elapsed since his being
+lifted from the water, took with it, in parting from his body, long
+patches of skin, leaving the quivering raw flesh exposed as though by a
+burn. For three days the aged man lay dying, suffering excruciating
+tortures, the victim of merely a common accident, which at any time may
+happen to anyone of these Spartan people. I shall never forget the
+harrowing moans of the suffering man piercing the storm. Perhaps it had
+been merciful to let him perish in the sea.
+
+Ky-un-a's old home was some forty miles distant. To it, that he might
+die there, he desired to go. On the fourth day after the accident, he
+was placed in a litter, covered with warm furs, and borne over the
+smooth icefields. I shall never forget that dismal and solemn
+procession. A benign calm prevailed over land and sea. The orange glow
+of a luxurious moon set the ice coldly aflame. Long shadows, like
+spectral mourners, robed in purple, loomed before the tiny procession.
+Now and then, as they dwindled in the distance, I saw them, like black
+dots, crossing areas of polished ice which glowed like mirror lakes of
+silver. From the distance, softly shuddered the decreasing moans of the
+dying man; then there was silence. I marvelled again upon the lure of
+this eerily, weirdly beautiful land, where, always imminent, death can
+be so terrible.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+MIDNIGHT AND MID-WINTER
+
+THE EQUIPMENT AND ITS PROBLEMS--NEW ART IN THE MAKING OF SLEDGES
+COMBINING LIGHTNESS--PROGRESS OF THE PREPARATIONS--CHRISTMAS, WITH
+ITS GLAD TIDINGS AND AUGURIES FOR SUCCESS IN QUEST OF THE POLE
+
+IX
+
+THE COMING OF THE ESKIMO STORK
+
+
+In planning for the Polar dash I appreciated fully the vital importance
+of sledges. These, I realized, must possess, to an ultimate degree, the
+combined strength of steel with the lightness and elasticity of the
+strongest wood. The sledge must neither be flimsy nor bulky; nor should
+it be heavy or rigid. After a careful study of the art of
+sledge-traveling from the earliest time to the present day, after years
+of sledging and sledge observation in Greenland, the Antarctic and
+Alaska, I came to the conclusion that success was dependent, not upon
+any one type of sledge, but upon local fitness.
+
+All natives of the frigid wilds have devised sledges, traveling and camp
+equipment to fit their local needs. The collective lessons of ages are
+to be read in this development of primitive sledge traveling. If these
+wild people had been provided with the best material from which to work
+out their hard problems of life, then it is probable that their methods
+could not be improved. But neither the Indian nor the Eskimo was ever in
+possession of either the tools or the raw material to fit their
+inventive genius for making the best equipment. Therefore, I had studied
+first the accumulated results of the sledge of primitive man and from
+this tried to construct a sledge with its accessories in which were
+included the advantages of up-to-date mechanics with the use of the most
+durable material which a search of the entire globe had afforded me.[9]
+
+The McClintock sledges, made of bent wood with wide runners, had been
+adopted by nearly all explorers, under different names and with
+considerable modifications, for fifty years. This sledge is still the
+best type for deep soft snow conditions, for which it was originally
+intended. But such snow is not often found on the ice of the Polar sea.
+The native sledge which Peary copied, although well adapted to local use
+along the ice-foot and the land-adhering pack, is not the best sledge
+for a trans-boreal run. This is because it is too heavy and too easily
+broken, and breakable in such a way that it cannot be quickly repaired.
+
+For the Arctic pack, a sledge must be of a moderate length, with
+considerable width. Narrow runners offer less friction and generally
+give sufficient bearing surface. The other qualities vital to quick
+movement and durability are lightness, elasticity and interchangeability
+of parts. All of these conditions I planned to meet in a new pattern of
+sledge which should combine the durability of the Eskimo sledges and the
+lightness of the Yukon sledge of Alaska.
+
+The making of a suitable sledge caused me a good deal of concern. Before
+leaving New York I had taken the precaution of selecting an abundance of
+the best hickory wood in approximately correct sizes for sledge
+construction. Suitable tools had also been provided. Now, as the long
+winter with its months of darkness curtailed the time of outside
+movement, the box-house was refitted as a workshop. From eight to ten
+men were at the benches, eight hours each day, shaping and bending
+runners, fitting and lashing interchangeable cross bars and posts, and
+riveting the iron shoes. Thus the sledge parts were manufactured to
+possess the same facilities to fit not only all other sledges, but also
+other parts of the same sledge. If, therefore, part of a sledge should
+be broken, other parts of a discarded sledge could offer repair sections
+easily.
+
+The general construction of this new sledge is easily understood from
+the various photographs presented. All joints were made elastic by
+seal-thong lashings. The sledges were twelve feet long and thirty inches
+wide; the runners had a width of an inch and an eighth. Each part and
+each completed sledge was thoroughly tested before it was finally loaded
+for the long run. For dog harness, the Greenland Eskimo pattern was
+adopted. But canine habits are such that when rations are reduced to
+minimum limits the leather strips disappear as food. To obviate this
+disaster, the shoulder straps were made of folds of strong canvas, while
+the traces were cut from cotton log line.
+
+A boat is an important adjunct to every sledge expedition which hopes to
+venture far from its base of operations. It is a matter of necessity,
+even when following a coast line, as was shown by the mishap of Mylius
+Erickson, for if he had had a boat he would himself have returned to
+tell the story of the Danish Expedition to East Greenland.
+
+Need for a boat comes with the changing conditions of the advancing
+season. Things must be carried for several months for a chance use in
+the last stages of the return. But since food supplies are necessarily
+limited, delay is fatal, and therefore, when open water prevents
+advance, a boat is so vitally necessary as to become a life preserver.
+Foolish indeed is the explorer who pays slight attention to this
+important problem.
+
+The transportation of a boat, however, offers many serious difficulties.
+Nansen introduced the kayak, and most explorers since have followed his
+example. The Eskimo canoe serves the purpose very well, but to carry it
+for three months without hopeless destruction requires so tremendous an
+amount of energy as to make the task practically impossible.
+
+Sectional boats, aluminum boats, skin floats and other devices had been
+tried, but to all there is the same fatal objection on a Polar trip, of
+impossible transportation. But it seems odd that the ordinary folding
+canvas boat has not been pressed into this service.
+
+We found such a canoe boat to fit the situation exactly, and selected a
+twelve-foot Eureka-shaped boat with wooden frame. The slats, spreaders
+and floor-pieces were utilized as parts of sledges. The canvas cover
+served as a floor cloth for our sleeping bags. Thus the boat did useful
+service for a hundred days and never seemed needlessly cumbersome. When
+the craft was finally spread for use as a boat, in it we carried the
+sledge, in it we sought game for food, and in it or under it we camped.
+Without it we could never have returned.
+
+Even more vital than the choice of sledges, more vital than anything
+else, I knew, in such a trip as I proposed, is the care of the stomach.
+From the published accounts of Arctic traveling it is impossible to
+learn a fitting ration, and I hasten to add that I well realized that
+our own experience may not solve the problem for future expeditions. The
+gastronomic need differs with every man. It differs with every
+expedition, and it is radically different with every nation. Thus, when
+De Gerlache, with good intentions, forced Norwegian food into French
+stomachs, he learned that there is a nationality in gastronomics. Nor is
+it safe to listen to scientific advice, for the stomach is arbitrary,
+and stands as autocrat over every human sense and passion and will not
+easily yield to dictates.
+
+In this respect, as in others, I was helped very much by the natives.
+The Eskimo is ever hungry, but his taste is normal. Things of doubtful
+value in nutrition form no part in his dietary. Animal food, consisting
+of meat and fat, is entirely satisfactory as a steady diet without other
+adjuncts. His food requires neither salt nor sugar, nor is cooking a
+matter of necessity.
+
+Quantity is important, but quality applies only to the relative
+proportion of fat. With this key to gastronomics, pemmican was selected
+as the staple food, and it would also serve equally well for the dogs.
+
+We had an ample supply of pemmican, which was made of pounded dried
+beef, sprinkled with a few raisins and some currants, and slightly
+sweetened with sugar. This mixture was cemented together with heated
+beef tallow and run into tin cans containing six pounds each.
+
+This combination was invented by the American Indian, and the supply for
+this expedition was made by Armour of Chicago after a formula furnished
+by Captain Evelyn B. Baldwin. Pemmican had been used before as part of
+the long list of foodstuffs for Arctic expeditions, but with us there
+was the important difference that it was to be almost entirely the whole
+bill of fare when away from game haunts. The palate surprises in our
+store were few.
+
+By the time Christmas approached I had reason indeed for rejoicing.
+Although this happy season meant little to me as a holiday of
+gift-giving and feasting, it came with auguries for success in the thing
+my heart most dearly desired, and compared to which earth had nothing
+more alluring to give.
+
+Our equipment was now about complete. In the box house were tiers of new
+sledges, rows of boxes and piles of bags filled with clothing, canned
+supplies, dried meat, and sets of strong dog harness. The food, fuel
+and camp equipment for the Polar dash were ready. Everything had been
+thoroughly tested and put aside for a final examination. Elated by our
+success, and filled with gratitude to the faithful natives, I declared a
+week of holidays, with rejoicing and feasting. Feasting was at this time
+especially desirable, for we had now to fatten up for the anticipated
+race.
+
+Christmas day in the Arctic does not dawn with the glow which children
+in waking early to seek their bedecked tree, view outside their windows
+in more southern lands. Both Christmas day and Christmas night are
+black. Only the stars keep their endless watch in the cold skies.
+
+Standing outside my igloo on the happy night, I gazed at the Pole Star,
+the guardian of the goal I sought, and I remembered with a thrill the
+story of that mysterious star the Wise Men had followed, of the wonders
+to which it led them, and I felt an awed reverence for the Power that
+set these unfaltering beacons above the earth and had written in their
+golden traces, with a burning pen, veiled and unrevealed destinies which
+men for ages have tried to learn.
+
+I retired to sleep with thoughts of home. I thought of my children, and
+the bated expectancy with which they were now going to bed, of their
+hopefulness of the morrow, and the unbounded joy they would have in
+gifts to which I could not contribute. I think tears that night wet my
+pillow of furs. But I would give them, if I did not fail, the gift of a
+father's achievement, of which, with a glow, I felt they should be
+proud.
+
+The next morning the natives arrived at the box house early. It had
+been cleared of seamstresses and workmen the day before, and put in
+comparatively spick and span order. I had told the natives they were to
+feed to repletion during the week of holiday, an injunction to the
+keeping of which they did not need much urging.
+
+Early Christmas morning, men and women began working overtime on the two
+festive meals which were to begin that day and continue daily.
+
+About this time, the most important duty of our working force had been
+to uncover caches and dig up piles of frozen meat and blubber. Of this,
+which possesses the flavor and odor of Limburger cheese, and also the
+advantage, if such it be, of intoxicating them, the natives are
+particularly fond. While a woman held a native torch of moss dipped in
+oils and pierced with a stick, the men, by means of iron bars and picks,
+dug up boulders of meat just as coal is forced from mines.
+
+A weird spectacle was this, the soft light of the blubber lamp dancing
+on the spotless snows, the soot-covered faces of the natives grinning
+while they worked. The blubber was taken close to their igloos and
+placed on raised platforms of snow, so as to be out of reach of the
+dogs. Of this meat and blubber, which was served raw, partially thawed,
+cooked and also frozen, the natives partook during most of their waking
+hours. They enjoyed it, indeed, as much as turkey was being relished in
+my far-away home.
+
+Moreover they had, what was an important delicacy, native ice cream.
+This would not, of course, please the palate of those accustomed to the
+American delicacy, but to the Eskimo maiden it possesses all the lure
+of creams, sherberts or ice cream sodas. With us, sugar in the process
+of digestion turns into fat, and fat into body fuel. The Eskimo, having
+no sugar, yearns for fat, and it comes with the taste of sweets.
+
+The making of native ice cream is quite a task. I watched the process of
+making it Christmas day with amused interest. The native women must have
+a mixture of oils from the seal, walrus and narwhal. Walrus and seal
+blubber is frozen, cut into strips, and pounded with great force so as
+to break the fat cells. This mass is now placed in a stone pot and
+heated to the temperature of the igloo, when the oil slowly separates
+from the fibrous pork-like mass. Now, tallow from the suet of the
+reindeer or musk ox is secured, cut into blocks and given by the good
+housewife to her daughters, who sit in the igloo industriously chewing
+it until the fat cells are crushed. This masticated mass is placed in a
+long stone pot over the oil flame, and the tallow reduced from it is run
+into the fishy oil of the walrus or seal previously prepared.
+
+This forms the body of native ice cream. For flavoring, the housewife
+has now a variety from which to select. This usually consists of bits of
+cooked meat, moss flowers and grass. Anticipating the absence of moss
+and grass in the winter, the natives, during the hunting season, take
+from the stomachs of reindeer and musk oxen which are shot, masses of
+partly digested grass which is preserved for winter use. This, which has
+been frozen, is now chipped in fragments, thawed, and, with bits of
+cooked meats, is added to the mixed fats. It all forms a paste the color
+of pistache, with occasional spots like crushed fruit.
+
+The mixture is lowered to the floor of the igloo, which, in winter, is
+always below the freezing point, and into it is stirred snow water. The
+churned composite gradually brightens and freezes as it is beaten. When
+completed, it looks very much like ice cream, but it has the flavor of
+cod liver oil, with a similar odor. Nevertheless, it has nutritive
+qualities vastly superior to our ice cream, and stomach pains rarely
+follow an engorgement.
+
+With much glee, the natives finished their Christmas repast with this
+so-called delicacy. For myself a tremendous feast was prepared,
+consisting of food left by the yacht and the choicest meat from the
+caches. My menu consisted of green turtle soup, dried vegetables, caviar
+on toast, olives, Alaskan salmon, crystallized potatoes, reindeer steak,
+buttered rice, French peas, apricots, raisins, corn bread, Huntley and
+Palmer biscuits, cheese and coffee.
+
+As I sat eating, I thought with much humor of the curious combinations
+of caviar and reindeer steak, of the absurd contradiction in eating
+green turtle soup beyond the Arctic circle. I ate heartily, with more
+gusto than I ever partook of delicious food in the Waldorf Astoria in my
+far-away home city. After dinner I took a long stroll on snow shoes. As
+I looked at the star-lamps swung in heaven, I thought of Broadway, with
+its purple-pale strings of lights, and its laughing merry-makers on this
+festive evening.
+
+I did not, I confess, feel lonely. I seemed to be getting something so
+much more wholesome, so much more genuine from the vast expanse of snow
+and the unhidden heavens which, in New York, are seldom seen. Returning
+to the box-house, I ended Christmas evening with Edgar Allen Poe and
+Shakespeare as companions.
+
+The box-house in which I lived was amply comfortable. It did not possess
+the luxury of a civilized house, but in the Arctic it was palatial. The
+interior fittings had changed somewhat from time to time, but now things
+were arranged in a permanent setting. The little stove was close to the
+door. The floor measured sixteen feet in length and twelve feet in
+width. On one side the empty boxes of the wall made a pantry, on the
+other side were cabinets of tools, and unfinished sledge and camp
+material.
+
+With a step we rose to the next floor. On each side was a bunk resting
+on a bench. The bench was used as a bed, a work bench and seat. The long
+rear bench was utilized as a sewing table for the seamstresses and also
+for additional seating capacity. In the center was a table arranged
+around a post which supported the roof. Sliding shelves from the bunks
+formed table seats. A yacht lamp fixed to the post furnished ample
+light. There was no other furniture. All of our needs were conveniently
+placed in the open boxes of the wall.
+
+The closet room therefore was unlimited. In the boxes near the floor, in
+which things froze hard, the perishable supplies were kept. In the next
+tier there was alternate freezing and thawing. Here we stored lashings
+and skins that had to be kept moist. The tiers above, usually warm and
+dry under the roof, were used for various purposes. There, fresh meat in
+strips, dried crisp in three days. Taking advantage of this, we had made
+twelve hundred pounds of dog pemmican from walrus meat. In the gable we
+placed furs and instruments.
+
+[Illustration: THE CAPTURE OF A BEAR ROUNDING UP A HERD OF MUSK OXEN]
+
+[Illustration: SVARTEVOEG--CAMPING FIVE HUNDRED MILES FROM THE POLE]
+
+The temperature changed remarkably as the thermometer was lifted. On the
+floor in the lower boxes, it fell as low as -20 deg.. Under the bunks on the
+floor, it was usually -10 deg.. The middle floor space was above the
+freezing point. At the level of the bunk the temperature was +48 deg.. At
+the head, standing, +70 deg., and under the roof, -105 deg..
+
+We contrived to keep perfectly comfortable. Our feet and legs were
+always dressed for low temperature, while the other portions of our body
+were lightly clad. There was not the usual accumulation of moisture
+except in the lower boxes, where it reinforced the foundation of the
+structure and did no harm. From the hygienic standpoint, with the
+material at hand, we could not have improved the arrangement. The
+ventilation was by small openings, mostly along the corners, which thus
+drew heat to remote angles. The value of the long stove pipe was made
+evident by the interior accumulation of ice. If we did not remove the
+ice every three or four days the draft was closed by atmospheric
+humidity condensed from the draft drawn through the fire. From within,
+the pipe was also a splendid supplementary heater, as it led by a
+circuitous route about the vestibule before the open air was reached,
+thus keeping the workshop somewhat warm. Two Eskimo lamps gave the added
+heat and light for the sledge builders.
+
+From Christmas Day until New Year's there were daily feasts for the
+natives. I luxuriated in a long rest, spending my time taking walks and
+reading. I got a sort of pleasure by proxy in watching the delight of
+these primal people in real food, food which, although to us horribly
+unpalatable, never gives indigestion. This period was one of real
+Christmas rejoicing in many snow homes, and the spirit, although these
+people had never heard of the Christ child, was more truly in keeping
+with this holiday than it often is in lands where, in ostentatious
+celebration, the real meaning is lost.
+
+Wandering from igloo to igloo, to extend greetings and thanks for their
+faithful work, I was often touched by the sounds of thin, plaintive
+voices in the darkness. Each time a pang touched my heart, and I
+remembered the time when I first heard my own baby girl's wee voice. The
+little ones had begun to arrive. The Eskimo stork, at igloo after igloo,
+was leaving its Christmas gift.
+
+For some time before Christmas, Cla-you, easily our best seamstress, had
+not come for her assignment of sewing. To her had been given the
+delicate task of making hare skin stockings; but she had lost interest
+in needle-work and complained of not feeling well. E-ve-lue (Mrs. Sinue)
+was completing her task. Ac-po-di-soa (the big bird), Cla-you's husband,
+whom we called Bismark, had also deserted the bench where he had been
+making sledges. For his absence there was no explanation, for neither he
+nor his wife had ever shirked duties before. To solve the mystery I went
+to his igloo during Christmas week. There I first got news from the
+stork world. The boreal stork comes at a special season of the year,
+usually a few weeks after midnight when there is little else to interest
+the people. This season comes nine months after the days of budding
+passions in April, the first Arctic month of the year when all the
+world is happy. In the little underground home, the anticipated days of
+the stork visit were made interesting by a long line of preparations.
+
+A prospective mother is busy as a bee in a charming effort to make
+everything new for the coming little one. All things about must be
+absolutely new if possible. Even a new house must be built. This places
+the work of preparation quite as much on the father as on the mother.
+There is in all this a splendid lesson in primitive hygiene.
+
+To examine, first, the general home environment; there is a little girl
+four years old still taking nature's substitute for the bottle. She
+looks about for a meaning of all the changes about the home, but does
+not understand. You enter the new house on hands and knees through an
+entrance twelve or fifteen feet long, crowding upwards into an ever-open
+door just large enough to pass the shoulders. You rise into a dungeon
+oblong in shape. The rear two-thirds of this is raised about fifteen
+inches and paved with flat-rock. Upon this the furs are spread for a
+bed. The forward edge forms a seat. The space ahead of this is large
+enough for three people to stand at once. On each side there is a
+semi-circular bulge. In these are placed the crescent-shaped stone
+dishes, in which moss serves as a wick to burn blubber. Over this
+blubber flame, there is a long stone pot in which snow is melted for
+water and meats are occasionally cooked. Over this there is a drying
+rack for boots and furs. There is no other furniture. This house
+represents the home of the Eskimo family at its best. Do what she will,
+the best housewife cannot free it of oil and soot. It is not, indeed, a
+fit place for the immaculate stork to come.
+
+For months, the finest furs have been gathered to prepare a new suit for
+the mother. Slowly one article of apparel after another has been
+completed and put aside. The boots, called _kamik_, are of sealskin,
+bleached to a spotless cream color. They reach halfway up the thigh. The
+inner boot, called _atesha_, of soft caribou fur, is of the same length;
+along its upper edge there is a decorative run of white bear fur. The
+silky fur pads protect the tender skin of limb and foot, for no
+stockings are used. Above these, there are dainty little pants of white
+and blue fox, to protect the body to a point under the hips, and for
+protection above that there is a shirt of birdskins or _aht-tee_. This
+is the most delicate of all garments. Hundreds of little auk skins are
+gathered, chewed and prepared, and as the night comes the garment is
+built blouse-shaped, with hood attached. It fits loosely. There are no
+buttons or openings. For the little one, the hood is enlarged and
+extended down the back, as the pocket for its future abode. The coat of
+fine blue fox skins, or _amoyt_, is of the same shape, but fits loosely
+over all.
+
+The word _amoyt_, or _amoyt docsoa_, in its application, also covers the
+entire range of the art and function of pregnancy. This is regarded as
+an institution of the first order, second only to the art of the chase.
+All being ready for the mother, for the baby only a hood is provided,
+while bird-skins and grass are provided to take the place of absorbent
+cotton. For the first year, the child has absolutely no other wrap or
+cover but its little hood.
+
+The Eskimo loves children. If the stork does not come in due time, he is
+likely to change his life partner. For this reason he looks forward to
+the Christmas season with eager anticipation. Seeking the wilds far and
+near for needed furs, in bitter winds and driving snows, he endures all
+kinds of hardships during the night of months for the sake of the
+expected child. Brave, good little man of iron, he fears nothing.
+
+From a near-by bank of hard snow he cuts blocks for a new igloo. In
+darkness and wind he transports them to a point near the house. When
+enough have been gathered, he walls a dome like a bee-hive. The interior
+arrangement is like the winter underground home. The light is put into
+it. By this he can see the open cracks between snow blocks. These are
+filled in to keep wind and snow out. When all is completed, he cuts a
+door and enters. The bed of snow is flattened.
+
+Then he seeks for miles about for suitable grass to cover the cheerless
+ice floor. To get this grass, he must dig under fields of hardened snow.
+Even then he is not always rewarded with success. The sledge, loaded
+with frozen grass, is brought to the little snow dome. The grass is
+carefully laid on the bed of leveled snow. Over it new reindeer skins
+are spread. Now the new house of snow blocks in which the stork is to
+come is ready.
+
+As the stork's coming is announced the mother's tears give the signal.
+She goes to the new snowhouse alone. The father is frightened and looks
+serious. But she must tear herself away. With her new garments, she
+enters the dark chamber of the snowhouse, strikes a fire, lights the
+lamp. The spotless walls of snow are cheerful. The new things about
+give womanly pride. But life is hard for her. A soul-stirring battle
+follows in that den of ice.
+
+There is a little cry. But there is no doctor, no nurse, no one, not a
+kindly hand to help. A piece of glass is used as a surgical knife. Then
+all is over. There is no soap, no water. The methods of a mother cat are
+this mother's. Then, in the cold, cheerless chamber of ice, she fondly
+examines the little one. Its eyes are blue, but they turn brown at once
+when opened. Its hair is coal black, its skin is golden. It is turned
+over and over in the search for marks or blemishes. The mother's eyes
+run down along the tiny spine. At its end there is a blue shield-shaped
+blot like a tattoo mark. This is the Eskimo guarantee of a well-bred
+child. If it is there, the mother is happy, if not, there are doubts of
+the child's future, and of the purity of the parents. Now the father and
+the grandmother come. All rejoice.
+
+If misfortune at the time of birth befalls a mother, as is not
+infrequent, the snow mound becomes her grave; it is not opened for a
+long time.
+
+After a long sleep, into which the mother falls after her first joy, she
+awakes, turns over, drinks some ice-water, eats a little half-cooked
+meat, and then, shaking the frozen breath from the covers, she wraps
+herself and her babe snugly in furs. Again she sleeps, perhaps
+twenty-four hours, seemingly in perfect comfort, while the life-stilling
+winter winds drive over the feeble wall of snow which shelters her from
+the chilly death outside.
+
+One day during Christmas week there was a knock at our door. The proud
+Ac-po-di-soa walked in, followed by his smiling wife, with the sleeping
+stork gift on her back. The child had been born less than five days
+before. We walked over and admired the little one. It suddenly opened
+its brown eyes, screwed up its little blubber nose, and wrinkled its
+chin for a cry. The mother grabbed her, plunged out of the door, pulled
+the undressed infant out, and in the wind and cold served the little
+one's want.
+
+New Year's Day came starlit and cold. The year had dawned in which I was
+to essay the task to which I had set myself, the year which would mean
+success or failure to me. The past year had been gracious and bountiful,
+so, in celebration, Francke prepared a feast of which we both ate to
+gluttonous repletion. This consisted of ox-tail soup, creamed boneless
+cod, pickles, scrambled duck eggs with chipped smoked beef, roast
+eider-duck, fresh biscuits, crystallized potatoes, creamed onions, Bayo
+beans and bacon, Malaga grapes, (canned), peach-pie, blanc-mange, raisin
+cake, Nabisco biscuits and steaming chocolate.
+
+The day was spent in making calls among the Eskimos. In the evening
+several families were given a feast which was followed by songs and
+dances. This hilarity was protracted to the early hours of morning and
+ended in an epidemic of night hysteria. When thus afflicted the victims
+dance and sing and fall into a trance, the combination of symptoms
+resembling insanity.
+
+In taking account of our stock we found that our baking powder was about
+exhausted. This was sad news, for a breakfast of fresh biscuits, butter
+and coffee was one of the few delights that remained for me in life. We
+had bicarbonate of soda, but no cream of tartar. I wondered whether we
+could not substitute for cream of tartar some other substance.
+
+Curious experiments followed. The juice of sauerkraut was tried with
+good results. But the flavor, as a steady breakfast food, was not
+desirable. Francke had fermented raisins with which to make wine. As a
+wine it was a failure, but as a fruit acid it enabled us to make soda
+biscuits with a new and delicate flavor. Milk, we found, would also
+ferment. From the unsweetened condensed milk, biscuits were made that
+would please the palate of any epicure. My breakfast pleasure therefore
+was still assured for many days to come.
+
+
+
+
+EN ROUTE FOR THE POLE
+
+THE CAMPAIGN OPENS--LAST WEEKS OF THE POLAR NIGHT--ADVANCE PARTIES SENT
+OUT--AWAITING THE DAWN
+
+X
+
+THE START WITH SUNRISE OF 1908
+
+
+Two weeks of final tests and re-examination of clothing, sledges and
+general equipment followed the New Year's festivities. On January 14
+there was almost an hour of feeble twilight at midday. The moon offered
+light enough to travel. Now we were finally ready to fire the first guns
+of the Polar battle. Scouts were outside, waiting for the signal to
+proceed. They were going, not only to examine the ice field for the main
+advance, but to offer succor to a shipwrecked crew, which the natives
+believed was at Cape Sabine.
+
+The smoke of a ship had been seen late in the fall, and much wood from a
+wrecked ship had been found. The pack was, therefore, loaded with
+expedition supplies, with instructions to offer help to anyone in want
+that might be found.
+
+I had just finished a note to be left at Cape Sabine, telling of our
+headquarters, our caches and our willingness to give assistance. This
+was handed to Koo-loo-ting-wah, standing before his restless dogs, whip
+in hand, as were his three companions, who volunteered as scouts. They
+jumped on the sledges, and soon the dogs were rushing toward the Polar
+pack of Smith Sound.
+
+It was a beautiful day. A fold of the curtain of night had been lifted
+for a brief spell. A strong mixed light, without shadows, rested on the
+snow. It changed in quality and color with the changing mystery of the
+aurora. One might call it blue, or purple, or violet, or no color at
+all, according to the color perception of the observer.
+
+In the south the heavens glowed with the heralds of the advancing sun.
+The light was exaggerated by the blink of the ice over which the light
+was sent, for the brightness of the heavens was out of proportion to its
+illuminating effect upon the surface snows. In the north, the half-spent
+moon dispelled the usual blackness Poleward, while the zenith was
+lighted with stars of the first and second magnitude.
+
+The temperature was -41 deg. F. The weather was perfectly calm--all that
+could be expected for the important event of opening the campaign.
+
+In the course of a few hours the cheerful light faded, the snows
+darkened to earthy fields, and out of the north came a smoky tempest.
+The snow soon piled up in tremendous drifts, making it difficult to
+leave the house without climbing new hills. The dogs tied about were
+buried in snow. Only the light passing through the membrane of
+intestines, which was spread over the ports to make windows for the
+native houses, relieved the fierce blackness.
+
+The run to Cape Sabine, under fine conditions, was about forty miles,
+and could be made in one day, but Smith Sound seldom offers a fair
+chance. Insufficient light, impossible winds or ice make the crossing
+hazardous at best. The Eskimos cross every year, but they are out so
+much after bears that they have a good knowledge of the ice before they
+start to reach the other shores.
+
+Coming from the north, with a low temperature and blowing snow, the wind
+would not only stop our scouts, but force the ice south, leaving open
+spaces of water. A resulting disruption of the pack might greatly delay
+our start with heavy sledges. Furthermore, there was real danger at hand
+for the advance. If the party had been composed of white men there
+surely would have been a calamity. But the Eskimo approaches the
+ventures of the wild with splendid endurance. Moreover, he has a weather
+intelligence which seldom finds him unprepared.
+
+At midnight of the second night the party returned. They were none the
+worse for the storm. The main intent of their mission had failed. The
+storm had forced them into snow embankments, and before it was quite
+spent a bear began to nose about their shelter places. The dogs were so
+buried with drift that they were not on watch until the bear had
+destroyed much of their food. Then their mad voices aroused the Eskimos.
+
+As they dug out of their shelter, the bear took a big walrus leg and
+walked off, man-like, holding the meat in his forepaws. In their haste
+to free the dogs, they cut their harness to pieces, for snow and ice
+cemented the creatures. Oo-tah ran out in the excitement to head off the
+bear--not to make an attack, but simply to stop his progress. The bear
+dropped the meat and grabbed Oo-tah by the seat of his trousers. The
+dogs, fortunately, came along in time to save Oo-tah's life, but he had
+received a severe leg wound, which required immediate surgical
+attention.
+
+The bear was captured, and with loads of bear meat and the wounded scout
+the party returned as quickly as possible. In the retreat it was noticed
+that the ice was very much broken.
+
+In the wreck of an Arctic storm there is always a subsequent profit for
+someone. The snow becomes crusted and hardened, making sledge travel
+easy. The breaking of the ice, which was a great hindrance to our
+advance, offered open water for walrus and bear hunting. At this time we
+went to Serwahdingwah for the last chase. Some of the Eskimos took their
+families, so Annoatok became depopulated for a while. But on our return,
+visitors came in numbers too numerous for our comfort.
+
+Dogs and skins, bargained for earlier in the season, were now delivered.
+Each corps of excursionists required some attention, for they had done
+noble work for the expedition. We gave them dinners and allowed them to
+sit about our stove with picture-books in hand.
+
+Another storm came, with still more violent force, a week later. This
+caused us much anxiety, for we counted on our people being scattered on
+the ice along the shores of Cape Alexander. In a storm this would
+probably be swept from the land and carried seaward. There was nothing
+that could be done except wait for news. Messengers of trouble were not
+long in reaching headquarters after the storm. None of the men were on
+the ice, but a hurricane from the land had wrecked the camps.
+
+Our men suffered little, but many of the natives in neighboring villages
+were left without clothing or sleeping furs. In the rush of the storm
+the ice left the land, and the snowhouses were swept into the sea. Men
+and women, without clothing, barely escaped with their lives. Two of our
+new sledges, some dogs, and three suits of winter furs were lost. A
+rescue party with furs had to be sent to the destitute people.
+Fortunately, our people were well supplied with bed-furs, out of which
+new suits were made.
+
+Sledge loads of our furs were also coming north, and instructions were
+sent to use these for the urgent needs of the sufferers. Other things
+were sent from Annoatok, with returning excursionists, and in the course
+of a week the damage was replaced. But the loss was all on the
+expedition, and deprived many of the men in their northern journey of
+suitable sleeping-furs. Walruses were obtained after the storm, and the
+natives now had no fear of a famine of meat or fat.
+
+By the end of January most of the natives had returned, and new
+preparations were made for a second effort to cross the Sound. Francke
+asked to join the party, and prepared for his first camp outing. Four
+sledges were loaded with two hundred pounds each of expedition advance
+supplies. Four good drivers volunteered to move the sledges to the
+American side.
+
+The light had gradually brightened, and the storms passed off and left a
+keen, cold air, which was as clear as crystal. But at best the light was
+still feeble, and could be used for only about four hours of each
+twenty-four. If, however, the sky remained clear, the moon and stars
+would furnish enough illumination for a full day's travel. There was a
+little flush of color in the southern skies, and the snows were a pale
+purple as the sledges groaned in their rush over the frosty surface.
+
+The second party started off as auspiciously as the first, and news of
+its luck was eagerly awaited.
+
+They reached Cape Sabine after a long run of twenty hours, making a
+considerable detour to the north. The ice offered good traveling, but
+the cold was bitter, the temperature being -52 deg. F., with light,
+extremely humid and piercing winds.
+
+Along the land and within the bays the snow was found to be deep, and a
+bitter wind came from the west. Two of the party could not be persuaded
+to go farther, but Francke, with two companions, pushed on for another
+day along the shore to Cape Veile. Beyond, the snow was too deep to
+proceed. The supplies were cached in a snowhouse, while those at Cape
+Sabine were left in the old camp. The party returned at the end of four
+days with their object accomplished. Nothing was seen of the rumored
+shipwrecked crew.
+
+The next party, of eight sledges, led by Es-se-you, Kud-la, and Me-tek,
+started on February 5. The object was to carry advance supplies to the
+head of Flagler Bay, and hunt musk ox to feed the sledge teams as they
+moved overland. We were to meet this party at an appointed place in the
+bay.
+
+The light was still too uncertain to risk the fortunes of the entire
+force. With a hundred dogs, a delay of a day would be an expensive loss,
+for if fed upon the carefully guarded food of the advance stores, a
+rapid reduction in supplies would follow, which could not be replaced,
+even if abundant game were secured later. It was, therefore, desirable
+to await the rising sun.
+
+We made our last arrangements, fastened our last packs, and waited
+impatiently for the sunrise, here at this northernmost outpost of human
+life, just seven hundred miles from the Pole. And this was the problem
+that now insistently and definitely confronted us after the months of
+planning and preparation: Seven hundred miles of advance, almost a
+thousand miles as our route was planned; one thousand miles of return;
+two thousand miles in all; allowing for detours (for the line to be
+followed could not be precisely straight), more than two thousand miles
+of struggling travel across icy and unknown and uninhabitable wastes of
+moving ice.
+
+On the morning of February 19, 1908, I started on my trip to the North
+Pole.
+
+Early, as the first real day of the year dawned, eleven sledges were
+brought to the door of our box-house and lashed with supplies for the
+boreal dash. There were four thousand pounds of supplies for use on the
+Polar sea, and two thousands pounds of walrus skin and fat for use
+before securing the fresh game we anticipated. The eleven sledges were
+to be driven by Francke, nine Eskimos, and myself. They were drawn by
+one hundred and three dogs, each in prime condition. The dogs had been
+abundantly fed with walrus skin and meat for several weeks, and would
+now be fed only every second day on fresh supplies.
+
+My heart was high. I was about to start on the quest which had inspired
+me for many years! The natives were naturally excited. The dogs caught
+the contagious enthusiasm, and barked joyously. At eight o'clock in the
+morning our whips snapped, the spans of dog teams leaped forward, and we
+were off.
+
+My Polar quest had begun!
+
+Most of the tribe had seemed willing to go with me, and to take all
+their dogs, but the men and the dogs finally selected were the pick of
+the lot. All were in superb physical condition, this matter of condition
+being something that I had carefully looked out for during the winter
+months. I regard this as having been highly advantageous to me, that
+I have always been able to win the friendship and confidence of the
+Eskimos; for thus I found them extremely ready to follow my advice
+and instructions, and to do in general anything I desired. That
+I could speak Eskimo fairly well--well enough to hold ordinary
+conversations--was also a strong asset in my favor.
+
+When we started, a few stars were seen between thin clouds, but the
+light was good. A soft wind came from the south; the temperature was
+-36 deg. F. The Greenland ice-cap was outlined; a belt of orange in the
+south heralded the rising sun. The snow still retained the purple of
+twilight. The ice was covered with about three inches of soft snow over
+a hard crust, which made speed difficult. Before noon the sky was gray,
+but the light remained good enough for traveling until 4 P. M. A course
+was made about northwest, because a more direct line was still
+impractical.
+
+A water sky to the west and south denoted open water. At 3 P. M. we ran
+into bear tracks, and the sledges bounced along as if empty. The tracks
+were making a good course for us, so the dogs were encouraged. By four
+o'clock the feeble light made it dangerous to proceed. Two hunters still
+followed the bear tracks, while the others built three snowhouses for
+camp. Nothing was seen of the bears.
+
+The dogs were tied to holes cut in the ice, and we crept into our
+snow-mounds, tired, hungry and sleepy. The night was extremely
+uncomfortable--the first nights from camp always are.
+
+The next day brought a still air with a temperature of -42 deg. F., and
+brilliant light at eight o'clock. We had made twenty miles through the
+air-line distance from Annoatok, and Cape Sabine was but thirty miles
+away. We had been forced so far north that we still had thirty miles
+before us to the Cape. The dogs, however, were in better trim, and we
+had no doubt about reaching the off-shores for the next camp. We
+followed the edge of ice which had been made in a wide open space in
+December. Here the traveling was fairly level, but above was a hopeless
+jungle of mountains and ridges of ice. We made about three miles an
+hour, and were able to ride occasionally.
+
+At noon of February 20th we stopped, and coffee was served from our
+ever-hot coffee box. A can had been placed in a box, and so protected by
+reindeer skins that the heat was retained for twelve hours during the
+worst weather. This proved a great luxury.
+
+While we sat regaling ourselves, a great ball of fire rose along the icy
+horizon. Our hearts were glad. The weather was bitterly cold; the
+temperature was 51 deg. F.: but the sun had risen; the long night was at
+end. There was little else to mark the glory of sunrise. The light was
+no brighter than it had been for two hours. The sky remained a purple
+blue, with a slight grayness in the south, darkening toward the horizon.
+The snows were purple, with just a few dashes of red in the road before
+us. This unpretentious burst of the sun opened our spirits to new
+delights. Even the dogs sat in graceful rows and sounded a chorus of
+welcome to the coming of the day.
+
+Although Cape Sabine, on February 20, was in sight, we still headed for
+Bache Peninsula. Impossible ice and open water pushed us farther and
+farther north. It was three o'clock before the Cape was seen over the
+dogs' tails. Soon after four the light failed, the land colored to
+purple and gold toward the rim of the horizon, and we were left to guess
+the direction of our course. But Eskimos are somewhat better than
+Yankees at guessing, for we got into no troubles until 9 P. M., when we
+tried to scale the rafted ice against Cape Sabine. With only the camp
+equipment and dog food, the dogs crept up and down in the black hills of
+ice, while we followed like mountain-sheep.
+
+Here had been the camp of the ill-fated Greely expedition. It recurred
+to me that it was a curious whim of fate that this ill-starred camp of
+famine and death, in earlier days, should have marked the very outset of
+our modern effort to reach the Pole. But later we were to learn that
+under similar conditions a modern expedition can meet the same fate as
+that of the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition.
+
+We turned about, took the advance supplies, and picked a course through
+Rice Strait, to avoid the rough ice northward. Here the surface was
+good, but a light wind, with a temperature of -52 deg. F., came with great
+bitterness. The dogs refused to face the wind, and required someone to
+lead the way. The men buried their faces in the fur mittens, leaned on
+the upstanders, and ran along.
+
+Passing Cape Rutherford on February 22, we followed the coast. Here the
+wind came from the right, caught the tip of the nose, burning with a
+bleaching effect, which, in camp later, turned black. At Cape Veile the
+cache igloo was sighted, and there camp was pitched.
+
+In the morning the minimum thermometer registered -58 deg. F. We were
+evidently passing from the storms and open water of Smith Sound, from
+warm, moist air to a still, dry climate, with very low temperature. The
+day opened beautifully with a glow of rose to the south, which colored
+the snows in warm tones. At noon the sun showed half of its face over
+the cliffs as we crossed the bay and sought better ice along Bache
+Peninsula. That night we camped near the Weyprecht Islands. The day,
+although bright, proved severe, for most of the natives had frostbites
+about the face. Along Bache Peninsula we saw hares staring at us. Four
+were secured for our evening meal. In the very low temperature of -64 deg.
+F. the hunters suffered from injuries like burns, due to the blistering
+cold metal of their guns.
+
+Dog food had also to be prepared. In efforts to divide the walrus skin,
+two hatchets were broken. The Eskimo dog is a tough creature, but he
+cannot be expected to eat food which breaks an axe. Petroleum and
+alcohol were used liberally, and during the night the skin was
+sufficiently softened by the heat to be cut with the hatchets. This
+skin seems to be good food for the dogs. It is about one inch thick, and
+contains little water, the skin fibre being a kind of condensed
+nutriment, small quantities of which satisfy the dogs. It digests
+slowly, and therefore has lasting qualities.
+
+The lamps, burning at full force, made the igloos comfortable. The
+temperature fell to -68 deg. F. It was the first satisfying sleep of the
+journey for me. The economy of the blue fire stoves is beyond
+conception. Burning but three pounds of oil all night, the almost liquid
+air was reduced to a normal temperature of freezing point.
+
+Francke used alcohol stoves, with a double consumption of fuel. The
+natives, in their three igloos, used the copper lamp, shaped after the
+stone devices, but they did no cooking.
+
+In the morning of the 23d we heard sounds to the south, which at first
+we thought to be walrus. But after a time the noise was interpreted as
+that of the dogs of the advance party. They were camped a few miles
+beyond, and came to our igloos at breakfast. One musk ox and eleven
+hares had been secured. The valley had been thoroughly hunted, but no
+other game was sighted.
+
+The ground was nearly bare, and made sledge travel impossible. They were
+bound for Annoatok at once. This was sad news for us. We had counted on
+game with which to feed the dog train en route to the Polar sea. If
+animals were not secured, our project would fail at the very start, and
+this route would be impossible. To push overland rapidly to the west
+coast was our only chance, but the report of insufficient snow seemed to
+forbid this. Something, however, must be tried. We could not give up
+without a stronger fight. The strong probability of our failing to find
+musk ox, and extending the expedition for another year, over another
+route, made it necessary to send Francke back to headquarters to guard
+our supplies. There was no objection to the return of most of the other
+party, but we took their best dogs and sledges, with some exchange of
+drivers.
+
+With this change in the arrangements, and the advance supplies from Cape
+Sabine and Cape Viele, each sledge now carried eight hundred pounds.
+Beyond, in Flagler Bay, the ice luckily became smooth and almost free of
+snow. An increased number of dogs, with good traveling, enabled us to
+make satisfactory progress, despite the steadily falling temperature.
+
+The head of Flagler Bay was reached late at night, after an exhausting
+march of twenty-five miles. A hard wind, with a temperature of -60 deg. F.,
+had almost paralyzed the dogs, and the men were kept alive only by
+running with the dogs. Comfortable houses were built and preparations
+made for a day of rest. On the morrow we aimed to explore the land for
+an auspicious route. Many new frostbites were again noted in camp. One
+of the dogs died of the cold.
+
+The party was by no means discouraged, however. We were as enthusiastic
+as soldiers on the eve of a longed-for battle. The reduced numbers of
+the return party gave us extra rations to use in times of need, and the
+land did not seem as hopeless as pictured by the returning natives. A
+cache was made here of needful things for use on the return. Other
+things, which we had found useless, were also left here.
+
+
+
+
+EXPLORING A NEW PASS OVER ACPOHON
+
+FROM THE ATLANTIC WATERS AT FLAGLER BAY TO THE PACIFIC WATERS AT BAY
+FIORD--THE MECCA OF THE MUSK OX--BATTLES WITH THE BOVINE MONSTERS OF
+THE ARCTIC--SUNRISE AND THE GLORY OF SUNSET
+
+XI
+
+BREAKING A TRAIL BEYOND THE HAUNTS OF MAN
+
+
+Early in the morning of February 25 the dogs were spanned to sledges
+with heavy loads, and we pushed into the valley of mystery ahead. Our
+purpose was to cross the inland ice and descend into Cannon Bay. The
+spread of the rush of glacial waters in summer had dug out a wide
+central plain, now imperfectly covered with ice and snow. Over this we
+lined a trail.
+
+On each side of us were gradual slopes rising to cliffs, above which I
+noted the blue wall of the overland sea of ice, at an altitude of about
+two thousand feet. Nowhere did this offer a safe slope for an ascent. We
+now explored the picturesque valley, for I knew that our only hope was
+to push overland to Bay Fiord. The easy slopes were enlivened with
+darting, downy hares. Some sat motionless, with their long ears erect,
+while they drank the first golden air of sunrise and watched the coming
+of new life. Others danced about in frisky play.
+
+As we pushed along, the ascent of the slope was gradual. The necessity
+for crossing from side to side to find ice or snow lengthened our
+journey. Only the partially bare earth gave us trouble. The temperature
+was -62 deg. F., but there was no wind. The upper slopes glittered with
+bright sunshine. Winding with a stream, we advanced twenty miles. Beyond
+there was the same general topography. The valley looked like a pass.
+Clouds of a different kind were seen through the gorges. At various
+places we noted old musk ox paths. I knew that where game trails are
+well marked on mountains one is certain to find a good crossing. This
+rule is equally good in the Arctic as elsewhere. At any rate, there was
+no alternative. The tortures of the top had to be risked. Pushing
+onward, we found no fresh signs of musk ox. A few bear tracks were seen,
+and a white fox followed us to camp. We shot sixteen hares, and for the
+evening meal unlimited quantities of savory hare meat made an appetizing
+broth.
+
+On the day following, everything was advanced to this point. A prolonged
+search for musk ox was made, with negative results.
+
+On the morning of the 27th, full loads were taken on our sledges. With
+slow progress we advanced on the rising bed of the stream, the valley
+moved, and the river ice was found in one channel, making better travel.
+Hare and fox tracks increased in number. The side slopes were grassy,
+and mostly swept bare of snow by strong winter winds. Sand dunes and
+gravel lines were also piled up, while huge drifts of pressed snow
+indicated a dangerous atmospheric agitation. Here, I knew, were
+excellent feeding grounds for musk ox and caribou. But a careful
+scrutiny gave no results for a long time.
+
+To us the musk ox was now of vital importance. The shorter way, over
+Schley Land and northward through Nansen Sound, was possible only if
+game in abundance was secured en route. If the product of the chase gave
+us no reward, then our Polar venture was doomed at the outset.
+
+One day, with a temperature of -100 deg. below the freezing point, and with
+a light but sharp Arctic wind driving needles of frost to the very bone,
+we searched the rising slopes of ice-capped lands in the hope of
+spotting life.
+
+For three days the dogs had not been fed. They sniffed the air, searched
+the horizon, and ranged the wilds with all the eagerness of their wolf
+progenitors. The hare and the fox were aroused from their winter's
+sleep, but such game was not what we now desired. Only meat and fat in
+heaps could satisfy the wants of over a hundred empty stomachs.
+
+After a hard pull, ascending miniature, ice-covered hills, winding about
+big, polished boulders, we entered a wider section of the narrow
+gorge-like valley. Here the silurian rocks had broken down, and by the
+influence of glacier streams and glaciers, now receding, a good deal of
+rolling, grass-covered land spread from cliff to cliff. Strong winter
+gales had bared the ground. We sat down to rest. The dogs did likewise.
+
+All searched the new lands with eager eyes. The dog noses pointed to a
+series of steep slopes to the north. They were scenting something, but
+were too tired to display the usual animation of the chase. Soon we
+detected three dark, moving objects on a snowy sun-flushed hill, under a
+huge cliff, about a thousand feet above us. _"Ah-ming-mah!"_ shouted
+E-tuk-i-shook. The dogs jumped; the men grasped glasses; in a second the
+sledge train was in disorder.
+
+Fifty dogs were hitched to three sledges. Rushing up three different
+gulches, the sledges, with tumbling human forms as freight, advanced to
+battle. The musk oxen, with heads pointed to the attacking forces,
+quietly awaited the onrush.
+
+Within an hour three huge, fat carcasses were down in the river bed. A
+temporary camp was made, and before the meat froze most of it had passed
+palates tantalized by many days of gastronomic want.
+
+Continuing our course, we crossed the divide in a storm. Beyond, in a
+canyon, the wind was more uncomfortable than in the open. Something must
+be done. We could not long breathe that maddening air, weighted by frost
+and thickened by snows. The snow-bank gave no shelter whatever, and a
+rush of snow came over, which quickly buried the investigators. But it
+was our only hope.
+
+"Dig a hole," said Koo-loo-ting-wah.
+
+Now, to try to dig a hole without a shovel, and with snow coming more
+rapidly than any power of man could remove, seemed a waste of needed
+vital force. But I had faith in the intelligence of my savage
+companions, and ordered all hands to work. They gathered at one corner
+of the bank, and began to talk and shout, while I allowed myself to be
+buried in a pocket of the cliffs to keep my tender skin from turning to
+ice. Every few minutes someone came along to see if I was safe.
+
+The igloo was progressing. Two men were now inside. In the course of
+another hour they reported four men inside; in another hour seven men
+were inside, and the others were piling up the blocks, cut with knives
+from the interior. A kind of vestibule was made to allow the wind to
+shoot over the entrance. Inside, the men were sweating.
+
+Soon afterward I was told that the igloo was completed. I lost no time
+in seeking its shelter. A square hole had been cut, large enough for the
+entire party if packed like sardines. Our fur clothing was removed, and
+beaten with sticks and stones.
+
+The lamps sang cheerily of steaming musk ox steaks. The dogs were
+brought into the canyon. A more comfortable night was impossible. We
+were fifty feet under the snow. The noise of the driving storm was lost.
+The blinding drift about the entrance was effectually shut out by a
+block of snow as a door. Two holes afforded ventilation, and the
+tremendous difference between the exterior and the interior air assured
+a circulation.
+
+When we emerged in the morning the sky was clear. A light wind came from
+the west, with a temperature of -78 deg. F. Two dogs had frozen during the
+storm. All were buried in the edge of a drift that was piled fifteen
+feet. An exploration of the canyon showed other falls and boulders
+impossible for sledge travel.
+
+A trail was picked over the hills to the side. The day was severe. How
+we escaped broken legs and smashed sleds was miraculous. But somehow, in
+our plunges down the avalanches, we always landed in a soft bed of snow.
+We advanced about ten miles, and made a descent of five hundred feet,
+first camping upon a glacial lake.
+
+The temperature now was -79 deg. F., and although there were about nine
+hours of good light, including twilight, we had continued our efforts
+too long, and were forced to build igloos by moonlight. Glad were we,
+indeed, when the candle was placed in the dome of snow, to show the last
+cracks to be stuffed.
+
+In the searchlight of the frigid dawn I noticed that our advance was
+blocked by a large glacier, which tumbled barriers of ice boulders into
+the only available line for a path. A way would have to be cut into this
+barrier of icebergs for about a mile. This required the full energy of
+all the men for the day. I took advantage of the halt to explore the
+country through which we were forcing a pass. The valley was cut by
+ancient glaciers and more modern creeks along the meeting line of two
+distinct geological formations. To the north were silurian and
+cambro-silurian rocks; to the south were great archaean cliffs.
+
+With the camera, the field-glass, and other instruments in the sack, I
+climbed into a gorge and rose to the level of the mountains of the
+northern slopes. The ground was here absolutely destitute of vegetation,
+and only old musk ox trails indicated living creatures. The snow had all
+been swept into the ditches of the lowlands. Climbing over
+frost-sharpened stones, I found footing difficult.
+
+The average height of the mountains proved to be nineteen hundred feet.
+To the northeast there was land extending a few miles further, with a
+gradual rising slope. Beyond was the blue edge of the inland ice. To
+the northwest, the land continued in rolling hills, beyond which no
+land-ice was seen. The cliffs to the south were of about the same
+height, but they were fitted to the crest with an ice-cap. The overflow
+of perpetual snows descended into the gorges, making five overhanging
+glaciers.
+
+The first was at the divide, furnishing in summer the waters which
+started the vigorous stream to the Atlantic slopes. It was a huge stream
+of ice, about a mile wide, and it is marked by giant cliffs, separated
+by wide gaps, indicating the roughness of the surface over which it
+pushes its frozen height. To the stream to which it gives birth, flowing
+eastward from the divide, I will give the name of Schley River, in honor
+of Rear-Admiral Schley.
+
+The stream starting westward from the divide, through picturesque rocks,
+tumbles in icy falls into a huge canyon, down to the Pacific waters at
+Bay Fiord. To this I will give, in honor of General A. W. Greely, the
+name Greely River.
+
+The second and third glaciers were overhanging masses about a half-mile
+wide, which gave volume in summer time to Greely River.
+
+The fourth was a powerful glacier, with a discharging face of blue three
+miles long, closing up a valley and damming up a lake about four miles
+long and one mile wide. The lake was beyond the most precipitous of the
+descending slopes. The upper cliffs of the walled valley to Flagler Bay
+were still visible, while to the west was seen a line of mountains and
+cliffs which marked the head of Bay Fiord, under which was seen the ice
+covering the first water of the Pacific upon which our future fortunes
+would be told. To this sea level there was an easy descent of four
+hundred feet on the river ice and snowdrifts, making, with good luck, a
+day's run of twenty miles.
+
+Returning, at camp I was informed that not only had a trail been cut,
+but many of the sledges had been advanced to the good ice beyond. Two of
+the sledges, however, had been badly broken, and must be mended at dawn
+before starting.
+
+The day was beautiful. For the first time I felt the heat of the sun. It
+came through the thick fur of my shoulders with the tenderness of a warm
+human hand. The mere thought of the genial sunbeams brought a glow of
+healthful warmth, but at the same time the thermometer was very low,
+-781/2 deg. F. One's sense of cold, under normal conditions, is a correct
+instrument in its bearing upon animal functions, but as an instrument of
+physics it makes an unreliable thermometer. If I had been asked to guess
+the temperature of the day I should have placed it at -25 deg. F.
+
+The night air had just a smart of bitterness. The igloo failed to become
+warm, so we fed our internal fires liberally with warming courses,
+coming in easy stages. We partook of superheated coffee, thickened with
+sugar, and biscuits, and later took butter chopped in squares, which was
+eaten as cheese with musk ox meat chopped by our axes into splinters.
+Delicious hare loins and hams, cooked in pea soup, served as dessert.
+
+The amount of sugar and fat which we now consumed was quite remarkable.
+Fortunately, during the journey to the edge of the Polar sea, there was
+no urgent limit to transportation, and we were well supplied with the
+luxury of sugar and civilized foods, most of which later were to be
+abandoned.
+
+In this very low temperature I found considerable difficulty in jotting
+down the brief notes of our day's doings. The paper was so cold that the
+pencil barely left a mark. A few moments had to be spent warming each
+page and pencil before beginning to write. With the same operation, the
+fingers were also sufficiently warmed to hold the pencil. All had to be
+done by the light and heat of a candle.
+
+To economize fuel, the fires later were extinguished before retiring to
+sleep. In the morning we were buried in the frost falling from our own
+breath.
+
+It was difficult to work at dawn with fur-covered hands; but the Eskimo
+can do much with his glove-fitting mitten. The broken sledges were soon
+repaired. After tumbling over irregular ice along the face of the
+glacier, the river offered a splendid highway over which the dogs
+galloped with remarkable speed. We rode until cold compelled exercise.
+The stream descended among picturesque hills, but the most careful
+scrutiny found no sign of life except the ever-present musk ox trails of
+seasons gone by.
+
+As we neared the sea line, near the mouth of the river, we began to see
+a few fresh tracks of hare and musk ox. Passing out on the south of Bay
+Fiord, we noted bear and wolf tracks. Then the eyes of the hunter and
+the dog rolled with eager anticipation.
+
+The sun flushed the skies in flaming colors as it was about to sink
+behind a run of high peaks. The western sky burned with gold, the ice
+flashed with crimson inlets, but the heat was very feeble. The
+temperature was -72 deg. F. We had already gone twenty-five miles, and were
+looking forward to a point about ten miles beyond as the next camping
+place, when all my companions, seemingly at once, espied a herd of musk
+ox on the sky line of a whale-backed mountain to the north.
+
+The distance was about three miles, but the eagle eyes of the natives
+detected the black spots.
+
+We searched the gorge with our glasses. Suddenly one of the Eskimos
+cried out in a joyous tone: "_Ah-ming-ma! Ah-ming-ma!_"
+
+I could detect only some dark specks on the snow, which looked like a
+hundred others that I knew to be rocks. I levelled my glasses on the
+whale-backed mountain at which the Eskimo was staring, and, sure enough,
+there were three musk oxen on a steep snow slope. They seemed to be
+digging up the winter snow fields to get "scrub" willows. They were not
+only three miles away, but at an altitude of perhaps a thousand feet
+above us.
+
+The cumbersome loads were quickly pitched from three sledges. Rifles and
+knives were securely fastened. In a few moments the long lashes snapped,
+and away we rushed, with two men on each of the sledges and with double
+teams of twenty dogs.
+
+The dogs galloped at a pace which made the sledges bound like rubber
+balls over irregularities of rocks, slippery ice, and hard-crusted snow,
+and our hold tightened on the hickory in the effort to keep our places.
+It disturbed the dogs not at all whether they were on rock or snow, or
+whether the sledge rested on runners or turned spirally; but it made
+considerable difference to us, and we lost much energy in the constant
+efforts to avoid somersaults. We did not dare release our grip for a
+moment, for to do so would have meant painful bumping and torn clothes,
+as well as being left behind in the chase.
+
+It took but a brief time to cover the three miles. We made our final
+advance by three separate ravines, and for a time the musk oxen were out
+of sight. When we again saw them they had not taken the alarm, nor did
+they until we were ready to attack them from three separate points.
+
+All but five dogs from each sledge were now freed from harness. They
+darted toward the oxen with fierce speed.
+
+The oxen tried to escape through a ravine, but it was too late. The dogs
+were on every side of them, and all the oxen could do was to grunt
+fiercely and jump into a bunch, with tails together and heads directed
+at the enemy. There were seven musk oxen in all, and they tried to keep
+the dogs scattered at a safe distance.
+
+The dogs would rush up to within a few feet, showing their teeth and
+uttering wolfish sounds, and every now and then an ox would rush out
+from its circle, with head down, in an effort to strike the dogs; but
+the dogs were always too quick to be caught by the savage thrust, and
+each time the ox, in its retreat, would feel canine fangs closing on its
+haunches.
+
+After a few such efforts, the bulls, with lowered horns, merely held to
+the position, while the dogs, not daring actually to attack under such
+circumstances, sat in a circle and sent up blood-chilling howls.
+Meanwhile, the Eskimos and myself were hurrying up.
+
+The strife was soon over. I snapped my camera at an old bull which at
+that moment broke through the dogs and, followed by a group of them, was
+driven madly over a cliff in a plunge of five thousand feet. The other
+oxen were soon killed by the hunters.
+
+[Illustration: "THE IGLOO BUILT, WE PREPARE FOR OUR DAILY CAMP"]
+
+[Illustration: CAMPING TO EAT AND TAKE OBSERVATIONS ON AGAIN!]
+
+The sun settled under mountains of ice, and the purple twilight rapidly
+thickened. It was very cold. The breath of each man came like jets of
+steam from a kettle. The temperature was now -81 deg. F. No time could be
+lost in dressing the game. But the Eskimos were equal to the task, and
+showed such skill as only Indians possess.
+
+While this was being done by my companions, I strolled about to note the
+ear-marks of the home of the musk ox. The mountain was in line of the
+sweep of the winds, and was bared of snows. Here were grass, mosses, and
+creeping willows in abundance, descending into the gullies. I found
+fossil-stumps of large trees and bits of lignite coal. The land in
+pre-glacial times had evidently supported a vigorous vegetation; but now
+the general aspect offered a scene of frosty hopelessness. Still, in
+this desolation of snowy wastes, nature had supplied creatures with food
+in their hard pressure of life.
+
+Fox and wolf tracks were everywhere, while on every little eminence sat
+an Arctic hare, evincing ear-upraised surprise at our appearance. With
+the glasses I noted on neighboring hills three other herds of musk ox.
+This I did not tell the hunters, for they would not have rested until
+all were secured. Living in a land of cold and hunger, the Eskimo is
+insatiable for game. We had as much meat as we could possibly use for
+the next few days, and it was much easier to fill up, and secure more
+when we needed it, than now to carry almost impossible loads. In a
+remarkably short time the skins were removed and the meat was boned and
+cut in small strips in such a way that the axe would break it when
+frozen. Neatly wrapped in skins, the loads did not seem large.
+
+Selecting a few choice bits for later use, the balance was separated and
+allowed to cool. I looked at the enormous quantity of meat, and wondered
+how it could be transported to camp, but no such thought troubled the
+Eskimos. Piece after piece went down the canine throats with a gulp. No
+energy was wasted in mastication. With a drop of the jaws and a twist of
+the neck, the task of eating was finished and the stomach began to
+spread. The dogs had not yet reached their limit when the snow was
+cleared of its weight of dressed meat and a canine wrangle began for the
+possession of the cleaned bones.
+
+With but little meat on the sledges, we began the descent, but the
+spirit of the upward rush was lost. The dogs, too full to run, simply
+rolled down the slopes, and we pushed the sledges ourselves. The ox that
+had made the death plunge was picked up and taken as reserve meat. It
+was midnight before camp was pitched. The moon burned with a cheerful
+glow. The air was filled with liquid frost, but there was no wind and
+consequently no suffering from cold.
+
+Two comfortable snowhouses were built, and in them our feasts rivalled
+the canine indulgence. Thus was experienced the greatest joy of savage
+life in boreal wilds--the hunt of the musk ox, with the advantage of the
+complex cunning gathered by forgotten ages. The balance of the meat left
+after our feast was buried, with the protecting skins, in the snow. On
+opening the meat on the following morning, it was still warm, although
+the minimum thermometer registered -80 deg. F. for the night.
+
+A few minutes before midday, on our next march, the sledge train halted.
+We sat on the packs, and, with eyes turned southward, waited. Even an
+Eskimo has an eye for color and a soul for beauty. To us there appeared
+a play of suppressed light and bleached color tints, as though in
+harmony with bars of music, which inspired my companions to shouts of
+joy.
+
+Slowly and majestically the golden orb lifted. The dogs responded in
+low, far-reaching calls. The Eskimos greeted the day god with savage
+chants. The sun, a flushed crimson ball, edged along the wintry outline
+of the mountains' purplish snowy glitter. The pack was suddenly screened
+by a moving sheet of ever-changing color, wherein every possible
+continuation of purple and gold merged with rainbow hues.
+
+Soon the dyes changed to blue, and eventually the sky was fired by
+flames of red. Then, slowly, the great blazing globe sank into seas of
+fire-flushed ice. The snowy mountains about glowed with warm cheer. The
+ice cooled again to purple, and again to blue, and then a winter
+blackness closed the eye to color and the soul to joy.
+
+
+
+
+IN GAME TRAILS TO LAND'S END
+
+SVERDRUP'S NEW WONDERLAND--FEASTING ON GAME EN ROUTE TO
+SVARTEVOEG--FIRST SHADOW OBSERVATIONS--FIGHTS WITH WOLVES AND
+BEARS--THE JOYS OF ZERO'S LOWEST--THRESHOLD OF THE UNKNOWN
+
+XII
+
+SHORES OF THE CIRCUMPOLAR SEA
+
+
+March 2 was bright and clear and still. The ice was smooth, with just
+snow enough to prevent the dogs cutting their feet. The heavy sledges
+bounded along easily, but the dogs were too full of meat to step a
+lively pace. The temperature was -79 deg. F. We found it comfortable to walk
+along behind the upstanders of the sledges. Some fresh bear tracks were
+crossed. These denoted that bears had advanced along the coast on an
+exploring tour, much as we aimed to do. Scenting these tracks, the dogs
+forgot their distended stomachs, and braced into the harness with full
+pulling force. We were still able to keep pace by running. Hard exercise
+brought no perspiration.
+
+After passing the last land point, we noted four herds of musk oxen. The
+natives were eager to embark for the chase. I tried to dissuade them,
+but, had we not crossed the bear trail, no word of mine would have kept
+them from another chase of the musk ox.
+
+Long after sunset, as we were about to camp, a bear was sighted
+advancing on us behind a line of hummocks. The light was already feeble.
+It was the work of but a minute to throw our things on the ice and start
+the teams on the scent of the bear. But this bear was thin and hungry.
+He gave us a lively chase. His advance was checked, however, as our rush
+began, and he spread his huge paws into a step which outdistanced our
+dogs. The chase was continued on the ice for about three miles. Then
+bruin, with sublime intelligence, took to the land and the steep slopes,
+leading us over hilly, bare ground, rocks, and soft snows. He gained the
+top of the tall cliffs while we were still groping in the darkness among
+the rocks at the base, a thousand feet below.
+
+The sledges were now left, and the dogs freed. They flew up a gully in
+which the bear tracks guided an easy path. In a short time their
+satisfying howls told of the bear's captivity. He had taken a position
+on a table-rock, which was difficult for the dogs to climb. At an easy
+distance from this rock were steep slopes of snow. One after another,
+the dogs came tumbling down these slopes. With but a slight cuff of his
+paw, the bear could toss the attacking dogs over dizzy heights. His
+position was impregnable to the dogs, but, thus perched, he was a
+splendid mark for E-tuk-i-shook. That doughty huntsman raised his gun,
+and, following a shot, the bear rolled down the same slopes on which he
+had hurled the dogs. To his carcass a span of strong dogs were soon
+hitched, and it was hauled down to the sea level. Quickly dressed and
+distributed, the bear was only a teasing mouthful to the ever-hungry
+dogs.
+
+It was nearly midnight before we returned to our sledge packs. The work
+of building the houses was rendered difficult by the failing moon and
+the very low temperature. The lowest temperature of the season, -83 deg.,
+was reached this night.
+
+The sun rose in the morning of March 3 with warm colors, painting the
+crystal world surrounding us with gorgeous tints of rose and old gold.
+It was odd that in the glare of this enrapturing glory we should note
+the coldest day of the year.
+
+With the returning sun in the Arctic comes the most frigid season. The
+light is strongly purple, and one is tempted to ascribe to the genial
+rays a heating influence which is as yet absent, owing to their slant.
+The night-darkened surfaces prevent the new sunbeams from disseminating
+any considerable heat, and the steadily falling temperature indicates
+that the crust of the earth, as a result of its long desertion by the
+sun in winter, is still unchecked in its cooling. Because of the
+persistence of terrestrial radiation, we have the coldest weather of the
+year with the ascending sun.
+
+It is a fortunate provision of nature that these icy days of the
+ascending sun are usually accompanied by a breathless stillness. When
+wind and storms come, the temperature quickly rises. It is doubtful if
+any form of life could withstand a storm at -80 deg. F. A quiet charm comes
+with this eye-opening period. The spirits rise with indescribable
+gladness, and, although the mercury is frozen, the body, when properly
+dressed, is perfectly comfortable. The soft light of purple and gold, or
+of lilac and rose, on the snowy slopes, dispels the chronic gloom of the
+long night, while the tonic of a brightening air of frost returns the
+flush to the pale cheeks. The stillness adds a charm, with which the
+imagination plays. It is not the music of silence, nor the gold solitude
+of summer, nor the deathlike stillness of the winter blackness. It is
+the stillness of zero's lowest, which has a beauty of its own.
+
+The ice pinnacles are lined with hoar frost, on which there is a play of
+rainbow colors. The tread of one's feet is muffled by feathery beds of
+snow. The mountains, raised by the new glow of light or outlined by
+colored shadows, stand against the brightened heavens in sculptured
+magnificence.
+
+The bear admires his shadow, the fox peeps from behind his bushy tail,
+devising a new cult, for his art of night will soon be a thing of the
+past. The hare sits, with forelegs bent reverently, as if offering
+prayers of gratitude. The musk ox stands in the brightest sun, with his
+beautiful coat of black and blue, and absorbs the first heaven-given sun
+bath, and man soars high in dreams of happiness.
+
+Shadows always attract the eye of primitive people and children. In a
+world such as the one we were invading, with little to rest the eye from
+perpetual glitter, they were to become doubly interesting. When we first
+began observing our shadows, on March 3, I did not dream that a thing so
+simple could rise to the dignity of a proof of the Polar conquest. But,
+since then, I have come to the conclusion that, if a proof of this
+much-discussed problem is at all possible, it is in the corroborative
+evidence of just such little things as shadows.
+
+Accordingly, I have examined every note and impression bearing on
+natural phenomena en route.
+
+To us, in our daily marches from Bay Fiord, the shadow became a thing
+of considerable interest and importance. The Eskimo soul is something
+apart from the body. The native believes it follows in the shadow. For
+this reason, stormy, sunless days are gloomy times to the natives, for
+the presence of the soul is then not in evidence. The night has the same
+effect, although the moon often throws a clear-cut shadow. The native
+believes the soul at times wanders from the body. When it does this, the
+many rival spirits, which in their system of beliefs tenant the body,
+get into all sorts of trouble.
+
+Every person, and every animal, has not only a soul which guards its
+destiny, but every part of the body has an individual spirit--the arm,
+the leg, the nose, the eye, the ear, and every other conceivable part of
+the anatomy, with a peculiar individuality, throbs with a separate life.
+The separate, wandering soul in the shadow is the guiding influence.
+
+Furthermore, there is no such conception as an absolutely inanimate
+thing. The land, the sea, the air, ice, and snow, have great individual
+spirits that ever engage in battle with each other. Even mountains,
+valleys, rocks, icebergs, wood, iron, fire--all have spirits. All of
+this gives them a keen interest in shadows in an otherwise desert of
+gloom and death.
+
+Their entire religious creed would require a long time to work out. Even
+that part of it which is represented by the shadow is quite beyond me.
+As I observed in our following marches toward Svartevoeg, their keen
+eyes detect in shadows incidents and messages of life, histories that
+would fill volumes. The shadow is long or short, clear-cut or vague,
+dark or light, blue or purple, violet or black. Each phase of it has a
+special significance. It presages luck or ill-luck on the chase,
+sickness and death in the future, the presence or unrest of the souls of
+parted friends. Even the souls of the living sometimes get mixed. Then
+there is love or intrigue. All the passions of wild life can be read
+from the shadows. The most pathetic shadows had been the vague, ghastly
+streaks of black that followed the body about a week before sunset in
+October. At that time all the Arctic world is sad, and tears come
+easily.
+
+The shadow does not quickly come back with the returning sun. Continuous
+storms so screen the sunbeams that only a vague, diffused light reaches
+the long night-blackened snows. When the joy of seeing the first shadows
+exploded among my companions I did not know just what intoxication
+infected the camp. With full stomachs of newly acquired musk ox loins,
+we had slept. Suddenly the sun burst through a maze of burning clouds
+and made our snow palace glow with electric darts. The temperature was
+very low. Only half-dressed, the men rushed out, dancing with joy.
+
+Their shadows were long, sharp-cut, and of a deep, purple blue. They
+danced with them. This brought them back to the normal life of Eskimo
+hilarity. Then followed the pleasures of the thrill of the sunny days of
+crystal air and blinding sparkle during never-to-be forgotten days of
+the enervating chill of zero's lowest at -83 deg. F.
+
+In the northward progress, for a long time the shadows did not
+perceptibly shorten or brighten to my eyes. The natives, however, on our
+subsequent marches, got from these shadows a never-ending variety of
+topics to talk about. They foretold storms, located game, and read the
+story of respective home entanglements of the Adamless Eden which we had
+left far away on the Greenland shore.
+
+Our bear adventures took us on an advance trail over which progress was
+easy. Beyond, the snow increased rapidly in depth with every mile.
+Snowshoes were lashed to our feet for the first mile. We halted in our
+march at noon, attacked suddenly by five wolves. The rifles were
+prepared for defense. No shots were to be fired, however, unless active
+battle was commenced. The creatures at close range were slightly
+cream-colored, with a little gray along their backs, but at a greater
+distance they seemed white. They came from the mountains, with a
+chilling, hungry howl that brought shivers. The dogs were interested,
+but made no offer to give chase.
+
+The wolves passed the advancing sledges at a distance, and gathered
+about the rear sledge, which was separated from the train. The driver
+turned his team to help in the fight. As the sledges neared, the teams
+were stopped, the wolves sat down and delivered a maddening chorus of
+chagrin. The dogs were restless, but only wiggled their tails. The men
+stood still, with rifles pointed. The chorus ended. The battle was
+declared off. Seeing that they were outnumbered, the howling creatures
+turned and dashed up the snowy slopes, from which they had come, with a
+storming rush. The train was lined up, and through the deep snow we
+plowed westward.
+
+In two difficult marches we reached Eureka Sound.
+
+Wolves continued on our trail nearly every day along the west coast of
+Acpohon, and also along North Devon.
+
+In the extreme North, the wolf, like the fox, is pure white, with black
+points to the ears, and spots over the eyes. In the regions farther
+south his fur is slightly gray. In size, he is slightly larger than the
+Eskimo dog, his body longer and thinner, and he travels with his tail
+down. Like the bear, he is a ceaseless wanderer during all seasons of
+the year.
+
+In winter, wolves gather in groups of six or eight, and attack musk ox,
+or anything in their line of march. But in summer they travel in pairs,
+and become scavengers. The wolf is alert in estimating the number of his
+combatants and their fighting qualities. Men and dogs in numbers he
+never approaches within gunshot, contenting himself by howling
+piercingly from mountains at a long distance. When a single sledge was
+separated from the others, he would approach to an uncomfortable range.
+
+Bear tracks were also numerous. We were, however, too tired to give
+chase. Close to a cape where we paused, on Eureka Sound, to cut
+snow-blocks for igloos attached to the sledges, E-tuk-i-shook noted two
+bears wandering over the lands not far away. Watching for a few moments
+with the glasses, we noted that they were stalking a sleeping musk ox.
+Now we did not care particularly for the bears, but the musk ox was
+regarded as our own game, and we were not willing to divide it
+knowingly. The packs were pitched into the snow, and the dogs rushed
+through deep snow, over hummocks and rocks, to the creeping bears.
+
+As the bears turned, the rear attack seemed to offer sport, and they
+rose to meet us. But as one team after the other bounced over the
+nearest hills, their heads turned and they rushed up the steep slopes.
+We now saw twenty musk oxen asleep in scattered groups. These interested
+us more than the bears. The dogs were seemingly of the same mind, for
+they required no urging to change the noses from the bears to the musk
+oxen.
+
+As we wound around the hill upon which they rested, all at once arose,
+shook off the snow, rubbed their horns on their knees, and then formed a
+huge star. In a short time the entire herd was ours. The meat was
+dressed, wrapped in skins, the dogs lightly fed, and the carcasses
+hauled to camp. Then we completed our igloos. Bears and wolves wandered
+about camp all night, but with one hundred dogs, whose eyes were on the
+swelled larder, there was no danger from wild brutes.
+
+Early in the morning of March 4 we were awakened by a furious noise from
+the dogs. Koo-loo-ting-wah peeked out and saw a bear in the act of
+taking a choice strip of tenderloin from the meat. With a deft cut of
+the knife, a falling block of snow made a window, and through it the
+rifle was leveled at the animal. He was big, fat, and gave us just the
+blubber required for our lamps.
+
+A holiday was declared. It would take time to stuff the dogs with twenty
+musk oxen and a bear. Furthermore, our clothing needed attention. Boots,
+mittens, and stockings had to be dried and mended. Some of our garments
+were torn in places, permitting winds to enter. Much of the dog harness
+required fixing. The Eskimos' sledges had been slightly broken. Later,
+the same day, another herd of twenty musk oxen were seen. Now even the
+Eskimo's savage thirst for blood was satisfied. The pot was kept
+boiling, and the igloos rang with chants of primitive joys.
+
+On March 7 we began a straight run to the Polar sea, a distance of one
+hundred and seventy miles. The weather was superb and the ice again free
+of heavy snow.
+
+In six marches we reached Schei Island, which we found to be a
+peninsula. We halted here and a feast day was declared. Twenty-seven
+musk oxen and twenty-four hares were secured in one after-dinner hunt.
+This meat guaranteed a food supply to the shores of the Polar sea. A
+weight was lifted from my load of cares, for I had doubted the existence
+of game far enough north to count on fresh meat to the sea. The
+temperature was still low (-50 deg. F.), but the nights were brightening,
+and the days offered twelve hours of good light. Our outlook was hopeful
+indeed.
+
+In the Polar campaign, the bear was unconsciously our best friend, and
+also consciously our worst enemy. There were times when we admired him,
+although he was never exactly friendly to us. There were other times
+when we regarded him with a savage wrath. Only beyond the range of life
+in the utmost North were we free from his attacks. In other places he
+nosed our trail with curious persistence. He had attacked the first
+party that was sent out to explore a route, under cover of night and
+storms. One man was wounded, another lost the tail of his coat and a
+part of his anatomy.
+
+In our march of glory through the musk ox land, the bear came as a
+rival, and disputed not only our right to the chase, but also our right
+to the product from our own catch. But we had guns and dogs, and the
+bears fell easily. We were jealous of the quest of the musk ox. It
+seemed properly to belong to the domain of man's game. We were equal at
+the time to the task, and did not require the bear's help.
+
+The bears were good at figures, and quickly realized ours was a superior
+fighting force. So they joined the ranks in order that they might share
+in the division of the spoils. The bear's goodly mission was always
+regarded with suspicion. We could easily spare the bones of our game,
+which he delighted to pick. We were perfectly able to protect our booty
+with one hundred dogs, whose dinners depended on open eyes. But the bear
+did not always understand our tactics. We afterwards learned that we did
+not always understand his, for he drove many prizes into our arms. But
+man is a short-sighted critic--he sees only his side of the game.
+
+In the northern march a much more friendly spirit was developed. We
+differed on many points of ethics with bruin, and our fights, successful
+or otherwise, were too numerous and disagreeable to relate fully. Only
+one of these battles will be recorded here, to save the reputation of
+man as a superior fighting animal.
+
+We had made a long march of about forty miles. Already the dull purple
+of twilight was resting heavily on darkening snows. The temperature was
+-81 deg.. There was no wind. The air was semi-liquid with suspended
+crystals. When standing still we were perfectly comfortable, although
+jets of steam from our nostrils arranged frost crescents about our
+faces.
+
+We had been advancing towards a group of musk oxen for more than an
+hour. We were now in the habit of living from catch to catch, filling up
+on meat at the end of each successful hunt, and waiting for pot-luck for
+the next meal. The sledges were too heavily loaded to carry additional
+weight. Furthermore, the temperature was too low to split up frozen
+meat. Indeed, most of our axes had been broken in trying to divide meat
+as dog food. It was plainly an economy of axes and fuel to fill up on
+warm meat as the skin was removed, and wait for the next plunder.
+
+We had been two days without setting eyes on an appetizing meal of
+steaming meat. Not a living speck had crossed our horizon; and,
+therefore, when we noted the little cloud of steam rise from a side
+hill, and guessed that under it were herds of musk ox, our palates
+moistened with anticipatory joys. A camping place was sought. Two domes
+of snow were erected as a shelter.
+
+Through the glasses we counted twenty-one musk oxen. Some were digging
+up snow to find willows; others were sleeping. All were unsuspecting.
+After the experience we had in this kind of hunting, we confidently
+counted the game as ours. A holiday was declared for the morrow, to
+dispose of the surplus. Nourishment in prospect, one hundred dogs
+started with a jump, under the lashes of ten Eskimos. Our sledges began
+shooting the boreal shoots. After rushing over minor hills, the dog
+noses sank into bear tracks. A little farther along, we realized we had
+rivals. Two bears were far ahead, approaching the musk oxen.
+
+The dogs scented their rivals. The increased bounding of the sledges
+made looping-the-loop seem tame. But we were too late; the bears ran
+into the bunch of animals, and spoiled our game with no advantage to
+themselves. Giving a half-hearted chase, they rose to a bank of snow,
+deliberately sat down, and turned to a position to give us the laugh.
+
+The absence of musk ox did not slacken the pace of the dogs. The bears
+were quick to see the force of our intent. They scattered and climbed. A
+bear is an expert Alpinist; he requires no ice axe and no lantern. The
+moon came out, and the snow slopes began to glare with an electric
+incandescence.
+
+In this pearly light, the white bear seemed black, and was easily
+located. One bear slipped into a ravine and was lost. All attention was
+now given to the other, which was ascending an icy ridge to a commanding
+precipice. We cut the dogs from the sledges. They soared up the white
+slope as if they had wings. The bear gained the crest in time to cuff
+away each rising antagonist. The dogs tumbled over each other, down
+several hundred feet into a soft snow-padded gully. Other dogs continued
+to rise on the ridge to keep the bear guessing. The dogs in the pit
+discovered a new route, and made a combined rear attack. Bruin was
+surprised, and turned to face his enemies. Backing from a sudden
+assault, he stepped over a precipice, and tumbled in a heap into the
+dog-strewn pit. The battle was now on in full force. Finding four feet
+more useful than one mouth, the bear turned on his back and sent his
+paws out with telling effect. The dogs, although not giving up the
+battle, scattered, for the swing of the creature's feet did not suit
+their battle methods. Sitting on curled tails, they filled the air with
+murderous howls and raised clouds of frozen breath in the flying snow.
+
+We were on the scene at a safe distance, each with a tight grip on his
+gun, expecting the bear to make a sudden plunge. But he was not given a
+choice of movement, and we could not shoot into the darting pit of dogs
+without injuring them. At this moment Ah-we-lah, youngest of the party,
+advanced. Leaving his gun, he descended through the dog ranks into the
+pit, with the spiked harpoon shaft. The bear threw back its head to meet
+him. A score of dogs grabbed the bear's feet. Ah-we-lah raised his arm.
+A sudden savage thrust sank the blunt steel into the bear's chest.
+Cracking whips, we scattered the guarding dogs. The prize was quickly
+divided.
+
+On our advance to the Polar sea, I found that there is considerable art
+in building snowhouses. The casual observer is likely to conclude that
+it is an easy problem to pile up snow-blocks, dome-shaped, but to do
+this properly, so that the igloo will withstand wind, requires adept
+work. From the lessons of my companions in this art I now became more
+alert to learn, knowing the necessity of protection on our Polar dash.
+
+The first problem is to find proper snow. One has often to seek for
+banks where the snow is just hard enough. If it is too hard, it cannot
+be easily cut with knives. If it is too soft, the blocks will crush, and
+cause the house to cave in. Long knives are the best instruments--one of
+fifteen inches and another about ten. From sixty to seventy-five blocks,
+fifteen by twenty-four inches, are required to make a house ten feet by
+ten. The blocks are cut according to the snow, but fifteen by
+twenty-four by eight inches is the best size.
+
+The lower tiers of blocks are set in slight notches in the snow, to
+prevent the blocks from slipping out. A slight tilt begins from the
+first tiers; the next tier tilts still more, and so the next. The blocks
+are set so that the upper blocks cover the breaks in the lower tier. The
+fitting is done mostly with the blocks in position, the knife being
+passed between the blocks to and fro, with a pressure on the blocks with
+the other hand. The hardest task is to make the blocks stick without
+holding in the upper tiers. This is done by deft cuts with the knife and
+a slight thump of the blocks.
+
+The dome is the most difficult part to build. In doing this all blocks
+are leveled and carefully set to arch the roof.
+
+When the structure is completed, a candle is lit and the cracks are
+stuffed by cutting the edges off the nearest blocks, and pressing the
+broken snow into the cracks with the mittens. After this process, the
+interior arrangement is worked out. The foot space is first cut out in
+blocks. If the snow is on a slope, as it often happens, these blocks are
+raised and the upper slopes are cut down to a level plane.
+
+The foot space is a very important matter, first for the comfort of
+sitting, and also to let off the carbonic acid gas, which quickly
+settles in these temperatures and extinguishes the fires. It, of course,
+has also an important bearing on human breathing.
+
+Inhalation of very cold air at this time forced an unconscious
+expenditure of very much energy. The extent of this tax can be gauged
+only by the enormous difference between the temperature of the body and
+that of the air. One day it was -72 deg. F. The difference was, therefore,
+170 deg.. It is hard to conceive of normal breathing under such
+difficulties; but when properly clothed and fed, no great discomfort or
+ill-effects are noted. The membranes of the air passages are, however,
+overflushed with blood. The chest circulation is forced to its limits,
+and the heart beats are increased and strengthened. The organs of
+circulation and respiration, which do ninety per cent. of the work of
+the body, are taxed with a new burden that must be counted in estimating
+one's day's task. This loss of power in breathing extreme frost is
+certain to reduce working time and bodily force.
+
+The land whose coast we were following to the shores of the Polar sea is
+part of the American hemisphere, and one of the largest islands of the
+world, spreading 30 deg. longitude and rising 7 deg. of latitude. What is its
+name? The question must remained unanswered, for it not only has no
+general name, but numerous sections are written with names and outlines
+that differ to a large extent with the caprice of the explorers who have
+been there.
+
+The south is called Lincoln Land; above it, Ellesmere Land. Then comes
+Schley Land, Grinnell Land, Arthur Land, and Grant Land, with other
+lands of later christening by Sverdrup and others.
+
+No human beings inhabit the island. No nation assumes the responsibility
+of claiming or protecting it. The Eskimo calls the entire country
+Acpohon, or "the Land of Guillemots," which are found in great abundance
+along the southeast point. I have, therefore, to avoid conflictions,
+affixed the name of Acpohon as the general designation.
+
+We had now advanced beyond the range of all primitive life. No human
+voice broke the frigid silence. The Eskimos had wandered into the
+opening of the musk ox pass. Sverdrup had mapped the channels of the
+west coast. But here was no trace of modern or aboriginal residence.
+There is no good reason why men should not have followed the musk oxen
+here, but the nearest Eskimos on the American side are those on
+Lancaster Sound.
+
+I found an inspiration in being thus alone at the world's end. The
+barren rocks, the wastes of snow-fields, the mountains stripped of
+earlier ice-sheets, and every phase of the landscape, assured a new
+interest. There was a note of absolute abandon on the part of nature. If
+our own resources failed, or if a calamity overtook us, there would be
+no trace to mark icy graves forever hidden from surviving loved ones.
+
+My Eskimo comrades were enthusiastic explorers. The game trails gave a
+touch of animation to their steps, which meant much to the progress of
+the expedition. We not only saw musk oxen in large herds, but tracks of
+bears and wolves were everywhere in line with our course. On the sea-ice
+we noted many seal blow-holes. Already the natives talked of coming here
+on the following year to cast their lot in the new wilds.
+
+The picturesque headland of Schie we found to be a huge triassic rock of
+the same general formation as that indicated along Eureka Sound. Its
+west offered a series of grassy slopes bared by persistent winds, upon
+which animal life found easy access to the winter-cured grass. A narrow
+neck of land connected what seemed like an island with the main land.
+Here caches of fur and fuel were left for the return. In passing Snag's
+Fiord the formation changed. Here, for several marches, game was scarce.
+The temperature rose as we neared the Polar sea. The snow became much
+deeper but it was hardened by stronger winds and increased humidity.
+High glacier-abandoned valleys with gradual slopes to the water's edge,
+gave the Heiberg shores on Nansen Sound a different type of landscape
+from that of the opposite shores. Here and there we found pieces of
+lignite coal, and as we neared Svartevoeg the carboniferous formation
+became more evident.
+
+Camping in the lowlands just south of Svartevoeg Cliffs we secured seven
+musk oxen and eighty-five hares. Here were immense fields of grass and
+moss bared by persistent winter gales. By a huge indentation here,
+through which we saw the sea-level ice of the west, the shores seemed to
+indicate that the point of Heiberg is an island, but of this we were not
+absolutely sure. To us it was a great surprise that here, on the shores
+of the Polar sea, we found a garden spot of plant luxuriance and animal
+delight. For this assured, in addition to the caches left en route, a
+sure food supply for the return from our mission to the North.
+
+
+
+
+THE TRANS-BOREAL DASH BEGINS
+
+BY FORCED EFFORTS AND THE USE OF AXES SPEED IS MADE OVER THE
+LAND--ADHERING PACK ICE OF POLAR SEA--THE MOST DIFFICULT TRAVEL OF THE
+PROPOSED JOURNEY SUCCESSFULLY ACCOMPLISHED--REGRETFUL PARTING WITH THE
+ESKIMOS
+
+XIII
+
+FIVE HUNDRED MILES FROM THE POLE
+
+
+Svartevoeg is a great cliff, the northernmost point of Heiberg Land,
+which leaps precipitously into the Polar sea. Its negroid face of black
+scarred rocks frowns like the carven stone countenance of some hideously
+mutilated and enraged Titan savage. It expresses, more than a human face
+could, the unendurable sufferings of this region of frigid horrors. It
+is five hundred and twenty miles from the North Pole.
+
+From this point I planned to make my dash in as straight a route as
+might be possible. Starting from our camp at Annoatok late in February,
+when the curtain of night was just beginning to lift, when the chill of
+the long winter was felt at its worst, we had forced progress through
+deep snows, over land and frozen seas, braving the most furious storms
+of the season and traveling despite baffling darkness, and had covered
+in less than a month about four hundred miles--nearly half the distance
+between our winter camp and the Pole.
+
+Arriving at land's end my heart had cause for gratification. We had
+weathered the worst storms of the year. The long bitter night had now
+been lost. The days lengthened and invaded with glitter the decreasing
+nights. The sun glowed more radiantly daily, rose higher and higher to a
+continued afterglow in cheery blues, and sank for periods briefer and
+briefer in seas of running color. Our hopes, like those of all mankind,
+had risen with the soul-lifting sun. We had made our progress mainly at
+the expense of the land which we explored, for the game en route had
+furnished food and clothing.
+
+The supplies we had brought with us from Annoatok were practically
+untouched. We had stepped in overfed skins, were fired by a resolution
+which was recharged by a strength bred of feeding upon abundant raw and
+wholesome meat. Eating to repletion on unlimited game, our bodies were
+kept in excellent trim by the exigencies of constant and difficult
+traveling.
+
+As a man's mental force is the result of yesteryears' upbuilding, so his
+strength of to-day is the result of last week's eating. With the surge
+of ambition which had been formulating for twenty years, and my body in
+best physical shape for the supreme test, the Pole now seemed almost
+near.
+
+As the great cliffs of Svartevoeg rose before us my heart leaped. I felt
+that the first rung in the ladder of success had been climbed, and as I
+stood under the black cliffs of this earth's northernmost land I felt
+that I looked through the eyes of long experience. Having reached the
+end of Nansen Sound, with Svartevoeg on my left, and the tall, scowling
+cliffs of Lands-Lokk on my right, I viewed for the first time the rough
+and heavy ice of the untracked Polar sea, over which, knowing the
+conditions of the sea ice, I anticipated the most difficult part of our
+journey lay. Imagine before you fields of crushed ice, glimmering in the
+rising sunlight with shooting fires of sapphire and green; fields which
+have been slowly forced downward by strong currents from the north, and
+pounded and piled in jagged mountainous heaps for miles about the land.
+Beyond this difficult ice, as I knew, lay more even fields, over which
+traveling, saving the delays of storms and open leads, would be
+comparatively easy. To encompass this rough prospect was the next step
+in reaching my goal. I felt that no time must be lost. At this point I
+was now to embark upon the Polar sea; the race for my life's ambition
+was to begin here; but first I had finally to resolve on the details of
+my campaign.
+
+I decided to reduce my party to the smallest possible number consistent
+with the execution of the problem in hand. In addition, for greater
+certainty of action over the unknown regions beyond, I now definitely
+resolved to simplify the entire equipment. An extra sled was left at the
+cache at this point to insure a good vehicle for our return in case the
+two sleds which we were to take should be badly broken en route. I
+decided to take only two men on the last dash. I had carefully watched
+and studied every one of my party, and had already selected
+E-tuk-i-shook and Ah-we-lah, two young Eskimos, each about twenty years
+old, as best fitted to be my sole companions in the long run of destiny.
+
+Twenty-six of the best dogs were picked, and upon two sleds were to be
+loaded all our needs for a trip estimated to last eighty days.
+
+To have increased this party would not have enabled us to carry supplies
+for a greater number of days.
+
+The sleds might have been loaded more heavily, but I knew this would
+reduce the important progress of the first days.
+
+With the character of ice which we had before us, advance stations were
+impossible. A large expedition and a heavy equipment would have been
+imprudent. We must win or lose in a prolonged effort at high pressure.
+Therefore, absolute control and ease of adaptability to a changing
+environment was imperative.
+
+From past experience I knew it was impossible to control adequately the
+complex human temperament of white men in the Polar wilderness. But I
+felt certain the two Eskimo boys could be trusted to follow to the limit
+of my own endurance. So our sleds were burdened only with absolute
+necessaries.
+
+Because of the importance of a light and efficient equipment, much care
+had to be taken to reduce every ounce of weight. The sleds were made of
+hickory, the lightest wood consistent with great endurance, and every
+needless fibre was gouged out. The iron shoes were ground thin, and up
+to the present had stood the test of half the Polar battle.
+
+Eliminating everything not actually needed, but selecting adequate food,
+I made the final preparations.
+
+The camp equipment selected included the following articles: One blow
+fire lamp (jeuel), three aluminum pails, three aluminum cups, three
+aluminum teaspoons, one tablespoon, three tin plates, six pocket
+knives, two butcher knives (ten inches), one saw knife (thirteen
+inches), one long knife (fifteen inches), one rifle (Sharp's), one rifle
+(Winchester .22), one hundred and ten cartridges, one hatchet, one
+Alpine axe, extra line and lashings, and three personal bags.
+
+The sled equipment consisted of two sleds weighing fifty-two pounds
+each; one twelve-foot folding canvas boat, the wood of which formed part
+of a sled; one silk tent, two canvas sled covers, two reindeer skin
+sleeping bags, floor furs, extra wood for sled repairs, screws, nails
+and rivets.
+
+My instruments were as follows: One field glass; one pocket compass; one
+liquid compass; one aluminum surveying compass, with azimuth attachment;
+one French surveyor's sextant, with radius 71/2, divided on silver to
+10', reading by Vernier to 10'' (among the extra attachments were a
+terrestrial and an astronomical telescope, and an extra night telescope
+mounted in aluminum, and also double refracting prisms, thermometers,
+etc.--the instrument was made by Hurleman of France and bought of
+Keuffel & Esser); one glass artificial horizon; three Howard pocket
+chronometers; one Tiffany watch; one pedometer; map-making material and
+instruments; three thermometers; one aneroid barometer; one camera and
+films; notebook and pencils.
+
+The personal bags contained four extra pairs of kamiks, with fur
+stockings, a woolen shirt, three pairs of sealskin mittens, two pairs of
+fur mittens, a piece of blanket, a sealskin coat (netsha), extra fox
+tails and dog harness, a repair kit for mending clothing, and much other
+necessary material.
+
+On the march we wore snow goggles, blue fox coats (kapitahs) and
+birdskin shirts (Ah-tea), bearskin pants (Nan-nooka), sealskin boots
+(Kam-ik), hare-skin stockings (Ah-tee-shah), and a band of fox tails
+under the knee and about the waist.
+
+The food supply, as will be seen by the following list, was mostly
+pemmican:
+
+Eight hundred and five pounds of beef pemmican, one hundred and thirty
+pounds of walrus pemmican, fifty pounds of musk ox tenderloin,
+twenty-five pounds of musk ox tallow, two pounds of tea, one pound of
+coffee, twenty-five pounds of sugar, forty pounds of condensed milk,
+sixty pounds of milk biscuit, ten pounds of pea soup powdered and
+compressed, fifty pounds of surprises, forty pounds petroleum, two
+pounds of wood alcohol, three pounds of candles and one pound of
+matches.
+
+We planned our future food supply with pemmican as practically the sole
+food; the other things were to be mere palate satisfiers. For the eighty
+days the supply was to be distributed as follows:
+
+For three men: Pemmican, one pound per day for eighty days, two hundred
+and forty pounds. For six dogs: Pemmican, one pound per day for eighty
+days, four hundred and eighty pounds. This necessitated a total of seven
+hundred and twenty pounds of pemmican.
+
+Of the twenty-six dogs, we had at first figured on taking sixteen over
+the entire trip to the Pole and back to our caches on land, but in this
+last calculation only six were to be taken. Twenty, the least useful,
+were to be used one after the other, as food on the march, as soon as
+reduced loads and better ice permitted. This, we counted, would give one
+thousand pounds of fresh meat over and above our pemmican supply. We
+carried about two hundred pounds of pemmican above the expected
+consumption, and in the final working out the dogs were used for
+traction purposes longer than we anticipated. But, with a cautious
+saving, the problem was solved somewhat more economically than any
+figuring before the start indicated.
+
+Every possible article of equipment was made to do double service; not
+an ounce of dead weight was carried which could be dispensed with.
+
+After making several trips about Svartevoeg, arranging caches for the
+return, studying the ice and land, I decided to make the final start on
+the Polar sea on March 18, 1908.
+
+The time had come to part with most of our faithful Eskimo companions.
+Taking their hands in my manner of parting, I thanked them as well as I
+could for their faithful service to me. "_Tigishi ah yaung-uluk!_" (The
+big nail!), they replied, wishing me luck.
+
+Then, in a half gale blowing from the northwest and charged with snow,
+they turned their backs upon me and started upon the return track. They
+carried little but ammunition, because we had learned that plenty of
+game was to be provided along the return courses.
+
+Even after they were out of sight in the drifting snowstorm their voices
+came cheerily back to me. The faithful savages had followed me until
+told that I could use them no longer; and it was not only for their
+simple pay of knives and guns, but because of a real desire to be
+helpful. Their parting enforced a pang of loneliness.[10]
+
+With a snow-charged blast in our faces it was impossible for us to start
+immediately after the Eskimos returned. Withdrawing to the snow igloo,
+we entered our bags and slept a few hours longer. At noon the horizon
+cleared. The wind veered to the southwest and came with an endurable
+force. Doubly rationed the night before, the dogs were not to be fed
+again for two days. The time had come to start. We quickly loaded our
+sleds. Hitching the dogs, we let the whips fall, and with bounds they
+leaped around deep ice grooves in the great paleocrystic floes.
+
+Our journey was begun. Swept of snow by the force of the preceding
+storm, the rough ice crisply cracked under the swift speed of our sleds.
+Even on this uneven surface the dogs made such speed that I kept ahead
+of them only with difficulty. Their barking pealed about us and
+re-echoed from the black cliffs behind. Dashing about transparent
+ultramarine gorges, and about the base of miniature mountains of ice, we
+soon came into a region of undulating icy hills. The hard irregularity
+of the ice at times endangered our sleds. We climbed over ridges like
+walls. We jumped dangerous crevasses, keeping slightly west by north;
+the land soon sank in the rear of us. Drifting clouds and wind-driven
+snows soon screened the tops of black mountains. Looking behind, I saw
+only a swirling, moving scene of dull white and nebulous gray. On every
+side ice hummocks heaved their backs and writhed by. Behind me followed
+four snugly loaded sleds, drawn by forty-four selected dogs, under the
+lash of four expert Eskimo drivers. The dogs pranced; the joyous cries
+of the natives rose and fell. My heart leaped; my soul sang. I felt my
+blood throb with each gallop of the leaping dog teams. The sound of
+their feet pattering on the snow, the sight of their shaggy bodies
+tossing forward, gave me joy. For every foot of ice covered, every
+minute of constant action, drew me nearer, ever nearer, to my goal.
+
+Our first run was auspicious; it seemed to augur success. By the time we
+paused to rest we had covered twenty-six miles.
+
+We pitched camp on a floeberg of unusual height; about us were many big
+hummocks, and to the lee of these banks of hardened snow. Away from land
+it is always more difficult to find snow suitable for cutting building
+blocks. There, however, was an abundance. We busily built, in the course
+of an hour, a comfortable snow igloo. Into it we crept, grateful for
+shelter from the piercing wind.
+
+The dogs curled up and went to sleep without a call, as if they knew
+that there would be no food until to-morrow. My wild companions covered
+their faces with their long hair and sank quietly into slumber. For me
+sleep was impossible. The whole problem of our campaign had again to be
+carefully studied, and final plans made, not only to reach our ultimate
+destination, but for the two returning Eskimos and for the security of
+the things left at Annoatok, and also to re-examine the caches left en
+route for our return. These must be protected as well as possible
+against the bears and wolves.
+
+Already I had begun to think of our return to land. It was difficult at
+this time even to approximate any probable course. Much would depend
+upon conditions to be encountered in the northward route. Although we
+had left caches of supplies with the object of returning along Nansen
+Sound, into Cannon Fiord and over Arthur Land, I entertained grave
+doubts of our ability to return this way. I knew that if the ice should
+drift strongly to the east we might not be given the choice of working
+out our own return. For, in such an event, we should perhaps be carried
+helplessly to Greenland, and should have to seek a return either along
+the east or the west coast.
+
+This drift, in my opinion, would not necessarily mean dangerous
+hardships, for the musk oxen would keep us alive to the west, and to the
+east it seemed possible to reach Shannon Island, where the
+Baldwin-Zeigler expeditions had abandoned a large cache of supplies. It
+appeared not improbable, also, that a large land extension might offer a
+safe return much further west. I fell asleep while pondering over these
+things. By morning the air was clear of frost crystals. It was intensely
+cold, not only because of a temperature of 56 deg. below zero, Fahrenheit,
+but a humid chill which pierced to the very bones. A light breeze came
+from the west. The sun glowed in a freezing field of blue.
+
+Hitching our dogs, we started. For several hours we seemed to soar over
+the white spaces. Then the ice changed in character, the expansive,
+thick fields of glacier-like ice giving way to floes of moderate size
+and thickness. These were separated by zones of troublesome crushed ice
+thrown into high-pressure lines, which offered serious barriers.
+Chopping the pathway with an ice axe, we managed to make fair progress.
+We covered twenty-one miles of our second run on the Polar sea. I
+expected, at the beginning of this final effort, to send back by this
+time the two extra men, Koo-loo-ting-wah and In-u-gi-to, who had
+remained to help us over the rough pack-ice. But progress had not been
+as good as I had expected; so, although we could hardly spare any food
+to feed their dogs, the two volunteered to push along for another day
+without dog food.
+
+Taking advantage of big, strong teams and the fire of early enthusiasm,
+we aimed to force long distances through the extremely difficult ice
+jammed here against the distant land. The great weight of the supplies
+intended for the final two sleds were now distributed over four sleds.
+With axe and compass in hand, I led the way. With prodigious effort I
+chopped openings through barriers after barriers of ice. Sled after sled
+was passed over the tumbling series of obstacles by my companions while
+I advanced to open a way through the next. With increasing difficulties
+in some troublesome ice, we camped after making only sixteen miles.
+Although weary, we built a small snowhouse. I prepared over my stove a
+pot of steaming musk ox loins and broth and a double brew of tea. After
+partaking of this our two helpers prepared to return. To have taken them
+farther would have necessitated a serious drain on our supplies and an
+increased danger for their lives in a longer return to land.
+
+By these men I sent back instructions to Rudolph Francke to remain in
+charge of my supplies at Annoatok until June 5th, 1908, and then, if we
+should not have returned by that date, to place Koo-loo-ting-wah in
+charge and go home either by a whaler or some Danish ship. I knew that,
+should we get in trouble, he could offer no relief to help us, and that
+his waiting an indefinite time alone would be a needless hardship.
+
+[Illustration: DASHING FORWARD EN ROUTE TO THE POLE]
+
+[Illustration: DEPARTURE OF SUPPORTING PARTY
+
+A BREATHING SPELL
+
+POLEWARD!]
+
+The way before Koo-loo-ting-wah and In-u-gi-to, who had so cheerfully
+remained to the last possible moment that they could be of help, was not
+an entirely pleasant one. Their friends were by now well on their
+journey toward Annoatok, and they had to start after them with sleds
+empty of provisions and dogs hungry for food.
+
+They hoped to get back to land and off the ice of the Polar sea in one
+long day's travel of twenty-four hours. Even this would leave their
+fourth day without food for their dogs. In case of storms or moving of
+the ice, other days of famine might easily fall to their lot. However,
+they faced possible dangers cheerfully rather than ask me to give them
+anything from the stores that were to support their two companions,
+myself and our dogs on our way onward to the Pole and back. I was deeply
+touched by this superlative devotion. They assured me too (in which they
+were right) that they had an abundance of possible food in the eighteen
+dogs they took with them. If necessary, they could sacrifice a few at
+any time for the benefit of the others, as must often be done in the
+Northland.
+
+There were no formalities in our parting on the desolate ice. Yet, as
+the three of us who were left alone gazed after our departing
+companions, we felt a poignant pang in our hearts. About us was a
+cheerless waste of crushed wind-and-water-driven ice. A sharp wind
+stung our faces. The sun was obscured by clouds which piled heavily and
+darkly about the horizon. The cold and brilliant jeweled effects of the
+frozen sea were lost in a dismal hue of dull white and sombre gray. On
+the horizon, Svartevoeg, toward which the returning Eskimos were bound,
+was but a black speck. To the north, where our goal lay, our way was
+untrodden, unknown. The thought came to me that perhaps we should never
+see our departing friends. With it came a pang of tenderness for the
+loved ones I had left behind me. Although our progress so far had been
+successful, and half the distance was made, dangers unknown and
+undreamed of existed in the way before us. My Eskimos already showed
+anxiety--an anxiety which every aboriginal involuntarily feels when land
+disappears on the horizon. Never venturing themselves far onto the Polar
+sea, when they lose sight of land a panic overcomes them. Before leaving
+us one of the departing Eskimos had pointed out a low-lying cloud to the
+north of us. "Noona" (land), he said, nodding to the others. The thought
+occurred to me that, on our trip, I could take advantage of the mirages
+and low clouds on the horizon and encourage a belief in a constant
+nearness to land, thus maintaining their courage and cheer.[11]
+
+Regrets and fears were not long-lasting, however, for the exigencies of
+our problem were sufficiently imperative and absorbing. To the
+overcoming of these we had now to devote our entire attention and strain
+every fibre.
+
+We had now advanced, by persistent high-pressure efforts, over the worst
+possible ice conditions, somewhat more than sixty miles. Of the 9 deg.
+between land's end and the Pole, we had covered one; and we had done
+this without using the pound of food per day allotted each of us out of
+the eighty days' supply transported.
+
+[Illustration: POLAR BEAR]
+
+
+
+
+OVER THE POLAR SEA TO THE BIG LEAD
+
+WITH TWO ESKIMO COMPANIONS, THE RACE POLEWARD CONTINUES OVER ROUGH AND
+DIFFICULT ICE--THE LAST LAND FADES BEHIND--MIRAGES LEAP INTO BEING AND
+WEAVE A MYSTIC SPELL--A SWIRLING SCENE OF MOVING ICE AND FANTASTIC
+EFFECTS--STANDING ON A HILL OF ICE, A BLACK, WRITHING, SNAKY CUT APPEARS
+IN THE ICE BEYOND--THE BIG LEAD--A NIGHT OF ANXIETY--FIVE HUNDRED MILES
+ALREADY COVERED--FOUR HUNDRED TO THE POLE
+
+XIV
+
+TO EIGHTY-THIRD PARALLEL
+
+
+Our party, thus reduced to three, went onward. Although the isolation
+was more oppressive, there were the advantages of the greater comfort,
+safety, speed and convenience that came from having only a small band.
+The large number of men in a big expedition always increases
+responsibilities and difficulties. In the early part of a Polar venture
+this disadvantage is eliminated by the facilities to augment supplies by
+the game en route and by ultimate advantages of the law of the survival
+of the fittest. But after the last supporting sleds return, the men are
+bound to each other for protection and can no longer separate. A
+disabled or unfitted dog can be fed to his companions, but an injured
+or weak man cannot be eaten nor left alone to die. An exploring venture
+is only as strong as its weakest member, and increased numbers, like
+increased links in a chain, reduce efficiency.
+
+Moreover, personal idiosyncrasies and inconveniences always shorten a
+day's march. And, above all, a numerous party quickly divides into
+cliques, which are always opposed to each other, to the leader, and
+invariably to the best interests of the problem in hand. With but two
+savage companions, to whom this arduous task was but a part of an
+accustomed life of frost, I did not face many of the natural personal
+barriers which contributed to the failure of former Arctic expeditions.
+
+In my judgment, when you double a Polar party its chances for success
+are reduced one-half; when you divide it, strength and security are
+multiplied.
+
+We had been traveling about two and one-half miles per hour. By making
+due allowances for detours and halts at pressure lines, the number of
+hours traveled gave us a fair estimate of the day's distance. Against
+this the pedometer offered a check, and the compass gave the course.
+Thus, over blank charts, our course was marked.
+
+By this kind of dead reckoning our position on March 20 was: Latitude,
+82 deg. 23'; Longitude, 95 deg. 14'. A study of our location seemed to
+indicate that we had passed beyond the zone of ice crushed by the
+influence of land pressure. Behind were great hummocks and small ice;
+ahead was a cheerful expanse of larger, clearer fields, offering a
+promising highway.
+
+Our destination was now about four hundred and sixty miles beyond. Our
+life, with its pack environment, assumed another aspect. Previously we
+permitted ourselves some luxuries. A pound of coal oil and a good deal
+of musk ox tallow were burned each day to heat the igloo and to cook
+abundant food. Extra meals were served when occasion called for them,
+and for each man there had been all the food and drink he desired. If
+the stockings or the mittens were wet there was fire enough to dry them
+out. All of this had now to be changed.
+
+Hereafter there was to be a short daily allowance of food and fuel--one
+pound of pemmican a day for the dogs, about the same for the men, with
+just a taste of other things. Fortunately, we were well provided with
+fresh meat for the early part of the race by the lucky run through game
+lands. Because of the need of fuel economy we now cut our pemmican with
+an axe. Later it split the axe.
+
+At first no great hardship followed our changed routine. We filled up
+sufficiently on two cold meals daily and also depended on superfluous
+bodily tissue. It was no longer possible to jump on the sled for an
+occasional breathing spell, as we had done along the land.
+
+Such a journey as now confronted us is a long-continued, hard,
+difficult, sordid, body-exhausting thing. Each day some problem presents
+some peculiar condition of the ice or state of the weather. The effort,
+for instance, to form some shield from intense cold gives added interest
+to the game. That one thing after another is being met, with always the
+anticipation of next day's struggle, adds a thrill to the conquest,
+spurs one to greater and ever greater feats, and really constitutes the
+actual victory of such a quest. With overloaded sleds the drivers must
+now push and pull at them to aid the dogs. My task was to search the
+troubled ice for easy routes, cutting away here and there with the
+ice-axe to permit the passing of the sleds.
+
+Finally stripping for the race, man and dog must walk along together
+through storms and frost for the elusive goal. Success or failure must
+depend mostly upon our ability to transport nourishment and to keep up
+the muscular strength for a prolonged period.
+
+As we awoke on the morning of March 21 and peered out of the eye-port of
+the igloo, the sun edged along the northeast. A warm orange glow
+suffused the ice and gladdened our hearts. The temperature was 63 deg. below
+zero, Fahrenheit; the barometer was steady and high. There was almost no
+wind. Not a cloud lined the dome of pale purple blue, but a smoky streak
+along the west shortened our horizon in that direction and marked a lead
+of open water.
+
+Our breakfast consisted of two cups of tea, a watch-sized biscuit, a
+chip of frozen meat and a boulder of pemmican. Creeping out of our bags,
+our shivering legs were pushed through bearskin cylinders which served
+as trousers. We worked our feet into frozen boots and then climbed into
+fur coats. Next we kicked the front out of the snowhouse and danced
+about to stimulate heart action.
+
+Quickly the camp furnishings were tossed on the sleds and securely
+lashed. We gathered the dog traces into the drag lines, vigorously
+snapped the long whips, and the willing creatures bent to the shoulder
+straps. The sleds groaned. The unyielding snows gave a metallic ring.
+The train moved with a cheerful pace.
+
+"_Am-my noona terronga dosangwah_" (Perhaps land will be out of sight
+today), we said to one another.[12] But the words did not come with
+serious intent. In truth, each in his own way felt keenly that we were
+leaving a world of life and possible comfort for one of torment and
+suffering. Axel Heiberg Land, to the south, was already only a dull blue
+haze, while Grant Land, on the eastward, was making fantastic figures of
+its peaks and ice walls. The ice ran in waves of undulating blue,
+shimmering with streams of gold, before us. Behind, the last vestiges of
+jagged land rose and fell like marionettes dancing a wild farewell. Our
+heart-pulls were backward, our mental kicks were forward.
+
+Until now this strange white world had been one of grim reality. As
+though some unseen magician had waved his wand, it was suddenly
+transformed into a land of magic. Leaping into existence, as though from
+realms beyond the horizon, huge mirages wove a web of marvelous
+delusional pictures about the horizon. Peaks of snow were transformed
+into volcanoes, belching smoke; out of the pearly mist rose marvelous
+cities with fairy-like castles; in the color-shot clouds waved golden
+and rose and crimson pennants from pinnacles and domes of mosaic-colored
+splendor. Huge creatures, misshapen and grotesque, writhed along the
+horizon and performed amusing antics.
+
+Beginning now, and rarely absent, these spectral denizens of the North
+accompanied us during the entire journey; and later, when, fagged of
+brain and sapped of bodily strength, I felt my mind swimming in a sea of
+half-consciousness, they filled me almost with horror, impressing me as
+the monsters one sees in a nightmare.
+
+At every breathing spell in the mad pace our heads now turned to land.
+Every look was rewarded by a new prospect. From belching volcanoes to
+smoking cities of modern bustle, the mirages gave a succession of
+striking scenes which filled me with awed and marveling delight. A more
+desolate line of coast could not be imagined. Along its edge ran low
+wind-swept and wind-polished mountains. These were separated by valleys
+filled with great depths of snow and glacial ice.
+
+Looking northward, the sky line was clear of the familiar pinnacles of
+icebergs. In the immediate vicinity many small bergs were seen; some of
+these were grounded, and the pack thus anchored was thrown in huge
+uplifts of pressure lines and hummocks. The sea, as is thereby
+determined, is very shallow for a long distance from land.
+
+This interior accumulation of snow moves slowly to the sea, where it
+forms a low ice wall, a glacier of the Malaspina type. Its appearance is
+more like that of heavy sea ice; hence the name of the paleocrystic ice,
+fragments from this glacier, floebergs, which, seen in Lincoln Sea and
+resembling old floes, were supposed to be the product of the ancient
+upbuilding of the ice of the North Polar Sea.
+
+Snapping our whips and urging the dogs, we traveled until late in the
+afternoon, mirages constantly appearing and melting about us. Now the
+land suddenly settled downward as if by an earthquake. The pearly
+glitter, which had raised and magnified it, darkened. A purple fabric
+fell over the horizon and merged imperceptibly into the lighter purple
+blue of the upper skies. We saw the land, however, at successive periods
+for several days. This happened whenever the atmosphere was in the right
+condition to elevate the terrestrial contour lines by refracting sun
+rays.
+
+Every condition favored us on this march. The wind was not strong and
+struck us at an angle, permitting us to guard our noses by pushing a
+mitten under our hoods or by raising a fur-clad hand.
+
+We had not been long in the field, however, when the wind, that
+ever-present dragon guardian of the unseen northern monarch's demesne,
+began to suck strength from our bodies. Shortly before Grant Land
+entirely faded the monster fawned on us with gentle breathing.
+
+The snow was hard, and the ice, in fairly large fields separated by
+pressure lines, offered little resistance. On March 21, at the end of a
+forced effort of fourteen hours, the register indicated a progress of
+twenty-nine miles.
+
+Too weary to build an igloo, we threw ourselves thoughtlessly upon the
+sleds for a short rest, and fell asleep. I was awakened from my fitful
+slumber by a feeling of compression, as if stifling arms hideously
+gripped me. It was the wind. I breathed with difficulty. I struggled to
+my feet, and about me hissed and wailed the dismal sound. It was a sharp
+warning to us that to sleep without the shelter of an igloo would
+probably mean death.
+
+On the heavy floe upon which we rested were several large hummocks. To
+the lee of one of these we found suitable snow for a shelter.
+
+Lines of snowy vapor were rushing over the pack. The wind came with
+rapidly increasing force. We erected the house, however, before we
+suffered severely from the blast. We crept into it out of the storm and
+nested in warm furs.
+
+The wind blew fiercely throughout the night. By the next morning, March
+22, the storm had eased to a steady, light breeze. The temperature was
+59 deg. below zero. We emerged from our igloo at noon. Although the
+cheerless gray veil had been swept from the frigid dome of the sky, to
+the north appeared a low black line over a pearly cloud which gave us
+much uneasiness. This was a narrow belt of "water-sky," which indicated
+open water or very thin ice at no great distance.
+
+The upper surface of Grant Land was now a mere thin pen line on the edge
+of the horizon. But a play of land clouds above it attracted the eyes to
+the last known rocks of solid earth. We now felt keenly the piercing
+cold of the Polar sea. The temperature gradually rose to 46 deg. F. below
+zero, in the afternoon, but there was a deadly chill in the long shadows
+which increased with the swing of the lowering sun.
+
+A life-sapping draught, which sealed the eyes and bleached the nose,
+still hissed over the frozen sea. We had hoped that this would soften
+with the midday sun. Instead, it came with a more cutting sharpness. In
+the teeth of the wind we persistently pursued a course slightly west of
+north. The wind was slightly north of west. It struck us at a painful
+angle and brought tears. Our moistened lashes quickly froze together as
+we winked, and when we rubbed them and drew apart the lids the icicles
+broke the tender skin. Our breath froze on our faces. Often we had to
+pause, uncover our hands and apply the warm palms to the face before it
+was possible to see.
+
+Every minute thus lost filled me with impatience and dismay. Minutes of
+traveling were as precious as bits of gold to a hoarding miser.
+
+In the course of a brief time our noses became tipped with a white skin
+and also required nursing. My entire face was now surrounded with ice,
+but there was no help for it. If we were to succeed the face must be
+bared to the cut of the elements. So we must suffer. We continued,
+urging the dogs and struggling with the wind just as a drowning man
+fights for life in a storm at sea.
+
+About six o'clock, as the sun crossed the west, we reached a line of
+high-pressure ridges. Beyond these the ice was cut into smaller floes
+and thrown together into ugly irregularities. According to my surmises,
+an active pack and troubled seas could not be far away. The water-sky
+widened, but became less sharply defined.
+
+We laboriously picked a way among hummocks and pressure lines which
+seemed impossible from a distance. Our dogs panted with the strain; my
+limbs ached. In a few hours we arrived at the summit of an unusual
+uplift of ice blocks. Looking ahead, my heart pained as if in the grip
+of an iron hand. My hopes sank within me. Twisting snake-like between
+the white field, and separating the packs, was a tremendous cut several
+miles wide, which seemed at the time to bar all further progress. It was
+the Big Lead, that great river separating the land-adhering ice from the
+vast grinding fields of the central pack beyond, at which many heroic
+men before me had stopped. I felt the dismay and heartsickness of all of
+them within me now. The wind, blowing with a vengeful wickedness,
+laughed sardonically in my ears.
+
+Of course we had our folding canvas boat on the sleds. But in this
+temperature of 48 deg. below zero I knew no craft could be lowered into
+water without fatal results. All of the ice about was firmly cemented
+together, and over it we made our way toward the edge of the water line.
+
+Passing through pressure lines, over smaller and more troublesome
+fields, we reached the shores of the Big Lead. We had, by two
+encouraging marches, covered fifty miles. The first hundred miles of our
+journey on the Polar pack had been covered. The Pole was four hundred
+miles beyond!
+
+Camp was pitched on a secure old ice field. Cutting through huge ice
+cliffs, the dark crack seemed like a long river winding between
+palisades of blue crystal. A thin sheet of ice had already spread over
+the mysterious deep. On its ebony mirrored surface a profusion of
+fantastic frost crystals arranged themselves in bunches resembling white
+and saffron-colored flowers.
+
+Through the apertures of this young ice dark vapors rose like steam
+through a screen of porous fabrics and fell in feathers of snow along
+the sparkling shores. After partaking of a boulder of pemmican,
+E-tuk-i-shook went east and I west to examine the lead of water for a
+safe crossing. There were several narrow places, while here and there
+floes which had been adrift in the lead were now fixed by young ice.
+Ah-we-lah remained behind to make our snowhouse comfortable.
+
+For a long time this huge separation in the pack had been a mystery to
+me. At first sight there seemed to be no good reason for its existence.
+Peary had found a similar break north of Robeson Channel. It was likely
+that what we saw was an extension of the same, following at a distance
+the general trend of the northernmost land extension.
+
+This is precisely what one finds on a smaller scale when two ice packs
+come together. Here the pack of the central polar sea meets the
+land-adhering ice. The movement of the land pack is intermittent and
+usually along the coast. The shallows, grounded ice and projecting
+points interfere with a steady drift. The movement of the central pack
+is quite constant, in almost every direction, the tides, currents and
+winds each giving momentum to the floating mass. The lead is thus the
+breaking line between the two bodies of ice. It widens as the pack
+separates, and narrows or widens with an easterly or westerly drift,
+according to the pressure of the central pack. Early in the season, when
+the pack is crevassed and not elastic, it is probably wide; later, as
+the entire sea of ice becomes active, it may disappear or shift to a
+line nearer the land.
+
+In low temperature new ice forms rapidly. This offers an obstruction to
+the drift of the old ice. As the heavy central pack is pressed against
+the unyielding land pack the small ice is ground to splinters, and even
+heavy floes are crushed. This reduced mass of small ice is pasted and
+cemented along the shores of the Big Lead, leaving a broad band of
+troublesome surface as a serious barrier to sled travel. It seems quite
+probable that this lead, or a condition similar to it, extends entirely
+around the Polar sea as a buffer between the land and the middle pack.
+
+In exploring the shore line, a partially bridged place was found about a
+mile from camp, but the young ice was too elastic for a safe track. The
+temperature, however, fell rapidly with the setting sun, and the wind
+was just strong enough to sweep off the heated vapors. I knew better
+atmospheric condition could not be afforded quickly to thicken the young
+ice.
+
+Returning to camp that night, we surprised our stomachs by a little
+frozen musk ox tenderloin and tallow, the greatest delicacy in our
+possession. Then we retired. Ice was our pillow. Ice was our bed. A dome
+of snow above us held off the descending liquid air of frost. Outside
+the wind moaned. Shudderingly, the deep howl of the dogs rolled over the
+ice. Lying on the sheeted deep, beneath my ears I heard the noise of the
+moving, grinding, crashing pack. It sounded terrifyingly like a distant
+thunder of guns. I could not sleep. Sick anxiety filled me. Could we
+cross the dreadful river on the morrow? Would the ice freeze? Or might
+the black space not hopelessly widen during the night? I lay awake,
+shivering with cold. I felt within me the blank loneliness of the
+thousands of desolate miles about me.
+
+One hundred miles of the unknown had been covered; five hundred miles of
+the journey from our winter camp were behind us. Beyond, to the goal,
+lay four hundred unknown miles. Nothing dearly desired of man ever
+seemed so far away.
+
+[Illustration: ESKIMO TORCH]
+
+
+
+
+CROSSING MOVING SEAS OF ICE
+
+CROSSING THE LEAD--THE THIN ICE HEAVES LIKE A SHEET OF RUBBER--CREEPING
+FORWARD CAUTIOUSLY, THE TWO DANGEROUS MILES ARE COVERED--BOUNDING
+PROGRESS MADE OVER IMPROVING ICE--THE FIRST HURRICANE--DOGS BURIED AND
+FROZEN INTO MASSES IN DRIFTS OF SNOW--THE ICE PARTS THROUGH THE
+IGLOO--WAKING TO FIND ONE'S SELF FALLING INTO THE COLD SEA.
+
+XV
+
+THE FIRST STEPS OVER THE GRINDING CENTRAL PACK
+
+
+Ill at ease and shivering, we rose from our crystal berths on March 23
+and peeped out of a pole-punched porthole. A feeble glow of mystic color
+came from everywhere at once. Outside, toward a sky of dull purple,
+columns of steam-like vapor rose from open ice water, resembling vapors
+from huge boiling cauldrons. We sank with chattering teeth to our
+cheerless beds and quivered with the ghostly unreality of this great
+vibrating unknown.
+
+Long before the suppressed incandescent night changed to the prism
+sparkle of day we were out seeking a way over the miles of insecure
+young ice separating us from the central pack. On our snowshoes, with an
+easy tread, spread feet and with long life lines tied to each other, we
+ventured to the opposite shores of that dangerous spread of young ice.
+Beyond, the central pack glittered in moving lines and color, like
+quicksilver shot with rainbow hues.
+
+The Big Lead was mottled and tawny colored, like the skin of a great
+constrictor. As we stood and looked over its broad expanse to the solid
+floes, two miles off, there came premonitions to me of impending danger.
+Would the ice bear us? If it broke, and the life line was not quickly
+jerked, our fate would almost certainly be sure death. Sontag, the
+astronomer of Dr. Hay's Expedition, thus lost his life. Many others have
+in like manner gone to the bottomless deep. On two occasions during the
+previous winter I had thus gone through, but the life line had saved me.
+What would be our fate here? But, whatever the luck, we must cross. I
+knew delay was fatal, for at any time a very light wind or a change in
+the drift might break the new ice and delay us long enough to set the
+doom of failure upon our entire venture.
+
+Every precaution was taken to safeguard our lives. The most important
+problem was to distribute the weight so that all of it would not be
+brought to bear on a small area. We separated our dog teams from the
+sleds, holding to long lines which were fastened about our bodies and
+also to the sleds. The sleds were hitched to each other by another long
+line.
+
+With bated breath and my heart thumping, I advanced at the end of a long
+line which was attached to the first sled, and picked my way through the
+crushed and difficult ice along shore. With the life-saving line
+fastened to each one of us, we were insured against possible dangers as
+well as forethought could provide. Running from sled to sled, from dog
+to dog, and man to man, it would afford a pulling chance for life should
+anyone break through the ice. It seemed unlikely that the ice along the
+entire chain would break at once, but its cracking under the step of one
+of us seemed probable.
+
+I knew, as I gently placed my foot upon the thin yellowish surface, that
+at any moment I might sink into an icy grave. Yet a spirit of bravado
+thrilled my heart. I felt the grip of danger, and also that thrill of
+exultation which accompanies its terror.
+
+Gently testing the ice before me with the end of my axe, with spread
+legs, on snowshoes, with long, sliding steps, I slowly advanced.
+
+A dangerous cracking sound pealed in every direction under my feet. The
+Eskimos followed. With every tread the thin sheet ice perceptibly sank
+under me, and waved, in small billows, like a sheet of rubber.
+
+Stealthily, as though we were trying to filch some victory, we crept
+forward. We rocked on the heaving ice as a boat on waves of water. Now
+and then we stepped upon sheets of thicker ice, and hastily went forward
+with secure footing. None of us spoke during the dangerous crossing. I
+heard distinctly the panting of the dogs and the patter of their feet.
+We covered the two miles safely, yet our snail-like progress seemed to
+cover many anxious years.
+
+I cannot describe the exultation which filled me when the crossing was
+accomplished. It seemed as though my goal itself were stretching toward
+me. I experienced a sense of unbounded victory. I could have cheered
+with joy. Intoxicated with it, I and my companions leaped forward, new
+cheer quickening our steps. The dangers to come seemed less formidable
+now, and as we journeyed onward it was the mastering of these, as did
+our accomplishment in crossing the Big Lead, which gave us a daily
+incentive to continue our way and ever to apply brain and muscle to the
+subduing of even greater difficulties with zest.
+
+It was in doing this that the real thrill, the real victory--the only
+thrill and victory, indeed--of reaching the North Pole lay. The
+attaining of this mythical spot did not then, and does not now, seem in
+itself to mean anything; I did not then, and do not now, consider it the
+treasure-house of any great scientific secrets. The only thing to be
+gained from reaching the Pole, the triumph of it, the lesson in the
+accomplishment, is that man, by brain power and muscle energy, can
+subdue the most terrific forces of a blind nature if he is determined
+enough, courageous enough, and undauntedly persistent despite failure.
+
+On my journey northward I felt the ever constant presence of those who
+had died in trying to reach the goal before me. There were times when I
+felt a startling nearness to them--a sense like that one has of the
+proximity of living beings in an adjoining room. I felt the goad of
+their hopes within me; I felt the steps of their dead feet whenever my
+feet touched the ice. I felt their unfailing determination revive me
+when I was tempted to turn back in the days of inhuman suffering that
+were to come. I felt that I, the last man to essay this goal, must for
+them justify humanity; that I must crown three centuries of human effort
+with success.
+
+With the perilous Big Lead behind us, a bounding course was set to
+reach the eighty-fifth parallel on the ninety-seventh meridian. What
+little movement was noted on the ice had been easterly. To allow for
+this drift we aimed to keep a line slightly west of the Pole.
+
+We bounded northward joyously. Under our speeding feet the ice
+reverberated and rumbled with the echo of far-away splitting and
+crashing.
+
+The sun sank into a haze like mother-of-pearl. Our pathway glowed with
+purple and orange. We paused only when the pale purple blue of night
+darkened the pack.
+
+Starting forward in the afternoon of March 24, we crossed many small
+floes with low-pressure lines separated by narrow belts of new ice. Our
+speed increased. At times we could hardly keep pace with our dogs. The
+temperature rose to forty-one below zero. The western sky cleared
+slightly. Along the horizon remained misty appearances resembling land.
+This low-lying fog continued during our entire second hundred miles over
+the Polar basin. Under it we daily expected to see new land.
+
+But Nature did not satisfy our curiosity for a long time. Both Ah-we-lah
+and E-tuk-i-shook were sure of a constant nearness to land. Because of
+the native panic out of its reassuring sight, I encouraged this belief,
+as I did concerning every other possible sign of land further northward.
+I knew that only by encouraging a delusion of nearness to land could I
+urge them ever farther in the face of the hardships that must inevitably
+come.
+
+An altitude of the sun at noon on March 24 gave our position as latitude
+83 deg. 31'. The longitude was estimated at 96 deg. 27'. The land clouds of
+Grant Land were still visible. The low bank of mist in the west
+occasionally brightened. For a while I believed this to be an indication
+of Crocker Land.
+
+Until midday I took observations and endeavored to study the appearances
+of land. Our dogs sniffed the air as if scenting game. After a diligent
+search, one seal blow-hole was located, and later we saw an old bear
+track. No algae or other small life was detected in the water between the
+ice crevices. At the Big Lead a few algae had been gathered. But here the
+sea seemed sterile. Signs of seal and bear, however, were encouraging to
+us as possible future food supply. In returning, I calculated the season
+would be more advanced, and it was possible that life might move
+northward, thus permitting an extension of the time allowance of our
+rations.
+
+Although the heat of the sun was barely felt, its rays began to pierce
+our eyes with painful effects. Reflected from the spotless surface of
+the storm-driven snows, the bright light could not long be endured
+without some protection, even by the Eskimos. Now came the time to test
+a simple expedient that had occurred to me at Annoatok. Amber-colored
+goggles, darkened or smoked glasses and ordinary automobile goggles had
+all been tried with indifferent results. They failed for one reason or
+another, mostly because of an insufficient range of vision or because of
+a faulty construction that made it impossible to proceed more than a few
+minutes without removing the accumulated condensation within them. At
+Annoatok I had made amber-colored goggles from the glass of my
+photographic supplies. By adjusting them I soon found they were a
+priceless discovery. They entirely eliminated one of the greatest
+torments of Arctic travel.
+
+While effectually screening the active rays that would have injured the
+eye, these amber glasses at the same time possessed the inestimable
+advantage of not interfering with the range of vision.
+
+Relieved of the snow glare, the eye was better enabled to see distant
+objects than through field glasses. It is frequently extremely difficult
+to detect icy surface irregularities on cloudy days. The amber glass
+dispelled this trouble perfectly, enabling the eye to search carefully
+every nook and crevice through the vague incandescence which blinds the
+observer in hazy weather. The glasses did not reduce the _quantity_ of
+light, as do smoked glasses, but the _quality_; the actinic rays, which
+do the greatest harm, were eliminated. We were not only relieved of the
+pain and fatigue of eye strain, but the color imparted a touch of cheer
+and warmth to our chilled blue horizon. The usual snow goggles add to
+the ugly gray-blue of the frozen seas, which alone sends frosty waves
+through the nervous fibers.
+
+So thoroughly delighted were we with these goggles that later we wore
+them even in igloos while asleep, with the double object of screening
+the strong light which passes through the eyelids and of keeping the
+forehead warm.
+
+On our march in the early part of the afternoon of the 24th the weather
+proved good. The ice, though newly crevassed, improved as we advanced.
+The late start spread our day's work close to the chill of midnight.
+When we started the wind blew kindly. With glad hearts we forged
+forward without delays. On the ice I heard the soft patter of swift dog
+feet and the dashing, cutting progress of the sleds. As a scene viewed
+from a carousel, the field of ice swept around me in our dizzy, twisting
+progress. We swept resistlessly onward for twenty-three miles. As we had
+taken a zigzag course to follow smooth ice, I therefore recorded only
+eighteen miles to our credit.
+
+The night was beautiful. The sun sank into a purple haze. Soon, in the
+magic of the atmosphere, appeared three suns of prismatic colors. These
+settled slowly into the frozen sea and disappeared behind that
+persistent haze of obscuring mist which always rests over the pack when
+the sun is low. During the night a narrow band of orange was flung like
+a ribbon across the northern skies. The pack surface glowed with varying
+shades of violet, lilac and pale purplish blue. Many such splendid
+sights are to be constantly seen in the Arctic. Although I reveled in it
+now, the time was soon to come when weariness and hunger numbed my
+faculties into a dreary torpor in which the splendor was not seen.
+
+Signs appeared of a gale from the west before we were quite ready to
+camp. Little sooty clouds with ragged edges suddenly began to cover the
+sky, scurrying at an alarming pace. Beyond us a huge smoky volume of
+cloud blackened the pearly glitter.
+
+Suitable camping ice was sought. In the course of an hour we built an
+igloo. We made the structure stronger than usual on account of the
+threatening storm. We constructed double tiers of snow blocks to the
+windward. A little water was thrown over the top to cement the blocks.
+We fastened the dogs to the lee of hummocks. The sleds were securely
+lashed and fastened to the ice.
+
+We expected a hurricane, and had not to wait to taste its fury. Before
+we were at rest in our bags the wind lashed the snows with a force
+inconceivable. With rushing drift, the air thickened. Dogs and sleds in
+a few minutes were buried under banks of snow and great drifts encircled
+the igloo. The cemented blocks of our dome withstood the sweep of the
+blast well. Yet, now and then, small holes were burrowed through the
+snow wall by the sharp wind. Drift entered and covered us. I lay awake
+for hours. I felt the terrible oppression of that raging, life-sucking
+vampire force sweeping over the desolate world. Disembodied things--the
+souls of those, perhaps, who had perished here--seemed frenziedly
+calling me in the wind. I felt under me the surge of the sweeping, awful
+sea. I felt the desolation of this stormy world within my shuddering
+soul; but, withal, I throbbed with a determination to assert the
+supremacy of living man over these blind, insensate forces; to prove
+that the living brain and palpitating muscle of a finite though
+conscious creature could vanquish a hostile Nature which creates to
+kill. I burned to justify those who had died here; to fulfill by proxy
+their hopes; to set their calling souls at rest. The storm waked in me
+an angry, challenging determination.
+
+Early in the morning of the 25th the storm ceased as suddenly as it had
+come. A stillness followed which was appalling. It seemed as if the
+storm had heard my thoughts and paused to contemplate some more dreadful
+onslaught. The dogs began to howl desperately, as if attacked by a
+bear. We rushed out of our igloo, seeking guns. There was no approaching
+creature. It was, however, a signal of serious distress that we had
+heard. The dogs were in acute misery. The storm-driven snows had buried
+and bound them in unyielding ice. They had partly uncovered themselves.
+United by trace and harness, they were imprisoned in frozen masses. Few
+of them could even rise and stretch. They were in severe torment.
+
+We hurriedly freed their traces and beat the cemented snows from their
+furs with sticks. Released, they leaped about gladly, their cries,
+curling tails and pointed noses telling of gratitude. While we danced
+about, stretching our limbs and rubbing our hands to get up circulation,
+the sun rose over the northern blue, flushing the newly driven snows
+with warm tones. The temperature during the storm had risen to only 26 deg.
+below, but soon the thermometer sank rapidly below 40 deg.. The west was
+still smoky and the weather did not seem quite settled. As it was still
+too early to start, we again slipped into the bags and sought quiet
+slumber.
+
+As yet the dreadful insomnia which was to rob me of rest on my journey
+had not come, and I slept with the blissful soundness of a child. I must
+have been asleep several hours, when, of a sudden, I opened my eyes.
+
+Terror gripped my heart. Loud explosive noises reverberated under my
+head. It seemed as though bombs were torn asunder in the depths of the
+cold sea beneath me. I lay still, wondering if I were dreaming. The
+sounds echoingly died away. Looking about the igloo, I detected nothing
+unusual. I saw Ah-we-lah and E-tuk-i-shook staring at me with wide-open
+frightened eyes. I arose and peeped through the eye port. The fields of
+ice without reflected the warm light of the rising sun in running waves
+of tawny color. The ice was undisturbed. An unearthly quiet prevailed.
+Concluding that the ice was merely cracking under the sudden change of
+temperature, in quite the usual harmless manner, I turned over again,
+reassuring my companions, and promptly fell asleep.
+
+Out of the blankness of sleep I suddenly wakened again. Half-dazed, I
+heard beneath me a series of echoing, thundering noises. I felt the ice
+floor on which I lay quivering. I experienced the sudden giddiness one
+feels on a tossing ship at sea. In the flash of a second I saw Ah-we-lah
+leap to his feet. In the same dizzy instant I saw the dome of the
+snowhouse open above me; I caught a vision of the gold-streaked sky. My
+instinct at the moment was to leap. I think I tried to rise, when
+suddenly everything seemed lifted from under me; I experienced the
+suffocating sense of falling, and next, with a spasm of indescribable
+horror, felt about my body a terrific tightening pressure like that of a
+chilled and closing shell of steel, driving the life and breath from me.
+
+In an instant it was clear what had happened. A crevasse had suddenly
+opened through our igloo, directly under the spot whereon I slept; and
+I, a helpless creature in a sleeping bag, with tumbling snow blocks and
+ice and snow crashing about and crushing me, with the temperature 48 deg.
+below zero, was floundering in the opening sea!
+
+
+
+
+LAND DISCOVERED
+
+FIGHTING PROGRESS THROUGH CUTTING COLD AND TERRIFIC STORMS--LIFE BECOMES
+A MONOTONOUS ROUTINE OF HARDSHIP--THE POLE INSPIRES WITH ITS RESISTLESS
+LURE--NEW LAND DISCOVERED BEYOND THE EIGHTY-FOURTH PARALLEL--MORE THAN
+TWO HUNDRED MILES FROM SVARTEVOEG--THE FIRST SIX HUNDRED MILES COVERED
+
+XVI
+
+THREE HUNDRED MILES TO THE APEX OF THE WORLD
+
+
+I think I was about to swoon when I felt hands beneath my armpits and
+heard laughter in my ears. With an adroitness such as only these natives
+possess, my two companions were dragging me from the water. And while I
+lay panting on the ice, recovering from my fright, I saw them
+expeditiously rescue our possessions.
+
+It seemed that all this happened so quickly that I had really been in
+the water only a few moments. My two companions saw the humor of the
+episode and laughed heartily. Although I had been in the water only a
+brief time, a sheet of ice surrounded my sleeping bag. Fortunately,
+however, the reindeer skin was found to be quite dry when the ice was
+beaten off. The experience, while momentarily terrifying, was
+instructive, for it taught us the danger of spreading ice, especially
+in calms following storms.
+
+Gratitude filled my heart. I fully realized how narrow had been the
+escape of all of us. Had we slept a few seconds longer we should all
+have disappeared in the opening crevasse. The hungry Northland would
+again have claimed its human sacrifice.
+
+The ice about was much disturbed. Numerous black lines of water opened
+on every side; from these oozed jets of frosty, smoke-colored vapor. The
+difference between the temperature of the sea and that of the air was
+76 deg.. With this contrast, the open spots of ice-water appeared to be
+boiling.
+
+Anxious to move along, away from the troubled angle of ice, our usual
+breakfast was simplified. Melting some snow, we drank the icy liquid as
+an eye-opener, and began our ration of a half-pound boulder of pemmican.
+But with cold fingers, blue lips and no possible shelter, the stuff was
+unusually hard. To warm up, we prepared the sleds. Under our lashes the
+dogs jumped into harness with a bound. The pemmican, which we really
+found too hard to eat, had to be first broken into pieces with an axe.
+We ground it slowly with our molars as we trudged along. Our teeth
+chattered while the stomach was thus being fired with durable fuel.
+
+As we advanced the ice improved to some extent. With a little search
+safe crossings were found over new crevices. A strong westerly wind blew
+piercingly cold.
+
+Good progress was made, but we did not forget at any time that we were
+invading the forbidden domains of a new polar environment.
+
+Henceforth, one day was to be much like another. Beyond the
+eighty-third parallel life is devoid of any pleasure. The intense
+objective impressions of cold and hunger assailing the body rob even the
+mind of inspiration and exhilaration. Even the best day of sun and
+gentle wind offers no balm.
+
+One awakes realizing the wind has abated and sees the cheerless sun
+veering about the side of the ice shelter. One kicks the victim upon
+whom, that morning, duty has fixed the misfortune to be up first--for we
+tried to be equals in sharing the burdens of life. And upon him to whose
+lot falls this hardship there is a loss of two hours' repose. He chops
+ice, fills the kettles, lights the fire, and probably freezes his
+fingers in doing so. Then he wiggles back into his bag, warms his icy
+hands on the bare skin of his own stomach; or, if he is in a two-man
+bag, and the other fellow is awake, Arctic courtesy permits the icy
+hands on the stomach of his bedfellow.
+
+In due time the blood runs to the hand and he sets about tidying up the
+camp. First, the hood of his own bag. It is loaded with icicles and
+frost, the result of the freezing of his breath while asleep. He brushes
+off the ice and snow. The ice has settled in the kettles in the
+meantime. More ice must be chopped and put into the kettle. The chances
+are that he now breaks a commandment and steals what to us is a great
+luxury--a long drink of water to ease his parched throat. Because of the
+need of fuel economy, limit is placed on drinks.
+
+Then the fire needs attention; the flame is imperfect and the gas hole
+needs cleaning. He thoughtlessly grips the little bit of metal to the
+end of which the priming needle is attached. That metal is so cold that
+it burns, and he leaves a piece of his skin on it. Then the breakfast
+ration of pemmican must be divided. It is not frozen, for it contains no
+water. But it is hard. The stuff looks like granite. Heat would melt
+it--but there is no fuel to spare. The two slumberers are given a thump,
+and their eyes open to the stone-like pemmican. Between yawns the teeth
+are set to grind the pemmican. The water boils, the tea is tossed in it
+and the kettle is removed.
+
+We rise on elbows, still in the bags, to enjoy the one heavenly treat of
+our lives, the cup of tea which warms the hand and the stomach at once.
+
+Then we dress. It is remarkable how cold compels speed in dressing.
+
+The door of the snowhouse is now kicked out--all tumble about to warm up
+and stop chattering teeth. Breaking camp is a matter of but a minute,
+for things fall almost automatically into convenient packs. The sledges
+are loaded and lashed in a few minutes. Then the teams are gathered to
+the pulling lines, and off we go with a run. The pace for dog and man is
+two and a half miles an hour, over good ice or bad ice, hard snow or
+soft snow, or tumbling over neckbreaking irregularities. There is no
+stop for lunch, no riding, or rest, or anything else. It is
+drive--drive.
+
+At times it was impossible to perspire, and the toxin of fatigue,
+generating unearthly weariness, filled the brain with fag. When
+perspiration oozed from our pores, as we forced forward, step by step,
+it froze in the garments and the warmer portions of our bodies were
+ringed with snow. Daily, unremittingly, this was our agony.
+
+In starting before the end of the winter night, and camping on the open
+ice fields in the long northward march, we had first accustomed our eyes
+to frigid darkness and then to a perpetual glitter. This proved to be
+the coldest season of the year, and we ought to have been hardened to
+all kinds of Arctic torment. But man gains that advantage only when his
+pulse ceases to beat.
+
+Continuing the steady stride of forward marches, far from land, far from
+life, there was nothing to arouse a warming spirit. Along the land there
+had been calms and gales and an inspiring contrast, even in the dark
+days and nights, but here the frigid world was felt at its worst. The
+wind, which came persistently from the west--now strong, now feeble, but
+always sharp--inflicted a pain to which we never became accustomed.
+
+The worst torture inflicted by the wind and humid air of an Arctic pack
+came from a mask of ice about the face. It was absurdly picturesque but
+painful. Every bit of exhaled moisture condensed and froze either to the
+facial hair or to the line of fox tails about the hood. It made comical
+caricatures of us.
+
+Frequent turns in our course exposed both sides of the face to the wind
+and covered with icicles every hair offering a convenient nucleus. These
+lines of crystal made an amazing dash of light and color as we looked at
+each other. But they did not afford much amusement to the individual
+exhibiting them. Such hairs as had not been pulled from the lips and
+chin were first weighted, and then the wind carried the breath to the
+long hair with which we protected our heads, and left a mass of dangling
+frost. Accumulated moisture from the eyes coated the eyelashes and
+brows. The humidity escaping about the forehead left a crescent of snow
+above, while that escaping under the chin, combined with falling breath,
+formed there a semi-circle of ice. The most uncomfortable icicles,
+however, were those that formed on the coarse hair within the nostrils.
+To keep the face free, the Eskimos pull the facial hair out by the
+roots, the result of which is a rarity of mustaches and beards. Thus,
+with low temperature and persistent winds, life was one of constant
+torture on the march; but cooped in snowhouses, eating dried beef and
+tallow, and drinking hot tea, some animal comforts were occasionally to
+be gained in the icy camps.
+
+[Illustration: BRADLEY LAND DISCOVERED
+
+SUBMERGED ISLAND OF POLAR SEA
+
+GOING BEYOND THE BOUNDS OF LIFE]
+
+[Illustration: SWIFT PROGRESS OVER SMOOTH ICE
+
+BUILDING AN IGLOO
+
+A LIFELESS WORLD OF COLD AND ICE]
+
+We forced the dogs onward during two days of cheery bluster, with
+encouraging results. At times we ran before the teams, calling and
+urging the brutes to leaping progress. On the evening of March 26, with
+a pedometer and other methods of dead reckoning for position, we found
+ourselves at latitude 84 deg. 24', longitude 96 deg. 53'.
+
+The western horizon remained persistently dark. A storm was gathering,
+and slowly moving eastward. Late in the evening we prepared for the
+anticipated blast. We built an igloo stronger than usual, hoping that
+the horizon would be cleared with a brisk wind by the morrow and afford
+us a day of rest. The long, steady marches, without time for
+recuperation, necessarily dampened our enthusiasm for a brief period of
+physical depression, which, however, was of short duration.
+
+Daily we had learned to appreciate more and more the joy of the sleeping
+bag. It was the only animal comfort which afforded a relief to our life
+of frigid hardship, and often with the thought of it we tried to force
+upon the weary body in the long marches a pleasing anticipation.
+
+In the evening, after blocks of snow walled a dome in which we could
+breathe quiet air, the blue-flame lamp sang notes of gastronomic
+delights. We first indulged in a heaven-given drink of ice-water to
+quench the intense thirst which comes after hours of exertion and
+perspiration. Then the process of undressing began, one at a time, for
+there was not room enough in the igloo for all to undress at once.
+
+The fur-stuffed boots were pulled off and the bearskin pants were
+stripped. Then half of the body was quickly pushed into the bag. A brick
+of pemmican was next taken out and the teeth were set to grind on this
+bone-like substance. Our appetites were always keen, but a half pound of
+cold withered beef and tallow changes a hungry man's thoughts
+effectually.
+
+The tea, an hour in making, was always welcome, and we rose on elbows to
+take it. Under the influence of the warm drink, the fur coat with its
+mask of ice was removed. Next the shirt, with its ring of ice about the
+waist, would come off, giving the last sense of shivering. Pushing the
+body farther into the bag, the hood was pulled over the face, and we
+were lost to the world of ice.
+
+The warm sense of mental and physical pleasure which follows is an
+interesting study. The movement of others, the sting of the air, the
+noise of torturing winds, the blinding rays of a heatless sun, the pains
+of driving snows and all the bitter elements are absent. One's mind,
+freed of anxiety and suffering, wanders to home and better times under
+these peculiar circumstances; there comes a pleasurable sensation in
+the touch of one's own warm skin, while the companionship of the arms
+and legs, freed from their cumbersome furs, makes a new discovery in the
+art of getting next to one's self.
+
+Early on March 27, a half gale was blowing, but at noon the wind ceased.
+The bright sun and rising temperature were too tempting to let us remain
+quiescent. Although the west was still dark with threatening clouds we
+hitched the dogs to the sleds. We braced ourselves. "Huk! Huk!" we
+called, and bounded away among the wind-swept hummocks. The crevices of
+the ice wound like writhing snakes as we raced on. We had not gone many
+miles before the first rush of the storm struck us. Throwing ourselves
+over the sleds, we waited the passing of the icy blast. No suitable snow
+with which to begin the erection of a shelter was near. A few miles
+northward, as we saw, was a promising area for a camp. This we hoped to
+reach after a few moments' rest. The squall soon spent its force. In the
+wind which followed good progress was made without suffering severely.
+The temperature was 41 deg. below zero, Fahrenheit, and the barometer 29.05.
+
+Once in moving order, the drivers required very little encouragement to
+prolong the effort to a fair day's march despite the weather. As the sun
+settled in the western gloom the wind increased in fury and forced us to
+camp. Before the igloo was finished a steady, rasping wind brushed the
+hummocks and piled the snow in large dunes about us, like the sand of
+home shores.
+
+The snowhouse was not cemented as usual with water, as was our custom
+when weather permitted. The tone of the wind did not seem to indicate
+danger, and furthermore, there was no open sea water near. Because of
+the need of fuel economy we did not deem it prudent to use oil for fire
+to melt snow, excepting for water to quench thirst.
+
+Not particularly anxious about the outcome of the storm, and with senses
+blunted by overwork and benumbed with cold, we sought the comfort of the
+bags. Awakened in the course of a few hours by drifts of snow about our
+feet, I noted that the wind had burrowed holes at weak spots through the
+snow wall. We were bound, however, not to be cheated of a few hours'
+sleep, and with one eye open we turned over. I was awakened by falling
+snow blocks soon after.
+
+Forcing my head out of my ice-encased fur hood, I saw the sky,
+cloud-swept and grey. The dome of the igloo had been swept away. We were
+being quickly buried under a dangerous weight of snow. In some way I had
+tossed about sufficiently during sleep to keep on top of the
+accumulating drift, but my companions were nowhere to be seen. About me
+for miles the white spaces were vacant. With dread in my heart I uttered
+a loud call, but there came no response.
+
+A short frenzied search revealed a blowhole in the snow. In response to
+another call, as from some subterranean place came muffled Eskimo
+shouts. Tearing and burrowing at the fallen snow blocks I made violent
+efforts to free them, buried as they were in their bags. But to my
+dismay the soft snow settled on them tighter with each tussle.
+
+I was surprised, a few moments later, as I was working to keep their
+breathing place open, to feel them burrowing through the snow. They had
+entered their bags without undressing. Half clothed in shirt and pants,
+but with bare feet, they writhed and wriggled through the bags and up
+through the breathing hole.
+
+After a little digging their boots were uncovered, and then, with
+protected feet, the bag was freed and placed at the side of the igloo.
+
+Into it the boys crept, fully dressed, with the exception of coats. I
+rolled out beside them in my bag. We lay in the open sweep of furious
+wind, impotent to move, for twenty-nine hours. Only then the frigid
+blast eased enough to enable us to creep out into the open. The air came
+in hissing spouts, like jets of steam from an engine.
+
+Soon after noon of March 29 the air brightened. It became possible to
+breathe without being choked with floating crystals, and as the ice
+about our facial furs was broken, a little blue patch was detected in
+the west. We now freed the dogs of their snow entanglement and fed them.
+A shelter was made in which to melt snow and brew tea. We ate a double
+ration.
+
+Hitching the dogs we raced off. The monotonous fields of snow swept
+under us. Soon the sun burst through separating clouds and upraised icy
+spires before us. The wind died away. A crystal glory transfigured the
+storm-swept fields. We seemed traveling over fields of diamonds,
+scintillant as white fire, which shimmered dazzlingly about us. It is
+curious to observe an intense fiery glitter and glow, as in the North,
+which gives absolutely no impression of warmth. Fire here seems cold.
+With full stomachs, fair weather and a much needed rest, we moved with
+renewed inspiration. The dogs ran with tails erect, ears pricked. I and
+my companions ran behind with the joy of contestants in a race. Indeed,
+we felt refreshed as one does after a cold bath.
+
+Considerable time and distance, however, were lost in seeking a workable
+line of travel about obstructions and making detours. Camping at
+midnight, we had made only nine miles by a day's effort. The conditions
+under which this second hundred miles were forced, proved to be in every
+respect the most exciting of the run of five hundred miles over the
+Polar sea. The mere human satisfaction of overcoming difficulties was a
+daily incentive to surmount obstacles and meet baffling problems. The
+weather was unsettled. Sudden storms broke with spasmodic force, the
+barometer was unsteady and the temperature ranged from 20 deg. below zero to
+60 deg. below zero. The ice showed signs of recent agitation.
+
+New leads and recent sheets of new ice combined with deep snow made
+travel difficult. Persistently onward, pausing at times, we would urge
+the dogs to the limit. One dog after another went into the stomachs of
+the hungry survivors. Camps were now swept by storms. The ice opened out
+under our bodies, shelter was often a mere hole in the snow bank. Each
+of us carried painful wounds, frost bites; and the ever chronic
+emptiness of half filled stomachs brought a gastric call for food,
+impossible to supply. Hard work and strong winds sent unquenched thirst
+tortures to burning throats, and the gloom of ever clouded skies sent
+despair to its lowest reaches.
+
+But there was no monotony; our tortures came from different angles, and
+from so many sources, that we were ever aroused to a fighting spirit.
+With a push at the sled or a pull at the line we helped the wind-teased
+dogs to face the nose cutting drift that swept the pack mile after mile.
+Day after day we plunged farther and farther along into the icy despair
+and stormy bluster.
+
+Throughout the entire advance northward I found there was some advantage
+in my Eskimo companions having some slight comprehension of the meaning
+of my aim. Doubtless through information and ideas that had sifted from
+explorers to Eskimos for many generations past, the aborigines had come
+to understand that there is a point at the top of the globe, which is
+somehow the very top of the world, and that at this summit there is
+something which white men have long been anxious to find--a something
+which the Eskimo describe as the "big nail." The feeling that they were
+setting out with me in the hope of being the first to find this "big
+nail"--for, of course, I had told them of the possibility--helped to
+keep up the interest and courage of my two companions during long days
+of hardship.
+
+Naturally enough, I could not expect their interest in the Pole itself
+to be great. Their promised reward for accompanying me, a gun and knife
+for each, maintained a lively interest in them. After a ceaseless
+warfare lasting seven days, on March 30 the eastern sky broke in lines
+of cheering blue. Whipped by low winds the clouds broke and scurried.
+
+Soon the western heavens, ever a blank mystery, cleared. Under it, to my
+surprise, lay a new land. I think I felt a thrill such as Columbus must
+have felt when the first green vision of America loomed before his eye.
+
+My promise to the good, trusty boys of nearness to land was unwittingly
+on my part made good, and the delight of eyes opened to the earth's
+northernmost rocks dispelled all the physical torture of the long run of
+storms. As well as I could see, the land seemed an interrupted coast
+extending parallel to the line of march for about fifty miles, far to
+the west. It was snow covered, ice-sheeted and desolate. But it was real
+land with all the sense of security solid earth can offer. To us that
+meant much, for we had been adrift in a moving sea of ice, at the mercy
+of tormenting winds. Now came, of course, the immediate impelling desire
+to set foot upon it, but to do so I knew would have side-tracked us from
+our direct journey to the Polar goal. In any case, delay was jeopardous,
+and, moreover, our food supply did not permit our taking time to inspect
+the new land.[13]
+
+This new land was never clearly seen. A low mist, seemingly from open
+water, hid the shore line. We saw the upper slopes only occasionally
+from our point of observation. There were two distinct land masses. The
+most southern cape of the southern mass bore west by south, but still
+further to the south there were vague indications of land. The most
+northern cape of the same mass bore west by north. Above it there was a
+distinct break for 15 or 20 miles, and beyond the northern mass extended
+above the eighty-fifth parallel to the northwest. The entire coast was
+at this time placed on our charts as having a shore line along the one
+hundred and second meridian, approximately parallel to our line of
+travel. At the time the indications suggested two distinct islands.
+Nevertheless, we saw so little of the land that we could not determine
+whether it consisted of islands or of a larger mainland. The lower coast
+resembled Heiberg Island, with mountains and high valleys. The upper
+coast I estimated as being about one thousand feet high, flat, and
+covered with a thin sheet ice. Over the land I write "Bradley Land" in
+honor of John R. Bradley, whose generous help had made possible the
+important first stage of the expedition. The discovery of this land gave
+an electric impetus of driving vigor at just the right moment to
+counterbalance the effect of the preceding week of storm and trouble.
+
+Although I gazed longingly and curiously at the land, to me the Pole was
+the pivot of ambition. My boys had not the same northward craze, but I
+told them to reach the land on our return might be possible. We never
+saw it again. This new land made a convenient mile-post, for from this
+time on the days were counted to and from it. A good noon sight fixed
+the point of observation to 84 deg. 50', longitude 95 deg. 36''. We had
+forced beyond the second hundred miles from Svartevoeg. Before us
+remained about three hundred more miles, to my alluring, mysterious
+goal.
+
+[Illustration: ARCTIC FOX]
+
+
+
+
+BEYOND THE RANGE OF LIFE
+
+WITH A NEW SPRING TO WEARY LEGS BRADLEY LAND IS LEFT BEHIND--FEELING THE
+ACHING VASTNESS OF THE WORLD BEFORE MAN WAS MADE--CURIOUS GRIMACES OF
+THE MIDNIGHT SUN--SUFFERINGS INCREASE--BY PERSISTENT AND LABORIOUS
+PROGRESS ANOTHER HUNDRED MILES IS COVERED
+
+XVII
+
+TWO HUNDRED MILES FROM THE POLE
+
+
+A curtain of mist was drawn over the new land in the afternoon of March
+31, and, although we gazed westward longingly, we saw no more of it. Day
+after day we now pushed onward in desperate northward efforts. Strong
+winds and fractured, irregular ice, increased our difficulties. Although
+progress was slow for several days we managed to gain a fair march
+between storms during each twenty-four hours. During occasional spells
+of icy stillness mirages spread screens of fantasy out for our
+entertainment. Curious cliffs, odd-shaped mountains and inverted ice
+walls were displayed in attractive colors.
+
+Discoveries of new land seemed often made. But with a clearing horizon
+the deception was detected.
+
+The boys believed most of these signs to be indications of real land--a
+belief I persistently encouraged, because it relieved them of the panic
+of the terror of the unknown.
+
+On April 3, the barometer remained steady and the thermometer sank. The
+weather became settled and fairly clear, the horizon was freed of its
+smoky vapors, the pack assumed a more permanent aspect of glittering
+color. At noon there was now a dazzling light, while at night the sun
+kissed the frozen seas behind screens of mouse-colored cloud and haze.
+At the same moment the upper skies flushed with the glow of color of the
+coming double-days of joy.
+
+As we advanced north of Bradley Land the pack disturbance of
+land-divided and land-jammed ice disappeared. The fields became larger
+and less troublesome, the weather improved, the temperature ranged from
+20 deg. to 50 deg. below zero, the barometer rose and remained steady, the day
+sky cleared with increasing color, but a low haze blotted out much of
+the night glory which attended the dip of the nocturnal sun. With dogs
+barking and rushing before speeding sleds, we made swift progress. But
+the steady drag and monotony of the never changing work and scene
+reduced interest in life.
+
+The blankness of the mental desert which moved about us as we ran along
+was appalling. Nothing changed materially. The horizon moved. Our
+footing was seemingly a solid stable ice crust, which was, however,
+constantly shifting eastward. All the world on which we traveled was in
+motion. We moved, but we took our landscape with us.
+
+At the end of the day's march we were often too tired to build snow
+houses, and in sheer exhaustion we bivouacked in the lee of hummocks.
+Here the overworked body called for sleep, but my mind refused to close
+the eyes. My boys had the advantage of sleep. I envied them. Anyone who
+has suffered from insomnia may be able in a small degree to gauge my
+condition when sleep became impossible. To reach the end of my journey
+became the haunting, ever-present goading thought of my wakeful
+existence.
+
+As I lay painfully trying to coax slumber, my mind worked like the
+wheels of a machine. Dizzily the journey behind repeated itself; I again
+crossed the Big Lead, again floundered in an ice-cold open sea. Dangers
+of all sorts took form to harass me. Instead of sleep, a delirium of
+anxiety and longing possessed me.
+
+Beyond the eighty-fourth parallel we had passed the bounds of visible
+life. Lying wakeful in that barren world, with my companions asleep, I
+felt what few men of cities, perhaps, ever feel--the tragic isolation of
+the human soul--a thing which, dwelt upon, must mean madness. I think I
+realized the aching vastness of the world after creation, before man was
+made.
+
+For many days we had not seen a suggestion of animated nature. There
+were no longer animal trails to indicate life; no breath spouts of seal
+escaped from the frosted bosom of the sea. Not even the microscopic life
+of the deep was longer detected under us. We were alone--alone in a
+lifeless world. We had come to this blank space of the earth by slow but
+progressive stages. Sailing from the bleak land of the fisher folk along
+the out-posts of civilization, the complex luxury of metropolitan life
+was lost. Beyond, in the half savage wilderness of Danish Greenland, we
+partook of a new life of primitive simplicity. Still farther along, in
+the Ultima Thule of the aborigines, we reverted to a prehistoric plane
+of living. Advancing beyond the haunts of men, we reached the noonday
+deadliness of a world without life.
+
+As we pushed beyond into the sterile wastes, with eager eyes we
+constantly searched the dusky plains of frost, but there was no speck of
+life to grace the purple run of death.[14]
+
+During these desolate marches, my legs working mechanically, my mind
+with anguish sought some object upon which to fasten itself. My eyes
+scrutinized the horizon. I saw, every day, every sleeping hour, hills of
+ice, vast plains of ice, now a deadly white, now a dull gray, now a
+misty purple, sometimes shot with gold or gleaming with lakes of
+ultramarine, moving towards and by me, an ever-changing yet
+ever-monotonous panorama which wearied me as does the shifting of
+unchanging scenery seen from a train window. As I paced the weary
+marches, I fortunately became unconscious of the painful movement of my
+legs. Although I walked I had a sensation of being lifted involuntarily
+onward.
+
+The sense of covering distance gave me a dull, pleasurable satisfaction.
+Only some catastrophe, some sudden and overwhelming obstacle would have
+aroused me to an intense mental emotion, to a passionate despair, to the
+anguish of possible defeat.
+
+I was now becoming the unconscious instrument of my ambition; almost
+without volition my body was being carried forward by a subconscious
+force which had fastened itself upon a distant goal. Sometimes the
+wagging of a dog's tail held my attention for long minutes; it afforded
+a curious play for my morbidly obsessed imagination. In an hour I would
+forget what I had been thinking. To-day I cannot remember the vague,
+fanciful illusions about curiously insignificant things which occupied
+my faculties in this dead world. The sun, however, did relieve the
+monotony, and created in the death-chilled world skies filled with
+elysian flowers and mirages of beauty undreamed of by Aladdin.
+
+My senses at the time, as I have said, were vaguely benumbed. While we
+traveled I heard the sound of the moving sledges. Their sharp steel
+runners cut the ice and divided the snow like a cleaving knife. I became
+used to the first shudder of the rasping sound. In the dead lulls
+between wind storms I would listen with curious attention to the soft
+patter of our dogs' feet. At times I could hear their tiny toe nails
+grasping at forward ice ridges in order to draw themselves forward, and,
+strangely--so were all my thoughts interwoven with my ambition--this
+clenching, crunching, gritty sound gave me a delighted sense of
+progress, a sense of ever covering distance and nearing, ever nearing
+the Pole.
+
+In this mid-Polar basin the ice does not readily separate. It is
+probably in motion at all times of the year. In this readjustment of
+fields following motion and expansion, open spaces of water appear.
+These, during most months, are quickly sheeted with new ice.
+
+In these troubled areas I had frequent opportunities to measure
+ice-thickness. From my observation I had come to the conclusion that ice
+does not freeze to a depth of more than twelve or fifteen feet during a
+single year. Occasionally we crossed fields fifty feet thick. These
+invariably showed signs of many years of surface upbuilding.
+
+It is very difficult to estimate the amount of submerged freezing after
+the first year's ice, but the very uniform thickness of Antarctic sea
+ice suggests that a limit is reached the second year, when the ice, with
+its cover of snow, is so thick that very little is added afterward from
+below.
+
+Increase in size after that is probably the result mostly of addition to
+the superstructure. Frequent falls of snow, combined with alternate
+melting and freezing in summer, and a process similar to the upbuilding
+of glacial ice, are mainly responsible for the growth in thickness of
+the ice on the Polar sea.
+
+The very heavy, undulating fields, which give character to the mid-Polar
+ice and escape along the east and west coasts of Greenland, are,
+therefore, mostly augmented from the surface.
+
+Continuing north, at no time was the horizon perfectly clear. But the
+weather was good enough to permit frequent nautical observations. Our
+course was lined on uninteresting blank sheets. There were elusive signs
+of land frequent enough to maintain an exploring enthusiasm, which
+helped me also in satisfying my companions. For thus they were
+encouraged to believe in a nearness to terrestrial solidity. At every
+breathing spell, when we got together for a little chat, Ah-we-lah's
+hand, with pointed finger, was directed to some spot on the horizon or
+some low-lying cloud, with the shout of "_Noona?_" (land), to which I
+always replied in the affirmative; but, for me, the field-glasses and
+later positions dispelled the illusion.
+
+Man, under pressure of circumstances, will adapt himself to most
+conditions of life. To me the other-world environment of the Polar-pack,
+far from continental fastness, was beginning to seem quite natural.
+
+We forced marches day after day. We traveled until dogs languished or
+legs failed. Ice hills rose and fell before us. Mirages grimaced at our
+dashing teams with wondering faces. Daily the incidents and our position
+were recorded, but our adventures were promptly forgotten in the mental
+bleach of the next day's effort.
+
+Night was now as bright as day. By habit, we emerged from our igloos
+later and later. On the 5th and 6th we waited until noon before
+starting, to get observations; but, as was so often the case, when the
+sun was watched, it slipped under clouds. This late start brought our
+stopping time close to midnight, and infused an interest in the midnight
+sun; but the persistent haze which clouded the horizon at night when the
+sun was low denied us a glimpse of the midnight luminary.
+
+The night of April 7 was made notable by the swing of the sun at
+midnight, above the usual obscuring mist, behind which it had, during
+previous days, sunk with its night dip of splendor. For a number of
+nights it made grim faces at us in its setting. A tantalizing mist,
+drawn as a curtain over the northern sea at midnight, had afforded
+curious advantages for celestial staging. We were unable to determine
+sharply the advent of the midnight sun, but the colored cloud and haze
+into which it nightly sank produced a spectacular play which interested
+us immensely.
+
+Sometimes the great luminary was drawn out into an egg-shaped elongation
+with horizontal lines of color drawn through it. I pictured it as some
+splendid fire-colored lantern flung from the window of Heaven. Again, it
+was pressed into a basin flaming with magical fires, burning behind a
+mystic curtain of opalescent frosts. Blue at other times, it appeared
+like a huge vase of luminous crystal, such as might be evoked by the
+weird genii of the Orient, from which it required very little
+imagination to see purple, violet, crimson and multi-colored flowers
+springing beauteously into the sky.
+
+These changes took place quickly, as by magic. Usually the last display
+was of distorted faces, some animal, some semi-human--huge, grotesque,
+and curiously twitching countenances of clouds and fire. At times they
+appallingly resembled the hideous teeth-gnashing deities of China, that,
+with gnarled arms upraised, holding daggers of flame and surrounded by
+smoke, were rising toward us from beyond the horizon.
+
+Sometimes in our northward progress these faces laughed, again they
+scowled ominously. What the actual configurations were I do not know; I
+suppose two men see nothing exactly alike in this topsy-turvy world.
+
+Rushing northward with forced haste, unreal beauties took form as if to
+lure us to pause. Clouds of steam rising from frozen seas like geysers
+assumed the aspects of huge fountains of iridescent fire. As the sun
+rose, lines of light like quicksilver quivered and writhed about the
+horizon, and in swirling, swimming circles closed and narrowed about us
+on the increasingly color-burned but death-chilled areas of ice over
+which we worked. Setting amid a dance of purple radiance, the sun,
+however, instead of inspiring us, filled us with a sick feeling of
+giddiness. What beauty there was in these spectacles was often lost upon
+our benumbed senses.
+
+Nowhere in the world, perhaps, are seen such spectacles of celestial
+glory. The play of light on clouds and ice produces the illusion of some
+supernatural realm.
+
+We had now followed the sun's northward advance--from its first peep, at
+midday, above the southern ice of the Polar gateway, to its sweep over
+the northern ice at midnight. From the end of the Polar night, late in
+February, to the first of the double days and the midnight suns, we had
+forced a trail through darkness and blood-hardening temperature, and
+over leg-breaking irregularities of an unknown world of ice, to a spot
+almost exactly two hundred miles from the Pole! To this point our
+destiny had been auspiciously protected. Ultimate success seemed within
+grasp. But we were not blind to the long line of desperate effort still
+required to push over the last distance.
+
+Now that we had the sun unmistakably at midnight, its new glory before
+us was an incentive to onward efforts. Previous to this the sun had been
+undoubtedly above the horizon, but, as is well known, when the sun is
+low and the atmospheric humidity is high, as it always is over the pack,
+a dense cloud of frost crystals rests on the ice and obscures the
+horizon. During the previous days the sun sank into this frosty haze and
+was lost for several hours.
+
+Observations on April 8[15] placed camp at latitude 86 deg. 36', longitude
+94 deg. 2'. Although we had made long marches and really great speed, we
+had advanced only ninety-six miles in the nine days. Much of our hard
+work had been lost in circuitous twists around troublesome pressure
+lines and high, irregular fields of very old ice. The drift ice was
+throwing us to the east with sufficient force to give us some anxiety,
+but with eyes closed to danger and hardships, double days of fatigue and
+double days of glitter quickly followed one another.
+
+Everything was now in our favor, but here we felt most of the
+accumulating effect of long torture, in a world where every element of
+Nature is hostile. Human endurance has distinct limits. Bodily abuse
+will long be counterbalanced by man's superb recuperative power, but
+sooner or later there comes a time when out-worn cells call a halt.
+
+We had lived for weeks on a steady diet of withered beef and tallow.
+There was no change, we had no hot meat, and never more to eat than was
+absolutely necessary to keep life within the body. We became indifferent
+to the aching vacant pain of the stomach. Every organ had been whipped
+to serve energy to the all important movement of our legs. The depletion
+of energy, the lassitude of overstrained limbs, manifested themselves.
+The Eskimos were lax in the swing of the whip and indifferent in urging
+on the dogs. The dogs displayed the same spirit by lowered tails, limp
+ears, and drooping noses, as their shoulders dragged the sleds farther,
+ever farther from the land of life.
+
+A light life-sapping wind came from the west. We battled against it. We
+swung our arms to fight it and maintain circulation, as a swimmer in
+water. Veering a little at times, it always struck the face at a
+piercing angle. It froze the tip of my nose so often that that feature
+felt like a foreign bump on my face. Our cheeks had in like manner been
+so often bleached in spots that the skin was covered with ugly scars.
+Our eyes were often sealed by frozen eyelashes. The tear sack made
+icicles. Every particle of breath froze as it left the nostrils, and
+coated the face in a mask of ice.
+
+The sun at times flamed the clouds, while the snow glowed in burning
+tones. In the presence of all this we suffered the chill of death. All
+Nature exulted in a wave of hysteria. Delusions took form about us--in
+mirages, in the clouds. We moved in a world of delusions. The heat of
+the sun was a sham, its light a torment. A very curious world this, I
+thought dumbly, as we pushed our sleds and lashed our lagging dogs. Our
+footing was solid; there was no motion. Our horizon was lined with all
+the topographic features of a solid land scene, with mountains, valleys
+and plains, rivers of open water; but under it all there was the heaving
+of a restless sea. Although nothing visibly moved, it was all in motion.
+Seemingly a solid crust of earth, it imperceptibly drifts in response to
+every wind. We moved with it, but ever took our landscape with us.
+
+Of the danger of this movement, of the possibility of its hopelessly
+carrying us away from our goal, and the possibility of ultimate
+starvation, I never lost consciousness. Although the distance may seem
+slight, now that we had gone so far, the last two hundred miles seemed
+hopelessly impossible. With aching, stiffened legs we started our
+continuing marches without enthusiasm, with little ambition. But marches
+we made--distance leaped at times under our swift running feet.
+
+It sometimes now seems that unknown and subtle forces of which we are
+not cognizant supported me. I could almost believe that there were
+unseen beings there, whose voices urged me in the wailing wind; who, in
+my success, themselves sought soul peace, and who, that I might obtain
+it, in some strange, mysterious way succored and buoyed me.
+
+
+
+
+OVER POLAR SEAS OF MYSTERY
+
+THE MADDENING TORTURES OF A WORLD WHERE ICE WATER SEEMS HOT, AND COLD
+KNIVES BURN ONE'S HANDS--ANGUISHED PROGRESS ON THE LAST STRETCH OF TWO
+HUNDRED MILES OVER ANCHORED LAND ICE--DAYS OF SUFFERING AND GLOOM--THE
+TIME OF DESPAIR--"IT IS WELL TO DIE," SAYS AH-WE-LAH; "BEYOND IS
+IMPOSSIBLE."
+
+XVIII
+
+ONE HUNDRED MILES FROM THE POLE
+
+
+We pushed onward. We cracked our whips to urge the tiring dogs. We
+forced to quick steps weary leg after weary leg. Mile after mile of ice
+rolled under our feet. The maddening influence of the shifting desert of
+frost became almost unendurable in the daily routine. Under the lash of
+duty interest was forced, while the merciless drive of extreme cold
+urged physical action. Our despair was mental and physical--the result
+of chronic overwork.
+
+Externally there was reason for rejoicing. The sky had cleared, the
+weather improved, a liquid charm of color poured over the strange
+other-world into which we advanced. Progress was good, but the soul
+refused to open its eyes to beauty or color. All was a lifeless waste.
+The mind, heretofore busy in directing arm and foot, to force a way
+through miniature mountains of uplifted floes, was now, because of
+better ice, relieved of that strain, but it refused to seek diversion.
+
+The normal run of hardship, although eased, now piled up the accumulated
+poison of overwork, and when I now think of the terrible strain I fail
+to see how a workable balance was maintained.
+
+As we passed the eighty-sixth parallel, the ice increased in breadth and
+thickness. Great hummocks and pressure lines became less frequent. A
+steady progress was gained with the most economical human drain
+possible. The temperature ranged between 36 deg. and 40 deg. below zero,
+Fahrenheit, with higher and lower midday and midnight extremes. Only
+spirit thermometers were useful, for the mercury was at this degree of
+frost either frozen or sluggish.
+
+Although the perpetual sun gave light and color to the cheerless waste
+we were not impressed with any appreciable sense of warmth. Indeed, the
+sunbeams by their contrast seemed to cause the frost of the air to
+pierce with a more painful sting. In marching over the golden glitter,
+snow scalded our faces, while our noses were bleached with frost. The
+sun rose into zones of fire and set in burning fields of ice, but, in
+pain, we breathed the chill of death.
+
+In camp a grip of the knife left painful burns from cold metal. To the
+frozen fingers ice cold water was hot. With wine-spirits the fire was
+lighted, while oil delighted the stomach. In our dreams Heaven was hot,
+the other place was cold. All Nature was false; we seemed to be nearing
+the chilled flame of a new Hades.
+
+We now changed our working hours from day to night, beginning usually at
+ten o'clock and ending at seven. The big marches and prolonged hours of
+travel with which fortune favored us earlier were no longer possible.
+Weather conditions were more important in determining a day's run than
+the hands of the chronometers.
+
+That I must steadily keep up my notes and the records of observations
+was a serious addition to my daily task. I never permitted myself to be
+careless in regard to this, for I never let myself forget the importance
+of such data in plotting an accurate course.
+
+I kept my records in small notebooks, writing very fine with a hard
+pencil on both sides of the paper. At the beginning of the journey I had
+usually set down the day's record by candle light, but later, when the
+sun was shining both day and night, I needed no light even inside the
+walls of the igloo, for the sunlight shone strongly enough through the
+walls of snow. Shining brilliantly at times, I utilized the opportunity
+it afforded, every few marches, to measure our shadows. The daily change
+marked our advance Poleward.
+
+When storms threatened, our start was delayed. In strong gales the march
+was shortened. But in one way or another we usually found a few hours in
+each turn of the dial during which a march could be forced between
+winds. It mattered little whether we traveled night or day--all hours
+and all days were alike to us--for we had no accustomed time to rest, no
+Sundays, no holidays, no landmarks, or mile-posts to pass.
+
+To advance and expend the energy accumulated during one sleep at the
+cost of one pound of pemmican was our sole aim in life. Day after day
+our legs were driven onward. Constantly new but similar panoramas rolled
+by us.
+
+Our observations on April 11, gave latitude 87 deg. 20', longitude 95 deg.
+19'. The pack disturbance of the new land was less and less noted as
+we progressed in the northward movement. The fields became heavier,
+larger and less crevassed. Fewer troublesome old floes and less crushed
+new ice were encountered. With the improved conditions, the fire of a
+racing spirit surged up for a brief spell.
+
+We had now passed the highest reaches of all our predecessors. The
+inspiration of the Farthest North for a brief time thrilled me. The time
+was at hand, however, to consider seriously the possible necessity of an
+early return.
+
+Nearly half of the food allowance had been used. In the long marches
+supplies had been more liberally consumed than anticipated. Now our dog
+teams were much reduced in numbers. Because of the cruel law of the
+survival of the fittest, the less useful dogs had gone into the stomachs
+of their stronger companions. With the lessening of the number of dogs
+had come at the same time a reduction of the weight of the sledge loads,
+through the eating of the food. Now, owing to food limitations and the
+advancing season, we could not prudently continue the onward march a
+fortnight longer.
+
+We had dragged ourselves three hundred miles over the Polar sea in
+twenty-four days. Including delays and detours, this gave an average of
+nearly thirteen miles daily on an airline in our course. There remained
+an unknown line of one hundred and sixty miles to the Pole. The same
+average advance would take us to the Pole in thirteen days. There were
+food and fuel enough to risk this adventure. With good luck the prize
+seemed within our grasp. But a prolonged storm, a deep snowfall, or an
+active ice-pack would mean failure.
+
+In new cracks I measured the thickness of the ice. I examined the water
+for life. The technical details for the making and breaking of ice were
+studied, and some attention was given to the altitude of uplifted and
+submerged irregularities. Atmospheric, surface water and ice
+temperatures were taken, the barometer was noted, the cloud formations,
+weather conditions and ice drifts were tabulated. There was a continuous
+routine of work, but like the effort of the foot in the daily drive, it
+became more or less automatic.
+
+Running along over seemingly endless fields of ice, the physical
+appearances now came under more careful scrutiny. I watched daily for
+possible signs of failing in the strength of any of us, because a
+serious disability would now mean a fatal termination. A disabled man
+could neither continue nor return. Each new examination gave me renewed
+confidence and was another reason to push human endurance to the limit
+of straining every fibre and cell.
+
+As a matter of long experience I find life in this extreme North is
+healthful so long as there is sufficient good food, so long as exertion
+is not overdone. A weakling would easily be killed, but a strong man is
+splendidly hardened and kept in perfect physical trim by sledging and
+tramping in this germless air. But, as I have said, sufficient food and
+not too much exertion are requisites to full safety, and in our case we
+were working to the limit, with rations running low. Still, the men
+responded superbly.
+
+Our tremendous exertion in forcing daily rushing marches, under
+occasional bursts of burning sunbeams, provoked intense thirst.
+Following the habit of the camel, we managed to take enough water before
+starting to keep sufficient liquid in the stomach and veins for the
+ensuing day's march. Yet it was painful to await the melting of ice at
+camping time.
+
+In two sittings, evening and morning, each of us took an average of
+three quarts of water daily. This included tea and also the luxury of
+occasional soup. Water was about us everywhere in heaps, but before the
+thirst could be quenched, several ounces of precious fuel, which had
+been sledged for hundreds of miles, must be used. And yet, this water,
+so expensive and so necessary to us, became the cause of our greatest
+discomfort. It escaped through pores of the skin, saturated the boots,
+formed a band of ice under the knee and a belt of frost about the waist,
+while the face was nearly always encased in a mask of icicles from the
+moist breath. We learned to take this torture philosophically.
+
+With our dogs bounding and tearing onward, from the eighty-seventh to
+the eighty-eighth parallel we passed for two days over old ice without
+pressure lines or hummocks. There was no discernible line of demarcation
+to indicate separate fields, and it was quite impossible to determine
+whether we were on land or sea ice. The barometer indicated no
+perceptible elevation, but the ice had the hard, wavering surface of
+glacial ice, with only superficial crevasses. The water obtained from
+this was not salty. All of the upper surface of old hummock and high ice
+of the Polar sea resolves into unsalted water. My nautical observations
+did not seem to indicate a drift, but nevertheless my combined
+tabulations do not warrant a positive assertion of either land or sea; I
+am inclined, however, to put this down as ice on low or submerged land.
+
+The ice presented an increasingly cheering prospect. A plain of purple
+and blue ran in easy undulations to the limits of vision without the
+usual barriers of uplifted blocks. Over it a direct air-line course was
+possible. Progress, however, was quite as difficult as over the
+irregular pack. The snow was crusted with large crystals. An increased
+friction reduced the sled speed, while the snow surface, too hard for
+snowshoes, was also too weak to give a secure footing to the unprotected
+boot. The loneliness, the monotony, the hardship of steady, unrelieved
+travel were keenly felt.
+
+Day after day we pushed along at a steady pace over plains of frost and
+through a mental desert. As the eye opened at the end of a period of
+shivering slumber, the fire was lighted little by little, the stomach
+was filled with liquids and solids, mostly cold--enough to last for the
+day, for there could be no halt or waste of fuel for midday feeding. We
+next got into harness, and, under the lash of duty, paced off the day's
+pull; we worked until standing became impossible.
+
+As a man in a dream I marched, set camp, ate and tried to rest. I took
+observations now without interest; under those conditions no man could
+take an interest in mathematics. Eating became a hardship, for the
+pemmican, tasteless and hard as metal, was cold. Our feet were numb--it
+seemed fortunate they no longer even ached.
+
+The arduous task of building a snowhouse meant physical hardship. In
+this the eyes, no longer able to wink, quickly closed. Soon the empty
+stomach complained. Then the gastric wants were half served. With teeth
+dropping to the spasm of cold and skins in an electric wave of shivers
+to force animal heat, the boys fell to unconscious slumbers, but my lids
+did not easily close. The anxiety to succeed, the eagerness to draw out
+our food supply and the task of infusing courage into my savage helpers
+kept the mind active while the underfed blood filled the legs with new
+power.
+
+There was no pleasurable mental recreation to relieve us; there was
+nothing to arouse the soul from its icy inclosure. To eat, to sleep,
+endlessly to press one foot ahead of the other--that was all we could
+do. We were like horses driven wearily in carts, but we had not their
+advantages of an agreeable climate and a comfortable stable at night.
+Daily our marches were much the same. Finishing our frigid meal, we
+hitched the dogs and lashed the sleds.
+
+In the daily routine of our onward struggle, there was an inhuman strain
+which neither words nor pictures could adequately describe. The
+maddening influence of the sameness of Polar glitter, combined as it was
+with bitter winds and extreme cold and overworked bodies, burned our
+eyes and set our teeth to a chronic chattering. To me there was always
+the inspiration of ultimate success. But for my young savage companions,
+it was a torment almost beyond endurance. They were, however, brave and
+faithful to the bitter end, seldom allowing hunger or weariness or
+selfish ambition or fierce passions seriously to interfere with the
+effort of the expedition. We suffered, but we covered distance.
+
+On the morning of April 13, the strain of agitating torment reached the
+breaking point. For days there had been a steady cutting wind from the
+west, which drove despair to its lowest reaches. The west again
+blackened, to renew its soul-despairing blast. The frost-burn of sky
+color changed to a depressing gray, streaked with black. The snow was
+screened with ugly vapors. The path was absolutely cheerless. All this
+was a dire premonition of storm and greater torture.
+
+No torment could be worse than that never-ceasing rush of icy air. It
+gripped us and sapped the life from us. Ah-we-lah bent over his sled and
+refused to move. I walked over and stood by his side. His dogs turned
+and looked inquiringly at us. E-tuk-i-shook came near and stood
+motionless, like a man in a trance, staring blankly at the southern
+skies. Large tears fell from Ah-we-lah's eyes and froze in the blue of
+his own shadow. Not a word was uttered. I knew that the dreaded time of
+utter despair had come. The dogs looked at us, patient and silent in
+their misery. Silently in the descending gloom we all looked over the
+tremendous dead-white waste to the southward. With a tear-streaked and
+withered face, Ah-we-lah slowly said, with a strangely shrilling wail,
+"_Unne-sinig-po--Oo-ah-tonie i-o-doria--Ooh-ah-tonie i-o-doria!_" ("It
+is well to die--Beyond is impossible--Beyond is impossible!")
+
+[Illustration: "TOO WEARY TO BUILD IGLOOS WE USED THE SILK TENT"]
+
+[Illustration: "ACROSS SEAS OF CRYSTAL GLORY TO THE BOREAL CENTRE"]
+
+[Illustration: MENDING NEAR THE POLE]
+
+
+
+
+TO THE POLE--THE LAST HUNDRED MILES
+
+OVER PLAINS OF GOLD AND SEAS OF PALPITATING COLOR THE DOG TEAMS, WITH
+NOSES DOWN, TAILS ERECT, DASH SPIRITEDLY LIKE CHARIOT HORSES--CHANTING
+LOVE SONGS THE ESKIMOS FOLLOW WITH SWINGING STEP--TIRED EYES OPEN TO NEW
+GLORY--STEP BY STEP, WITH THUMPING HEARTS THE EARTH'S APEX IS NEARED--AT
+LAST! THE GOAL IS REACHED! THE STARS AND STRIPES ARE FLUNG TO THE FRIGID
+BREEZES OF THE NORTH POLE!
+
+XIX
+
+BOREAL CENTER IS PIERCED
+
+
+I shall never forget that dismal hour. I shall never forget that
+desolate drab scene about us--those endless stretches of gray and
+dead-white ice, that drab dull sky, that thickening blackness in the
+west which entered into and made gray and black our souls, that ominous,
+eerie and dreadful wind, betokening a terrorizing Arctic storm. I shall
+never forget the mournful group before me, in itself an awful picture of
+despair, of man's ambition failing just as victory is within his grasp.
+Ah-we-lah, a thin, half-starved figure in worn furs, lay over his sled,
+limp, dispirited, broken. In my ears I can now hear his low sobbing
+words, I can see the tears on his yellow fissured face. I can see
+E-tuk-i-shook standing gaunt and grim, and as he gazed yearningly onward
+to the south, sighing pitifully, shudderingly for the home, the loved
+one, An-na-do-a, left behind, whom, I could tell, he did not expect to
+see again.
+
+It was a critical moment. Up to this time, during the second week of
+April, we had, by intense mental force, goaded our wearied legs onward
+to the limit of endurance. With a cutting wind in our faces, feeling
+with each step the cold more severely to the marrow of our bones, with
+our bodily energy and our bodily heat decreasing, we had traveled
+persistently, suffering intolerable pains with every breath. Despite
+increasing despair, I had cheered my companions as best I could; I had
+impressed upon them the constant nearing of my goal. I had encouraged in
+them the belief of nearness of land; each day I had gone on, fearing
+what had now come, the utter breaking of their spirits.
+
+"_Unne-sinikpo-ashuka._" (Yes, it is well to die.)
+
+"_Awonga-up-dow-epuksha!_" (Yesterday I, too, felt that way), I said to
+myself. The sudden extinction of consciousness, I thought, might be
+indeed a blessed relief. But as long as life persisted, as long as human
+endurance could be strained, I determined to continue. Desperate as was
+my condition, and suffering hellish tortures, the sight of the despair
+of my companions re-aroused me. Should we fail now, after our long
+endurance, now, when the goal was so near?
+
+The Pole was only one hundred miles beyond. The attainment seemed almost
+certain.
+
+"_Accou-ou-o-toni-ah-younguluk_" (Beyond to-morrow it will be better),
+I urged, trying to essay a smile. "_Igluctoo!_" (Cheer up!)
+
+Holding up one hand, with a reach Poleward, bending five fingers, one
+after the other, I tried to convey the idea that in five sleeps the "Big
+Nail" would be reached, and that then we would turn (pointing with my
+fingers) homeward.
+
+"_Noona-me-neulia-capa--ahmisua_" (For home, sweethearts and food in
+abundance), I said.
+
+"_Noona-terronga, neuliarongita, ootah--peterongito_" (Land is gone;
+loved ones are lost; signs of life have vanished).
+
+"_Tig-i-lay-waongacedla--nellu ikah-amisua_" (Return will I, the sky and
+weather I do not understand. It is very cold), said Ah-we-lah.
+
+"_Attuda-emongwah-ka_" (A little farther come), I pleaded.
+"_Attudu-mikisungwah_" (Only a little further).
+
+"_Sukinut-nellu_" (The sun I do not understand), said E-tuk-i-shook.
+
+This had been a daily complaint for some days--the approaching equality
+of the length of shadows for night and day puzzled them. The failing
+night dip of the sun left them without a guiding line to give direction.
+They were lost in a landless, spiritless world, in which the sky, the
+weather, the sun and all was a mystery.
+
+I knew my companions were brave. I was certain of their fidelity. Could
+their mental despair be alleviated, I felt convinced they could brace
+themselves for another effort. I spoke kindly to them; I told them what
+we had accomplished, that they were good and brave, that their parents
+and their sweethearts would be proud of them, and that as a matter of
+honor we must not now fail.
+
+"_Tigishu-conitu_," I said. (The Pole is near.)
+
+"_Sinipa tedliman dossa-ooahtonie tomongma ah youngulok tigilay toy
+hoy._" (At the end of five sleeps it is finished, beyond all is well, we
+return thereafter quickly.)
+
+"_Seko shudi iokpok. Sounah ha-ah!_" they replied. (On ice always is not
+good. The bones ache.)
+
+Then I said, "The ice is flat, the snow is good, the sky is clear, the
+Great Spirit is with us, the Pole is near!"
+
+Ah-we-lah dully nodded his head. I noticed, however, he wiped his eyes.
+
+"_Ka-bishuckto-emongwah_" (Come walk a little further), I went on.
+"_Accou ooahtoni-ahningahna-matluk-tigilay-Inut-noona._" (Beyond
+to-morrow within two moons we return to Eskimo lands.)
+
+"_K i s a h iglucto-tima-attahta-annona-neuliasing-wah_," said
+Ah-we-lah. (At last, then it is to laugh! There we will meet father
+and mother and little wives!)
+
+"_Ashuka-alningahna-matluk_," I returned. (Yes, in two moons there will
+be water and meat and all in plenty.)
+
+E-tuk-i-shook gazed at me intently. His eyes brightened.
+
+As I spoke my own spirits rose to the final effort, my lassitude gave
+way to a new enthusiasm. I felt the fire kindling for many years aglow
+within me. The goal was near; there remained but one step to the apex of
+my ambition. I spoke hurriedly. The two sat up and listened. Slowly they
+became inspired with my intoxication. Never did I speak so vehemently.
+
+E-tuk-i-shook gripped his whip. "_Ka, aga_" (Come, go!) he said.
+
+Ah-we-lah, determined but grim, braced his body and shouted to the
+dogs--"_Huk, Huk, Huk_," and then to us he said, "_Aga-Ka!_" (Go-come).
+
+With snapping whip we were off for that last hundred miles.
+
+The animals pricked their ears, re-curled their tails, and pulled at the
+traces. Shouting to keep up the forced enthusiasm, we bounded forward on
+the last lap. A sort of wild gratification filled my heart. I knew that
+only mental enthusiasm would now prevent the defeat which might yet come
+from our own bodies refusing to go farther. Brain must now drive muscle.
+Fortunately the sense of final victory imparted a supernormal mental
+stimulus.
+
+Gray ice hummocks sped by us. My feet were so tired that I seemed to
+walk on air. My body was so light from weakness that I suppose I should
+hardly have been surprised had I floated upward from the ice in a gust
+of wind. I felt the blood moving in my veins and stinging like needles
+in my joints as one does when suffering with neurasthenia. I swung my
+axe. The whip of my companions cut the air. The dogs leaped over the
+ice, with crunching progress they pulled themselves over hummocks much
+as cats climb trees. Distance continued to fade behind us.
+
+On April 14, my observations gave latitude, 88 deg. 21'; longitude, 95 deg.
+52'. The wind came with a satanic cut from the west. There had been
+little drift. But with a feeling of chagrin I saw that the ice before us
+displayed signs of recent activity. It was more irregular, with open
+cracks here and there. These we had to avoid, but the sleds glided with
+less friction, and the weary dogs maintained a better speed.
+
+With set teeth and newly sharpened resolutions, we continued mile after
+mile of that last one hundred. More dogs had gone into the stomachs of
+their hungry companions, but there still remained a sufficient pull of
+well-tried brute force for each sled. Although their noisy vigor had
+been gradually lost in the long drag, they still broke the frigid
+silence with an occasional outburst of howls. Any fresh enthusiasm from
+the drivers was quickly responded to by canine activity.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We were in good trim to cover distance economically. Our sledges were
+light, our bodies were thin. We had lost, since leaving winter camp,
+judging from appearances, from twenty-five to forty pounds each. All our
+muscles had shriveled. The dogs retained strength that was amazing.
+Stripped for the last lap, one horizon after another was lifted.
+
+  =From original field papers.--Observations of April 14, 1908.=
+  Long. 95-52. Bar. 29.90 Falling. Temp. -44 deg.. Clouds Cu. St. & Alt.
+  St. 4. Wind 1-3. Mag. E.
+
+                         Noon 0....... = 22--02--05
+          96                ===
+           4                  0....... = 22--56--20
+       +--------                       +-----------
+    60 | 384                         2 | 44--58--25
+       +--------                       +-----------
+          6-24                           22--29--12
+                                             +2
+                                       +-----------
+          54                         2 | 22--31--12
+           61/2                          +-----------
+        -------                          11--15--36
+          27                                --9
+         324                            -----------
+       +-------                          11-- 6--36
+    60 | 351                             90
+       +-------                         -----------
+        5--51                            78--53--24
+    9--21--50                             9--27--41
+   -----------                          -----------
+    9--27--41                            88--21-- 5
+
+                         Shadow 301/2 ft. (of tent pole 6 ft. above snow.)
+
+In the forced effort which followed we frequently became overheated. The
+temperature was steady at 44 deg. below zero, Fahrenheit. Perspiration came
+with ease, and with a certain amount of pleasure. Later followed a train
+of suffering for many days. The delight of the birdskin shirt gave place
+to the chill of a wet blanket. Our coats and trousers hardened to icy
+suits of armor. It became quite impossible to dress after a sleep
+without softening the stiffened furs with the heat of our bare skin.
+Mittens, boots and fur stockings became quite useless until dried out.
+
+Fortunately, at this time the rays of the sun were warm enough to dry
+the furs in about three days, if lashed to the sunny side of a sled as
+we marched along, and strangely enough, the furs dried out without
+apparent thawing. In these last days we felt more keenly the pangs of
+perspiration than in all our earlier adventures. We persistently used
+the amber-colored goggles. They afforded protection to the eyes, but in
+spite of every precaution, our distorted, frozen, burned and withered
+faces lined a map in relief, of the hardships endured en route.
+
+We were curious looking savages. The perpetual glitter of the snows
+induced a squint of our eyes which distorted our faces in a remarkable
+manner. The strong light reflected from the crystal surface threw the
+muscles about the eyes into a state of chronic contraction. The iris was
+reduced to a mere pin-hole.
+
+The strong winds and drifting snows necessitated the habit of peeping
+out of the corners of the eyes. Nature, in attempting to keep the ball
+from hardening, flushed it at all times with blood. To keep the seeing
+windows of the mind open required a constant exertion of will power. The
+effect was a set of expressions of hardship and wrinkles which might be
+called the boreal squint.
+
+This boreal squint is a part of the russet-bronze physiognomy which
+falls to the lot of every Arctic explorer. The early winds, with a
+piercing temperature, start a flush of scarlet, while frequent
+frostbites leave figures in black. Later the burning sun browns the
+skin; subsequently, strong winds sap the moisture, harden the skin and
+leave open fissures on the face. The human face takes upon itself the
+texture and configuration of the desolate, wind-driven world upon which
+it looks.
+
+Hard work and reduced nourishment contract the muscles, dispel the fat
+and leave the skin to shrivel in folds. The imprint of the goggles, the
+set expression of hard times, and the mental blank of the environment
+remove all spiritual animation. Our faces assumed the color and lines of
+old, withering, russet apples, and would easily pass for the mummied
+countenances of the prehistoric progenitors of man.
+
+In enforced efforts to spread out our stiffened legs over the last
+reaches, there was left no longer sufficient energy at camping times to
+erect snow shelters. Our silk tent was pressed into use. Although the
+temperature was still very low, the congenial rays pierced the silk
+fabric and rested softly on our eye lids closed in heavy slumber. In
+strong winds it was still necessary to erect a sheltering wall, whereby
+to shield the tent.
+
+As we progressed over the last one hundred mile-step, my mind was
+divested of its lethargy. Unconsciously I braced myself. My senses
+became more keen. With a careful scrutiny I now observed the phenomena
+of the strange world into which fortune had pressed us--first of all
+men.
+
+Step by step, I invaded a world untrodden and unknown. Dulled as I was
+by hardship, I thrilled with the sense of the explorer in new lands,
+with the thrill of discovery and conquest. "Then," as Keats says, "felt
+I like some watcher of the skies, when a new planet swims into his ken."
+In this land of ice I was master, I was sole invader. I strode forward
+with an undaunted glory in my soul.
+
+Signs of land, which I encouraged my companions to believe were real,
+were still seen every day, but I knew, of course, they were deceptive.
+It now seemed to me that something unusual must happen, that some line
+must cross our horizon to mark the important area into which we were
+passing.
+
+Through vapor-charged air of crystal, my eyes ran over plains moving in
+brilliant waves of running colors toward dancing horizons. Mirages
+turned things topsy-turvy. Inverted lands and queer objects ever rose
+and fell, shrouded in mystery. All of this was due to the atmospheric
+magic of the continued glory of midnight suns in throwing piercing beams
+of light through superimposed strata of air of varying temperature and
+density.
+
+Daily, by careful measurements, I found that our night shadows shortened
+and became more uniform during the passing hours of the day, as the
+shadow dial was marked.
+
+With a lucky series of astronomical observations our position was fixed
+for each stage of progress.
+
+Nearing the Pole, my imagination quickened. A restless, almost
+hysterical excitement came over all of us. My boys fancied they saw
+bears and seals. I had new lands under observation frequently, but with
+a change in the direction of light the horizon cleared. We became more
+and more eager to push further into the mystery. Climbing the long
+ladder of latitudes, there was always the feeling that each hour's work
+was bringing us nearer the Pole--the Pole which men had sought for three
+centuries, and which, fortune favoring, should be mine!
+
+Yet, I was often so physically tired that my mind was, when the
+momentary intoxications passed, in a sense, dulled. But the habit of
+seeing and of noting what I had seen, had been acquired. The habit, yes,
+of putting one foot in front of the other, mile after mile, through the
+wild dreariness of ice, the habit of observing, even though with aching,
+blurred eyes, and noting, methodically, however wearily, what the tired
+eyes had seen.
+
+From the eighty-eighth to the eighty-ninth parallel the ice lay in large
+fields, the surface was less irregular than formerly. In other respects
+it was about the same as below the eighty-seventh. I observed here also,
+an increasing extension of the range of vision. I seemed to scan longer
+distances, and the ice along the horizon had a less angular outline. The
+color of the sky and the ice changed to deeper purple-blues. I had no
+way of checking these impressions by other observations; the eagerness
+to find something unusual may have fired my imagination, but since the
+earth is flattened at the Pole, perhaps a widened horizon would
+naturally be detected there.
+
+At eight o'clock on the morning of April 19, we camped on a picturesque
+old field, with convenient hummocks, to the top of which we could easily
+rise for the frequent outlook which we now maintained. We pitched our
+tent, and silenced the dogs by blocks of pemmican. New enthusiasm was
+aroused by a liberal pot of pea-soup and a few chips of frozen meat.
+Then we bathed in life-giving sunbeams, screened from the piercing air
+by the strands of the silk-walled tent.
+
+The day was beautiful. Had our sense of appreciation not been blunted by
+accumulated fatigue we should have greatly enjoyed the play of light and
+color in the ever-changing scene of sparkle. But in our condition it was
+but an inducement to keep the eyes open and to prolong interest long
+enough to dispel the growing complaint of aching muscles.
+
+Ah-we-lah and E-tuk-i-shook were soon lost in profound sleep, the only
+comfort in their hard lives. I remained awake, as had been my habit for
+many preceding days, to get nautical observations. My longitude
+calculations lined us at 94 deg. 3'. At noon the sun's altitude was
+carefully set on the sextant, and the latitude, quickly reduced, gave
+89 deg. 31'. The drift had carried us too far east, but our advance was
+encouraging.
+
+I put down the instrument, wrote the reckonings in my book. Then I
+gazed, with a sort of fascination, at the figures. My heart began to
+thump wildly. Slowly my brain whirled with exultation. I arose jubilant.
+We were only 29 miles from the North Pole!
+
+I suppose I created quite a commotion about the little camp.
+E-tuk-i-shook, aroused by the noise, awoke and rubbed his eyes. I told
+him that in two average marches we should reach the "_tigi-shu_"--the
+big nail. He sprang to his feet and shouted with joy. He kicked
+Ah-we-lah, none too gently, and told him the glad news.
+
+Together they went out to a hummock, and through glasses, sought for a
+mark to locate so important a place as the terrestrial axis! If but one
+sleep ahead, it must be visible! So they told me, and I laughed. The
+sensation of laughing was novel. At first I was quite startled. I had
+not laughed for many days. Their idea was amusing, but it was eminently
+sensible from their standpoint and knowledge.
+
+I tried to explain to them that the Pole is not visible to the eye, and
+that its position is located only by a repeated use of the various
+instruments. Although this was quite beyond their comprehension the
+explanation entirely satisfied their curiosity. They burst out in
+hurrahs of joy. For two hours they chanted, danced and shouted the
+passions of wild life. Their joy, however, was in the thought of a
+speedy turning back homeward, I surmised.
+
+This, however, was the first real sign of pleasure or rational emotion
+which they had shown for several weeks. For some time I had entertained
+the fear that we no longer possessed strength to return to land. This
+unbridled flow of vigor dispelled that idea. My heart throbbed with
+gladness. A font of new strength seemed to gush forth within me.
+Considering through what we had gone, I now marvel at the reserve forces
+latent in us, and I sometimes feel that I should write, not of human
+weakness, but a new gospel of human strength.
+
+With the Pole only twenty-nine miles distant, more sleep was quite
+impossible. We brewed an extra pot of tea, prepared a favorite broth of
+pemmican, dug up a surprise of fancy biscuits and filled up on good
+things to the limit of the allowance for our final feast days. The dogs,
+which had joined the chorus of gladness, were given an extra lump of
+pemmican. A few hours more were agreeably spent in the tent. Then we
+started out with new spirit for the uttermost goal of our world.
+
+Bounding joyously forward, with a stimulated mind, I reviewed the
+journey. Obstacle after obstacle had been overcome. Each battle won gave
+a spiritual thrill, and courage to scale the next barrier. Thus had been
+ever, and was still, in the unequal struggles between human and
+inanimate nature, an incentive to go onward, ever onward, up the
+stepping-stones to ultimate success. And now, after a life-denying
+struggle in a world where every element of Nature is against the life
+and progress of man, triumph came with steadily measured reaches of
+fifteen miles a day!
+
+We were excited to fever heat. Our feet were light on the run. Even the
+dogs caught the infectious enthusiasm. They rushed along at a pace which
+made it difficult for me to keep a sufficient advance to set a good
+course. The horizon was still eagerly searched for something to mark the
+approaching boreal center. But nothing unusual was seen. The same
+expanse of moving seas of ice, on which we had gazed for five hundred
+miles, swam about us as we drove onward.
+
+Looking through gladdened eyes, the scene assumed a new glory. Dull blue
+and purple expanses were transfigured into plains of gold, in which
+were lakes of sapphire and rivulets of ruby fire. Engirdling this world
+were purple mountains with gilded crests. It was one of the few days on
+the stormy pack when all Nature smiled with cheering lights.
+
+As the day advanced beyond midnight and the splendor of the summer night
+ran into a clearer continued day, the beams of gold on the surface snows
+assumed a more burning intensity. Shadows of hummocks and ice ridges
+became dyed with a deeper purple, and in the burning orange world loomed
+before us Titan shapes, regal and regally robed.
+
+From my position, a few hundred yards ahead of the sleds, with compass
+and axe in hand, as usual, I could not resist the temptation to turn
+frequently to see the movement of the dog train with its new fire. In
+this backward direction the color scheme was reversed. About the horizon
+the icy walls gleamed like beaten gold set with gem-spots of burning
+colors; the plains represented every shade of purple and blue, and over
+them, like vast angel wings outspread, shifted golden pinions. Through
+the sea of palpitating color, the dogs came, with spirited tread, noses
+down, tails erect and shoulders braced to the straps, like chariot
+horses. In the magnifying light they seemed many times their normal
+size. The young Eskimos, chanting songs of love, followed with easy,
+swinging steps. The long whip was swung with a brisk crack. Over all
+arose a cloud of frosted breath, which, like incense smoke, became
+silvered in the light, a certain signal of efficient motive power.
+
+With our destination reachable over smooth ice, in these brighter days
+of easier travel our long chilled blood was stirred to double action,
+our eyes opened to beauty and color, and a normal appreciation of the
+wonders of this new strange and wonderful world.
+
+As we lifted the midnight's sun to the plane of the midday sun, the
+shifting Polar desert became floored with a sparkling sheen of millions
+of diamonds, through which we fought a way to ulterior and greater
+glory.
+
+Our leg cramps eased and our languid feet lifted buoyantly from the
+steady drag as the soul arose to effervescence. Fields of rich purple,
+lined with running liquid gold, burning with flashes of iridescent
+colors, gave a sense of gladness long absent from our weary life. The
+ice was much better. We still forced a way over large fields, small
+pressure areas and narrow leads. But, when success is in sight, most
+troubles seem lighter. We were thin, with faces burned, withered, frozen
+and torn in fissures, with clothes ugly from overwear. Yet men never
+felt more proud than we did, as we militantly strode off the last steps
+to the world's very top!
+
+Camp was pitched early in the morning of April 20. The sun was
+northeast, the pack glowed in tones of lilac, the normal westerly air
+brushed our frosty faces. Our surprising burst on enthusiasm had been
+nursed to its limits. Under it a long march had been made over average
+ice, with the usual result of overpowering fatigue. Too tired and sleepy
+to wait for a cup of tea, we poured melted snow into our stomach and
+pounded the pemmican with an axe to ease the task of the jaws. Our eyes
+closed before the meal was finished, and the world was lost to us for
+eight hours. Waking, I took observations which gave latitude 89 deg. 46'.
+
+Late at night, after another long rest, we hitched the dogs and loaded
+the sleds. When action began, the feeling came that no time must be
+lost. Feverish impatience seized me.
+
+Cracking our whips, we bounded ahead. The boys sang. The dogs howled.
+Midnight of April 21 had just passed.
+
+Over the sparkling snows the post-midnight sun glowed like at noon. I
+seemed to be walking in some splendid golden realms of dreamland. As we
+bounded onward the ice swam about me in circling rivers of gold.
+
+E-tuk-i-shook and Ah-we-lah, though thin and ragged, had the dignity of
+the heroes of a battle which had been fought through to success.
+
+We all were lifted to the paradise of winners as we stepped over the
+snows of a destiny for which we had risked life and willingly suffered
+the tortures of an icy hell. The ice under us, the goal for centuries of
+brave, heroic men, to reach which many had suffered terribly and
+terribly died, seemed almost sacred. Constantly and carefully I watched
+my instruments in recording this final reach. Nearer and nearer they
+recorded our approach. Step by step, my heart filled with a strange
+rapture of conquest.
+
+At last we step over colored fields of sparkle, climbing walls of purple
+and gold--finally, under skies of crystal blue, with flaming clouds of
+glory, we touch the mark! The soul awakens to a definite triumph; there
+is sunrise within us, and all the world of night-darkened trouble fades.
+We are at the top of the world! The flag is flung to the frigid breezes
+of the North Pole!
+
+[Illustration: ROUTE TO THE POLE AND RETURN
+
+A triangle of 30,000 square miles cut out of the mysterious unknown]
+
+
+
+
+AT THE NORTH POLE
+
+OBSERVATIONS AT THE POLE--METEOROLOGICAL AND ASTRONOMICAL
+PHENOMENA--SINGULAR STABILITY AND UNIFORMITY OF THE THERMOMETER AND
+BAROMETER--A SPOT WHERE ONE'S SHADOW IS THE SAME LENGTH EACH HOUR OF THE
+TWENTY-FOUR--EIGHT POLAR ALTITUDES OF THE SUN
+
+XX
+
+FULL AND FINAL PROOFS OF THE ATTAINMENT
+
+
+Looking about me, after the first satisfactory observation, I viewed the
+vacant expanse. The first realization of actual victory, of reaching my
+lifetime's goal, set my heart throbbing violently and my brain aglow. I
+felt the glory which the prophet feels in his vision, with which the
+poet thrills in his dream. About the frozen plains my imagination evoked
+aspects of grandeur. I saw silver and crystal palaces, such as were
+never built by man, with turrets flaunting "pinions glorious, golden."
+The shifting mirages seemed like the ghosts of dead armies, magnified
+and transfigured, huge and spectral, moving along the horizon and
+bearing the wind-tossed phantoms of golden blood-stained banners.
+
+The low beating of the wind assumed the throb of martial music.
+Bewildered, I realized all that I had suffered, all the pain of
+fasting, all the anguish of long weariness, and I felt that this was my
+reward. I had scaled the world, and I stood at the Pole!
+
+By a long and consecutive series of observations and mental tabulations
+of various sorts on our journey northward, continuing here, I knew,
+beyond peradventure of doubt, that I was at a spot which was as near as
+possible, by usual methods of determination, five hundred and twenty
+miles from Svartevoeg, a spot toward which men had striven for more than
+three centuries--a spot known as the North Pole, and where I stood first
+of white men. In my own achievement I felt, that dizzy moment, that all
+the heroic souls who had braved the rigors of the Arctic region found
+their own hopes' fulfilment. I had realized their dream. I had
+culminated with success the efforts of all the brave men who had failed
+before me. I had finally justified their sacrifices, their very death; I
+had proven to humanity humanity's supreme triumph over a hostile,
+death-dealing Nature. It seemed that the souls of these dead exulted
+with me, and that in some sub-strata of the air, in notes more subtle
+than the softest notes of music, they sang a paean in the spirit with me.
+
+We had reached our destination. My relief was indescribable. The prize
+of an international marathon was ours. Pinning the Stars and Stripes to
+a tent-pole, I asserted the achievement in the name of the ninety
+millions of countrymen who swear fealty to that flag. And I felt a pride
+as I gazed at the white-and-crimson barred pinion, a pride which the
+claim of no second victor has ever taken from me.
+
+My mental intoxication did not interfere with the routine work which
+was now necessary. Having reached the goal, it was imperative that all
+scientific observations be made as carefully as possible, as quickly as
+possible. To the taking of these I set myself at once, while my
+companions began the routine work of unloading the sledges and building
+an igloo.
+
+[Illustration: CLIMBING THE LADDER OF LATITUDES]
+
+Our course when arriving at the Pole, as near as it was possible to
+determine, was on the ninety-seventh meridian. The day was April 21,
+1908. It was local noon. The sun was 11 deg. 55'' above the magnetic
+northern horizon. My shadow, a dark purple-blue streak with ill-defined
+edges, measured twenty-six feet in length. The tent pole, marked as a
+measuring stick, was pushed into the snow, leaving six feet above the
+surface. This gave a shadow twenty-eight feet long.
+
+Several sextant observations gave a latitude a few seconds below 90 deg.,
+which, because of unknown refraction and uncertain accuracy of time, was
+placed at 90 deg.. (Other observations on the next day gave similar results,
+although we shifted camp four miles toward magnetic south.) A broken
+hand-axe was tied to the end of a life-line; this was lowered through a
+fresh break in the ice, and the angle which it made with the surface
+indicated a drift toward Greenland. The temperature, gauged by a spirit
+thermometer, was 37.7 deg., F. The mercury thermometer indicated -36 deg.. The
+atmospheric pressure by the aneroid barometer was at 29.83. It was
+falling, and indicated a coming change in the weather. The wind was very
+light, and had veered from northeast to south, according to the compass
+card.
+
+The sky was almost clear, of a dark purple blue, with a pearly ice-blink
+or silver reflection extending east, and a smoky water-sky west, in
+darkened, ill-defined streaks, indicating continuous ice or land toward
+Bering Sea, and an active pack, with some open water, toward
+Spitzbergen. To the north and south were wine-colored gold-shot clouds,
+flung in long banners, with ragged-pointed ends along the horizon. The
+ice about was nearly the same as it had been continuously since leaving
+the eighty-eighth parallel. It was slightly more active, and showed, by
+news cracks and oversliding, young ice signs of recent disturbance.
+
+The field upon which we camped was about three miles long and two miles
+wide. Measured at a new crevasse, the ice was sixteen feet thick. The
+tallest hummock measured twenty-eight feet above water. The snow lay in
+fine feathery crystals, with no surface crust. About three inches below
+the soft snow was a sub-surface crust strong enough to carry the bodily
+weight. Below this were other successive crusts, and a porous snow in
+coarse crystals, with a total depth of about fifteen inches.
+
+Our igloo was built near one edge in the lee of an old hummock about
+fifteen feet high. Here a recent bank of drift snow offered just the
+right kind of material from which to cut building blocks. While a
+shelter was thus being walled, I moved about constantly to read my
+instruments and to study carefully the local environment.
+
+In a geographic sense we had now arrived at a point where all meridians
+meet. The longitude, therefore, was zero. Time was a negative problem.
+There being no longitude, there can be no time. The hour lines of
+Greenwich, of New York, of Peking, and of all the world here run
+together. Figuratively, if this position is the pin-point of the earth's
+axis, it is possible to have all meridians under one foot, and therefore
+it should be possible to step from midnight to midday, from the time of
+San Francisco to that of Paris, from one side of the globe to the other,
+as time is measured.
+
+[Illustration: WHERE ALL MERIDIANS MEET AND EVERY DIRECTION IS SOUTH
+
+The Pivotal Point on which the earth turns.
+
+*Magnetic Pole]
+
+Here there is but one day and but one night in each year, but the night
+of six months is relieved by about one hundred days of continuous
+twilight. Geographically, there was here but one direction. It was south
+on every line of the dial of longitude--north, east and west had
+vanished. We had reached a point where true direction became a paradox
+and a puzzle. It was south before us, south behind us, and south on
+every side. But the compass, pointing to the magnetic Pole along the
+ninety-seventh meridian, was as useful as ever. (To avoid statements
+easily misunderstood, all our directions about the Pole will be given as
+taken from the compass, and without reference to the geographer's
+anomaly of its being south in every direction.)
+
+  =My first noon observations= gave the following result, which is
+  copied from the original paper, as it was written at the Pole and
+  reproduced photographically on another page. April 21, 1908: Long.,
+  97-W.; Bar., 29-83; Temp., -37.7; Clouds Alt., St., 1; Wind, 1;
+  Mag., S.; Iceblink E.; Water Sky W.
+
+      Noon Alt. 0      23--33--25
+               ---         +2
+                     +--------------
+                   2 | 23--35--25
+                     +--------------
+                       11--47--42  5
+                          +15--56
+                     ---------------
+        50             12-- 3--38
+         61/2               --9
+    -----------      ---------------
+        25             11--54--38
+       300             90
+     +----------     ---------------
+  60 | 325             78-- 5--22
+     +----------       11--54--23
+        5--25        ---------------
+   11--48--58          89--59--45
+   ----------
+   11--54--23
+
+                                       Shadows 28 ft. (of 6 ft. pole).
+
+Taking advantage of our brief stay, the boys set up the ice-axe and
+drying sticks, and hung upon them their perspiration-wetted and frosted
+furs to dry. Hanging out wet clothes and an American flag at the North
+Pole seemed an amusing incongruity.
+
+The puzzled standpoint of my Eskimos was amusing. They tried hard to
+appreciate the advantages of finding this suppositious "_tigi shu_" (big
+nail), but actually here, they could not, even from a sense of deference
+to me and my judgment, entirely hide their feeling of disappointment.
+
+On the advance I had told them that an actual "big nail" would not be
+found--only the point where it ought to be. But I think they really
+hoped that if it had actually disappeared they should find that it had
+come back into place after all!
+
+In building our igloo the boys frequently looked about expectantly.
+Often they ceased cutting snow-blocks and rose to a hummock to search
+the horizon for something which, to their idea, must mark this important
+spot, for which we had struggled against hope and all the dictates of
+personal comforts. At each breathing spell their eager eyes picked some
+sky sign which to them meant land or water, or the play of some god of
+land or sea. The naive and sincere interest which the Eskimos on
+occasions feel in the mystery of the spirit-world gives them an
+imaginative appreciation of nature often in excess of that of the more
+material and skeptical Caucasian.
+
+Arriving at the mysterious place where, they felt, something should
+happen, their imagination now forced an expression of disappointment. In
+a high-keyed condition, all their superstitions recurred to them with
+startling reality.
+
+In one place the rising vapor proved to be the breath of the great
+submarine god--the "_Ko-Koyah_." In another place, a motionless little
+cloud marked the land in which dwelt the "_Turnah-huch-suak_," the great
+Land God, and the air spirits were represented by the different winds,
+with sex relations.
+
+Ah-we-lah and E-tuk-i-shook, with the astuteness of the aborigine, who
+reads Nature as a book, were sharp enough to note that the high air
+currents did not correspond to surface currents; for, although the wind
+was blowing homeward, and changed its force and direction, a few high
+clouds moved persistently in a different direction.
+
+This, to them, indicated a warfare among the air spirits. The ice and
+snow were also animated. To them the whole world presented a rivalry of
+conflicting spirits which offered never-ending topics of conversation.
+
+As the foot pressed the snow, its softness, its rebound, or its metallic
+ring indicated sentiments of friendliness or hostility. The ice, by its
+color, movement or noise, spoke the humor of its animation, or that of
+the supposed life of the restless sea beneath it. In interpreting these
+spirit signs, the two expressed considerable difference of opinion.
+Ah-we-lah saw dramatic situations and became almost hysterical with
+excitement; E-tuk-i-shook saw only a monotone of the normal play of
+life. Such was the trend of interest and conversation as the building of
+the igloos was completed.
+
+Contrary to our usual custom, the dogs had been allowed to rest in their
+traces attached to the sleds. Their usual malicious inquisitiveness
+exhausted, they were too tired to examine the sleds to steal food. But
+now, as the house was completed, holes were chipped with a knife in
+ice-shoulders, through which part of a trace was passed, and each team
+was thus securely fastened to a ring cut in ice-blocks. Then each dog
+was given a double ration of pemmican. Their pleasure was expressed by
+an extra twist of the friendly tails and an extra note of gladness from
+long-contracted stomachs. Finishing their meal, they curled up and
+warmed the snow, from which they took an occasional bite to furnish
+liquid for their gastric economy. Almost two days of rest followed, and
+this was the canine celebration of the Polar attainment.
+
+We withdrew to the inside of the dome of snow-blocks, pulled in a block
+to close the doors, spread out our bags as beds on the platform of
+leveled snow, pulled off boots and trousers, and slipped half-length
+into the bristling reindeer furs. We then discussed, with chummy
+congratulations, the success of our long drive to the world's end.
+
+While thus engaged, the little Juel stove piped the cheer of the
+pleasure of ice-water, soon to quench our chronic thirst. In the
+meantime, Ah-we-lah and E-tuk-i-shook pressed farther and farther into
+their bags, pulled over the hoods, and closed their eyes to an
+overpowering fatigue. But my lids did not easily close. I watched the
+fire. More ice went into the kettle. With the satisfaction of an
+ambition fulfilled, I peeped out occasionally through the pole-punched
+port, and noted the horizon glittering with gold and purple.
+
+Quivers of self-satisfying joy ran up my spine and relieved the frosty
+mental bleach of the long-delayed Polar anticipation.
+
+In due time we drank, with grateful satisfaction, large quantities of
+ice-water, which was more delicious than any wine. A pemmican soup,
+flavored with musk ox tenderloins, steaming with heat--a luxury seldom
+enjoyed in our camps--next went down with warming, satisfying gulps.
+This was followed by a few strips of frozen fresh meat, then by a block
+of pemmican. Later, a few squares of musk ox suet gave the taste of
+sweets to round up our meal. Last of all, three cups of tea spread the
+chronic stomach-folds, after which we reveled in the sense of fulness
+of the best meal of many weeks.
+
+With full stomachs and the satisfaction of a worthy task well performed,
+we rested.
+
+We had reached the zenith of man's Ultima Thule, which had been sought
+for more than three centuries. In comfortable berths of snow we tried to
+sleep, turning with the earth on its northern axis.
+
+But sleep for me was impossible. At six o'clock, or six hours after our
+arrival at local noon, I arose, went out of the igloo, and took a double
+set of observations. Returning, I did some figuring, lay down on my bag,
+and at ten o'clock, or four hours later, leaving Ah-we-lah to guard the
+camp and dogs, E-tuk-i-shook joined me to make a tent camp about four
+miles to the magnetic south. My object was to have a slightly different
+position for subsequent observations.
+
+Placing our tent, bags and camp equipment on a sled, we pushed it over
+the ice field, crossed a narrow lead sheeted with young ice, and moved
+on to another field which seemed to have much greater dimensions. We
+erected the tent not quite two hours later, in time for a midnight
+observation. These sextant readings of the sun's altitude were continued
+for the next twenty-four hours.
+
+In the idle times between observations, I went over to a new break
+between the field on which we were camped and that on which Ah-we-lah
+guarded the dogs. Here the newly-formed sheets of ice slid over each
+other as the great, ponderous fields stirred to and fro. A peculiar
+noise, like that of a crying child, arose. It came seemingly from
+everywhere, intermittently, in successive crying spells. Lying down,
+and putting my fur-cushioned ear to the edge of the old ice, I heard a
+distant thundering noise, the reverberations of the moving, grinding
+pack, which, by its wind-driven sweep, was drifting over the unseen seas
+of mystery. In an effort to locate the cry, I searched diligently along
+the lead. I came to a spot where two tiny pieces of ice served as a
+mouthpiece. About every fifteen seconds there were two or three sharp,
+successive cries. With the ice-axe I detached one. The cries stopped;
+but other cries were heard further along the line.
+
+The time for observations was at hand, and I returned to take up the
+sextant. Returning later to the lead, to watch the seas breathe, the cry
+seemed stilled. The thin ice-sheets were cemented together, and in an
+open space nearby I had an opportunity to study the making and breaking
+of the polar ice.
+
+That tiny film of ice which voiced the baby cries spreads the world's
+most irresistible power. In its making we have the nucleus for the
+origin of the polar pack, that great moving crust of the earth which
+crunches ships, grinds rocks, and sweeps mountains into the sea.
+Beginning as a mere microscopic crystal, successive crystals, by their
+affinity for each other, unite to make a disc. These discs, by the same
+law of cohesion, assemble and unite. Now the thin sheet, the first sea
+ice, is complete, and either rests to make the great field of ice, or
+spreads from floe to floe and from field to field, thus spreading,
+bridging and mending the great moving masses which cover the mid-polar
+basin.
+
+Another law of nature was solved by a similar insignificant incident. In
+spreading our things out to air and dry (for things will dry in wind
+and sun, even at a very low temperature), two pieces of canvas were
+thrown on a hummock. It was a white canvas sled-cover and a black strip
+of canvas, in which the boat fittings were wrapped. When these strips of
+canvas were lifted it was found that under the part of the black canvas,
+resting on a slope at right angles to the sun, the snow had melted and
+recongealed. Under the white canvas the snow had not changed. The
+temperature was -41 deg.; we had felt no heat, but this black canvas had
+absorbed enough heat from a feeble sun to melt the snow beneath it. This
+little lesson in physics began to interest me, and on the return many
+similar experiments were made. As the long, tedious marches were made, I
+asked myself the questions: Why is snow white? Why is the sky blue? And
+why does black burn snow when white does not?
+
+Little by little, in the long drive of monotony, satisfactory answers
+came to these questions. Thus, in seeking abstract knowledge, the law of
+radiation was thoroughly examined. In doing this, there came to me
+slowly the solution of various problems of animal life, and eventually
+there was uncovered what to me proved a startling revelation in the
+incidents that led up to animal coloring in the Arctic. For here I found
+that the creatures' fur and feathers were colored in accord with their
+needs of absorbing external heat or of conserving internal heat. The
+facts here indicated will be presented later, when we deal with the
+snow-fitted creatures at close range.
+
+One of the impressions which I carried with me of this night march was
+that the sun seemed low--lower, indeed, than that of midday, which, in
+reality, was not true, for the observations placed it nine minutes
+higher. This was an indication of the force of habit. In the northward
+march we had noted a considerable relative difference in the height of
+the night sun and that of the day. Although this difference had vanished
+now, the mind at times refused to grasp the remarkable change.[16]
+
+At the Pole I was impressed by a peculiar uniformity in the temperature
+of the atmosphere throughout the twenty-four hours, and also by a
+strange monotone in color and light of sea and sky. I had begun to
+observe this as I approached the boreal center. The strange equability
+of light and color, of humidity and of air temperatures extended an area
+one hundred miles about the Pole. This was noted both on my coming and
+going over this district.
+
+Approaching the Pole, and as the night sun gradually lifted, an
+increasing equalization of the temperature of night and day followed.
+Three hundred miles from the Pole the thermometer at night had been from
+10 deg. to 20 deg. lower than during the day. There the shivering chill of
+midnight made a strong contrast to the burning, heatless glitter of
+midday. At the Pole the thermometer did not rise or fall appreciably for
+certain fixed hours of the day or night, but remained almost uniform
+during the entire twenty-four hours.
+
+This, to a less notable extent, was true also of the barometer. Farther
+south there had been a difference in the day and night range of the
+barometer. Here, although the night winds continued more actively than
+those of the day, the barometer was less variable than at any time on my
+journey.
+
+At the Pole the tendency of change in force and direction of air
+currents, observed farther south, for morning and evening periods, was
+no longer noted. But when strong winds brushed the pack, a good deal of
+the Polar equalization gave place to a radical difference, giving a
+period for high and low temperatures; which period, however, did not
+correspond to the usual hours of day or night. The winds, therefore,
+seemed to carry to us the sub-Polar inequality of atmospheric variation
+in temperature and pressure. Many of the facts bearing upon this problem
+were not learned until later. Subsequently, I learned, also, that strong
+winds often disturb the Polar atmospheric sameness; but all is given
+here because of the striking impression which it made upon me at this
+time.
+
+In the region about the Pole I observed that, although there were
+remarkable and beauteous color blendings in the sky, the intense
+contrasts and the spectacular display of cloud effects, seen in more
+southern regions, were absent.
+
+A color suffusion is common throughout the entire Arctic zone. Light,
+pouring from the low-lying sun, is reflected from the ice in an
+indescribable blaze. From millions of ice slopes, with millions and
+millions of tiny reflecting surfaces, each one a mirror, some large,
+some smaller than specks of diamond dust, this light is sent back in
+different directions in burning waves to the sky. A liquid light seems
+forced back from the sky into every tiny crevice of this bejeweled
+wonderland. One color invariably predominates at a time. Sometimes the
+ice and air and sky are suffused with a hue of rose, again of orange,
+again of a light alloyed yellow, again blue; and, as we get farther
+north, more dominantly purple. Farther south, in our journey northward,
+we had viewed color effects in reality incomparably more beautiful than
+those in the regions about the Pole. The sun, farther south, in rising
+and setting, and with limitless changes of polarized and refracted
+light, passing through strata of atmosphere of varying depths of
+different density, produces kaleidoscopic changes of burning color.
+
+[Illustration: FIRST CAMP AT THE POLE, APRIL 21, 1908]
+
+[Illustration: AT THE POLE--"WE WERE THE ONLY PULSATING CREATURES IN A
+DEAD WORLD OF ICE"]
+
+At the Pole there were sunbursts, but because of the slight change in
+the sun's dip to the horizon, the prevailing light was invariably in
+shades running to purple. At first my imagination evoked a more glowing
+wonder than in reality existed; as the hours wore on, and as the wants
+of my body asserted themselves, I began to see the vacant spaces with a
+disillusionizing eye.
+
+The set of observations given here, taken every six hours, from noon on
+April 21 to midnight on April 22, 1908, fixed our position with
+reasonable certainty.
+
+These figures do not give the exact position for the normal spiral
+ascent of the sun, which is about fifty seconds for each hour, or five
+minutes for each six hours; but the uncertainties of error by refraction
+and ice-drift do not permit such accuracy of observations. These figures
+are submitted, therefore, not to establish the pin-point accuracy of our
+position, but to show that we had approximately reached a spot where the
+sun, throughout the twenty-four hours, circled the heavens in a line
+nearly parallel to the horizon.
+
+
+THE SUN'S TRUE CENTRAL ALTITUDE AT THE POLE.
+
+April 21 and 22, 1908.
+
+  Seven successive observations, taken every six hours.
+
+  Each observation is reduced for an instrumental error of +2'.
+
+  For semi-diameter and also for refraction and parallax, -9'.
+
+  The seven reductions are each calculated from two sextant readings,
+  generally of an upper and lower limb.
+
+  (TAKEN FROM MY FIELD NOTES.)
+
+    April 21, 1908, 97th meridian local
+    time--12 o'clock noon--11 deg.--54'--40''
+    6 P. M. (same camp).       12--00--10
+    Moved camp 4 miles magnetic South
+    12 o'clock (midnight)      12-- 3--50
+    April 22nd, 6 A. M.        12-- 9--30
+    12 o'clock noon            12--14--20
+    6 P. M.                    12--18--40
+    12 o'clock (midnight)      12--25--10
+                           Temperature, -41. Barometer, 30.05.
+                             Shadow 271/2 feet (of 6-foot pole).
+
+With the use of the sextant, the artificial horizon, pocket
+chronometers, and the usual instruments and methods of explorers, our
+observations were continued and our positions were fixed with the most
+painstakingly careful safeguards possible against inaccuracy. The value
+of all such observations as proof of a Polar success, however, is open
+to such interpretation as the future may determine. This applies, not
+only to me, but to anyone who bases any claim upon them.
+
+To me there were many seemingly insignificant facts noted in our
+northward progress which left the imprint of milestones. Our footprints
+marked a road ever onward into the unknown. Many of these almost
+unconscious reckonings took the form of playful impressions, and were
+not even at the time written down.
+
+In the first press reports of my achievement there was not space to go
+into minute details, nor did the presentation of the subject permit an
+elaboration on all the data gathered. But now, in the light of a better
+perspective, it seems important that every possible phase of the
+minutest detail be presented. For only by a careful consideration of
+every phase of every phenomena en route can a true verdict be obtained
+upon this widely discussed subject of Polar attainment.
+
+And now, right here, I want you to consider carefully with me one thing
+which made me feel sure that we had reached the Pole. This is the
+subject of shadows--our own shadows on the snow-covered ice. A seemingly
+unimportant phenomenon which had often been a topic of discussion, and
+so commonplace that I only rarely referred to it in my notebooks, our
+own shadows on the snow-cushioned ice had told of northward movement,
+and ultimately proved to my satisfaction that the Pole had been reached.
+
+In our northward progress--to explain my shadow observations from the
+beginning--for a long time after our start from Svartevoeg, our shadows
+did not perceptibly shorten or brighten, to my eyes. The natives,
+however, got from these shadows a never-ending variety of topics of
+conversation. They foretold storms, located game and read the story of
+home entanglements. Far from land, far from every sign of a cheering,
+solid earth, wandering with our shadows over the hopeless desolation of
+the moving seas of glitter, I, too, took a keen interest in the blue
+blots that represented our bodies. At noon, by comparison with later
+hours, they were sharp, short, of a dark, restful blue. At this time a
+thick atmosphere of crystals rested upon the ice pack, and when the sun
+sank the strongest purple rays could not penetrate the frosty haze.
+Long before the time for sunset, even on clear days, the sun was lost in
+low clouds of drifting needles.
+
+[Illustration: SHADOW-CIRCLES INDICATING THE APPROACH TO THE POLE
+
+Shadow-circle about 250 miles from the Pole. Circle from which extend
+radiating shadow-lines mark position of man.
+
+Shadow-circle when nearing the Pole, showing less difference in length
+during the changing hours.
+
+Shadow-circle at the Pole; standing on the same spot, at each hour,
+one's shadow is always apparently of the same length.
+
+Showing approximately the relative length of a man's shadow for each
+hour of the twenty-four-hour day.]
+
+After passing the eighty-eighth parallel there was a notable change in
+our shadows. The night shadow lengthened; the day shadow, by comparison,
+shortened. The boys saw in this something which they could not
+understand. The positive blue grew to a permanent purple, and the sharp
+outlines ran to vague, indeterminate edges.
+
+Now at the Pole there was no longer any difference in length, color or
+sharpness of outline between the shadow of the day or night.
+
+"What does it all mean?" they asked. The Eskimos looked with eager eyes
+at me to explain, but my vocabulary was not comprehensive enough to give
+them a really scientific explanation, and also my brain was too weary
+from the muscular poison of fatigue to frame words.
+
+The shadows of midnight and those of midday were the same. The sun made
+a circle about the heavens in which the eye detected no difference in
+its height above the ice, either night or day. Throughout the
+twenty-four hours there was no perceptible rise or set in the sun's
+seeming movement. Now, at noon, the shadow represented in its length the
+altitude of the sun--about twelve degrees. At six o'clock it was the
+same. At midnight it was the same. At six o'clock in the morning it was
+the same.
+
+A picture of the snowhouse and ourselves, taken at the same time and
+developed a year later, gives the same length of shadow. The compass
+pointed south. The night drop of the thermometer had vanished. Let us,
+for the sake of argument, grant that all our instrumental observations
+are wrong. Here is a condition of things in which I believed, and still
+believe, the eye, without instrumental assistance, places the sun at
+about the same height for every hour of the day and night. It is only on
+the earth's axis that such an observation is possible.
+
+[Illustration: At a latitude about New York, a man's shadow lengthens
+hour by hour as the sun descends toward the horizon at nightfall.]
+
+[Illustration: At the North Pole, a man's shadow is of equal length
+during the entire twenty-four hours, since the sun moves spirally around
+the heavens at about the same apparent height above the horizon
+throughout the twenty-four-hour day.]
+
+There was about us no land. No fixed point. Absolutely nothing upon
+which to rest the eye to give the sense of location or to judge
+distance.
+
+Here everything moves. The sea breathes, and lifts the crust of ice
+which the wind stirs. The pack ever drifts in response to the pull of
+the air and the drive of the water. Even the sun, the only fixed dot in
+this stirring, restless world, where all you see is, without your seeing
+it, moving like a ship at sea, seems to have a rapid movement in a
+gold-flushed circle not far above endless fields of purple crystal; but
+that movement is never higher, never lower--always in the same fixed
+path. The instruments detect a slight spiral ascent, day after day, but
+the eye detects no change.
+
+Although I had measured our shadows at times on the northward march, at
+the Pole these shadow notations were observed with the same care as the
+measured altitude of the sun by the sextant. A series was made on April
+22, after E-tuk-i-shook and I had left Ah-we-lah in charge of our first
+camp at the Pole. We made a little circle for our feet in the snow.
+E-tuk-i-shook stood in the foot circle. At midnight the first line was
+cut in the snow to the end of his shadow, and then I struck a deep hole
+with the ice-axe. Every hour a similar line was drawn out from his foot.
+At the end of twenty-four hours, with the help of Ah-we-lah, a circle
+was circumscribed along the points, which marked the end of the shadow
+for each hour. The result is represented in the snow diagram on the next
+page.
+
+[Illustration: SHADOW DIAL AT THE POLE
+
+At the Pole, a man's shadow is about the same length for every hour of
+the double day. When a shadow line is drawn in the snow from a man's
+foot in a marked dial, the human shadows take the place of the hands of
+a clock and mark the time by compass bearing. The relative length of
+these shadows also give the latitude or a man's position north or south
+of the equator. When during two turns around the clock dial, the shadows
+are all of about equal length, the position of the earth's axis is
+positively reached--even if all other observations fail. This simple
+demonstration is an indisputable proof of being on the North Pole.]
+
+In the northward march we did not stay up all of bedtime to play with
+shadow circles. But, at this time, to E-tuk-i-shook the thing had a
+spiritual interest. To me it was a part of the act of proving that the
+Pole had been attained. For only about the Pole, I argued, could all
+shadows be of equal length. Because of this combination of keen
+interests, we managed to find an excuse, even during sleep hours, to
+draw a line on our shadow circle.
+
+Here, then, I felt, was an important observation placing me with fair
+accuracy at the Pole, and, unlike all other observations, it was not
+based on the impossible dreams of absolutely accurate time or sure
+corrections for refraction.
+
+[Illustration: HOW THE ALTITUDE OF THE SUN ABOVE THE HORIZON FIXES THE
+POSITION OF THE NORTH POLE
+
+  OBSERVED ALTITUDES, APRIL 22, 1908
+
+    6 A. M.               NOON                6 P. M.
+
+  12 deg. 9' 30''         12 deg. 14' 20''          12 deg. 18' 40''
+
+The exact altitude of the sun at noon of April 22, 1908, on the pole,
+was 12 deg. 9' 16'', but owing to ice-drift--the impossibility of
+accurate time--and unknown error by refraction, no such pin-point
+accuracy can be recorded. At each hour the sun, circling about the
+horizon, cast a shadow of uniform length.]
+
+At the place where E-tuk-i-shook and I camped, four miles south of where
+I had left Ah-we-lah with the dogs, only two big ice hummocks were in
+sight. There were more spaces of open water than at our first camp.
+After a midnight observation--of April 22--we returned to camp. When the
+dogs saw us approaching in the distance they rose, and a chorus of howls
+rang over the regions of the Pole--regions where dogs had never howled
+before. All the scientific work being finished, we began hastily to make
+final preparations for departure.
+
+We had spent two days about the North Pole. After the first thrills of
+victory, the glamor wore away as we rested and worked. Although I tried
+to do so, I could get no sensation of novelty as we pitched our last
+belongings on the sleds. The intoxication of success had gone. I suppose
+intense emotions are invariably followed by reactions. Hungry, mentally
+and physically exhausted, a sense of the utter uselessness of this
+thing, of the empty reward of my endurance, followed my exhilaration. I
+had grasped my _ignus fatuus_. It is a misfortune for any man when his
+_ignus fatuus_ fails to elude him.
+
+During those last hours I asked myself why this place had so aroused an
+enthusiasm long-lasting through self-sacrificing years; why, for so many
+centuries, men had sought this elusive spot? What a futile thing, I
+thought, to die for! How tragically useless all those heroic
+efforts--efforts, in themselves, a travesty, an ironic satire, on much
+vainglorious human aspiration and endeavor! I thought of the enthusiasm
+of the people who read of the spectacular efforts of men to reach this
+vacant silver-shining goal of death. I thought, too, in that hour, of
+the many men of science who were devoting their lives to the study of
+germs, the making of toxins; to the saving of men from the grip of
+disease--men who often lost their own lives in their experiments; whose
+world and work existed in unpicturesque laboratories, and for whom the
+laudations of people never rise. It occurred to me--and I felt the
+bitterness of tears in my soul--that it is often the showy and futile
+deeds of men which men praise; and that, after all, the only work worth
+while, the only value of a human being's efforts, lie in deeds whereby
+humanity benefits. Such work as noble bands of women accomplish who go
+into the slums of great cities, who nurse the sick, who teach the
+ignorant, who engage in social service humbly, patiently, unexpectant of
+any reward! Such work as does the scientist who studies the depredations
+of malignant germs, who straightens the body of the crippled child, who
+precipitates a toxin which cleanses the blood of a frightful and
+loathsome disease!
+
+As my eye sought the silver and purple desert about me for some stable
+object upon which to fasten itself, I experienced an abject abandon, an
+intolerable loneliness. With my two companions I could not converse; in
+my thoughts and emotions they could not share. I was alone. I was
+victorious. But how desolate, how dreadful was this victory! About us
+was no life, no spot to relieve the monotony of frost. We were the only
+pulsating creatures in a dead world of ice.
+
+A wild eagerness to get back to land seized me. It seemed as though some
+new terror had arisen from the icy waters. Something huge, something
+baneful ... invisible ... yet whose terror-inspiring, burning eyes I
+felt ... the master genii of the goal, perhaps ... some vague, terrible,
+disembodied spirit force, condemned for some unimaginable sin to
+solitary prisonment here at the top of the world, and who wove its
+malignant, awful spell, and had lured men on for centuries to their
+destruction.... The desolation of the place was such that it was almost
+palpable; it was a thing I felt I must touch and see. My companions felt
+the heavy load of it upon them, and from the few words I overheard I
+knew they were eagerly picturing to themselves the simple joys of
+existence at Etah and Annoatok. I remember that to me came pictures of
+my Long Island home. All this arose, naturally enough, from the reaction
+following the strain of striving so long and so fiercely after the goal,
+combined with the sense of the great and actual peril of our situation.
+But what a cheerless spot this was, to have aroused the ambition of man
+for so many ages!
+
+There came forcibly, too, the thought that although the Pole was
+discovered, it was not essentially discovered, that it could be
+discovered, in the eyes of the world, unless we could return to
+civilization and tell what we had done. Should we be lost in these
+wastes or should we be frozen to death, or buried in the snow, or
+drowned in a crevasse, it would never be known that we had been here. It
+was, therefore, as vitally necessary to get back in touch with human
+life, with our report, as it had been to get to the Pole.
+
+Before leaving, I enclosed a note, written on the previous day, in a
+metallic tube. This I buried in the surface of the Polar snows. I knew,
+of course, that this would not remain long at the spot, as the ice was
+in the grip of a slow-drifting movement. I felt the possibility of this
+slow movement was more important than if it remained stationary; for, if
+ever found in the south, the destination of the tube would indicate the
+ice drift from the Pole. The following is an exact copy of the original
+note, which is reproduced photographically on another page:
+
+
+COPY OF NOTE IN TUBE.
+
+April 21--at the North Pole.
+
+  Accompanied by the Eskimo boys Ah-we-lah and E-tuk-i-shuk I reached
+  at noon to-day 90 deg. N. a spot on the polar sea 520 miles north of
+  Svartevoeg. We were 35 days en route. Hope to return to-morrow on a
+  line slightly west of the northward track.
+
+  New land was discovered along the 102 M. between 84 and 85. The ice
+  proved fairly good, with few open leads, hard snow and little
+  pressure trouble. We are in good health, and have food for forty
+  days. This, with the meat of the dogs to be sacrificed, will keep
+  us alive for fifty or sixty days.
+
+  This note is deposited with a small American flag in a metallic
+  tube on the drifting ice.
+
+  Its return will be appreciated, to the International Bureau of
+  Polar Research at the Royal Observatory, Uccle, Belgium.
+
+                                         (Signed) FREDERICK A. COOK.
+
+[Illustration: POLAR ADVANCE OF THE NATIONAL STANDARDS
+
+Climax of four centuries of Arctic exploration--Stars and Stripes at the
+Pole.]
+
+
+
+
+THE RETURN--A BATTLE FOR LIFE AGAINST FAMINE AND FROST
+
+TURNED BACKS TO THE POLE AND TO THE SUN--THE DOGS, SEEMINGLY GLAD AND
+SEEMINGLY SENSIBLE THAT THEIR NOSES WERE POINTED HOMEWARD, BARKED
+SHRILLY--SUFFERING FROM INTENSE DEPRESSION--THE DANGERS OF MOVING ICE,
+OF STORMS AND SLOW STARVATION--THE THOUGHT OF FIVE HUNDRED AND TWENTY
+MILES TO LAND CAUSES DESPAIR
+
+XXI
+
+SOUTHWARD OVER THE MID-POLAR SEA
+
+
+With few glances backward, we continued the homeward run in haste,
+crossing many new crevasses and bound on a course along the one
+hundredth meridian.
+
+The eagerness to solve the mystery had served its purpose. The memory of
+the adventure for a time remained as a reminder of reckless daring. As
+we now moved along, there came more and more strongly the realization of
+the prospective difficulties of the return. Although the mercury was
+still frozen and the sun's perpetual flush was lost in a frigid blue,
+the time was at hand in lower latitudes for the ice to break and drift
+southward.
+
+With correct reasoning, all former expeditions had planned to return to
+land and a secure line of retreat by May 1. We could not hope to do this
+until early in June. It seemed probable, therefore, that the ice along
+the outskirts of the Polar sea would be much disrupted and that open
+water, small ice and rapid drifts would seriously interfere with our
+return to a sure footing on the shores of Fridtjof Nansen Sound. This
+and many other possible dangers had been carefully considered before,
+but the conquest of the Pole was not possible without such risks.
+
+We had started earlier than all other Polar expeditions and no time had
+been lost en route. If misfortune came to us, it could not be because of
+wasted energies or unnecessary delay. In the last days of the onward
+rush to success there had been neither time nor opportunity to ponder
+over future dangers, but now, facing the southern skies, under which lay
+home and all for which we lived, the back trail seemed indescribably
+long. In cold, sober thought, freed of the intoxication of Polar
+enthusiasm, the difficulties increasingly darkened in color. We clearly
+saw that the crucial stage of the campaign was not the taking of the
+Pole. The test of our fitness as boreal conquerors was to be measured by
+the outcome of a final battle for life against famine and frost.
+
+Figuring out the difficulties and possibilities of our return, I came to
+the conclusion that to endeavor to get back by our upward trail would
+not afford great advantage. Much time would be lost seeking the trail.
+The almost continuous low drift of snow during some part of nearly every
+day would obliterate our tracks and render the trail useless as a
+beaten track in making travel easier. The advantage of previously
+constructed snow houses as camps did not appeal to us.
+
+After one is accustomed to a new, clean, bright dome of snow every
+night, as we were, the return to such a camp is gloomy and depressing.
+The house is almost invariably left in such a shape that, for hygienic
+reasons alone, it should not be occupied. Furthermore, the influence of
+sun and storm absolutely destroys in a few days two out of three of all
+such shelter places. Moreover, we were now camping in our silk tent and
+did not require other shelter. At the season of the year in which we
+were traveling, the activity of the pack farther south made
+back-tracking impossible, because of irregular lateral drift of
+individual fields. And to me the most important reason was an eager
+desire to ascertain what might be discovered on a new trail farther
+west. It was this eagerness which led to our being carried adrift and
+held prisoners for a year.
+
+The first days, however, passed rapidly. The ice fields became smoother.
+On April 24 we crossed five crevasses. With fair weather and favorable
+ice, long marches were made. On the 24th we made sixteen miles, on the
+25th fifteen miles, on the 26th, 27th and 28th, fourteen miles a day.
+The fire of the homing sentiment began to dispel our overbearing
+fatigue. The dogs sniffed the air. The Eskimos sang songs of the chase.
+To me also there came cheering thoughts of friends and loved ones to be
+greeted. I thought of delightful dinners, of soul-stirring music. For
+all of us, the good speed of the return chase brought a mental
+atmosphere of dreams of the pleasures of another world. For a time we
+were blinded to ultimate dangers, just as we had been in the northward
+dash.
+
+In our return along the one hundredth meridian, there were three
+important objects to be gained by a route somewhat west of the northward
+march. The increasing easterly drift would thus be counterbalanced. We
+hoped to get near enough to the new lands to explore a part of the
+coast. And a wider belt would be swept out of the unknown area. On April
+30 the pedometer registered one hundred and twenty-one miles, and by our
+system of dead reckoning, which was usually correct, we should have been
+at latitude 87 deg., 59', longitude 100 deg.. The nautical observations gave
+latitude 88 deg., 1', longitude 97 deg., 42'. We were drifting eastward,
+therefore, with increasing speed. To counterbalance our being moved by
+this drift, we turned and bounded southward in a more westerly course.
+
+The never-changing sameness of the daily routine was again felt. The
+novelty of success and the passion of the run for the goal were no
+longer operative. The scenes of shivering blue wearied the eye, and
+there was no inspiration in the moving sea of ice to gladden the heart.
+The thermometer rose and fell between 30 and 40 deg. below zero, Fahrenheit,
+with a ceaseless wind. The first of May was at hand, bringing to mind
+the blossoms and smiles of a kindly world. But here all nature was
+narrowed to lines of ice.
+
+May 1 came with increasing color in the sunbursts, but without cheer.
+The splendor of terrestrial fire was a cheat. Over the horizon, mirages
+displayed celestial hysterics. The sun circled the skies in lines of
+glory, but its heat was a sham, its light a torment. The ice was heavy
+and smooth. On May 2, clouds obscured the sky, fog fell heavily over the
+ice, we struck our course with difficulty but made nineteen miles. On
+May 3 snow fell, but the end of the march brought clear skies, and, with
+them, the longing for my land of blossoming cherry and apple trees.
+
+With weary nerves, and with compass in hand, my lonely march ahead of
+the sledges continued day by day. Progress was satisfactory. We had
+passed the eighty-ninth and eighty-eighth parallels. The eighty-seventh
+and the eighty-sixth would soon be under foot, and the sight of the new
+lands should give encouragement. These hard-fought times were days long
+to be remembered. The lack of cerebral stimulation and nutrition left no
+cellular resource to aid the memory of those fateful hours of chill.
+
+The long strain of the march had established a brotherly sympathy
+amongst the trio of human strugglers. The dogs, though still possessing
+the savage ferocity of the wolf, had taken us into their community. We
+now moved among them without hearing a grunt of discord, and their
+sympathetic eyes followed until we were made comfortable on the
+cheerless snows. If they happened to be placed near enough, they edged
+up and encircled us, giving the benefit of their animal heat. To remind
+us of their presence, frost-covered noses were frequently pushed under
+the sleeping bag, and occasionally a cold snout touched our warm skin
+with a rude awakening.
+
+We loved the creatures, and admired their superb brute strength. Their
+superhuman adaptability was a frequent topic of conversation. With a
+pelt that was a guarantee against all weather condition, they threw
+themselves down to the sweep of winds, in open defiance of death-dealing
+storms. Eating but a pound of pemmican a day, and demanding neither
+water nor shelter, they willingly did a prodigious amount of work and
+then, as bed-fellows, daily offered their fur as shelter and their bones
+as head-rests to their two-footed companions. We had learned to
+appreciate the advantage of their beating breasts. The bond of animal
+fellowship had drawn tighter and tighter in a long run of successive
+adventures. And now there was a stronger reason than ever to appreciate
+power, for together we were seeking an escape from a world which was
+never intended for creatures with pulsating hearts.
+
+Much very heavy ice was crossed near the eighty-eighth parallel, but the
+endless unbroken fields of the northward trails were not again seen. Now
+the weather changed considerably. The light, cutting winds from the west
+increased in force, and the spasmodic squalls came at shorter intervals.
+The clear purples and blues of the skies gradually gave place to an ugly
+hue of gray. A rush of frosty needles came over the pack for several
+hours each day.
+
+The inducement to seek shelter in cemented walls of snow and to wait for
+better weather was very great. But such delay would mean certain
+starvation. Under fair conditions, there was barely food enough to reach
+land, and even short delays might seriously jeopardize our return. We
+could not, therefore, do otherwise than force ourselves against the wind
+and drift with all possible speed, paying no heed to unavoidable
+suffering. As there was no alternative, we tried to persuade ourselves
+that existing conditions might be worse than they were.
+
+The hard work of igloo building was now a thing of the past--only one
+had been built since leaving the Pole, and in this a precious day was
+lost, while the atmospheric fury changed the face of the endless expanse
+of desolation. The little silk tent protected us sufficiently from the
+icy airs. There were still 50 deg. of frost, but, with hardened skins and
+insensible nerve filaments, the torture was not so keenly felt. Our
+steady diet of pemmican, tea and biscuits was not entirely satisfactory.
+We longed for enough to give a real filling sense, but the daily ration
+had to be slightly reduced rather than increased. The change in life
+from winter to summer, which should take place at about this time of the
+year, was, in our case, marked only by a change in shelter, from the
+snow house to the tent, and our beds were moved from the soft snow shelf
+of the igloo to the hard, wind-swept crust.
+
+In my watches to get a peep of the sun at just the right moment, I was
+kept awake during much of the resting period. For pastime, my eyes
+wandered from snorting dogs to snoring men. During one of these idle
+moments there came a solution of the utility of the dog's tail, a topic
+with which I had been at play for several days. It is quoted here at the
+risk of censure, because it is a typical phase of our lives which cannot
+be illustrated otherwise. Seeming trivialities were seized upon as food
+for thought. Why, I asked, has the dog a tail at all? The bear, the musk
+ox, the caribou and the hare, each in its own way, succeeds very well
+with but a dwarfed stub. Why does nature, in the dog, expend its best
+effort in growing the finest fur over a seemingly useless line of tail
+bones? The thing is distinctive, and one could hardly conceive of the
+creature without the accessory, but nature in the Arctic does not often
+waste energy to display beauties and temperament. This tail must have an
+important use; otherwise it would soon fall under the knife of frost and
+time. Yes! It was imported into the Arctic by the wolf progenitor of the
+dog from warmer lands, where its swing served a useful purpose in fly
+time. A nose made to breathe warm air requires some protection in the
+far north and the dog supplied the need with his tail. At the time when
+I made this discovery a cold wind, charged with cutting crystal, was
+brushing the pack. Each dog had his back arched to the wind and his face
+veiled with an effective curl of his tail. Thus each was comfortably
+shielded from icy torment by an appendage adapted to that very purpose.
+
+In the long tread over snowy wastes new lessons in human mechanism
+aroused attention. At first the effort to find a workable way over the
+troublesome pack surface had kept mind and body keyed to an exciting
+pitch, but slowly this had changed. By a kind of unconscious intuition,
+the eye now found easy routes, the lower leg mechanically traveled over
+yards and miles and degrees without even consulting the brain, while the
+leg trunk, in the effort to conserve energy, was left in repose at
+periods during miles of travel, thus saving much of the exertion of
+walking.
+
+The muscles, thus schooled to work automatically, left the mind free to
+work and play. The maddening monotone of our routine, together with the
+expenditure of every available strain of force, had left the head dizzy
+with emptiness. Something must be done to lift the soul out of the
+boreal bleach.
+
+The power of the mind over the horse-power of the body was here shown at
+its best. The flesh proved loyal to the gray matter only while mental
+entertainment was encouraged. Thus aching muscles were persuaded to do
+double duty without sending up a cry of tired feeling. The play of the
+mind with topics of its own choosing is an advantage worth seeking at
+all times. But, to us, it multiplied vital force and increased greatly
+the daily advance. Science, art and poetry were the heights to which the
+wings of thought soared. Beginning with the diversion of making curious
+speculations on subjects such as that of the use of the dog's tail and
+the Arctic law of animal coloring, the first period of this mental
+exercise closed with my staging a drama of the comedies and tragedies of
+the Eskimos.
+
+In the effort to frame sentiment in measured lines, a weird list of
+topics occupied my strained fancy. In more agreeable moods I always
+found pleasure in imagining a picture of the Polar sunrise, that budding
+period of life when all Nature awakens after its winter sleep. It was
+not difficult to start E-tuk-i-shook and Ah-we-lah on similar flights of
+fancy. A mere suggestion would keep up a flow of agreeable thought for
+several days.
+
+By such forced mental stimuli the centers of fatigue were deluded into
+insensibility. The eighty-seventh parallel was crossed, the eighty-sixth
+was neared, but there came a time when both mind and body wearied of the
+whole problem of forced resolution.
+
+On May 6 we were stopped at six in the morning by the approach of an
+unusual gale. The wind had been steady and strong all night, but we did
+not heed its threatening increase of force until too late. It came from
+the west, as usual, driving coarse snow with needle points. The ice
+about was old and hummocky, offering a difficult line of march, but some
+shelter. In the strongest blasts we threw ourselves over the sled behind
+hummocks and gathered new breath to force a few miles more.
+
+Finally, when no longer able to force the dogs through the blinding
+drift we sought the lee of an unlifted block of ice. Here suitable snow
+was found for a snow house. A few blocks were cut and set, but the wind
+swept them away as if they were chips. The tent was tried, but it could
+not be made to stand in the rush of the roaring tumult. In sheer despair
+we crept into the tent without erecting the pole. Creeping into bags, we
+then allowed the flapping silk to be buried by the drifting snow. Soon
+the noise and discomfort of the storm were lost and we enjoyed the
+comfort of an icy grave. An efficient breathing hole was kept open, and
+the wind was strong enough to sweep off the weight of a dangerous drift.
+A new lesson was thus learned in fighting the battle of life, and it was
+afterwards useful.
+
+Several days of icy despair now followed one another in rapid
+succession. The wind did not rise to the full force of a storm, but it
+was too strong and too cold to travel. The food supply was noticeably
+decreasing. The daily advance was less. With such weather, starvation
+seemed inevitable. Camp was moved nearly every day, but ambition sank to
+the lowest ebb. To the atmospheric unrest was added the instability of
+broken ice and the depressing mystery of an unknown position. For many
+days no observations had been possible. Our location could only be
+guessed at.
+
+Through driving storms, with the wind wailing in our ears and deafening
+us to the dismal howling of the hungry dogs, we pushed forward in a
+daily maddening struggle. The route before us was unknown. We were in
+the fateful clutch of a drifting sea of ice. I could not guess whither
+we were bound. At times I even lost hope of reaching land. Our bodies
+were tired. Our legs were numb. We were almost insensible to the mad
+craving hunger of our stomachs. We were living on a half ration of food,
+and daily becoming weaker.[17]
+
+Sometimes I paused, overcome by an almost overwhelming impulse to lie
+down and drift through sleep into death. At these times, fortunately,
+thoughts of home came thronging, with memories as tender as are the
+memories of singing spring-time birds in winter time. And, although the
+stimulating incentive of reaching the Pole on going north was gone, now,
+having accomplished the feat, there was always the thought that unless I
+got home no one should ever learn of that superhuman struggle, that
+final victory.
+
+Empty though it was, I had, as I had hoped, proved myself to myself; I
+had justified the three centuries of human effort: I had proven that
+finite human brain and palpitating muscle can be victorious over a cruel
+and death-dealing Nature. It was a testimony that it was my duty to give
+the world of struggling, striving men, and which, as a father, I hoped
+with pride to give to my little children.
+
+[Illustration: PTARMIGAN]
+
+
+
+
+BACK TO LIFE AND BACK TO LAND
+
+THE RETURN--DELUDED BY DRIFT AND FOG--CARRIED ASTRAY OVER AN UNSEEN
+DEEP--TRAVEL FOR TWENTY DAYS IN A WORLD OF MISTS, WITH THE TERROR OF
+DEATH--AWAKENED FROM SLEEP BY A HEAVENLY SONG--THE FIRST BIRD--FOLLOWING
+THE WINGED HARBINGER--WE REACH LAND--A BLEAK, BARREN ISLAND POSSESSING
+THE CHARM OF PARADISE--AFTER DAYS VERGING ON STARVATION, WE ENJOY A
+FEAST OF UNCOOKED GAME
+
+XXII
+
+SOUTHWARD INTO THE AMERICAN ARCHIPELAGO
+
+
+On May 24 the sky cleared long enough to permit me to take a set of
+observations. I found we were on the eighty-fourth parallel, near the
+ninety-seventh meridian. The new land I had noted on my northward
+journey was hidden by a low mist. The ice was much crevassed, and
+drifted eastward. Many open spaces of water were denoted in the west by
+patches of water sky. The pack was sufficiently active to give us
+considerable anxiety, although pressure lines and open water did not at
+the time seriously impede our progress.
+
+Scarcely enough food remained on the sledges to reach our caches unless
+we should average fifteen miles a day. On the return from the Pole to
+this point we had been able to make only twelve miles daily. Now our
+strength, even under fair conditions, did not seem to be equal to more
+than ten miles. The outlook was threatening, and even dangerous, but the
+sight of the cleared sky gave new courage to E-tuk-i-shook and
+Ah-we-lah.
+
+Our best course was to get to Fridtjof Nansen Sound as soon as possible.
+The new land westward was invisible, and offered no food prospects. An
+attempted exploration might cause a fatal delay.
+
+Still depending upon a steady easterly drift of the pack, a course was
+set somewhat west of Svartevoeg, the northern point of Axel Heiberg
+Land. In pressing onward, light variable winds and thick fogs prevailed.
+The ice changed rapidly to smaller fields as we advanced. The
+temperature rose to zero, and the air really began to be warm. Our
+chronic shivering disappeared. With light sledges and endurable weather,
+we made fair progress over the increasing pack irregularities.
+
+As we crossed the eighty-third parallel we found ourselves to the west
+of a large lead, extending slightly west of south. Immense quantities of
+broken and pulverized ice lined the shores to a width of several miles.
+The irregularities of this surface and the uncemented break offered
+difficulties over which no force of man or beast could move a sledge or
+boat. Compelled to follow the line of least resistance, a southerly
+course was set along the ice division. The wind now changed and came
+from the east, but there was no relief from the heavy banks of fog that
+surrounded us.
+
+The following days were days of desperation. The food for man and dog
+was reduced, and the difficulties of ice travel increased
+dishearteningly. We traveled twenty days, not knowing our position. A
+gray mystery enshrouded us. Terror followed in our wake. Beneath us the
+sea moved--whither it was carrying us I did not know. That we were
+ourselves journeying toward an illimitable, hopeless sea, where we
+should die of slow, lingering starvation, I knew was a dreadful
+probability. Every minute drew its pangs of despair and fear.
+
+The gray world of mist was silent. My companions gazed at me with faces
+shriveled, thinned and hardened as those of mummies. Their anguish was
+unspeakable. My own vocal powers seemed to have left me. Our dogs were
+still; with bowed heads, tails drooping, they pulled the sledges
+dispiritedly. We seemed like souls in torment, traveling in a world of
+the dead, condemned to some Dantesque torture that should never cease.
+
+After the mental torment of threatened starvation, which prevented,
+despite the awful languor of my tortured limbs, any sleep; after
+heart-breaking marches and bitter hunger and unquenched thirst, the
+baffling mist that had shut us from all knowledge at last cleared away
+one morning. Our hearts bounded. I felt such relief as a man buried
+alive must feel when, after struggling in the stifling darkness, his
+grave is suddenly opened. Land loomed to the west and south of us.
+
+Yet we found we had been hardly dealt with by fate. Since leaving the
+eighty-fourth parallel, without noticeable movement, we had been carried
+astray by the ocean drift. We had moved with the entire mass that
+covered the Polar waters. I took observations. They gave latitude 79 deg.
+32', and longitude 101 deg. 22'. At last I had discovered our
+whereabouts, and found that we were far from where we ought to be. But
+our situation was indeed nearly hopeless. The mere gaining a knowledge
+of where we actually were, however, fanned again the inextinguishable
+embers of hope.
+
+We were in Crown Prince Gustav Sea. To the east were the low mountains
+and high valleys of Axel Heiberg Land, along the farther side of which
+was our prearranged line of retreat, with liberal caches of good things
+and with big game everywhere. But we were effectually barred from all
+this.
+
+Between us and the land lay fifty miles of small crushed ice and
+impassable lines of open water. In hard-fought efforts to cross these we
+were repulsed many times. I knew that if by chance we should succeed in
+crossing, there would still remain an unknown course of eighty miles to
+the nearest cache, on the eastern coast of Axel Heiberg Land.
+
+We had no good reason to expect any kind of subsistence along the west
+coast of Axel Heiberg Land. We had been on three-fourths rations for
+three weeks, and there remained only half rations for another ten days.
+Entirely aside from the natural barriers in the way of returning
+eastward and northward, we were now utterly unequal to the task, for we
+had not the food to support us.
+
+The land to the south was nearer. Due south there was a wide gap which
+we took to be Hassel Sound. On each side there was a low ice-sheeted
+island, beyond the larger islands which Sverdrup had named Ellef Ringnes
+Land and Amund Ringnes Land. The ice southward was tolerably good and
+the drift was south-south-east.
+
+In the hope that some young seals might be seen we moved into Hassel
+Sound toward the eastern island. To satisfy our immediate pangs of
+hunger was our most important mission.
+
+The march on June 14 was easy, with a bright warm sun and a temperature
+but little under the freezing point. In a known position, on good ice,
+and with land rising before us, we were for a brief period happy and
+strong, even with empty stomachs. The horizon was eagerly sought for
+some color or form or movement to indicate life. We were far enough
+south to expect bears and seals, and expecting the usual luck of the
+hungry savage, we sought diligently. Our souls reached forth through our
+far-searching eyes. Our eyes pained with the intense fixity of gazing,
+yet no animate thing appeared. The world was vacant and dead. Our
+beating hearts, indeed, seemed to be the only palpitating things there.
+
+In the piercing rays of a high sun the tent was erected, and in it,
+after eating only four ounces of pemmican and drinking two cups of icy
+water, we sought rest. The dogs, after a similar ration, but without
+water, fell into an easy sleep. I regarded the poor creatures with
+tenderness and pity. For more than a fortnight they had not uttered a
+sound to disturb the frigid silence. When a sled dog is silent and
+refuses to fight with his neighbor, his spirit is very low. Finally I
+fell asleep.
+
+At about six o'clock we were awakened by a strange sound. Our surprised
+eyes turned from side to side. Not a word was uttered. Another sound
+came--a series of soft, silvery notes--the song of a creature that
+might have come from heaven. I listened with rapture. I believed I was
+dreaming. The enchanting song continued--I lay entranced. I could not
+believe this divine thing was of our real world until the pole of our
+tent gently quivered. Then, above us, I heard the flutter of wings. It
+was a bird--a snow bunting trilling its ethereal song--the first sound
+of life heard for many months.
+
+We were back to life! Tears of joy rolled down our emaciated faces. If I
+could tell you of the resurrection of the soul which came with that
+first bird note, and the new interest which it gave in our subsequent
+life, I should feel myself capable of something superhuman in powers of
+expression.
+
+With the song of that marvelous bird a choking sense of homesickness
+came to all of us. We spoke no word. The longing for home gripped our
+hearts.
+
+We were hungry, but no thought of killing this little feathered creature
+came to us. It seemed as divine as the bird that came of old to Noah in
+the ark. Taking a few of our last bread crumbs, we went out to give it
+food. The little chirping thing danced joyously on the crisp snows,
+evidently as glad to see us as we were to behold it. I watched it with
+fascination. At last we were back to life! We felt renewed vigor. And
+when the little bird finally rose into the air and flew homeward, our
+spirits rose, our eyes followed it, and, as though it were a token sent
+to us, we followed its winged course landward with eager, bounding
+hearts.
+
+We were now on immovable ice attached to the land. We directed our
+course uninterruptedly landward, for there was no thought of further
+rest or sleep after the visit of the bird had so uplifted our hearts.
+Our chances of getting meat would have been bettered by following close
+to the open water, but the ice there was such that no progress could be
+made. Furthermore, the temptation quickly to set foot on land was too
+great to resist. At the end of a hard march--the last few hours of which
+were through deep snows--we mounted the ice edge, and finally reached a
+little island--a bare spot of real land. When my foot touched it, my
+heart sank. We sat down, and the joy of the child in digging the sand of
+the seashore was ours.
+
+I wonder if ever such a bleak spot, in a desert of death, had so
+impressed men before as a perfect paradise. In this barren heap of sand
+and clay, we were at last free of the danger, the desolation, the
+sterility of that soul-withering environment of a monotonously moving
+world of ice and eternal frost.
+
+We fastened the dogs to a rock, and pitched the tent on earth-soiled
+snows. In my joy I did not forget that the Pole was ours, but, at that
+time, I was ready to offer freely to others the future pleasures of its
+crystal environment and all its glory. Our cup had been filled too often
+with its bitters and too seldom with its sweets for us to entertain
+further thirst for boreal conquest.
+
+And we also resolved to keep henceforth from the wastes of the terrible
+Polar sea. In the future the position of lands must govern our
+movements. For, along a line of rocks, although we might suffer from
+hunger, we should no longer be helpless chips on the ocean drift, and if
+no other life should be seen, at least occasional shrimps would gladden
+the heart.
+
+[Illustration: "WITH EAGER EYES WE SEARCHED THE DUSKY PLAINS OF CRYSTAL,
+BUT THERE WAS NO LAND, NO LIFE, TO RELIEVE THE PURPLE RUN OF DEATH"]
+
+[Illustration: RECORD LEFT IN BRASS TUBE AT NORTH POLE]
+
+We stepped about on the solid ground with a new sense of security. But
+the land about was low, barren, and shapeless. Its formation was
+triassic, similar to that of most of Heiberg land, but in our immediate
+surroundings, erosion by frost, the grind of ice sheets, and the power
+of winds, had leveled projecting rocks and cliffs. Part of its interior
+was blanketed with ice. Its shore line had neither the relief of a
+colored cliff nor a picturesque headland; there was not even a wall of
+ice; there were only dull, uninteresting slopes of sand and snow
+separating the frozen sea from the land-ice. The most careful scrutiny
+gave no indication of a living creature. The rocks were uncovered even
+with black lichens. A less inviting spot of earth could not be
+conceived, yet it aroused in us a deep sense of enthusiasm. A strip of
+tropical splendor could not have done more. The spring of man's passion
+is sprung by contrast, not by degrees of glory.
+
+In camp, the joy of coming back to earth was chilled by the agonizing
+call of the stomach. The effervescent happiness could not dispel the
+pangs of hunger. A disabled dog which had been unsuccessfully nursed for
+several days was sacrificed on the altar of hard luck, and the other
+dogs were thereupon given a liberal feed, in which we shared. To our
+palates the flesh of the dog was not distasteful, yet the dog had been
+our companion for many months, and at the same time that our
+conscienceless stomachs were calling for more hot, blood-wet meat, a
+shivering sense of guilt came over me. We had killed and were eating a
+living creature which had been faithful to us.
+
+We were hard-looking men at this time. Our fur garments were worn
+through at the elbows and at the knees. Ragged edges dangled in the
+winds. All the boot soles were mere films, like paper with many holes.
+Our stockings were in tatters. The bird-skin shirts had been fed to the
+dogs, and strips of our sleeping bags had day by day been added to the
+canine mess. It took all our spare time now to mend clothing. Dressed in
+rags, with ugly brown faces, seamed with many deep wind-fissures, we had
+reached, in our appearance, the extreme limit of degradation.
+
+At the Pole I had been thin, but now my skin was contracted over bones
+offering only angular eminences as a bodily outline. The Eskimos were as
+thin as myself. My face was as black as theirs. They had risen to higher
+mental levels, and I had descended to lower animal depths. The long
+strain, the hard experiences, had made us equals. We were, however,
+still in good health and were capable of considerable hard work. It was
+not alone the want of food which had shriveled our bodies, for greater
+pangs of hunger were reserved for a later run of misfortune. Up to this
+point persistent overwork had been the most potent factor.
+
+As we passed out of Hassel Sound, the ice drifted southward. Many new
+fractures were noted, and open spaces of water appeared. Here was seen
+the track of a rat--the first sign of a four-footed creature--and we
+stopped to examine the tiny marks with great interest. Next, some old
+bear tracks were detected. These simple things had an intense
+fascination for us, coming as we did out of a lifeless world; and, too,
+these signs showed that the possibilities of food were at hand, and the
+thought sharpened our senses into savage fierceness.
+
+We continued our course southward, as we followed, wolf-like, in the
+bear footprints. The sledges bounded over the icy irregularities as they
+had not done for months. Every crack in the ice was searched for seals,
+and with the glasses we mounted hummock after hummock to search the
+horizon for bears.
+
+We were not more than ten miles beyond land when Ah-we-lah located an
+auspicious spot to leeward. After a peep through the glasses he shouted.
+The dogs understood. They raised their ears, and jumped to the full
+length of their traces. We hurried eastward to deprive the bear of our
+scent, but we soon learned that he was as hungry as we were, for he made
+an air line for our changed position. We were hunting the bear--the bear
+was also hunting us.
+
+Getting behind a hummock, we awaited developments. Bruin persistently
+neared, rising on his haunches frequently so as the better to see
+E-tuk-i-shook, who had arranged himself like a seal as a decoy. When
+within a few hundred yards the dogs were freed. They had been waiting
+like entrenched soldiers for a chance to advance. In a few moments the
+gaunt creatures encircled the puzzled bear. Almost without a sound, they
+leaped at the great animal and sank their fangs into his hind legs.
+Ah-we-lah fired. The bear fell.
+
+Camp technique and the advantages of a fire were not considered--the
+meat was swallowed raw, with wolfish haste, and no cut of carefully
+roasted bullock ever tasted better. It was to such grim hunger that we
+had come.
+
+Then we slept, and after a long time our eyes reopened upon a world
+colored with new hope. The immediate threat of famine was removed, and a
+day was given over to filling up with food. Even after that, a liberal
+supply of fresh meat rested on the sledge for successive days of
+feasting. In the days which followed, other bears, intent on examining
+our larder, came near enough at times to enable us to keep up a liberal
+supply of fresh meat.
+
+With the assurance of a food supply, a course was set to enter
+Wellington Channel and push along to Lancaster Sound, where I hoped a
+Scottish whaler could be reached in July or August. In this way it
+seemed possible to reach home shores during the current year. If we
+should try to reach Annoatok I realized we should in all probability be
+compelled to winter at Cape Sabine. The ice to the eastward in Norwegian
+Bay offered difficulties like those of Crown Prince Gustav Sea, and
+altogether the easterly return to our base did not at this time seem
+encouraging. The air-line distance to Smith Sound and that to Lancaster
+Sound were about the same, with the tremendous advantage of a straight
+course--a direct drift--and fairly smooth ice to the southward.
+
+This conclusion to push forward for Lancaster Sound was reached on June
+19. We were to the west of North Cornwall Island, but a persistent local
+fog gave only an occasional view of its icy upper slopes. The west was
+clear, and King Christian Land appeared as a low line of blue. About us
+the ice was small but free of pressure troubles. Bear tracks were
+frequently seen as we went along. The sea was bright. The air was
+delightfully warm, with the thermometer at 10 deg. above zero.
+
+At every stop, the panting dogs tumbled and rolled playfully on the
+snows, and pushed their heated muzzles deep into the white chill. If
+given time they would quickly arrange a comfortable bed and stretch out,
+seemingly lifeless, for a refreshing slumber. At the awakening call of
+the lash, all were ready with a quick jump and a daring snarl, but the
+need of a tight trace removed their newly-acquired fighting propensity.
+They had gained strength and spirit with remarkable rapidity. Only two
+days before, they stumbled along with irregular step, slack traces, and
+lowered tails, but the fill of juicy bear's meat raised their bushy
+appendages to a coil of pride--an advantage which counted for several
+miles in a day's travel.
+
+The drift carried us into Penny Strait, midway between Bathurst Land and
+Grinnell Peninsula. The small islands along both shores tore up the ice
+and piled it in huge uplifts. There was a tremendous pressure as the
+floes were forced through narrow gorges. Only a middle course was
+possible for us, with but a few miles' travel to our credit for each
+day. But the southerly movement of the groaning ice was rapid. A
+persistent fog veiled the main coast on both sides, but off-lying
+islands were seen and recognized often enough to note the positions. At
+Dundas Island the drift was stopped, and we sought the shores of
+Grinnell Peninsula. Advancing eastward, close to land, the ice proved
+extremely difficult. The weather, however, was delightful. Between
+snowdrifts, purple and violet flowers rose over warm beds of newly
+invigorated mosses--the first flowers that we had seen for a long and
+weary time, and the sight of them, with their blossoms and color,
+deeply thrilled me. From misty heights came the howl of the white wolf.
+Everywhere were seen the traces of the fox and the lemming. The
+eider-duck and the ivory gull had entered our horizon.
+
+All nature smiled with the cheer of midsummer. Here was an inspiring
+fairyland for which our hearts had long yearned. In it there was music
+which the long stiffened tympanums were slow in catching. The land was
+an oasis of hardy verdure. The sea was a shifting scene of frost and
+blue glitter. With the soul freed from its icy fetters, the soft, sunny
+airs came in bounds of gladness. In dreamy stillness we sought the bosom
+of the frozen sea, and there heard the groan of the pack which told of
+home shores. Drops of water from melting snows put an end to thirst
+tortures. The blow of the whales and the seals promised a luxury of fire
+and fuel, while the low notes of the ducks prepared the palate for
+dessert.
+
+As we neared a little moss-covered island in drifting southward, we saw
+the interesting chick footprints of ptarmigan in the snow. The dogs
+pointed their ears and raised their noses, and we searched the clearing
+skies with eye and ear for the sudden swoop of the boreal chicken. I had
+developed a taste for this delicate fowl as desperate as that of the
+darky for chicken, and my conscience was sufficiently deadened by cold
+and hunger to break into a roost by night or day to steal anything that
+offered feathery delights for the palate.
+
+I was courting gastric desire, but the ptarmigan was engaged in another
+kind of courtship. Two singing capons were cooing notes of love to a shy
+chick, and they suddenly decided that there was not room for two,
+whereupon a battle ensued with a storm of wings and much darting of
+bills. In this excitement they got into an ice crevasse, where they
+might have become easy victims without the use of ammunition. But, with
+empty stomachs, there is also at times a heart-hunger, which pleases a
+higher sense and closes the eye to gastric wants.
+
+Later in the same day, we saw at a great distance what seemed like two
+men in motion. We hastened to meet them with social anticipations. Now
+they seemed tall--now mere dots on the horizon. I thought this due to
+their movement over ice irregularities. But boreal optics play havoc
+with the eye and the sense of perspective. As we rose suddenly on a
+hummock, where we had a clearer view, the objects rose on wings! They
+were ravens which had been enlarged and reduced by reflecting and
+refracting surfaces and a changing atmosphere, in much the same
+manner as a curved mirror makes a caricature of one's self. I
+laughed--bitterly. Dazed, bewildered, there was nevertheless for me a
+joy in seeing these living creatures, denizens of the land toward which
+we were directed.
+
+The bears no longer sought our camp, but the seals were conveniently
+scattered along our track. A kindly world had spread our waistbands to
+fairly normal dimensions. The palate began to exercise its
+discriminating force. Ducks and land animals were sought with greater
+eagerness. While in this mood, three white caribou were secured. They
+were beautiful creatures, and as pleasing to the palate as to the eye,
+but owing to the very rough ice it was quite impossible to carry more
+than a few days' supply. Usually we took only the choice parts of the
+game, but every eatable morsel of caribou that we could carry was
+packed on the sledges.
+
+With this wealth of food and fuel we moved along the shores of
+Wellington Channel to Pioneer Bay. We felt that we were steadily on our
+way homeward. There was no premonition of the keen disappointment that
+awaited us, of the inevitable imprisonment for the long Arctic winter
+and the days of starvation that were to come.
+
+[Illustration: PTARMIGAN CHICKS]
+
+
+
+
+OVERLAND TO JONES SOUND
+
+HOURS OF ICY TORTURE--A FRIGID SUMMER STORM IN THE BERG-DRIVEN ARCTIC
+SEA--A PERILOUS DASH THROUGH TWISTING LANES OF OPEN WATER IN A CANVAS
+CANOE--THE DRIVE OF HUNGER.
+
+XXIII
+
+ADRIFT ON AN ICEBERG
+
+
+As we neared Pioneer Bay, along the coast of North Devon, it became
+quite evident that farther advance by sledge was quite impossible. A
+persistent southerly wind had packed the channel with a jam of small
+ice, over which the effort of sledging was a hopeless task. The season
+was too far advanced to offer the advantage of an ice-foot on the shore
+line. There was no open water, nor any game to supply our larder. The
+caribou was mostly used. We began to feel the craving pain of short
+rations.
+
+Although the distance to Lancaster Sound was short, land travel was
+impossible, and, with no food, we could not await the drift of the ice.
+The uncertainty of game was serious, with nothing as a reserve to await
+the dubious coming of a ship. If game should appear, we might remain on
+the ice, accumulating in the meantime a supply of meat for travel by
+canvas boat later.
+
+This boat had been our hope in moving south, but thus far had not been
+of service. Forced to subsist mainly on birds, the ammunition rapidly
+diminished, and something had to be done at once to prevent famine.
+
+We might have returned to the game haunts of Grinnell Peninsula, but it
+seemed more prudent to cross the land to Jones Sound. Here, from
+Sverdrup's experience, we had reason to expect abundant game. By moving
+eastward there would be afforded the alternative of pushing northward if
+we failed to get to the whalers. The temperature now remained steadily
+near the freezing point, and with the first days of July the barometer
+became unsteady.
+
+On the 4th of July we began the climb of the highlands of North Devon,
+winding about Devonian cliffs toward the land of promise beyond. The
+morning was gray, as it had been for several days, but before noon black
+clouds swept the snowy heights and poured icy waters over us. We were
+saturated to the skin, and shivered in the chill of the high altitude.
+Soon afterwards a light breath-taking wind from the northwest froze our
+pasty furs into sheets of ice. Still later, a heavy fall of snow
+compelled us to camp. The snowstorm continued for two days, and held us
+in a snow-buried tent, with little food and no fuel.
+
+Although the storm occasioned a good deal of suffering, it also brought
+some advantages. The land had been imperfectly covered with snow, and we
+had been forced to drive from bank to bank, over bared ground, to find a
+workable course. But now all was well sheeted with crusted snow. Soon
+the gaunt, dun-colored cliffs of North Devon ended the monotony of
+interior snows, and beyond was seen the cheering blue of Jones Sound.
+
+Much open water extended along the north shore to beyond Musk Ox Fiord.
+The southern shores were walled with pack-ice for a hundred miles or
+more. In bright, cold weather we made a descent to Eidsbotn on July 7th.
+Here a diligent search for food failed. Daily the howl of wolves and the
+cry of birds came as a response to our calling stomachs. A scant supply
+of ducks was secured for the men with an expenditure of some of the last
+rifle ammunition, but no walruses, no seals, and no other big game were
+seen. To secure dog food seemed quite hopeless.
+
+We now had the saddest incident of a long run of trouble. Open water ran
+the range of vision, sledges were no longer possible, game was scarce,
+our ammunition was nearly exhausted. Our future fate had to be worked
+out in a canvas boat. What were we to do with the faithful dog
+survivors? In the little boat they could not go with us. We could not
+stay with them and live. We must part. Two had already left us to join
+their wolf progenitors. We gave the others the same liberty. One sledge
+was cut off and put into the canvas boat which we had carried to the
+Pole and back. Our sleeping-bags and old winter clothing were given as
+food to the dogs. All else was snugly packed in waterproof packages as
+well as possible, and placed in the boat. With sad eyes, we left the
+shore. The dogs howled like crying children; we still heard them when
+five miles off shore.
+
+Off Cape Vera there was open water, and beyond, as far eastward as we
+could see, its quivering surface offered a restful prospect. As we
+advanced, however, the weather proved treacherous, and the seas rose
+with sudden and disagreeable thumps.
+
+At times we camped on ice islands in the pack, but the pack-ice soon
+became too insecure, being composed of small pieces, and weakened in
+spots by the sun. Even a moderate gale would tear a pack apart, to be
+broken into smaller fragments by the water. Sometimes we made camp in
+the boat, with a box for a pillow and a piece of bear skin for a cover.
+
+With great anxiety we pulled to reach the land at Cape Sparbo before a
+storm entrapped us. To the north, the water was free of ice as far as
+the shores of Ellesmere Land, forty miles away. To avoid the glare of
+the midday sun, we chose to travel by night, but we were nearing the end
+of the season of Arctic double-days and midnight suns, when the winds
+come suddenly and often.
+
+Soon after midnight the wind from the Pacific came in short puffs, with
+periods of calm so sudden that we looked about each time for something
+to happen. At about the same time there came long swells from the
+northwest. We scented a storm, although at that time there were no other
+signs. The ice was examined for a possible line of retreat to the land,
+but, with pressure ridges, hummocks and breaks, I knew this was
+impossible. It was equally hopeless to camp on such treacherous ice.
+Berg ice had been passed the day before, but this was about as far
+behind as the land was ahead.
+
+So we pulled along desperately, while the swells shortened and rose. The
+atmosphere became thick and steel gray. The cliffs of Ellesmere Land
+faded, while lively clouds tumbled from the highlands to the sea.
+
+We were left no alternative but to seek the shelter of the disrupted
+pack, and press landward as best we could. We had hardly landed on the
+ice, and drawn our boat after us, when the wind struck us with such
+force that we could hardly stand against it. The ice immediately started
+in a westward direction, veering off from the land a little and leaving
+open leads. These leads, we now saw, were the only possible places of
+safety. For, in them, the waters were easy, and the wind was slightly
+shut off by the walls of pressure lines and hummocks. Furthermore, they
+offered slants now and then by which we could approach the land.
+
+The sledge was set under the boat and lashed. All our things were lashed
+to the wooden frame of the canoe to prevent the wind and the sea from
+carrying them away. We crossed several small floes and jumped the lines
+of water separating them, pulling sledge and canoe after us. The
+pressure lines offered severe barriers. To cross them we were compelled
+to separate the canoe from its sledge and remove the baggage. All of
+this required considerable time. A sense of hopelessness filled my
+heart. In the meantime, the wind veered to the east and came with a rush
+that left us helpless. We sought the lee of a hummock, and hoped the
+violence of the storm would soon spend itself, but there were no easy
+spells in this storm, nor did it show signs of early cessation. The ice
+about us moved rapidly westward and slowly seaward.
+
+It was no longer possible to press toward the land, for the leads of
+water were too wide and were lined with small whitecaps, while the
+tossing seas hurled mountains of ice and foaming water over the pack
+edge.
+
+The entire pack was rising and falling under faint swells, and gradually
+wearing to little fragments. The floe on which we stood was strong. I
+knew it would hold out longer than most of the ice about, but it was not
+high enough above water to give us a dry footing as the seas advanced.
+
+From a distance to the windward we noted a low iceberg slowly gaining on
+our floe. It was a welcome sight, for it alone could raise us high
+enough above the soul-despairing rush of the icy water.
+
+Its rich ultramarine blue promised ice of a sufficient strength to
+withstand the battling of the storm. Never were men on a sinking ship
+more anxious to reach a rock than we were to reach this blue stage of
+ice. It offered several little shelves, upon which we could rise out of
+the water upon the ice. We watched with anxious eyes as the berg
+revolved and forced the other ice aside.
+
+It aimed almost directly for us, and would probably cut our floe. We
+prepared for a quick leap upon the deck of our prospective craft.
+
+Bearing down upon us it touched a neighboring piece and pushed us away.
+We quickly pulled to the other pan, and then found, to our dismay, a
+wide band of mushy slush, as impossible to us for a footing as quicksand
+would have been. As the berg passed, however, it left a line of water
+behind it. We quickly threw boat and sledge into this, paddled after the
+berg, and, reaching it, leaped to its security. What a relief to be
+raised above the crumbling pack-ice and to watch from safety the
+thundering of the elements!
+
+The berg which we had boarded was square, with rounded corners. Its
+highest points were about twenty feet above water; the general level was
+about ten feet. The ice was about eighty feet thick, and its width was
+about a hundred feet. These dimensions assured stability, for if the
+thing had turned over, as bergs frequently do, we should be left to seek
+breath among the whales.
+
+It was an old remnant of a much larger berg which had stood the Arctic
+tempest for many years. This we figured out from the hard blue of the
+ice and its many caverns and pinnacles. We were, therefore, on a secure
+mass of crystal which was not likely to suffer severely from a single
+storm. Its upper configuration, however, though beautiful in its
+countless shades of blue, did not offer a comfortable berth. There were
+three pinnacles too slippery and too steep to climb, with a slope
+leading by a gradual incline on each side. Along these the seas had worn
+grooves leading to a central concavity filled with water. The only space
+which we could occupy was the crater-like rim around this lake. At this
+time we had to endure only the seething pitch of the sea and the cutting
+blast of the storm.
+
+The small ice about kept the seas from boarding. To prevent our being
+thrown about on the slippery surface, we cut holes into the pinnacles
+and spread lines about them, to which we clung. The boat was securely
+fastened in a similar way by cutting a makeshift for a ringbolt in the
+floor of ice. Then we pushed from side to side along the lines, to
+encourage our hearts and to force our circulation. Although the
+temperature was only at the freezing point, it was bitterly cold, and we
+were in a bad way to weather a storm.
+
+The sea had drenched us from head to foot. Only our shirts were dry.
+With hands tightly gripped to the line and to crevasses, we received the
+spray of the breaking icy seas while the berg ploughed the scattered
+pack and plunged seaward. The cold, though only at the freezing point,
+pierced our snow-pasted furs and brought shivers worse than that of
+zero's lowest. Thus the hours of physical torture and mental anguish
+passed, while the berg moved towards the gloomy black cliff of Hell
+Gate. Here the eastern sky bleached and the south blued, but the falling
+temperature froze our garments to coats of mail. We were still dressed
+in part of our winter garments.
+
+The coat was of sealskin, with hood attached; the shirt of camel's hair
+blanket, also with a hood; the trousers of bear fur; boots of seal, with
+hair removed, and stockings of hare fur. The mittens were of seal, and
+there were pads of grass for the palms and soles. Our garments, though
+not waterproof, shed water and excluded the winds, but there is a cold
+that comes with wet garments and strong winds that sets the teeth to
+chattering and the skin to quivering.
+
+As all was snug and secure on the berg, we began to take a greater
+interest in our wind and sea-propelled craft. Its exposed surface was
+swept by the winds, while its submarine surface was pushed by tides and
+undercurrents, giving it a complex movement at variance with the
+pack-ice. It ploughed up miles of sea-ice, crushing and throwing it
+aside.
+
+After several hours of this kind of navigation--which was easy for us,
+because the movement of the swell and the breaking of the sea did not
+inflict a hardship--the berg suddenly, without any apparent reason,
+took a course at right angles to the wind, and deliberately pushed out
+of the pack into the seething seas. This rapid shift from comfort to the
+wild agitation of the black waters made us gasp. The seas, with boulders
+of ice, rolled up over our crest and into the concavity of the berg,
+leaving no part safe. Seizing our axes, we cut many other anchor holes
+in the ice, doubly secured our life lines, and shifted with our boat to
+the edge of the berg turned to the wind. The hours of suspense and
+torment thus spent seemed as long as the winters of the Eskimo. The pack
+soon became a mere pearly glow against a dirty sky. We were rushing
+through a seething blackness, made more impressive by the pearl and blue
+of the berg and the white, ice-lined crests.
+
+What could we do to keep the springs of life from snapping in such a
+world of despair? Fortunately, we were kept too busy dodging the
+storm-driven missiles of water and ice to ponder much over our fate.
+Otherwise the mind could not have stood the infernal strain.
+
+Our bronze skins were adapted to cold and winds, but the torture of the
+cold, drenching water was new. For five months we had been battered by
+winds and cut by frosts, but water was secured only by melting ice with
+precious fuel which we had carried thousands of miles. If we could get
+enough of the costly liquid to wash our cold meals down, we had been
+satisfied. The luxury of a face wash or a bath, except by the
+wind-driven snows, was never indulged in. Now, in stress of danger, we
+were getting it from every direction. The torments of frost about the
+Pole were nothing compared to this boiling blackness.
+
+Twenty-four hours elapsed before there was any change. Such calls of
+nature as hunger or thirst or sleep were left unanswered. We maintained
+a terrific struggle to keep from being washed into the sea. At last the
+east paled, the south became blue, and the land on both sides rose in
+sight. The wind came steadily, but reduced in force, with a frosty edge
+that hardened our garments to sheets of ice.
+
+We were not far from the twin channels, Cardigan Strait and Hell Gate,
+where the waters of the Pacific and Atlantic meet. We were driving for
+Cardigan Strait, past the fiords into which we had descended from the
+western seas two weeks before. We had, therefore, lost an advance of two
+weeks in one day, and we had probably lost our race with time to reach
+the life-saving haunts of the Eskimo.
+
+Still, this line of thought was foreign to us. Not far away were bold
+cliffs from which birds descended to the rushing waters. At the sight my
+heart rose. Here we saw the satisfying prospect of an easy breakfast if
+only the waves would cease to fold in white crests. Long trains of heavy
+ice were rushing with railroad speed out of the straits. As we watched,
+the temperature continued to fall. Soon the north blackened with
+swirling curls of smoke. The wind came with the sound of exploding guns
+from Hell Gate. What, I asked myself, was to be our fate now?
+
+We took a southwest course. Freezing seas washed over the berg and froze
+our numbed feet to the ice, upon which a footing otherwise would have
+been very difficult. Adrift in a vast, ice-driven, storm-thundering
+ocean, I stood silent, paralyzed with terror. After a few hours,
+sentinel floes of the pack slowly shoved toward us, and unresistingly,
+we were ushered into the harboring influence of the heavy Polar ice.
+
+The berg lost its erratic movement, and soon settled in a fixed
+position. The wind continued to tear along in a mad rage, but we found
+shelter in our canoe, dozing away for a few moments while one paced the
+ice as a sentinel. Slowly a lane of quiet water appeared among the
+floes. We heard a strangely familiar sound which set our hearts
+throbbing. The walrus and the seal, one by one, came up to the surface
+to blow. Here, right before us, was big game, with plenty of meat and
+fat. We were starving, but we gazed almost helplessly on plenty, for its
+capture was difficult for us.
+
+We had only a few cartridges and four cans of pemmican in our baggage.
+These were reserved for use to satisfy the last pangs of famine. That
+time had not yet arrived. Made desperate by hunger, after a brief rest
+we began to seek food. Birds flying from the land became our game at
+this time. We could secure these with the slingshot made by the Eskimos,
+and later, by entangling loops in lines, and in various other ways which
+hunger taught us.
+
+A gull lighted on a pinnacle of our berg. Quietly but quickly we placed
+a bait and set a looped line. We watched with bated breath. The bird
+peered about, espied the luring bait, descended with a flutter of wings,
+pecked the pemmican. There was a snapping sound--the bird was ours.
+Leaping upon it, we rapidly cut it in bits and ravenously devoured it
+raw. Few things I have ever eaten tasted so delicious as this meat,
+which had the flavor of cod-liver oil.
+
+The ice soon jammed in a grinding pack against the land, and the wind
+spent its force in vain. We held our position, and two of us, after
+eating the bird, slept until the sentinel called us. At midnight the
+wind eased and the ice started its usual rebound, seaward and eastward,
+with the tide.
+
+This was our moment for escape. We were about ten miles off the shore of
+Cape Vera. If we could push our canvas canoe through the channels of
+water as they opened, we might reach land. We quickly prepared the boat.
+With trepidation we pushed it into the black, frigid waters. We
+hesitated to leave the sheltering berg which had saved our lives. Still,
+it had served its purpose. To remain might mean our being carried out to
+sea. The ultimate time had come to seek a more secure refuge on _terra
+firma_.
+
+Leaping into the frail, rocking canoe, we pushed along desperately
+through a few long channels to reach a wide, open space of water
+landward. Paddling frantically, we made a twisting course through
+opening lanes of water, ice on both sides of us, visible bergs bearing
+down at times on us, invisible bergs with spear-points of ice beneath
+the water in which our course lay. We sped forward at times with quick
+darts. Suddenly, and to our horror, an invisible piece of ice jagged a
+hole in the port quarter. Water gushed into the frail craft. In a few
+minutes it would be filled; we should sink to an icy death! Fortunately,
+I saw a floe was near, and while the canoe rapidly filled we pushed for
+the floe, reaching it not a moment too soon.
+
+A boot was sacrificed to mend the canoe. Patching the cut, we put again
+into the sea and proceeded.
+
+The middle pack of ice was separated from the land pack, leaving much
+free water. But now a land breeze sprang up and gave us new troubles. We
+could not face the wind and sea, so we took a slant and sought the lee
+of the pans coming from the land.
+
+Our little overloaded canoe weathered the seas very well, and we had
+nothing to gain and everything to lose by turning back. Again we were
+drenched with spray, and the canoe was sheeted with ice above water. The
+sun was passing over Hell Gate. Long blue shadows stretched over the
+pearl-gray sea. By these, without resort to the compass, we knew it was
+about midnight.
+
+As we neared the land-ice, birds became numerous. The waters rose in
+easy swells. Still nearer, we noted that the entire body of land-ice was
+drifting away. A convenient channel opened and gave us a chance to slip
+behind. We pointed for Cape Vera, dashed over the water, and soon, to
+our joy, landed on a ledge of lower rocks. I cannot describe the relief
+I felt in reaching land after the spells of anguish through which we had
+passed. Although these barren rocks offered neither food nor shelter,
+still we were as happy as if a sentence of death had been remitted.
+
+Not far away were pools of ice water. These we sought first, to quench
+our thirst. Then we scattered about, our eyes eagerly scrutinizing the
+land for breakfast. Soon we saw a hare bounding over the rocks. As it
+paused, cocking its ears, one of my boys secured it with a sling-shot.
+It was succulent; we cut it with our knives. Some moss was found among
+the rocks. This was a breakfast for a king. I returned to prepare it.
+With the moss as fuel, we made a fire, put the dripping meat in a pot,
+and, with gloating eyes, watched it simmering. I thrilled with the joy
+of sheer living, with hunger about to be satisfied by cooked food.
+
+Before the hare was ready the boys came along with two eider-ducks,
+which they had secured by looped lines. We therefore had now an advance
+dinner, with a refreshing drink and a stomach full, and solid rocks to
+place our heads upon for a long sleep. These solid rocks were more
+delightful and secure than pillows of down. The world had indeed a new
+aspect for us. In reality, however, our ultimate prospect of escape from
+famine was darker than ever.
+
+[Illustration: ARCTIC HARE]
+
+
+
+
+UNDER THE WHIP OF FAMINE
+
+BY BOAT AND SLEDGE, OVER THE DRIFTING ICE AND STORMY SEAS OF JONES
+SOUND--FROM ROCK TO ROCK IN QUEST OF FOOD--MAKING NEW WEAPONS
+
+XXIV
+
+IMPRISONED BY THE HAND OF FROST
+
+
+No time was lost in our onward course. Endeavoring at once to regain the
+distance lost by the drifting berg, we sought a way along the shores.
+Here, over ice with pools of water and slush, we dragged our sledge with
+the canvas boat ever ready to launch. Frequent spaces of water
+necessitated constant ferrying. We found, however, that most open places
+could be crossed with sledge attached to the boat. This saved much time.
+
+We advanced from ten to fifteen miles daily, pitching the tent on land
+or sleeping in the boat in pools of ice water, as the conditions
+warranted. The land rose with vertical cliffs two thousand feet high,
+and offered no life except a few gulls and guillemots. By gathering
+these as we went along, a scant hand-to-mouth subsistence daily was
+obtained.
+
+Early in August we reached the end of the land-pack, about twenty-five
+miles east of Cape Sparbo. Beyond was a water sky, and to the north the
+sea was entirely free of ice. The weather was clear, and our ambitions
+for the freedom of the deep rose again.
+
+At the end of the last day of sledge travel, a camp was made on a small
+island. Here we saw the first signs of Eskimo habitation. Old tent
+circles, also stone and fox traps in abundance, indicated an ancient
+village of considerable size. On the mainland we discovered abundant
+grass and moss, with signs of musk ox, ptarmigan, and hare, but no
+living thing was detected. After a careful search, the sledge was taken
+apart to serve as a floor for the boat. All our things were snugly
+packed. For breakfast, we had but one gull, which was divided without
+the tedious process of cooking.
+
+As we were packing the things onto the edge of the ice, we espied an
+oogzuk seal. Here was a creature which could satisfy for a while our
+many needs. Upon it one of our last cartridges was expended. The seal
+fell. The huge carcass was dragged ashore. All of its skin was jealously
+taken. For this would make harpoon lines which would enable the shaping
+of Eskimo implements, to take the place of the rifles, which, with
+ammunition exhausted, would be useless. Our boots could also be patched
+with bits of the skin, and new soles could be made. Of the immense
+amount of oogzuk meat and blubber we were able to take only a small
+part; for, with three men and our baggage and sledge in the little
+canvas boat, it was already overloaded.
+
+The meat was cached, so that if ultimate want forced our retreat we
+might here prolong our existence a few weeks longer. There was little
+wind, and the night was beautifully clear. The sun at night was very
+close to the horizon, but the sparkle of the shimmering waters gave our
+dreary lives a bright side. On the great unpolished rocks of the point
+east of Cape Sparbo a suitable camping spot was found, a prolonged feed
+of seal was indulged in, and with a warm sun and full stomachs, the tent
+was unnecessary. Under one of the rocks we found shelter, and slept with
+savage delight for nine hours.
+
+Another search of the accessible land offered no game except ducks and
+gulls far from shore. Here the tides and currents were very strong, so
+our start had to be timed with the outgoing tide.
+
+Starting late one afternoon, we advanced rapidly beyond Cape Sparbo, in
+a sea with an uncomfortable swell. But beyond the Cape, the land-ice
+still offered an edge for a long distance. In making a cut across a
+small bay to reach ice, a walrus suddenly came up behind the canoe and
+drove a tusk through the canvas. E-tuk-i-shook quickly covered the cut,
+while we pulled with full force for a pan of drift-ice only a few yards
+away. The boat, with its load, was quickly jerked on the ice. Already
+there were three inches of water in the floor. A chilly disaster was
+narrowly averted. Part of a boot was sacrificed to mend the boat.
+
+While at work with the needle, a strong tidal current carried us out to
+sea. An increasing wind brought breaking waves over the edge of the ice.
+The wind fortunately gave a landward push to the ice. A sledge-cover,
+used as a sail, retarded our seaward drift. The leak securely patched,
+we pushed off for the land ice. With our eyes strained for breaking
+seas, the boat was paddled along with considerable anxiety. Much water
+was shipped in these dashes; constant bailing was necessary. Pulling
+continuously along the ice for eight miles, and when the leads closed at
+times, jumping on cakes and pulling the boat after us, we were finally
+forced to seek a shelter on the ice-field.
+
+With a strong wind and a wet fall of snow, the ice-camp was far from
+comfortable. As the tide changed, the wind came from the west with a
+heavy, choppy sea. Further advance was impossible. Sleeping but a few
+minutes at a time, and then rising to note coming dangers, as does the
+seal, I perceived, to my growing dismay, a separation between the land
+and the sea ice. We were going rapidly adrift, with only interrupted
+spots of sea-ice on the horizon!
+
+There were a good many reefs about, which quickly broke the ice, and new
+leads formed on every side. The boat was pushed landward. We pulled the
+boat on the ice when the leads closed, lowering it again as the cracks
+opened. By carrying the boat and its load from crack to crack, we at
+last reached the land waters, in which we were able to advance about
+five miles further, camping on the gravel of the first river which we
+had seen. Here we were storm-bound for two days.
+
+There were several pools near by. Within a short distance from these
+were many ducks. With the slingshot a few of these were secured. In the
+midst of our trouble, with good appetites, we were feeding up for future
+contests of strength.
+
+With a shore clear of ice, we could afford to take some chance with
+heavy seas, so before the swell subsided, we pushed off. Coming out of
+Braebugten Bay, with its discharging glaciers and many reefs, the water
+dashed against the perpendicular walls of ice, and presented a
+disheartening prospect. These reefs could be passed over only when the
+sea was calm. With but a half-day's run to our credit, we were again
+stopped.
+
+As we neared our objective point, on the fast ice inside of a reef, we
+were greeted with the glad sight of what we supposed to be a herd of
+musk ox. About three miles of the winter ice was still fast to the land.
+Upon this we landed, cleared the canvas boat, and prepared to camp in
+it. I remained to guard our few belongings, while the two Eskimo boys
+rushed over the ice to try to secure the musk ox with the lance. It was
+a critical time in our career, for we were putting to test new methods
+of hunting, which we had partly devised after many hungry days of
+preparation.
+
+I followed the boys with the glasses as they jumped the ice crevasses
+and moved over the mainland with the stealth and ease of hungry wolves.
+It was a beautiful day. The sun was low in the northwest, throwing beams
+of golden light that made the ice a scene of joy. The great cliffs of
+North Devon, fifteen miles away, seemed very near through the clear air.
+Although enjoying the scene, I noted in the shadow of an iceberg a
+suspicious blue spot, which moved in my direction. As it advanced in the
+sunlight it changed from blue to a cream color. Then I made it out to be
+a Polar bear which we had attacked forty-eight hours previous.
+
+The sight aroused a feeling of elation. Gradually, as bruin advanced and
+I began to think of some method of defense, a cold shiver ran up my
+spine. The dog and rifle, with which we had met bears before, were
+absent. To run, and leave our last bit of food and fuel, would have been
+as dangerous as to stay. A Polar bear will always attack a retreating
+creature, while it approaches very cautiously one that holds its
+position. Furthermore, for some reason, the bears always bore a grudge
+against the boat. None ever passed it without testing the material with
+its teeth or giving it a slap with its paw. At this critical stage of
+our adventure the boat was linked more closely to our destiny than the
+clothes we wore. I therefore decided to stay and play the role of the
+aggressor, although I had nothing--not even a lance--with which to
+fight.
+
+Then an idea flashed through my mind. I lashed a knife to the steering
+paddle, and placed the boat on a slight elevation of ice, so as to make
+it and myself appear as formidable as possible. Then I gathered about me
+all the bits of wood, pieces of ice, and everything which I could throw
+at the creature before it came to a close contest, reserving the knife
+and the ice-ax as my last resort. When all was ready, I took my position
+beside the boat and displayed a sledge-runner moving rapidly to and fro.
+
+The bear was then about two hundred yards away. It approached stealthily
+behind a line of hummocks, with only its head occasionally visible. As
+it came to within three hundred feet, it rose frequently on its hind
+feet, dropped its forepaws, stretched its neck, and pushed its head up,
+remaining motionless for several seconds. It then appeared huge and
+beautiful.
+
+As it came still nearer, its pace quickened. I began to hurl my
+missiles. Every time the bear was hit, it stopped, turned about, and
+examined the object. But none of them proving palatable, it advanced to
+the opposite side of the boat, and for a moment stood and eyed me. Its
+nose caught the odor of a piece of oogzuk blubber a few feet beyond. I
+raised the sledge-runner and brought it down with desperate force on the
+brute's nose. It grunted, but quickly turned to retreat. I followed
+until it was well on the run.
+
+Every time it turned to review the situation, I made a show of chasing
+it. This always had the desired effect of hastening its departure. It
+moved off, however, only a short distance, and then sat down, sniffed
+the air, and watched my movements. As I turned to observe the boys'
+doings, I saw them only a short distance away, edging upon the bear.
+Their group of musk oxen had proved to be rocks, and they had early
+noted my troubles and were hastening to enter the battle, creeping up
+behind hummocks and pressure ridges. They got to within a few yards of
+the brute, and then delivered their two lances at once, with lines
+attached. The bear dropped, but quickly recovered and ran for the land.
+He died from the wounds, for a month later we found his carcass on land,
+placed near camp.
+
+For two days, with a continuation of bad luck, we advanced slowly.
+Belcher Point was passed at midnight of the 7th of August, just as the
+sun sank under the horizon for the first time. Beyond was a nameless
+bay, in which numerous icebergs were stranded. The bend of the bay was
+walled with great discharging glaciers. A heavy sea pitched our boat
+like a leaf in a gale. But, by seeking the shelter of bergs and passing
+inside of the drift, we managed to push to an island for camp.
+
+With moving glaciers on the land, and the sea storming and thundering,
+sleep was impossible. Icebergs in great numbers followed us into the
+bay, and later the storm-ground sea-ice filled the bay. On August 8,
+following a line of water along shore, we started eastward.
+
+A strong wind on our backs, with quiet waters, sent the little boat
+along at a swift pace. After a run of ten miles, a great quantity of
+ice, coming from the east, filled the bay with small fragments and
+ensnared us.
+
+Now the bay was jammed with a pack as difficult to travel over as
+quicksand. We were hopelessly beset. The land was sought, but it offered
+no shelter, no life, and no place flat enough to lie upon. We expected
+that the ice would break. It did not; instead, new winter ice rapidly
+formed.
+
+The setting sun brought the winter storms and premonitions of a long,
+bitter night. Meanwhile we eked a meagre living by catching occasional
+birds, which we devoured raw.
+
+Toward the end of August we pushed out on the ensnaring pack to a small
+but solid floe. I counted on this to drift somewhere--any place beyond
+the prison bars of the glaciers. Then we might move east or west to seek
+food. Our last meat was used, and we maintained life only by an
+occasional gull or guillemot. This floe drifted to and fro, and slowly
+took us to Belcher Point, where we landed to determine our fate. To the
+east, the entire horizon was lined with ice. Belcher Point was barren of
+game and shelter. Further efforts for Baffin's Bay were hopeless. The
+falling temperature, the rapidly forming young ice, and the setting sun
+showed us that we had already gone too long without finding a winter
+refuge.
+
+Our only possible chance to escape death from famine and frost was to
+go back to Cape Sparbo and compel the walrus that ripped our boat to
+give up his blubber, and then to seek our fortunes in the neighborhood.
+This was the only reachable place that had looked like game country.
+With empty stomachs, and on a heavy sea, we pushed westward to seek our
+fate. The outlook was discouraging.
+
+During all our enforced imprisonment we were never allowed to forget
+that the first duty in life was to provide for the stomach. Our muscles
+rested, but the signals sent over the gastric nerve kept the gray matter
+busy.
+
+We were near to the land where Franklin and his men starved. They had
+ammunition. We had none. A similar fate loomed before us. We had seen
+nothing to promise subsistence for the winter, but this cheerless
+prospect did not interfere with such preparations as we could make for
+the ultimate struggle. In our desperate straits we even planned to
+attack bears, should we find any, without a gun. Life is never so sweet
+as when its days seem numbered.
+
+The complete development of a new art of hunting, with suitable weapons,
+was reserved for the dire needs of later adventures. The problem was
+begun by this time. By an oversight, most of our Eskimo implements had
+been left on the returning sledges from Svartevoeg.
+
+We were thus not only without ammunition, but also without harpoons and
+lances. We fortunately had the material of which these could be made,
+and the boys possessed the savage genius to shape a new set of weapons.
+The slingshot and the looped line, which had served such a useful
+purpose in securing birds, continued to be of prime importance. In the
+sledge was excellent hickory, which was utilized in various ways. Of
+this, bows and arrows could be made. Combined with the slingshot and the
+looped line snares, the combination would make our warfare upon the
+feathered creatures more effective. We counted upon a similar efficiency
+with the same weapons in our hoped-for future attacks upon land animals.
+
+The wood of the sledge was further divided to make shafts for harpoons
+and lances. Realizing that our ultimate return to Greenland, and to
+friends, depended on the life of the sledge, the wood was used
+sparingly. Furthermore, hickory lends itself to great economy. It bends
+and twists, but seldom breaks in such a manner that it cannot be
+repaired. We had not much of this precious fibre, but enough for the
+time to serve our purpose. Along shore we had found musk ox horns and
+fragments of whale bone. Out of these the points of both harpoon and
+lance were made. A part of the sledge shoe was sacrificed to make metal
+points for the weapons. The nails of the cooking-box served as rivets.
+The seal skin, which we had secured a month earlier, was now carefully
+divided and cut into suitable harpoon and lassoo lines. We hoped to use
+this line to capture the bear and the musk ox. Our folding canvas boat
+was somewhat strengthened by the leather from our old boots, and
+additional bracing by the ever useful hickory of the sledge. Ready to
+engage in battle with the smallest and the largest creatures that might
+come within reach, we started west for Cape Sparbo. Death, on our
+journey, never seemed so near.
+
+[Illustration: OBSERVATION DETERMINING THE POLE--PHOTOGRAPH FROM
+ORIGINAL NOTE]
+
+[Illustration: BACK TO LAND AND TO LIFE--AWAKENED BY A WINGED
+HARBINGER]
+
+
+
+
+BEAR FIGHTS AND WALRUS BATTLES
+
+DANGEROUS ADVENTURES IN A CANVAS BOAT--ON THE VERGE OF STARVATION, A
+MASSIVE BRUTE, WEIGHING THREE THOUSAND POUNDS, IS CAPTURED AFTER A
+FIFTEEN-HOUR STRUGGLE--ROBBED OF PRECIOUS FOOD BY HUNGRY BEARS
+
+XXV
+
+GAME HAUNTS DISCOVERED
+
+
+The stormy sea rose with heavy swells. Oceanward, the waves leaped
+against the horizon tumultuously. Pursuing our vain search for food
+along the southern side of Jones Sound, early in September, we had been
+obliged to skirt rocky coves and shelves of land on which we might seek
+shelter should harm come to the fragile craft in which we braved the
+ocean storms and the spears of unseen ice beneath water.
+
+We had shaped crude weapons. We were prepared to attack game. We were
+starving; yet land and sea had been barren of any living thing.
+
+Our situation was desperate. In our course it was often necessary, as
+now, to paddle from the near refuge of low-lying shores, and to pass
+precipitous cliffs and leaping glaciers which stepped threateningly into
+the sea. Along these were no projecting surfaces, and we passed them
+always with bated anxiety. A sudden storm or a mishap at such a time
+would have meant death in the frigid sea. And now, grim and suffering
+with hunger, we clung madly to life.
+
+Passing a glacier which rose hundreds of feet out of the green sea,
+heavy waves rolled furiously from the distant ocean. Huge bergs rose and
+fell against the far-away horizon like Titan ships hurled to
+destruction. The waves dashed against the emerald walls of the smooth
+icy Gibraltar with a thunderous noise. We rose and fell in the frail
+canvas boat, butting the waves, our hearts each time sinking.
+
+Suddenly something white and glittering pierced the bottom of the boat!
+It was the tusk of a walrus, gleaming and dangerous. Before we could
+grasp the situation he had disappeared, and water gushed into our craft.
+It was the first walrus we had seen for several weeks. An impulse, mad
+under the circumstances, rose in our hearts to give him chase. It was
+the instinctive call of the hungering body for food. But each second the
+water rose higher; each minute was imminent with danger. Instinctively
+Ah-we-lah pressed to the floor of the boat and jammed his knee into the
+hole, thus partly shutting off the jetting, leaping inrush. He looked
+mutely to me for orders. The glacier offered no stopping place. Looking
+about with mad eagerness, I saw, seaward, only a few hundred yards away,
+a small pan of drift-ice. With the desire for life in our arms, we
+pushed toward it with all our might. Before the boat was pulled to its
+slippery landing, several inches of water flooded the bottom. Once upon
+it, leaping in the waves, we breathed with panting relief. With a piece
+of boot the hole was patched. Although we should have preferred to wait
+to give the walrus a wide berth, the increasing swell of the stormy sea,
+and a seaward drift forced us away from the dangerous ice cliffs.
+
+Launching the boat into the rough waters, we pulled for land. A triangle
+of four miles had to be made before our fears could be set at rest. A
+school of walrus followed us in the rocking waters for at least half of
+the distance. Finally, upon the crest of a white-capped wave, we were
+lifted to firm land. Drawing the boat after us, we ran out of reach of
+the hungry waves, and sank to the grass, desperate, despairing, utterly
+fatigued, but safe.
+
+Now followed a long run of famine luck. We searched land and sea for a
+bird or a fish. In the boat we skirted a barren coast, sleeping on rocks
+without shelter and quenching our thirst by glacial liquid till the
+stomach collapsed. The indifferent stage of starvation was at hand when
+we pulled into a nameless bay, carried the boat on a grassy bench, and
+packed ourselves in it for a sleep that might be our last.
+
+We were awakened by the glad sound of distant walrus calls. Through the
+glasses, a group was located far off shore, on the middle pack. Our
+hearts began to thump. A stream of blood came with a rush to our heads.
+Our bodies were fired with a life that had been foreign to us for many
+moons. No famished wolf ever responded to a call more rapidly than we
+did. Quickly we dropped the boat into the water with the implements, and
+pushed from the famine shores with teeth set for red meat.
+
+The day was beautiful, and the sun from the west poured a wealth of
+golden light. Only an occasional ripple disturbed the glassy blue
+through which the boat crept. The pack was about five miles northward.
+In our eagerness to reach it, the distance seemed spread to leagues.
+There was not a square of ice for miles about which could have been
+sought for refuge in case of an attack. But this did not disturb us now.
+We were blinded to everything except the dictates of our palates.
+
+As we advanced, our tactics were definitely arranged. The animals were
+on a low pan, which seemed to be loosely run into the main pack. We
+aimed for a little cut of ice open to the leeward, where we hoped to
+land and creep up behind hummocks. The splash of our paddles was lost in
+the noise of the grinding ice and the bellowing of walrus calls.
+
+So excited were the Eskimos that they could hardly pull an oar. It was
+the first shout of the wilderness which we had heard in many months. We
+were lean enough to appreciate its import. The boat finally shot up on
+the ice, and we scattered among the ice blocks for favorable positions.
+Everything was in our favor. We did not for a moment entertain a thought
+of failure, although in reality, with the implements at hand, our
+project was tantamount to attacking an elephant with pocket knives.
+
+We came together behind an unusually high icy spire only a few hundred
+yards from the herd. Ten huge animals were lazily stretched out in the
+warm sun. A few lively babies tormented their sleeping mothers. There
+was a splendid line of hummocks, behind which we could advance under
+cover. With a firm grip on harpoon and line, we started. Suddenly
+E-tuk-i-shook shouted "_Nannook_!" (Bear.)
+
+We halted. Our implements were no match for a bear. But we were too
+hungry to retreat. The bear paid no attention to us. His nose was set
+for something more to his liking. Slowly but deliberately, he crept up
+to the snoring herd while we watched with a mad, envious anger welling
+up within us. Our position was helpless. His long neck reached out, the
+glistening fangs closed, and a young walrus struggled in the air. All of
+the creatures woke, but too late to give battle. With dismay and rage,
+the walruses sank into the water, and the bear slunk off to a safe
+distance, where he sat down to a comfortable meal. We were not of
+sufficient importance to interest either the bear or the disturbed herd
+of giants.
+
+Our limbs were limp when we returned to the boat. The sunny glitter of
+the waters was now darkened by the gloom of danger from enraged animals.
+We crossed to the barren shores in a circuitous route, where pieces of
+ice for refuge were always within reach.
+
+On land, the night was cheerless and cold. We were not in a mood for
+sleep. In a lagoon we discovered moving things. After a little study of
+their vague darts they proved to be fish. A diligent search under stones
+brought out a few handfuls of tiny finny creatures. With gratitude I saw
+that here was an evening meal. Seizing them, we ate the wriggling things
+raw. Cooking was impossible, for we had neither oil nor wood.
+
+On the next day the sun at noon burned with a real fire--not the sham
+light without heat which had kept day and night in perpetual glitter for
+several weeks. Not a breath of air disturbed the blue glitter of the
+sea. Ice was scattered everywhere. The central pack was farther away,
+but on it rested several suspicious black marks. Through the glasses we
+made these out to be groups of walruses. They were evidently sound
+asleep, for we heard no calls. They were also so distributed that there
+was a hunt both for bear and man without interference.
+
+We ventured out with a savage desire sharpened by a taste of raw fish.
+As we advanced, several other groups were noted in the water. They gave
+us much trouble. They did not seem ill-tempered, but dangerously
+inquisitive. Our boat was dark in color and not much larger than the
+body of a full-sized bull. To them, I presume, it resembled a companion
+in distress or asleep. A sight of the boat challenged their curiosity,
+and they neared us with the playful intention of testing with their
+tusks the hardness of the canvas. We had experienced such love taps
+before, however, with but a narrow escape from drowning, and we had no
+desire for further walrus courtship.
+
+Fortunately, we could maintain a speed almost equal to theirs, and we
+also found scattered ice-pans, about which we could linger while their
+curiosity was being satisfied by the splash of an occasional stone.
+
+From an iceberg we studied the various groups of walruses for the one
+best situated for our primitive methods of attack. We also searched for
+meddlesome bears. None was detected. Altogether we counted more than a
+hundred grunting, snorting creatures arranged in black hills along a
+line of low ice. There were no hummocks or pressure lifts, under cover
+of which we might advance to within the short range required for our
+harpoons. All of the walrus-encumbered pans were adrift and
+disconnected from the main pack. Conflicting currents gave each group a
+slightly different motion. We studied this movement for a little while.
+
+We hoped, if possible, to make our attack from the ice. With the
+security of a solid footing, there was no danger and there was a greater
+certainty of success. But the speed of the ice on this day did not
+permit such an advantage. We must risk a water attack. This is not an
+unusual method of the Eskimo, but he follows it with a kayak, a harpoon
+and line fitted with a float and a drag for the end of his line. Our
+equipment was only a makeshift, and could not be handled in the same
+way.
+
+Here was food in massive heaps. We had had no breakfast and no full meal
+for many weeks. Something must be done. The general drift was eastward,
+but the walrus pans drifted slightly faster than the main pack. Along
+the pack were several high points, projecting a considerable distance
+seaward. We took our position in the canvas boat behind one of these
+floating capes, and awaited the drift of the sleeping monsters.
+
+Their movement was slow enough to give us plenty of time to arrange our
+battle tactics. The most vital part of the equipment was the line. If it
+were lost, we could not hope to survive the winter. It could not be
+replaced, and without it we could not hope to cope with the life of the
+sea, or even that of the land. The line was a new, strong sealskin
+rawhide of ample length, which had been reserved for just such an
+emergency. Attached to the harpoon, with the float properly adjusted, it
+is seldom lost, for the float moves and permits no sudden strain.
+
+To safeguard the line, a pan was selected only a few yards in diameter.
+This was arranged to do the duty of a float and a drag. With the knife
+two holes were cut, and into these the line was fastened near its
+center. The harpoon end was taken into the boat, the other end was
+coiled and left in a position where it could be easily picked from the
+boat later. Three important purposes were secured by this
+arrangement--the line was relieved of a sudden strain; if it broke, only
+half would be lost; and the unused end would serve as a binder to other
+ice when the chase neared its end.
+
+Now the harpoon was set to the shaft, and the bow of our little
+twelve-foot boat cleared for action. Peeping over the wall of ice, we
+saw the black-littered pans slowly coming toward us. Our excitement rose
+to a shouting point. But our nerves were under the discipline of famine.
+The pan, it was evident, would go by us at a distance of about fifty
+feet.
+
+The first group of walruses were allowed to pass. They proved to be a
+herd of twenty-one mammoth creatures, and, entirely aside from the
+danger of attack, their unanimous plunge would have raised a sea that
+must have swamped us.
+
+On the next pan were but three spots. At a distance we persuaded
+ourselves that they were small--for we had no ambition for formidable
+attacks. One thousand pounds of meat would have been sufficient for us.
+They proved, however, to be the largest bulls of the lot. As they neared
+the point, the hickory oars of the boat were gripped--and out we shot.
+They all rose to meet us, displaying the glitter of ivory tusks from
+little heads against huge wrinkled necks. They grunted and snorted
+viciously--but the speed of the boat did not slacken. E-tuk-i-shook
+rose. With a savage thrust he sank the harpoon into a yielding neck.
+
+The walruses tumbled over themselves and sank into the water on the
+opposite side of the pan. We pushed upon the vacated floe without
+leaving the boat, taking the risk of ice puncture rather than walrus
+thumps. The short line came up with a snap. The ice pan began to plough
+the sea. It moved landward. What luck! I wondered if the walrus would
+tow us and its own carcass ashore. We longed to encourage the homing
+movement, but we dared not venture out. Other animals had awakened to
+the battle call, and now the sea began to seethe and boil with enraged,
+leaping red-eyed monsters.
+
+The float took a zigzag course in the offing. We watched the movement
+with a good deal of anxiety. Our next meal and our last grip on life
+were at stake. For the time being nothing could be done.
+
+The three animals remained together, two pushing the wounded one along
+and holding it up during breathing spells. In their excitement they
+either lost their bearings or deliberately determined to attack. Now
+three ugly snouts pointed at us. This was greatly to our advantage, for
+on ice we were masters of the situation.
+
+Taking inconspicuous positions, we awaited the assault. The Eskimos had
+lances, I an Alpine axe. The walruses dove and came on like torpedo
+boats, rising almost under our noses, with a noise that made us dodge.
+In a second two lances sank into the harpooned strugglers. The water was
+thrashed. Down again went the three. The lances were jerked back by
+return lines, and in another moment we were ready for another assault
+from the other side. But they dashed on, and pulled the float-floe, on
+which we had been, against the one on which we stood, with a crushing
+blow.
+
+Here was our first chance to secure the unused end of the line, fastened
+on the other floe. Ah-we-lah jumped to the floe and tossed me the line.
+The spiked shaft of the ice-axe was driven in the ice and the line fixed
+to it, so now the two floes were held together. Our stage of action was
+enlarged, and we had the advantage of being towed by the animals we
+fought.
+
+Here was the quiet sport of the fisherman and the savage excitement of
+the battle-field run together in a new chase. The struggle was prolonged
+in successive stages. Time passed swiftly. In six hours, during which
+the sun had swept a quarter of the circle, the twin floes were jerked
+through the water with the rush of a gunboat. The jerking line attached
+to our enraged pilots sent a thrill of life which made our hearts jump.
+The lances were thrown, the line was shortened, a cannonade of ice
+blocks was kept up, but the animal gave no signs of weakening. Seeing
+that we could not inflict dangerous wounds, our tactics were changed to
+a kind of siege, and we aimed not to permit the animal its breathing
+spells.
+
+The line did not begin to slacken until midnight. The battle had been on
+for almost twelve hours. But we did not feel the strain of action, nor
+did our chronic hunger seriously disturb us. Bits of ice quenched our
+thirst and the chill of night kept us from sweating. With each rise of
+the beast for breath now, the line slackened. Gently it was hauled in
+and secured. Then a rain of ice blocks, hurled in rapid succession,
+drove the spouting animals down. Soon the line was short enough to
+deliver the lance in the captured walrus at close range. The wounded
+animal was now less troublesome, but the others tore about under us like
+submarine boats, and at the most unexpected moments would shoot up with
+a wild rush.
+
+We did not attempt to attack them, however. All our attention was
+directed to the end of the line. The lance was driven with every
+opportunity. It seldom missed, but the action was more like spurs to a
+horse, changing an intended attack upon us to a desperate plunge into
+the deep, and depriving the walrus of oxygen.
+
+Finally, after a series of spasmodic encounters which lasted fifteen
+hours, the enraged snout turned blue, the fiery eyes blackened, and
+victory was ours--not as the result of the knife alone, not in a square
+fight of brute force, but by the superior cunning of the human animal
+under the stimulus of hunger.
+
+During all this time we had been drifting. Now, as the battle ended, we
+were not far from a point about three miles south of our camp. Plenty of
+safe pack-ice was near. A primitive pulley was arranged by passing the
+line through slits in the walrus' nose and holes in the ice. The great
+carcass, weighing perhaps three thousand pounds, was drawn onto the ice
+and divided into portable pieces. Before the sun poured its morning
+beams over the ice, all had been securely taken ashore.
+
+With ample blubber, a camp fire was now made between two rocks by using
+moss to serve as a wick. Soon, pot after pot of savory meat was
+voraciously consumed. We ate with a mad, vulgar, insatiable hunger. We
+spoke little. Between gulps, the huge heap of meat and blubber was
+cached under heavy rocks, and secured--so we thought--from bears, wolves
+and foxes.
+
+When eating was no longer possible, sleeping dens were arranged in the
+little boat, and in it, like other gluttonous animals after an
+engorgement, we closed our eyes to a digestive sleep. For the time, at
+least, we had fathomed the depths of gastronomic content, and were at
+ease with ourselves and with a bitter world of inhuman strife.
+
+At the end of about fifteen hours, a stir about our camp suddenly awoke
+us. We saw a huge bear nosing about our fireplace. We had left there a
+walrus joint, weighing about one hundred pounds, for our next meal. We
+jumped up, all of us, at once, shouting and making a pretended rush. The
+bear took up the meat in his forepaws and walked off, man-like, on two
+legs, with a threatening grunt. His movement was slow and cautious, and
+his grip on the meat was secure. Occasionally he veered about, with a
+beckoning turn of the head, and a challenging call. But we did not
+accept the challenge. After moving away about three hundred yards on the
+sea-ice, he calmly sat down and devoured our prospective meal.
+
+With lances, bows, arrows, and stones in hand, we next crossed a low
+hill, beyond which was located our precious cache of meat. Here, to our
+chagrin, we saw two other bears, with heads down and paws busily digging
+about the cache. We were not fitted for a hand-to-hand encounter. Still,
+our lives were equally at stake, whether we attacked or failed to
+attack. Some defense must be made. With a shout and a fiendish rush, we
+attracted the busy brutes' attention. They raised their heads, turned,
+and to our delight and relief, grudgingly walked off seaward on the
+moving ice. Each had a big piece of our meat with him.
+
+Advancing to the cache, we found it absolutely depleted. Many other
+bears had been there. The snow and the sand was trampled down with
+innumerable bear tracks. Our splendid cache of the day previous was
+entirely lost. We could have wept with rage and disappointment. One
+thing we were made to realize, and that was that life here was now to be
+a struggle with the bears for supremacy. With little ammunition, we were
+not at all able to engage in bear fights. So, baffled, and unable to
+resent our robbery, starvation again confronting us, we packed our few
+belongings and moved westward over Braebugten Bay to Cape Sparbo.
+
+[Illustration: A THIEF OF THE NORTH]
+
+
+
+
+BULL FIGHTS WITH THE MUSK OX
+
+AN ANCIENT CAVE EXPLORED FOR SHELTER--DEATH BY STARVATION AVERTED
+BY HAND-TO-HAND ENCOUNTERS WITH WILD ANIMALS
+
+XXVI
+
+TO THE WINTER CAMP AT CAPE SPARBO
+
+
+As we crossed the big bay to the east of Cape Sparbo, our eyes were
+fixed on the two huge Archaen rocks which made remarkable landmarks,
+rising suddenly to an altitude of about eighteen thousand feet. They
+appear like two mountainous islands lifted out of the water. On closer
+approach, however, we found the islands connected with the mainland by
+low grassy plains, forming a peninsula. The grassy lands seemed like
+promising grounds for caribou and musk ox. The off-lying sea, we also
+found, was shallow. In this, I calculated, would be food to attract the
+seal and walrus.
+
+In our slow movement over the land swell of the crystal waters, it did
+not take long to discover that our conjecture was correct.
+
+Pulling up to a great herd of walrus, we prepared for battle. But the
+sea suddenly rose, the wind increased, and we were forced to abandon the
+chase and seek shelter on the nearest land.
+
+We reached Cape Sparbo, on the shores of Jones Sound, early in
+September. Our dogs were gone. Our ammunition, except four cartridges
+which I had secreted for use in a last emergency, was gone. Our
+equipment consisted of a half sledge, a canvas boat, a torn silk tent, a
+few camp kettles, tin plates, knives, and matches. Our clothing was
+splitting to shreds.
+
+Cape Sparbo, with its huge walls of granite, was to the leeward. A
+little bay was noted where we might gain the rocks in quiet water. Above
+the rocks was a small green patch where we hoped to find a soft resting
+place for the boat, so that we might place our furs in it and secure
+shelter from the bitter wind.
+
+When we landed we found to our surprise that it was the site of an old
+Eskimo village. There was a line of old igloos partly below water,
+indicating a very ancient time of settlement, for since the departure of
+the builders of these igloos the coast must have settled at least
+fifteen feet. Above were a few other ruins.
+
+Shortly after arriving we sought an auspicious place, protected from the
+wind and cold, where later we might build a winter shelter. Our search
+disclosed a cave-like hole, part of which was dug from the earth, and
+over which, with stones and bones, had been constructed a roof which now
+was fallen in.
+
+The long winter was approaching. We were over three hundred miles from
+Annoatok, and the coming of the long night made it necessary for us to
+halt here. We must have food and clothing. We now came upon musk oxen
+and tried to fell them with boulders, and bows and arrows made of the
+hickory of our sledge. Day after day the pursuit was vainly followed.
+Had it not been for occasional ducks caught with looped lines and sling
+shots, we should have been absolutely without any food.
+
+By the middle of September, snow and frost came with such frequency that
+we omitted hunting for a day to dig out the ruins in the cave and cut
+sod before permanent frost made such work impossible. Bone implements
+were shaped from skeletons found on shore for the digging. Blown drifts
+of sand and gravel, with some moss and grass, were slowly removed from
+the pit. We found under this, to our great joy, just the underground
+arrangement which we desired; a raised platform, about six feet long and
+eight feet wide with suitable wings for the lamp, and footspace, lay
+ready for us. The pit had evidently been designed for a small family.
+The walls, which were about two feet high, required little alteration.
+Another foot was added, which leveled the structure with the ground. A
+good deal of sod was cut and allowed to dry in the sun for use as a
+roof.
+
+While engaged in taking out the stones and cleaning the dungeon-like
+excavation, I suddenly experienced a heart-depressing chill when,
+lifting some debris, I saw staring at me from the black earth a
+hollow-eyed human skull. The message of death which the weird thing
+leeringly conveyed was singularly unpleasant; the omen was not good. Yet
+the fact that at this forsaken spot human hands had once built shelter,
+or for this thing had constructed a grave, gave me a certain
+companionable thrill.
+
+On the shore not far away we secured additional whale ribs and with
+these made a framework for a roof. This was later constructed of moss
+and blocks of sod. We built a rock wall about the shelter to protect
+ourselves from storms and bears. Then our winter home was ready. Food
+was now an immediate necessity. Game was found around us in abundance.
+Most of it was large. On land there were bear and musk ox, in the sea
+the walrus and the whale. But what could we do without either dogs or
+rifles?
+
+The first weapon that we now devised was the bow and arrow, for with
+this we could at least secure some small game. We had in our sledge
+available hickory wood of the best quality, than which no wood could be
+better; we had sinews and seal lashings for strings, but there was no
+metal for tips. We tried bone, horn and ivory, but all proved
+ineffective.
+
+One day, however, E-tuk-i-shook examined his pocket knife and suggested
+taking the side blades for arrow tips. This was done, and the blade with
+its spring was set in a bone handle. Two arrows were thus tipped. The
+weapons complete, the Eskimo boys went out on the chase. They returned
+in the course of a few hours with a hare and an eider-duck. Joy reigned
+in camp as we divided the meat and disposed of it without the process of
+cooking.
+
+A day later, two musk oxen were seen grazing along the moraine of a
+wasting glacier. Now the musk ox is a peace-loving animal and avoids
+strife, but when forced into fight it is one of the most desperate and
+dangerous of all the fighters of the wilderness. It can and does give
+the most fatal thrust of all the horned animals. No Spanish bull of the
+pampas, no buffalo of the plains, has either the slant of horn or the
+intelligence to gore its enemies as has this inoffensive-looking bull of
+the ice world. The intelligence, indeed, is an important factor, for
+after watching musk oxen for a time under varied conditions, one comes
+to admire their almost human intellect as well as their superhuman power
+of delivering self-made force.
+
+Our only means of attack was with the bow and arrow. The boys crept up
+behind rocks until within a few yards of the unsuspecting creatures.
+They bent the bows, and the arrows sped with the force and accuracy as
+only a hungry savage can master. But the beasts' pelts were too strong.
+The musk oxen jumped and faced their assailants. Each arrow, as it came,
+was broken into splints by the feet and the teeth.
+
+When the arrows were all used a still more primitive weapon was tried,
+for the sling shot was brought into use, with large stones. These
+missiles the musk oxen took good naturedly, merely advancing a few steps
+to a granite boulder, upon which they sharpened their horn points and
+awaited further developments. No serious injury had been inflicted and
+they made no effort to escape.
+
+Then came a change. When we started to give up the chase they turned
+upon us with a fierce rush. Fortunately, many big boulders were about,
+and we dodged around these with large stones in hand to deliver at close
+range. In a wild rush a musk ox cannot easily turn, and so can readily
+be dodged. Among the rocks two legs were better than four. The trick of
+evading the musk ox I had learned from the dogs. It saved our lives.
+
+After a while the animals wearied, and we beat a hasty retreat, with new
+lessons in our book of hunting adventures. The bow and arrow was
+evidently not the weapon with which to secure musk oxen.
+
+The musk ox of Jones Sound, unlike his brother farther north, is every
+ready for battle. He is often compelled to meet the bear and the wolf in
+vicious contests, and his tactics are as thoroughly developed as his
+emergencies require. Seldom does he fall the victim of his enemies. We
+were a long time in learning completely his methods of warfare, and if,
+in the meantime, we had not secured other game our fate would have been
+unfortunate.
+
+Harpoons and lances were next finally completed, and with them we
+hastened to retrieve our honor in the "ah-ming-ma" chase. For, after
+all, the musk ox alone could supply our wants. Winter storms were coming
+fast. We were not only without food and fuel, but without clothing. In
+our desperate effort to get out of the regions of famine to the
+Atlantic, we had left behind all our winter furs, including the sleeping
+bags; and our summer garments were worn out. We required the fuel and
+the sinew, the fat and the horn.
+
+One day we saw a herd of twenty-one musk oxen quietly grazing on a misty
+meadow, like cattle on the western plains. It was a beautiful sight to
+watch them, divided as they were into families and in small groups. The
+males were in fur slightly brown, while the females and the young ones
+were arrayed in magnificent black pelts.
+
+To get any of them seemed hopeless, but our appalling necessities forced
+us onward. There were no boulders near, but each of us gathered an
+armful of stones, the object being to make a sudden bombardment and
+compel them to retreat in disorder and scatter among the rocks.
+
+We approached under cover of a small grassy hummock. When we were
+detected, a bull gave a loud snort and rushed toward his nearest
+companions, whereupon the entire herd gathered into a circle, with the
+young in the center.
+
+We made our sham rush and hurled the stones. The oxen remained almost
+motionless, with their heads down, giving little snorts and stamping a
+little when hit, but quickly resuming their immobile position of
+watchfulness. After our stones were exhausted, the animals began to
+shift positions slightly. We interpreted this as a move for action. So
+we gave up the effort and withdrew.
+
+The days were long and the nights still light enough to continue
+operations as long as we could keep our eyes open. The whip of hunger
+made rest impossible. So we determined to seek a less formidable group
+of oxen in a position more favorable. The search was continued until the
+sinking glimmer of the sun in the north marked the time of midnight--for
+with us at that time the compass was the timepiece.
+
+When E-tuk-i-shook secured a hare with the bow and arrow, we ascended a
+rocky eminence and sat down to appease the calling stomach without a
+camp fire. From here we detected a family of four musk oxen asleep not
+far from another group of rocks.
+
+This was a call to battle. We were not long in planning our tactics. The
+wind was in our favor, permitting an attack from the side opposite the
+rocks to which we aimed to force a retreat. We also found small stones
+in abundance, these being now a necessary part of our armament. Our
+first effort was based on the supposition of their remaining asleep.
+They were simply chewing their cud, however, and rose to form a ring of
+defence as we advanced. We stormed them with stones and they took to the
+shelter of the rocks. We continued to advance slowly upon them, throwing
+stones occasionally to obviate a possible assault from them before we
+could also seek the shelter of the rocks.
+
+Besides the bow and arrow and the stones, we now had lances and these we
+threw as they rushed to attack us. Two lances were crushed to small
+fragments before they could be withdrawn by the light line attached.
+They inflicted wounds, but not severe ones.
+
+Noting the immense strength of the animals, we at first thought it
+imprudent to risk the harpoon with its precious line, for if we lost it
+we could not replace it. But the destruction of the two lances left us
+no alternative.
+
+Ah-we-lah threw the harpoon. It hit a rib, glanced to a rock, and was
+also destroyed. Fortunately we had a duplicate point, which was quickly
+fastened. Then we moved about to encourage another onslaught.
+
+Two came at once, an old bull and a young one. E-tuk-i-shook threw the
+harpoon at the young one, and it entered. The line had previously been
+fastened to a rock, and the animal ran back to its associates,
+apparently not severely hurt, leaving the line slack. One of the others
+immediately attacked the line with horns, hoofs and teeth, but did not
+succeed in breaking it.
+
+Our problem now was to get rid of the other three while we dealt with
+the one at the end of the line. Our only resource was a sudden fusilade
+of stones. This proved effective. The three scattered and ascended the
+boulder-strewn foreland of a cliff, where the oldest bull remained to
+watch our movements. The young bull made violent efforts to escape but
+the line of sealskin was strong and elastic. A lucky throw of a lance at
+close range ended the strife. Then we advanced on the old bull, who was
+alone in a good position for us.
+
+We gathered stones and advanced, throwing them at the creature's body.
+This, we found, did not enrage him, but it prevented his making an
+attack. As we gained ground he gradually backed up to the edge of the
+cliff, snorting viciously but making no effort whatever either to escape
+along a lateral bench or to attack. His big brown eyes were upon us; his
+sharp horns were pointed at us. He evidently was planning a desperate
+lunge and was backing to gain time and room, but each of us kept within
+a few yards of a good-sized rock.
+
+Suddenly we made a combined rush into the open, hurling stones, and
+keeping a long rock in a line for retreat. Our storming of stones had
+the desired effect. The bull, annoyed and losing its presence of mind,
+stepped impatiently one step too far backwards and fell suddenly over
+the cliff, landing on a rocky ledge below. Looking over we saw he had
+broken a fore leg. The cliff was not more than fifteen feet high. From
+it the lance was used to put the poor creature out of suffering. We were
+rich now and could afford to spread out our stomachs, contracted by long
+spells of famine. The bull dressed about three hundred pounds of meat
+and one hundred pounds of tallow.
+
+We took the tallow and as much meat as we could carry on our backs, and
+started for the position of our prospective winter camp, ten miles away.
+The meat left was carefully covered with heavy stones to protect it
+from bears, wolves and foxes. On the following day we returned with the
+canvas boat, making a landing about four miles from the battlefield. As
+we neared the caches we found to our dismay numerous bear and fox
+tracks. The bears had opened the caches and removed our hard-earned
+game, while the foxes and the ravens had cleared up the very fragments
+and destroyed even the skins. Here was cause for vengeance on the bear
+and the fox. The fox paid his skin later, but the bear out-generaled us
+in nearly every maneuvre.
+
+We came prepared to continue the chase but had abandoned the use of the
+harpoon. Our main hope for fuel was the blubber of the walrus, and if
+the harpoon should be destroyed or lost we could not hope to attack so
+powerful a brute as a walrus with any other device. In landing we had
+seen a small herd of musk oxen at some distance to the east, but they
+got our wind and vanished. We decided to follow them up. One day we
+found them among a series of rolling hills, where the receding glaciers
+had left many erratic boulders. They lined up in their ring of defence
+as usual when we were detected. There were seven of them; all large
+creatures with huge horns. A bitter wind was blowing, driving some snow,
+which made our task more difficult.
+
+The opening of the fight with stones was now a regular feature which we
+never abandoned in our later development of the art, but the manner in
+which we delivered the stones depended upon the effect which we wished
+to produce. If we wished the musk oxen to retreat, we would make a
+combined rush, hurling the stones at the herd. If we wished them to
+remain in position and discourage their attack, we advanced slowly and
+threw stones desultorily, more or less at random. If we wanted to
+encourage attacks, one man advanced and delivered a large rock as best
+he could at the head. This was cheap ammunition and it was very
+effective.
+
+In this case the game was in a good position for us and we advanced
+accordingly. They allowed us to take positions within about fifteen
+feet, but no nearer. The lances were repeatedly tried without effect,
+and after a while two of these were again broken.
+
+Having tried bow and arrow, stones, the lance and the harpoon, we now
+tried another weapon. We threw the lasso--but not successfully, owing to
+the bushy hair about the head and the roundness of the hump of the neck.
+Then we tried to entangle their feet with slip loops just as we trapped
+gulls. This also failed. We next extended the loop idea to the horns.
+The bull's habit of rushing at things hurled at him caused us to think
+of this plan.
+
+A large slip loop was now made in the center of the line, and the two
+natives took up positions on opposite sides of the animal. They threw
+the rope, with its loop, on the ground in front of the creature, while I
+encouraged an attack from the front. As the head was slightly elevated
+the loop was raised, and the bull put his horns in it, one after the
+other. The rope was now rapidly fastened to stones and the bull
+tightened the loop by his efforts to advance or retreat. With every
+opportunity the slack was taken up, until no play was allowed the
+animal. During this struggle all the other oxen retreated except one
+female, and she was inoffensive. A few stones at close range drove her
+off. Then we had the bull where we could reach him with the lance at
+arm's length, and plunge it into his vitals. He soon fell over, the
+first victim to our new art of musk ox capture.
+
+The others did not run very far away. Indeed, they were too fat to run,
+and two more were soon secured in the same way. This time we took all
+the meat we could with us to camp and left a man on guard. When all was
+removed to the bay we found the load too heavy for our boat, so, in two
+loads, we transported the meat and fat and skins to our camp, where we
+built caches which we believed impregnable to the bear, although the
+thieving creatures actually opened them later.
+
+Our lances repaired, we started out for another adventure a few days
+later. It was a beautiful day. Our methods of attack were not efficient,
+but we wished to avoid the risk of the last plunge of the lance, for our
+lives were in the balance every time if the line should break, and with
+every lunge of the animal we expected it to snap. In such case, we knew,
+the assailant would surely be gored.
+
+We were sufficiently independent now to proceed more cautiously. With
+the bull's willingness to put his head into the loop, I asked myself
+whether the line loop could not be slipped beyond the horns and about
+the neck, thus shutting off the air. So the line was lengthened with
+this effort in view.
+
+Of the many groups of oxen which we saw we picked those in the positions
+most to our advantage, although rather distant. Our new plan was tried
+with success on a female. A bull horned her vigorously when she gasped
+for breath, and which aided our efforts. A storming of stones scattered
+the others of the group, and we were left to deal with our catch with
+the knife.
+
+Our art of musk ox fighting was now completely developed. In the course
+of a few weeks we secured enough to assure comfort and ease during the
+long night. By our own efforts we were lifted suddenly from famine to
+luxury. But it had been the stomach with its chronic emptiness which had
+lashed the mind and body to desperate efforts with sufficient courage to
+face the danger. Hunger, as I have found, is more potent as a stimulant
+than barrels of whiskey. Beginning with the bow and arrow we had tried
+everything which we could devise, but now our most important acquisition
+was our intimate knowledge of the animal's own means of offense and
+defense.
+
+We knew by a kind of instinct when an attack upon us was about to be
+made, because the animal made a forward move, and we never failed in our
+efforts to force a retreat. The rocks which the animals sought for an
+easy defense were equally useful to us, and later we forced them into
+deep waters and also deep snow with similar success. By the use of
+stones and utilizing the creatures' own tactics we placed them where we
+wished. And then again, by the animal's own efforts, we forced it to
+strangle itself, which, after all, was the most humane method of
+slaughter. Three human lives were thus saved by the invention of a new
+art of chase. This gave us courage to attack those more vicious but less
+dangerous animals, the bear and walrus.
+
+The musk ox now supplied many wants in our "Robinson Crusoe" life. From
+the bone we made harpoon points, arrow pieces, knife handles, fox traps
+and sledge repairs. The skin, with its remarkable fur, made our bed and
+roofed our igloo. Of it we made all kinds of garments, but its greatest
+use was for coats with hoods, stockings and mittens. From the skin, with
+the fur removed, we made boots, patched punctures in our boat, and cut
+lashings. The hair and wool which were removed from the skins made pads
+for our palms in the mittens and cushions for the soles of our feet in
+lieu of the grass formerly used.
+
+The meat became our staple food for seven months without change. It was
+a delicious product. It has a flavor slightly sweet, like that of
+horseflesh, but still distinctly pleasing. It possesses an odor unlike
+musk but equally unlike anything that I know of. The live creatures
+exhale the scent of domestic cattle. Just why this odd creature is
+called "musk" ox is a mystery, for it is neither an ox, nor does it
+smell of musk. The Eskimo name of "ah-ming-ma" would fit it much better.
+The bones were used as fuel for outside fires, and the fat as both fuel
+and food.
+
+At first our wealth of food came with surprise and delight to us, for,
+in the absence of sweet or starchy foods, man craves fat. Sugar and
+starch are most readily converted into fat by the animal laboratory, and
+fat is one of the prime factors in the development and maintenance of
+the human system. It is the confectionery of aboriginal man, and we had
+taken up the lot of the most primitive aborigines, living and thriving
+solely on the product of the chase without a morsel of civilized or
+vegetable food. Under these circumstances we especially delighted in the
+musk ox tallow, and more especially in the marrow, which we sucked from
+the bone with the eagerness with which a child jubilantly manages a
+stick of candy.
+
+[Illustration: ARCTIC WOLF]
+
+
+
+
+WITH A NEW ART OF CHASE IN A NEW WORLD OF LIFE
+
+THREE WEEKS BEFORE THE SUNSET OF 1908--REVELLING IN AN EDEN OF
+GAME--PECULIARITIES OF ANIMALS OF THE ARCTIC--HOW NATURE DICTATES
+ANIMAL COLOR--THE QUEST OF SMALL LIFE
+
+XXVII
+
+COMING OF THE SECOND WINTER
+
+
+In two months, from the first of September to the end of October, we
+passed from a period of hunger, thirst and abject misery into the realm
+of abundant game. The spell for inactivity had not yet come. Up to this
+time we were too busy with the serious business of life to realize
+thoroughly that we had really discovered a new natural wonderland. The
+luck of Robinson Crusoe was not more fortunate than ours, although he
+had not the cut of frost nor the long night, nor the torment of bears to
+circumscribe his adventures. In successive stages of battle our eyes had
+opened to a new world of life.
+
+In searching every nook and cranny of land we had acquired new arts of
+life and a new perspective of nature's wonders. We slept in caves in
+storm; in the lee of icebergs in strong winds and on the mossy cushions
+of earth concavities. Here we learned to study and appreciate primal
+factors of both animal and plant life.
+
+In the Arctic, nature tries to cover its nakedness in places where the
+cruel winds do not cut its contour. The effort is interesting, not only
+because of the charm of the verdant dress, but because of the evidence
+of a motherly protection to the little life cells which struggle against
+awful odds to weave that fabric wherever a terrestrial dimple is exposed
+to the kisses of the southern sun. In these depressions, sheltered from
+the blasts of storms, a kindly hand spreads a beautiful mantle of
+colorful grass, moss, lichens and flowery plants.
+
+Here the lemming digs his home under the velvet cover, where he may
+enjoy the roots and material protection from the abysmal frost of the
+long night. Here in the protected folds of Mother Earth, blanketed by
+the warm white robe of winter, he sleeps the peace of death while the
+warring elements blast in fury outside.
+
+Here the Arctic hare plays with its bunnies during summer, and as the
+winter comes the young grow to full maturity and dress in a silky down
+of white. Under the snow they burrow, making long tunnels, still eating
+and sleeping on their loved cushions of frozen plants, far under the
+snow-skirts of Mother Earth, while the life-stilling blasts without
+expend their wintry force.
+
+Here the ptarmigan scratches for its food. The musk ox and the caribou
+browse, while the raven, with a kind word for all, collects food for its
+palate. The bear and the wolf occasionally visit to collect tribute,
+while the falcon and the fox with one eye open are ever on the alert for
+the exercise of their craft.
+
+In these little smiling indentations of nature, when the sun begins to
+caress the gentle slopes, while the snow melts and flows in leaping
+streams--the sea still locked by the iron grip of the winter
+embrace--the Arctic incubator works overtime to start the little ones of
+the snow wilds. Thus in these dimples of nature rocks the cradle of
+boreal life.
+
+Relieved of the all-absorbing care of providing food, I now was often
+held spellbound as I wandered over these spots of nature's wonders.
+Phases of life which never interested me before now riveted my
+attention. Wandering from the softly cushioned gullies, the harsh ridge
+life next came under my eyes. While the valleys and the gullies become
+garden spots of summer glory, the very protection from winds which makes
+this life possible buries the vegetable luxuriousness in winter under
+unfathomable depths of snow. The musk ox and the caribou, dependent upon
+this plant life for food, therefore become deprived of the usual means
+of subsistence. But Mother Nature does not desert her children. The same
+winds which compel man and feebler animals to seek shelter from its
+death-dealing assault, afford food to the better fitted musk ox and
+caribou. In summer, plants, like animals, climb to ridges, hummocks and
+mountain slopes, to get air and light and warm sunbeams. But the battle
+here is hard, and only very strong plants survive the force of wind and
+frosts.
+
+The plant fibre here become tenacious; with a body gnarled and knotty
+from long conflict the roots dig yards deep into the soil. This leaves
+the breathing part of the plant dwarfed to a few inches. Here the
+winter winds sweep off the snow and offer food to the musk ox and
+caribou. Thus the wind, which destroys, also gives means of life. The
+equalizing balance of nature is truly wonderful.
+
+In small, circumscribed areas we thus found ourselves in a new Eden of
+primeval life.
+
+The topography of North Devon, however, placed a sharp limit to the
+animated wilderness. Only a narrow strip of coast about Cape Sparbo,
+extending about twenty-five miles to the east and about forty miles to
+the west, presented any signs of land life. All other parts of the south
+shore of Jones Sound are more barren than the shores of the Polar sea.
+
+Although our larder was now well stocked with meat for food and blubber
+for fuel, we were still in need of furs and skins to prepare a new
+equipment with which to return to the Greenland shores. The animals
+whose pelts we required were abundant everywhere. But they were too
+active to be caught by the art and the weapons evolved earlier in the
+chase of the walrus, bear and musk ox.
+
+A series of efforts, therefore, was directed to the fox, the hare, the
+ptarmigan and the seal. It was necessary to devise special methods and
+means of capture for each family of animals. The hare was perhaps the
+most important, not only because its delicately flavored meat furnished
+a pleasing change from the steady diet of musk ox, but also because its
+skin is not equalled by any other for stockings. In our quest of the
+musk ox we had startled little groups of creatures from many centers.
+Their winter fur was not prime until after the middle of October. Taking
+notes of their haunts and their habits, we had, therefore, reserved the
+hare hunt until the days just before sunset.
+
+[Illustration: E-TUK-I-SHOOK WAITING FOR A SEAL AT A BLOW-HOLE]
+
+[Illustration: TOWARD CAPE SPARBO IN A CANVAS BOAT WALRUS--PRIZE OF A
+FIFTEEN HOUR BATTLE--4,000 POUNDS OF MEAT AND FAT]
+
+We had learned to admire this little aristocrat. It is the most
+beautiful, most delicate of northern creatures. Early in the summer we
+had found it grazing in the green meadows along the base of bird cliffs.
+The little gray bunnies then played with their mothers about crystal
+dens. Now the babes were full grown and clothed in the same immaculate
+white of the parents. We could distinguish the young only by their
+greater activity and their ceaseless curiosity.
+
+In the immediate vicinity of camp we found them first in gullies where
+the previous winter's snow had but recently disappeared. Here the grass
+was young and tender and of a flavor to suit their taste for delicacies.
+A little later they followed the musk ox to the shores of lagoons or to
+the wind-swept hills. Still later, as the winter snows blanketed the
+pastures and the bitter storms of night swept the cheerless drifts, they
+dug long tunnels under the snow for food, and when the storms were too
+severe remained housed in these feeding dugouts.
+
+An animal of rare intelligence, the hare is quick to grasp an advantage,
+and therefore as winter advances we find it a constant companion of the
+musk ox. For in the diggings of the musk ox this little creature finds
+sufficient food uncovered for its needs.
+
+With a skeleton as light as that of the bird and a skin as frail as
+paper it is nevertheless as well prepared to withstand the rigors of the
+Arctic as the bear with its clumsy anatomy. The entire makeup of the
+hare is based upon the highest strain of animal economy. It expends the
+greatest possible amount of energy at the cost of the least consumption
+of food. Its fur is as white as the boreal snows and absorbs color
+somewhat more readily. In a stream of crimson light it appears red and
+white; in a shadow of ice or in the darkness of night it assumes the
+subdued blue of the Polar world. Nature has bleached its fur seemingly
+to afford the best protection against the frigid chill, for a suitable
+white fur permits the escape of less bodily heat than any colored or
+shaded pelt.
+
+The fox is its only real enemy, and the fox's chance of success is won
+only by superior cunning. Its protection against the fox lies in its
+lightning-like movement of the legs. When it scents danger it rises by a
+series of darts that could be followed only by birds. Its expenditure of
+muscular energy is so economical that it can continue its run for an
+almost indefinite time. Shooting along a few hundred paces, it then
+rises to rest in an erect posture. With its black-tipped ears in line
+with its back it makes a fascinating little bit of nature's handiwork.
+Again, when asleep, it curls up its legs carefully in the long fur of
+its body, and its ever-active nose, with the divided lip, is then pushed
+into the long soft fur of the breast where the frost crystals are
+screened from the breath when storms carry drift snow. It is a fluffy
+ball of animation which provokes one's admiration.
+
+Deprived as we were of most of the usual comforts of life, many things
+were taught us by the creatures about. From the hare, with its
+scrupulous attention to cleanliness, we learned how to cleanse our hands
+and faces. With no soap, no towels and very little water, we had some
+difficulty in trying to keep respectable appearances. The hare has the
+same problem to deal with, but it is provided by nature with a cleansing
+apparatus. Its own choice is the forepaw, but with its need for snow
+shoes the hind legs serve a very useful purpose, and then, too, the
+surface is developed, a surface covered with tough fur which, we
+discovered, possessed the quality of a wet sponge and did not require,
+for efficiency, either soap or water. With hare paws, therefore, we kept
+clean. These paws also served as napkins. To take the place of a basin
+and a towel we therefore gathered a supply of hare paws, enough to keep
+clean for at least six months.
+
+The hare was a good mark for E-tuk-i-shook with the sling shot, and many
+fell victims to his primitive genius. Ah-we-lah, never an expert at
+stone slinging, became an adept with the bow and arrow. Usually he
+returned with at least a hare from every day's chase. Our main success
+resulted from a still more primitive device. Counting on its
+inquisitiveness we devised a chain of loop lines arranged across the
+hare's regular lines of travel. In playing and jumping through these
+loops, the animal tightened the lines and became our victim
+automatically.
+
+The ptarmigan chase was possible only for Ah-we-lah. The bird was not at
+all shy, for it often came close to our den and scattered the snow like
+a chicken. It was too small a mark for the sling shot and only Ah-we-lah
+could give the arrow the precise direction for these feathered
+creatures. Altogether, fifteen were secured in our locality, and all
+served as dessert for my special benefit. According to Eskimo custom, a
+young, unmarried man or woman cannot eat the ptarmigan, or
+"_ahr-rish-shah_" as they call it. That pleasure is reserved for the
+older people, and I did not for a moment risk the sacrilege of trying to
+change the custom. It was greatly to my advantage, for it not only
+impressed with suitable force my dignity as a superior Eskimo, but it
+enabled me to enjoy an entire bird at a time instead of only a teasing
+mouthful.
+
+To us the ptarmigan was at all times fascinating, but it proved ever a
+thing of mystery. Descending from the skies at unexpected times it
+embarks again for haunts unknown. At times we saw the birds in great
+numbers. At other times they were absent for months. In summer the bird
+has gray and brown feathers, mingled with white. It keeps close to the
+inland ice, making its course along the snowy coast of Noonataks, beyond
+the reach of man or fox. Late in September it seeks the lower ground
+along the sea level.
+
+Like the hare and the musk ox, it delights in windy places where the
+snow has been driven away. There it finds bits of moss and withered
+plants which satisfy its needs. The summer plumage is at first sight
+like that of the partridge. On close examination one finds the feathers
+are only tipped with color--underneath, the plumage is white. In winter
+it retains only the black feathers of its tail, otherwise it is as white
+as the hare. Its legs often are covered with tough fur, like that of the
+hare's lower hind legs. The meat is delicate in flavor and tender. It is
+the most beautiful of the four birds that remain in the white world when
+all is bleak during the night.
+
+We sought the fox more diligently than the ptarmigan. We had a more
+tangible way of securing it. Furthermore, we were in great need of its
+skin. E-tuk-i-shook and Ah-we-lah regarded fox hams as quite a
+delicacy--a delicacy which I never willingly shared when there were musk
+tenderloins about. We had no steel traps, and with its usual craft the
+fox usually managed to evade our crude weapons by keeping out of sight.
+Bone traps were made with a good deal of care after the pattern of steel
+traps. We used a musk-ox horn as a spring. But with these we were only
+partially successful. As a last resort, little domes were arranged in
+imitation of the usual caches, with trap stone doors. In these we
+managed to secure fourteen white and two blue animals. After that they
+proved too wise for our craft.
+
+The fox becomes shy only in the end of October, when its fur begins to
+be really worth taking. Before that it followed us everywhere on the
+musk ox quest, for it was not slow to learn the advantage of being near
+our battle scenes. We frequently left choice bits for its picking, a
+favor which it seemed to appreciate by a careful watchfulness of our
+camps. Although a much more cunning thief than the bear, we could afford
+its plunderings, for it had not so keen a taste for blubber and its
+capacity was limited. We thus got well acquainted.
+
+Up to the present we had failed in the quest of the seal. During the
+open season of summer, without a _kayak_, we could not get near the
+animal. As the winter and the night advanced, we were too busy with the
+land animals to watch the blow-holes in the new ice. When the sea is
+first spread with the thin sheet of colorless ice, which later thickens,
+the seal rises to the surface, makes a breathing hole, descends to its
+feeding grounds on the sea bottom for about ten minutes, then rises and
+makes another hole. This line of openings is arranged in a circle or a
+series of connecting, oblong lines, marking that particular seal's
+favorite feeding ground. Before the young ice is covered with snow,
+these breathing holes are easily located by a ring of white frost
+crystals, which condense and fall as the seal blows. But now that the
+winter had sheeted the black ice evenly with a white cover, the seal
+holes, though open, could not be found. We were not in need of either
+fat or meat, but the seal skins were to fill an important want. We
+required for boots and sled lashing the thin, tough seal hide. How could
+we get it?
+
+From our underground den we daily watched the wanderings of the bears.
+They trailed along certain lines which we knew to be favorable feeding
+grounds for seals, but they did not seem to be successful. Could we not
+profit by their superb scenting instinct and find the blow-holes? The
+bear had been our worst enemy, but unconsciously it also proved to be
+our best friend.
+
+We started out to trail the bear's footprints. By these we were led to
+the blow-holes, where we found the snow about had been circled with a
+regular trail. Most of these had been abandoned, for the seal has a
+scent as keen as the bear, but a few "live" holes were located. Sticks
+were placed to locate these, and after a few days' careful study and
+hard work we harpooned six seals. Taking only the skins and blubber, we
+left the carcasses for bruin's share of the chase--to be consumed later.
+We did not hunt together with the bear--at least, not knowingly.
+
+In these wanderings over game lands we were permitted a very close
+scrutiny of the animals about, and it was at this time that I came to
+certain definite conclusions as to prevailing laws of color and dress of
+our co-habitants of the Polar wastes.
+
+The animals of the Arctic assume a color in accordance to their need for
+heat transmission. The prevailing influence is white, as light furs
+permit the least escape of heat. It is evidently more important to
+confine the heat of the body, than to gather heat from the sun's feeble
+rays. The necessity for bleaching the furry raiment becomes most
+operative in winter when the temperature of the air is 150 deg. below that
+of the body. In the summer, when the continued sunshine is made more
+heating by the piercing influence of the reflecting snow-fields, there
+is a tendency to absorb heat. Then nature darkens the skin, which
+absorbs heat accordingly.
+
+The relative advantage of light and dark shades can be easily
+demonstrated by placing pieces of white and black cloth on a surface of
+snow, with a slope at right angles to the sun's rays. If, after a few
+hours, the cloth is removed the snow under the black cloth will be
+melted considerably, while that under the white cloth will show little
+effect.
+
+Nature makes use of this law of physics to ease the hard lot of its
+creatures fighting the weather in the icy world. The laws of color
+protection as advocated in the rules of natural selection are not
+operative here, because of the vitally important demand of heat economy.
+If we now seek the problem of nature's body colored dyes, with heat
+economy as the key, our calculations will become easy. The serwah, a
+species of guillemot, which is as black as the raven in summer, is
+white in winter. The ptarmigan is light as pearl in winter, but its
+feathers become tipped with amber in summer. The hare is slightly gray
+in summer, but, in winter, becomes white as the snow under which it
+finds food and shelter.
+
+The white fox is gray in summer, the blue fox darkens as the sun
+advances, while its under fur becomes lighter with increasing cold. The
+caribou is dark brown as it grazes the moss-colored fields, but becomes
+nearly white with the permanent snows. The polar bear, as white as
+nature can make it, with only blubber to mix its paints, basks in the
+midnight sun with a raiment suggestive of gold. The musk ox changes its
+dark under-fur for a lighter shade. The raven has a white under-coat in
+winter. The rat is gray in summer but bleaches to blue-gray in winter
+time. The laws of selection and heat economy are thus combined.
+
+While thus preparing for the coming winter by seeking animals with furry
+pelts, the weather conditions made our task increasingly difficult. The
+storm of the descending sun whipped the seas into white fury and brushed
+the lands with icy clouds. With the descent of the sun, nature again set
+its seal of gloom on Arctic life. The cheer of a sunny heaven was
+blotted from the skies, and the coming of the winter blackness was
+signalled by the beginning of a warfare of the elements. All hostile
+nature was now set loose to expend its restive battle energy.
+
+For brief moments the weather was quiet, and then in awe-inspiring
+silence we steered for sequestered gullies in quest of little creatures.
+This death-like stillness was in harmony with our loneliness. As the sea
+was stilled by the iron bonds of frost, as life sought protection under
+the storm-driven snows of land, the winds, growing even wilder, beat a
+maddening onslaught over the dead, frozen world. The thunder of elements
+shook the very rocks under which we slept. Then again would fall a spell
+of that strange silence--all was dead, the sun glowed no more, the
+creatures of the wilds were hushed. We were all alone--alone in a vast,
+white dead world.
+
+[Illustration: LEMMING]
+
+
+
+
+A HUNDRED NIGHTS IN AN UNDERGROUND DEN
+
+LIVING LIKE MEN OF THE STONE AGE--THE DESOLATION OF THE LONG
+NIGHT--LIFE ABOUT CAPE SPARBO--PREPARING EQUIPMENT FOR THE RETURN
+TO GREENLAND--SUNRISE, FEBRUARY 11, 1909
+
+XXVIII
+
+LIFE ABOUT CAPE SPARBO
+
+
+The coming night slowly fixed its seal on our field of activity. Early
+in August the sun had dipped under the icy contour of North Lincoln, and
+Jones Sound had then begun to spread its cover of crystal. The warm rays
+gradually melted in a perpetual blue frost. The air thickened. The land
+darkened. The days shortened. The night lengthened. The Polar cold and
+darkness of winter came hand in hand.
+
+Late in September the nights had become too dark to sleep in the open,
+with inquisitive bears on every side. Storms, too, increased thereafter
+and deprived us of the cheer of colored skies. Thus we were now forced
+to seek a retreat in our underground den.
+
+We took about as kindly to this as a wild animal does to a cage. For
+over seven months we had wandered over vast plains of ice, with a new
+camp site almost every day. We had grown accustomed to a wandering life
+like that of the bear, but we had not developed his hibernating
+instinct. We were anxious to continue our curious battle of life.
+
+In October the bosom of the sea became blanketed, and the curve of the
+snow-covered earth was polarized in the eastern skies. The final period
+for the death of day and earthly glory was advancing, but Nature in her
+last throes displayed some of her most alluring phases. The colored
+silhouette of the globe was perhaps the most remarkable display. In
+effect, this was a shadow of the earth thrown into space. By the
+reflected, refracted and polarized light of the sun, the terrestrial
+shadows were outlined against the sky in glowing colors. Seen
+occasionally in other parts of the globe, it is only in the Polar
+regions, with its air of crystal and its surface of mirrors, that the
+proper mediums are afforded for this gigantic spectral show.
+
+We had an ideal location. A glittering sea, with a level horizon, lay
+along the east and west. The weather was good, the skies were clear,
+and, as the sun sank, the sky over it was flushed with orange or gold.
+This gradually paled, and over the horizon opposite there rose an arc in
+feeble prismatic colors with a dark zone of purple under it. The arc
+rose as the sun settled; the purple spread beyond the polarized bow; and
+gradually the heavens turned a deep purple blue to the zenith, while the
+halo of the globe was slowly lost in its own shadow.
+
+The colored face of the earth painted on the screen of the heavens left
+the last impression of worldly charm on the retina. In the end of
+October the battle of the elements, storms attending the setting of the
+sun, began to blast the air into a chronic fury. By this time we were
+glad to creep into our den and await the vanishing weeks of ebbing day.
+
+In the doom of night to follow, there would at least be some quiet
+moments during which we could stretch our legs. The bears, which had
+threatened our existence, were now kept off by a new device which served
+the purpose for a time. We had food and fuel enough for the winter.
+There should have been nothing to have disturbed our tempers, but the
+coming of the long blackness makes all Polar life ill at ease.
+
+Early in November the storms ceased long enough to give us a last fiery
+vision. With a magnificent cardinal flame the sun rose, gibbered in the
+sky and sank behind the southern cliffs on November 3. It was not to
+rise again until February 11 of the next year. We were therefore doomed
+to hibernate in our underground den for at least a hundred double nights
+before the dawn of a new day opened our eyes.
+
+The days now came and went in short order. For hygienic reasons we kept
+up the usual routine of life. The midday light soon darkened to
+twilight. The moon and stars appeared at noon. The usual partition of
+time disappeared. All was night, unrelieved darkness, midnight, midday,
+morning or evening.
+
+We stood watches of six hours each to keep the fires going, to keep off
+the bears and to force an interest in a blank life. We knew that we were
+believed to be dead. For our friends in Greenland would not ascribe to
+us the luck which came after our run of abject misfortune. This thought
+inflicted perhaps the greatest pain of the queer prolongation of life
+which was permitted us. It was loneliness, frigid loneliness. I wondered
+whether men ever felt so desolately alone.
+
+We could not have been more thoroughly isolated if we had been
+transported to the surface of the moon. I find myself utterly unable to
+outline the emptiness of our existence. In other surroundings we never
+grasp the full meaning of the word "alone." When it is possible to put a
+foot out of doors into sunlight without the risk of a bear-paw on your
+neck it is also possible to run off a spell of blues, but what were we
+to do with every dull rock rising as a bear ghost and with the torment
+of a satanic blackness to blind us?
+
+With the cheer of day, a kindly nature and a new friend, it is easy to
+get in touch with a sympathetic chord. The mere thought of another human
+heart within touch, even a hundred miles away, would have eased the
+suspense of the silent void. But we could entertain no such hopefulness.
+We were all alone in a world where every pleasant aspect of nature had
+deserted us. Although three in number, a bare necessity had compressed
+us into a single composite individuality.
+
+There were no discussions, no differences of opinion. We had been too
+long together under bitter circumstances to arouse each other's
+interest. A single individual could not live long in our position. A
+selfish instinct tightened a fixed bond to preserve and protect one
+another. As a battle force we made a formidable unit, but there was no
+matches to start the fires of inspiration.
+
+The half darkness of midday and the moonlight still permitted us to
+creep from under the ground and seek a few hours in the open. The stone
+and bone fox traps and the trap caves for the bears which we had built
+during the last glimmer of day offered an occupation with some
+recreation. But we were soon deprived of this.
+
+Bears headed us off at every turn. We were not permitted to proceed
+beyond an enclosed hundred feet from the hole of our den. Not an inch of
+ground or a morsel of food was permitted us without a contest. It was a
+fight of nature against nature. We either actually saw the little sooty
+nostrils with jets of vicious breath rising, and the huge outline of a
+wild beast ready to spring on us, or imagined we saw it. With no
+adequate means of defense we were driven to imprisonment within the
+walls of our own den.
+
+From within, our position was even more tantalizing. The bear thieves
+dug under the snows over our heads and snatched blocks of blubber fuel
+from under our very eyes at the port without a consciousness of
+wrongdoing. Occasionally we ventured out to deliver a lance, but each
+time the bear would make a leap for the door and would have entered had
+the opening been large enough. In other cases we shot arrows through the
+peep-hole. A bear head again would burst through the silk covered window
+near the roof, where knives, at close range and in good light, could be
+driven with sweet vengeance.
+
+As a last resort we made a hole through the top of the den. When a bear
+was heard near, a long torch was pushed through. The snow for acres
+about was then suddenly flashed with a ghostly whiteness which almost
+frightened us. But the bear calmly took advantage of the light to pick a
+larger piece of the blubber upon which our lives depended, and then
+with an air of superiority he would move into the brightest light,
+usually within a few feet of our peep-hole, where we could almost touch
+his hateful skin. Without ammunition we were helpless.
+
+Two weeks after sunset we heard the last cry of ravens. After a silence
+of several days they suddenly descended with a piercing shout which cut
+the frosty stillness. We crept out of our den quickly to read the riddle
+of the sudden bluster. There were five ravens on five different rocks,
+and the absence of the celestial color gave them quite an appropriate
+setting. They were restless: there was no food for them. A fox had
+preceded them with his usual craftiness, and had left no pickings for
+feathered creatures.
+
+A family of five had gathered about in October, when the spoils of the
+chase were being cached, and we encouraged their stay by placing food
+for them regularly. Some times a sly fox, and at other times a thieving
+bear, got the little morsels, but there were usually sufficient picking
+for the raven's little crop. They had found a suitable cave high up in
+the great cliffs of granite behind our den.
+
+We were beginning to be quite friendly. My Eskimo companions ascribed to
+the birds almost human qualities and they talked to them reverently,
+thereby displaying their heart's desire. The secrets of the future were
+all entrusted to their consideration. Would the "too-loo-ah" go to
+Eskimo Lands and deliver their messages? The raven said "ka-ah" (yes).
+
+E-tuk-i-shook said: "Go and take the tears from An-na-do-a's eyes; tell
+her that I am alive and well and will come to take her soon. Tell
+Pan-ic-pa (his father) that I am in Ah-ming-ma-noona (Musk Ox Land).
+Bring us some powder to blacken the bear's snout." "Ka-ah, ka-ah," said
+the two ravens at once.
+
+Ah-we-lah began an appeal to drive off the bears and to set the raven
+spirits as guardians of our blubber caches. This was uttered in shrill
+shouts, and then, in a low, trembling voice, he said: "Dry the tears of
+mother's cheeks and tell her that we are in a land of todnu (tallow)."
+
+"Ka-ah," replied the raven.
+
+"Then go to Ser-wah; tell her not to marry that lazy gull, Ta-tamh; tell
+her that Ah-we-lah's skin is still flushed with thoughts of her, that he
+is well and will return to claim her in the first moon after sunrise."
+"Ka-ah, ka-ah, ka-ah," said the raven, and rose as if to deliver the
+messages.
+
+For the balance of that day we saw only three ravens. The two had
+certainly started for the Greenland shores. The other three, after an
+engorgement, rose to their cave and went to sleep for the night as we
+thought. No more was seen of them until the dawn of day of the following
+year.
+
+A few days later we also made other acquaintances. They were the most
+interesting bits of life that crossed our trail, and in the dying effort
+to seek animal companionship our soured tempers were sweetened somewhat
+by four-footed joys.
+
+A noise had been heard for several successive days at eleven o'clock.
+This was the time chosen by the bears for their daily exercise along our
+foot-path, and we were usually all awake with a knife or a lance in
+hand, not because there was any real danger, for our house cemented by
+ice was as secure as a fort, but because we felt more comfortable in a
+battle attitude. Through the peep-hole we saw them marching up and down
+along the foot-path tramped down by our daily spells of leg-stretching.
+
+They were feasting on the aroma of our foot-prints, and when they left
+it was usually safe for us to venture out. Noises, however, continued
+within the walls of the den. It was evident that there was something
+alive at close range.
+
+We were lonely enough to have felt a certain delight in shaking hands
+even with bruin if the theft of our blubber had not threatened the very
+foundation of our existence. For in the night we could not augment our
+supplies; and without fat, fire and water were impossible. No! there was
+not room for man and bear at Cape Sparbo. Without ammunition, however,
+we were nearly helpless.
+
+But noises continued after bruin's steps came with a decreasing metallic
+ring from distant snows. There was a scraping and a scratching within
+the very walls of our den. We had a neighbor and a companion. Who, or
+what, could it be? We were kept in suspense for some time. When all was
+quiet at the time which we chose to call midnight, a little blue rat
+came out and began to tear the bark from our willow lamp trimmer.
+
+I was on watch, awake, and punched E-tuk-i-shook without moving my head.
+His eyes opened with surprise on the busy rodent, and Ah-we-lah was
+kicked. He turned over and the thing jumped into a rock crevasse.
+
+The next day we risked the discomfort of bruin's interview and dug up an
+abundance of willow roots for our new tenant. These were arranged in
+appetizing display and the rat came out very soon and helped himself,
+but he permitted no familiarity. We learned to love the creature,
+however, all the more because of its shyness. By alternate jumps from
+the roots to seclusion it managed to fill up with all it could carry.
+Then it disappeared as suddenly as it came.
+
+In the course of two days it came back with a companion, its mate. They
+were beautiful little creatures, but little larger than mice. They had
+soft, fluffy fur of a pearl blue color, with pink eyes. They had no
+tails. Their dainty little feet were furred to the claw tips with silky
+hair. They made a picture of animal delight which really aroused us from
+stupor to little spasms of enthusiasm. A few days were spent in testing
+our intentions. Then they arranged a berth just above my head and became
+steady boarders.
+
+Their confidence and trust flattered our vanity and we treated them as
+royal guests. No trouble was too great for us to provide them with
+suitable delicacies. We ventured into the darkness and storms for hours
+to dig up savory roots and mosses. A little stage was arranged every day
+with the suitable footlights. In the eagerness to prolong the rodent
+theatricals, the little things were fed over and over, until they became
+too fat and too lazy to creep from their berths.
+
+They were good, clean orderly camp fellows, always kept in their places
+and never ventured to borrow our bed furs, nor did they disturb our
+eatables. With a keen sense of justice, and an aristocratic air, they
+passed our plates of carnivorous foods without venturing a taste, and
+went to their herbivorous piles of sod delicacies. About ten days before
+midnight they went to sleep and did not wake for more than a month.
+Again we were alone. Now even the bears deserted us.
+
+In the dull days of blankness which followed, few incidents seemed to
+mark time. The cold increased. Storms were more continuous and came with
+greater force. We were cooped up in our underground den with but a
+peep-hole through the silk of our old tent to watch the sooty nocturnal
+bluster. We were face to face with a spiritual famine. With little
+recreation, no amusements, no interesting work, no reading matter, with
+nothing to talk about, the six hours of a watch were spread out to
+weeks.
+
+We had no sugar, no coffee, not a particle of civilized food. We had
+meat and blubber, good and wholesome food at that. But the stomach
+wearied of its never changing carnivorous stuffing. The dark den, with
+its walls of pelt and bone, its floor decked with frosted tears of ice,
+gave no excuse for cheer. Insanity, abject madness, could only be
+avoided by busy hands and long sleep.
+
+My life in this underground place was, I suppose, like that of a man in
+the stone age. The interior was damp and cold and dark; with our
+pitiable lamps burning, the temperature of the top was fairly moderate,
+but at the bottom it was below zero. Our bed was a platform of rocks
+wide enough for three prostrate men. Its forward edge was our seat when
+awake. Before this was a space where a deeper hole in the earth
+permitted us to stand upright, one at a time. There, one by one, we
+dressed and occasionally stood to move our stiff and aching limbs.
+
+On either side of this standing space was half a tin plate in which
+musk-ox fat was burned. We used moss as a wick. These lights were kept
+burning day and night; it was a futile, imperceptible sort of heat they
+gave. Except when we got close to the light, it was impossible to see
+one another's faces.
+
+We ate twice daily--without enjoyment. We had few matches, and in fear
+of darkness tended our lamps diligently. There was no food except meat
+and tallow; most of the meat, by choice, was eaten raw and frozen. Night
+and morning we boiled a small pot of meat for broth; but we had no salt
+to season it. Stooped and cramped, day by day, I found occasional relief
+from the haunting horror of this life by rewriting the almost illegible
+notes made on our journey.
+
+My most important duty was the preparation of my notes and observations
+for publication. This would afford useful occupation and save months of
+time afterwards. But I had no paper. My three note books were full, and
+there remained only a small pad of prescription blanks and two miniature
+memorandum books. I resolved, however, to try to work out the outline of
+my narrative in chapters in these. I had four good pencils and one
+eraser. These served a valuable purpose. With sharp points I shaped the
+words in small letters. When the skeleton of the book was ready I was
+surprised to find how much could be crowded on a few small pages. By a
+liberal use of the eraser many parts of pages were cleared of
+unnecessary notes. Entire lines were written between all the lines of
+the note books, the pages thus carrying two narrations or series of
+notes.
+
+By the use of abbreviations and dashes, a kind of short-hand was
+devised. My art of space economy complete, I began to write, literally
+developing the very useful habit of carefully shaping every idea before
+an attempt was made to use the pencil. In this way my entire book and
+several articles were written. Charts, films and advertisement boxes
+were covered. In all 150,000 words were written, and absolute despair,
+which in idleness opens the door to madness, was averted.
+
+Our needs were still urgent enough to enforce much other work. Drift
+threatened to close the entrance to our dungeon and this required
+frequent clearing. Blubber for the lamp was sliced and pounded every
+day. The meat corner was occasionally stocked, for it required several
+days to thaw out the icy musk ox quarters. Ice was daily gathered and
+placed within reach to keep the water pots full. The frost which was
+condensed out of our breaths made slabs of ice on the floor, and this
+required occasional removal. The snow under our bed furs, which had a
+similar origin, was brushed out now and then.
+
+Soot from the lamps, a result of bad housekeeping, which a proud Eskimo
+woman would not have tolerated for a minute, was scraped from the bone
+rafters about once a week. With a difference of one hundred degrees
+between the breathing air of the den and that outside there was a
+rushing interchanging breeze through every pinhole and crevice. The
+ventilation was good. The camp cleanliness could almost have been called
+hygienic, although no baths had been indulged in for six months, and
+then only by an unavoidable, undesirable accident.
+
+Much had still to be done to prepare for our homegoing in the remote
+period beyond the night. It was necessary to plan and make a new
+equipment. The sledge, the clothing, the camp outfit, everything which
+had been used in the previous campaign, were worn out. Something could
+be done by judicious repairing, but nearly everything required
+reconstruction. In the new arrangement we were to take the place of the
+dogs at the traces and the sledge loads must be prepared accordingly.
+There was before us an unknown line of trouble for three hundred miles
+before we could step on Greenland shores. It was only the hope of
+homegoing, which gave some mental strength in the night of gloom. Musk
+ox meat was now cut into strips and dried over the lamps. Tallow was
+prepared and moulded in portable form for fuel.
+
+But in spite of all efforts we gradually sank to the lowest depths of
+the Arctic midnight. The little midday glimmer on the southern sky
+became indiscernible. Only the swing of the Great Dipper and other stars
+told the time of the day or night. We had fancied that the persistent
+wind ruffled our tempers. But now it was still; not a breath of air
+moved the heavy blackness. In that very stillness we found reasons for
+complaint. Storms were preferable to the dead silence; anything was
+desirable to stir the spirits to action.
+
+Still the silence was only apparent. Wind noises floated in the frosty
+distance; cracking rocks, exploding glaciers and tumbling avalanches
+kept up a muffled rumbling which the ear detected only when it
+rested on the floor rock of our bed. The temperature was low--
+-48 deg. F.--so low that at times the very air seemed to crack. Every
+creature of the wild had been buried in drift; all nature was asleep.
+In our dungeon all was a mental blank.
+
+Not until two weeks after midnight did we awake to a proper
+consciousness of life. The faint brightness of the southern skies at
+noon opened the eye to spiritual dawn. The sullen stupor and deathlike
+stillness vanished.
+
+Shortly after black midnight descended I began to experience a curious
+psychological phenomenon. The stupor of the days of travel wore away,
+and I began to see myself as in a mirror. I can explain this no better.
+It is said that a man falling from a great height usually has a picture
+of his life flashed through his brain in the short period of descent. I
+saw a similar cycle of events.
+
+The panorama began with incidents of childhood, and it seems curious now
+with what infinite detail I saw people whom I had long forgotten, and
+went through the most trivial experiences. In successive stages every
+phase of life appeared and was minutely examined; every hidden recess of
+gray matter was opened to interpret the biographies of self-analysis.
+The hopes of my childhood and the discouragements of my youth filled me
+with emotion; feelings of pleasure and sadness came as each little
+thought picture took definite shape; it seemed hardly possible that so
+many things, potent for good and bad, could have been done in so few
+years. I saw myself, not as a voluntary being, but rather as a
+resistless atom, predestined in its course, being carried on by an
+inexorable fate.
+
+Meanwhile our preparations for return were being accomplished. This
+work had kept us busy during all of the wakeful spells of the night.
+Much still remained to be done.
+
+Although real pleasure followed all efforts of physical labor, the
+balking muscles required considerable urging. Musk ox meat was cut into
+portable blocks, candles were made, fur skins were dressed and chewed,
+boots, stockings, pants, shirts, sleeping bags were made. The sledge was
+re-lashed, things were packed in bags. All was ready about three weeks
+before sunrise. Although the fingers and the jaws were thus kept busy,
+the mind and also the heart were left free to wander.
+
+In the face of all our efforts to ward aside the ill effects of the
+night we gradually became its victims. Our skin paled, our strength
+failed, the nerves weakened, and the mind ultimately became a blank. The
+most notable physical effect, however, was the alarming irregularity of
+the heart.
+
+In the locomotion of human machinery the heart is the motor. Like all
+good motors it has a governor which requires some adjustment. In the
+Arctic, where the need of regulation is greatest, the facilities for
+adjustment are withdrawn. In normal conditions, as the machine of life
+pumps the blood which drives all, its force and its regularity are
+governed by the never-erring sunbeams. When these are withdrawn, as they
+are in the long night, the heart pulsations become irregular; at times
+slow, at other times spasmodic.
+
+Light seems to be as necessary to the animal as to the plant. A diet of
+fresh meat, healthful hygienic surroundings, play for the mind,
+recreation for the body, and strong heat from open fires, will help;
+but only the return of the heaven-given sun will properly adjust the
+motor of man.
+
+As the approaching day brightened to a few hours of twilight at midday,
+we developed a mood for animal companionship. A little purple was now
+thrown on the blackened snows. The weather was good. All the usual
+sounds of nature were suspended, but unusual sounds came with a weird
+thunder. The very earth began to shake in an effort to break the seal of
+frost. For several days nothing moved into our horizon which could be
+imagined alive.
+
+About two weeks before sunrise the rats woke and began to shake their
+beautiful blue fur in graceful little dances, but they were not really
+alive and awake in a rat sense for several days. At about the same time
+the ravens began to descend from their hiding place and screamed for
+food. There were only three; two were still conversing with the Eskimo
+maidens far away, as my companions thought.
+
+In my subsequent strolls I found the raven den and to my horror
+discovered that the two were frozen. I did not deprive E-tuk-i-shook and
+Ah-we-lah of their poetic dream; the sad news of raven bereavement was
+never told.
+
+The foxes now began to bark from a safe distance and advanced to get
+their share of the camp spoils. Ptarmigan shouted from nearby rocks.
+Wolves were heard away in the musk ox fields, but they did not venture
+to pay us a visit.
+
+The bear that had shadowed us everywhere before midnight was the last to
+claim our friendship at dawn. There were good reasons for this which we
+did not learn until later. The bear stork had arrived. But really we had
+changed heart even towards the bear. Long before he returned we were
+prepared to give him a welcome reception. In our new and philosophical
+turn of mind we thought better of bruin. In our greatest distress during
+the previous summer he had kept us alive. In our future adventures he
+might perform a similar mission. After all he had no sporting
+proclivities; he did not hunt or trouble us for the mere fun of our
+discomfort or the chase. His aim in life was the very serious business
+of getting food. Could we blame him? Had we not a similar necessity?
+
+A survey of our caches proved that we were still rich in the coin of the
+land. There remained meat and blubber sufficient for all our needs, with
+considerable to spare for other empty stomachs. So, to feed the bear,
+meat was piled up in heaps for his delight.
+
+The new aroma rose into the bleaching night air. We peeped with eager
+eyes through our ports to spot results. The next day at eleven o'clock
+footsteps were heard. The noise indicated caution and shyness instead of
+the bold quick step which we knew so well. There was room for only one
+eye and only one man at a time at the peep-hole, and so we took turns.
+Soon the bear was sighted, proceeding with the utmost caution behind
+some banks and rocks. The blue of the snows, with yellow light, dyed his
+fur to an ugly green. He was thin and gaunt and ghostly. There was the
+stealth and the cunning of the fox in his movements. But he could not
+get his breakfast, the first after a fast of weeks, without coming
+squarely into our view.
+
+The den was buried under the winter snows and did not disturb the
+creature, but the size of the pile of meat did disturb its curiosity.
+When within twenty-five yards, a few sudden leaps were made, and the
+ponderous claws came down on a walrus shoulder. His teeth began to grind
+like a stone cutter. For an hour the bear stood there and displayed
+itself to good advantage. Our hatred of the creature entirely vanished.
+
+Five days passed before that bear returned. In the meantime we longed
+for it to come back. We had unconsciously developed quite a brotherly
+bear interest. In the period which followed we learned that eleven
+o'clock was the hour, and that five days was the period between meals.
+The bear calendar and the clock were consulted with mathematical
+precision.
+
+We also learned that our acquaintance was a parent. By a little
+exploration in February we discovered the bear den, in a snow covered
+cave, less than a mile west. In it were two saucy little teddies in
+pelts of white silk that would have gladdened the heart of any child.
+The mother was not at home at the time, and we were not certain enough
+of her friendship, or of her whereabouts, to play with the twins.
+
+With a clearing horizon and a wider circle of friendship our den now
+seemed a cheerful home. Our spirits awakened as the gloom of the night
+was quickly lost in the new glitter of day.
+
+On the eleventh of February the snow-covered slopes of North Devon
+glowed with the sunrise of 1909. The sun had burst nature's dungeon.
+Cape Sparbo glowed with golden light. The frozen sea glittered with
+hills of shimmering lilac. We escaped to a joyous freedom. With a
+reconstructed sled, new equipment and newly acquired energy we were
+ready to pursue the return journey to Greenland and fight the last
+battle of the Polar campaign.
+
+[Illustration: GUILLEMOT]
+
+
+
+
+HOMEWARD WITH A HALF SLEDGE AND HALF-FILLED STOMACHS
+
+THREE HUNDRED MILES THROUGH STORM AND SNOW AND UPLIFTED MOUNTAINS OF ICE
+TROUBLES--DISCOVER TWO ISLANDS--ANNOATOK IS REACHED--MEETING HARRY
+WHITNEY--NEWS OF PEARY'S SEIZURE OF SUPPLIES
+
+XXIX
+
+BACK TO GREENLAND FRIENDS
+
+
+On February 18, 1908, the reconstructed sledge was taken beyond the ice
+fort and loaded for the home run. We had given up the idea of journeying
+to Lancaster Sound to await the whalers. There were no Eskimos on the
+American side nearer than Pond's Inlet. It was somewhat farther to our
+headquarters on the Greenland shores, but all interests would be best
+served by a return to Annoatok.
+
+During the night we had fixed all of our attention upon the return
+journey, and had prepared a new equipment with the limited means at our
+command; but, traveling in the coldest season of the year, it was
+necessary to carry a cumbersome outfit of furs, and furthermore, since
+we were to take the place of the dogs in the traces, we could not expect
+to transport supplies for more than thirty days. In this time, however,
+we hoped to reach Cape Sabine, where the father of E-tuk-i-shook had
+been told to place a cache of food for us.
+
+Starting so soon after sunrise, the actual daylight proved very brief,
+but a brilliant twilight gave a remarkable illumination from eight to
+four. The light of dawn and that of the afterglow was tossed to and fro
+in the heavens, from reflecting surfaces of glitter, for four hours
+preceding and following midday. To use this play of light to the best
+advantage, it was necessary to begin preparations early by starlight;
+and thus, when the dim purple glow from the northeast brightened the
+dull gray-blue of night, the start was made for Greenland shores and for
+home.
+
+We were dressed in heavy furs. The temperature was -49 deg.. A light air
+brushed the frozen mist out of Jones Sound, and cut our sooty faces. The
+sled was overloaded, and the exertion required for its movement over the
+groaning snow was tremendous. A false, almost hysterical, enthusiasm
+lighted our faces, but the muscles were not yet equal to the task set
+for them.
+
+Profuse perspiration came with the first hours of dog work, and our
+heavy fur coats were exchanged for the sealskin _nitshas_ (lighter
+coat). At noon the snows were fired and the eastern skies burned in
+great lines of flame. But there was no sun and no heat. We sat on the
+sledge for a prolonged period, gasping for breath and drinking the new
+celestial glory so long absent from our outlook. As the joy of color was
+lost in the cold purple of half-light, our shoulders were braced more
+vigorously into the traces. The ice proved good, but the limit of
+strength placed camp in a snowhouse ten miles from our winter den. With
+the new equipment, our camp life now was not like that of the Polar
+campaign. Dried musk ox meat and strips of musk fat made a steady diet.
+Moulded tallow served as fuel in a crescent-shaped disk of tin, in which
+carefully prepared moss was crushed and arranged as a wick. Over this
+primitive fire we managed to melt enough ice to quench thirst, and also
+to make an occasional pot of broth as a luxury. While the drink was
+liquefying, the chill of the snow igloo was also moderated, and we crept
+into the bags of musk ox skins, where agreeable repose and home dreams
+made us forget the cry of the stomach and the torment of the cold.
+
+At the end of eight days of forced marches we reached Cape Tennyson. The
+disadvantage of manpower, when compared to dog motive force, was clearly
+shown in this effort. The ice was free of pressure troubles and the
+weather was endurable. Still, with the best of luck, we had averaged
+only about seven miles daily. With dogs, the entire run would have been
+made easily in two days.
+
+As we neared the land two small islands were discovered. Both were about
+one thousand feet high, with precipitous sea walls, and were on a line
+about two miles east of Cape Tennyson. The most easterly was about one
+and a half miles long, east to west, with a cross-section, north to
+south, of about three-quarters of a mile. About half a mile to the west
+of this was a much smaller island. There was no visible vegetation, and
+no life was seen, although hare and fox tracks were crossed on the ice.
+I decided to call the larger island E-tuk-i-shook, and the smaller
+Ah-we-lah. These rocks will stand as monuments to the memory of my
+faithful savage comrades when all else is forgotten.
+
+From Cape Tennyson to Cape Isabella the coast of Ellesmere Land was
+charted, in the middle of the last century, by ships at a great distance
+from land. Little has been added since. The wide belt of pack thrown
+against the coast made further exploration from the ship very difficult,
+but in our northward march over the sea-ice it was hoped that we might
+keep close enough to the shores to examine the land carefully.
+
+A few Eskimos had, about fifty years previously, wandered along this ice
+from Pond's Inlet to the Greenland camps. They left the American shores
+because famine, followed by forced cannibalism, threatened to
+exterminate the tribe. A winter camp had been placed on Coburg Island.
+Here many walruses and bears were secured during the winter, while in
+summer, from Kent Island, many guillemots were secured. In moving from
+these northward, by skin boat and _kayak_, they noted myriads of
+guillemots, or "acpas," off the southeast point of the mainland. There
+being no name in the Eskimo vocabulary for this land, it was called
+Acpohon, or "The Home of Guillemots." The Greenland Eskimos had
+previously called the country "Ah-ming-mah Noona," or Musk Ox Land, but
+they also adopted the name of Acpohon, so we have taken the liberty of
+spreading the name over the entire island as a general name for the most
+northern land west of Greenland. In pushing northward, many of the
+Eskimos starved, and the survivors had a bitter fight for subsistence.
+Our experience was similar.
+
+[Illustration: PUNCTURED CANVAS BOAT IN WHIH WE PADDLED 1,000 MILES
+FAMINE DAYS WHEN ONLY STRAY BIRDS PREVENTED STARVATION DEN IN WHICH WERE
+SPENT 100 DOUBLE NIGHTS]
+
+[Illustration: BULL FIGHTS WITH THE MUSK OX ABOUT CAPE SPARBO]
+
+Near Cape Paget those ancient Eskimos made a second winter camp. Here
+narwhals and bears were secured, and through Talbot's Fiord a short pass
+was discovered over Ellesmere Land to the musk ox country of the west
+shores. The Eskimos who survived the second winter reached the Greenland
+shores during the third summer. There they introduced the _kayak_, and
+also the bow and arrow. Their descendants are to-day the most
+intelligent of the most northern Eskimos.
+
+To my companions the environment of the new land which we were passing
+was in the nature of digging up ancient history. Several old camp sites
+were located, and E-tuk-i-shook, whose grandfather was one of the old
+pioneers, was able to tell us the incidents of each camp with remarkable
+detail.
+
+As a rule, however, it was very difficult to get near the land. Deep
+snows, huge pressure lines of ice, and protruding glaciers forced our
+line of march far from the Eskimo ruins which we wished to examine. From
+Cape Tennyson to Cape Clarence the ice near the open water proved fairly
+smooth, but the humid saline surface offered a great resistance to the
+metal plates of the sled. Here ivory or bone plates would have lessened
+the friction very much. A persistent northerly wind also brought the ice
+and the humid discomfort of our breath back to our faces with painful
+results. During several days of successive storms we were imprisoned in
+the domes of snow. By enforced idleness we were compelled to use a
+precious store of food and fuel, without making any necessary advance.
+
+Serious difficulties were encountered in moving from Cape Clarence to
+Cape Faraday. Here the ice was tumbled into mountains of trouble.
+Tremendous snowdrifts and persistent gales from the west made traveling
+next to impossible, and, with no game and no food supply in prospect, I
+knew that to remain idle would be suicidal. The sledge load was
+lightened, and every scrap of fur which was not absolutely necessary was
+thrown away. The humid boots, stockings and sealskin coats could not be
+dried out, for fuel was more precious than clothing. All of this was
+discarded, and, with light sleds and reduced rations, we forced along
+over hummocks and drift. In all of our Polar march we had seen no ice
+which offered so much hardship as did this so near home shores. The
+winds again cut gashes across our faces. With overwork and insufficient
+food, our furs hung on bony eminences over shriveled skins.
+
+At the end of thirty-five days of almost ceaseless toil we managed to
+reach Cape Faraday. Our food was gone. We were face to face with the
+most desperate problem which had fallen to our long run of hard luck.
+Famine confronted us. We were far from the haunts of game; we had seen
+no living thing for a month. Every fiber of our bodies quivered with
+cold and hunger. In desperation we ate bits of skin and chewed tough
+walrus lines. A half candle and three cups of hot water served for
+several meals. Some tough walrus hide was boiled and eaten with relish.
+While trying to masticate this I broke some of my teeth. It was hard on
+the teeth, but easy on the stomach, and it had the great advantage of
+dispelling for prolonged periods the pangs of hunger. But only a few
+strips of walrus line were left after this was used.
+
+Traveling, as we must, in a circuitous route, there was still a
+distance of one hundred miles between us and Cape Sabine, and the
+distance to Greenland might, by open water, be spread to two hundred
+miles. This unknown line of trouble could not be worked out in less than
+a month. Where, I asked in desperation, were we to obtain subsistence
+for that last thirty days?
+
+To the eastward, a line of black vapors indicated open water about
+twenty-five miles off shore. There were no seals on the ice. There were
+no encouraging signs of life; only old imprints of bears and foxes were
+left on the surface of the cheerless snows at each camp. For a number of
+days we had placed our last meat as bait to attract the bears, but none
+had ventured to pay us a visit. The offshore wind and the nearness of
+the open water gave us some life from this point.
+
+Staggering along one day, we suddenly saw a bear track. These mute
+marks, seen in the half-dark of the snow, filled us with a wild
+resurgence of hope for life. On the evening of March 20 we prepared
+cautiously for the coming of the bear.
+
+A snowhouse was built, somewhat stronger than usual; before it a shelf
+was arranged with blocks of snow, and on this shelf attractive bits of
+skin were arranged to imitate the dark outline of a recumbent seal. Over
+this was placed a looped line, through which the head and neck must go
+in order to get the bait. Other loops were arranged to entangle the
+feet. All the lines were securely fastened to solid ice. Peepholes were
+cut in all sides of the house, and a rear port was cut, from which we
+might escape or make an attack. Our lances and knives were now carefully
+sharpened. When all was ready, one of us remained on watch while the
+others sought a needed sleep. We had not long to wait. Soon a crackling
+sound on the snows gave the battle call, and with a little black nose
+extended from a long neck, a vicious creature advanced.
+
+Through our little eye-opening and to our empty stomach he appeared
+gigantic. Apparently as hungry as we were, he came in straight reaches
+for the bait. The run port was opened. Ah-we-lah and E-tuk-i-shook
+emerged, one with a lance, the other with a spiked harpoon shaft. Our
+lance, our looped line, our bow and arrow, I knew, however, would be
+futile.
+
+During the previous summer, when I foresaw a time of famine, I had taken
+my four last cartridges and hid them in my clothing. Of the existence of
+these, the two boys knew nothing. These were to be used at the last
+stage of hunger, to kill something--or ourselves. That desperate time
+had not arrived till now.
+
+The bear approached in slow, measured steps, smelling the ground where
+the skin lay.
+
+I jerked the line. The loop tightened about the bear's neck. At the same
+moment the lance and the spike were driven into the growling creature.
+
+A fierce struggle ensued. I withdrew one of the precious cartridges from
+my pocket, placed it in my gun, and gave the gun to Ah-we-lah, who took
+aim and fired. When the smoke cleared, the bleeding bear lay on the
+ground.
+
+We skinned the animal, and devoured the warm, steaming flesh. Strength
+revived. Here were food and fuel in abundance. We were saved! With the
+success of this encounter, we could sit down and live comfortably for a
+month; and before that time should elapse seals would seek the ice for
+sun baths, and when seals arrived, the acquisition of food for the march
+to Greenland would be easy.
+
+But we did not sit down. Greenland was in sight; and, to an Eskimo,
+Greenland, with all of its icy discomforts, has attractions not promised
+in heaven. In this belief, as in most others, I was Eskimo by this time.
+With very little delay, the stomach was spread with chops, and we
+stretched to a gluttonous sleep, only to awake with appetites that
+permitted of prolonged stuffing. It was a matter of economy to fill up
+and thus make the sled load lighter. When more eating was impossible we
+began to move for home shores, dragging a sled overloaded with the
+life-saving prize.
+
+A life of trouble, however, lay before us. Successive storms, mountains
+of jammed ice, and deep snow, interrupted our progress and lengthened
+the course over circuitous wastes of snowdrifts and blackened our
+horizon. When, after a prodigious effort, Cape Sabine was reached, our
+food supply was again exhausted.[18]
+
+Here an old seal was found. It had been caught a year before and cached
+by Pan-ic-pa, the father of E-tuk-i-shook. With it was found a rude
+drawing spotted with sooty tears. This told the story of a loving
+father's fruitless search for his son and friends. The seal meat had the
+aroma of Limburger cheese, and age had changed its flavor; but, with no
+other food possible, our palates were easily satisfied. In an oil-soaked
+bag was found about a pound of salt. We ate this as sugar, for no salt
+had passed over our withered tongues for over a year.
+
+The skin, blubber and meat were devoured with a relish. Every eatable
+part of the animal was packed on the sled as we left the American shore.
+
+Smith Sound was free of ice, and open water extended sixty miles
+northward. A long detour was necessary to reach the opposite shores, but
+the Greenland shores were temptingly near. With light hearts and
+cheering premonitions of home, we pushed along Bache Peninsula to a
+point near Cape Louis Napoleon. The horizon was now cleared of trouble.
+The ascending sun had dispelled the winter gloom of the land. Leaping
+streams cut through crystal gorges. The ice moved; the sea began to
+breathe. The snows sparkled with the promise of double days and midnight
+suns.
+
+Life's buds had opened to full blossom. On the opposite shores, which
+now seemed near, Nature's incubators had long worked overtime to start
+the little ones of the wilds. Tiny bears danced to their mothers' call;
+baby seals sunned in downy pelts. Little foxes were squinting at school
+in learning the art of sight. In the wave of germinating joys our
+suppressed nocturnal passions rose with surprise anew. We were raised to
+an Arctic paradise.
+
+As it lay in prospect, Greenland had the charm of Eden. There were the
+homes of my savage companions. It was a stepping-stone to my home, still
+very far off. It was a land where man has a fighting chance for his
+life.
+
+In reality, we were now in the most desperate throes of the grip of
+famine which we had encountered during all of our hard experience.
+Greenland was but thirty miles away. But we were separated from it by
+impossible open water--a hopeless stormy deep. To this moment I do not
+know why we did not sit down and allow the blood to cool with famine and
+cold. We had no good reason to hope that we could cross, but again
+hope--"the stuff that goes to make dreams"--kept our eyes open.
+
+We started. We were as thin as it is possible for men to be. The scraps
+of meat, viscera, and skin of the seal, buried for a year, was now our
+sole diet. We traveled the first two days northward over savage uplifts
+of hummocks and deep snows, tripping and stumbling over blocks of ice
+like wounded animals. Then we reached good, smooth ice, but open water
+forced us northward, ever northward from the cheering cliffs under which
+our Greenland homes and abundant supplies were located. No longer
+necessary to lift the feet, we dragged the ice-sheeted boots step after
+step over smooth young ice. This eased our tired, withered legs, and
+long distances were covered. The days were prolonged, the decayed seal
+food ran low, water was almost impossible. Life no longer seemed worth
+living. We had eaten the strips of meat and frozen seal cautiously. We
+had eaten other things--our very boots and leather lashings as a last
+resort.
+
+So weak that we had to climb on hands and knees, we reached the top of
+an iceberg, and from there saw Annoatok. Natives, who had thought us
+long dead, rushed out to greet us. There I met Mr. Harry Whitney. As I
+held his hand, the cheer of a long-forgotten world came over me. With
+him I went to my house, only to find that during my absence it had been
+confiscated. A sudden bitterness rose within which it was difficult to
+hide. A warm meal dispelled this for a time.
+
+In due time I told Whitney: "I have reached the Pole."
+
+Uttering this for the first time in English, it came upon me that I was
+saying a remarkable thing. Yet Mr. Whitney showed no great surprise, and
+his quiet congratulation confirmed what was in my mind--that I had
+accomplished no extraordinary or unbelievable thing; for to me the Polar
+experience was not in the least remarkable, considered with our later
+adventures.
+
+Mr. Whitney, as is now well known, was a sportsman from New Haven,
+Connecticut, who had been spending some months hunting in the North. He
+had made Annoatok the base of his operations, and had been spending the
+winter in the house which I had built of packing-boxes.
+
+The world now seemed brighter. The most potent factor in this change was
+food--and more food--a bath and another bath--and clean clothes. Mr.
+Whitney offered me unreservedly the hospitality of my own camp. He
+instructed Pritchard to prepare meal after meal of every possible dish
+that our empty stomachs had craved for a year. The Eskimo boys were
+invited to share it.
+
+Between meals, or perhaps we had better call meals courses (for it was a
+continuous all-night performance--interrupted by baths and breathing
+spells to prevent spasms of the jaws)--between courses, then, there were
+washes with real soap and real cleansing warm water, the first that we
+had felt for fourteen months. Mr. Whitney helped to scrape my angular
+anatomy, and he volunteered the information that I was the dirtiest man
+he ever saw.
+
+From Mr. Whitney I learned that Mr. Peary had reached Annoatok about the
+middle of August, 1908, and had placed a boatswain named Murphy,
+assisted by William Pritchard, a cabin boy on the _Roosevelt_, in charge
+of my stores, which he had seized. Murphy was anything but tactful and
+considerate; and in addition to taking charge of my goods, had been
+using them in trading as money to pay for furs to satisfy Mr. Peary's
+hunger for commercial gain. Murphy went south in pursuit of furs after
+my arrival.
+
+For the first few days I was too weak to inquire into the theft of my
+camp and supplies. Furthermore, with a full stomach, and Mr. Whitney as
+a warm friend at hand, I was indifferent. I was not now in any great
+need. For by using the natural resources of the land, as I had done
+before, it was possible to force a way back to civilization from here
+with the aid of my Eskimo friends.
+
+Little by little, however, the story of that very strange "Relief
+Station for Dr. Cook" was unraveled, and I tell it here with no ulterior
+notion of bitterness against Mr. Peary. I forgave him for the practical
+theft of my supplies; but this is a very important part of the
+controversy which followed, a controversy which can be understood only
+by a plain statement of the incidents which led up to and beyond this
+so-called "Relief Station for Dr. Cook," which was a relief only in the
+sense that I was relieved of a priceless store of supplies.
+
+When Mr. Peary heard of the execution of my plans to try for the Pole in
+1907, and before he left on his last expedition, he accused me of
+various violations of what he chose to call "Polar Ethics." No
+application had been filed by me to seek the Pole. Now I was accused of
+stealing his route, his Pole, and his people. This train of accusations
+was given to the press, and with the greatest possible publicity. A part
+of this was included in an official complaint to the International
+Bureau of Polar Research at Brussels.
+
+Now, what are Polar ethics? There is no separate code for the Arctic.
+The laws which govern men's bearing towards each other in New York are
+good in any part of the world. One cannot be a democrat in civilized
+eyes and an autocrat in the savage world. One cannot cry, "Stop thief!"
+and then steal the thief's booty. If you are a member of the brotherhood
+of humanity in one place, you must be in another. In short, he who is a
+gentleman in every sense of the word needs no memory for ethics. It is
+only the modern political reformer who has need of the cloak of the
+hypocrisy of ethics to hide his own misdeeds. An explorer should not
+stoop to this.
+
+Who had the power to grant a license to seek the Pole? If you wish to
+invade the forbidden regions of Thibet, or the interior of Siberia, a
+permit is necessary from the governments interested. But the Pole is a
+place no nation owned, by right of discovery, occupation, or otherwise.
+
+If pushing a ship up the North Atlantic waters to the limit of
+navigation was a trespass on Mr. Peary's preserve, then I am bound to
+plead guilty. But ships had gone that way for a hundred years before Mr.
+Peary developed a Polar claim. If I am guilty, then he is guilty of
+stealing the routes of Davis, Kane, Greely and a number of others. But
+as I view the situation, a modern explorer should take a certain pride
+in the advantages afforded by his worthy predecessors. I take a certain
+historic delight in having followed the routes of the early pathfinders
+to a more remote destination. This indebtedness and this honor I do now,
+as heretofore, acknowledge. The charge that I stole Mr. Peary's route is
+incorrect. For, from the limit of navigation on the Greenland side, my
+track was forced over a land which, although under Mr. Peary's eyes for
+twenty years, was explored by Sverdrup, who got the same unbrotherly
+treatment from Mr. Peary which he has shown to every explorer who has
+had the misfortune to come within the circle he has drawn about an
+imaginary private preserve.
+
+The charge of borrowing Peary's ideas, by which is meant the selection
+of food and supplies and the adoption of certain methods of travel, is
+equally unfounded. For Mr. Peary's weakest chain is his absolute lack of
+system, order, preparation or originality. This is commented upon by the
+men of every one of his previous expeditions. Mr. Peary early charged
+that my system of work and my methods of travel were borrowed from him.
+This was not true; but when he later, in a desperate effort to say
+unkind things, said that my system--the system borrowed from
+himself--was inefficient, the charge becomes laughable. As to the
+Pole--if Mr. Peary has a prior lien on it--it is there still. We did not
+take it away. We simply left our footprints there.
+
+Now as to the charge of using Mr. Peary's supplies and his people--by
+assuming a private preserve of all the reachable Polar wilderness of
+this section, he might put up a plausible claim to it as a private
+hunting ground. If this claim is good, then I am guilty of trespass. But
+it was only done to satisfy the pangs of hunger.
+
+This claim of the ownership of the animals of the unclaimed North might
+be put with plausible excuses to The Hague Tribunal. But it is a claim
+no serious person would consider. The same claim of ownership, however,
+cannot be said of human life.
+
+The Eskimos are a free and independent people. They acknowledge no
+chiefs among themselves and submit to no outside dictators. They are
+likely to call an incoming stranger "nalegaksook," which the vanity of
+the early travelers interpreted as the "great chief." But the intended
+interpretation is "he who has much to barter" or "the great trader."
+This is what they call Mr. Peary. The same compliment is given to other
+traders, whalers or travelers with whom they do business. Despite his
+claims Mr. Peary has been regarded as no more of a benefactor than any
+other explorer.
+
+After delivering, early in 1907, an unreasonable and uncalled for
+attack, Mr. Peary, two months after the Pole had been reached by me,
+went North with two ships, with all the advantage that unlimited funds
+and influential friends could give. At about the same time my companion,
+Rudolph Francke, started south under my instructions, and he locked my
+box-house at Annoatok wherein were stored supplies sufficient for two
+years or more.
+
+The key was entrusted to a trustworthy Eskimo. Under his protection this
+precious life-saving supply was safe for an indefinite time. With it no
+relief expedition or help from the outside world was necessary.
+
+Francke had a hard time as he pushed southward, with boat and sledge.
+Moving supplies to the limit of his carrying capacity, he fought bravely
+against storms, broken ice and thundering seas. The route proved all but
+impossible, but at last his destination at North Star was reached, only
+for him to find that he was too late for the whalers he had expected.
+Impossible to return to our northern camp at that time, and having used
+all of his civilized food en route, he was now compelled to accept the
+hospitality of the natives, in their unhygienic dungeons. For food there
+was nothing but the semi-putrid meat and blubber eaten by the Eskimos.
+After a long and desperate task by boat and sled he returned to Etah but
+he was absolutely unable to proceed farther. Francke's health failed
+rapidly and when, as he thought, the time had arrived to lay down and
+quit life, a big prosperous looking ship came into the harbor. He had
+not tasted civilized food for months, and longed, as only a sick, hungry
+man can, for coffee and bread.
+
+Almost too weak to arise from his couch of stones, he mustered up enough
+strength to stumble over the rails of that ship of plenty. After
+gathering sufficient breath to speak, he asked for bread and coffee. It
+was breakfast time. No answer came to that appeal. He was put off the
+ship. He went back to his cheerless cave and prayed that death might
+close his eyes to further trouble. Somewhat later, when it was learned
+that there was a house and a large store of supplies at Annoatok, and
+that the man had in his possession furs and ivory valued at $10,000,
+there was a change of heart in Mr. Peary. Francke was called on board,
+was given bread and coffee and whiskey. Too weak to resist, he was
+bullied and frightened, and forced under duress to sign papers which he
+did not understand. To get home to him meant life; to remain meant
+death. And the ship before him was thus his only chance for life. Under
+the circumstances he would naturally have put his name to any paper
+placed under his feeble eyes. But the law of no land would enforce such
+a document.
+
+In this way Mr. Peary compelled him to turn over $10,000 worth of furs
+and ivory, besides my station and supplies, worth at least $35,000,
+which were not his to turn over. The prized ivory tusks and furs were
+immediately seized and sent back on the returning ship.
+
+One of the narwhal tusks, worth to me at least $1,000, was polished and
+sent as Peary's trophy to President Roosevelt. Under the circumstances
+has not the President been made the recipient of stolen goods?
+
+When Francke, as a passenger, returned on the Peary supply ship, _Erik_,
+a bill of one hundred dollars was presented for his passage. This bill
+was presumably the bill for the full cost of his return. But the
+priceless furs and ivory trophies were confiscated without a murmur of
+conscious wrongdoing. This is what happened as the ship went south.
+
+Now let us follow the ship _Roosevelt_ in its piratic career northward.
+With Mr. Peary as chief it got to Etah. From there instructions were
+given to seize my house and supplies. This was done over the signature
+of Mr. Peary to a paper which started out with the following shameless
+hypocrisy:
+
+"This is a relief station for Dr. Cook."
+
+According to Mr. Whitney even Captain Bartlett quivered with indignation
+at the blushing audacity of this steal. The stores were said to be
+abandoned. The men, with Peary's orders, went to Koo-loo-ting-wah and
+forced from him the key with which to open the carefully guarded stores.
+The house was reconstructed.
+
+Murphy, a rough Newfoundland bruiser, who had been accustomed to kick
+sailors, was placed in charge with autocratic powers. Murphy could
+neither read nor write, but he was given a long letter of instruction to
+make a trading station of my home and to use my supplies.
+
+Now if Mr. Peary required my supplies for legitimate exploration I
+should have been glad to give him my last bread; but to use my things to
+satisfy his greed for commercial gain was, when I learned it, bitter
+medicine.
+
+Because Murphy could not write, Pritchard was left with him to read the
+piratic instructions once each week. Pritchard was also to keep account
+of the furs bought and the prices paid--mostly in my coin. Murphy soon
+forbade the reading of the instructions, and also stopped the
+stock-taking and bookkeeping. The hypocrisy of the thing seemed to pinch
+even Murphy's narrow brain.
+
+This same deliberate Murphy, accustomed to life in barracks, held the
+whip for a year over the head of Harry Whitney, a man of culture and
+millions. Money, however, was of no use there. Audacity and self-assumed
+power, it seems, ruled as it did in times of old when buccaneers
+deprived their victims of gold, and walked them off a plank into the
+briny deep.
+
+Murphy and Pritchard, the paid traders, fixed themselves cosily in my
+camp. Mr. Whitney had been invited as a guest to stay and hunt for his
+own pleasure. The party lived for a year at my expense, but the lot of
+Whitney was very hard as an invited guest, a privilege for which I was
+told he had paid Mr. Peary two thousand dollars or more. His decision to
+stay had come only after a disappointment in a lack of success of
+hunting during the summer season. He was, therefore, ill-provided for
+the usual Polar hardships. With no food, and no adequate clothing of his
+own, he was dependent on the dictates of Murphy to supply him. As time
+went on, the night with its awful cold advanced. Murphy gathered in all
+the furs and absolutely prohibited Whitney from getting suitable furs
+for winter clothing. He, therefore, shivered throughout the long winter
+in his sheepskin shooting outfit. Several times he was at the point of a
+hand-to-hand encounter with Murphy, but with young Pritchard as a friend
+and gentlemanly instincts to soften his manner, he grit his teeth and
+swallowed the insults.
+
+His ambition for a hunting trip was frustrated because it interfered
+with Murphy's plans for trading in skins. The worst and most brutal
+treatment was the almost inconceivable cruelty of his not allowing Mr.
+Whitney enough food for a period of months, not even of my supplies,
+although this food was used eventually to feed useless dogs.
+
+All of this happened under Mr. Peary's authority, and under the coarse,
+swaggering Murphy, whom Mr. Peary, in his book, calls "a thoroughly
+trustworthy man!" Mr. Peary's later contention, in a hypocritical effort
+to clear himself (see "The North Pole," page 76) that he placed Murphy
+in charge "to prevent the Eskimos from looting the supplies and
+equipment left there by Dr. Cook," is a mean, petty and unworthy slur
+upon a brave, loyal people, among whom thievery is a thing unknown.
+Unknown, yes, save when white men without honor, without respect for
+property or the ethics of humanity, which the Eskimos instinctively
+have, invade their region and rob them and fellow explorers with the
+brazenness of middle-aged buccaneers.
+
+
+
+
+ANNOATOK TO UPERNAVIK
+
+ELEVEN HUNDRED MILES SOUTHWARD OVER SEA AND LAND--AT ETAH--OVERLAND TO
+THE WALRUS GROUNDS--ESKIMO COMEDIES AND TRAGEDIES--A RECORD RUN OVER
+MELVILLE BAY--FIRST NEWS FROM PASSING SHIPS--THE ECLIPSE OF THE
+SUN--SOUTHWARD BY STEAMER GODTHAAB
+
+XXX
+
+ALONG DANISH GREENLAND
+
+
+A few interesting days were spent with Mr. Whitney at Annoatok. The
+Eskimos, in the meantime, had all gone south to the walrus hunting
+grounds at Nuerke. Koo-loo-ting-wah came along with a big team of dogs.
+Here was an opportunity to attempt to reach the Danish settlements--for
+to get home quickly was now my all-absorbing aim. Koo-loo-ting-wah was
+in my service. He was guarding my supplies in 1908 when the ship
+_Roosevelt_ had come along. He had been compelled to give up the key to
+my box-house. He had been engaged to place supplies for us and search
+the American shores for our rescue. Peary, making a pretended "Relief
+Station," forced Koo-loo-ting-wah from his position as guardian of my
+supplies, and forbade him to engage in any effort to search for us, and
+absolutely prohibited him and everybody else, including Murphy,
+Prichard and Whitney, from engaging in any kind of succor at a time when
+help was of consequence. Koo-loo-ting-wah was liberally paid to abandon
+my interests (by Mr. Peary's orders, from my supplies), but, like
+Bartlett and Whitney and Prichard later, he condemned Mr. Peary for his
+unfair acts. When asked to join me in the long journey to Upernavik, he
+said, "_Peari an-nutu_" (Peary will be mad.) Koo-loo-ting-wah was now in
+Peary's service at my expense, and I insisted that he enter my service,
+which he did. Then we began our preparations for the southern trip.
+
+Accompanied by Whitney, I went to Etah, and for this part of the journey
+Murphy grudgingly gave me a scant food supply for a week, for which I
+gave him a memorandum. This memorandum was afterwards published by Mr.
+Peary as a receipt, so displayed as to convey the idea that all the
+stolen supplies had been replaced.
+
+At Etah was a big cache which had been left a year before by Captain
+Bernier, the commander of a northern expedition sent out by the Canadian
+Government, and which had been placed in charge of Mr. Whitney. In this
+cache were food, new equipment, trading material, and clean underclothes
+which Mrs. Cook had sent on the Canadian expedition. With this new store
+of suitable supplies, I now completed my equipment for the return to
+civilization.[19]
+
+To get home quickly, I concluded, could be done best by going to the
+Danish settlements in Greenland, seven hundred miles south, and thence
+to Europe by an early steamer. From Upernavik mail is carried in small
+native boats to Umanak, where there is direct communication with Europe
+by government steamers. By making this journey, and taking a fast boat
+to America, I calculated I could reach New York in early July.
+
+Mr. Whitney expected the _Erik_ to arrive to take him south in the
+following August. Going, as he planned, into Hudson Bay, he expected to
+reach New York in October. Although this would be the easiest and safest
+way to reach home, by the route I had planned I hoped to reach New York
+four months earlier than the _Erik_ would.
+
+The journey from Etah to Upernavik is about seven hundred miles--a
+journey as long and nearly as difficult as the journey to the North
+Pole. I knew it involved difficulties and risks--the climbing of
+mountains and glaciers, the crossing of open leads of water late in the
+season, when the ice is in motion and snow is falling, and the dragging
+of sledges through slush and water.
+
+Mr. Whitney, in view of these dangers, offered to take care of my
+instruments, notebooks and flag, and take them south on his ship. I knew
+that if any food were lost on my journey it might be replaced by game.
+Instruments lost in glaciers or open seas could not be replaced. The
+instruments, moreover, had served their purposes. The corrections,
+notes, and other data were also no longer needed; all my observations
+had been reduced, and the corrections were valuable only for a future
+re-examination. This is why I did not take them with me. It is
+customary, also, to leave corrections with instruments.
+
+In the box which I gave to Mr. Whitney were packed one French sextant;
+one surveying compass, aluminum, with azimuth attachment; one artificial
+horizon, set in a thin metal frame adjusted by spirit levels and
+thumbscrews; one aneroid barometer, aluminum; one aluminum case with
+maximum and minimum spirit thermometer; other thermometers, and also one
+liquid compass. All of these I had carried with me.
+
+Besides these were left other instruments used about the relief station.
+There were papers giving instrumental corrections, readings,
+comparisons, and other notes; a small diary, mostly of loose leaves,
+containing some direct field readings, and meteorological data. These
+were packed in one of the instrument cases. By special request of Mr.
+Whitney, I also left my flag.
+
+In addition, I placed in Mr. Whitney's charge several big cases of
+clothing and supplies which Mrs. Cook had sent, also ethnological
+collections, furs, and geological specimens. In one of these boxes were
+packed the instrument cases and notes.
+
+Mr. Whitney's plans later were changed. His ship, the _Erik_, not
+having arrived when Peary returned, Whitney arranged with Peary to come
+back to civilization on the latter's ship, the _Roosevelt_. As I learned
+afterwards, when the _Roosevelt_ arrived Mr. Whitney took from one of my
+packing boxes my instruments and packed them in his trunk. He was,
+however, prohibited from carrying my things, and all my belongings were
+consequently left at the mercy of the weather and the natives in far-off
+Greenland. I have had no means of hearing from them since, so that I do
+not know what has become of them.
+
+About Etah and Annoatok and on my eastward journey few notes were made.
+As well as I can remember, I left Annoatok some time during the third
+week of April. On leaving Whitney, I promised to send him dogs and
+guides for his prospective hunting trip. I also promised to get for him
+furs for a suitable winter suit--because, according to Mr. Peary's
+autocratic methods, he had been denied the privilege of trading for
+himself. He was not allowed to gather trophies, or to purchase
+absolutely necessary furs, nor was he accorded the courtesy of arranging
+for guides and dogs with the natives for his ambition to get big game.
+All of this I was to arrange for Whitney as I passed the villages
+farther south.
+
+In crossing by the overland route, over Crystal Palace Glacier to Sontag
+Bay, we were caught in a violent gale, which buried us in drifts on the
+highlands. Descending to the sea, we entered a new realm of coming
+summer joys.
+
+Moving along to Neurke, we found a big snowhouse village. All had
+gathered for the spring walrus chase. Many animals had been caught, and
+the hunters were in a gluttonous stupor from continued overfeeding. It
+was not long before we, too, filled up, and succumbed to similar
+pleasures.
+
+My boys were here, and the principal pastime was native gossip about the
+North Pole.
+
+Arriving among their own people here, Ah-we-lah and E-tuk-i-shook
+recounted their remarkable journey. They had, of course, no definite
+idea of where they had been, but told of the extraordinary journey of
+seven moons; of their reaching a place where there was no game and no
+life; of their trailing over the far-off seas where the sun did not dip
+at night, and of their hunting, on our return, with slingshots, string
+traps, and arrows. These were their strong and clear impressions.[20]
+
+From Neurke we crossed Murchison Sound, along the leads where the walrus
+was being hunted, and from there we set a course for the eastern point
+of Northumberland Island.
+
+We next entered Inglefield Gulf. Our party had grown. Half of the
+natives were eager to join us on a pilgrimage to the kindly and beloved
+Danes of Southern Greenland; but, because of the advancing season, the
+marches must be forced, and because a large sled train hinders rapid
+advancement, I reduced the numbers and changed the personnel of my party
+as better helpers offered services.
+
+From a point near Itiblu we ascended the blue slopes of a snow-free
+glacier, and after picking a dangerous footing around precipitous
+cliffs, we rose to the clouds and deep snows of the inland ice. Here,
+for twenty-four hours, we struggled through deep snow, with only the
+wind to give direction to our trail. Descending from this region of
+perpetual mist and storm, we came down to the sea in Booth Sound. From
+here, after a good rest, over splendid ice, in good weather, we entered
+Wolstenholm Sound. At Oomonoi there was a large gathering of natives,
+and among these we rested and fed up in preparation for the long,
+hazardous trip which lay before us.
+
+In this locality, the Danish Literary Expedition, under the late Mylius
+Ericksen, had wintered. Their forced march northward from Upernavik
+proved so desperate that they were unable to carry important
+necessaries.
+
+But the natives, with characteristic generosity, had supplied the Danes
+with the meat for food and the fat for fuel, which kept them alive
+during dangerous and trying times.[21]
+
+We now started for Cape York. My-ah, Ang-ad-loo and I-o-ko-ti were
+accepted as permanent members of my party. All of this party was,
+curiously enough, hostile to Mr. Peary, and the general trend of
+conversation was a bitter criticism of the way the people had been
+fleeced of furs and ivory; how a party had been left to die of cold and
+hunger at Fort Conger; how, at Cape Sabine, many died of a sickness
+which had been brought among them, and how Dr. Dedrick was not allowed
+to save their lives; how a number had been torn from their homes and
+taken to New York, where they had died of barbarous ill-treatment; how
+their great "Iron Stone," their only source of iron for centuries, the
+much-prized heritage of their nation, had been stolen from the point we
+were now nearing; and so on, throughout a long line of other abuses.
+But, at the time, all of this bitterness seemed to soften my own
+resentment, and I began to cherish a forgiving spirit toward Mr. Peary.
+After all, thought I, I have been successful; let us have an end of
+discord and seek a brighter side of life.
+
+Now I began to think for the first time of the public aspect of my
+homegoing. Heretofore my anticipations had been centered wholly in the
+joys of a family reunion, but now the thought was slowly forced as to
+the attitude which others would take towards me. In the wildest flights
+of my imagination I never dreamed of any world-wide interest in the
+Pole. Again I desire to emphasize the fact that every movement I have
+made disproves the allegation that I planned to perpetrate a gigantic
+fraud upon the world. Men had been seeking the North Pole for years, and
+at no time had any of these many explorers aroused any general interest
+in his expedition or the results.
+
+Millions of money, hundreds of lives, had been sacrificed. The complex
+forces of great nations had been arrayed unsuccessfully. I had believed
+the thing could be done by simpler methods, without the sacrifice of
+life, without using other people's money; and, with this conviction, had
+gone north. I now came south, with no expectations of reward except such
+as would come from a simple success in a purely private undertaking.
+
+I wish to emphasize that I regarded my entire experience as something
+purely personal. I supposed that the newspapers would announce my
+return, and that there would be a three days' breath of attention, and
+that that would be all. So far as I was personally concerned, my chief
+thought was one of satisfaction at having satisfied myself, and an
+intense longing for home.
+
+We camped at Cape York. Before us was the great white expanse of
+Melville Bay to the distant Danish shores. Few men had ever ventured
+over this. What luck was in store for us could not be guessed. But we
+were ready for every emergency. We moved eastward to an island where the
+natives greeted us with enthusiasm, and then we started over treacherous
+ice southward. The snow was not deep; the ice proved fairly smooth. The
+seals, basking in the new summer sun, augmented our supplies. Frequent
+bear tracks added the spirit of the chase, which doubled our speed. In
+two days we had the "Devil's Thumb" to our left, and at the end of three
+and a half days the cheer of Danish cliffs and semi-civilized Eskimos
+came under our eyes.
+
+The route from Annoatok to this point, following the circuitous twists
+over sea and land, was almost as long as that from Annoatok to the Pole,
+but we had covered it in less than a month. With a record march across
+Melville Bay, we had crossed a long line of trouble, in which Mylius
+Ericksen and his companions nearly succumbed after weeks of frosty
+torture. We had done it in a few days, and in comfort, with the luxury
+of abundant food gathered en route.
+
+Behind the Danish archipelago, traveling was good and safe. As we went
+along, from village to village, the Eskimos told the story of the Polar
+conquest. Rapidly we pushed along to Tassuasak, which we reached in the
+middle of May. This is one of the small trading posts belonging to the
+district of Upernavik.
+
+At Tassuasak I met Charles Dahl, a congenial Danish official, with whom
+I stayed a week. He spoke only Danish, which I did not understand.
+Despite the fact that our language was unintelligible, we talked until
+two or three o'clock in the morning, somehow conveying our thoughts, and
+when he realized what I told him he took my hand, offering warm,
+whole-souled Norse appreciation.
+
+Here I secured for Mr. Whitney tobacco and other needed supplies. For
+the Eskimos, various presents were bought, all of which were packed on
+the returning sleds. Then the time arrived to bid the final adieu to my
+faithful wild men of the Far North. Tears took the place of words in
+that parting.
+
+By sledge and oomiak (skin boat) I now continued my journey to
+Upernavik.
+
+Upernavik is one of the largest Danish settlements in Greenland and one
+of the most important trading posts. It is a small town with a
+population of about three hundred Eskimos, who live in box-shaped huts
+of turf. The town affords residence for about six Danish officials, who
+live, with their families, in comfortable houses.
+
+I reached there early one morning about May 20, 1909, and went at
+once to the house of Governor Kraul. The governor himself--a tall,
+bald-headed, dignified man, a bachelor, about fifty years of
+age, of genial manner and considerable literary and scientific
+attainments--answered my knock on the door. He admitted me hospitably,
+and then looked me over from head to foot.
+
+I was a hard-looking visitor. I wore an old sealskin coat, worn bearskin
+trousers, stockings of hare-skin showing above torn seal boots. I was
+reasonably dirty. My face was haggard and bronzed, my hair was uncut,
+long and straggling. However, I felt reassured in a bath and clean
+underclothing secured a week before at Tassuasak. Later these clothes
+were replaced by new clothes given me by Governor Kraul, some of which I
+wore on my trip to Copenhagen. My appearance was such that I was not
+surprised by the governor's question: "Have you any lice on you?"
+
+Some years before he had entertained some Arctic pilgrims, and a
+peculiar breed of parasites remained to plague the village for a long
+time. I convinced him that, in spite of my unprepossessing appearance,
+he was safe in sheltering me.
+
+At his house I had all the luxuries of a refined home with a large
+library at my disposal. I had also a large, comfortable feather-bed with
+clean sheets. I slept for hours every day, devoting about four or five
+hours to my work on my notes.
+
+At breakfast I told Governor Kraul briefly of my journey, and although
+he was polite and pleasant, I could see that he was skeptical as to my
+having reached the Pole. I remained with him a month, using his pens and
+paper putting the finishing touches on my narrative--on which I had done
+much work at Cape Sparbo. My notes and papers were scattered about, and
+Governor Kraul read them, and as he read them his doubts were dispelled
+and he waxed enthusiastic.
+
+Governor Kraul had had no news of the inside world for about a year. He
+was as anxious as I was for letters and papers. I went over his last
+year's news with a good deal of interest. While thus engaged, early one
+foggy morning, a big steamer came into port. It was the steam whaler
+_Morning_ of Dundee. Her master, Captain Adams, came ashore with letters
+and news. He recited the remarkable journey of Shackleton to the South
+Pole as his opening item in the cycle of the year's incidents. After
+that he gave it as his opinion that England had become Americanized in
+its politics, and after recounting the year's luck in whaling, sealing
+and fishing, he then informed me that from America the greatest news was
+the success of "The Merry Widow" and "The Dollar Princess." I was
+invited aboard to eat the first beefsteak and first fresh civilized food
+that I had eaten in two years. I then told him of my Polar conquest. He
+was keenly interested in my story, all of my reports seeming to confirm
+his own preconceived ideas of conditions about the Pole. When I went
+ashore I took a present of a bag of potatoes. To Governor Kraul and
+myself these potatoes proved to be the greatest delicacy, for to both
+the flavor and real fresh, mealy potatoes gave our meals the finishing
+touches of a fine dessert.
+
+I gave Captain Adams some information about new hunting grounds which,
+as he left, he said would be tried.[22]
+
+Life at Upernavik was interesting. Among other things, we noted the
+total eclipse of the sun on June 17. According to our time, it began in
+the evening at eighteen minutes past seven and ended ten minutes after
+nine.
+
+For a number of days the natives had looked with anxiety upon the coming
+of the mysterious darkness attending the eclipse, for now we were in a
+land of anxiety and uneasiness. It was said that storms would follow
+each other, displaying the atmospheric rage; that seals could not be
+sought, and that all good people should pray. Although a violent
+southwest gale did rush by, the last days before the eclipse were clear
+and warm.
+
+Governor Kraul suggested a camp on the high rocks east. Mr. Anderson,
+the governor's assistant, and I joined in the expedition. We took smoked
+and amber glasses, a pen and paper, a camera and field glasses. A little
+disk was cut out of the northern side of the sun before we started.
+There was no wind, and the sky was cloudless. A better opportunity could
+not have been afforded. It had been quite warm. The chirp of the snow
+bunting and the buzz of bees gave the first joyous rebound of the short
+Arctic summer. Small sand-flies rose in clouds, and the waters glittered
+with midsummer incandescence. Small groups of natives, in gorgeous
+attire, gathered in many places, and occasionally took a sly glance at
+the sun as if something was about to happen. They talked in muffled
+undertones.
+
+When one-third of the sun's disk was obscured it was impossible to see
+the cut circle with the unprotected eye. It grew perceptibly dark. The
+natives quieted and moved toward the church. The birds ceased to sing;
+the flies sank to the ground. With the failing light the air quickly
+chilled, the bright contour of the land blurred, the deep blue of the
+sea faded to a dull purple-blue seemingly lighter, but the midday
+splendor of high lights and shadows was lost. The burning glitter of
+the waters under the sun now quickly changed to a silvery glow. The
+alabaster and ultramarine blue of the icebergs was veiled in gray.
+
+When a thread of light spread the cut out, we knew that the total
+eclipse was over. In what seemed like a few seconds the gloom of night
+brightened to the sparkle of noon.
+
+[Illustration: SAVED FROM STARVATION--THE RESULT OF ONE OF OUR LAST
+CARTRIDGES]
+
+[Illustration: "MILES AND MILES OF DESOLATION."
+
+HOMEWARD BOUND
+
+_Copyright_, 1909, "_New York Herald Co._"]
+
+At the darkest time the natives had called for open church doors, and a
+sense of immediate danger came over the savage horizon with the force of
+a panic. A single star was visible for about a minute before and after
+the total eclipse. A slight salmon flush remained along the western
+horizon; otherwise the sky varied in tones of purple-blue.
+
+After the sea had brightened to its normal luster, Governor Kraul gave
+the entire native settlement a feast of figs.
+
+About June 20, the Danish supply ship, _Godthaab_, with Captain Henning
+Shoubye in command, arrived from South Greenland. Inspector Dougaard
+Jensen and Handelschef Weche were aboard on a tour of inspection along
+the Danish settlements. A corps of scientific observers were also
+aboard. Among these were Professors Thompsen and Steensby and Dr.
+Krabbe. Governor Kraul asked me to accompany him aboard the _Godthaab_.
+Thus I first met this group of men, who afterwards did so much to make
+my journey southward to Copenhagen interesting and agreeable. The
+Governor told them of the conquest of the Pole. At the time their
+interest in the news was not very marked, but later every phase of the
+entire trip was thoroughly discussed.
+
+In a few days the _Godthaab_ sailed from Upernavik to Umanak, and I took
+passage on her. Captain Shoubye quietly and persistently questioned me
+as to details of my trip. Apparently he became convinced that I was
+stating facts, for when we arrived at Umanak, the social metropolis of
+North Greenland, the people enthusiastically received me, having been
+informed of my feat by the captain.
+
+After coaling at a place near Umanak we started south.
+
+At the "King's Guest House" in Eggedesminde, the only hotel in
+Greenland, I met Dr. Norman-Hansen, a scientist, with whom I talked. He
+questioned me, and a fraternal confidence was soon established.
+
+Later the _Godthaab_, which took the missionary expedition to the
+northernmost Eskimo settlement at North Star Bay and then returned,
+arrived from Cape York with Knud Rassmussen and other Danes aboard. They
+had a story that my two Eskimos had said I had taken them to the "Big
+Nail."
+
+
+
+
+FROM GREENLAND TO COPENHAGEN
+
+FOREWARNING OF THE POLAR CONTROVERSY--BANQUET AT EGGEDESMINDE--ON
+BOARD THE HANS EGEDE--CABLEGRAMS SENT FROM LERWICK--THE OVATION AT
+COPENHAGEN--BEWILDERED AMIDST THE GENERAL ENTHUSIASM--PEARY'S FIRST
+MESSAGES--EMBARK ON OSCAR II FOR NEW YORK
+
+XXXI
+
+AT THE DANISH METROPOLIS
+
+
+At Eggedesminde was given the first banquet in my honor. At the table
+were about twenty people. Knud Rassmussen, the writer, among others
+spoke. In an excited talk in Danish, mixed with English and German, he
+foretold the return of Mr. Peary and prophesied discord. This made
+little impression at the time and was recalled only by later events.
+
+At this point I wish to express my gratitude and appreciation of the
+universal courtesy of which I was the recipient at every Danish
+settlement in my southward progress along the coast of Greenland.
+
+At Eggedesminde Inspector Daugaard-Jensen endeavored to secure an idle
+walrus schooner for me. By this I hoped to get to Labrador and thence to
+New York. This involved considerable official delay, and I estimated I
+could make better time by going to Copenhagen on the _Hans Egede_.
+Although every berth on this boat, when it arrived, was engaged,
+Inspector Daugaard-Jensen, with the same characteristic kindness and
+courtesy shown me by all the Danes, secured for me comfortable quarters.
+
+On board were a number of scientific men and Danish correspondents. As
+the story of my quest had spread along the Greenland coast, and as
+conflicting reports might be sent out, Inspector Daugaard-Jensen
+suggested that I cable a first account to the world.
+
+The anxiety of the newspaper correspondents on board gave me the idea
+that my story might have considerable financial value. I was certainly
+in need of money. I had only forty or fifty dollars and I needed
+clothing and money for my passage from Copenhagen to New York.
+
+The suggestions and assistance of Inspector Daugaard-Jensen were very
+helpful. Iceland and the Faroe Islands, frequent ports of call for the
+Danish steamers, because of a full passenger list and the absence of
+commercial needs, were not visited by the _Hans Egede_ on this return
+trip. The captain decided to put into Lerwick, in the Shetland Islands,
+so that I could send my message.
+
+I prepared a story of about 2,000 words, and went ashore at Lerwick. No
+one but myself and a representative of the captain was allowed to land.
+We swore the cable operator to secrecy, sent several official and
+private messages, and one to James Gordon Bennett briefly telling of my
+discovery. As the operator refused to be responsible for the press
+message, it was left with the Danish consul. To Mr. Bennett I cabled:
+"Message left in care of Danish consul, 2,000 words. For it $3,000
+expected. If you want it, send for it."
+
+Our little boat pulled back to the _Hans Egede_, and the ship continued
+on her journey to Copenhagen. Two days passed. On board we talked of my
+trip as quite a commonplace thing. I made some appointments for a short
+stay in Copenhagen.
+
+Off the Skaw, the northernmost point of Denmark, a Danish man-of-war
+came alongside us. There was a congratulatory message from the Minister
+of State. This greatly surprised me.
+
+Meanwhile a motor boat puffed over the unsteady sea and a half dozen
+seasick newspaper men, looking like wet cats, jumped over the rails.
+They had been permitted to board on the pretext that they had a message
+from the American Minister, Dr. Egan. I took them to my cabin and asked
+whether the New York _Herald_ had printed my cable. The correspondent of
+the _Politiken_ drew out a Danish paper in which I recognized the story.
+I talked with the newspaper men for five minutes and my prevailing
+impression was that they did not know what they wanted. They told me
+Fleet Street had moved to Copenhagen. I confess all of this seemed
+foolish at the time.
+
+They told me that dinners and receptions awaited me at Copenhagen. That
+puzzled me, and when I thought of my clothes I became distressed. I wore
+a dirty, oily suit. I had only one set of clean linen and one cap. After
+consulting with the Inspector we guessed at my measurements, and a
+telegram was written to a tailor at Copenhagen to have some clothing
+ready for me. At Elsinore cables began to arrive, and thence onward I
+became a helpless leaf on a whirlwind of excitement. I let the people
+about plan and think for me, and had a say in nothing. A cable from Mr.
+Bennett saying that he had never paid $3,000 so willingly gave me
+pleasure. There was relief in this, too, for my expenses at the hotel in
+Eggedesminde and on the _Hans Egede_ were unpaid.
+
+At Elsinore many people came aboard with whom I shook hands and muttered
+inanities in response to congratulations. Reporters who were not seasick
+thronged the ship, each one insisting on a special interview. Why should
+I be interviewed? It seemed silly to make such a fuss.
+
+Cablegrams and letters piled in my cabin. With my usual methodical
+desire to read and answer all communications I sat down to this task,
+which soon seemed hopeless. I was becoming intensely puzzled, and a
+not-knowing-where-I-was-at sensation confused me. I did not have a
+minute for reflection, and before I could approximate my situation, we
+arrived at Copenhagen.
+
+Like a bolt from the blue, there burst about me the clamor of
+Copenhagen's ovation. I was utterly bewildered by it. I found no reason
+in my mind for it. About the North Pole I had never felt such
+exultation. I could not bring myself to feel what all this indicated,
+that I had accomplished anything extraordinarily marvelous. For days I
+could not grasp the reason for the world-excitement.
+
+When I went on deck, as we approached the city, I saw far in the
+distance flags flying. Like a darting army of water bugs, innumerable
+craft of all kind were leaping toward us on the sunlit water. Tugs and
+motors, rowboats and sailboats, soon surrounded and followed us. The
+flags of all nations dangled on the decorated craft. People shouted, it
+seemed, in every tongue. Wave after wave of cheering rolled over the
+water. Horns blew, there was the sound of music, guns exploded. All
+about, balancing on unsteady craft, their heads hooded in black, were
+the omnipresent moving-picture-machine operators at work. All this
+passed as a moving picture itself, I standing there, dazed, simply
+dazed.
+
+Amidst increasing cheering the _Hans Egede_ dropped anchor. Prince
+Christian, the crown prince, Prince Waldemar, King Frederick's brother,
+United States Minister Egan, and many other distinguished gentlemen in
+good clothes greeted me. That they were people who wore good clothes was
+my predominant impression. Mentally I compared their well-tailored
+garments with my dirty, soiled, bagged-at-the-knees suit. I doffed my
+old dirty cap, and as I shook hands with the Prince Christian and Prince
+Waldemar, tall, splendid men, I felt very sheepish. While all this was
+going on, I think I forgot about the North Pole. I was most
+uncomfortable.
+
+For a while it was impossible to get ashore. Along the pier to which we
+drew, the crowd seemed to drag into the water. About me was a babel of
+sound, of which I heard, the whole time, no intelligible word. I was
+pushed, lifted ashore, the crown prince before me, William T. Stead, the
+English journalist, behind. I almost fell, trying to get a footing. On
+both sides the press of people closed upon us. I fought like a swimmer
+struggling for life, and, becoming helpless, was pushed and carried
+along. I walked two steps on the ground and five on the air. Somebody
+grabbed my hat, another pulled off a cuff, others got buttons; but
+flowers came in exchange. At times Stead held me from falling. I was
+weak and almost stifled. On both sides of me rushed a flood of blurred
+human faces. I was in a delirium. I ceased to think, was unable to
+think, for hours.
+
+We finally reached the Meteorological building. I was pushed through the
+iron gates. I heard them slammed behind me. I paused to breathe.
+Somebody mentioned something about a speech. "My God!" I muttered. I
+could no more think than fly. I was pushed onto a balcony. I remember
+opening my mouth, but I do not know a word I said. There followed a lot
+of noise. I suppose it was applause. Emerging from the black, lonely
+Arctic night, the contrast of that rushing flood of human faces
+staggered me. Yes, there was another sensation--that of being a stranger
+among strange people, in a city where, however much I might be honored,
+I had no old-time friend. This curiously depressed me.
+
+Through a back entrance I was smuggled into an automobile. The late
+Commander Hovgaard, a member of the Nordenskjoeld expedition, took charge
+of affairs, and I was taken to the Phoenix Hotel. Apartments had also
+been reserved for me at the Bristol and Angleterre, but I had no voice
+in the plans, for which I was glad.
+
+I was shown to my room and, while washing my face and hands, had a
+moment to think. "What the devil is it all about?" I remember repeating
+to myself. I was simply dazed. A barber arrived; I submitted to a shave.
+Meanwhile a manicure girl appeared and took charge of my hands. Through
+the bewildered days that followed, the thought of this girl, like the
+obsession of a delirious man, followed me. I had not paid or tipped her,
+and with the girl's image a perturbed feeling persisted, "Here is some
+one I have wronged." I repeated that over and over again. This shows the
+overwrought state of my mind at the time.
+
+Next the bedroom was a large, comfortable reception room, already filled
+with flowers. Beyond that was a large room in which I found many suits
+of clothes, some smaller, some bigger than the estimated size wired from
+the ship. At this moment there came Mr. Ralph L. Shainwald--an old
+friend and a companion of the first expedition to Mt. McKinley. He
+selected for me suitable things. Hastily I fell into one of these, and
+mechanically put on clean linen--or rather, the clothing was put on by
+my attendants.
+
+Now I was carried to the American Legation, where I lunched with
+Minister Egan, and I might have been eating sawdust for all the
+impression food made on me. For an hour, I have been told since, I was
+plied with questions. It is a strange phenomenon how our bodies will act
+and our lips frame words when the mind is blank. I had no more idea of
+my answers than the man in the moon.
+
+Upon my brain, with the quick, nervous twitter of moving-picture
+impressions, swam continually the scenes through which I moved. I have a
+recollection, on my return to the hotel, of going through hundreds of
+telegrams. Just as a man looks at his watch and puts it in his pocket
+without noting the time, so I read these messages of congratulation.
+Tremendous offers of money from publishers, and for lecture engagements,
+and opportunities by which I might become a music-hall attraction
+excited no interest one way or another.
+
+My desire to show appreciation of the hospitality of the Danes by
+returning to America on a Danish steamer prevented my even considering
+some of these offers. If I had planned to deceive the world for money,
+is it reasonable to believe I should have thrown away huge sums for this
+simple show of courtesy?
+
+Having lunched with Minister Egan, I spent part of the afternoon of the
+day of my arrival hastily scanning a voluminous pile of correspondence.
+Money offers and important messages were necessarily pushed aside. I had
+been honored by a summons to the royal presence, and shortly before five
+o'clock repaired to the royal palace.
+
+I still retain in my mental retina a picture of the king. It is a
+gracious, kindly memory. Surrounded by the queen and his three
+daughters, Princesses Ingeborg, Thyra, and Dagmar, he rose, a
+gray-haired, fatherly old man, and with warmness of feeling extended his
+hand. Out of that human sea of swirling white faces and staring eyes, in
+which I had struggled as a swimmer for life, I remember feeling a sense
+of security and rest. We talked, I think, of general topics.
+
+I returned to the hotel. Into my brain came the words, from some one,
+that the newspaper correspondents, representing the great dailies and
+magazines of the world, were waiting for me. Would I see them? I went
+downstairs and for an hour was grilled with questions. They came like
+shots, in many tongues, and only now and then did familiar English words
+strike me and quiver in my brain cells.
+
+I have been told I was self-possessed and calm. Had I gone through
+30,000 square miles of land? Was I competent to take observations? Could
+I sit down and invent observations? Had I been fully possessed, I
+suppose, these sudden doubts expressed would have caused some
+wonderment; doubtless I was puzzled below the realm of consciousness,
+where, they say, the secret service of the mind grasps the most elusive
+things. I have since read my replies and marveled at the lucidity of
+certain answers; only my bewilderment, unless I were misquoted, can
+explain the absurdity of others.
+
+My impression of the banquet that night in the City Hall is very vague.
+I talked aimlessly. There were speeches, toasts were drunk; I replied.
+The North Pole was, I suppose, the subject, but so bewildered was I at
+the time, that nothing was further from my mind than the North Pole. If
+an idea came now and then it was the feeling that I must get away
+without offending these people. I felt the atmosphere of excitement
+about me for days, pressing me, crushing me.
+
+My time was occupied with consultations, receptions, lunches, and
+dinners, between which there was a feverish effort to answer
+increasingly accumulating telegrams. Mr. E. G. Wyckoff, an old friend,
+now came along and took from me certain business cares. By day there was
+excitement; by night excitement; there was excitement in my dreams. I
+slept no more than five hours a night--if I could call it sleep.
+
+As a surcease from this turmoil came the evening at King Frederick's
+summer palace, where I dined with the royal family and many notable
+guests. All were so kindly, the surroundings were so unostentatious,
+that for a short while my confusion passed.
+
+I remember being cornered near a piano after dinner by the young members
+of the family and plied with questions. I felt for once absolutely at
+ease and told them of the wild animals and exciting hunts of the north.
+Otherwise we talked of commonplace topics, and rarely was the North Pole
+mentioned.
+
+Until after midnight, on my return to my hotel, I sat up with the late
+Commander Hovgaard and Professor Olafsen, secretary of the Geographical
+Society. I clearly recall an afternoon when Professor Torp, rector of
+the university, and Professor Elis Stromgren, informed me that the
+university desired to honor me with a decoration. Professor Stromgren
+asked me about my methods of observation and I explained them freely. He
+believed my claim. The question of certain, absolute and detailed proofs
+never occurred to me. I was sure of the verity of my claim. I knew I had
+been as accurate in my scientific work as anyone could be.
+
+My first public account of my exploit was delivered before the
+Geographical Society on the evening of September 7, and in the presence
+of the king and queen, Prince and Princess George of Greece, most of the
+members of the royal family, and the most prominent people of
+Copenhagen. I had outlined my talk and written parts of it. With the
+exception of these, which I read, I spoke extempore. Because of the
+probability of the audience not understanding English, I confined
+myself to a brief narrative. The audience listened quietly and their
+credence seemed but the undemonstrative acceptance of an every-day fact.
+
+Not knowing that a medal was to be presented to me at that time, I
+descended from the platform on concluding my speech. I met the crown
+prince, who was ascending, and who spoke to me. I did not understand him
+and proceeded to the floor before the stage. Embarrassed by my
+misunderstanding, he unfolded his papers and began a presentation
+speech. Confused, I remained standing below. Whether I ascended the
+stage and made a reply or received the medal from the floor, I do not
+now remember.
+
+During the several days that followed I spent most of my time answering
+correspondence and attending to local obligations. An entire day was
+spent autographing photographs for members of the royal family. After
+much hard work I got things in such shape that I saw my way clear to go
+to Brussels, return to Copenhagen, and make an early start for home.
+
+I had delivered my talk before the Geographical Society. The reporters
+had seen me, and assailed me with questions, and had packed their suit
+cases. Tired to death and exhausted with want of sleep, I viewed the
+prospect of a departure with relief. Because of my condition I refused
+an invitation to attend a banquet which the newspaper _Politiken_ gave
+to the foreign correspondents at the Tivoli restaurant.
+
+They insisted that I come, if only for five minutes, and promised that
+there would be no attempt at interviewing. I went and listened wearily
+to the speeches, made in different languages, and felt no stir at the
+applause. While the representative of the _Matin_ was speaking in
+French, some one tiptoed up to me and placed a cablegram under my plate.
+From all sides attendants appeared with cables which were quietly placed
+under the plates of the various reporters. The _Matin_ man stopped; we
+looked at the cables. A deadly lull fell in the room. You could have
+heard a pin drop. It was Peary's first message--"Stars and Stripes
+nailed to the Pole!"
+
+My first feeling, as I read it, was of spontaneous belief. Well, I
+thought, he got there! On my right and left men were arguing about it.
+It was declared a hoax. I recognized the characteristic phrasing as
+Peary's. I knew that the operators along the Labrador coast knew Peary
+and that it would be almost impossible to perpetrate a joke. I told this
+to the dinner party. The speeches continued. No reference was made to
+the message, but the air seemed charged with electricity.
+
+My feeling at the news, as I analyze it, was not of envy or chagrin. I
+thought of Peary's hard, long years of effort, and I was glad; I felt no
+rivalry about the Pole; I did feel, aside from the futility of reaching
+the Pole itself, that Peary's trip possibly might be of great scientific
+value; that he had probably discovered new lands and mapped new seas of
+ice. "There is glory enough for all," I told the reporters.
+
+At the hotel a pile of telegrams six inches high, from various papers,
+awaited me. I picked eight representative papers and made some
+diplomatic reply, expressing what I felt. That Peary would contest my
+claim never entered my head. It did seem, and still seems, in itself too
+inconsequential a thing to make such a fuss about. This may be hard to
+believe to those who have magnified the heroism of such an achievement,
+a thing I never did feel and could not feel.
+
+While sitting at the farewell dinner of the Geographical Society the
+following day, Mr. Peary's second message, saying that my Eskimos
+declared I had not gone far out of sight of land, came to me. Those
+about received it with indignation. Many advised me to reply in biting
+terms. This I did not do; did not feel like doing.
+
+Peary's messages caused me to make a change in my plans. Previously I
+had accepted an invitation to go to Brussels, but now, as I was being
+attacked, I determined to return home immediately and face the charges
+in person. I took passage on the steamship _Oscar II_, sailing direct
+from Copenhagen to New York.
+
+
+
+
+COPENHAGEN TO THE UNITED STATES
+
+ACROSS THE ATLANTIC--RECEPTION IN NEW YORK--BEWILDERING CYCLONE OF
+EVENTS--INSIDE NEWS OF THE PEARY ATTACK--HOW THE WEB OF SHAME WAS
+WOVEN
+
+XXXII
+
+PEARY'S UNDERHAND WORK AT LABRADOR
+
+
+It seemed that, coming from the companionless solitude of the North,
+destiny in the shape of crowds was determined to pursue me. I expected
+to transfer from the _Melchior_ to the _Oscar II_ at Christiansaand,
+Norway, quietly and make my way home in peace. At Christiansaand the
+noise began. On a smaller scale was repeated the previous ovation of
+Copenhagen.
+
+On board the _Oscar II_ I really got more sleep than I had for months
+previous or months afterwards. After several days of seasickness I
+experienced the joys of comparative rest and slept like a child. My
+brain still seemed numbed. There were on the boat no curiosity-seekers;
+no crowds stifled me nor did applause thunder in my ears.
+
+Every few minutes, before we got out of touch with the wireless, there
+were messages; communications from friends, from newspapers and
+magazines; repetitions of the early charges made against me; questions
+concerning Peary's messages and my attitude toward him. When the boat
+approached Newfoundland the wireless again became disturbing. Then came
+the "gold brick" cable.
+
+At this time, every vestige of pleasure in the thought of the thing I
+had accomplished left me. Since then, and to this day, I almost view all
+my efforts with regret. I doubt if any man ever lived in the belief of
+an accomplishment and got so little pleasure, and so much bitterness,
+from it. That my Eskimos had told Mr. Peary they had been but two days
+out of sight of land seemed probable; it was a belief I had always
+encouraged. That Mr. Peary should persistently attack me did arouse a
+feeling of chagrin and injury.
+
+I spent most of my time alone in my cabin or strolling on the deck. The
+people aboard considered Peary's messages amusing. I talked little; I
+tried to analyze the situation in my mind, but wearily I gave it up;
+mentally I was still dazed.
+
+During the trip Director Cold, chief of the Danish United Steamship
+Company, helped me with small details in every way; Lonsdale, my
+secretary, and Mr. Cold's secretary were busy copying my notes and my
+narrative story, which I had agreed to give to the New York _Herald_. I
+had made no plans; my one object was to see my family.
+
+As we approached New York the wireless brought me news of the ovation
+under way. This amazed and filled me with dismay. I had considered the
+exaggerated reception of Copenhagen a manifestation of local excitement,
+partly due to the interest of the Danes in the North. New York, I
+concluded, was too big, too unemotional, too much interested in bigger
+matters to bother much about the North Pole. This I told Robert M.
+Berry, the Berlin representative of the Associated Press, who
+accompanied me on the boat. He disagreed with me.
+
+Having burned one hundred tons of coal in order to make time, the _Oscar
+II_ arrived along American shores a day before that arranged for my
+reception. So as not to frustrate any plans, we lay off Shelter Island
+until the next day. It was my wish to send a message to Mrs. Cook and
+ask her to come out. But the sea was rough; and, moreover, she was not
+well. Now tugs bearing squads of reporters began to arrive. We agreed to
+let no one aboard. The New York _Journal_, with characteristic
+enterprise, had brought Anthony Fiala on its tug with a note from Mrs.
+Cook. So an exception had to be made. An old friend and a letter from my
+wife could not be sent away.
+
+That night I slept little. Outside I heard the dull thud of the sea.
+Voices exploded from megaphones every few minutes. Mingled emotions
+filled me. The anticipation of meeting wife and children was sweet; that
+again, after an absence of more than two years, I should step upon the
+shores of my own land filled me with emotions too strong for words.
+
+The next morning I was up with the rising of the sun. We arrived at
+Quarantine soon after seven. About us on the waves danced a dozen tugs
+with reporters. In the distance appeared a tug toward which I strained
+my eyes, for I was told it bore my wife and children. With a feeling of
+delight, which only long separation can give, I boarded this, and in a
+moment they were in my arms. I was conscious of confusion about me; of
+whistling and shrieking; uncanny magnified voices thundering from scores
+of megaphones; of a band playing an American air. When the _Grand
+Republic_, thrilling a metallic salute, steamed toward us, and the
+cheers of hundreds rent the air, I remembered asking myself what it
+could be all about. Why all this agitation?
+
+Again the contagion of excitement bewildered me; the big boat drew near
+to a tug, above me swirled a cloud of hundreds of faces; around me the
+sunlit sea, with decorated craft, whirled and danced. As I giddily
+ascended the gangplank and felt a wreath of roses flung about me I was
+conscious chiefly of an unsuitable lack of appreciation. I spoke
+briefly; friends and relatives greeted me; the shaking of thousands of
+hands began; and all the while a deep hurt, a feeling of soreness,
+oppressed me.
+
+From that day on until after I left New York, my life was a
+kaleidoscopic whirl of excitement, for which I found no reason. I had no
+time to analyze or estimate public enthusiasm and any change of that
+enthusiasm into doubt. I had no sense of perspective; involuntarily I
+was swept through a cyclone of events. The bewilderment which came upon
+me at Copenhagen returned, and with it a feeling of helplessness, of
+puzzlement; I felt much as a child might when taking its first ride in a
+carousel. Each day thereafter, from morning until morning there was a
+continuous rush of excitement; at no time, until I fled from it, did I
+get more than four hours' sleep at night--disturbed sleep at that. I
+had not a moment for reflection, and even now, after recovering from the
+lack of mental perception which inevitably followed, it is with
+difficulty that I recall my impressions at the time. I suppose there are
+those who think that I was having a good time, but it was the hardest
+time of my life.
+
+I remember standing in the pilot house of the _Grand Republic_, my
+little ones by me, and watching thousands of men along the wharves of
+the East River, going mad. The world seemed engaged in some frantic
+revel. Factories became vocal and screamed hideously; boats became
+hoarse with shrieking; the megaphone cry was maddening. Drawing up to a
+gayly decorated pier, a thunder of voices assailed me. I felt crushed by
+the unearthly din.
+
+I was involuntarily shoved along, and found myself in an automobile--one
+of many, all decorated with flags. Cameras clicked like rapid-fire guns.
+A band played; roaring voices like beating sound waves rose and fell;
+faces swam before me.
+
+Through streets jammed with people we moved along. I hardly spoke a word
+to my wife, who sat near. Out of the scene of tumult, familiar faces
+peered now and again. I remember being touched by the sight of thousands
+of school children, assembled outside of public schools and waving
+American flags.
+
+In the neighborhood of the new bridge, under the arch, I recall seeing
+the eager face of my favorite boyhood school-teacher. It struck me at
+the time that she hardly seemed aged a day. Something swelled up within
+me, and I was conscious of a desire to lean out through the crowd and
+draw her into the machine. Through the thick congestion it was
+difficult to move; even the police were helpless. Now and again people
+tried to climb into the machine and were torn away.
+
+At the Bushwick Club I lunched in a small room with friends, and a
+feeling of pleasure warmed my heart. During the reception words of
+confidence were spoken and somehow filtered into my mind. I shook hands
+until my arms were sore, bowed my head until my neck ached. I was forced
+to retire. Later there was dinner at the club, after which I received
+seven hundred singers. By this time I felt like a machine. My brain was
+blank. About midnight, utterly exhausted, I arrived at the
+Waldorf-Astoria, where I fought through a crowd in the lobby. I think I
+sat and listened to Mrs. Cook telling me news of home and the family
+until night merged into morning.
+
+Next day the storm through which I was being swept began again. During
+that and the days following I made many mistakes, did and said unwise
+things. I want to show you, in telling of these events, just how
+helpless I was; what a victim of circumstance; how unfitted to bear the
+physical and mental demands of a ceaseless procession of public
+functions, lectures, dinners, receptions, days and nights of traveling,
+and how unable to cope with the many charges. In sixty days there were
+not less than two hundred lectures, dinners, and receptions, not to
+mention the unremitting train of press interviews. With no club of
+friends or organization of any kind behind me, I stood the strain alone.
+
+I was ignorant of much that was said about me. I had no one to gauge my
+situation at any time and advise me. About me was an unbearable pressure
+from friends and foes; I stood it until I could stand it no longer.
+There was not a minute of relief, not a minute to think. Coming after
+two years spent in the Arctic, at a time when nature was paying the debt
+of long starvation and hardship, the stress of events inevitably
+developed a mental strain bordering on madness. Where could I go to get
+rest from it all? This was my last thought at night and my first thought
+in the morning.
+
+During my second day at the Waldorf I had to read proofs of the
+narrative to be printed in the _Herald_, go over the plans of my book
+with the New York publishing house with whom I had signed a contract,
+and examine hundreds of films to select photographs. There were hundreds
+of letters and telegrams; scores of reporters demanding interviews;
+hundreds of callers, few of whom I was able to see. An army of
+publishers, lecture managers, and even vaudeville managers sent up their
+cards.
+
+The chief event of the first day in New York was the inquisition by
+newspaper reporters. They both interested and amused me. I had gone
+through the same ordeal in Copenhagen, and I knew that American
+interviewers are famed for their wolfish propensities.
+
+Before I saw the sensation-hungry press men, I got certain news that
+shocked my sense of the fairness of the American press. Someone
+interested in my case had sent me unsolicited copies of all telegrams,
+cables and wireless messages passing between New York and the Peary
+ship. These messages now continued to come daily, and thus I was
+afforded a splendid opportunity to watch an underhand game of deceit
+wherein Mr. Peary was shown to be in league with a New York paper
+aiming secretly to further his claims and to cast doubt upon mine.
+
+Among these was a message asking a certain editor to meet Peary at
+Bangor, Maine, to arrange for the pro-Peary campaign of bribery and
+conspiracy which followed. In another, and the most remarkable message,
+Mr. Peary first showed the sneaking methods by which the whole
+controversy was conducted. A long list of questions had been prepared by
+Mr. Peary at Battle Harbor, covering, as rival interests dictated, every
+phase of Polar work. These questions were sent to the New York _Times_
+with instructions to compel answers from me on each of a series of catch
+phrases.
+
+When the _Times_ reporter came to me with these, I recognized the Peary
+phraseology at once. I afterwards compared the copy of Peary's telegram
+with that of the _Times_, and found in it nearly every question asked by
+the reporters. While the questions were being read off, it required a
+good deal of patience to conceal my irritation, as I knew Mr. Peary was
+talking through the smooth-faced, smiling press cubs, none of whom knew
+that he was Peary's mouthpiece. Every one of the Peary questions,
+however, was amusing, for I had answered each a dozen times in Europe.
+But if Mr. Peary must question me, why did he stoop to the hypocrisy of
+doing it through others? The other reporters asked many questions, the
+reports of which I have not seen since. But the duplicity of this little
+trick left a strong impression of unfairness.
+
+At about this time I began to examine critically the many efforts which
+Mr. Peary had begun to make to discredit my achievement. In going over
+such of his reports of his own claims as had gotten to me, I was at once
+struck with the statements parallel to mine which he had sent out, and
+since these so thoroughly proved my case I felt that I could be liberal
+and patient with Mr. Peary's ill-temper.
+
+I now learned that after Mr. Peary got the full reports of my attainment
+of the Pole at the wireless station at Labrador, he withdrew behind the
+rocks to a place where no one was looking, and digested that report. His
+own report came after the digestion of mine. In the meantime, his delay
+in proceeding to Sydney, Nova Scotia, and his silence, were explained by
+the official announcement that the ship was being washed and cleaned.
+This was manifestly absurd. No seaman returning from a voyage of a year,
+where sailors have no occupation whatever except such work, waits until
+he gets to port before cleaning his decks. Furthermore, this hiding
+behind the rocks of Labrador continued for weeks. What was the
+mysterious occupation of Mr. Peary? The _Roosevelt_, as described by
+visitors when she arrived at Sydney, was still very dirty. When Mr.
+Peary's much-heralded report was finally printed, every Arctic explorer
+at once said the astonishing parallel statements in Mr. Peary's
+narrative either proved my case or convicted Mr. Peary of plagiarism. My
+story, by this time, had got well along in the New York _Herald_. To
+help Mr. Peary out of his position, McMillan later rushed to the press.
+He was under contract not to write or talk to the press, nor to lecture,
+write magazine articles or books, as were all of Peary's men. But this
+prohibition was waived temporarily. Then McMillan made the statement
+that Dr. Cook must have gotten the "parallel data" and inside
+information from Mr. Peary's Eskimos. Everyone acquainted with
+Greenland, including McMillan, knows that such inter-communication was
+impossible. I had left for Upernavik by the time Peary returned to Etah.
+Therefore, McMillan and Peary both were caught in a deliberate lie, as
+were also Bartlett[23] and Borup later. These were Mr. Peary's witnesses
+in the broadside of charges with which I was to be annihilated.
+
+A few days after my arrival in America I learned for the first time of
+the strange death of Ross Marvin. We were asked by Mr. Peary to believe
+that this young man of more than average intelligence, a graduate of
+Cornell University and of the New York Nautical School, a man of
+experience on the Polar seas, stepped over young ice alone, without a
+life-line, and sank through a film of ice to a grave in the Arctic
+waters.
+
+An idiot might do that; but Marvin, unless he went suddenly mad, would
+not do it. To cross the young ice of open leads, like that in which
+Marvin is said to have perished, is a daily, almost hourly, experience
+in Arctic travel. To safeguard each other's lives, and to save sledges
+and dog teams, life-lines are carried in coils on the upstanders of the
+sled. When about to risk a crossing, a line is always fixed from one to
+the other and from sled to sled. When this is done, and an accident
+happens such as that which is alleged to have befallen Marvin, the
+victim is saved by the pull of his companions on the line. This is done
+as unfailingly as one eats meals. Would a man of Marvin's experience and
+intelligence neglect such a precaution? I knew such an accident might
+have happened to the inexperienced explorers of the days of Franklin,
+but to-day it seemed incredible. Furthermore, Peary was boasting of what
+he styled the "Peary system," for which is claimed such thoroughness
+that without it no other explorer could reach the Pole. If Marvin's
+death was natural, then he is a victim of this system.
+
+But let us read between the lines of this harrowing tragedy. After
+learning of my attainment of the Pole, Peary rushed to the wireless.
+With a letter in his pocket from Captain Adams which gave the news that
+started the ire of envy, and which also gave the news that convicted
+Peary of a lie, he thereafter for a week or more kept the wires busy
+with the famous "gold brick" messages.
+
+Marvin's death, and the duty to a bereaved family, which ordinary
+humanity would have dictated, were of no consequence to one making
+envious, vicious attacks. For a week all the world blushed with shame
+because of the dishonor thus brought upon our country and our flag. In
+New York there was a happy home, a loving mother, a fond sister; anxious
+friends were all busy in preparing surprises for the happy homecoming of
+the one beloved by all. It was a busy week, with joyous, heart-stirring
+anticipation. There was no news from the Peary ship. Not a word came to
+indicate that their expected returning hero had been lost in the icy
+seas. To that mother's yearning heart her boy was nearing home--but
+alas! no news came! A week passed, and still no news!
+
+At last, after Peary had digested my narrative, the carefully prepared
+press report was put on the wires. Ross Marvin's family, engrossed in
+preparations for a reception with flowers and flags, was about to see,
+in cold, black print, that he for whom their hearts beat expectantly was
+no more. At the last moment, Peary's conscience seemingly troubled him.
+A long message was sent to a friend to break the news and to soften the
+effects of the press reports on that poor mother and sister. That
+message was sent "Collect." A man who had given years of his time and
+his life to glorify Peary was not worthy of a prepaid telegram!
+
+Later, an important letter from Marvin reached his own home. In it the
+stealing of my supplies is referred to in a way to show that Marvin
+condemned Peary. The public ought to know the wording of this part of
+the letter. Why has it been suppressed? Marvin's death, to my
+understanding, does not seem natural. With a good deal of empty verbiage
+the sacrifice of this unfortunate young man is explained; but two
+questions are forced at once: Why was Marvin without a life-line? Why
+were conveniently lost with him certain data that might disprove Peary's
+case?
+
+If Marvin sank into the ice, as Peary said he did, then Peary is
+responsible for the loss of that life, for he did not surround him with
+proper safeguards. The death of this man points to something more than
+tragedy. Since Marvin's soundings were made under the authority of the
+Coast and Geodetic Survey, the American Government is, therefore,
+answerable for this death.
+
+Mr. Peary's treatment of Marvin wearied me of all the Peary talk at the
+time; and, furthermore, all of Mr. Peary's charges, of which so much
+fuss was made, carried the self-evident origin of cruel envy and
+selfishness. First, the Eskimos, put through a third degree behind
+closed doors, were reported to have said that I had not been more than
+two sleeps out of sight of land. This was easily explained. They had
+been instructed not to tell Mr. Peary of my affairs, and they had been
+encouraged to believe themselves always near land. Then this charge was
+dropped, and the next was made, the one about my not reporting the
+alleged cache at "Cape Thomas Hubbard." That assertion, instead of
+injuring me, convicted Peary of trying to steal from Captain Sverdrup
+the honor of discovering and naming Svartevoeg. For it was shown that by
+deception "Cape Thomas Hubbard" had been written over a point discovered
+years earlier by another explorer. For this kind of honor Hubbard had
+contributed to Peary's expeditions. But is not the obliteration of a
+geographic name for money a kind of geographic larceny?
+
+Then was forced the charge that I had told no one of my Polar success in
+the North, and therefore the entire report was an afterthought. Whitney
+and Prichard later cleared this up, but at the very time when Peary made
+this charge he had in his possession a letter from Captain Adams, of the
+whaler _Morning_, which he had received in the North, wherein my
+attainment of the Pole was stated. When Peary got the Adams letter he
+put on full steam, abandoned his plan to visit other Greenland ports,
+and came direct to Labrador, to the wireless. Why was the Adams letter
+suppressed, when it was charged that I had told no one? And,
+furthermore, why had Mr. Peary told no one on his ship of his own
+success until he neared Battle Harbor?
+
+All of these charges betrayed untruthful methods on the part of Mr.
+Peary in his own method of presentation. Automatically, without a word
+of defence on my part, each charge rebounded on the charger.
+
+Then there came the page broadside of rearranged charges printed by
+every American paper. It contained nothing new in the text, but with it
+there was a faked map, copied from Sverdrup, which was made to appear
+as though drawn by Eskimos. The best answer to this whole problem is
+that from the same tongues with which Mr. Peary tried to discredit me
+has come a much more formidable charge against Mr. Peary. For these same
+Eskimos have since said, without quizzing from me, that Mr. Peary never
+got to the Pole and that he never saw Crocker Land.
+
+This part of the controversy was thoroughly analyzed by Professor W. F.
+Armbruster and Dr. Henry Schwartz in the St. Louis _Mirror_[24].
+
+While this controversy early began to rage, the tremendous offers of
+money which came in every hour contributed to my bewilderment. They
+seemed fabulous; the purport was beyond me. I imagined this as part of
+a dream from which I should awake. Were I the calculating monster of
+cupidity which some believe me, I suppose I should have been more
+circumspect in making my financial arrangements.
+
+I should hardly, for instance, have sold my narrative story to Mr. James
+Gordon Bennett for $25,000 when there were single offers of $50,000,
+$75,000, $100,000, and more, for it. While I was in Copenhagen, and
+before the _Herald_ offer was accepted, Mr. W. T. Stead had come with a
+message from W. R. Hearst with instructions to double any other offer
+presented for my narrative. Had I accepted Mr. Hearst's bid he would
+have paid $400,000 for what I sold for $25,000. Here is a sacrifice of
+$375,000. Does that look as if I tried to hoax the world for sordid
+gain, as my enemies would like the public to believe? What Mr. Bennett
+asked and offered $25,000 for was a series of four articles on
+adventures in the North, for use in the Sunday supplement of the
+_Herald_. I had no such articles prepared at the time, nor, as I knew,
+should I have time to write these. I did have the narrative story of my
+trip, which consisted of twenty-five thousand to thirty thousand words,
+complete. I decided, when I heard the first reports of doubt cast on my
+claim, to publish my narrative story as an honest and sincere proof of
+my claim as soon as possible. So I gave this to Mr. Bennett for the sum
+offered purely for Sunday articles.
+
+[Illustration: GOVERNOR KRAUL IN HIS STUDY
+
+ARRIVAL AT UPERNAVIK]
+
+[Illustration: POLAR TRAGEDY--A DESERTED CHILD OF THE SULTAN OF THE
+NORTH AND ITS MOTHER]
+
+Mr. Bennett offered me $5,000 additional for the European rights of this
+story. To this offer I made no reply, giving Mr. Bennett the sole news
+rights of the story for the entire world.
+
+When I reached New York, needing ready money, I wired Mr. Bennett for an
+advance on my story. He cabled back an immediate order for the entire
+sum of $25,000. This gave me a sudden glow, a feeling of pleasure at
+what I regarded as a display of confidence.
+
+With my lecture work and traveling I was kept so busy that I did not
+have time to go over the story, typewritten from my almost illegible
+notes, which was sent to the New York _Herald_. When I did go over the
+proofs and found many grievous errors, the _Herald_ had already
+syndicated the story. It was too late for any corrections, and thus many
+errors appeared.
+
+I made a contract with a New York publishing house, while in Copenhagen,
+with the idea of getting out my book and all proofs possible as soon as
+the presses would allow, in view of the imminent controversy. For the
+English and American rights to my book I was to receive $150,000 in a
+lump sum and an additional $150,000 in royalties. Although papers were
+signed for this, later on, when things seemed turning against me and I
+saw the publishers were getting "cold feet," I voluntarily freed them
+from the contract.
+
+By the time I left Copenhagen, as I figured later, offers for book and
+magazine material and lectures had aggregated just one and one-half
+million dollars. A prominent New York manager made me an offer of
+$250,000 for a series of lectures. During the first few days I had
+absolutely no system of caring for this correspondence, hundreds of
+important cablegrams remained unopened, and huge offers of money were
+ignored. It was only after Minister Egan sent Walter Lonsdale, in
+response to my request for a competent secretary, that some intelligible
+information was gleaned from the mass of correspondence. Most of it, as
+a matter of fact, was read only when we were on the _Oscar II_, bound
+for home.
+
+After making my arrangement with Mr. Bennett, the _Matin_ of Paris had
+sent me an offer of $50,000 for the serial rights of a French
+translation of the story to appear in the _Herald_. This included a
+lecture under the auspices of the paper in Paris. My anxiety to get home
+prevented a consideration of this; and it was only after I sailed on
+the _Oscar II_ that I realized I could have gone to Paris, delivered the
+lecture, and returned to New York by a fast boat.
+
+On the _Oscar II_ a wireless had reached me of a large offer for a
+lecture during the convention in St. Louis. This I decided to accept,
+the simple reason being that I needed money.
+
+Much criticism has been hurled at me because I started on a lecture
+campaign when I should have prepared my data and submitted proof. At
+that time I was in no position to anticipate or understand this
+criticism. Every explorer for fifty years had done the same thing, all
+had delivered lectures and written articles about their work after a
+first preliminary report. Supplementary and detailed data were usually
+given long afterwards, not as proof but as a part of the plan of
+recording ultimate results. I had the precedents of Stanley,
+Nordenskjoeld, Nansen, Peary, and others.
+
+Had I anticipated the furore that was being raised about proofs, I
+probably should have taken public opinion into my consideration. So firm
+was my own conviction of achievement that the difficulty of supplying
+such absolute proof as the unique occasion afterwards demanded never
+occurred to me. My feeling at the time was that I was under no
+obligation to patrons, to the Government, to any society, or anyone, and
+that I had a right to deliver lectures at a time when public interest
+was keyed up, and to prepare my detailed reports at a time when I should
+have more leisure.
+
+My family needed money. Huge sums were offered me hourly; I should have
+been unwise indeed had I not accepted some of the offers. I am advised
+that stories of enormous lecture profits have been told. I am informed
+that the newspapers said I was to receive $25,000 for going to St.
+Louis. The truth is that I got less than half that, though I believe St.
+Louis probably spent more than $25,000 in preparing for my appearance
+there. All told, I delivered about twenty lectures in various large
+cities, receiving from $1,000 to $10,000 per lecture. My expenses were
+heavy, so that in the end I netted less than $25,000. When I determined
+to stop the lecture work and prepare my data, I canceled $140,000 worth
+of lecture engagements.
+
+Each day there was a routine of lunches with speeches, dinners with
+speeches, suppers with speeches. The task of devising speeches was ever
+present; with me it did not come easy. But speeches must be made, and I
+felt a tense strain, as if something were drawing my mentality from me.
+
+Everywhere I went crowds pressed about me. I shook hands until the flesh
+of one finger was actually worn through to the bone. Hundreds of people
+daily came to see me.
+
+About this time, too, my bewildered brain began to realize that I was
+also the object of most ferocious attacks from many quarters. I had no
+time to read the newspapers, and these charges and suspicions filtered
+in to me through reporters and friends. Usually they reached me in an
+exaggerated or a distorted form.
+
+There began at this time the publication of innumerable fake interviews
+and stories misrepresenting me.[25] One interviewer quoted me as saying
+that Dagaard Jensen had seen my records, and therefore confirmed my
+claim to the people in Copenhagen; another that I said Governor Kraul of
+Greenland had reported talking with my Eskimos, who had confirmed my
+report. Dagaard Jensen justly denied this by cable, as I had made no
+such statement. That about Governor Kraul was absurd on the face of it,
+as he was a thousand miles away from my Eskimos. I have no means of
+knowing the embarrassing statements attributed to me--things which were
+variously denied, and which hurt me. There was not time for me to
+consider or answer them.
+
+Then came the blow which almost stunned me--the news that Harry Whitney
+had not been allowed by Peary to bring my instruments and notes home
+with him.
+
+During the long night at Cape Sparbo I had carefully figured out and
+reduced most of my important observations. The old, rubbed, oily, and
+torn field notes, the instrumental corrections and the direct readings
+were packed with the instruments, and these were mostly left with Mr.
+Whitney. The figures were important for future recalculation, but
+otherwise had not seemed materially important to me, for they had served
+their purpose. I had with me all the important data, such as is usually
+given in a traveler's narrative. No more had ever been asked before.
+
+Under ordinary circumstances, these instruments and papers would not
+have been of great value, but under the public excitement their
+importance was immensely enhanced.
+
+I had publicly announced that Mr. Whitney would bring these with him on
+the boat in which he was to return. Had there been no notes and no
+instruments, I hardly should have said this were I perpetrating a fraud,
+for I should have known that the failure of Mr. Whitney to supply these
+would provoke widespread suspicion. This is just what happened. Had I
+foreseen the trouble that resulted, I should have taken my instruments
+with me to Upernavik, and have supplied my observations and notes at
+once.
+
+As I have said before, I believed in an accomplishment which I felt was
+largely personal, for which a world excitement was not warranted and in
+which I had such a sure confidence that I never thought of absolutely
+accurate proof. This was my folly--for which fate made me pay. Imagine
+my dismay, the heartsickness which seized me when, through the din of
+tumult and excitement, in the midst of suspicion, came the news that Mr.
+Whitney had been forced by Mr. Peary to take from the _Roosevelt_ and
+bury the very material with which I might have dispelled suspicion and
+quelled the storm of unmerited abuse.
+
+The instruments carried on my northern trip, and left with Mr. Whitney,
+and which he had seen, consisted of one French sextant; one aluminum
+surveying compass, with azimuth attachment, bought of Keuffer & Essen,
+New York; one glass artifical horizon, set in a thin metal frame,
+adjusted by spirit levels and thumbscrews, bought of Hutchinson, Boston;
+one aneroid barometer, aluminum, bought of Hicks; an aluminum case with
+maximum and minimum spirit thermometer; other thermometers, and one
+liquid compass.
+
+Other instruments used about stations were also left. With these were
+papers giving some instrumental corrections, readings, and comparisons,
+and other occasional notes, and a small diary, mostly loose leaves,
+containing some direct field reading of instruments and meteorological
+data. These took up very little space; and, if I remember correctly,
+all were snugly packed in one of the instrument cases.
+
+Mr. Whitney especially asked, as a personal favor, the honor of caring
+for my flag. Later, after his return, he said that as Mr. Peary had
+refused to let him take aboard my things, he had no alternative but to
+bury them at Etah. I have no complaint to make against Mr. Peary about
+this. He was at liberty to pick the freight of his own ship. But he
+later said: "His [Dr. Cook's] leaving of his records at Etah was a
+scheme by which he could claim that they were lost." If Mr. Peary knew
+this, why did he not bring them?
+
+At the time I felt crippled; my feeling of disgust with the problem,
+with myself, and with the situation began. It would be impossible to
+give in my report a continuous line of observations. I had no
+corrections for the instruments. I knew they might vary. I had no means
+of checking them. I had some copies of the original data, but they were
+not complete. I should have to rest my whole case on a report with
+reduced observations, for I knew it would not be possible to send a ship
+to Etah until the following year. And I also knew that if Eskimos were
+not given strong explicit instructions all would be lost.
+
+Meanwhile, many apparently trivial accusations against me were being
+widely discussed, which, never refuted, had their weight in the long run
+in discrediting my good faith. On every side I was attacked, not so much
+for unintentional error, as for deliberate falsehood.
+
+In the bewildering days that followed--during which I traveled to
+various cities to fulfill lecture engagements--I felt alone, a victim
+of such pressure as, I believe, has seldom been the fate of any human
+being.
+
+Friends confused me as much as the attacks of foes. Some advised one
+thing; others another; my brain staggered with their well-meaning
+advice. Most of them wanted me to "light out," as they expressed it, and
+attack Mr. Peary. A number suggested the formation of an organization,
+the work of which would be to issue counter attacks on Mr. Peary, to be
+written by various men, and to reply systematically to charges made
+against me. Such a course was distasteful to me, and, furthermore, the
+selfish, envious origin of all of Mr. Peary's charges seemed evident.
+
+Many of the other attacks seemed so ridiculous that I felt no one would
+believe them--which was another of my many mistakes. The more serious
+charges I believed could wait until I had time to sit down and reply to
+them at length. I felt the futility of any fragmentary retorts. At no
+time did I have an intelligent grasp of the situation, of the excited
+and exaggerated interest of the public, or of the fluctuating state of
+public opinion.
+
+In my many years of Arctic work I had gathered pictures of almost every
+phase of Arctic life and scene; on subsequent trips, unless for some
+special reason, I did not duplicate photographs of impregnable,
+unmeltable headlands, or of walrus, or icebergs which I considered
+typical. In the early rush for illustrative material I gave a number of
+these to the _Herald_, stating they were scenes I had passed, but which
+had been taken on an earlier expedition. By some mistake, which is not
+unusual in newspaper offices, one of these pictures was put under a
+caption, "Pictures of Dr. Cook's Polar Trip," or something to this
+effect. Whereupon, Mr. Herbert Bridgman, secretary of the Peary Arctic
+Club, shouted aloud, "Fraud!" and others took up the cry. A further
+charge that these pictures were not mine at all, but had been stolen or
+borrowed from Herbert Berri, was advanced--an absolute untruth, as I had
+the negatives, from which these pictures were made, in my possession.
+
+What, in those early days, had seemed a serious criticism offered
+against my claim, was that I had exceeded possible speed limits by
+asserting an average of about fifteen miles a day. The English critics
+were particularly severe. According to their reading, this had never
+been done before. Admiral Melville had taken this up in America before
+my arrival; by the time I got to New York, Mr. Peary had made a report
+of twenty to forty-five miles daily under similar conditions, and I
+asked myself the reason of the sudden hush.
+
+Much space was now given to the criticism by learned men of my giving
+seconds in observations. The point was taken that as you near the Pole
+the degrees of longitude narrow, and seconds are of no consequence.
+Therefore I was charged with trying to fake an impossible accuracy. I
+always regarded seconds as of little consequence, put them down as a
+matter of routine--for in that snow-blinding, bewildering North I worked
+more like a machine than a reasoning being--and now the inadvertent use
+of these was used to cast suspicion upon me.
+
+With this attack, like echoes from many places, came reiterations of the
+criticism, which, polly-like, was taken up by Rear-Admiral Chester.
+Professor Stockwell of Cleveland had earlier brought out this academic
+discussion. Because I had seen the midnight sun for the first time on
+April 7 it was claimed I must have been at a more southern point of the
+globe than I believed. At the time it seemed the only serious scientific
+criticism of my reports which was used against me.
+
+Whether I was on a more southerly point of the globe than I believed or
+not, I had not used the midnight sun, seen through a mystic maze of
+unknowable refraction, to determine position; to do so would have been
+impossible. With a constant moving and grinding of the ice, causing
+opening lanes of water, from which the inequality of temperature drew an
+evaporation like steam from a volcano, it is impossible at this season
+to see a low sun with a clear horizon. One looks through an opaque veil
+of blinding crystals. Every Arctic traveler knows that even when the sun
+is seen on a clear horizon, as it returns after the long night, his eyes
+are deceived--he does not see the sun at all, but a refracted image
+caused by the optical deception of atmospheric distortions. For this
+reason, as I knew, all observations of the sun when very low are
+worthless as a means of determining position. The assumption that I had
+done this seemed mere foolishness to me at the time.
+
+Staggered by the blow that Whitney had buried my instruments in the
+North, the recurring thoughts of these harassing charges certainly had
+no soothing effect.
+
+Alone, I was unable to cope with matters, anyway. I under-estimated the
+effect of the cumulating attacks. Oppressed by the undercurrent feeling
+that it was all a fuss about very little, a thing of insignificant
+worth, and disturbed by the growing uncertainty of proving such a claim
+to the point of hair-breadth accuracy by any figures, despair overcame
+me.
+
+I was so busy I could not pause to think, and was conscious only of the
+rush, the labor, the worry. I no longer slept; indigestion naturally
+seized me as its victim. A mental depression brought desperate
+premonitions.
+
+I developed a severe case of laryngitis in Washington; it got worse as I
+went to Baltimore and Pittsburg. At St. Louis, where I talked before an
+audience said to number twelve thousand persons, I could hardly raise my
+voice above a whisper. The lecture was given with physical anguish. I
+was feverish and mentally dazed. Thereafter, day by day, my thoughts
+became less coherent; I, more like a machine.
+
+I do not exaggerate when I say that there was practically not one hour
+of pleasure in those troubled days. The dinner which was given by the
+Arctic travelers at the Waldorf-Astoria pleased me more than anything
+during the entire experience. I felt the close presence of hundreds of
+warm friends; I was conscious of their good will.
+
+I can recall the ceremony of presenting the keys of the City of New York
+to me, but I was so confused and half ill that I was not in a condition
+to appreciate the honor.
+
+After I had been on my lecture tour for a few weeks, I began to feel
+persecuted. On every side I sensed hostility; the sight of crowds filled
+me with a growing sort of terror. I did not realize at the time that I
+was passing from periods of mental depression to dangerous periods of
+nervous tension. I was pursued by reporters, people with craning necks,
+good-natured demonstrations of friendliness that irritated me. In the
+trains I viewed the whirling landscape without, and felt myself part of
+it--as a delirious man swept and hurtled through space.
+
+I suppose I answered questions intelligently; like an automaton
+delivered my lectures, shook hands. I have been told I smiled pleasantly
+always--mentally I was never conscious of a smile. It is strange how,
+machine-like, a man can conduct himself like a reasonable being when,
+mentally, he is at sea. I have read a great deal about the subconscious
+mind; on no other theory can I account for my rational conduct in public
+at the time. Really, as I view myself from the angle of the present, I
+marvel that a man so distraught did not do desperate things.
+
+    _Author's Note._--I have never attempted to disprove Mr. Peary's
+    claim to having reached the North Pole. I prefer to believe that Mr.
+    Peary reached the North Pole.
+
+    So avid have been my enemies, however, to cast discredit upon my own
+    achievement, by such trivial and petty charges, that it seems
+    curious they have never noticed or have remained silent about many
+    striking and staggering discrepancies in Mr. Peary's own published
+    account of his journey.
+
+    In Mr. Peary's book, entitled "The North Pole; Its Discovery, 1909,"
+    published by Frederick A. Stokes Company, on page 302, appears the
+    following:
+
+    "We turned our backs upon the Pole at about four o'clock of the
+    afternoon of April 7."
+
+    According to a statement made on page 304, Mr. Peary took time on
+    his return trip to take a sounding of the sea five miles from the
+    Pole.
+
+    On page 305, Mr. Peary says: "Friday, April 9, was a wild day. All
+    day long the wind blew strong from the north-northeast, increasing
+    finally to a gale." And on page 306: "We camped that night at 87 deg.
+    47'."
+
+    Mr. Peary thus claims to have traveled from the Pole to this point,
+    a distance of 133 nautical miles, or 153 statute miles, in a little
+    over two days. This would average 761/2 statute miles a day. Could a
+    pedestrian make such speed? During this time Mr. Peary camped twice,
+    to make tea, eat lunch, feed the dogs, and rest--several hours in
+    each camp.
+
+    Why I should never have gone out of sight of land for more than two
+    days, as he has charged, when such miraculous speed can be made on
+    the circumpolar sea, is something Mr. Peary might find interesting
+    reasons to explain.
+
+    On page 310, Mr. Peary says: "We were coming down the North Pole
+    hill in fine shape now, and another double march, April 16-17,
+    brought us to our eleventh upward camp at 85 deg. 8', one hundred and
+    twenty-one miles from Cape Columbia."
+
+    According to this, Mr. Peary covered the distance from 87 deg. 47', on
+    April 9, to 85 deg. 8', on April 17--a distance of 159 nautical miles in
+    eight day. This averaged twenty miles a day.
+
+    On page 316, he says: "It was almost exactly six o'clock on the
+    morning of April 23 when we reached the igloo of 'Crane City,' at
+    Cape Columbia, and the work was done."
+
+    Mr. Peary left 85 deg. 8' on April 17, according to his statement, and
+    traveled 121 miles to Cape Columbia in six days, arriving on April
+    23. This last stretch was at the rate of twenty miles a day. To sum
+    up, he traveled from the North Pole, according to his statements, to
+    land, as follows:
+
+    The first 133 nautical miles southward in two days, at the rate of
+    66 nautical miles, or 761/2 statute miles, a day; the last 279
+    nautical miles in fourteen days, an average of 20 miles a day.
+
+    According to Peary's book, Bartlett left him at 87 deg. 46', and Mr.
+    Peary started on his final spurt to the Pole a little after midnight
+    on the morning of April 2. By arriving at the point where he left
+    Bartlett on the evening of April 9, he would have made the distance
+    of 270 miles to the Pole from this point and back, in a little over
+    seven days.
+
+    In the New York _World_ of October 3, 1910, page 3, column 6,
+    Matthew Henson makes the following statement: "On the way up we had
+    to break a trail, and averaged only eighteen to twenty miles a day.
+    On the way back we had our own trail to within one hundred miles of
+    land, and then Captain Bartlett's trail. We made from twenty to
+    forty miles a day."
+
+    At the rate of twenty miles a day on the way up, which Henson claims
+    was made, it would have taken 6 days and 18 hours to cover the
+    distance of 135 miles from 87 deg. 47' to the Pole. Adding the thirty
+    hours Mr. Peary claims he spent at the Pole for observations, eight
+    days would have elapsed before they started back. Peary says the
+    round trip of 270 miles from 87 deg. 47' N. to the Pole and the return
+    to the same latitude was done in seven days and a few hours.
+
+    Why has Mr. Peary never been asked to explain his miraculous speed
+    and the discrepancy between his statement and Henson's?
+
+    Henson was Mr. Peary's sole witness. When Mr. Peary, in a framed-up
+    document, endeavors to disprove my claim by quoting my Eskimos, it
+    would be just as fair to apply Henson's words to disprove Peary.
+
+    Moreover, inasmuch as Mr. Peary's partisans attacked my speed limits
+    when I made my first reports, does it not seem curious indeed that
+    they now accept as infallible, and _ex cathedra_, the published
+    reports of the almost supernatural feat in covering distance made by
+    Mr. Peary?
+
+
+
+
+THE KEY TO THE CONTROVERSY
+
+PEARY AND HIS PAST--HIS DEALING WITH RIVAL EXPLORERS--THE DEATH OF
+ASTRUP--THE THEFT OF THE "GREAT IRON STONE," THE NATIVES' SOLE SOURCE
+OF IRON
+
+XXXIII
+
+ACTIONS WHICH CALL FOR INVESTIGATION
+
+
+Aiming to be retired from the Navy as a Captain, with a comfortable
+pension; aiming eventually to wear the stripes of a Rear-Admiral, which
+necessitated a promotion over the heads of others in the normal line of
+advancement, a second Polar victory, which was all that Peary could
+honestly claim, was not sufficient. Something must be done to destroy in
+the public eye the merits of my achievement for the first attainment of
+the Pole. I had reached the Pole on April 21, 1908. Mr. Peary's claims
+were for April 6, 1909, a year later. To destroy the advantage of
+priority of my conquest, and to establish himself as the first and only
+one who had reached the Pole, was now the one predominant effort to
+which Mr. Peary and his coterie of conspirators set themselves. To this
+end the cables were now made to burn with an abusive campaign, which the
+press, eager for sensations, took up from land's end to land's end,
+even to the two worlds. The wireless operators picked up messages that
+were being thrown from ship to ship and from point to point. Each
+carried unkind insinuations coming from the lips of Mr. Peary. The press
+and the public were induced to believe that Peary's words came from one
+who was himself above the shadow of suspicion. Their efforts, however,
+as we will see later, did not differ from the battle of envy forced
+against others before me, but it was now done more openly.
+
+It was difficult to remain silent against such world-wide slanders. But
+I reasoned that truth would ultimately prevail, and that the rebound of
+the American spirit of fair play would quell the storm.
+
+I had known for nearly a quarter of a century the man for whom the press
+now attacked me. I had served on two of his expeditions without pay; I
+had watched his successes and his failures; I had admired his strong
+qualities, and I had shivered with the shocks of his wrongdoings. But
+still I did not feel that anything was to be gained by retaliative
+abuse; and the truth about him, out of charity, I hesitated to tell. No,
+I argued, this warfare of the many against one, under the dictates of
+envy, must ultimately bring to light its own injustice.
+
+I had always reasoned that a quiet, dignified, non-assailing bearing
+would be most effective in a battle of this kind. Contrary to the
+general belief at the time, this was not done out of respect for Mr.
+Peary; it seemed the best means to a worthier end. But I did not know at
+this time that the press, dog-like, jumps upon him who maintains a
+non-attacking attitude. In modern times, the old Christian philosophy
+of turning the other cheek, as I have found, does not give the desired
+results.
+
+The press, which, at my home-coming, had lavished praise and glowing
+panegyric, now, as promptly, swung completely around and heaped upon my
+head terms of opprobrium and obloquy. Faked news items were issued to
+discredit me by Peary's associates; editors devoted space to jibes and
+sarcasms at my expense; clever writers and cartoonists did their best to
+make my name a humorous byword with my countrymen. Much of this I did
+not know until long after.
+
+The suddenness of all this--the terrible injustice and unreasonableness
+of it--simply overwhelmed me. Arriving from the cruel North, completely
+spent in body and in mind, the rest that I was urgently in need of had
+been constantly denied me. Instead, I had been caught up and held within
+a perfect maelstrom of excitement. That excitement still ran like fever
+in my veins. The plaudits of the multitude were still ringing in my ears
+when this horror of a world's contumely burst on my head. I could only
+bow my head and let the storm spend itself about me. Sick at heart and
+dazed in mind, conscious only of a vague disgust with all the world and
+myself, I longed for respite and forgetfulness within the bosom of my
+family.
+
+So, quietly, I decided to retire for a year, out of reach of the yellow
+papers; out of reach of the grind of the pro-Peary mill of infamy, still
+maintaining silence rather than stoop to the indignity of showing up the
+dark side of Mr. Peary's character. Having returned, I hesitate to do it
+now; but the weaving of the leprous blanket of infamy with which Peary
+and his supporters attempted to cover me cannot be understood unless we
+look through Mr. Peary's eyes--regard other explorers as he regarded
+them; regard the North as his inalienable property as he did, and regard
+his infamous, high-handed injustices as right.
+
+I have now decided to uncover the incentive of this one-sided fight to
+which I have so long maintained a non-attacking attitude. I had hoped,
+almost against hope, that the public would ultimately understand,
+without a word from me, the humbug of the mudslingers who were
+attempting to defame my character. I had felt sure that the hand which
+did the besmearing was silhouetted clearly against the blackness of its
+own making. But the storm of a sensation-seeking press later so
+thickened the atmosphere that the public, from which one has a sure
+guarantee of fair play, was denied a clear view.
+
+Now that the storm has spent its force; now that the hand which did the
+mudslinging has within its grasp the unearned gain which it sought; now
+that a clear point of observation can be presented, I am compelled, with
+much reluctance and distaste, to reveal the unpleasant and unknown past
+of the man who tried to ruin me; showing how unscrupulous and brutal he
+was to others before me; with evidence in hand, I shall reveal how he
+wove his web of defamation and how his friends conspired with him in the
+darkest, meanest and most brazen conspiracy in the history of
+exploration.
+
+In doing this, my aim is not to challenge Mr. Peary's claim, but to
+throw light on unwritten pages of history, which pages furnish the key
+to unlock the longclosed door of the Polar controversy and the
+pro-Peary conspiracy.
+
+From the earliest days, Mr. Peary's effort to reach the Pole was
+undertaken primarily for purposes of personal commercial gain. For
+twenty years he has passed the hat along lines of easy money. That hat
+would be passing to-day if the game had not been, in the opinion of
+many, spoiled by my success.
+
+For nearly twenty years he sought to be promoted over the heads of
+stay-at-home but hardworking naval officers. During all of this time,
+while on salary as a naval officer, he was away engaged in private
+enterprises from which hundreds of thousands of dollars went into his
+pockets. By wire-pulling and lobbying he succeeded in having the
+American Navy pay him an unearned salary. Such a man could not afford to
+divide the fruits of Polar attainment with another.
+
+In 1891, as the steamer _Kite_ went north, Mr. Peary began to evince the
+brutal, selfish spirit which later was shown to every explorer who had
+the misfortune to cross his trail. Nansen had crossed Greenland; his
+splendid success was in the public eye. Mr. Peary attempted to belittle
+the merited applause by saying that Nansen had borrowed the "Peary
+system." But Peary had borrowed the Nordenskiold system, without giving
+credit. A few months later, Mr. John M. Verhoeff, the meteorologist of
+the _Kite_ expedition, was accorded such unbrotherly treatment that he
+left his body in a glacial crevasse in preference to coming home on the
+same ship with Mr. Peary. This man had paid $2,000 for the privilege of
+being Peary's companion.
+
+Eivind Astrup, another companion of Peary, a few years later was
+publicly denounced because he had written a book on his own scientific
+observations and did work which Peary had himself neglected to do. This
+attempt to discredit a young, sensitive explorer was followed by his
+mental unbalancement and suicide.
+
+About 1897, Peary took from the people of the Farthest North the
+Eskimos' treasured "Star Stone." At some remote period in the unknown
+history of the frigid North, thousands of years ago, when, possibly, the
+primitive forefathers of the Eskimos were perishing from inability to
+obtain food in that fierce war waged between Nature and crude, blindly
+struggling, aboriginal life because of a lack of weapons with which to
+kill, there swiftly, roaringly, descended from the mysterious skies a
+gigantic meteoric mass of burning, white-hot iron. Whence it came, those
+dazed and startled people knew not; they regarded it, as their
+descendants have regarded it, with baffled mystified terror; later, with
+reverence, gratitude, and a feeling akin to awe. Gazing skyward, in the
+long, starlit nights, there undoubtedly welled up surgingly in the wild
+hearts of these innocent, Spartan children of nature, a feeling of
+vague, instinctive wonder at the Power which swung the boreal lamps in
+heaven; which moves the worlds in space; which sweeps in the northern
+winds, and which, for the creatures of its creation, apparently
+consciously, and often by means seemingly miraculous, provides methods
+of obtaining the sources of life. As the meteor and its two smaller
+fragments cooled, the natives, by the innate and adaptive ingenuity of
+aboriginal man, learned to chip masses from it, from which were shaped
+knives and arrows and spearheads. It became their mine of treasure,
+more precious than gold; it was their only means of making weapons for
+obtaining that which sustained life. With new weapons, they developed
+the art of spear-casting and arrow-throwing. As the centuries passed,
+animals fell easy prey to their skill; the starvation of elder ages gave
+way to plenty.
+
+The arm of God, it is said in the Scriptures, is long. From the far
+skies it extended to these people of an ice-sheeted, rigorous land, that
+they might survive, this miraculous treasure. It seemed, however, that
+the arm of man, in its greed, proved likewise long; and as the strange
+providence which gave these people their chief means of killing was
+kind, so the arm of man was cruel.
+
+In 1894, R. E. Peary, regarding the Arctic world as his own, the people
+as his vassals, came north, and a year later took from these natives,
+without their consent, the two smaller fragments. In 1897 he took "The
+Tent," or Great Iron Stone, the natives' last and one source of mineral
+wealth and ancestral treasure. That it was these people's great source
+of securing metal meant nothing to him; that it was a scientific curio,
+whereby he might secure a specious credit from the well-fed armchair
+gentlemen of science at home, meant much to the man who later did not
+hesitate to employ methods of dishonor to try to secure exclusive credit
+of the achievement of the Pole. Just as he later tried to rob me of
+honor, so he ruthlessly took from these people a thing that meant
+abundance of game--and game there meant life.
+
+The great "Iron Stone" was hauled aboard the S. S. _Hope_, and brought
+to New York. Today it reposes in the Museum of Natural History--a
+bulky, black heap of metal, which can be viewed any day by the well-fed
+and curious. In the North, where he will not go again to give his
+mythical "abundance of guns and ammunition," the Eskimos need the metal
+which was sold to Mrs. Morris K. Jesup (who presented it to the museum)
+for $40,000. That money went into Mr. Peary's pockets. In a land where
+laws existed this act would be regarded as a high-handed, monumental and
+dishonorable theft. One who might attempt now to purloin the ill-gotten
+hulk from the museum would be prosecuted. Taken from the people to whose
+ancestors it was sent, as if by a providence that is divine, and to whom
+it meant life, it gave Mr. Peary so-called scientific honors among his
+friends. In the name of religion, it has been said, many crimes have
+been committed. It remained for this man to reveal what atrocious things
+could be done in the fair name of science.
+
+At about the same time a group of seven or eight Eskimos were put aboard
+a ship against their will and brought to New York for museum purposes.
+They were locked up in a cellar in New York, awaiting a market place.
+Before the profit-time arrived, because of unhygienic surroundings and
+improper food, all but one died. When in the grip of death, through a
+Mrs. Smith, who ministered to their last wants, they appealed with tears
+in their eyes for some word from Mr. Peary. They begged that he extend
+them the attention of visiting them before their eyes closed to a world
+of misery and trouble. There came no word and no responsive call from
+the man who was responsible for their suffering. Of seven or eight
+innocent wild people, but one little child survived. That
+one--Mene--was later even denied a passage back to his fathers' land by
+Mr. Peary.
+
+A few years later, the Danish Literary Expedition visited the
+northernmost Eskimos in their houses. The splendid hospitality shown the
+Danes by the Eskimos saved their lives. The Danish people, aiming to
+express their gratitude for this unselfish Eskimo kindness, sent a ship
+to their shores on the following year, loaded with presents, at an
+expenditure of many thousands of kroner. That ship, under the direction
+of Captain Schoubye, left at North Star great quantities of food, iron
+and wood. After the Danes had turned their backs, Mr. Peary came along
+and deliberately, high-handedly, took many of the things. This story is
+told today by every member of the tribe whom Peary claims to have
+befriended, whom he calls "my people."
+
+The sad story of the unavoidable deaths by starvation of the members of
+General Greely's Expedition has for years been issued and reissued to
+the press by Mr. Peary and his press agents, in such form as to
+discredit General Greely and his co-workers. His own inhuman doings
+about Cape Sabine and the old Greely stamping-grounds have been
+suppressed.
+
+In 1901 the ship _Erik_ left Mr. Peary, with a large group of native
+helpers, near Cape Sabine. An epidemic, brought by the Peary ship, soon
+after attacked the Eskimos. Many died; others survived to endure a slow
+torture. Peary had no doctor and no medicine. In the year previous,
+Peary had shown the same spirit to the ever faithful Dr. Dedrick that he
+had shown to Verhoeff, to Astrup, and to others. Although Dedrick could
+not endure Peary's unfairness, he remained, against instructions,
+within reach for just such an emergency as this epidemic presented. He
+offered his services when the epidemic broke out, but Peary refused his
+offer, and allowed the natives to die rather than permit a competent
+medical expert to attend the afflicted.
+
+Near the same point, a year later, Captain Otto Sverdrup wintered with
+his ship. His mission was to explore the great unknown to the west. This
+unexplored country had been under Mr. Peary's eye for ten years; but
+instead of exploring it, his time was spent in an easy and comparatively
+luxurious life about a comfortable camp. When Sverdrup's men visited the
+Peary ship, they were denied common brotherly courtesy and were refused
+the hospitality which is universally granted, by an unwritten law, to
+all field workers. Mr. Peary even refused to send him, on his returning
+ship, important letters and papers which Sverdrup desired taken back. He
+also refused to allow Sverdrup to take native guides and dogs-which did
+not belong to Mr. Peary. This same courtesy was later denied to Captain
+Bernier, of the Canadian Expedition.
+
+Thus attempting to make a private preserve of the unclaimed North, he
+attempted to discredit and thwart every other explorer's effort. In line
+with the same policy, every member of every Peary expedition has been
+muzzled with a contract which prevented talking or writing after the
+expedition's return--contracts by which Mr. Peary derived the sole
+credit, the entire profit, and all the honor of the results of the men
+who volunteered their services and risked their lives. This same spirit
+was shown at the time when, at 87 deg. 45'', he turned Captain Bartlett
+back, because he (Peary), to use his own words, "wanted all the honors."
+
+In profiting by his long quest for funds for legitimate exploration, we
+find Peary engaged in private enterprises for which public funds were
+used. Much of this money was, in my judgment, used to promote a
+lucrative fur and ivory trade, while the real effort of getting to the
+Pole was delayed, seemingly, for commercial gain. I believe the Pole
+might have been reached ten years earlier. But delay was profitable.
+
+After being thus engaged for years in a propaganda of self-exploitation,
+in assailing other explorers whom he regarded as rivals, in committing
+deeds in the North unworthy of an American and officer of the Navy,
+Peary, knowing that I had started Poleward, knowing that relief must
+inevitably be required, ultimately appropriated my supplies, and
+absolutely prevented any effort to reach me, which even the natives
+themselves might have made. Peary knew he was endangering my life. He
+knew that he was getting ivory and furs in return for supplies belonging
+to me, and which I should need. He knew, also, that it would not
+coincide with his selfish purposes of appropriating all honor and profit
+if I reached the Pole and should return and tell the world. His
+deliberate act was in itself--whether so designed or not--an effort to
+kill a brother explorer. The stains of at least a dozen other lives are
+on this man.
+
+The property which Peary took from Francke and myself, with the hand of
+a buccaneer and the heart of a hypocrite, was worth thirty-five thousand
+dollars. This was done, not to insure expedition needs, but to satisfy
+a hunger for commercial gain, and to inflict a cowardly, underhanded
+injury on a rival. All of my caches, my camp equipment, my food, were
+taken; and under his own handwriting he gave the orders which deprived
+me of all relief efforts at a time when relief was of vital importance.
+Certainly to all appearances this was a deliberate, preconceived plan to
+kill a rival worker by starvation. Here we find an American naval
+officer stooping to a trick for which he would be hanged in a mining
+camp.
+
+Many members of his expeditions, some rough seamen, speak with
+shuddering of his actions in that far-away North. In my possession are
+affidavits, voluntarily made and given to me by members of Mr. Peary's
+expeditions, revealing gross actions, which, in an officer of the Navy,
+call for investigation. Mention has been made of certain facts, because,
+only by knowing these things, can people understand the spirit and
+character of the man and the unscrupulous attacks made upon me, and
+understand, also, why, out of a sense of delicacy and dislike for
+mudslinging, I remained silent so long. It is only because the public
+has been misled by a sensational press, because I realize I have
+suffered by my own silence, in order that history may know the full
+truth and accord a just verdict, that with reluctance, with a sense of
+shuddering distaste, I have been compelled to present these unpleasant
+pages of unwritten Arctic history.
+
+When Mr. Peary and his partisans attacked me they hesitated at nothing
+that was untrue, cruel and dishonorable--forgery and perjury even seemed
+justifiable to them in their effort to discredit me. I still hesitate
+to speak of certain unworthy, unblushing and utterly cruel acts of which
+Mr. Peary is guilty. I would have preferred to remain silent about the
+actions of which I have told.
+
+Assuming the attitude of one above reproach, Peary, upon his return,
+assailed me as a dishonest person who tried to rob him of honor. Had the
+actual and full truths been told at the time about Peary's life in the
+North, his charges would have rebounded annihilatingly upon himself. For
+certain things the people of this country, who are clean, honest and
+fair, will not stand. The facts told about Peary in the affidavits given
+me make his charges of dishonor and dishonesty against me a travesty,
+indeed. Yet, at a time when I might have profited by revealing phases of
+Mr. Peary's personal character, I preferred to remain silent. Of certain
+things men do not care to speak. Although Mr. Peary and his friends
+endeavored to make the Polar controversy a personal one, I regarded Mr.
+Peary's personal actions as having no bearing upon his, or my, having
+attained the Pole. He and his friends forced a personal fight; they
+tried to injure my veracity, my reputation for truth-telling, my
+personal honor. I had hoped against hope that the truth would resolve
+itself without any necessity of my revealing elements of Mr. Peary's
+character. I have herein recited pages from his past, known to Arctic
+explorers but not to the general public, so that his attitude toward me
+may be understood. Yet all, indeed, has not been told. Although Mr.
+Peary did not scruple to lie about me, I still hesitate to tell the full
+truth about him.
+
+In the white, frozen North a tragedy was enacted which would bring
+tears to the hearts of all who possess human tenderness and kindness.
+This has never been written. To write it would still further reveal the
+ruthlessness, the selfishness, the cruelty of the man who tried to ruin
+me. Yet here I prefer the charity of silence, where, indeed, charity is
+not at all merited.
+
+The knowledge of these facts tempered the shocks I felt when the Peary
+campaign of defamation was first made against me. I told myself that a
+man who had done these things would, in the nature of things, be branded
+by the truth, as he deserved.
+
+I was not so greatly surprised that Peary tried to steal my honor. I
+knew that he had stolen tangible things. Yet the theft of food, even
+though a man's life depends upon it, is not so awful as the attempt to
+steal the good name a father hopes to bequeath his children. Yet Peary
+has attempted to do this.
+
+He has attempted to blacken me in the eyes of my family; but, with the
+conscience of a brute, he has deserted two of his own children--left
+them to starve and freeze in the cheerless north. They are there today
+crying for food and a father, while he enjoys a life of luxury at the
+expense of the American tax-payers. This statement calls for an
+investigation by the Secretary of the Navy. See photograph of the
+deserted child of the Sultan of the North, facing page 493.
+
+
+
+
+THE MT. McKINLEY BRIBERY
+
+THE BRIBED, FAKED AND FORGED NEWS ITEMS--THE PRO-PEARY MONEY POWERS
+ENCOURAGE PERJURY--MT. M'KINLEY HONESTLY CLIMBED--HOW, FOR PEARY, A
+SIMILAR PEAK WAS FAKED
+
+XXXIV
+
+HOW A MAN'S SOUL WAS MARKETED
+
+
+After Mr. Peary had done his utmost to try to disprove my Polar
+attainment; after the chain of newspapers which, for him, in conjunction
+with the New York _Times_, had printed the same egregious lies on the
+same days, from the Atlantic to the Pacific; after they had expended all
+possible ammunition, the damages inflicted were still insufficient. My
+narrative, as published in the New York _Herald_, was still more
+generally credited than Mr. Peary's. To gain his end, something else had
+to be done. Something else was done. The darkest page of defamation in
+the world's history of exploration was now written by the hands of
+bribers and perjurers.
+
+The public suddenly turned from the newspaper-inculcated idea of "proof"
+in figures to a more sane examination of personal veracity. To destroy
+my reputation for truth in the public mind was the next unscrupulous
+effort decided upon. The selfish and self-evident press campaign,
+obviously managed by the Peary cabal, to that end had given
+unsatisfactory results. Some vital blow must be delivered by fair
+means or otherwise.
+
+The climb of Mt. McKinley was now challenged.
+
+I had made a first ascent of the great mid-Alaskan peak in 1906. The
+record of that conquest was published during my absence in the North,
+under the title, "To the Top of the Continent." The book, being printed
+at a time when I was unable to see the proofs, contained some mistakes;
+but in it was all the data that could be presented for such an
+undertaking.
+
+The Board of Aldermen of the City of New York decided to honor me by
+offering the keys and the freedom of the metropolis on October 15. This
+was to be an important event. The pro-Peary conspiracy aiming to deliver
+striking blows through the press, their propaganda was so planned that
+the bribed, faked and forged news items were issued on days which gave
+them dramatic and psychologic climaxes. Two days before the New York
+demonstration in my favor, the pretentious full-page broadside of
+distorted Eskimo information was issued. This fell flat; for it was
+instantly seen to be a pretentious rearrangement of old charges. But it
+was so played up as to fill columns of newspaper space and impress
+readers by its magnitude. This was followed by the Barrill affidavit,
+similarly played up so as to fill a full newspaper page, which I shall
+analyze later. All this was done to draw a black cloud over the day of
+honor in New York, the 15th day of October.
+
+Since the published affidavit of my old associate, Barrill, was a
+document which proved him a self-confessed liar; since the affidavit
+carried with it the earmarks of pro-Peary bribery and perjury, I
+reasoned again that fair-minded people would in time see through this
+moneyed campaign of dishonor. In all history it has been shown that he
+who seeks to besmear others usually leaves the greatest amount of mud on
+himself. But again I had not counted on the unfairness of the press.
+
+The only reason given that I should have faked the climb of Mt. McKinley
+is that, in some vague way, I was to profit mightily by a successful
+report. The expedition was to have been financed by a rich Philadelphia
+sportsman. He did advance the greater portion of the sum required. We
+were to prepare a game trail for him. Something interfered, he
+relinquished his trip, and did not send the balance of money promised.
+
+The result was that many checks I had given out went to protest. Harper
+& Brothers had agreed, before starting, to pay me $1,500 for an account
+of the expedition, whether successful or not. On my return this was
+paid, and went to meet outstanding debts--debts to pay which I
+embarrassed myself. Instead of "profits" from this alleged "fake," I
+suffered a loss of several thousand dollars.
+
+As is quite usual in all exploring expeditions, some of the members of
+my Mt. McKinley expedition, who did not share in the final success, were
+disgruntled. Chief among these was Herschell Parker. Owing to ill-health
+and inexperience, Parker had proved himself inefficient in Alaskan work.
+Climbing a little peak forty miles from the great mountain, when he was
+with me, he had pronounced Mt. McKinley unclimbable. Climbing a similar
+hill, four years later, he stooped to the humbug of offering a
+photograph of it as a parallel to my picture of the top of Mt. McKinley.
+This man was so ill-fitted for such work that two men were required to
+help him mount a horse. But I insisted that we continue at least to the
+base of the mountain. At the first large glacier, Parker and his
+companion, Belmore Brown, balked, halting in front of an insignificant
+ice-wall. The ascent of Mt. McKinley, still thirty-five miles off, they
+said, was impossible. Parker returned, and in a trail of four thousand
+miles to New York told every press representative how impossible was the
+ascent of Mt. McKinley. By the time Parker reached New York a cable went
+through that the thing was done. At a point four thousand miles from the
+scene of action, he again cried, "Impossible!" When I returned to New
+York, however, a month later, and Parker learned the details, he
+publicly and privately credited my ascent of Mt. McKinley. Nothing
+further was said to doubt the climb until two years later, when he lined
+up with the Peary interests.
+
+Using Parker as a tool, Peary's Arctic Club, through him, first forced
+the side-issue of Mt. McKinley. With the Barrill affidavit, made later,
+were printed other affidavits by Barrill's friends, who had not been
+within fifty miles of the mountain when it was climbed. This act, to me,
+was a bitter climax of injustice. But I have since learned that Printz
+got $500 of pro-Peary money; that both Miller and Beecher were promised
+large amounts, but were cheated at the "showdown." Printz afterwards
+wrote that he would make an affidavit for me for $300, and at Missoula
+he made an affidavit in which he attempted to defend me.[26] This he
+offered to sell to Roscoe Mitchell for $1,000.
+
+While easy pro-Peary money was passing in the West, Parker came forward
+with his old grudge. His chief contention was that, because he had taken
+home with him in deserting the object of the expedition a hypsometer, I
+could not have measured the high altitudes claimed. The altitude had
+been measured by triangulation by the hydrographer of the expedition,
+but I had other methods of measuring the ascent.
+
+I had two aneroid barometers, specially marked for very high climbing,
+thermometers, and all the usual Alpine instruments. The hypsometer was
+not at that time an important instrument. Parker also showed unfair
+methods by allowing the press repeatedly to print that he had been the
+leader and the organizer of the expedition. This he knew to be false. I
+had organized two expeditions to explore Mt. McKinley, at a cost of
+$28,000. Of this Parker had furnished $2,500. Parker took no part in the
+organization of the last expedition, had given no advice to help supply
+an adequate equipment, and in the field his presence was a daily
+handicap to the progress of the expedition. Heretofore, this was never
+indicated. But when he allows himself to be quoted as the leader of an
+expedition upon which he attempts to throw discredit, then it is right
+that all the facts be known.
+
+In the press reports, when Parker was first heard from, came the news
+that on the Pacific coast, at Tacoma, a lawyer by the name of J. M.
+Ashton was retained by someone. To the press Ashton said he was engaged
+"to look into the McKinley business," but he did not know by
+whom--whether by Cook or Peary. He was "engaged" in a business too
+questionable to tell who furnished the money.
+
+In the final ascent of Mt. McKinley there was with me Edward Barrill,
+the affidavit-maker. He was a good-natured and hard-working packer, who
+had proved himself a most able climber. Together we ascended the
+mountain in September, 1906. To this time (1909) there was not the
+slightest doubt about the footprints on the top of the great mountain.
+Barrill had told everybody that he knew, and all who would listen to
+him, that the mountain was climbed. He went from house to house
+boastfully, with my book under his arm, telling and retelling the story
+of the ascent of Mt. McKinley. That anyone should now believe the
+affidavit, secured and printed for Peary, did not to me seem reasonable.
+
+Parker, filling the position of betrayer and traitor to one who had
+saved his life many times, had decided, as the Polar controversy opened,
+to direct the Mt. McKinley side-issue of the pro-Peary effort.
+
+The first news of bribery in the matter came from Darby, Montana. This
+was Barrill's home town. A Peary man from Chicago was there. He frankly
+said that he would pay Barrill $1,000 to offer news that would discredit
+the climb of Mt. McKinley. Other news of the dishonest pro-Peary
+movement induced me to send Roscoe Mitchell, of the New York _Herald_,
+to the working ground of the bribers. Mitchell was working under the
+direction of my attorneys, H. Wellington Wack, of New York, Colonel
+Marshal, of Missoula, and General Weed, of Helena, Montana.
+
+Mitchell secured testimony and evidence regarding the buying of Barrill,
+but was unable to put the conspirators in jail. At Hamilton, Montana,
+there had appeared a man with $5,000 to pass to Barrill. Barrill's first
+reply was that he had climbed the mountain; that Dr. Cook had climbed
+the mountain; that to take that $5,000, in his own words, he "would have
+to sell his own soul." Barrill's business partner, Bridgeford, was
+present. He later made an affidavit for Mr. Mitchell covering this part
+of the pro-Peary perjury effort.
+
+A little later, however, Barrill said to his partner he "might as well
+see what was in it." Five thousand dollars to Barrill meant more than
+five million dollars to Mr. Peary or his friends. To Barrill, ignorant,
+poor, good-natured, but weak, it was an irresistible temptation.
+
+Barrill now went to Seattle. He visited the office of the Seattle
+_Times_. In the presence of the editor, Mr. Joe Blethen, he dickered for
+the sale of an affidavit to discredit me. He knew such an affidavit had
+news value. Indefinite offers ranging from $5,000 to $10,000 were made.
+Not getting a lump sum off-hand, Barrill, dissatisfied, then went over
+to Tacoma, to the mysterious Mr. Ashton. That all this was done, was
+told me on my trip west shortly afterward, by Mr. Blethen himself.
+
+After visiting Ashton, Barrill was seen in a bank in Tacoma. Barrill had
+said to his partner that to make an affidavit denying my climb would be
+"selling his soul." Barrill, ill at ease, reluctant, appeared. It is a
+terrible thing to lure a weak man to dishonor; it is still more tragic
+and awful when that man is bought so his lie may hurt another. The time
+for the parting of his soul had arrived in the bank. With the sadness of
+a funeral mourner Barrill was pushed along. The talk was in a muffled
+undertone. But it all happened. In the presence of a witness, whose
+evidence I am ready to produce, $1,500 was passed to him. This money was
+paid in large bills, and placed in Barrill's money-belt. There were
+other considerations, and I know where some of this money was spent. His
+soul was marketed at last. The infamous affidavit was then prepared.
+
+This affidavit was printed first in the New York _Globe_. The _Globe_ is
+partly owned and entirely controlled by General Thomas H. Hubbard, the
+President of the Peary Club. With General Hubbard, Mr. Peary had
+consulted at Bar Harbor immediately after his return from Sydney.
+Together they had outlined their campaign. General Hubbard is a
+multi-millionaire. A tremendous amount of money was spent in the Peary
+campaign. In the Mt. McKinley affidavit of Barrill we can trace bribery,
+a conspiracy, and black dishonor, right up to the door of R. E. Peary.
+
+If Peary is not the most unscrupulous self-seeker in the history of
+exploration, caught in underhand, surreptitious acts too cowardly to be
+credited to a thief, caught in the act of bartering for men's souls and
+honor in as ruthless a way as he high-handedly took others' property in
+the North; if he, drawing an unearned salary from the American Navy, has
+not brindled his soul with stripes that fit his body for jail, let him
+come forward and reply. If Peary is not the most conscienceless of
+self-exploiters in all history, caught in the act of stealing honor by
+forcing dishonor, let him come forward and explain the Mt. McKinley
+perjury.
+
+Now let us examine the others who were lined up in this desperate black
+hand movement. In New York there is a club, at first organized to bring
+explorers together and to encourage original research. It bore the name
+of Explorers' Club; but, as is so often the case with clubs that
+monopolize a pretentious name, the membership degenerated. It is now
+merely an association of museum collectors. Among real explorers, this
+club to-day is jocularly known as the "Worm Diggers' Union." In 1909 Mr.
+Peary was president. His press agent, Bridgman, was the moving spirit,
+and one of Colonel Mann's muck-rakers was secretary. Of course, such a
+society, committed to Peary, had no use for Dr. Cook.
+
+In a spirit of helping along the pro-Peary conspiracy, and after the
+Barrill affidavit was secured, the Explorers' Club took upon itself the
+supererogatory duty of appointing a committee to pass on my ascent of
+Mt. McKinley. There was but one real explorer on this committee. The
+others were kitchen geographers, whose honor and fairness had been
+bartered to the Peary interests before the investigation began. Without
+a line of data before them, they decided, with glee and gusto, that Mt.
+McKinley had not been climbed. This was what one would expect from such
+an honor-blind group of meddlers. But Mr. Peary's press worker,
+Bridgman, who himself had engineered the investigation, used this
+seeming verdict of experts to Mr. Peary's advantage.[27]
+
+Still all these combined underhanded efforts failed to reach vital spots
+and to turn the entire public Mr. Peary's way. Something more must still
+be done, Peary's press agent offered $3,000, and the cowardly Ashton, of
+Tacoma, offered another $3,000, to send an expedition to Alaska, to
+further the pro-Peary effort to down a rival. The traitor, Parker,
+responded. He was joined by the other quitter, Belmore Brown, who has
+conveniently forgotten to return borrowed money to me. This
+Peary-Parker-Brown combination went to Alaska in 1910, engaged in mining
+pursuits and hunting adventures. They returned with the expected and
+framed report that Mt. McKinley had not been climbed, and that they had
+climbed a snow-hill, had photographed it, and that the photograph was
+similar to mine of the topmost peak of Mt. McKinley. Mt. McKinley has a
+base twenty-five miles wide; it has upon the various slopes of its giant
+uplift hundreds of peaks, all glacial, polished, and of a similar
+contour. No one peak towers gigantically above the others. On the top
+are many peaks, no particular one of which can with any accuracy of
+inches be decided arbitrarily as the very highest. The top of a mountain
+does not converge to a pin-point apex. One looks out, not into immediate
+space on all sides, but over an area, as I have said, of many peaks. My
+photograph of the peak, which loomed highest among the others on the
+top, possesses a profile not unusual among ice-cut rocks. The
+Peary-Parker-Brown seekers tried hard to duplicate this photograph, so
+as to show I had faked my picture. The thing might have been done easily
+in the Canadian Rockies. It could be done in a dozen more accessible
+places in Alaska; but, without real work, it could be only crudely done
+near Mt. McKinley. The photograph which Peary's friends offered to
+discredit the first ascent is one of a double peak, part of which
+vaguely suggests but a poor outline of Mt. McKinley, and in which a rock
+has been faked. Who is responsible for this humbug? Where is the
+negative? The photograph bears no actual semblance to my picture of the
+top of Mt. McKinley whatever. But why was the negative faked? Parker
+excuses the evident unfairness of the dissimilar photograph by saying
+that he could not get the same position as I must have had. But is
+laziness or haste an excuse when a man's honor is assailed.[28]
+
+Let us follow the Peary high-handed humbugs further. To the southeast of
+Mt. McKinley is a huge mountain, which I named Mt. Disston in 1905. This
+peak was robbed of its name, and over it Parker wrote Mt. Huntington. To
+the northeast of Mt. McKinley is another peak, charted on my maps, to
+which Peary gave the name of the president of the Peary Arctic Trust. To
+this peak was given the same name, by the same methods of stealing the
+credit of other explorers, as that adopted by Peary when, in response to
+$25,000 of easy money, he wrote the same name, "Thomas Hubbard," over
+Sverdrup's northern point of Heiberg Land. Can it be doubted that the
+Peary-Parker-Brown propaganda of hypocrisy and dishonor in Alaska is
+guided by no other spirit than that of Mr. Peary?
+
+Many persons say: "We will credit Dr. Cook's attainment of the Pole
+if this Mt. McKinley matter is cleared up." I have heard this often.
+I have offered in my book proofs of the climb--the same proofs any
+mountain-climber offers. To discredit these, my enemies stooped to
+bribery. I have in my possession, and have stated here, proofs of this.
+Such proofs are even more tangible than the climbing of a far-away
+mountain. Is any other clarifier or any other evidence required to prove
+the pro-Peary frauds?
+
+
+THE PEARY-PARKER-BROWN HUMBUG UP TO DATE
+
+  This chapter is best closed by an analysis of the second effort of
+  Parker and Brown. It will be remembered that in their first venture
+  as hirelings of the Peary propaganda, they balked at the north-east
+  ridge, without making a serious attempt. This ridge--(the ridge upon
+  which I had climbed to the top of Mt. McKinley) was pronounced
+  impossible and therefore my claim in their judgment was false, for
+  such a statement $3,000.00 had been paid. During the spring of 1912,
+  again with $5,000 of Pro-Peary money to discredit me--The same
+  hirelings went through the range, attacked the same ridge from the
+  west and by the really able efforts of their guide, La Voy, a point
+  near the top was reached. The Associated Press report of this effort
+  said that the principal result of the expedition was to show that the
+  north-east ridge (the ridge which I had climbed), was climbable. The
+  very men sent out and paid, therefore, by my enemies to disprove my
+  work have proven, against their will, my first ascent of Mt. McKinley.
+
+  Two other exploring parties were about the slopes of Mt. McKinley
+  during the time of the Peary-Parker defamers. The first, a group of
+  hardy Alaskan pioneers, whose report is written in the Overland
+  Magazine for February, 1913, by Ralph H. Cairns--after an unbiased
+  study of reports both for and against, Cairns credits my first ascent.
+  The well known Engineer R. C. Bates, who as a U. S. revenue inspector
+  of mines and an explorer and mountain climber, did much pioneer work
+  about Mt. McKinley. He also goes on record in the Los Angeles Tribune
+  of February 13th, 1913, as saying: "Dr. Cook really succeeded in
+  ascending the north-east ridge of Mt. McKinley as claimed in 1906."
+  Bates confirms the charge of $5,000 being paid the Parker-Brown
+  expedition to refute my 1906 ascent, and says: "In 1906 Dr. Cook
+  claimed he climbed Mt. McKinley by the north-east ridge. In the
+  account of the 1910 expedition, Parker claimed that 'the north-east
+  ridge, the one used by Dr. Cook, was absolutely unsurmountable'. I,
+  with a party of two, explored the mountain in 1911 and selected the
+  north-east ridge as the only feasible route to the top. I ascended to
+  11,000 feet, according to barometric measure. I told of the exploit
+  to members of the Parker party, who took the same course in 1912.
+  Mr. Parker now contradicts his former statement by saying, 'The
+  north-east ridge is the only feasible ridge, and whoever goes up will
+  follow in my footsteps.'" It is important to note that Dr. Cook's
+  previous footsteps were eliminated, $5,000 had been paid for that very
+  purpose.
+
+  In a personal interview Mr. Bates made the very grave change that one
+  of the leaders of the very expedition sent out to discredit me, had
+  offered him a bribe to swear falsely to certain assessment work on
+  claims which had not been done. The Peary-Parker-Brown movement is
+  therefore from many sources a proven propaganda of bribery, conspiracy
+  and perjury. That such men can escape the doom of prison cells is
+  a parody upon human decency, and yet such are the men who are
+  responsible for the distrust which has been thrown on my work.
+
+
+
+
+THE DUNKLE-LOOSE FORGERY
+
+ITS PRO-PEARY MAKING
+
+XXXV
+
+THE LAST PERJURED DEFAMATION
+
+
+With the bitterness of the money-bought document to shatter my veracity
+regarding the ascent of Mt. McKinley ever before me, I canceled in
+November all my lecture engagements. Mr. William M. Grey, then managing
+my tour, broke contracts covering over $140,000. But, for the time
+being, these could not be filled. I was nearing a stage of mental and
+physical exhaustion, and required rest. Seeking a quiet retreat, my wife
+and I left the Waldorf-Astoria and secured quarters at the Gramatan Inn,
+in Bronxville, N. Y. Here was prepared my report and data to be sent to
+Copenhagen.
+
+At this time, as if again destined by fate, innocently I made my
+greatest error, opened myself to what became the most serious and
+damaging charge against my good faith, and the misstated account of
+which, published later, was used by my enemies in their efforts to brand
+me as a conscious faker and deliberate fraud.
+
+When I now think of the incidents leading up to the acquaintance of
+Dunkle and Loose, it does seem that I had lost all sense of balance, and
+that my brain was befogged. Shortly before I had started West, Dunkle
+was brought to me by Mr. Bradley on the pretext of wanting to talk life
+insurance.
+
+During my lecture tour threats from fanatics reached me, and in my
+nervous condition it was not hard for me to believe that my life was in
+danger. Then, too, it seemed that all the money I had made might be
+spent in efforts to defend myself. I decided to protect my wife and
+children by life insurance. How Dunkle guessed this--if he did--I do not
+know. But at just the right moment he appeared, and I fell into the
+insurance trap.
+
+At the time I did not know that Dunkle had been a professional
+"subscription-raiser," who, while I was in the North, had volunteered to
+raise money for a relief expedition--provided he was given an exorbitant
+percentage.
+
+For this reason both Anthony Fiala and Dillon Wallace had refused to
+introduce him to me before he secured the introduction by Mr. Bradley.
+When Mrs. Cook first saw him, with feminine intuition she said:
+
+"Don't have anything to do with that man. I don't like his looks."
+
+I did not heed this, however. After some futile life insurance talk, he
+surprised me by saying irrelevantly:
+
+"By the way, I have an expert navigator, a friend of mine, who can prove
+that Peary was not at the Pole."
+
+"I have not challenged Mr. Peary's claim," I replied, "and do not wish
+to. The New York _Herald_, however, may listen to what you have to say."
+That was all that was said at the time.
+
+After my return from the western lecture tour, Dunkle seemed to be
+always around, and at every opportunity spoke to me. He gained a measure
+of confidence by criticising the press campaign waged against me. I
+naturally felt kindly toward anyone who was sympathetic. At this time,
+when the problem of accurate observations was worrying me, when my mind
+was beginning to weigh the problem of scientific accuracy--again just at
+the psychological moment--Dunkle brought Loose out to the Gramatan Inn
+and introduced him to me, saying that he was an expert navigator.
+
+Pretending a knowledge of the situation in Europe, Loose told me the
+Danes were becoming impatient. I replied that I was busy preparing my
+report.
+
+"Something ought to be done in the meantime," he said. "Now, I have
+connections with some of the Scandinavian papers, and I think some
+friendly articles in the meantime would allay this unrest."
+
+The idea seemed reasonable; anything that would help me was welcome, and
+I told Loose, if he wanted to, that he might go ahead. He visited me
+several times, and broached the subject of the possible outcome of the
+Copenhagen verdict. By this time I felt fairly friendly with him.
+Finally he brought me several articles. They seemed weak and irrelevant.
+Lonsdale read them, said there was not much to them, but that they might
+help. Loose mailed the articles--or said he did. Then, to my amazement,
+he made the audacious suggestion that I let him go over my material. I
+flatly refused.
+
+He pointed out, what I myself had been thinking about, that all
+observations were subject to extreme inaccuracy. He suggested his
+working mine out backward to verify them. As I regarded him as an
+experienced navigator, I thought this of interest. I was not a
+navigator, and, moreover, had had no chance of checking my figures. So,
+desiring an independent view, and thinking that another man's method
+might satisfy any doubts, I told him to go ahead, using the figures
+published in my story in the New York _Herald_.
+
+At the time I told him to purchase for me a "Bowditch Navigator," which
+I lacked, and any other almanacs and charts he needed for himself. He
+came out to the Gramatan to live. Arrangements for his stay had been
+made by Dunkle--under the name of Lewis, I have been told since--but I
+knew nothing of this at the time. I gave Loose $250, which was to
+compensate him in full for the articles and his running expenses. It
+struck me that he took an unnecessarily long time to finish his work of
+checking my calculations.
+
+Late one night, returning from the city, I went to his room. Dunkle was
+there. Papers were strewn all over the room.
+
+"Well," said Loose, "I think we have this thing all fixed up."
+
+Dunkle, smooth-tongued and friendly as ever, said, "Now, Doctor, I want
+to advise you to put your own observations aside. _Send these to
+Copenhagen!_"
+
+I looked up amazed, incredulous. I felt stunned for the moment, and said
+little. I then took the trouble to look over all the papers carefully.
+There was a full set of faked observations. The examination took me an
+hour. During that time Dunkle and Loose were talking in a low tone. I
+did not hear what they said. I saw at once the game the rascals had been
+playing. The insinuation of their nefarious suggestion for the moment
+cleared my mind, and a dull anger filled me.
+
+"Gentlemen," I said, "pack up every scrap of this paper in that
+dress-suit case. Take all of your belongings and leave this hotel at
+once."
+
+I stood there while they did so. Not a word was spoken. Sheepish and
+silent, they shuffled from the room, ashamed and taken aback. Sick at
+heart at the thought that these men should have considered me
+unscrupulous enough to buy and use their faked figures, I went to my
+room. From that day--November 22--I have not received a letter or
+telegram from either.
+
+Months later, in South America, I read with horrified amazement a
+summary of the account of this occurrence, sold by Dunkle and Loose to
+the New York _Times_. Distorted and twisted as it was I doubt if even
+the _Times_ would have used it had Dunkle and Loose not forced the lie
+that these faked figures were sent to Copenhagen. They knew, as God
+knows, that every scrap of paper on which they wrote was packed in a
+suit-case as dirty as the intent of their sin-blotted paper.
+
+If my report to the Copenhagen University proved anything, it was, by
+comparison, figure by figure, with the affidavits published, that in
+this at least I was guilty of no fraud.
+
+In a re-examination later, a handwriting expert has come to the
+conclusion that the name of Loose was forged, and Loose was later put in
+jail for another offense. To the city editor of a New York evening paper
+Loose offered to sell a story retracting the charges published in the
+_Times_. Dunkle admitted to witnesses that he had been paid for the
+affidavit published in the New York _Times_. Loose, willing to discredit
+the _Times_ story, said, however, he "wanted big money" for a
+retraction. One question that is forced in the interest of fair-play is,
+Why did the New York _Times_, without investigation, print a news item
+by which a man's honor is attacked, which is not only a perjury but a
+forgery? The managing editor was shown the evidence of this forgery,
+admitted its force, but not a word was printed to counteract the harm
+done by printing false news.
+
+Captain E. B. Baldwin, a year later, discovered that this pro-Peary
+faked stuff was in possession of Professor James H. Gore, one of Mr.
+Peary's friends in the National Geographic Society, which prostituted
+its name for Peary by passing upon valueless "proofs." From the methods
+pursued by this society later, I am inclined to the belief that the
+Dunkle-Loose fake was concocted for members of this society. If not, how
+does it happen that Professor Gore is in possession of this faked,
+forged, and perjured stuff?
+
+
+
+
+HOW A GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY PROSTITUTED ITS NAME
+
+XXXVI
+
+THE WASHINGTON VERDICT--THE COPENHAGEN VERDICT
+
+
+While one group of pro-Peary men were early engaged in various
+conspiracies, extending from New York to the Pacific coast, fabricating
+false charges, faking, and forging news items designed to injure me, men
+higher up in Washington were planning other deceptions behind closed
+doors. The Mt. McKinley bribery and the Dunkle-Loose humbug had the
+desired effect in reducing the opposition in Washington, and by December
+of 1909 the controversy was settled to Mr. Peary's satisfaction by a
+group of men who, by deception, betrayed public trust.
+
+The National Geographic Society very early assumed a meddlesome air in
+an effort to dictate the distribution of Polar honors. With the excuse
+that they would give a gold medal to him who could prove priority to the
+claim of Polar discovery, they began a series of movements that would
+put a dishonorable political campaign to shame. In the light of later
+developments, medals from this society are regarded by true scientific
+workers as badges of dishonor. By way of explanation, one of the
+officers said that they made it a rule to examine all original field
+observations before the society honored an explorer. This was a
+deliberate falsehood, for no explorer going to Washington had previously
+packed his field papers and instruments for inspection. If so, then this
+society again convicts itself of a humbug, as it did later. Mr. Peary
+had been given a gold medal for his claim of having reached the farthest
+north in 1906. Peary admitted that his position rested on one imperfect
+observation. I happened, quite by accident, to be in a position, soon
+after Peary's return, to examine the instruments with which the farthest
+north observations had been made. Every apparatus was so bent and
+bruised that further observations were impossible. Of course Peary will
+say that the instruments were injured en route on the return. But this
+does not excuse the idle boast of the members of the National Geographic
+Society, who said that they always examined a returning explorer's field
+notes and apparatus, when in this case they did not see Mr. Peary's
+observations nor his instruments.
+
+As a matter of fact, the National Geographic, like every other
+geographic society, had previously rated the merits of an explorer's
+work by his published reports. Their tactics were now changed to bring
+about a position where they might focus the controversy to Mr. Peary's
+and their advantage. There would have been no harm in this effort, if it
+had been honest; but, as we will see presently, falsehood and deception
+were evident in every move.
+
+The position of the National Geographic Society is very generally
+misunderstood because of its pretentious use of the word "National." In
+reality, it is neither national nor geographic. It is a kind of
+self-admiration society, which serves the mission of a lecture bureau.
+It has no connection with the Government and has no geographic authority
+save that which it assumes. As a lecture bureau it had retained Mr.
+Peary to fill an important position as its principal star for many
+years. To keep him in the field as their head-line attraction they had
+paid $1,000 to Mr. Peary for the very venture now in question. This
+so-called "National" Geographic Society was, therefore, a stock owner in
+the venture upon which they passed as an unbiased jury.
+
+Of course Mr. Peary consented to rest his case in their hands; but, for
+reasons above indicated and for others given below, I refused to have
+any dealings with such an unfair combination. The Government was
+appealed to, and every political and private wire was pulled to compel
+me to submit my case to a packed jury. During all the time when this was
+done, its moving spirits, Gilbert Grosvenor and Admiral Chester, were
+publicly and privately saying things about me and my attainment of the
+Pole that no gentleman would utter. That Mr. Peary was a member of this
+society; that his friends were absolute dictators of the power of
+appointment; that they were stock owners in Mr. Peary's enterprise--all
+of this, and a good many other facts, were carefully suppressed. To the
+public this society declared they were "neutral, unbiased and
+scientific"--no more deliberate lie than which was ever forced upon the
+public.
+
+Of course I refused to place my case in dishonest pro-Peary hands. With
+shameless audacity this society helped Mr. Peary carry along his press
+campaign by disseminating the cowardly slurs of Grosvenor, Chester, and
+others. They watched and encouraged the McKinley bribery; they closed
+their eyes to the Kennan lies. Through Chester and others, they faked
+pages of sensational pseudo-scientific news, all with the one centered
+aim of forcing doubt on opposing interests before the crucial moment,
+when, behind closed doors, the matter could be settled to their liking.
+
+Thus, when Peary, his club, and his affiliated boosters at Washington
+were carrying their press slanders to a focus, there came a loud cry
+from the National Geographic Society for proofs.
+
+With some wrangling, and a good deal of protest from half-hearted men,
+like Professor Moore, a jury was appointed to pass upon Mr. Peary's
+claims and mine. My claims were to be passed upon against my will.
+Unbiased and real Arctic explorers like General Greely and Admiral
+Schley were carefully excluded from this jury. Instead, armchair
+geographers, who were closely related to the Peary interests, were
+appointed as a "neutral jury," as follows:
+
+_Henry Gannett_, a close personal friend of Mr. Peary.
+
+_C. M. Chester_, related to Mr. Peary's fur trader, a member of a
+coterie that divided the profits of fleecing the Eskimos.
+
+_O. H. Tittman_, chief of a department under which part of Mr. Peary's
+work was done.
+
+With a flourish of trumpets, including pages of self-boosting news
+distributed by Mr. Peary's press agents, this commission began its
+important investigation. At the time, it was said that all of Mr.
+Peary's original field papers and instruments were under careful
+scrutiny. Later it was shown that one of the jury saw only COPIES. On
+November 4, 1909, was issued the verdict of this jury: "That Commander
+Peary reached the North Pole on April 6, 1909."
+
+This verdict, at its face value, was fair; but the circumstances which
+surrounded it before and after were such as to raise a doubt that can
+never be removed. With the verdict came the insinuation that no one else
+had reached the Pole before Peary; that my claim of priority was
+dishonest. A nagging press campaign continued to emanate from
+Washington.
+
+I have no objection to Mr. Peary's friends endorsing him--a friend who
+will stretch a point is not to be condemned. But when such friends stoop
+to dishonorable methods to inflict injury upon others, then a protest is
+in order. My aim here is not to deny that Mr. Peary reached the Pole
+near enough for all practical purposes, but to show how men sacrificed
+their word of honor to boost Mr. Peary and to discredit me.
+
+The verdict of this jury which was to settle the controversy for all
+time was sent out on wires that encircled the globe. Soon after there
+was a call for the data upon which that jury passed. The public called
+for it; the Government called for it; foreign geographical societies
+asked for it. No one was allowed to see the wonderful "proofs." Why?
+
+Officially, that commission said that Mr. Peary's contract with a
+magazine prevented the publication of the "proofs." But every member of
+the commission was on the Government pay-roll. Why, may we ask, should
+a Government official be muzzled with a bid for commercial gain? This
+contract was held by Benjamin Hampton, of _Hampton's Magazine_. If
+Hampton's contract muzzled the Government officials, Mr. Hampton thought
+so little of the so-called "proofs" that he did not print them. For, in
+_Hampton's_ installment, with the eye-attracting title, "Peary Proofs
+Positive," the real data upon which the Peary case rests were
+eliminated. Why? In Mr. Peary's own book that material is again
+suppressed. Why? For the same reason that the jury was muzzled. _The
+material would not bear public scrutiny!_
+
+The real difficulty is that, in the haste to floor rival claims, Mr.
+Peary and all his biased helpers fixed as the crucial test of Polar
+attainment an examination of field observations. Mr. Peary had his; he
+had refused to let Whitney bring part of mine from the North; and,
+therefore, he and his friends supposed that I was helpless, by assuming
+this false position. But when Mr. Peary's own material was examined, it
+was found that his position rested on a set of worthless
+observations--calculations of altitudes of the sun so low that it is
+questionable if the observation could have been made at all. So long as
+three men, behind closed doors, could be made to say "Yes, Peary reached
+the Pole," and so long as this verdict came with the authority of a
+Geographic Society and the seeming endorsement of national prestige, the
+false position could be impressed upon the pubic as a _bona-fide_
+verdict. But, with publicity, the whole railroading game would be
+spoiled. These three men could be influenced. But there are a hundred
+thousand other men in the world whose lives depend upon their knowledge
+of just such observations as were here involved. They knew publicity
+would bring the attention of these men to the fact that Mr. Peary's
+polar claim rests upon the impossible observations of a sun at an
+altitude less than 7 deg. above the horizon. The three armchair geographers,
+seldom out of reach of dusty book-shelves, passed upon these worthless
+observations. Not one of one hundred thousand honest sextant experts
+would credit such an observation as that upon which Mr. Peary's case
+rests--not even in home regions, where for centuries tables for
+corrections have been gathered.
+
+[29]A year later, at the Congressional investigation of the Naval
+Committee in Washington, Mr. Peary and two of his jurors admitted that
+in the much-heralded Peary proofs "there was no proof." Members of the
+Geographic Society acknowledged their "examination" of Peary's
+instruments was made in the Pennsylvania Station, when they opened Mr.
+Peary's trunk and casually looked over its contents. Therefore, Mr.
+Peary's claim for a second victory now rests upon his book.
+
+In forcing the controversy, the press and the public have come to the
+conclusion that one or the other report must be discredited. This is an
+incorrect point of view. Each case must be judged upon its own merits.
+To prove my case, it is not necessary to disprove Peary's; nor, to prove
+Peary's, should it have been necessary to try to disprove mine.
+
+Much has been said about my case resting in foreign hands. This came
+about in a natural way. It was not intended to convey the idea that my
+own countrymen were incompetent or dishonest. In the case of the
+National Geographic Society they have irretrievably prostituted their
+name; but the same is not true of other American authorities.
+
+When I came to Copenhagen, the Danish Geographic Society gave me a first
+spontaneous hearing. The Copenhagen University honored me. It was,
+therefore, but proper that the Danes should be the first to pass upon
+the merits of my claim. While these arrangements were in progress, I met
+Professor Thorp, the Rector of the University of Copenhagen, at the
+American Legation. I did not know the purport of that meeting, nor of
+his detailed, careful questions; but on the 6th of September appeared an
+official statement in the press reports. In these it was stated that
+the meeting had been arranged to satisfy the University authorities as
+to whether the Pole had been reached. Among other things, Professor
+Thorp said:
+
+"As there were certain questions of a special astronomical nature with
+which I myself was not sufficiently acquainted, I called in our greatest
+astronomical scientist, Professor Stromgren, who put an exhaustive
+series of mathematical, technical and natural scientific questions to
+Dr. Cook, based particularly on those of his contentions on which some
+doubts had been cast.
+
+"Dr. Cook answered all to our full satisfaction. He showed no
+nervousness or excitement at any time. I dare say, therefore, that there
+is no justification for anybody to throw the slightest doubt on his
+claim to have reached the Pole and the means by which he did it.
+Professor Stromgren and I are entirely satisfied with the evidence."
+
+I have always maintained that the proof of an explorer's doings was not
+to be found in a few disconnected figures, but in the continuity of his
+final book which presents his case. To this end I prepared a report,
+accompanied by the important part of the original field notes and a
+complete set of reduced observations. These were submitted to the
+University of Copenhagen in December of 1909. The verdict on this was
+that in such material there was no absolute proof of the attainment of
+the Pole.
+
+The Peary press agents were in Copenhagen, and sent this news out so as
+to convey the idea that Copenhagen had denounced me; that, in their
+opinion, the Pole had not been reached as claimed, and that I had hoaxed
+the world for sordid gain; all of which was untrue. But the press
+flaunted my name in big headlines as a faker.
+
+"In the Cook data there is no proof," they repeated as the verdict of
+Copenhagen.
+
+A year later Mr. Peary and his jurors confessed unwillingly in Congress
+that in the Peary data there was no proof.
+
+This was reported in the official Congressional pamphlets, but, so far
+as I know, not a single newspaper displayed the news. The two cases,
+therefore, so far as verdicts go, are parallel.
+
+Wearied of the whole problem of undesirable publicity; mentally and
+physically exhausted; disgusted with the detestable and slanderous
+campaign, which, for Mr. Peary, the press forced unremittingly, I
+decided to go away for a year, to rest and recuperate. This could not be
+done if I took the press into my confidence; and, therefore, I quietly
+departed from New York, to be joined by my family later. Out of the
+public eye, life, for me, assumed a new interest. In the meantime, the
+public agitation was stilled. Time gave a better perspective to the
+case; Mr. Peary got that for which his hand had reached. He was made a
+Rear-Admiral, with a pension of $6,000 under retirement.
+
+By the time I had resolved my case, I received through my brother,
+William L. Cook, of Brooklyn, and my London solicitor, various offers
+from newspapers and magazines for any statement I desired to make.
+Because I had gone away quietly and remained in seclusion, the
+newspapers had inflamed the public with an abnormal curiosity in my
+so-called mysterious disappearance. This fact imparted a great
+sensational value to any news of my public reappearance or to any
+statement which I might make. Eager to secure a "beat," newspapers were
+offering my brother as high as one thousand dollars merely for my
+address. The New York newspaper which had led the attack against me sent
+an offer, through my London solicitor, of any figure which I might make
+for my first exclusive statement to the public. One magazine offered me
+ten thousand dollars for a series of articles.
+
+While in London I received a message from Mr. T. Everett Harry, of
+_Hampton's Magazine_, concerning the publication of a series of articles
+explaining my case. Mr. Harry came to London and talked over plans for
+these. The opportunity of addressing the same public, through the same
+medium, as Mr. Peary had in his serial story, strongly influenced me--in
+fact, so strongly that, while I had a standing offer of ten thousand
+dollars, I finally gave my articles to _Hampton's_ for little more than
+four thousand dollars.
+
+In order that _Hampton's Magazine_ might benefit by the publicity
+attaching to my first statement, and in response to the editor's
+request, I came quietly to the United States with Mr. Harry, by way of
+Canada, to consult with the editor before making final arrangements. Mr.
+Harry and I had agreed upon the outline for the articles. They were to
+be a series of heart-to-heart talks, embodying the psychological phases
+of the Polar controversy and my own actions. In these I determined fully
+to state my case, explain the ungracious controversy, and analyze the
+impossibility of mathematically ascertaining the Pole or of proving such
+a claim by figures. The articles that eventually appeared in
+_Hampton's_, with the exception of unauthorized editorial changes and
+excisions of vitally important matter concerning Mr. Peary, were
+practically the same as planned in London.
+
+Coming down from Quebec, I stopped in Troy, New York, to await Mr.
+Hampton, who was to come from New York. While there, a sub-editor, with
+all a newspaper man's sensational instincts, came to see me. He
+communicated, it seems, a brilliant scheme for a series of articles. As
+he outlined it, I was to go secretly to New York, submit myself to
+several employed alienists who should pronounce me insane, whereupon I
+was to write several articles in which I should admit having arrived at
+the conclusion that I reached the Pole while mentally unbalanced! This
+admission was to be supported by the alienists' purchased report! This
+plan, I was told, would "put me right" and make a great sensational
+story!
+
+When I was told of this I felt staggered. Did people--could they--deem
+me such a hoax that, in order to obtain an unwarranted sympathy, or to
+make money, I should be willing to admit to such a shameful, mad,
+atrocious and despicable lie? I said nothing when the suggestion was
+made. At heart, I felt achingly hurt. I felt that this newspaper man,
+not hesitating at deceiving the public in order to get a sensation,
+regarded me as a scoundrel. I was learning, too, as I had throughout the
+heart-bitter controversy, the duplicity of human nature.
+
+After a talk with Mr. Hampton, who finally arrived, and who, I am glad
+to say, had no such suggestion himself to offer, I got to work on my
+articles after the general plan spoken of in London. These were written
+at the Palatine Hotel, in Newburgh. The articles finished, I returned to
+London to settle certain business matter prior to my public return to
+America by Christmas.
+
+Imagine my amazed indignation when, shortly before sailing, the cables
+brought the untrue news, "Dr. Cook Confesses." Imagine my heart-aching
+dismay when, on reaching the shores of my native country, I found the
+magazine which was running the articles in which I hoped to explain
+myself, had blazoned the sensation-provoking lie over its cover--"Dr.
+Cook's Confession."
+
+I had made no confession. I had made the admission that I was uncertain
+as to having reached the exact mathematical Pole. That same admission
+Mr. Peary would have to make had he been pinned down. He did make this
+admission, in fact, while his own articles, a year before, were being
+prepared, in the _Hampton's_ office.
+
+In order to advertise itself, the magazine employed the trick of
+construing a mere admission of uncertainty as to the exact pin-point
+attainment of the Pole as a "confession." To the public I had apparently
+authorized this. The misrepresentation hurt me, and for a time placed me
+in an unhappy dilemma.
+
+Before the appearance of the January _Hampton's_, in which the first
+instalment of my articles appeared, a series of press stories supposedly
+based upon my forthcoming articles were prepared and sent out by the
+sub-editor who had suggested the insanity plan. These were prepared
+during the absence of Mr. Harry in Atlantic City. By picking garbled
+extracts from my articles about the impossibility of a pin-point
+determination of the Pole, and the crazy mirage-effects of the Arctic
+world, these news-stories were construed to the effect that I admitted I
+did not know whether I had been at the North Pole or whether I had not
+been at the North Pole, and also that I admitted to a plea of insanity.
+These stories were printed on the first pages of hundreds of newspaper
+all over the country, under scareheads of "Dr. Cook Admits Fake!" and
+"Dr. Cook Makes Plea of Insanity!"
+
+In these reports, written by the sub-editor, he gave himself credit for
+the "discovery" of Dr. Cook and the securing of his articles for
+_Hampton's_. This claim for the magazine "beat" was as dishonest as his
+handling of the press matter for _Hampton's_. My dealings with the
+magazine were entirely through Mr. Harry, whose frankness and
+fair-dealing early disposed me to give my story to the publication he
+represented.
+
+The widespread dissemination of the untrue and cruelly unfair
+"confession" and "insanity-plea" stories dazed me. I felt impotent,
+crushed. In my very effort to explain myself I was being irretrievably
+hurt. I was being made a catspaw for magazine and newspaper sensation.
+
+But misrepresentations do not make history. The American people cannot
+always be hoodwinked. The reading public soon realized that my story was
+no more a confession than the "Peary Proof Positive" instalment in
+Hampton's had been the embodiment of any real Polar proofs.
+
+Finding that it was impossible, in magazines and newspapers, to tell
+the full truth; finding that what I did say was garbled and distorted, I
+concluded to reserve the detailed facts for this book. There were truths
+about Mr. Peary which, I suppose, no paper would have dared to print. I
+have told them here. There were truths about myself which, because they
+explain me, the papers, preferring to attack me, would not have printed.
+I have told them here.
+
+I climbed Mt. McKinley, by my own efforts, without assistance; I reached
+the Pole, save for my Eskimos, alone. I had spent no one's money, lost
+no lives. I claimed my victory honestly; and as a man believing in
+himself and his personal rights, at a time when I was nervously unstrung
+and viciously attacked, I went away to rest, rather than deal in dirty
+defamation, alone. At a time when the tables seemed turned, when the
+wolves of the press were desirous of rending me, I came back to my
+country--alone.
+
+I have now made my fight; I have been compelled to extreme measures of
+truth-telling that are abhorrent to me. I have done this because,
+otherwise, people would not understand the facts of the Polar
+controversy or why I, reluctant, remained silent so long. I have done
+this single-handedly. I have confidence in my people; more than that, I
+have implicit and indomitable confidence in--Truth.
+
+
+
+
+RETROSPECT
+
+
+Returning from the North, in September, 1909, while being honored in
+Copenhagen for my success in reaching the North Pole, there came, by
+wireless from Labrador, messages from Robert E. Peary, claiming the
+attainment exclusively as his own, and declaring that in my assertion I
+was, in his vernacular, offering the world a "gold brick."
+
+On April 21, 1908, I had reached a spot which I ascertained, with as
+scientific accuracy as possible, to be the top of the axis around which
+the world spins--the North Pole.
+
+On April 6, 1909, a year later, Mr. Peary claimed to have reached the
+same spot.
+
+To substantiate his charge of fraud, Peary declared that my Eskimo
+companions had said I had been only two sleeps from land. Why, he
+further asked, had I not taken reputable witnesses with me on such a
+trip?
+
+I had taken, on my final dash, two expert Eskimos. Mr. Peary had four
+Eskimos and a negro body servant.
+
+Before launching further charges, Mr. Peary delayed his ship, the
+_Roosevelt_, at Battle Harbor, on the pretext of cleaning it, that he
+might digest my New York _Herald_ story, compare it with his own, and
+fabricate his broadside of abuse. There he was in constant communication
+with the New York _Times_, General Thomas Hubbard--president of the
+Peary Arctic Club and financial sponsor of the "trust"--and Herbert L.
+Bridgman. The _Times_, eager to "beat" the _Herald_, was desirous of
+descrediting me and launching Peary's as the _bona-fide_ North Pole
+discovery story. General Hubbard, Mr. Bridgman, and the "trust" were
+eager for a publicity and acclaim greater than that which might attach
+to any honorable second victor. Dishonor and perjury, to secure first
+honors, were not even to be weighed in the balance.
+
+When I arrived in New York, I was confronted by a series of technical
+questions, designed to baffle me. These questions, I learned, had been
+sent to the _Times_ by Mr. Peary with instructions that the _Times_ "get
+after" me.
+
+I answered these questions. I had answered them in Europe. Mr. Peary,
+when he arrived at Sydney, and afterward, refused to answer any
+questions. He continued simply to attack me, to make insinuations
+aspersing my honesty, playing the secret back-hand game of defamation
+conducted by his friends of his Arctic Club.
+
+Why had I not, on my return from my Polar trip, told anyone of the
+achievement, Mr. Peary asked in an interview, aiming to show that my
+Polar attainment was an afterthought.
+
+On my return to Etah I had told Harry Whitney and Pritchard. They, in
+turn, told Captain Bob Bartlett. Captain Bartlett, as well as the
+Eskimos, in turn told Peary at Etah that I claimed to have reached the
+Pole. At the very moment when this charge was made, Peary had in his
+pocket Captain Adams' letter which gave the same information. Why did
+Mr. Peary suppress this information, convicting himself of insinuating
+an untruth from three different sources to challenge my claim.
+Returning from the North with the negro, Henson, and Eskimos, Mr. Peary
+himself had not told his own companions on the _Roosevelt_ of his own
+success. Why was this?
+
+In a portentous statement Mr. Peary and his party declared my Eskimos
+said I had not been more than two sleeps from land.
+
+I had instructed my companions not to tell Peary of my achievement. He
+had stolen my supplies. I felt him unworthy of the confidence of a
+brother explorer. I had encouraged the delusion of E-tuk-i-shook and
+Ah-we-lah that almost daily mirages and low-lying clouds were signs of
+land, so as to prevent the native panic and desertion on the circumpolar
+sea. They had possibly told this to Peary in all honesty; but other
+natives also told him that we had reached the "Big Nail."
+
+Why was the news to Mr. Peary's liking given, while that which he did
+not like was ignored?
+
+Not long ago, Matthew Henson, interviewed in the south, was quoted as
+saying that Peary did not get to the Pole. In another interview he said
+that Peary, like a tenderfoot, rode in a fur-cushioned sledge until they
+got to a place which was "far enough." I still prefer to believe Peary
+rather than Henson. Peary's Eskimo companions of a former trip
+positively deny Peary's claimed discovery of Crocker Land. I still
+prefer to believe that Crocker Land does deserve a place on the map.
+Peary's last Eskimo companions say that he did not reach the Pole. But I
+prefer to credit his claim. Mr. Peary's spirit has never been that of
+fairness to others when a claim impinges upon his own. He has always
+adopted the tactics of the claim-jumper.
+
+In a like manner, and with similar intent, Mr. Peary had attacked many
+explorers before me. To prevent his companions from profiting by their
+own work, members of each expedition were forced to sign contracts that
+barred press interviews, eliminated cameras, prohibited lecturing or
+writing, or even trading for trophies. To insure Mr. Peary all the
+honor, his men were made slaves to his cause.
+
+In a quarrel which resulted from these impossible conditions, Eivind
+Astrup was assailed. Broken-hearted, he committed suicide. Captain Otto
+Sverdrup was made to feel the sting of the same grasping spirit. General
+A. W. Greely has been unjustly attacked. All of this detestable
+selfishness culminated in the treatment of Captain Bob Bartlett. When
+the Pole, to Peary, seemed within reach, and the glory of victory was
+within grasp, the ever-faithful Bartlett was turned back and his place
+was taken by a negro, that Peary might be, to quote his own words, "the
+only white man at the Pole."
+
+When, on my return to New York, I found myself attacked by a man of this
+caliber, I decided that the public, without any counter-defamation on my
+part, would read him aright and see through the unscrupulous and
+dishonest campaign. So I remained silent.
+
+Coming down to Portland from Sydney, where he had landed, Mr. Peary gave
+out an interview insinuating that I had had no instruments with which to
+take observations. "Would Dr. Cook," he asked, "if he had had
+instruments, have left them in the hands of a stranger (Harry Whitney),
+when upon these depended his fame or his dishonor?"
+
+On his return to this country, Mr. Whitney corroborated my statement of
+leaving my instruments with him. Mr. Peary's own captain, who had
+cross-questioned my Eskimos for Mr. Peary, later stated to two magazine
+editors that my companions had described to him the instruments I had
+had. Is it reasonable to suppose that Mr. Peary did not know of this? I
+know that he knew. If he is an honest man, why did he stoop to this
+dishonesty? Even if he believed me to be dishonest, dishonest methods
+only placed him in the class of the one he attacked as dishonest.
+
+By using the same underhand methods, as when he got the New York _Times_
+to cross-question me for himself, Peary now got his friends of the
+Geographic Society, who had boosted him, to call for "proofs." Such
+proofs, it appeared, should always be presented before public honors
+were accepted or the returns of a lecture tour considered. But Peary had
+engaged in exploration for twenty years, and had always given lectures
+at once, without ever offering proofs. I was asked to cancel lecture
+engagements and furnish what Peary knew neither he nor anybody else
+could furnish offhand. For the proof of an explorer's doings is his
+final book, which requires months and years to prepare.
+
+With much blaring of trumpets, the Peary "proofs" were submitted to his
+friends of the National Geographic Society. With but a casual
+examination of copies of data, claimed at the time to be original field
+notes, with no explanation of the wonderful instruments upon which it
+had been earlier claimed Polar honors rested, an immediate and
+favorable verdict was rendered.
+
+A huge picture was published, showing learned, bewhiskered gentlemen
+examining the Peary "proofs," and reaching their verdict. Mr. Peary's
+case for a rediscovery of the Pole was won--for the time. The public
+were deceived into believing that positive proofs had been presented;
+that the society, acting as a competent and neutral jury, was honest.
+Later it was shown that its members were financially interested in Mr.
+Peary's expedition, and still later it was admitted that the Peary
+proofs contained no proof. All of this later development has had no
+publicity.
+
+In the meantime, I was attacked for delay. My data was finally sent to
+the University of Copenhagen. A verdict of "Unproven" was rendered.
+
+Thereupon, Mr. Peary and his friends at once shouted "Fraud!" The press
+parrot-like re-echoed that shout. With this unfair insinuation there
+came to me the biting sting of a burning electric shock as the wires
+quivered all around the world. At the Congressional investigation, a
+year later, the Peary data was shown to be useless as proof. It was a
+verdict precisely like that of Copenhagen on mine, but the press did not
+print it. Did the Peary interests have any control over the American
+press or its sources of news distribution?
+
+After the call for "proof" came charges, from members of the Peary
+cabal, that I was unable to take observations. Mr. Peary was so much
+better equipped than I to do so! Moreover, he had had the able
+scientific assistance of Bartlett and--the negro.
+
+When I was at the Pole the sun was 12 deg. above the horizon. At the time
+Peary claims he was there it was less than 7 deg.. Difficult as it is to
+take observations at 12 deg., because of refracted light, any accurate
+observation at 7 deg. is impossible. It is indeed, questionable if an
+observation could be made at all at the time when Peary claims to have
+been at the Pole.
+
+Finding that, despite all charges, the public believed in me, Mr. Peary,
+through his cooeperators, attempted to discredit my veracity. An
+affidavit, which was bought, as I have evidence to prove, was made by
+Barrill to the effect that I had not climbed Mt. McKinley. The getting
+of this affidavit is placed at the door of Mr. Peary.
+
+Do honest men, with honest intentions, buy perjured documents?
+
+Do honest men, believing in themselves, besmirch their own honor by
+deliberate lying?
+
+Dunkle and Loose came to me, offered to look over the observations in my
+_Herald_ story, and--suddenly--to my amazement--offered a set of faked
+observations, manufactured at the instigation of someone. I refused the
+batch of faked papers, and turned the two nefarious conspirators out of
+my hotel.
+
+A comparison of my Copenhagen report with the Dunkle perjured story,
+later printed in the New York _Times_, proves I used not one of their
+figures. Mr. R. J. McLouglin later proved that the hand which signed
+"Dunkle" also signed "Loose" to that lying document. It is, therefore,
+not only a perjury, but a forgery.
+
+Recently, Professor J. H. Gore, a member of the National Geographic
+Society, and one of Peary's friends, acknowledged to Evelyn B. Baldwin
+that he had in his possession the faked observations which were made by
+Dunkle and Loose.
+
+How did he come by them? Why does he have them? What were the relations
+between Dunkle and Loose, Peary's friends, the New York _Times_, and the
+National Geographic Society? Do honest men, with honest intentions,
+conspire with men of this sort, men who offered to sell me faked
+figures--most likely to betray me had I been dishonest enough to buy
+them--and who, failing, perjured themselves?
+
+Disgusted, I decided to let my enemies exhaust their abuse. I knew it
+eventually would rebound. Determined to retire to rest, to resolve my
+case in quietude and secrecy, I left America. My enemies gleefully
+proclaimed this an admission of imposture.
+
+Yet, after they had turned almost every newspaper in the country against
+me, having rested, having resolved my case, having secured damaging
+proofs of the facts of the conspiracy against me, I returned to America.
+
+Realizing my error in so long remaining silent; realizing the power of a
+sensation-seeking press, which has no respect for individuals or of
+truth, I determined, painful as would be the task, to tell the
+unpleasant, distasteful truth about the man who tried to besmirch my
+name. This may seem unkind. But I was kind too long. Truth is often
+unpleasant, but it is less malicious than the sort of lies hurled at me.
+
+After I had left America, the newspapers, desirous of sensation, had
+played into the hands of those who, with seeming triumph, assailed me.
+But meanwhile, however, I was taking advantage of the opportunity to
+rest and gain an accurate perspective of the situation. I thought out my
+case, considered it pro and con, puzzled out the reasons for, and the
+source of, the newspaper clamor against me. Through friends in America
+who worked quietly and effectively, I secured evidence, which is
+embodied in affidavits, which laid bare the methods employed to
+discredit me in the Mt. McKinley affair. I learned of the methods used,
+and just what charges were made, to discredit my Polar claim. Damaging
+admissions were secured concerning Mr. Peary's fabricated attacks from
+the mouths of Mr. Peary's own associates. Knowing these facts, at the
+proper time, I returned to my native country to confront my enemies. I
+have proceeded in detail to state my case and reveal the hitherto
+unknown inside facts of the entire Polar controversy. I have stated
+certain facts before the public. Neither Mr. Peary nor his friends have
+replied. One point in the Polar controversy has never reached the
+public. Both Mr. Peary and many of his friends asserted that I left the
+country just in time to escape criminal prosecution. They said the
+charge was to be that I had obtained money on a false pretence by
+accepting fees for lecturing on my discovery. I returned to America. I
+have been lecturing for fees on my discovery since; I have not yet been
+prosecuted.
+
+Were Mr. Peary not the sort of man who would stoop to dishonor, to
+discredit a rival in order to gain an unfair advantage for himself, were
+he not guilty of the gross injustice I have stated, he would have had
+all the opportunity in the world for effectively coming back at me. But
+he has remained silent. Why?
+
+I have, as I have said, absolute confidence in the good sense, spirit of
+fair-play, and ability of reasoning judgment of my people. My case
+rests, not with any body of armchair explorers or kitchen geographers,
+but with Arctic travelers who can see beyond the mist of selfish
+interests, and with my fellow-countrymen, who breathe normal air and
+view without bias the large open fields of honest human endeavor.
+
+In this book I have stated my case, presented my proofs. As to the
+relative merits of my claim, and Mr. Peary's, place the two records side
+by side. Compare them. I shall be satisfied with your decision.
+
+                                                  FREDERICK A. COOK.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+
+[1] Accused of being the most colossal liar of history, I sometimes feel
+that more lies have been told about me than about anyone ever born. I
+have been guilty of many mistakes. Most men really true to themselves
+admit that. My claim to the North Pole may always be questioned. Yet,
+when I regard the lies great and small attached to me, I am filled
+almost with indifference.
+
+As a popular illustration of the sort of yarns that were told, let me
+refer to the foolish fake of the gum drops. Someone started the story
+that I expected to reach the Pole by bribing the Eskimos with gum
+drops--perhaps the idea was that I was to lure them on from point to
+point with regularly issued rations of these confections.
+
+Wherever I went on my lecture tour after my return to the United States,
+much to my irritation I saw "Cook" gum drops conspicuously displayed in
+confectionery store windows. Hundreds of pounds of gum drops were sent
+to my hotel with the compliments of the manufacturers. On all sides I
+heard the gum-drop story, and in almost every paper read the reiterated
+tale of leading the Eskimos to the Pole by dangling a gum drop on a
+string before them. I never denied this, as I never denied any of the
+fakes printed about me. The fact is, that I never heard the gum-drop
+yarn until I came to New York. We took no gum drops with us on our Polar
+trip, and, to my knowledge, no Eskimo ate a gum drop while with me.
+
+
+[2] Among the many things which the public has been misled into
+believing is that Mr. Bradley and I together connived the trip for the
+purpose of essaying this quest of the Pole. The fact is, not until I
+reached Annoatok, and saw that conditions were favorable for a long
+sledge journey, did I finally determine to make a Poleward trip; not
+until then did I tell my decision definitely to Mr. Bradley.
+
+One of the big mistakes which has been pounded into the public mind is
+that the proposed Polar exploit was expensively financed. It did cost a
+great deal to finance the planned hunting trip. Mr. Bradley's expenses
+aggregated, perhaps, $50,000, but my journey Northward, which was but an
+extension of this yachting cruise, cost comparatively little.
+
+
+[3] The killing of Astrup.--The head of Melville Bay was explored by
+Eivind Astrup while a member of the Peary expedition of 1894-1895.
+Astrup had been a member of the first expedition, serving without pay,
+during 1891 and 1892 and proving himself a loyal supporter and helper of
+Mr. Peary, when he crossed the inland ice in 1892. As a result of eating
+pemmican twenty years old, in 1895, Astrup was disabled by poisoning,
+due to Peary's carelessness in furnishing poisoned food. Recovering from
+this illness, he selected a trustworthy Eskimo companion, went south,
+and under almost inconceivable difficulties, explored and mapped the ice
+walls, with their glaciers and mountains, and the off-lying islands of
+Melville Bay. This proved a creditable piece of work of genuine
+discovery. Returning, he prepared his data and published it, thus
+bringing credit and honor on an expedition which was in other respects a
+failure.
+
+Astrup's publication of this work aroused Peary's envy. Publicly, Peary
+denounced Astrup. Astrup, being young and sensitive, brooded over this
+injustice and ingratitude until he had almost lost his reason. The abuse
+was of the same nature as that heaped on others, the same as that
+finally hurled at me in the wireless "Gold Brick" slurs. For days and
+weeks, Astrup talked of nothing but the infamy of Peary's attack on
+himself and the contemptible charge of desertion which Peary made
+against Astrup's companions. Then he suddenly left my home, returned to
+Norway, and we next heard of his suicide. Here is one life directly
+chargeable to Peary's narrow and intolerant brutality. Directly this was
+not murder with a knife--but it was as heinous--for a young and noble
+life was cut short by the cowardly dictates of jealous egotism.
+
+
+[4] The Death of John M. Verhoeff.--As we passed Robertson Bay, there
+came up memories of the tragedy of Verhoeff. This young man was a member
+of Peary's first expedition, in 1891. He had paid $2,000 toward the fund
+of the expedition. Verhoeff was young and enthusiastic. He gave his
+time, his money, and he risked his life for Peary. He was treated with
+about the same consideration as that accorded the Eskimo dogs. When I
+last saw him in camp, he was in tears, telling of Peary's injustice.
+Mrs. Peary--I advert to this with all possible reluctance--had done much
+to make his life bitter, and over this he talked for days. Finally he
+said: "I will never go home in the same ship with that man and that
+woman." It was the last sentence he uttered in my hearing. He did not go
+home in that ship. Instead, he wandered off over the glacier, where he
+left his body in the blue depths of a crevasse.
+
+
+[5] Before he sailed on his last Northern expedition Mr. Peary, learning
+that I had preceded him, took the initial step in his campaign to
+discredit me by issuing a statement to the effect that I was bent upon
+the unfair and dishonest purpose of enlisting in my aid Eskimos which he
+had the exclusive right to command. Mr. Peary's attitude that the
+Eskimos, because he had given them guns, powder and needles, belong to
+him, is as absurd as his pretension to the sole ownership of the North
+Pole. Although Mr. Peary had spent about a quarter of a century essaying
+the task by means of luxurious expeditions, he had done little more than
+other explorers and did not, in my opinion, either secure an option on
+the Pole or upon the services of the natives. In giving guns, etc., to
+the natives he also did no more than other explorers, and the Danes for
+many years, have done. Nor was this with him a magnanimous matter of
+gracious bounty, for, in prodigal return for all he gave them, Mr. Peary
+on every expedition secured a fortune in furs and ivory. The Eskimos
+belong to no one. For ages they have worked out their rigorous existence
+without the aid of white men, and Mr. Peary's pretension becomes not
+only absurd but grotesque when one realizes that following the arrival
+of ships with white crews, the natives have fallen easy victims of
+loathsome epidemics, mostly of a specific nature, for which the trivial
+gifts of any explorer would ill repay them.
+
+
+[6] One of the charges which Mr. Peary circulated before he returned
+North in 1908, was, that I violated a rule of Polar ethics by not
+applying for a license to seek the Pole, nor giving notice of my
+proposed trip. There is no such rule in Polar ethics. The following
+letter, however, to his press agent, Mr. Herbert Bridgman, dated Etah,
+August 26, 1907, answers the charge:
+
+"My dear Bridgman: I have hit upon a new route to the North Pole and
+will stay to try it. By way of Buchanan Bay and Ellesmere Land and
+northward through Nansen Strait over the Polar sea seems to me to be a
+very good route. There will be game to the 82 deg., and here are natives and
+dogs for the task. So here is for the Pole. Mr. Bradley will tell you
+the rest. Kind regards to all--F. A. Cook."
+
+"It will be remembered," continued Mr. Bridgman, in his press reports,
+"that Dr. Cook, accompanied by John R. Bradley, Captain Moses Bartlett,
+and a number of Eskimos, left North Sidney, N. S., early last July on
+the American Auxiliary Schooner Yacht _John R. Bradley_, which landed
+the party at Smith Sound. Mr. Bradley returned to North Sydney on the
+yacht on October 1. _The expedition is provisioned for two years and
+fully equipped with dogs and sledges for the trip. The party is
+wintering thirty miles further north than Peary did two years ago._"
+
+And yet Bridgman, in line with the indefatigable pro-Peary boosters,
+later tried to lead the public to believe that I had nothing but gum
+drops with which to undertake a trip to the Pole. This same Bridgman
+also printed in what Brooklyn people call the "Standard Liar" the fake
+about my using, as my own, photographs said to belong to the newspaper
+cub, Herbert Berri.
+
+For fifteen years Bridgman used my photographs and my material for his
+lectures on the Arctic and Antarctic, generally without giving credit.
+Evidently, my work and my results were good enough for him to borrow as
+Peary did. So long as my usefulness served the Bridgman-Peary interests,
+there was no question of my credibility, but when my success interfered
+with the monopoly of the fruits of Polar attainment, then I was to be
+striped with dark lines of dishonor.
+
+The most amusing and also the most significant incident of the
+Bridgman-Peary humbug was the faked wireless message which Bridgman
+printed for Peary in his paper. Peary claims he reached the Pole on
+April 6, 1909. In the Standard Union, Brooklyn, of April 14, 1909 (eight
+days after the alleged discovery), Peary's friend H. L. Bridgman, one of
+the owners, printed the following:
+
+"PEARY DUE NORTH POLE TWELVE M., THURSDAY"
+
+(APRIL 15, 1909).
+
+Is Mr. Bridgman a psychic medium? How, with Peary thousands of miles
+away, hundreds of miles from the most northerly wireless station, did he
+sense the amazing feat? Were he and Peary in telepathic communication?
+Or, rather, does this not seem to point to an agreement entered into
+before the departure of Peary, about a year before the attempt was made,
+to announce on a certain day the "discovery" of the Pole?
+
+From other sources we learn that the timing of the arrival of the ship
+at Cape Sheridan seems to have been made good, but in an apparent effort
+on the part of Peary to keep faith with Bridgman on April 15, we find
+him in trouble. If Peary arranged his "discovery" for this agreed date,
+he would have had to take nine days for his return trip from the Pole.
+This would increase his speed limit 50 per cent., and since he is
+regarded with suspicion on his speed limits, to make his "Pole
+Discovery" story fit in between the known time when he left Bartlett and
+the time when he got back to the ship, he was compelled to break faith
+with Bridgman and went back nine days on his calendar, placing the date
+of Pole reaching at April 6.
+
+
+[7] _Game List._--The following animals were captured from August 15,
+1907, to May 15, 1909:
+
+Two thousand four hundred and twenty-two birds, 311 Arctic hares, 320
+blue and white foxes, 32 Greenland reindeer, 4 white reindeer, 22 polar
+bears, 52 seals, 73 walrus, 21 narwhals, 3 white whales, and 206 musk
+oxen.
+
+
+[8] Auroras in the Arctic are best seen in more southern latitudes. The
+display here described was the brightest observed on this trip. Not more
+than three or four others were noted during the following year, but in
+previous trips I have witnessed some very wonderful color and motion
+displays.
+
+The best illustrations of this remarkable color of aurora and night come
+from the brush of Mr. Frank Wilbert Stokes. These were reproduced in the
+_Century Magazine_ of February, 1903. After their appearance, Mr. Peary
+accorded to Mr. Stokes (a member of his expedition) the same sort of
+treatment as he had accorded Astrup--the same as that shown to others.
+In a letter to the late Richard Watson Gilder, editor of the _Century_,
+he denounced and did his utmost to discredit Mr. Stokes by insisting
+that no such remarkable colors are displayed by the aurora borealis. Mr.
+Gilder replied, in defense of Mr. Stokes, by quoting from Peary's own
+book, "Northward," Vol. II, pages 194, 195, 198 and 199, descriptions of
+even more remarkable color effects.
+
+
+[9] The so-called "Jesup" sled, which Mr. Peary used on his last Polar
+trip, is a copy of the Eskimo sledge, a lumbering, unwieldy thing
+weighing over one hundred pounds and which bears the same relation to a
+refined bent-hickory vehicle that a lumber cart does to an express
+wagon. In this "Jesup" sledge there is a dead weight of over fifty
+pounds of useless wood. The needless weight thus carried can, in a
+better sledge, be replaced by fifty pounds of food. This fifty pounds
+will feed one man over the entire route to the Pole. Mr. Peary claims
+that the Pole is not reachable without this sled, but Borup, in his
+book, reports that most of the sledges were broken at the first trial.
+
+Since an explorer's success is dependent upon his ability to transport
+food it behooves him to eliminate useless weight. Therefore, the solid
+runner sled is as much out of place as a solid wood wheel would be in an
+automobile.
+
+
+[10] A great deal of careful search and study was prosecuted about
+Svartevoeg, for here Peary claims to have left a cache, the alleged
+placing of which he has used as a pretext for attempting to take from
+the map the name of Svartevoeg, given by Sverdrup, when he discovered
+it, to the northern part of Heiberg Land. Peary, coming later, put on
+his map the name Cape Thomas Hubbard, for one who had put easy money in
+his hands. But no such cache was found, and I doubt very much if Peary
+ever reached this point, except through a field-glass at very long
+range.
+
+
+[11] On their return to Etah, and after I had left for Upernavik, my
+Eskimos, questioned by Mr. Peary, who was anxious to secure anything
+that might serve towards discrediting me, answered innocently that they
+had been only a few sleeps from land. This unwilling and naive admission
+was published in a pretentious statement, the purpose of which was to
+cast doubt on my claim. Other answers of my Eskimos, to the effect that
+I had instruments and had made constant observations, it is curious to
+note, were suppressed by Mr. Peary and his party on their return. Every
+insinuation was made to the effect that I had had no instruments, had
+consequently taken no observations, and had, therefore, no means of
+ascertaining the Pole even had I wished to do so.
+
+
+[12] My enemies credit me with a journey of two thousand miles, which is
+double Peary's greatest distance; but then, to deny my Polar attainment,
+they keep me sitting here, on a sterile waste of ice, for three months.
+Would any man sit down there and shiver in idleness, when the reachable
+glory of Polar victory was on one side and the get-at-able gastronomic
+joy of game land on the other? Only a crazy man would do that, and we
+were too busy to lose our mental balance at that time. When leg-force
+controls human destiny, and a half-filled stomach clears the brain for
+action, for a long time, at least, insanity is very remote. Furthermore,
+the Eskimo boys said we traveled on the ice-pack for seven moons, and
+that we reached a place where the sun does not dip at night; where the
+day and night shadows were of equal length. Has Mr. Peary reached that
+point? If so, neither he nor his Eskimos have noted it.
+
+
+[13] After my return to Copenhagen I was widely quoted as declaring that
+I had discovered and traversed 30,000 square miles of new land. What I
+did report was that in my journey I had passed through an area wherein
+it was possible to declare 30,000 square miles--a terrestrial unknown of
+water and ice--cleared from the blank of our charts. I have been quoted
+as describing this land as "a paradise for hunters" and criticised on
+the ground that animal life does not exist so far north. Whether animal
+life existed there, I do not know, for the impetus of my quest left no
+time to investigate. I passed the last game at Heiberg Land.
+
+In my diary of the day's doings, only the results of observations were
+written down. The detail calculations were made on loose sheets of paper
+and in other note books--wherein was recorded all instrumental data.
+Later all my observations were reduced in the form in which they were to
+be finally presented. Therefore, these field papers with their
+miscellaneous notes had served their purpose, as had the instruments;
+and for this reason most of the material was left with Harry Whitney. A
+few of the important calculations were kept more as a curiosity. These
+will be presented as we go along. Those left I thought might later be
+useful for a re-examination of the results; but it never occurred to me
+that Whitney would be forced to bury the material, as he was by Peary. I
+do not regard those buried notes as being proof or as being particularly
+valuable, except as proving Peary to be one of the most ungracious and
+selfish characters in history.
+
+In the subsequent excitement, because Peary cried fraud on the very
+papers which he had buried for me, an agitated group of American
+armchair explorers came to the conclusion against the dictates of
+history that the proof of the Polar quest was to be found in the
+re-examination of the figures of the observations for position.
+
+Part of mine were buried. Peary had his. Thus handicapped, because
+blocks of my field calculations were absent, with the instruments and
+chronometer corrections, I rested my case at Copenhagen on a report, the
+original notes giving the brief tabulations of the day's doings, and the
+complete set of reduced observations.
+
+My friends have criticised me for not sending the data given below and
+similar observations to Copenhagen to prove my claim, but I did not deem
+it worth while to present more, taking the ground that if in this there
+was not sufficient material to explain the movement step by step of the
+Polar quest, then no academic examination could be of any value. This
+viewpoint, as I see it at present, was a mistake. I am now presenting
+every scrap of paper and every isolated fact, not as proof but as part
+of the record of the expedition, with due after-thought, and the better
+perspective afforded by time. Every explorer does this. Upon such a
+record history has always given its verdict of the value of an
+explorer's work. It will do the same in estimating the relative merits
+of the Polar quest.
+
+=Observation as figured out in original field paper for March 30, 1908=:
+Longitude 95.36. Bar. 30.10 had risen from 29.50 in 2 hours. Temp. -34 deg..
+Wind 2. Mag. N. E. Clouds Mist W.-Water bands E.
+
+                            ----
+         951/2           Noon, 0       18--46--10
+          4                 ----     18--48--20
+       +---------            0     +-------------
+    60 | 382                     2 | 37--34--30
+       +---------                  +-------------
+          6-22                       18--47--15
+                        I. E.            +2
+                                   +-------------
+                                 2 | 18--49--15
+                                   +-------------
+         58                           9--24--38
+          61/2 h.                        --16-- 2
+        ----------                 --------------
+         29                         9-- 8--36
+        348           R. & P.        -- 9
+      +-----------                 --------------
+   60 | 377                         8--59--36
+      +-----------                 90
+         6--17                     --------------
+     3--43--15                     81--00--24
+     -------------                  3--49--32
+     3--49--32                     --------------
+                                   84--49--56
+
+                         Shadows 39 ft. (of tent pole 6 ft. above snow).
+                                                (Directions Magnetic.)
+
+Because of the impossibility of making correct allowances for
+refraction, I have made a rough allowance of -9' for refraction and
+parallax in all my observations.
+
+The tent pole was a hickory floor slat of one of the sledges. It was 6
+ft. 6 ins. high, 2 ins. wide, and 1/2 in. thick. This stick was marked
+in feet and inches, to be used as a measuring stick. It also served as a
+paddle and steering oar for the boat.
+
+By pressing this tent pole 6 ins. into the snow, it served as a 6 ft.
+pole to measure the shadows. These measurements were recorded on the
+observation blanks. Absolute accuracy for the measurements is not
+claimed, because of the difficulty of determining the line of
+demarcation in long, indistinct shadows; but future efforts will show
+that my shadow measurements are an important check on all sun
+observations by which latitude and longitude are determined.
+
+
+[14] Peary claims to have seen life east of this position. This is
+perfectly possible, for Arctic explorers have often noted when game
+trails were abundant one year, none were seen the next. In these tracks
+of foxes and bears, as noted by Baldwin, are positive proofs of the
+position of Bradley Land--for such animals work only from a land base.
+
+
+[15] Observation on April 8, from original field-papers. April 8, 1908,
+Longitude 94 deg.-2'. Bar. 29.80, rising. Temp. -31 deg.. Wind 2, Mag. N. E.
+Clouds St. 3.
+
+                                       ---
+                                        0        21 deg.--59'--30''
+                                        0        21 --08 --20
+       94 deg.                             ---     +----------------
+        4'                                   2 | 43 -- 7 --50
+    +------                                    +----------------
+ 60 | 376'                                       21 --33 --55
+    +------                                     ----------------
+       6-16                 I. E.                     +2
+                                               +----------------
+          56''                               2 | 21 --35 --50
+         x 61/4                                  +----------------
+        --------                                 10 --47 --55
+          14                                         --9
+         336                                    ----------------
+       +--------                                 10 --38 --55
+    60 | 350                                     90--
+       +--------                                ----------------
+          5--50                                  79 --21 -- 5
+      7-- 9--33                                   7 --15 --23
+     -----------                                ----------------
+      7--15--23                                  86 --36 --28
+
+                                               Shadows 32 ft. (of pole 6
+                                                        ft. above snow).
+
+
+[16] After trying to explain this impression fifteen months later to a
+Swiss professor, who spoke little English, he quoted me as saying that
+the sun at night about the Pole was much lower than at noon. No such
+ridiculous remark was ever made. In reality the eye did not detect any
+difference in the distance between the sun and the horizon through the
+next twenty-four hours. There was no visible rise or set, the night dip
+of the nocturnal swing of the sun was entirely eliminated. We had,
+however, several ways of checking this important phenomena, which will
+be introduced later.
+
+
+[17] _The Fall of Body Temperature_--The temperature of the body was
+frequently taken. Owing to the breathing of very cold air, the
+thermometer placed in the mouth gave unreliable results, but by placing
+the bulb in the armpits, when in the sleeping bag, fairly accurate
+records were kept. These proved that extreme cold had little influence
+on bodily heat; but when long-continued overwork was combined with
+insufficient food, the temperature gradually came down. On the route to
+the Pole the bodily temperature ranged from 97 deg. 5' to 98 deg. 4'. In
+returning, the subnormal temperature fell still lower. When the worry of
+being carried adrift and the danger of never being able to return became
+evident, then the mental anguish, combined as it was with prolonged
+overwork, continued thirst and food insufficiency, was strikingly noted
+by our clinical thermometer. During the last few weeks, before reaching
+land at Greenland in 1909, the subnormal temperature sank to the
+remarkable minimum of 96 deg. 2' F. The Eskimos usually remained about half
+a degree warmer. The respiration and heart action was at this time fast
+and irregular.
+
+In the summer period of famine about Jones Sound the temperature was
+normal. At that time we had an abundance of water and an interesting
+occupation in quest of game, but we often felt the cold more severely
+than in the coldest season of winter.
+
+
+[18] _The Tragedies of Cape Sabine._--Cape Sabine has been the scene of
+one of the saddest Arctic tragedies--the death by starvation of most of
+the members of the Greely Expedition. Several modern travelers,
+including Mr. Peary, have, in passing here, taken occasion to criticise
+adversely the management of this expedition. In his last series of
+articles in _Hampton's Magazine_, Peary has again attempted to throw
+discredit on General Greely. It is easy, after a lapse of forty years,
+to show the mistakes of our predecessors, and thereby attempt to
+belittle another's effort; but is it right? I have been at Cape Sabine
+in a half-starved condition, as General Greely was. I have watched the
+black seas of storm thunder the ice and rock walls, as he did; and I
+have looked longingly over the impassable stretches of death-dealing
+waters to a land of food and plenty, as he did. I did it, possessing the
+accumulated knowledge of the thirty years which have since passed, and I
+nearly succumbed in precisely the same manner as did the unfortunate
+victims of that expedition. The scientific results of the Lady Franklin
+Bay Expedition were so carefully and so thoroughly gathered that no
+expedition to the Arctic since has given value of equal importance.
+Greely's published record is an absolute proof of his ability as a
+leader and a vindication of the unfair insinuations of later rivals.
+
+In passing along this same coast, E-tuk-i-shook called my attention to
+several graves, some of which we opened. In other places we saw human
+bones which had been left unburied. They were scattered, and had been
+picked by the ravens, the foxes and the wolves. With a good deal of
+sorrow and reserve I then learned one of the darkest imprinted pages of
+Arctic history. When the steamer _Erie_ returned, in 1901, a large
+number of Eskimos were left with Mr. Peary near Cape Sabine. They soon
+after developed a disease which Mr. Peary's ship brought to them. There
+was no medicine and no doctor to save the dying victims. Dr. T. F.
+Dedrick, who had served Mr. Peary faithfully, was dismissed without the
+payment of his salary, because of a personal grudge, but Dedrick refused
+to go home and leave the expedition without medical help. He remained at
+Etah, living with the Eskimos in underground holes, as wild men do,
+sacrificing comfort and home interests for no other purpose except to
+maintain a clean record of helpfulness. As the winter and the night
+advanced, Dr. Dedrick got news that the Eskimos were sick and required
+medical assistance. He crossed the desperate reaches of Smith Sound at
+night, and offered Mr. Peary medical assistance to save the dying
+natives. Peary refused to allow Dedrick to attempt to cure the
+afflicted, crying people. Dedrick had been without civilized food for
+months, and was not well himself after the terrible journey over the
+storm-swept seas of ice. Before returning, he asked for some coffee, a
+little sugar and a few biscuits. These Mr. Peary refused him. Dr.
+Dedrick returned. The natives, in fever and pain, died. Theirs are the
+bones scattered by the wild beasts. Who is responsible for these deaths?
+
+"_Peary-tiglipo-savigaxua_" (Peary has stolen the iron stone), was now
+repeated with bitterness by the Eskimos. In 1897 it occurred to Mr.
+Peary that the museums would be interested in the Eskimos, and also in
+the so-called "Star Stone," owned by the Eskimos. It had been passed
+down from generation to generation as a tribal property; from it the
+natives, from the Stone Age, had chipped metal for weapons. This
+"meteorite" was, without Eskimo consent, put by Mr. Peary on his ship;
+without their consent, also, were put a group of men and women and
+children on the ship. All were taken to New York for museum purposes. In
+New York the precious meteorite was sold, but the profits were not
+divided with the rightful owners. The men, women and children
+(merchandise of similar value) were placed in a cellar, awaiting a
+marketplace. Before the selling time arrived, all but one died of
+diseases directly arising out of inhuman carelessness, due to the
+dictates of commercialism. Who is responsible for the death of this
+group of innocent wild folk?
+
+
+[19] These supplies had, fortunately, been left in the care of Mr.
+Whitney. In the months that followed, Murphy several times threatened to
+take these things, but Whitney's sense of justice was such that no
+further pilfering was allowed.
+
+The unbrotherly tactics which Mr. Peary had shown to Sverdrup and other
+explorers were here copied by his representative. Captain Bernier was
+bound for the American coast, to explore and claim for Canada the land
+to the west. He desired a few native helpers. There were at Etah
+descendants of Eskimo emigrants from the very land which Bernier aimed
+to explore. These men were anxious to return to their fathers' land, and
+would have made splendid guides for Bernier. Murphy volunteered to ask
+the Eskimos if they would go. He went ashore, pretending that he would
+try to secure guides, but, in reality, he never asked a single Eskimo to
+join Bernier. Returning, he said that no one would go. Later he boasted
+to Whitney and Prichard of the intelligent way in which he had deceived
+Captain Bernier. Was this under Mr. Peary's instructions?
+
+
+[20] I now learned, also, that the Eskimos had told their tribesmen of
+their arrival at the mysterious "Big Nail," which, of course, meant less
+to them than the hardship and unique methods of hunting.
+
+Among themselves the Eskimos have an intimate way of conveying things, a
+method of expression and meaning which an outsider never grasps. At
+most, white men can understand only a selected and more simple language
+with which the Eskimos convey their thoughts. This partly accounts for
+the unreliability of any testimony which a white man extracts from them.
+There is also to be considered an innate desire on the part of these
+simple people to answer any question in a manner which they think will
+please. In all Indian races this desire to please is notoriously
+stronger than a sense of truth. The fact that my Eskimos, when later
+questioned as to my whereabouts, are reported to have answered that I
+had not gone far out of sight of land, was due partly to my instructions
+and partly to this inevitable wish to answer in a pleasing way.
+
+While they spoke among themselves of having reached the "Big Nail," they
+also said--what they later repeated to Mr. Peary--that they had passed
+few days beyond the sight of land, a delusion caused by mirages, in
+which, to prevent any panic, I had with good intentions encouraged an
+artificial belief in a nearness to land.
+
+But we were for weeks enshrouded in dense fogs, where nothing could be
+seen. The natives everywhere had heard of this, and inquired about it.
+Why has Mr. Peary suppressed this important information? We traveled and
+camped on the pack for "seven moons." Why was this omitted? We reached a
+place where the sun did not dip at night; where there was not enough
+difference in the height of the day and night sun to give the Eskimo his
+usual sense of direction. Why was this fact ignored?
+
+
+[21] In appreciation of this kind helpfulness, the Danes later sent a
+special ship loaded with presents, which were left for distribution
+among the good-natured Eskimos who had helped Ericksen. Mr. Peary came
+along after the Danes had turned their backs, and picked from the Danish
+presents such things as appealed to his fancy, thus depriving the
+Eskimos of the merited return for their kindness. What right had Mr.
+Peary to take these things? The Danes, who have since placed a mission
+station here, in continuation of their policy to guard and protect the
+Eskimos, are awaiting an answer to this question to-day.
+
+
+[22] When Captain Adams arrived off the haunts of the northernmost
+Eskimos, he sent ashore a letter to be passed along to Mr. Peary, as he
+was expected to return south during that summer. In his letter Captain
+Adams told of my attainment of the Pole. The letter got into Mr. Peary's
+hands before he returned to Labrador. With this letter in his pocket,
+Mr. Peary gave as his principal reason for doubting my success that
+nobody else had been told that I had reached the Pole. I told Whitney, I
+had told Pritchard--thus Peary's charge was proven false later. But why
+did he suppress the information which Captain Adams' letter contained?
+With this letter in his pocket, why did Mr. Peary say that no one had
+been told?
+
+
+[23] Captain Robert A. Bartlett, of the Peary ship _Roosevelt_, has
+figured much in this controversy. Most of his reported statements, I am
+inclined to believe, are distorted. But he has allowed the words
+attributed to him to stand; therefore, the harm done is just as great as
+if the charges were true. He allowed Henry Rood, in _The Saturday
+Evening Post_, to say that my expedition was possible only through the
+advice of Bartlett. Every statement which Rood made, as Bartlett knows,
+is a lie. He has allowed this to stand, and he thereby stands convicted
+as party to a faked article written with the express purpose of
+inflicting an injury.
+
+Bartlett cross-questioned my Eskimos about instruments. By showing them
+a sextant and other apparatus he learned that I not only had a full set,
+but he also learned how I used them. Peary, although having Bartlett's
+report on this, insinuated that I had no instruments, and that I made no
+observations. Bartlett knew this to be a lie, but he remained silent. He
+is therefore a party to a Peary lie.
+
+In the early press reports Bartlett is credited with saying that "Cook
+had no instruments." A year later, after Bartlett returned from another
+trip north, faked pictures and faked news items were printed with the
+Bartlett interviews and reports. There was no protest, and at the same
+time Bartlett said that books, instruments, and things belonging to me
+had been destroyed. In the following year Bartlett announced that he was
+"going after Cook's instruments." Has the press lied, or has Bartlett
+lied? Next to Henson, Mr. Peary's colored servant, Captain Bartlett is
+Peary's star witness.
+
+George Borup, in "A Tenderfoot With Peary," after repeating in his book
+many pro-Peary lies, tried to prove his assertion by an alleged study of
+my sledge (P. 300): "Except for its being shortened, the sledge was the
+same as when it had left Annoatok. It weighed perhaps thirty pounds, and
+was very flimsy."
+
+This is a deliberate lie, for it was only a half-sled, reassembled and
+repaired by old bits of driftwood. After this first lie he says, in the
+same paragraph: "Yet it had only two cracks in it." The upstanders had
+been cracked in a dozen places, the runners were broken, and every part
+was cracked.
+
+Borup shows by his orthography of Eskimo words that he knows almost
+nothing of the Eskimo language. Therefore he may be dismissed as
+incompetent where Eskimo reports are to be interpreted. He is committed
+to the Peary interests, which also eliminates him from the jury. But in
+his report of my sled he has stooped to lies which forever deprive him
+of being credited with any honest opinion on the Polar controversy.
+
+
+[24] Professor Armbruster and Dr. Schwartz, of St. Louis, at a time when
+few papers had the courage to print articles in my defence, appealed to
+W. R. Reedy, of the _Mirror_, for space to uncover the unfair methods of
+the Pro-Peary conspiracy. This space was liberally granted, and the
+whole controversy was scientifically analyzed by the _Mirror_ in an
+unbiased manner. Here is shown an important phase of the Peary charges,
+from the _Mirror_, April 21, 1910. As it clearly reveals the facts, I
+present part of it as follows:
+
+The point made by Dr. Schwartz, that there is a contradiction between
+Peary's statements of September 28 and October 13, is well taken. The
+statement of October 13 is a point-blank contradiction of the previous
+one. Dr. Schwartz notes that when Peary made, on September 28, what
+Peary called his strongest indictment of Dr. Cook, Peary must have had
+with him at Bar Harbor the chart with the trail of Cook's route, and
+infers that, as the later charge was by far the stronger indictment of
+the two, there must be some other explanation of the contradiction.
+
+Analysis of this contradiction develops one of the most serious
+propositions of the whole Polar controversy. Mr. Peary might now say
+that he was holding his strongest point in reserve, but such explanation
+would not be sufficient, for he stated that the indictment of September
+28 is "the strongest that has been advanced in Arctic exploration ever
+since the great expedition was sent there," and no child is so simple as
+to believe that the indictment of September 28 is at all comparable in
+magnitude to the one of October 13. Upon analysis, we find that there is
+indeed another explanation, and only one, and that is, that _when the
+indictment of September 28 was made, the one of October 13 had not been
+conceived or concocted_, and it will show that Peary, Bartlett,
+McMillan, Borup and Henson, _all_ who signed the statement of October
+13, perpetrated a gross falsehood and imposition upon the public. All
+are caught in the one net.
+
+If this coterie had received from the Eskimos such information as is
+claimed by them in their statement of October 13, then they must have
+received it from the Eskimos _before Peary and his party left Etah on
+their return to America_. If they had the information when they left the
+Eskimos at Etah, on their return to America, then they had it when they
+arrived at Indian Harbor, and before their statement of September 28 was
+made.
+
+In their statement of October 13, 1909, Peary, Bartlett, McMillan, Borup
+and Henson state, and sign their names to the statement made to the
+world and copyrighted, that they had a map on which E-tuk-i-shook and
+Ah-we-lah, Dr. Cook's two Eskimos, had traced for them the route taken
+by Dr. Cook, and that this was also supported by the verbal statements
+of the two Eskimos, _that Dr. Cook had reached the northern point of
+Heiberg Land, or Cape Thomas Hubbard; that he had gone two sleeps north
+of it, had then turned to the west or southwest, and returned to the
+northern headland of Heiberg Land, but on the west or northwest side,
+and had sent back one of the Eskimos to the cache left on the headland,
+but on the east side of the point, and remained at this new place on the
+west side of the point for four or five sleeps_. Then, all the time that
+Peary was challenging and impugning that Dr. Cook had reached even the
+northern point of Heiberg Land, according to their own statement of
+October 13, _they had in their pockets the map and information from the
+Eskimos that Dr. Cook had not only reached the northern point of Heiberg
+Land, but traveled above it and turned around the point_. In so
+challenging that Dr. Cook had reached even the northern point of said
+land, and thereby discrediting Dr. Cook with all the force and influence
+at their command, when, according to their own later statement, they had
+then and at that time, and before such time (since they left Etah on
+their return to America), the statements, trail of route and testimony
+of the Eskimos entirely to the contrary, _Peary and his coterie
+deliberately and knowingly perpetrated on the public the grossest of
+falsehoods and impositions_.
+
+There are several other contradictions in the statement of October 13.
+One is the statement that Pan-ic-pa (the father of E-tuk-i-shook), was
+familiar with the first third and last third of the journey of Dr. Cook
+and his two Eskimos. Pan-ic-pa may be familiar with the territory of the
+last third of the route, but not with the journey made by Dr. Cook and
+E-tuk-i-shook and Ah-we-lah over this part of the route, for these three
+alone made the journey from Cape Sparbo to Annoatok. Pan-ic-pa went only
+as far as the northern point of Heiberg Land, and returned from there
+nearly a year before Dr. Cook and his two Eskimos arrived from Cape
+Sparbo. This is shown by Peary and his party themselves in their
+statement that Pan-ic-pa, the father of E-tuk-i-shook, a very
+intelligent man, _who was in the party of Eskimos that came back from
+Dr. Cook from the northern end of Nansen's Strait_ (Sound), came in and
+indicated the same localities and details as the two boys. Of course
+Pan-ic-pa could only indicate the localities that he had himself
+journeyed to with Dr. Cook, and not any after he had left Dr. Cook and
+the two Eskimos at the northern point of Heiberg Land, or the northern
+end of Nansen's Sound, which is the same thing.
+
+Another contradiction, a very serious one indeed, as important as the
+first of the foregoing contradictions is, that if Peary and his party
+had such information from the Eskimos as they claimed in their statement
+of October 13, then they knew that the little sledge of Dr. Cook which
+they saw at Etah was not the sledge that made the trip to the Pole. The
+printed reports show that long before October 13 Peary and all his
+henchmen were challenging and charging to the public that the little
+sled in question left with Whitney, could not possibly have made the
+trip to the Pole. In the statement of October 13, Peary and his party
+state that, according to the Eskimos, Dr. Cook and his two Eskimos
+started from the northern point of Heiberg Land with only two sledges.
+Further on in the statement, that the dogs and one sledge were abandoned
+in Jones Sound, and that at Cape Vera--western end of Jones Sound--Peary
+and his party say that E-tuk-i-shook and Ah-we-lah, Dr. Cook's two
+Eskimos, informed them that (quoting Peary and his party's statement
+verbatim), "here they cut the remaining sledge off--that is, shortened
+it, as it was awkward to transport with the boat, and near here they
+killed a walrus."
+
+_During all the time then, before October 13, that Peary and his party
+were belittling this sled, and referring to its character as a positive
+proof that Dr. Cook could not have reached the Pole, and stating that it
+would have been knocked to pieces in a few days, they, according to
+their own statement of October 13, knew, even while using such argument
+against Dr. Cook, that the little sled was not the original sled, but
+only a part of one which the desperate and fearfully hard-pressed
+wanderers had themselves--having no dogs--dragged their food for three
+hundred miles over one of the roughest and most terrible stretches of
+the frozen zone, never before traveled by man._ According to their own
+statement of October 13, Peary and his clique convict themselves of
+boldly and deliberately perpetrating gross falsehoods against Dr. Cook
+and upon the people. Then shall we believe anything further from them?
+
+There is only one rational view to take of their statement of October
+13. That, knowing their first charges were certain to fail, the
+statement of October 13 was concocted for their own base purposes. _No
+sane person can believe that if they had had such exceedingly damaging
+information as is claimed by them in their statement of October 13, they
+could have instead made use of charges far less damaging and known to
+them to be false._
+
+                                                   W. J. ARMBRUSTER.
+
+ST. LOUIS, MO., April 13, 1910.
+
+
+[25] One of the meanest and pettiest charges concocted for Mr. Peary at
+a time when personal veracity was regarded as the test of rival claims
+was that I had attempted to steal the scientific work of a missionary
+while I was on the Belgica Antarctic Expedition. Director Townsend, of
+the New York Aquarium, who, like Mr. Peary, was drawing a salary from
+the taxpayers while his energies were spent in another mission, declared
+I had taken a dictionary, compiled by Thos. Bridges, of Indian words,
+and had put it forth as my own work. Dalenbagh, of the American
+Geographical Society, and of the "Worm Diggers' Union," polly-like, also
+repeated this charge. "Of the other charges against Dr. Cook we are at
+sea," he said, "but here is something that we know about." By expending
+five cents in stamps, five minutes with the pen, both Townsend and
+Dalenbaugh might have learned that the dishonor which they were trying
+to attach to some one else was on themselves.
+
+Under big headlines, "Dr. Cook Steals a Missionary's Work," the New York
+_Times_ and other pro-Peary papers printed columns of absolute lies in
+what purported to be interviews with Townsend. Dalenbaugh, pointing to
+this gleefully, said "Dr. Cook has been guilty of wrong-doing for many
+years."
+
+Now what were the facts? Among the scientific collections of the Belgian
+Expedition, was a series of notes, embodying a Yahagan Indian
+Dictionary, made by the missionary, Thomas Bridges. Although this was of
+little use to anybody, it was a scientific record worthy of
+preservation. In a friendly spirit toward the late Mr. Bridges and his
+Indians, I persuaded the Belgians at great expense to publish the work.
+It was written in the old Ellis system of orthography, which is not
+generally understood. Working on this material for one year without pay,
+I changed it to ordinary English orthography, but made few other
+alterations. The book is not yet printed, but part of it is in press.
+The introduction was printed five years ago, and among the first
+paragraphs appear these words:
+
+"My visit among the tribe of Fuegians was not of sufficient length to
+make a thorough study, nor had I the opportunity to collect much data
+from Indians, but I was singularly fortunate in being in the company of
+Mr. Thomas Bridges and Mr. John Lawrence, men who have made these people
+their life study. The credit of collecting and making this Yahagan
+Grammar and Vocabulary belongs solely to Mr. Bridges, who devoted most
+of his time during thirty-seven years to recording this material. My
+work is limited to a slight re-arrangement of the words, a few additions
+of notes and words, and a conversion of the Ellis phonetic characters in
+which the native words were written into ordinary English orthography.
+It is hoped that this study of Yahagan language, with a few of their
+tales and traditions, will, with a report of the French Expedition, make
+a fitting end to an important record of a vanishing people."
+
+Then follows a short favorable biography of the man whose work I was
+accused of stealing.
+
+
+[26] Letter from Barrill's associate:
+
+                                     MISSOULA, MONT., Oct. 12, 1909.
+
+Friend Cook--I am sorry that I can't come at present. But will come
+and see you in about fifteen days if you will send me Three Hundred and
+Fifty ($350.00), and I will say that the report in the papers (that Dr.
+Cook did not ascend Mt. McKinley), from what I have, is not true.
+
+Hoping to see you soon.
+
+                                        Your friend,
+                                               (Signed) FRED PRINTZ.
+
+
+[27] While this book was going through the press, several chapters of
+the proof-sheets, stolen from the printers, Messrs. Lent & Graff, were
+found on the table of the Explorers' Club on June 27, 1911. It is
+important to note that this pro-Peary repository of bribed, faked and
+forged writings, which were issued to defame me, is also the den for
+stolen goods. Who are the thieves who congregate there to deposit their
+booty? Why the theft of a part of my book? What humbug has this club and
+its shameless president next to offer?
+
+
+[28] Letter from an onlooker when Mt. McKinley was climbed:
+
+To Dr. Cook's Friends:
+
+Professor Parker says "regretfully" that Dr. Cook's evidence as to the
+ascent of Mt. McKinley was unconvincing.
+
+I was located in the foothills of Mt. McKinley, and had been for about a
+year, when Dr. Cook, Professor H. C. Parker, Mr. Porter, the topographer
+of the party, and Mr. Miller, Fred Printz and the rest of the party,
+landed at the head-waters of the Yentna River, in the foothills of Mt.
+McKinley.
+
+I met Professor Parker and the rest of the party, and saw a great deal
+of them while they were up there, as I had three mining camps in the
+foothills from which they made their try for the top of the mountain. I
+let Dr. Cook have one of my Indian hunters, who knew every foot of the
+country around there, for a guide. Dr. Cook also had some of his caches
+in my camps, leaving supplies which he did not take along with his
+pack-trains. Some of Dr. Cook's party were in our camps nearly every day
+or so, and consequently I became very well posted in regard to Dr.
+Cook's affairs, and very well acquainted with him. Dr. Parker should be
+the last one to say anything about mountain-climbing or anything else
+connected with the expedition, or anything where it takes a man and
+pluck to accomplish results--good results; as he showed himself to be
+the rankest kind of a tenderfoot while in the foothills of Mt. McKinley,
+and was the laughing stock of the country. Mt. McKinley and the country
+around there was too rough for him. He got "cold feet," and started back
+for the States, before he had even seen much of the country around
+there.
+
+Looking over my memoranda, I find that Dr. Cook had given up his attempt
+to climb Mt. McKinley for the time being, and had sent Printz and Miller
+on a hunting expedition, and the rest of the party was scattered out to
+hunt up something new.
+
+At that time I came into Youngstown, and the boys were getting ready to
+strike out on their different routes, and Dr. Cook was going down to
+Tyonic, in Cook's Inlet, with his launch, to meet a friend, Mr. Disston,
+who expected to go on a hunting trip with him. The friend did not
+arrive, so Dr. Cook returned to the head-waters of the Yentna River, to
+Youngstown, arriving there on Monday, August 27. On Sunday, August 28,
+he started down to the Sushitna River. I went down with him as far as
+the Sushitna Station, and he told me he was going to run up the river
+and strike Fish Creek, which ran up on another side of Mt. McKinley, and
+see what the chances were to make the top of the continent from that
+side. He made it. I was one of the last to see him start on the ascent,
+and one of the first to see him when he returned after he had made the
+ascent.
+
+Dr. Cook proved to be a man in every respect, as unselfish as he was
+courageous, always giving the other fellow a thought before thinking of
+himself.
+
+Upon his arrival from the ascent of the mountain, although tired and
+worn and in a bad physical condition himself, he gave his unlimited
+attention to a party of prospectors who had been picked up from a wreck
+in the river, and brought into camp in an almost dying condition just
+before his arrival. He spent hours working over these men, and did not
+give himself a thought until they were properly cared for.
+
+_Evidence?_ No man who has known Dr. Cook, been with him, worked with
+him, and learned by personal experience of his courage, energy and
+perseverance, would ask for evidence beyond his word.
+
+Dr. Cook is one of the most daring men, and can stand more hardships
+than any man I have ever met, and I believe I have met some of the most
+able men of the world when it comes to roughing it over the trails in
+Alaska and the North.
+
+Dr. Cook climbed Mt. McKinley. Of course there are always skeptics--men
+who have a wishbone instead of a backbone, and who, when wishing has
+brought to them no good results, their last effort is pushed forth in
+criticism of the things which have been constructed or accomplished by
+men, their superiors.
+
+If Professor Parker wants evidence to convince him, I think he can find
+it, provided he will put himself to as much trouble in looking for
+evidence as he has in criticising such evidence as he has obtained.
+
+                        Respectfully yours,
+                                                    J. A. MACDONALD.
+
+VONTRIGGER, CALIFORNIA.
+
+    _Author's Note._--It is a curious fact that most men who have
+    assailed me are themselves sailing under false colors. Herschell
+    Parker was an assistant professor and instructor in the Department
+    of Physics in Columbia University. This gave him the advantage of
+    using the title, "Professor," but, like many others, his university
+    association was mostly for the prestige it gave him. His
+    professorship assumption was, therefore, a deception. Instead of
+    devoting himself conscientiously to university interests, he was,
+    like Peary, engaged in private enterprises--such as the Parker-Clark
+    light, and other ventures--and employed substitute instructors to do
+    the work for which he drew a salary, and for which he claimed the
+    honor and the prestige. A man who thus sails falsely under the
+    banner of a professorship is just the man to try to steal the honor
+    of other men. Here is a make-believe professor who is not a
+    professor; whose dwarfed conscience is eased by drippings from the
+    Arctic Trust; who has stooped to a photographic humbug. He is a
+    fitting exponent of the bribing pro-Peary propaganda.
+
+
+[29] When Mr. Peary first returned from the North, and began his attacks
+upon me, he caused a demand for "proofs" through the New York _Times_
+and its affiliated papers; he had them call for my instruments; he
+insinuated that I had had no instruments with me in the North (despite
+the fact that Captain Bartlett had informed him that my own Eskimos had
+testified that I had); he declared that any Polar claim must be
+established by an examination of observations and an examination of the
+explorer's instruments.
+
+In view of the unwarranted newspaper call for "proofs," I was
+embarrassed by having left my instruments with Whitney. Mr. Peary had
+his, however. But were they carefully examined by the august body who so
+eagerly decided he reached the Pole? Was the verdict of the
+self-appointed arbiters of the so-called National Geographic Society
+based upon such examination as Mr. Peary--concerning my case--had
+declared necessary?
+
+Testifying before the subcommittee of the Committee on Naval Affairs,
+when the move was on to have Peary made a Rear-Admiral, Henry Gannett,
+one of the three members of the National Geographic Society, who had
+passed on Peary's claim, admitted that their examination of Mr. Peary's
+instruments was casually and hastily made in the Pennsylvania Station at
+Washington. When Peary later appeared in person before the committee, he
+admitted having come to Washington from Portland, Maine, to consult with
+the members of the National Geographic Society who were to examine his
+proofs, and that he had brought his instruments with him in a trunk,
+which was left at the station. The following took place (See official
+Congressional Report, Private Calendar No. 733, Sixty-first Congress,
+Third Session, House of Representatives, Report No. 1961, pages 21 and
+22):
+
+"Mr. Roberts--How did the instruments come down?
+
+"Captain Peary--They came in a trunk.
+
+"Mr. Roberts--Your trunk?
+
+"Captain Peary--Yes.
+
+"Mr. Roberts--After you reached the station and found the trunk, what
+did you and the committee do regarding the instruments?
+
+"Captain Peary--I should say that we opened the trunk there in the
+station.
+
+"Mr. Roberts--That is, in the baggage-room of the station?
+
+"Captain Peary--Yes.
+
+"Mr. Roberts--Were the instruments all taken out?
+
+"Captain Peary--_That I could not say. Members of the committee will
+probably remember better than I._
+
+"Mr. Roberts--Well, do you not have any recollection of whether they
+took them out and examined them?
+
+"Captain Peary--Some were taken out, I should say; whether all were
+taken out I could not say.
+
+"Mr. Roberts--Was any test of those instruments made by any member of
+the committee to ascertain whether or not the instruments were
+inaccurate?
+
+"Captain Peary--_That I could not say. I should imagine that it would
+not be possible to make tests there._
+
+"Mr. Roberts--Were those instruments ever in the possession of the
+committee other than the inspection at the station?
+
+"Captain Peary--NOT TO MY KNOWLEDGE."
+
+NOTE.--This, then, was the basis of the glorious verdict of the packed
+jury which assailed me; which demanded as necessary instruments of me
+which had been left in the North, and which posed as a fair body of
+experts!
+
+All important questions asked of Peary, Tittman and Gannett were hedged,
+their aim being to avoid publicity. In substance, they admitted that in
+the "Peary Proofs," passed upon a year before, there was no proof. They
+admitted that their favorable verdict was reached upon an examination of
+COPIES of Mr. Peary's observations, and that the examination and
+decision occurred at a sort of social gathering in the house of Admiral
+Chester, who had attacked me. Chairman Roberts, commenting on the
+testimony, wrote (see page 15):
+
+"From these extracts from the testimony it will be seen that Mr.
+Gannett, after his careful examination of Captain Peary's proofs and
+records, did not know how many days it took Captain Peary from the time
+he left Bartlett to reach the Pole and return to the _Roosevelt_, that
+information being supplied by a Mr. Grosvenor. It will be also observed
+that Mr. Gannett, as a result of his careful examination of Captain
+Peary's proofs and records, gives Captain Peary, in his final dash to
+the Pole, the following equipment: Two sledges, 36 or 32 dogs, 2
+Eskimos, and Henson. It will be seen later from Captain Peary's
+testimony, that he had on that final dash 40 dogs, 5 sledges, and a
+total of six men in his party. This discrepancy on so vital a point must
+seem quite conclusive that the examination of the Geographic Society's
+committee was anything but careful."
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX
+
+
+
+
+COPY OF THE FIELD NOTES
+
+
+The following copy of the daily entries in one of my original note-books
+takes the expedition step by step from Svartevoeg to the Pole and back
+to land.
+
+As will be seen by those here reproduced, the original notes are mostly
+abbreviations and suggestions, hasty tabulations and reminders,
+memoranda to be later elaborated. The hard environment, the scarcity of
+materials, and cold fingers did not encourage extensive field notes.
+Most of these field notes were rewritten while in Jones Sound, and some
+were also copied and elaborated in Greenland.
+
+In planning this expedition, every article of equipment and every phase
+of effort was made subordinate to the one great need of covering long
+distances. We deliberately set out for the Pole, with a desperate
+resolution to succeed, and although appreciating the value of detail
+scientific work, I realized that such work could not be undertaken in a
+pioneer project like ours. We therefore did not burden ourselves with
+cumbersome instruments, nor did we allow ourselves to be side-tracked in
+attractive scientific pursuits. Elaborate results are not claimed, but
+the usual data of Arctic expeditions were gathered with fair success.
+
+(Notes usually written at end of day's march.)
+
+  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
+       |Date.| Miles  |       OBSERVATIONS, ETC.
+       |     |Covered.| (Exact copy from original Field Papers)
+  -----+-----+--------+-------------------------------------------------
+  March| 18  |   26   | Svartevoeg. Made cache here for return.
+  1908.|     |        | Supporting party goes back. Noon start;
+       |     |        | 4 men, 46 dogs, 4 sleds; 26 miles. Ice heavy,
+       |     |        | wavy; little snow; crystals hard; land
+       |     |        | screened by drift. Camp on old field. Night
+       |     |        | uncomfortable; air humid, penetrating.
+       |     |        | Snowhouse of hard snow imperfectly made.
+       |     |        | (Other notes of this date so dim that they
+       |     |        | cannot be read. _Compass directions, unless
+       |     |        | otherwise noted, are true._)
+       |     |        |
+       | 19  |   21   | Clearer, overland thick; -56 deg. F.; Wind 2 W.;
+       |     |        | sun feeble; blue haze. On march, ice smaller;
+       |     |        | use of axe; crossings troublesome. Camp lee of
+       |     |        | big hummock. Cannot send supply back; must
+       |     |        | follow for another day.
+       |     |        |
+       | 20  |   16   | Land more clearly visible; sky overcast; wind
+       |     |        | W. S. W. 1; ice worse. Small igloo. The last
+       |     |        | feed men return.
+       |     |        |
+       | 21  |   29   | Awoke, sun N. E.; orange glow; -63 deg. F.;
+       |     |        | bar. 30.10, steady; no clouds; sky pale purple.
+       |     |        | More snow (on ice); groaning sledges; mirages,
+       |     |        | lands, mountains, volcanoes. Air light; wind
+       |     |        | sky N.; Grant Land a mere line; -46 deg.. Torture
+       |     |        | of light snow; march 14 hours.
+       |     |        |
+       | 22  |   22   | A. M.; wind E. 3; -59 deg.. Start 12 (noon); sky
+       |     |        | clearer; wind 2; water sky N. Grant Land visible
+       |     |        | P. M. (Later) Temp. rose to -46 deg.. Wind tolerably
+       |     |        | high; pressure lines; the big lead. Camp on old
+       |     |        | field on bank; ice noises; search for the
+       |     |        | crossing. Young, elastic ice.
+       |     |        |
+       | 23  |   17   | Cross the big lead. Young ice elastic and
+       |     |        | dangerous; western sky again threatening; ice
+       |     |        | movement east; fields small; narrow open lanes.
+       |     |        | Course for 85th on 97th; -40 deg.; march 11 hours;
+       |     |        | 23 miles, credit 17 miles. Ice noises; night
+       |     |        | beautiful; sun sank into pearly haze. (Later)
+       |     |        | Orange glow; pack violet and pale purple blue;
+       |     |        | sky late--partly cl. appearance of land W.
+       |     |        |
+       | 24  |   18   | Observations 83.31--96.27; -41 deg.; bar. 29.70.
+       |     |        | West bank of fog and haze. Start afternoon;
+       |     |        | no life; old seal hole and bear tracks; long
+       |     |        | march; ice improving. 10 h.; pedometer 21 m.;
+       |     |        | camp in coming storm; rushing clouds; signs of
+       |     |        | land W. 18 m. (credited on course).
+       |     |        |
+       | 25  |   18   | Early awakened by dogs. Storm spent soon;
+       |     |        | sunrise temp. -26 deg., later -41 deg.; west again
+       |     |        | smoky. Back to the bags; cracking ice; the
+       |     |        | breaking and separating ice and the crevasse
+       |     |        | episode; in a bag and in water; ice-water
+       |     |        | and pemmican; masks of ice. Good march over
+       |     |        | newly-fractured ice; ice in motion.
+       |     |        |
+       | 26  |   17   | Still windy; some drift snow; another storm
+       |     |        | threatening. How we need rest! Strong wind
+       |     |        | during the night. Position D. R. 84.24--96.53.
+       |     |        |
+       | 27  |   16   | In camp until noon. Strong winds all night;
+       |     |        | eased at noon; clearing some; sun; weather
+       |     |        | unsettled. Short run; squally en route; made
+       |     |        | early camp. Bar. 29.05.
+       |     |        |
+       | 28  |    0   | Weather still unsettled. Temp. -41 deg.; Bar. 29.15;
+       |     |        | west ugly. No progress. The drift. In camp.
+       |     |        | Anxious about stability of igloo. The collapsed
+       |     |        | camp. Midnight; north cloudy, but ice bright;
+       |     |        | many hummocks.
+       |     |        |
+       | 29  |    9   | Start early P. M. A little blue in the west; sun
+       |     |        | bursts; pack disturbed; hard traveling, due to
+       |     |        | fresh crevasses. Camp midnight; only 9 miles.
+       |     |        |
+       | 30  |   10   | Land, 9 A. M., cleared; land was seen; westerly
+       |     |        | clouds settled over it. Observations 84.50,
+       |     |        | 95.36; bearing of land, southern group, West by
+       |     |        | South to West by North true. Other bearings
+       |     |        | taken later place a coast line along the 102
+       |     |        | meridian from lat. 84 deg. 20' to 85 deg. 10'. There
+       |     |        | must be much open water about the land, for
+       |     |        | banks of vapor persistently hide part. A low fog
+       |     |        | persistent; cannot see shore; for days we have
+       |     |        | expected to see something W., but never a clear
+       |     |        | horizon. Probably two island S. like Heiberg,
+       |     |        | 1,800 ft. high, valleys, mountains, snow N.,
+       |     |        | table 1,000, thin ice sheet, bright nights.
+       |     |        | From observation paper: Bar. 30.10, had risen
+       |     |        | from 29.50 in 2 hours; wind 2-3 mag. S.;
+       |     |        | clouds mist, East, water-bands W.; shadow
+       |     |        | (of 6 ft. pole) 39 ft.
+       |     |        |
+       | 31  |   10   | Land screened by mist; wind W. 2-0. Ice
+       |     |        | fracture; no sign of life--none since 83.
+       |     |        |
+  April|  1  |   18   | (Time of traveling) 9 to 6; ice better; fields
+  1908.|     |        | larger; crevasses less troublesome; temp. -32 deg..
+       |     |        | There is no more darkness at night.
+       |     |        |
+       |  2  |   12   | (Start) 9.30; (stop) 8. Smooth ice; hard snow;
+       |     |        | ice 28 ft. and 32. Night bright but cloudy.
+       |     |        | Temp. -35 deg.; bar. 30.10; leads difficult.
+       |     |        |
+       |  3  |   10   | 8.30 to 6.30. Temp. -39 deg.; bar. 30.12; sky
+       |     |        | clearing at noon, but low clouds and frosty haze
+       |     |        | persist in the W. and N. Night bright; sun at
+       |     |        | midnight under cloud and haze.
+       |     |        |
+       |  4  |   14   | 8.45 to 6.10. Snow softer; used snowshoes; have
+       |     |        | crossed 11 crevasses; much chopping; brash and
+       |     |        | small hummocks.
+       |     |        |
+       |  5  |   14   | 9 (A. M.) to 5.45 (P. M.). Snow better.
+       |     |        | Ice larger. Oh, so tired! Snowshoes.
+       |     |        |
+       |  6  |   14   | 8.10 (A. M.) to 6.15 (P. M.). Snow hard. Ice
+       |     |        | flat. Few hummocks. Less wavy. Snow (shoes).
+       |     |        | Sun faces.
+       |     |        |
+       |  7  |   14   | 11 to 10. Beautiful clear weather; even the
+       |     |        | night sky clear. Midnight sun first seen.
+       |     |        | Ice 36 ft. (thick). (Another measurement gave
+       |     |        | 21 feet.)
+       |     |        |
+       |  8  |    9   | Observation before starting, 86.36, 94.2. In
+       |     |        | spite of what seemed like long marches we made
+       |     |        | only 106 miles in 9 days. Much distance lost in
+       |     |        | crossings. (From field paper) bar. 29.50,
+       |     |        | rising; temp. -37 deg.; wind mag. N. E., 2; clouds
+       |     |        | St. 3; shadow (6 ft. pole), 32 feet.
+       |     |        |
+       |  9  |   14   | 9 A. M. to 5.30 P. M.; snow hard; ice about the
+       |     |        | same; wind cutting; frost bites. Clothes humid.
+       |     |        |
+       | 10  |   16   | 10 P. M. to 7 A. M. Working hours changed; big
+       |     |        | marches and long hours no longer possible; snow
+       |     |        | good; ice steadily improving; bodily fatigue
+       |     |        | much felt; wind 1-28 W.
+       |     |        |
+       | 11  |   15   | 10.30 to 8 A. M. Observation end of March,
+       |     |        | 87.20, 95.19; the pack disturbance of B. Ld.
+       |     |        | lost; farthest north; little crushed ice;
+       |     |        | old floes less irregular; anxious about food;
+       |     |        | wind 3 W. (true); 300 miles in 24 days; work
+       |     |        | intermittent; too tired to read instruments.
+       |     |        | (From other field notes, Temp. -39 deg.;
+       |     |        | bar. 29.90 deg..)
+       |     |        |
+       | 12  |   21   | 11 P. M. to 7 A. M. Thoughts of return. Food
+       |     |        | supply reduced. Hope to economize in warmer
+       |     |        | weather. Very heavy ice. Much like land ice.
+       |     |        | Wind 2 W. S. W. The awful monotony!
+       |     |        |
+       | 13  |   17   | 12 P. M. to 7 A. M. The same heavy glacier-like
+       |     |        | ice.... The occasional soup. Hummocks 15-20 ft.
+       |     |        | Ahwelah in tears at start. W. black. Sun under
+       |     |        | rushing vapors. Ice changes. Leads.
+       |     |        |
+       | 14  |   23   | 11 P. M. to 7.10 A. M. 88.21, 95.52. Wind light
+       |     |        | but penetrating. Off the big field, ice smaller.
+       |     |        | Some open leads. Little sign of pressure. Snow
+       |     |        | soft, but less precipitation. Dogs get up
+       |     |        | better speed. 100 miles from Pole. (From other
+       |     |        | observation papers: Bar. 29.90, falling;
+       |     |        | temp., -44 deg.; shadow (6 ft. pole) 301/2 feet.)
+       |     |        |
+       | 15  |   14   | 10 P. M. to 7 A. M. Ice same. Wind -1, S. W.
+       |     |        | Working to the limit of muscle capacity. So
+       |     |        | tired and weary of the never ceasing tread!
+       |     |        |
+       | 16  |   15   | 10.30 to 8 A. M. Ice passed. Several heavy old
+       |     |        | floes. Made 6 crossings. Wind 1-3, W. S. W.
+       |     |        |
+       | 17  |   13   | 10.15 to 8 A. M. Ice same. Crevasses new.
+       |     |        | 7 crossings. Saw several big hummocks. Ice
+       |     |        | less troublesome. Temp., -40 deg.; bar., 30.00.
+       |     |        | Sled friction less.
+       |     |        |
+       | 18  |   14   | 9 P. M. to 6. Ice, though broken, smooth. The
+       |     |        | horizon line not so irregular as that of more
+       |     |        | S. ice. Sky and ice of a dark purple blue.
+       |     |        | (Bar. 30.02.)
+       |     |        |
+       | 19  |   16   | 11 P. M. to 8 A. M. (Position) 89.31. D. R.
+       |     |        | 94.03. Camp on an old field--the only one on
+       |     |        | the horizon with big hummocks. Ice in very large
+       |     |        | fields; surface less irregular, but in other
+       |     |        | respects not different from farther S. Eskimos
+       |     |        | told that in two average marches Pole would be
+       |     |        | reached. Extra rations served. Camp in tent.
+       |     |        | (Bar., 29.98; Temp., -46 deg..)
+       |     |        |
+       | 20  |  151/2   | 8 P. M. to 4 A. M. An exciting run; ice aglow in
+       |     |        | purple and gold; Eskimos chanting. Wind, S. 1
+       |     |        | 89; 46.45. (D. R.) 94.52. New enthusiasm; good
+       |     |        | march. Temp., -36 deg.; bar. (not legible on notes);
+       |     |        | course set for 97th.
+       |     |        |
+       | 21  |  131/2   | 1 A. M. to 9 A. M. Observations noon: 89; 59.45;
+       |     |        | ped. 14. Camp; sleep in tent short time; after
+       |     |        | observations advance; pitch tent; (also) made
+       |     |        | camp--snow--prepared for two rounds of
+       |     |        | observations. Temp., 37.7 deg.; bar., 29.83. Nothing
+       |     |        | wonderful; no Pole; a sea of unknown depth; ice
+       |     |        | more active; new cracks; open leads; but surface
+       |     |        | like farther south. Overjoyed but find no words
+       |     |        | to express pleasure. So tired and weary! How we
+       |     |        | need a rest! 12, night. Sun seems as high as at
+       |     |        | noon, but in reality is a little higher, owing
+       |     |        | to its spiral ascent. The mental elation--the
+       |     |        | drying of furs, and (making) photos--Eskimos'
+       |     |        | ideas and disappointment of no Pole--thoughts
+       |     |        | of home and its cheer. But oh, such monotony of
+       |     |        | sky, wind and ice! The dangers of getting back.
+       |     |        | (From other observation papers: Temp, ranged
+       |     |        | from -36 deg. by mercury thermometer to -39 deg. by
+       |     |        | spirit thermometer; clouds Alt. St., 1; wind
+       |     |        | mag. S., 1; ice blink E.; water sky, W.; shadow
+       |     |        | (of 6 ft. pole) 28 feet.)
+       |     |        |
+       | 22  |    0   | Moved camp 4 m. magnetic S. Made 4 observations
+       |     |        | for altitude; S. at noon, W. at 6, N. at 12M, E.
+       |     |        | at 6 A. M. Ice same; more open water; wind 2-3;
+       |     |        | temp., -41 deg.; (from field paper) W. S. W., 1 to
+       |     |        | 2. There are only two big hummocks in sight.
+       |     |        | (Made a series of observations for the sun's
+       |     |        | altitude, 2 on the 21st at the first camp, 4 on
+       |     |        | the 22nd at W. M. camp, and another midnight
+       |     |        | 22-23. Before we left deposited tube.)
+       |     |        |
+       | 23  |   20   | Start for home. 12.30 to noon. Fairly clear--ice
+       |     |        | smooth, but many new crevasses. Temp., -41 deg..
+       |     |        | Course for 100 mer.
+       |     |        |
+       | 24  |   16   | 11 P. M. to 9 A. M. These records, being made at
+       |     |        | the end of the day's journey, give the doings of
+       |     |        | the day previous--this note for the 24th is in
+       |     |        | reality written on the morning of the 25th, when
+       |     |        | comfortable in camp. Wind 1-2 W. Temp., -36 deg..
+       |     |        | Ice smooth--fields larger; 5 crossings; the
+       |     |        | pleasure of facing home.
+       |     |        |
+       | 25  |   15   | 8-8. Temp., -37 deg.; Wind 1-2 W. S. W.; ice same.
+       |     |        | The worry of ice breaking up for me, signs of
+       |     |        | joy for the Eskimo.
+       |     |        |
+       | 26  |   14   | 9 to 7. Still much worried about return;
+       |     |        | possibility of ice disruption and open water
+       |     |        | near land; wind light; ice shows new cracks,
+       |     |        | but few have opened; seems to be little
+       |     |        | pressure; few hummocks; snow hard and
+       |     |        | traveling all that could be desired.
+       |     |        |
+       | 27  |   14   | 9.30 to 8. Ice same; wind S. E. 1; good going;
+       |     |        | crossings not troublesome; dogs in good spirits;
+       |     |        | Eskimos happy; but all very tired. Temp., -40 deg..
+       |     |        |
+       | 28  |   14   | 9.15 to 7.45. Ice same; wind 1 W.; snow
+       |     |        | moderately hard; few hummocks and no pressure
+       |     |        | lines.
+       |     |        |
+       | 29  |   13   | Midnight to 8.45 A. M. Ice more active; fresh
+       |     |        | cracks; some open cracks but no leads. Wind 1 S.
+       |     |        |
+       | 30  |   15   | Midnight to 8 A. M. Ped. registered 121 m. from
+       |     |        | Pole; camp by D. R., 87.59-100; observations
+       |     |        | 88.01, 97.42. Course half point more W.
+       |     |        | Temp., -34 deg.. Start more westerly.
+       |     |        |
+   May |  1  |   18   | 12.30 to 9 A. M. Much color to the sunbursts,
+  1908.|     |        | but the air humid; the temperature persistently
+       |     |        | near -40 deg., but considerable range with the
+       |     |        | direction of the light winds and mists when
+       |     |        | they come over leads. Much very heavy smooth
+       |     |        | ice--undulating, not hummocky like S.
+       |     |        |
+       |  2  |   12   | 2 A. M. to 11 A. M. Fog, clouds and wet air.
+       |     |        | Temp., -15 deg.. Hard to strike a course.
+       |     |        |
+       |  3  |   13   | 1 A. M. to 10 A. M. Thick weather; wind E. 2;
+       |     |        | ice friction less; occasional light snow fall.
+       |     |        |
+       |  4  |   14   | 3 to 11 A. M. Air clear but sky obscured; ice
+       |     |        | very good, but hummocks appearing on the
+       |     |        | horizon.
+       |     |        |
+       |  5  |   11   | 11 P. M. to 6 A. M. Strong wind; occasional
+       |     |        | breathing spell behind hummocks; squally with
+       |     |        | drifts.
+       |     |        |
+       |  6  |    0   | In camp. Stopped by signs of storm; tried to
+       |     |        | build igloo but wind prevented; in a collapsed
+       |     |        | tent for 24 hours; eat only half ration of
+       |     |        | pemmican.
+       |     |        |
+       |  7  |   10   | 8 A. M. to 3 P. M. Wind detestable; ice bad;
+       |     |        | life a torture; sky persistently obscured; no
+       |     |        | observations; pedometer out of order, only time
+       |     |        | to gauge our distance.
+       |     |        |
+       |  8  |   12   | 2 A. M. to 10. Weather bad; windy, S. W.; some
+       |     |        | drift; heavy going.
+       |     |        |
+       |  9  |   13   | 1 to 8 A. M. (Weather) thick; wind easier; ice
+       |     |        | in big fields; snow a little harder, snowshoes
+       |     |        | steady.
+       |     |        |
+       | 10  |   13   | 11 P. M. of the 9th to 6 A. M. Heavy going but
+       |     |        | little friction on sled; some drift; see more
+       |     |        | hummocks.
+       |     |        |
+       | 11  |    0   | May 11. In camp. Strong wind; heavy drift;
+       |     |        | encircle tent with snow blocks.
+       |     |        |
+       | 12  |   11   | 12.30 to 8.30 A. M. Wind still strong; cestrugi
+       |     |        | troublesome, but temperature moderate; sled
+       |     |        | loads getting light.
+       |     |        |
+       | 13  |   12   | 11 P. M. of 12th, to 7.30 A. M. of 13th. Wind
+       |     |        | easier, S. S. W.; snow harder; ice very thick
+       |     |        | and very large fields; fog.
+       |     |        |
+       | 14  |    9   | 3 A. M. to 9 A. M. No sky; strong wind compelled
+       |     |        | to camp early.
+       |     |        |
+       | 15  |   13   | 1 A. M. to 10. Fog; ice much crevassed; passed
+       |     |        | over several cracks--some opening.
+       |     |        |
+       | 16  |   14   | May 16. 11 P. M. of the 15th to 6 A. M. Cl. 10;
+       |     |        | wind again troublesome; light diffused, making
+       |     |        | it difficult to find footing.
+       |     |        |
+       | 17  |   11   | 2 A. M. to 10. Thick; ice more and more broken;
+       |     |        | smaller and more cracked--cracks give much
+       |     |        | trouble.
+       |     |        |
+       | 18  |   11   | 1 A. M. to 9.30. Wind more southerly and strong;
+       |     |        | ice separating; some open water in leads.
+       |     |        |
+       | 19  |   12   | 11 P. M. to 7.30. Wind veering east; fog
+       |     |        | thicker; ice very much broken, but snow surface
+       |     |        | good.
+       |     |        |
+       | 20  |    6   | Midnight to 9 A. M. Open water; active pack;
+       |     |        | almost impossible.
+       |     |        |
+       | 21  |    8   | 11 P. M. to 9. Conditions the same; our return
+       |     |        | seems almost hopeless; no observations--cannot
+       |     |        | even guess at the drift.
+       |     |        |
+       | 22  |    0   | In camp. Gale N. E.; temp, high; air wet;
+       |     |        | ice breaking and grinding; worried about the
+       |     |        | ultimate return; food low.
+       |     |        |
+       | 23  |    5   | 3 A. M. to 7 A. M. Still squally, but forced a
+       |     |        | short march.
+       |     |        |
+       | 24  |   12   | 12 noon to 8 A. M. Short clearing at noon; the
+       |     |        | first clear mid-day sky for a long time; west
+       |     |        | still in haze. Water sky W. and S. W.; no land
+       |     |        | in sight--though the boys saw the land later
+       |     |        | when I was asleep; ice much broken.
+       |     |        | 84 deg. 02'-97 deg. 03'.
+       |     |        |
+       | 25  |   14   | 10 P. M. to 6 A. M. Ice better; no wind; thick
+       |     |        | fog; snow hard. Temp., -10 deg..
+       |     |        |
+       | 26  |   12   | 11 P. M. to 7.45 A. M. Ice in fields of about
+       |     |        | 1 M. somewhat hummocky; crossings hard; no wind.
+       |     |        |
+       | 27  |   11   | 11.30 P. M. to 9.30 A. M. Ice same; thick fog.
+       |     |        |
+       | 28  |   13   | 12 m. night to 10 A. M. Ice still same; fog;
+       |     |        | wind 3, shifting E. S. E. and S. W.
+       |     |        |
+       | 29  |   11   | 11.30 P. M. to 9.30 A. M. As we came here the
+       |     |        | water sky in the southwest to which we had
+       |     |        | aimed, gradually working west, led to a wide
+       |     |        | open lead, extending from north to south, and
+       |     |        | almost before knowing it, in the general plan
+       |     |        | of the ice arrangement, we found ourselves to
+       |     |        | the east of this lead. Temp. rose to zero. Ice
+       |     |        | much broken; air thick; light vague; impossible
+       |     |        | to see irregularities. Food 3/4 rations; and
+       |     |        | straight course for Nansen Sound.
+       |     |        |
+       | 30  |   10   | 12 to 11 A. M. Ice in heaps; open water; brash
+       |     |        | the worst trouble; little fog.
+       |     |        |
+       | 31  |   11   | 11.15 P. M. to 9 A. M. Ice little better; snow
+       |     |        | hard; sleds go easy; much helping required
+       |     |        | (over pressure lines).
+       |     |        |
+  June |  1  |   12   | 10.45 to 8. Ice in large fields; many hummocks;
+  1908.|     |        | few heavy fields.
+       |     |        |
+       |  2  |   12   | 10 P. M. to 9 A. M. Ice steadily improving.
+       |     |        |
+       |  3  |   11   | 10 P. M. to 8 A. M. Ice begins to show action of
+       |     |        | sun. Temperature occasionally above freezing.
+       |     |        |
+       |  4  |   10   | 9.30 P. M. to 7.30 A. M. Fog; ice offering much
+       |     |        | trouble, but friction little and load light.
+       |     |        |
+       |  5  |   11   | 9.45 P. M. to 7 A. M. Hummocks exposed to sun
+       |     |        | have icicles.
+       |     |        |
+       |  6  |    0   | In camp. Strong N. W. gale.
+       |     |        |
+       |  7  |    0   | In camp. Gale continues, with much snow; the ice
+       |     |        | about breaks up; anxious about map. (Not knowing
+       |     |        | either drift or position, were puzzled as to
+       |     |        | proper course to set.)
+       |     |        |
+       |  8  |   14   | 1 A. M. to noon. Ice bad, but snow hard, and
+       |     |        | after rest progress good; wind still blowing
+       |     |        | west.
+       |     |        |
+       |  9  |   10   | 11 P. M. to 9 A. M. With thick ice and this kind
+       |     |        | of traveling it is hard to guess at distances.
+       |     |        |
+       | 10  |    0   | 10.30 P. M. to 8. Bad ice; open leads; still no
+       |     |        | sun.
+       |     |        |
+       | 11  |   14   | 10 P. M. to 8 A. M. Large smooth ice; little
+       |     |        | snow; wind S. W., 1; no fog, but sky still of
+       |     |        | lead.
+       |     |        |
+       | 12  |   15   | 10.30 to 5. Small fields but good going;
+       |     |        | sky black to the east.
+       |     |        |
+       | 13  |   14   | 10 to 8 A. M. Fog cleared first time since last
+       |     |        | observation. Land in sight south and east.
+       |     |        | Heiberg and Ringnes Land; water sky; small ice;
+       |     |        | brash and drift eastward. We have been carried
+       |     |        | adrift far to the south and west, and
+       |     |        | examination of ice eastward proves that all
+       |     |        | is small ice and open water. Heiberg Island
+       |     |        | is impossible to us. What is our fate? Food and
+       |     |        | fuel is about exhausted, though we still have
+       |     |        | 10 bony dogs. Upon these and our little pemmican
+       |     |        | we can possibly survive for 20 days. In the
+       |     |        | meantime we must go somewhere. To the south
+       |     |        | is our only hope.
+  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+NOTE.--_June 14_ and thereafter to _September 1_, all notes were briefly
+jotted down in another diary, a collection of loose leaves in which the
+observations of the return were made. This diary was left with the
+instruments at Etah with Mr. Whitney. The data, however, had been
+rewritten at Cape Sparbo, so that the notes had served their purpose and
+were of no further value when no pretentious publication was
+anticipated.
+
+Other notes were made on loose sheets of paper or on leaves of the note
+books. Many of these were destroyed, others were rubbed out to make room
+for recording what was regarded as more important data, and a few were
+retained quite by accident.
+
+
+
+
+QUESTIONS THAT ENTER CALCULATIONS FOR POSITION OF THE NORTH POLE.
+
+By FREDERICK A. COOK.
+
+
+Much abstruse, semi-scientific and academic material has been forced
+into the polar discussions about proofs by observation. The problem
+presented is full of interesting points, and to elucidate these I will
+ask the reader to go back with me to that elusive imaginary spot, the
+North Pole. Here we find no pole--and absolutely nothing to mark the
+spot for hundreds of miles. We are in the center of a great moving sea
+of ice and for 500 miles in every direction it is the same hopeless
+desert of floating, shifting crystal. I believed then that we had
+reached the Pole, and it never occurred to me that there would be a cry
+for absolute proof. Such a demand had never been presented before. The
+usual data of the personal narrative of the explorers had always been
+received with good faith. But let us reopen the question and examine the
+whole problem.
+
+Is there any positive proof for a problem of this kind? Is there any one
+sure shoulder upon which we can hang the mantle of polar conquest? We
+are deprived of the usual landmarks of terrestrially fixed points. The
+effort to furnish proof is like trying to fix a point in Mid-Atlantic.
+But here you have the tremendous advantage of known compass variation,
+sure time, reasonably accurate corrections. Not only by careful
+observation at sea of fixed stars and other astronomical data, but by an
+easy and quick access to and from each shore, and by reliable tables for
+reductions gathered during scores of years of experience.
+
+All this is denied in the mid-polar basins at the time when it is
+possible to arrive there. There is no night, there are no stars, and the
+sun, the only fixed object by which a position can be calculated, is not
+absolutely fixable. It is low on the horizon. Its rays are bent in
+getting to the recording instruments while passing through the thick
+maze of floating ice mist. This mist always rests on the pack even in
+clear days. The very low temperature of the atmosphere and the
+distorting, twisting mirage effect of different strata of air, with
+radically different temperatures, wherein each stratum has a different
+density, carry different quantities of frosted humidity.
+
+All of this gives to the sunbeam, upon which the calculation for
+latitude and longitude is based, the deceptive appearance of a paddle
+thrust into clear water. The paddle in such case seems bent. The sunbeam
+is bent in a like manner, since it passes through an unknown depth of
+refractory air for the correction of which no law can be devised until
+modern aerial navigation brings to a science that very complex problem
+of the geography of the atmosphere. For this reason, and for others
+which we will presently show, this whole idea of proof by figures as
+devised by Mr. Peary and the armchair geographers, falls to pieces.
+
+Let us take the noon observation--a fairly certain method to determine
+latitude in most zones of the earth where for hundreds of years we have
+learned to make certain corrections, which by use have been incorporated
+as laws in the art of navigation. About five minutes before local noon
+the sea captain goes to the bridge with sextant in hand. His time is
+certain, but even if it were not, the sun rises and sets and therefore
+changes its altitude quickly. The captain screws the sun down to a fixed
+angle on his sextant; he puts the instrument aside; then takes it up
+again, brings the sun to the horizon, examines his instrument. The sun
+has risen a little further; it is not yet noon. This is repeated again
+and again, and at last the sun begins to descend. It is now local noon.
+This gives a rough check for his time. There is a certain sure moment
+for his observation at just the second when it is accurate,--when the
+sun's highest ascent has been reached. Such advantages are impossible
+when nearing the Pole. The chronometers have been shooting the shoots of
+the pack for weeks. The sudden changes of temperature also disturb the
+mechanism, and therefore time, that very important factor upon which all
+astronomical data rest, is at best only a rough guess. For this reason
+alone, if for no other, such as unknown refraction and other optical
+illusions, the determination of longitude when nearing the Pole becomes
+difficult and unreliable. All concede this, but latitude, we are told by
+the armchair observer, is easy and sure. Let us see.
+
+The time nears to get a peep of the sun at noon, but what is local
+noon? The chronometers may be, and probably are, far off. And there is
+no way to correct even approximately. I do not mean on hours, but there
+may be unknowable differences of minutes, and each minute represents a
+mile. Let us see how this affects our noon observation. Five or ten
+minutes before local noon the observer levels his artificial horizon and
+with sextant in hand lies down on the snow. A little drift and nose
+bleaching wind complicate matters. The fingers are cold; the instrument
+must be handled with mittens; the cold is such that at best a shiver
+runs up the spine, the eye blinks with snow glitter and frost. The arms,
+hands and legs become stiff from cold and from inaction. He tries
+exactly what the sea captain does in comfort on the bridge, but his time
+is a guess, he watches the sun, he tries to catch it when it is highest,
+but this is about as difficult as it is to catch a girl in the act of
+winking when her back is turned.
+
+The sun does not rise and set as it does in temperate climes--it circles
+the horizon day and night in a spiral ascent so nearly parallel to the
+line of the horizon that it is a practical impossibility to determine by
+any possible means at hand when it is highest. One may lie on that snow
+for an hour, and though steadied with the patience of Job, the absolute
+determination of the highest point of the sun's altitude or the local
+noon is almost a physical impossibility.
+
+This observation is not accurate and gives only results of use in
+connection with other calculations. These results at best are also
+subject to that unknown allowance for really great atmospheric
+refraction. The geographic student will, I am sure, agree that against
+this the magnetic needle will offer some check, for if you can be
+certain that when the needle points to a positive direction, then it is
+a simple matter to get approximate time with it and the highest noon
+altitude; but since the correction for the needle, like that of latitude
+and longitude, is based on accurate time, and since it is further
+influenced by other local and general unknown conditions--therefore even
+the compass, that sheet anchor of the navigator, is as uncertain as
+other aids to fixing a position in the polar basin.
+
+In making such observations an artificial horizon must be used. This
+offers an uncontrollable element of inaccuracy in all Arctic
+observations when the sun is low.
+
+My observations were made with the sun about 12 deg. above the horizon. At
+this angle the image of the sun is dragged over the glass or mercury
+with no sharp outlines, a mere streak of light, and not a perfect,
+sharp-cut image of the sun which an important observation demands.
+
+Mr. Peary's altitudes were all less than 7 deg.. I challenge any one to
+produce a clear cut image of the sun on an artificial horizon with the
+sun at that angle. All such observations therefore are unreliable
+because of imperfect contact, for which there can be no correction.
+
+The question of error by refraction is one of very great importance. In
+the known zones the accumulated lesson of ages has given us certain
+tables for correction, but even with these advantages few navigators
+would take an observation when the sun is but 7 deg. above the horizon and
+count it of any value whatever.
+
+In the Arctic the problem of refraction presents probable inaccuracies,
+not of seconds or minutes, but possibly of degrees. Every Arctic
+traveler has seen in certain atmospheric conditions a dog enlarged to
+the image of a bear. A raven frequently looks like a man, and a hummock,
+but 25 feet high, a short distance away, will at times rise to the
+proportions of a mountain. Mirages turn things topsy-turvy, and the
+whole polar topography is distorted by optical illusions. Many explorers
+have seen the returning sun over a sea horizon after the long night one
+or two days before the correct time for its reappearance. This gives you
+an error in observations which can be a matter of 60 miles.
+
+Here is a tangle in optics, which cannot under the present knowledge of
+conditions be elucidated, and yet with all these disadvantages, the
+group of armchair geographers of the National Geographic Society
+pronounces a series of sun altitudes less than 7 deg. above the horizon as
+proof positive of the attainment of the Pole. Furthermore these men are
+personal friends of Mr. Peary, and the society for whom they act is
+financially interested in the venture which they indorsed.
+
+Is this verdict based upon either science or justice, or honor?
+
+In response to a public clamor for a peep at these papers, a more
+detestable unfairness was forced on the public. The venerable director
+of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, who was one of Mr. Peary's jurors,
+instead of showing his hand, and thus freeing himself from a dishonest
+entanglement, asked his underlings, H. C. Mitchell and C. R. Duval, to
+stoop to a dishonor to veil the humbug previously perpetrated. Under the
+instruction of their chief, the first figures of Mr. Peary's sextant
+readings have been taken, and by manipulating these they have helped Mr.
+Peary by saying that their calculation placed Mr. Peary within two miles
+of the Pole.
+
+Perhaps Mr. Peary was at the pin-point of the Pole, but when he allows
+his friends to use questionable methods to give a false security to his
+claim, then his claim is insecure indeed.
+
+Mitchell and Duval took the sextant readings at face value. If Mr. Peary
+or his computers had frankly admitted the uncertainty of the grounds
+upon which these sextant readings rested, then one would be inclined to
+grant the benefit of doubt; but as was the case regarding the verdict of
+the National Geographic Society, the public was carefully excluded from
+a knowledge of the shaky grounds upon which these calculations are
+based. The impossibility of correct time and adequate allowance for
+refraction render such figures useless as proof of a position. But what
+about the image of the sun upon the artificial horizon?
+
+An important observation demands that this should be sharp and clear,
+otherwise the observation is worthless. Mitchell and Duval have surely
+thought of this. Perhaps they have tried an experiment. As real
+scientific students they should have experimented with the figures with
+which they played. If the experiment has not been made they are
+incompetent. In either case a trick has been used to bolster up the
+deceptive verdict of the National Geographic Society.
+
+A dish of molasses, a bull's eye lantern and a dark room are all that is
+necessary to prove how the public has been deceived by men in the
+Government pay as scientific computers. With the bull's eye as the sun,
+the molasses or any other reflecting surface as a horizon, with the
+light striking the surface at less than 7 degrees, as Mr. Peary's sun
+did, it will be found that the sun's image is an oblong streak of light
+with ill-defined edges. Such an image cannot be recorded on a sextant
+with sufficient accuracy to make it of any use as an observation.
+Mitchell and Duval must know this. If so, they are dishonest, for they
+did not tell the public about it. If they did not know it they are
+incompetent and should be dismissed from the Government service.
+
+With all of these uncertainties a course which gives a workable plan of
+action can be laid over the blank charts, but there always remains the
+feebly guarded mystery of the ice drift. When the course is set, the
+daily run of distance can be checked by estimating speed and hourly
+progress with the watches. Against this there is the check of the
+pedometer or some other automatic measure for distance covered. The
+shortening night shadows and the gradual coming to a place where the
+night and day shadows are of about equal length is a positive conviction
+to him who is open to self-conviction, as a polar aspirant is likely to
+be. But frankly and candidly, when I now review one and all of these
+methods of fixing the North Pole, or the position of a traveler en route
+to it, I am bound to admit that all attempt at proof represented by
+figures is built on a foundation of possible and unknowable inaccuracy.
+Figures may convince an armchair geographer who has a preconceived
+opinion, but to the true scientist with the many chances for mistakes
+above indicated there is no real proof. The verdict on such data must
+always be "not proven" if the evidence rests on a true scientific
+examination of material which at best and in the very nature of things
+is not checked by the precision which science demands. The real
+proof--if proof is possible--is the continuity of the final printed book
+that gives all the data with the consequent variations.
+
+
+FROM A CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE POLAR CLAIMS IN A FORTHCOMING BOOK
+
+By CAPTAIN THOMAS F. HALL of Omaha, Neb.
+
+DR. COOK'S VALID CLAIM.
+
+Cook's narrative has been before the public nearly two years. It has
+been subject to the most minute scrutiny that invention, talent and
+money could give. It is to-day absolutely unscathed. Not one item in it
+from beginning to end has been truthfully discredited. It stands
+unimpeached. Mud enough has been thrown. Bribery and conspiracy have
+done their worst. A campaign of infamy has been waged, and spent its
+force; but not one solitary sentence has been proven wrong. Musk-ox
+fakes, starved dogs, fictitious astronomical or other calculations may
+have some effect on popular opinion; but they have none on the actual
+facts. They do not budge the truth a hair's breadth and they do not make
+history.
+
+Cook's claim to the Discovery of the North Pole is as sound and as valid
+as the other claims of discovery, or the achievement of any one
+preceding him in the Arctic or the Antarctic.
+
+
+VERDICT OF GEN. A. W. GREELY, REAR ADMIRAL W. S. SCHLEY AND OTHER ARCTIC
+EXPERTS
+
+Dr. Cook is the discoverer of the North Pole.--GENERAL A. W. GREELY.
+
+No one familiar with the Polar problem doubts Dr. Cook's success. Peary
+never tried to get to the Pole. He copied Cook's data and then, by
+official intrigue tried to "put it over." A study of Peary's deception
+on compass variation will prove that.--CLARK BROWN.
+
+You can prove the discovery of Northermost Land. The Eskimo talk is
+nonsense. The Polar discussion should be settled by an International
+Commission--PROF. OTTO NORDENSKJOLD.
+
+Dr. Cook was the first and only man to reach the North Pole--CHAS. E.
+RILLIET.
+
+I have gone over all of Dr. Cook's data, and, in spite of the statements
+to the contrary, I believe he reached the Pole.--MAURICE CONNELL.
+
+It has always been my pleasure to support Dr. Cook. I can see no reason
+for doubting his success. Who are his accusers, surely not Arctic
+Explorers?--CAPTAIN OTTO SVERDRUP.
+
+I am convinced that if anyone reached the Pole, Dr. Cook got
+there.--ANDREW J. STONE.
+
+From first to last I have championed Dr. Cook's cause, and after going
+over the printed records of both claimants I am doubly convinced that he
+reached the Pole.--CAPTAIN EDWARD A. HAVEN.
+
+Dr. Cook reached the Pole, I doubt Peary, his observations bear the
+stamp of inexcusable inaccuracy and bunglesome carelessness. One cannot
+read Peary's book and believe in him.--CAPTAIN JOHN MENANDER.
+
+                                              Washington, D. C.,
+                                                     Jan. 7th, 1911.
+
+  Dear Dr. Cook:
+
+  ... I would assure you that I have never varied in the belief that you
+  reached the Pole. After reading the published accounts, daily and
+  critically, of both claimants, I was forced to the conclusion from
+  their striking similarity that each of you was the eye witness of the
+  other's success.
+
+  Without collusion it would have been impossible to have written
+  accounts so similar, and yet in view of the ungracious controversy
+  that has occurred since that view (collusion) would be impossible
+  to imagine.
+
+  While I have never believed that either of you got within a pin-point
+  of the Pole, I have steadfastly held that both got as near the goal
+  as was possible to ascertain considering the imperfections of the
+  instruments used and the personal errors of individuals under
+  circumstances as adverse to absolute accuracy.
+
+  Again I have been broad enough in my views to believe that there was
+  room enough at the Pole for two; and never narrow enough to believe
+  that only one man got there.
+
+  I believe that both are entitled to the honor of the achievement.
+
+                                           Very truly yours,
+                                             (Signed)  W. S. SCHLEY.
+
+
+
+
+POSITIVE PROOF OF DR. COOK'S ATTAINMENT OF THE POLE
+
+BY CAPTAIN EVELYN BRIGGS BALDWIN
+
+    METEOROLOGIST PEARY EXPEDITION, 1893-4, SECOND-IN-COMMAND WELLMAN
+    EXPEDITION 1898-9, AND ORGANIZER AND LEADER OF THE BALDWIN-ZIEGLER
+    POLAR EXPEDITION, 1901-2, ETC.
+
+
+I can prove the truth of Dr. Cook's statements in regard to his
+discovery of the North Pole from Peary's own official record of his last
+dash to the Northward.
+
+So far as I can learn, Dr. Cook has never made a "confession" in regard
+to his trip to the Pole in the sense that he denied his first
+statements. He has merely said that, in view of the great difficulty in
+determining the exact location of the Pole, he may not have been exactly
+upon the northernmost pin-point of the world. Peary, under pressure at
+the Congressional investigation, was forced to admit the same.
+
+For three hundred years there has been a rivalry among civilized men to
+be the first to reach the North Pole. I believe that the honor of having
+succeeded in the attempt should go--not to Peary--but to the man who
+reached the Pole a year before Peary claims to have been there.
+
+Dr. Cook is now in New York City, and I have talked with him several
+times recently. With the information that I myself have gathered, I
+believe that he really did reach the Pole, or came so close to that
+point that he is entitled to the credit of the Pole's discovery.
+
+[Illustration: THE LAND-DIVIDED ICE-PACK REPORTED BY PEARY PROVES COOK'S
+ATTAINMENT OF THE POLE]
+
+Bradley Land is located between latitude 84 and 85. It was discovered by
+Cook in his Poleward march. The land ice, or glacial ice, which Cook
+also discovered, is located between latitude 87 and latitude 88.
+Cook's line of march carried him thirty or forty miles to the east of
+Bradley Land and then upon the glacial ice. The proximity to the new
+land gave Cook a favorable land-protected surface upon which to travel,
+and also afforded him protection from gales and from the consequent
+movements of the pack-ice westward of the new lands. Cook traveled in
+the lee of the groups of islands and over ice floes more stationary than
+the ice farther to the east, over which Peary traveled.
+
+
+EVIDENCE OF COOK'S TRAVELS
+
+A critical examination of Peary's book not only reveals a remarkable
+corroboration of Cook's discovery of Bradley Land and the glacial island
+north of it, but also seems to indicate the existence of islands farther
+west between the same parallels of latitude.
+
+Referring to page 250, when beyond the 86th parallel, Peary says: "In
+this march there was some pretty heavy going. Part of the way was over
+some old floes, which had been broken up by many seasons of unceasing
+conflict with the winds and tides. Enclosing these more or less level
+floes were heavy pressure ridges over which we and the dogs were obliged
+to climb." In other words, the floes which Peary describes in this part
+of his journey clearly indicate that they were just such floes as one
+would expect to find after having passed through a group of islands,
+and, therefore, contrasting naturally with the immense size of the floes
+which both Cook and Peary traversed north of the 88th parallel.
+
+Beginning with page 258, we have a most instructive description by Peary
+of the ice between the parallels wherein Cook locates the glacial ice
+and upon which he traveled for two days. It is such ice as one would
+expect to find after having passed around the north and south ends of an
+island from forty to sixty miles to the westward. This particular area
+Peary designates as a veritable "Arctic Phlegethon," and it is
+inconceivable to believe in this Phlegethon without also believing in
+the existence of the glacial ice, as located and described by Dr. Cook.
+Let us, therefore, examine Peary's narrative minutely. He says, on page
+259, "When I awoke the following day, March 28, the sky was apparently
+clear; but, ahead of us, was a thick, smoky, ominous haze drifting low
+over the ice, and a bitter northeast wind, which, in the orthography of
+the Arctic, plainly spelled 'Open Water'...."
+
+Also, on the same page: "After traveling at a good rate for six hours
+along Bartlett's trail, we came upon his camp beside a wide lead, with a
+dense black, watery sky to the northwest, north and northeast."
+
+Again, on page 260: "... The break in the ice had occurred within a foot
+of the fastening of one of my dog teams, ... Bartlett's igloo was moving
+east on the ice raft, which had broken, and beyond it, as far as the
+belching fog from the lead would let us see, there was nothing but black
+water."
+
+Finally, on page 262, Peary says: "This last march had put us well
+beyond my record of three years before, probably 87 deg. 12'. The following
+day, March 29, was not a happy one for us. Though we were all tired
+enough to rest, we did not enjoy picnicing beside this Arctic Phlegethon
+which, hour after hour, to the north, northeast and northwest, seemed to
+belch black smoke like a prairie fire.... Bartlett made a sounding of
+one thousand two hundred and sixty fathoms, but found no bottom."
+
+In the foregoing we have positive proof that this almost open water area
+was not caused by shoals at that immediate point.
+
+Peary's concern as regards this big hole in the ice-pack is set forth
+further on page 265, as follows: "The entire region through which we had
+come during the last four marches was full of unpleasant possibilities
+for the future. Only too well we knew that violent winds, for only a few
+hours, would send the ice all abroad in every direction. Crossing such a
+zone on a journey north is only half the problem, for there is always
+the return to be figured on. Though the motto of the Arctic must be
+'Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof,' we ardently hoped there
+might not be violent winds until we were south of this zone again on the
+return."
+
+From this it is apparent that Peary realized fully the permanent
+character of this Phlegethon over which he was traveling. With
+astonishing persistency, he refers again and again to this particular
+locality. Quoting from page 303, when on his return march, he says:
+"There was one region just above the 87th parallel, a region about
+fifty-seven miles wide, which gave me a great deal of concern until we
+had passed it. Twelve hours of strong wind blowing from any quarter
+excepting the north would have turned that region into an open sea. I
+breathed a sigh of relief when we left the 87th parallel behind."
+
+And, as though the Phlegethon had not already been sufficiently
+described, on page 307 we find recorded: "Inspired by our good fortune
+we pressed on again completing two marches, and when we camped we were
+very near the 87th parallel. The entry that I made in my diary that
+night is perhaps worth quoting: 'Hope to reach the Marvin Igloo (86 deg.
+38') to-morrow. I shall be glad when we get there on to the big ice
+again. This region here was open water during February and the early
+part of March and is now covered with young ice which is thoroughly
+unreliable as a means of return. A few hours of a brisk wind east, west,
+or south, would make this entire region open water for some fifty to
+sixty miles north and south, and an unknown extent east and west. Only
+calm weather or a northerly wind keeps it practicable.'"
+
+
+ABSOLUTE PROOF OF COOK'S CLAIM
+
+From the foregoing it is self-evident that Peary's observations by
+sextant could not be more corroborative of Cook's latitude than that the
+Phlegethon is proof of the existence of a glacial island between the
+same two parallels traversed by both explorers. Cook had discovered the
+_cause_, and Peary followed to discover the effect of that _cause_. To
+one familiar with the conditions of ice-floes in the vicinity of islands
+in the Arctic the reasons for this are as clear as it would be to the
+lay mind should it be suddenly announced that on a certain date an
+astronomer had discovered the head of a comet, which being doubted by
+rival investigators, might lead to the unhappy discrediting of the
+original discoverer; but should it be as suddenly announced that a rival
+astronomer had observed the tail of a comet in the same locality there
+would quite certainly follow a reversal of public sentiment.
+
+
+EVIDENCE OF HIS TRAVELS
+
+Of first importance also in proving the existence of new lands
+discovered by Cook is the evidence derived from the existence of animal
+life, since Arctic game clings close to the shore line in its search for
+food. Birds must find their nesting places on lands. Foxes live upon
+birds and the refuse left in the trails of polar bears and seals. Seals
+feed upon shrimps and find the chief source of food in waters close to
+the land. Polar bears in turn feed upon seals, and necessarily are found
+more numerously about lands or islands.
+
+For this reason we will examine Peary's official narrative of his
+journey north for evidence of Dr. Cook's discovery of land to within 2 deg.
+of the North Pole. Having noted Dr. Cook's statement relative to the
+blow hole of a seal near Bradley Island, we will follow in Peary's trail
+for corroboration of Cook's journey eleven months previous, and a
+comparatively short distance westward of Peary's line of march.
+Referring to Peary's "North Pole" on page 249, while in latitude 85 deg. 48'
+he records:
+
+"While we were engaged in this business we saw a seal disporting himself
+in the open water of the lead."
+
+Still farther along, when in latitude 86 deg. 13', Peary states, on page
+252: "Along the course of one of those leads we saw the fresh tracks of
+a polar bear going west."
+
+
+ANIMAL TRAILS VERIFY COOK'S REPORT
+
+Arctic travelers will well appreciate the force of this statement
+relative to the polar bear, who, scenting the land a few miles to the
+westward, was in search of seals. The freshness of the bear's tracks is
+proof that it had not drifted on some ice floe from remote parts of the
+Arctic basin.
+
+Again, referring to page 257, we find that Peary while traveling through
+deep snow March 28, records: "During the day we saw the tracks of two
+foxes in this remote and icy wilderness, nearly two hundred and forty
+nautical miles beyond the northern coast of Grant Land."
+
+It is worthy of note that Peary does not state just how far from the
+glacial or land ice upon the submerged island over which Cook traveled
+the fox tracks were. But it is evident that the foxes were less than two
+sleeps from land, since Peary states that Marvin's observation placed
+them in about latitude 86 deg. 38', the very latitude in which Cook traveled
+upon the stationary land ice.
+
+Still again, page 307, while on his return march and near the 88th
+parallel Peary observes: "Here we noticed some fox tracks that had just
+been made. The animal was probably disturbed by our approach. These are
+the most northerly animal tracks ever seen."
+
+Certainly. Why not? Since they were so near the northern termination of
+the land ice discovered by Dr. Cook. In this connection it is also
+important to remark that between latitude 88 and his approximate
+approach to the Pole, Dr. Cook makes no mention of animal life, and this
+is corroborated by Peary's own statement that he observed no tracks of
+animals beyond the 88th parallel. Thus Peary corroborated Cook by the
+very absence of animal life in the very region where Cook states he saw
+no land.
+
+
+PEARY'S STATEMENTS PROVE COOK'S
+
+On Peary's return journey he states that as they approached Grant Land
+the fresh tracks of foxes and other evidences of animal life were very
+numerous. And if the nearness of land was evidenced in this case it is
+also clear that the tracks and appearance of animals on his journey in
+the high latitudes should be given equal weight as evidence of the
+lands discovered by Cook.
+
+The line of deep sea soundings taken by Peary from Cape Columbia
+northward indicates a steady increase in depth to latitude 84 deg. 24',
+where the lead touched bottom at eight hundred and twenty-five fathoms,
+until, in latitude 85 deg. 23', the sounding showed a depth of but three
+hundred and ten fathoms. Referring to this, we find that Peary says, on
+page 338 of his narrative: "This diminution in depth is a fact of
+considerable interest in reference to the possible existence of land to
+the westward."
+
+It seems to me that it is not impertinent to remark that this land to
+the westward was scarcely two sleeps distant, as Dr. Cook has
+steadfastly maintained. Finally, on page 346, Peary says: "Taking
+various facts into consideration it would seem that an obstruction
+(lands, islands or shoals) containing nearly half a million square
+statute miles probably exists, and another at or near Crocker Land."
+
+
+MORE ACCURATE OBSERVATIONS BY COOK THAN BY PEARY
+
+And this is all that Dr. Cook claims in his location of land to the
+northward of the very Crocker Land to which Peary alludes.
+
+As to Dr. Cook's and Peary's observations when in the immediate vicinity
+of the Pole, I would call attention to the following facts: Cook's
+determination by the sextant of the sun's altitude was made April 21,
+1908; Peary's final observations were taken April 7 of the following
+year. The sun being thus two weeks higher at the time Cook made his
+observations, he was able to secure a more accurate series of altitudes,
+and this will have an important bearing in substantiation of his claims.
+
+Considering the difficulty which Peary has had in proving whether he was
+at 1.6 miles from the Pole on the Grant Land side or the Bering Strait
+side, and whether he was ten or fifteen miles away, I think Dr. Cook was
+justified in saying that, although he believed he was at the North
+Pole, he is not claiming that he had been exactly at the pin-point of
+the North Pole. At any rate, it places Dr. Cook in the position of
+endeavoring to tell the truth.
+
+In this connection I feel like replying to a criticism which Mr.
+Grosvenor, editor of the National Geographic Magazine, published over
+his own signature immediately following Dr. Cook's return from the Pole.
+"Cook's story reads like that of a man who had filled his head with the
+contents of a few books on polar expeditions and especially the writings
+of Sverdrup."
+
+
+ARMCHAIR CRITICISMS UNFAIR
+
+Now, since Sverdrup is a real navigator, having accompanied Nansen
+during his three years' drift on the Fram, and, following this, having
+himself organized and led an expedition during three years to the
+westward of Grinnell Land, in the course of which he discovered and
+charted, in 1902, Heiberg Land and contiguous islands (which, however,
+Peary charted four years later and named Jessup Land), I do not consider
+Mr. Grosvenor's armchair criticism of the writings of Capt. Sverdrup and
+of Dr. Cook quite in keeping with the principles of a square deal and
+fair play.
+
+Among the reasons which Peary assigns for doubting Dr. Cook is one
+pertaining to the original records which Dr. Cook unwillingly left at
+Etah. The leaving behind of these papers, according to Peary, was merely
+a scheme on Cook's part, so that he might claim they had been lost or
+destroyed and thus escape being forced to produce them in substantiation
+of his claim. Recently, when I asked Dr. Cook about this, his reply was:
+"This does not sound very manly. If this was so in Peary's belief, why
+did he not bring them back? Here was absolute proof in his own hands.
+Why did he bury it?"
+
+Armchair geographers and renegades may endeavor to discredit Dr. Cook,
+but the seals and polar bears and little foxes will bear testimony of
+unimpeachable character to substantiate his claims as the discoverer of
+the North Pole. The reading public will not forget that when Paul Du
+Chaillu, returning from his expedition to Africa, reported the discovery
+of the pigmies, he was denounced as a faker and a liar. For three years
+Du Chaillu, as he has told me himself, sought in vain to re-establish
+his credibility, and when at the end of that time he succeeded in
+bringing some of the pigmies and exhibiting them before the scientific
+bodies of the world, then the "doubting Thomases" were obliged to give
+him credit as the discoverer of the African dwarfs. The yellow press and
+sensation mongers will decry Dr. Cook as they did Du Chaillu, for some
+years to come, but Arctic explorers endorse him to-day.
+
+Rear Admiral W. S. Schley, General A. W. Greely, Captain Otto Sverdrup,
+Captain Roald Amundsen, and all the world's greatest explorers have
+indorsed Dr. Cook.
+
+I have seen Dr. Cook's original field notes, his observations, and the
+important chapters of his book, wherein his claim is presented in such a
+way that the scientific world must accept it as the record and the proof
+of the greatest geographic accomplishment of modern times.
+
+Putting aside the academic and idle argument of pin-point accuracy--the
+North Pole has been honestly reached by Dr. Cook 350 days before anyone
+else claimed to have been there.
+
+                                     (Signed) EVELYN BRIGGS BALDWIN.
+
+
+
+
+VERDICT OF THE GEOGRAPHIC HISTORIAN
+
+DR. COOK'S RECORD IS ACCURATE IT IS CERTIFIED--IT IS CORROBORATED
+
+HE IS THE DISCOVERER OF THE NORTH POLE
+
+By EDWIN SWIFT BALCH
+
+(From the N. Y. Tribune, April 14, 1913)
+
+
+Which was it: Cook or Peary? Who discovered the North Pole? Everybody
+thought the question had been settled long ago, but now comes an eminent
+geographer and explorer, who says, over his name, that both got to the
+"Big Nail," and that it was the Brooklyn doctor who did it first. And in
+defense of his belief he cites chapter and verse, and uses Peary's own
+story to prove that his hated rival it was who first stood at the top of
+the earth, "where every one of the cardinal points is South."
+
+The intrepid defender of Cook is Edwin Swift Balch, fellow of the
+Association for the Advancement of Science, member of the Wyoming
+Historical and Geological Society, the Franklin Institute, American
+Philosophical, American Geographical and Royal Geographical Societies,
+writer on arctic, antarctic geographical and ethnological topics for the
+learned societies of the world. Dr. Balch lives at No. 1412 Spruce
+street, Philadelphia, and the title of his book, just published by
+Campion & Co., of Philadelphia, is "The North Pole and Bradley Land."
+
+
+"ALL TRAVELLERS CALLED LIARS"
+
+"From time immemorial travellers have been called liars," says Mr. Balch
+in a chapter devoted to "travellers who were first doubted and afterward
+vindicated," and it is on this general assumption of their
+Munchausen-like proclivities that much of the weight of argument
+depends. But most of all the truthfulness of the doctor's assertion that
+on April 21, 1908, he and his two Eskimo boys, E-tuk-i-shook and
+Ah-we-lah, reached the goal and "were the only pulsating creatures in a
+dead world of ice," is shown by the fact that conditions reported by
+Cook as existing there were corroborated by Peary.
+
+"The man who breaks into the unknown may say what he chooses and present
+such astronomical observations as he sees fit," says Mr. Balch, "but his
+proof rests on his word. But if the next traveller corroborated the
+discoverer, instantly the first man's statements are immeasurably
+strengthened.
+
+"To solve such a problem as that of who discovered the North Pole, this
+comparative method seems to the writer the only one available. It is not
+a matter of belief, it is a matter of comparison and reasoning. It is
+not the evidence which Cook produces _which in itself alone could prove
+Cook's claims_. It is the geographical evidence offered by both Cook and
+Peary, which, when carefully compared, affords, in the writer's
+judgment, the only means of arriving at a conclusion. It is Peary's
+statements and observations which prove, as far as can be proved at
+present, Cook's statements."
+
+
+ALL DISCOVERERS FIRST DOUBTED
+
+The writer then mentions a score of the great discoverers and explorers
+of history who have been defamed and berated by their contemporaries,
+yet whose achievements have in time proved them to be truth tellers.
+Marco Polo, "greatest of mediaeval travellers, was generally
+discredited." Amerigo Vespucci "to this day remains under a cloud for
+things he did not do." Fernao Mendes Pinto, Nathaniel B. Palmer, Robert
+Johnson, James Weddell, von Drygalski, Nordenskjold, Bruce, Charcot, Dr.
+Krapf, Dr. Robmann, Du Chaillu, Stanley, Livingstone, Colter, all have
+been reviled as fabricators, yet all have been honored by those who came
+later, he says.
+
+"There are three records of Dr. Cook's journey of 1908," says the
+writer. "Cook's first announcement was a long cablegram sent from
+Lerwick, Shetland Islands, and published in the 'New York Herald' of
+September 2, 1909. The full original narrative was sent immediately
+after this and published in the 'New York Herald' between September 15
+and October 7, 1909, with the title 'The Conquest of the Pole.'
+
+"_Both of these were written and sent before Cook could, by any
+possibility, have seen or heard of any of the results of Peary's last
+expedition._
+
+The third record is Cook's book "My Attainment of the Pole," which is
+simply an enlargement on the earlier story.
+
+
+COOK MUST HAVE BEEN FIRST
+
+The point here emphasized is that Cook could not have had anything on
+which to base his description of conditions north of 83:20 north
+latitude, and as his description agreed with that later given by Peary,
+there could be no doubt that Cook was there first.
+
+"The reason for this is that these statements can be based on nothing
+but Cook's own observations," says Mr. Balch, "for Cook started for
+Denmark from South Greenland before Peary started for Labrador from
+North Greenland, and therefore everything Cook stated or wrote or
+published immediately after his arrival in Europe must be based on what
+Cook observed or experienced himself.
+
+"_Cook's original narrative stands on its own merits; it is the first
+and most vital proof of Cook's veracity, and yet it has passed almost
+unnoticed._
+
+The points on which the two accounts, Cook's and Peary's, of conditions
+at 90 degrees north agree most fundamentally, and hence most definitely
+establish the truthfulness of Cook, are first the "account of the land
+sighted in 84:20 north to 85:11 north (Bradley Land). The second is the
+glacial land ice in 87-88 degrees north. The third is the account of the
+discovery of the North Pole and the description of the ice at the North
+Pole."
+
+
+COOK'S THREE ACHIEVEMENTS
+
+Cook's first great discovery, the writer holds, was Bradley Land, named
+after his friend and backer. This land, Cook declared, had a great
+crevasse in it, making it appear like two islands, the southerly one
+starting at 84:20 north. Peary made no mention of land north of 83:20
+north.
+
+"Whether there is land or water in the intervening sixty geographical
+miles is a problem," says the writer, "but in order to be perfectly fair
+to both explorers and to allow for errors in observation one might split
+the difference at 83:50 north and consider that latitude as a dividing
+line between the lands discovered respectively by Cook and Peary."
+
+"The second important discovery of Cook's is the glacial land ice in 87
+north to 87 north-88 north," says the writer. "A closely similar
+occurrence was observed by Peary on his 1906 trip in about 86 north, 60
+west."
+
+But the most important particular in which the two men agree, in the
+mind of Mr. Balch, is in their description of the ice at the pole. Cook
+reported that it was "a smooth sheet of level ice." The writer adds: "if
+that description of the North Pole is accurate, the writing of it by
+Cook, first of all men, on the face of it is proof that Cook is the
+discoverer of the North Pole."
+
+
+THE SNOW WAS PURPLE
+
+But not only was the ice at the pole smooth and level, but the snow
+there was "purple" in the story of Cook, a detail in which he is again
+borne out by Peary.
+
+"Purple snow," says the writer, "is a linguistic expression, an attempt
+to suggest with words what Frank Wilbert Stokes has done with paints in
+his superb pictures of the polar regions. Hence," he says, "the use of
+the word 'purple' by Dr. Cook, who is not a trained artist, proves that
+he has the eye of an impressionist painter and that he is an extremely
+accurate observer of his surroundings....
+
+That Cook's description is accurate is in the next place certified to by
+Peary. Peary corroborates Cook absolutely about conditions enroute to
+the North Pole; and Cook is corroborated by Peary, not only by what
+Peary saw, but by what Peary did. If there was anything in the Western
+Arctic between the North Pole and 87:47 north but 'an endless field of
+purple snows,' smooth and slippery, Peary could not have covered the
+intervening 133 geographical miles in two days and a few hours. Peary,
+therefore, from observation and from actual physical performance proves
+that Cook's most important statement is true."
+
+The evidence is thus examined, step by step. The statements of the two
+men are compared, word by word, and this is the conclusion reached:
+
+"In view of all these facts it becomes certain that Cook must have
+written his description of the North Pole from his own observations, for
+until Cook actually traversed the Western Arctic between 88 degrees
+north and the North Pole, and told the world the facts, no one could
+have said whether in that area there was land or sea, nor have stated
+anything of the conditions of its ice, with its unusual, perhaps unique,
+flat surface.
+
+"But Cook, in his first cable dispatch, stated definitely and positively
+and finally that at the North Pole there was no land, but sea, frozen
+over into smooth ice, and Peary confirmed Cook's statements.
+
+"Cook was accurate, and the only possible inference is that Cook was
+accurate because Cook knew; and the further inevitable conclusion is
+that since Cook knew, Cook had been at the North Pole."
+
+(_Ed._) In personal letters Balch further says, "I have tried to look at
+it as if this were the year 2013, and all of us in heaven.... It is only
+a question of time till Dr. Cook is recognized as the discoverer of the
+North Pole."
+
+
+
+
+FOR A NATIONAL INVESTIGATION
+
+A REQUEST
+
+By DR. FREDERICK A. COOK
+
+
+For three years I have sought in various ways to bring about a National
+investigation of the relative merits of the Polar Attainment and the
+unjust propaganda of distrust which followed. Such an investigation
+would do no harm if the original work and the later criticism has been
+done in good faith. Why has it been refused? To take the ground that it
+is a private matter and that the Government has taken no official part
+in the Polar race is to assume a false position. The injustice of this
+evasive policy is brought out in my telegram to former President
+Taft--and again in my letter to President Wilson. To compel such an
+investigation and to appoint Arctic explorers as National experts has
+been my main mission on the platform. Much against my will I have been
+forced to adopt the usual political tactics of getting to the voters to
+force action by Congress and the official circles of Washington.
+
+When in 1911 the bill was introduced in Congress to retire Peary as a
+Rear Admiral with a pension, I supposed that this would automatically
+bring about a thorough scientific examination of the merits of the rival
+Polar claims. And such an investigation I then believed would surely
+bring about the only reward I have ever claimed--The appreciation of my
+fellow countrymen. It was however, as I learned later, a bold Pro-Peary
+movement fostered by lobbyists whose conscience was eased by drippings
+from the Hubbard-Bridgeman Arctic Trust, but I still believed that the
+dictates of National prestige were such that the usual white-washing and
+rail-roading process could not be adopted in a question of such
+International importance. I did not begrudge Mr. Peary a pension if
+honest methods were pursued to adjust the bitterly fought contention in
+the eyes of the world. My friends made no protest in Congress. As
+matters progressed, however, I saw that such men as Prof. Willis Moore
+and others of his kind--men I had previously trusted as honest, really
+proved themselves, double-faced, political back-scratchers. Then I
+changed my tactics. When one's honor is bartered by thieves under the
+guise of friends--and when these thieves are part of a government from
+which justice is expected--Then one is bound to uncover the leprous
+spots of one's accusers. I am glad to note that Prof. Moore, the
+President of the National Geographic Society, has since been exposed as
+being too crooked to fit into a berth of the present administration.
+There are others whose long fingers have been in the Polar-pie who will
+also meet their fate as time exposes their flat-heads.
+
+To call a halt on this National Humbug where only official chair-warmers
+and political crooks served as experts, I sent the following telegram to
+former President Taft:
+
+
+COPY OF TELEGRAM SENT TO FORMER PRESIDENT TAFT
+
+                                          Omaha, Neb., March 4, 1911
+  The President--The White House,
+                Washington, D. C.
+
+  When you sign the Peary bill you are honoring a man with sin-soiled
+  hands who has taken money from our innocent school children. A part of
+  this money I believe was used to make Arctic concubines comfortable. I
+  am ready to produce others of the same opinion. Thus for twenty years
+  while in the pay of the navy, supplied with luxuries from the public
+  purse, Peary has enjoyed, apparently with National consent, the
+  privilege denied the Mormons.
+
+  There are at least two children now in the cheerless north crying for
+  bread and milk and a father. These are growing witnesses of Peary's
+  leprous character. Will you endorse it?
+
+  By endorsing Peary you are upholding the cowardly verdict of Chester,
+  Tittman and Gannett, who bartered their souls to Peary's interests by
+  suppressing the worthlessness of the material upon which they passed.
+  These men on the Government pay-roll have stooped to a dishonor that
+  should make all fair-minded people blush with shame. This underhanded
+  performance calls for an investigation. Will you close these dark
+  chamber doings to the light of justice?
+
+  In this bill you are honoring one, who in seeking funds for legitimate
+  exploration, has passed the hat along the line of easy money for
+  twenty years. Much of this money was in my judgment used to promote a
+  lucrative fur and ivory trade, while the real effort of getting to the
+  pole was delayed seemingly for commercial gain. Thus engaged in a
+  propaganda of hypocrisy he stooped to immerality and dishonor and
+  ultimately when his game of fleecing the public was threatened, he
+  tried to kill a brother explorer. The stain of at least two other
+  lives is on this man. This bill covers a page in history against
+  which the spirits of murdered men cry for redress.
+
+  Peary is covered with the scabs of unmentionable indecency, and for
+  him your hand is about to put the seal of clean approval upon the
+  dirtiest campaign of bribery, conspiracy and black-dishonor that the
+  world has ever known.
+
+  If you can close your eyes to this, sign the Peary bill.
+
+                                          (Signed) FREDERICK A. COOK
+
+
+The telegram was received but not acknowledged--the Peary bill was
+signed. But the false assumption of Peary's "Discovery of the Pole" was
+eliminated from the bill. There is therefore no National endorsement of
+Peary; though he was given an evasive Old Age Pension which the
+newspapers quoted incorrectly as an official recognition of Peary's
+claim to polar priority.
+
+I now appeal to President Wilson and the present administration to make
+some official endeavor to clear our National emblem of the stain of the
+envious Polar contention. To that end I have written the following
+letter:
+
+
+AN APPEAL TO PRESIDENT WILSON
+
+(COPY OF A LETTER)
+
+                                                Chicago, May 1, 1913
+
+  Honored Sir:
+
+  I appeal to you to forward a movement which will adjust in the eyes
+  of the world the contention regarding the rival Polar claims. The
+  American Eagle has spread its wings of glory over the world's top. It
+  would seem to be a National duty to determine officially whether there
+  is room for one or two under those wings.
+
+  The graves of our worthy ancestors are marks in the ascent of the
+  ladder of latitudes. Hundreds of lives, millions of dollars, have been
+  sacrificed in the quest of the Pole. The success at last attained has
+  lifted the United States to the first ranks as a Nation of Scientific
+  Pioneers. Every true American has quivered with an extra thrill of
+  pride with the knowledge that the unknown boreal center has been
+  pierced and that the stars and stripes have been put to the virgin
+  breezes of the North Pole. The unjustified and ungracious controversy
+  which followed has wounded our National honor; it has left a stain
+  upon our flag. Is it not, therefore, our duty as a Nation to dispel
+  the cloud of contention resting over the glory of Polar attainment?
+
+  I have given twenty years to the life-sapping task of Polar
+  exploration--all without pay--all for the benefit of future man.
+  Returning--asking for nothing, expecting only brotherly appreciation
+  of my fellow countrymen, I am compelled to face an unjust battle of
+  political intrigues by men in the pay of the Government. My effort now
+  is not for money nor for a pension, but to defend my honor and that of
+  my family. The future of my children demands an exposition of the
+  unfair methods of the arm-chair geographers in Washington. However,
+  I do not ask the administration to defend me or my posterity, but do
+  ask that the men who draw a salary from the National treasury be made
+  answerable for a propaganda of character assassination, among these
+  is Prof. Willis Moore and others of the so-called National Geographic
+  Society.
+
+  The National Geographic Society with Prof. Moore as President is
+  responsible for the false interpretation of the rival Polar claims.
+  This society is a private organization used mostly for political
+  purposes; for two dollars per year a college professor or a
+  street-sweeper becomes with equal facility a "national geographer."
+  It is, therefore, not "national" nor "geographic," and when this
+  society poses as a scientific body, it is an imposition upon American
+  intelligence, and yet it is this society, with the well-known
+  political trickery of Prof. Moore, which has attempted to decide for
+  the world the merits of Polar attainment. An investigation of the
+  wrong doings of this society will quickly bring to light the
+  injustice of the Polar controversy.
+
+  A commission of Polar explorers appointed by National authority will
+  end for all times the problem of the rival Polar claims. There is an
+  abundance of material on both sides by which such a commission could
+  come to a reasonable conclusion. The general impression that the Polar
+  contention has been scientifically determined is not true. There has
+  been no real investigation into either claim. Such an investigation
+  could only be made by Arctic explorers, and to bring about this end I
+  would suggest the appointment of an International Commission of such
+  men as General A. W. Greely, U. S. A., Captain Otto Sverdrup of Norway
+  and Professor Georges Lecointe of Belgium. Their decision would be
+  accepted everywhere. Greely and Sverdrup have each spent four years in
+  the very region under discussion, and Lecointe is the Secretary of the
+  International Bureau for Polar Research and also director of the Royal
+  Observatory of Belgium. Such men will render a decision free from
+  personal bias, free from National prejudice and their verdict will be
+  accepted by the Nations of the world.
+
+  Though I am an interested party I insist that my appeal is not
+  altogether a personal one. In the interest of that deep-seated
+  American sense of fair play, in the interest of National honor, in
+  the interest of the glory of our flag, it would seem to be a National
+  duty to have the distrust of the Polar attainment cleared by an
+  International commission.
+
+                                 Respectfully submitted,
+                                          (Signed) FREDERICK A. COOK
+  To the President,
+    The White House,
+      Washington, D. C.
+
+Thousands of requests similar to those reproduced below have gone to
+various officials in Washington. Such appeals demand action.
+
+                                                Chicago, May 7, 1913
+  Mr. Josephus Daniels, Secretary of the Navy,
+                Washington, D. C.
+
+  Dear Sir:
+
+  Rear Admiral Peary wears the stripes of the Navy, he is drawing
+  a pension of $6,000.00 per year from the tax-payers--The National
+  dictates of honor compel such a man to be clean morally--honest
+  and upright officially. Dr. Cook has publicly made charges against
+  Peary which relegate this Naval Officer to the rank of a common
+  thief and degenerate. In his book, "My Attainment of the Pole,"
+  (Mitchell-Kennedy, N. Y.) there are specific charges made which call
+  for an investigation. These charges have remained unanswered for
+  three years--Why?
+
+  In the Polar controversy the flag has been dragged through muck, and
+  this dishonor seems to rest upon a man for whose actions you are
+  responsible.
+
+  The American people have a right to demand an investigation into the
+  intrigue of the Peary Polar Propaganda, and as one believing in
+  justice at the bar of public opinion, I ask that you take steps to
+  clear this cloud in the eyes of the world.
+
+                                  Respectfully,
+                                            FRED HIGH
+                                      Editor of _The Platform_,
+                                   The Lyceum and Chautauqua Magazine,
+                                                 Steinway Hall, Chicago.
+
+
+                                              Chicago, May 22, 1913.
+  To Congressman James R. Mann,
+                Washington, D. C.
+
+  Dear Sir:
+
+  The conquest of the North Pole has lifted the United States to a first
+  position as a Nation of scientific pioneers. The controversy which
+  followed is a blot on our flag and it is a slur at our National honor.
+  From the Government purse and from private resources we have spent
+  millions to reach the top of the earth; it would appear therefore to
+  be our duty as a Nation to adjust the Polar contention in the eyes of
+  the world.
+
+  If Dr. Cook has reached the Pole, a year earlier than Peary, as most
+  Arctic explorers believe, then the seeming endorsement and the pension
+  of the Naval officer is an injustice to Dr. Cook and an imposition on
+  the public; if both have reached the Pole then there should be a
+  suitable recognition and reward extended to each. As one of thousands
+  of American citizens, I beg of you to forward a movement which will
+  bring about a National investigation into this problem, with a
+  suitable provision for a proper recognition.
+
+                                  Respectfully,
+                                CHARLES W. FERGUSON,
+                                                  Pres.,
+                              The Chautauqua Managers Association,
+                                               Orchestra Bldg., Chicago.
+
+
+
+
+CAN THE GOVERNMENT ESCAPE THE RESPONSIBILITY?
+
+BY FRED HIGH
+
+
+While the Danes were royally entertaining Dr. Cook on September 4th,
+1909, telegrams were being showered upon him by all the world. The King
+of Sweden sent this message:
+
+"A BRILLIANT DEED, OF WHICH THE AMERICAN PEOPLE MAY RIGHTLY BE PROUD."
+
+The American minister to Denmark made Dr. Cook's visit state business
+and joined in the effort to share Cook's honors. Dr. Cook paused in the
+midst of all this splendor to cable the following message to our
+President:
+
+                                          Copenhagen, Sept. 4, 1909.
+  President,
+    The White House, Washington.
+
+  I have the honor to report to the chief magistrate of the United
+  States that I have returned, having reached the North Pole."
+
+To which President Taft cabled the following reply:
+
+                                      Beverly, Mass., Sept. 4, 1909.
+  Frederick A. Cook,
+    Copenhagen, Denmark.
+
+  Your dispatch received. Your report that you have reached the North
+  Pole calls for my heartiest congratulations, and stirs the pride of
+  all Americans that this feat which has so long baffled the world has
+  been accomplished by the intelligent energy and wonderful endurance
+  of a fellow countryman."
+                                                    WILLIAM H. TAFT.
+
+Was President Taft speaking for the American people when he called Dr.
+Cook's achievement the pride of all Americans? Were we ready to share
+Cook's joys? Share his honors? If so, then in all fairness, should we
+not share in his trials and tribulations? Are we like the crazy base
+ball fan who cheers a pitching hero when he wins and insults him with
+all kinds of vile epithets when he loses?
+
+For one I shared in that thrill of pride and was glad to know that I
+had had dealings with Dr. Cook before he went in search of the Pole,
+consequently, I felt in honor bound to withhold any hasty criticisms
+that I might feel tempted to hurl at Dr. Cook. All who joined in his
+praises should insist upon it that he be given a chance to disprove
+every charge that has been brought against him, that he be given a
+chance to explain his every act before we join in the cry to crucify
+him. "Crucify him, or give us the most contemptible coward, moral leper
+and political crook that has lived in our time," if Dr. Cook's charges
+are true.
+
+Believing that this is a matter that ought to be fairly settled by
+competent and orderly methods, I have written to several congressmen and
+senators, and the following correspondence speaks for itself:
+
+                                     Chicago, Illinois, May 7, 1913.
+  Hon. Wooda N. Carr,
+    Washington, D. C.
+
+  Dear Sir:
+
+  I wish to ask a personal favor of you, one that I think the public is
+  interested in and one that I think the world ought to know more about.
+  It is the Cook-Peary controversy. I have given this considerable
+  thought and study. I have heard Dr. Cook lecture a number of times and
+  have talked to him personally and tried to find out from every angle
+  the facts as to whether or not his story is true. So far I have been
+  unable to find a flaw in any of his statements, and Mr. Peary by his
+  actions has given every evidence that Dr. Cook is telling the truth.
+  Therefore, as a citizen who is interested in the larger affairs of
+  this country, and as the editor of The Platform, which is devoted to
+  the Lyceum and Chautauqua movement, I am asking whether or not it
+  would be compatible with fair play and our sense of justice and real
+  national dignity to take this controversy out of the hands of
+  individuals and settle it by an official tribunal, or by a commission
+  of arctic explorers.
+
+  I shall be very glad, indeed, if you will inform me of what steps
+  could best be taken to bring about the settlement of this controversy.
+  If there are any authoritative facts developed along this line, I will
+  be glad to know where to locate them as my sole object is to learn the
+  truth.
+
+  Under separate cover I am sending you copy of The Platform which
+  contains Doctor Cook's letter to President Wilson, which I hope you
+  will read.
+                                           Yours very truly,
+                                                 (Signed) FRED HIGH.
+
+
+                                 House of Representatives, U. S.
+                                    Washington, D. C., May 13, 1913.
+  Mr. Fred High,
+    602 Steinway Hall,
+      Chicago, Ill.
+
+  Dear Sir:
+
+  Your letter of the 7th inst., regarding the Cook-Peary controversy,
+  received. I do not think it would be possible to get Congress to
+  interfere in this matter. It is a question of little concern to many
+  who discovered the Pole, or whether it was discovered at all. It seems
+  to be a personal matter, the settlement of which should be determined
+  by the persons interested.
+                                          Very truly yours,
+                                             (Signed) WOODA N. CARR.
+
+Is it a matter of no concern whether or not the North Pole has been
+discovered? Is it a matter of no concern whether a man can fake a story
+about having discovered the North Pole, receive the homage of the world,
+fleece the American public out of thousands of dollars for fees to hear
+his lecture and go unpunished? If Dr. Cook has hoaxed the world as so
+many have charged him with having done, this is more than a private
+matter.
+
+If Dr. Cook has discovered the North Pole, are we acting the part of
+fellow countrymen by shirking our duty? Shall Congress say that the
+clique at Washington either make good its charges against Dr. Cook, or
+be made to retract and stand disgraced in the eyes of the world? We
+shared Cook's honors. Will we shirk when he calls upon his countrymen
+for a square deal?
+
+The following letter was received from Senator Miles Poindexter and
+should be carefully studied:
+
+United States Senate, Committee on Expenditures in the War Department.
+
+                                      Washington, D. C. May 9, 1913.
+  Mr. Fred High, Editor,
+    The Platform, 602 Steinway Hall,
+      64 E. Van Buren St.,
+        Chicago, Illinois.
+
+  My dear Mr. High:
+
+  I have yours of 7th inst., and was very much pleased to know that you
+  are interested in securing a fair examination, officially if possible,
+  into Dr. Cook's claims of discovery.
+
+  Ever since the Cook-Peary controversy began, I have paid more or less
+  close attention to the questions involved therein. I have talked with
+  a number of residents around the neighborhood of Mt. McKinley, Alaska,
+  some of whom are friendly and some unfriendly to Dr. Cook; have read
+  with great care Dr. Cook's book describing his polar expedition; and
+  have followed through the newspapers and otherwise the various phases
+  of the controversy and happenings in connection therewith. As a
+  lawyer, I have always been especially interested in the study of the
+  credibility of witnesses, the weight of evidence; and in deducing
+  logical conclusions therefrom. From the careful consideration of the
+  comparative character of the witnesses for and against Dr. Cook, their
+  motives, and the attitude and hearing throughout the controversy of
+  Cook and Peary themselves, I have a very fixed and firm conviction
+  that Dr. Cook's story is true. I believe the majority of the people of
+  the country who are interested in the subject are of the same opinion.
+
+  From my observation of the miserable petty cliques and factional
+  squabbles in official circles of the Government, such for instance
+  as the Sampson-Schley controversy and innumerable smaller disputes,
+  I have long ago ceased to accept, as necessarily correct, official
+  evidence merely because it is official.
+
+  I have not yet seen a copy of The Platform containing Dr. Cook's
+  letter to President Wilson which you say you are forwarding me under
+  separate cover, and when received will read it with much interest.
+  Not having read it, I do not know just what plan Dr. Cook proposes for
+  an official investigation. I will be glad however, to learn the basis
+  upon which it is proposed to make the test an official investigation.
+  It occurs to me that it is entirely a private matter and that the
+  Government officially has nothing to do with it. Every man has as much
+  right as any other man to form a conclusion in the case; public
+  opinion, if the facts can be presented to the public, is the best
+  judgment. I would be apprehensive of submitting the absolute
+  determination of the question to an official tribunal for the reasons,
+  among others, which I have mentioned above. However, will be glad to
+  learn further as stated of the proposal.
+
+  With kind regards.
+                                      Very truly yours,
+                                          (Signed) MILES POINDEXTER.
+
+Senator Poindexter's letter is a stricture on official Washington that
+ought to cause every true patriot to blush with shame. Are we at the
+point where even an impartial investigation can not be had into the
+controversy as to who discovered the North Pole?
+
+There are thousands who believe this is a question that touches our
+national honor and therefore is a rightful subject for a Congressional
+Investigation. Those who believe this, ought to write to their
+representatives at Washington and urge such action as will lay the
+facts before the world.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The following letter from Hon. Champ Clark is worthy of much
+consideration as it reveals the real status of this controversy as it
+exists in official circles.
+
+Dr. Cook is a private citizen with no Cook Arctic club to back him and
+share his gains. No National Geographical Society helped to finance his
+venture with the hope of managing his lectures as a sort of bureau
+graft. He is a private citizen.
+
+Speaker Clark's letter furnishes us with the reason for asking Congress
+to take a hand in this affair for it shows how ready our statesmen are
+to give ear when the people speak:
+
+  THE SPEAKER'S ROOM
+  HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
+
+  WASHINGTON, D. C.
+
+                                                       May 10, 1913.
+  Mr. Fred High,
+    Editor of The Platform,
+      Chicago, Illinois.
+
+  My dear Mr. High:
+
+  I have your letter touching the Cook-Peary controversy. I note what
+  you say. I do not see clearly what it is that you are suggesting. That
+  is, whether you want Congress to formulate some plan to determine the
+  matter by appointing a commission of Arctic explorers, or exactly what
+  it is that you do want.
+
+  Of course, I do not know very much about Arctic explorations and do
+  not set a very high store on them as I never could understand what
+  sort of good would come of locating the North Pole. I am a good deal
+  of a utilitarian, and am a disciple of the Baconian philosophy rather
+  than of the philosophy of Aristotle and the Greek school. To tell the
+  truth, I have always had a hazy sort of an idea that both Cook and
+  Peary discovered the North Pole. I have not valued my opinion highly
+  enough to undertake to exploit it or to induce anybody else to believe
+  it as I have enough other matters on hand to employ the time and
+  attention of one man.
+
+  Wishing you success, I am
+                                            Your friend,
+                                                (Signed) CHAMP CLARK
+
+The following opinion of the men on the Chautauqua platform is
+attributed to our good friend from Missouri:
+
+    "The Chautauqua has been a powerful force in directing the political
+    thought of the country, which is largely sociological in these
+    latter days. I approve the Chautauqua lecturers, with whom I have
+    been associated, because they constitute as fine a group of men and
+    women as can be found among the splendid citizenship of America. I
+    have a deep and abiding interest in them, and bid them a hearty
+    godspeed in their work."
+
+Dr. Cook is perhaps the leading Chautauqua lecturer of the present
+season. He is now booked to appear at seventy Chautauquas this Summer
+and it is certain that even the genial Speaker of the House wouldn't
+want to associate with a man who would hoax the world for gain.
+Certainly he wouldn't want "The greatest liar of the Century" to be one
+of the powerful forces directing the political thoughts of the Century.
+If Dr. Cook discovered the North Pole he should be given the credit for
+that great achievement.
+
+We certainly have a right to see to it that neither Dr. Cook nor Mr.
+Peary are treated as though they were the scum of the earth. Dr. Cook
+has brought charges against Mr. Peary as a Naval officer. He still
+brings these charges, and he should be made to prove them. Peary, an
+officer of the Navy, has brought charges against Cook and he should be
+made to prove them.
+
+Mr. Peary is an officer of our navy, drawing an old age pension. His
+position is such that he cannot ignore Dr. Cook's open charges. He is
+honor bound to protect the good name of this great country by asking an
+investigation of these charges. To remain silent, is to stand to be
+branded as the arch-degenerate of our day. Don't forget it was he who
+opened up the mud batteries and caused this undignified controversy.
+
+No honorable man can allow such open charges of gross immorality as Dr.
+Cook preferred against Mr. Peary in his telegram to President Taft.
+These have been printed in magazines and newspapers as well as appearing
+in Dr. Cook's books, now in the sixtieth thousand edition.
+
+Here in Illinois press stories of improper conduct implicating
+Lieutenant-Governor Barrett O'Hara were circulated and he immediately
+asked the state legislature to investigate them. The legislature
+appointed a committee that took testimony and reported these stories
+were groundless and false.
+
+Is a retired Admiral less important in the eyes of the world than the
+Lieutenant-Governor of Illinois, or has the "old tar" taken an immunity
+bath?
+
+Are we any farther along than were those who put Columbus in chains and
+stoned the Prophets and nailed the Christ to the Cross? Are we so
+engrossed in the material things that all questions of honor are of no
+concern to us?
+
+It is true that the bar of public opinion is the court of last resort in
+a real democracy, but it is equally true that it is essential to see
+that the source of public opinion be not polluted. Should our school
+children be taught that Peary discovered the Pole if Dr. Cook was there
+first?
+
+Senator Robert M. LaFollette says: "You can't buy, you can't subsidize
+the Lyceum. At least, it never has been done. The Press has been
+subsidized. Papers and magazines which were printing the bad records of
+public officials and political parties have, in many instances, been
+forced out of the field or silenced. Special privilege organized as a
+System has its own press.
+
+But the Lyceum platform is free. Really, I sometimes think that, from
+the days of Wendell Phillips to now, the Lyceum has pretty nearly been
+the salvation of the country."
+
+The Lyceum and the Chautauqua have given Dr. Cook a fair hearing, and it
+is now a matter of National pride that when the press was silent or
+hostile, Congress indifferent, the Chautauqua, the one distinctively
+American institution, gave him an honest, impartial hearing.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I write as I do because, being the editor of The Lyceum and Chautauqua
+Magazine, I have tried to give Dr. Cook the same opportunity to present
+his case as I would expect him to do by me were I in his place and he in
+mine.
+
+AFTER YOU HAVE READ THIS BOOK KINDLY WRITE YOUR CONGRESSMAN CALLING FOR
+AN INVESTIGATION.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+  Acpohon, Trail Along, 183;
+    "The Land of Guillemots," 191
+
+  Acponie Island, 50
+
+  Adams, Captain, 458;
+    Peary Suppressed Letter Presented by, 459, 487, 489
+
+  Advance Bay, 106
+
+  Ah-tah, Turns Away Ma-nee, 58
+
+  Ah-we-lah, Told Bartlett That Observations Were Made, 13, 189;
+    Chosen for Dash to Pole, 196;
+    Sure of Nearness of Land, 225, 230, 269, 270, 284, 293, 307, 327,
+          335;
+    Prevents Boat From Sinking, 366, 385, 399;
+    Recounts Remarkable Journey to the Pole, 452
+
+  Ahwynet, 96
+
+  Alaskan Wilds, 29
+
+  Alexander, Cape, 65, 117, 122, 152
+
+  Al-leek-ah, 95
+
+  American Legation, 469
+
+  Amund Ringnes Land, 329
+
+  Anderson, Mr., 460
+
+  Annoatok, 25;
+    Supplies Stored at, 30;
+    Started for, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71;
+    First Day at, 75;
+    Erected a House of Packing Boxes at, 76, 79, 83, 84, 85, 104, 110,
+          117, 152, 157, 194, 195, 226, 312, 336, 379, 437, 442, 443,
+          447, 451, 456
+
+  Antarctic Exploration, 28
+
+  Arctic, Bradley, Expedition, 24, 27
+
+  Arctic Circle Crossed, 34
+
+  Armbruster, Professor W. F., Defense of Dr. Cook by, 490
+
+  Armour of Chicago, Food Supplies by, 135
+
+  Arthur Land, 191
+
+  Ashton, J. M., 526, 530
+
+  Astrup, Eivind, Death of, 38, 511, 515, 560
+
+  Atholl, Cape, Sailed Around, 46
+
+  Auckland, Cape, 60
+
+  Auks, 62
+
+  Auroras, 112
+
+  Axel Heiberg Land, 193, 194, 201, 212, 246, 327, 329, 333
+
+
+  Bache Peninsula, Headed for, 158, 435
+
+  Baffin's Bay, 362
+
+  Baldwin, Captain Evelyn B., 135, 540, 564
+
+  Baldwin-Zeigler, Cache of Supplies Left by, 203
+
+  Bancroft Bay, 103
+
+  Bangor, 483
+
+  Barrill Affidavit, 13, 14, 522, 523, 524
+
+  Bartlett, Capt. Robt. A., Learns from Eskimos That Observations Were
+          Made, 13;
+    Assisted Peary in His Lies, 485, 558, 560, 562.
+
+  Bathurst Land, 337
+
+  Battle Harbor, Arrival at, 31;
+    Questions Prepared by Peary at, 483, 489, 557
+
+  Bay, Baffin's, 362;
+    Bancroft, 103;
+    Braebugten, 358, 377;
+    Buchanan, 77;
+    Cannon, 162;
+    Dallas, 103, 104;
+    Flagler, 154, 161, 168;
+    Melville, 38;
+    Entered, 39, 42, 44, 45;
+    North Star, 46;
+    Anchored in, 50, 462;
+    Olrick's, 59, 63;
+    Pioneer, 314;
+    Robertson, 63;
+    Sontag, 451
+
+  Bay Fiord, Overland to, 162, 168
+
+  Bear Hunting, 177, 184, 189, 432
+
+  Belcher Point, Passed, 361, 362
+
+  Belgian Antarctic Expedition, 28, 497
+
+  Belle Isle, Straits of, Entering, 31
+
+  Bennett, James Gordon, Cable to, 464, 465;
+    Selling Narrative Story to, 491, 492, 493
+
+  Bernier, Captain, 448, 516
+
+  Berri, Herbert, 502
+
+  Berry, Robert M., 478
+
+  "Big Lead," Peary's Eskimos Become Panic-Stricken at, 11;
+    Dr. Cook Reaches the Shores of, 217;
+    Crossing the, 221, 222, 224, 250
+
+  "Big Nail," 85, 243
+
+  Blethen, J., 527
+
+  Bonsall Island, 106
+
+  Booth Sound, 453
+
+  Borup, George, 485, 486
+
+  Bradley, John R., Compact Made for Expedition, 24;
+    Expedition, 29;
+    Join Party, 31;
+    Called to Action, 51;
+    Assumed Direction, 53;
+    Shoots Duck, 54, 537
+
+  "_Bradley, John R._," S. S., Sailed July 3, 1907, 23;
+    Going Northward, 28;
+    Aboard the, 30;
+    Sailing Qualities of the, 31
+
+  Bradley Land, 246, 249;
+    Positive Proof of, 251
+
+  Braebugten Bay, 358, 377
+
+  Breton, Cape, 30
+
+  Bridgeford, 527
+
+  Bridgman, Herbert L., Kitchen Explorer, 13, 77, 78, 502, 529, 557
+
+  Bridges, Thomas, Yahgan Dictionary, 497, 498
+
+  Brooklyn Dairy Business, 27
+
+  Brooke's Island, 106
+
+  Brown, Belmore, 524
+
+  Buchanan Bay, 77
+
+  Bushwick Club, 481
+
+
+  Cairn Point, Passed, 68
+
+  Camped for the Winter, 393
+
+  Cannon Bay, 162
+
+  Cannon Fiord, 203
+
+  Cape Alexander, Passed, 65, 117, 122, 152;
+    Athol, Sailed Around, 46;
+    Auckland, 60;
+    Breton, 30;
+    Clarence, 429;
+    Faraday, 429, 430;
+    Hatherton, 167;
+    Inglefield, 68;
+    Isabella, 428;
+    Louis Napoleon, 435;
+    Paget, 428;
+    Parry, 59;
+    Robertson, Proceeded to, 61, 62;
+    Rutherford, 159;
+    Sabine, Note Left at, 149, 150, 154, 157, 158, 161, 336, 426, 431;
+    Tragedies of, 433, 434;
+    Seiper, 103;
+    Sheridan, 78;
+    Sparbo, 344, 355, 357, 363, 364, 377, 378, 413, 497;
+    Tennyson, 427, 428, 429;
+    "Thomas Hubbard," 201;
+    Veile, 154, 161;
+    Vera, 343, 352, 353;
+    York, 44, 454, 455
+
+  Cardigan Strait, 350
+
+  Caribou Hunting, 109
+
+  Chester, Rear-Admiral, 502, 543, 544
+
+  Christiansaand, 476
+
+  Clarence, Cape, 429
+
+  Coast and Geodetic Survey, 488
+
+  Coburg Island, 428
+
+  Cold, Director, 477
+
+  Columbus, Christopher, 7
+
+  Conger, Fort, Party Left by Peary to Die of Cold and Hunger at, 454
+
+  Congress, Investigation of, Admission of Peary Witnesses in, 15, 18,
+          547
+
+  Contracts, Book, 494
+
+  Controversy, Polar, 5
+
+  Cook, Mrs., 478
+
+  Copenhagen, 12, 15, 244, 465, 466, 476, 479, 482, 494, 497, 538, 539,
+          540, 549, 550, 551, 557, 563
+
+  Copenhagen, University of, 549, 562
+
+  Cornell University, 485
+
+  Crocker Land, 226, 490, 559
+
+  Crown Prince Gustav Sea, 329, 336
+
+  Crystal Palace Glacier, 451
+
+
+  Dahl, Charles, 456
+
+  Dallas Bay, 103, 104
+
+  Danes, Hospitality of the, 515
+
+  Danish Literary Expedition, 453, 515
+
+  Davis Straits, Entered, 31
+
+  Dedrick, Dr., Harshly Treated by Peary, 434, 454, 515
+
+  De Gerlache, 134
+
+  "Devil's Thumb," 456
+
+  Dial Shadow, at the Pole, 308
+
+  Disco, Island of, Sighted, 34
+
+  Dundas Island, 337
+
+  Dunkle, Faked Observations of, 15, 535;
+    Introduced to, 536, 537, 538, 539, 540, 563
+
+  Dunkle-Loose Forgery, Explanation of, 355
+
+
+  Egan, Dr., 465, 469, 470, 494
+
+  Eggedesminde, 462;
+    First Banquet in Honor of Discovery of the Pole at, 463, 466
+
+  Eidsbotn, Descended to, 343
+
+  Ellef Ringnes Land, 329
+
+  Ellesmere Land, 71;
+    the Promised Land, 101, 191, 344
+
+  Elsinore, 466
+
+  Endor, 2
+
+  Equipment, Examination of, 149
+
+  Eric the Red, 33
+
+  "_Erik_," S. S., Peary Supply Ship, 443, 449, 451, 515
+
+  Eskimos, Delusions of, 11;
+    Testimony of, 12, 34;
+    Married Life Among the, 48;
+    Tents, 49;
+    Bargaining, 49;
+    Study of Walrus Habits, 52;
+    Customs Pertaining to Children, 54;
+    Romance, 55;
+    Have No Salutation, 61;
+    Equality of Children and Dogs to the, 63;
+    Prosperity Measured by the Number of Dogs, 68;
+    Engaged in Request of Reserve Supplies, 85;
+    Making Clothes, 90;
+    Gloom When the Long Night Begins, 92;
+    Mourning for the Dead, 95;
+    Dancing, 97;
+    Joy in Killing a Bear, 108;
+    Christmas Festivities, 137;
+    Ice Cream, 137;
+    the Coming of the Stork to the, 142;
+    Love for Children, 145;
+    Belief in Shadows, 180;
+    Show Anxiety, 206;
+    Questioned by Peary, 206;
+    Comedies and Tragedies of the, 322;
+    Weird Customs of the, 399;
+    Describe Trip to Pole, 452;
+    Hostility to Peary, 454;
+    Put Through the Third Degree by Peary, 488;
+    Put on Board Peary's Ship Against their Will, 514
+
+  Etah, 13;
+    Steered for, 64;
+    Landing Difficult at, 69, 70;
+    Eskimos Return to, 206, 312, 448, 449, 451, 558
+
+  E-tuk-i-shook, 12;
+    Told Bartlett That Observations Were Made, 13;
+    Sights Bears, 183;
+    Chosen for Dash to Pole, 196, 293;
+    Sure of Nearness to Land, 225, 230, 270, 279, 284, 293, 307, 327,
+          335;
+    Kills a Walrus, 373, 381;
+    Secures a Hare, 384;
+    An Adept With a Sling Shot, 399;
+    Recounts Remarkable Journey to the Pole, 452.
+
+  Eureka Sound, Reached, 102, 183, 192
+
+  Explorers' Club, 529
+
+
+  Faraday, Cape, 429, 430
+
+  Faroe Islands, 464
+
+  Fenker, Governor, 36
+
+  Fiala, Anthony, 478, 536
+
+  Fiord Umanak, Reached, 38;
+    Bay, Overland to, 162, 168;
+    Snag's, 193;
+    Cannon, 203;
+    Musk Ox, 343;
+    Talbot's, 429
+
+  Floundering in the Open Sea, 231
+
+  Flagler Bay, Advance Supplies Sent to, 154, 161, 168
+
+  Foulke Fiord, Entered, 66
+
+  Fox, Arctic, 398
+
+  Francke, Rudolph, 25;
+    Selected as Companion to Dr. Cook, 72, 73, 79;
+    Hunting, 89, 90;
+    Meat Gathered and Dried in Strips by, 114;
+    Prepared a Feast, 147, 148;
+    Asked to Join Party, 153, 155;
+    Remained in Charge of Supplies at Annoatok, 204;
+    in Starving Condition Refused Bread and Coffee by Peary, 442;
+    Compelled by Peary to Turn Over Furs and Ivory, 443, 517
+
+  Franklin Bay Expedition, Lady, 158
+
+  Fridtjof Nansen Sound, 315, 327
+
+
+  Game, Captured, 100
+
+  Gannett, Henry, 544
+
+  "Gates of Hades," 66
+
+  Gilder, Richard Watson, 112
+
+  Glacier, Crystal Palace, 451;
+    Humboldt, 45, 100, 106, 109;
+    Petowik, Sighted, 45
+
+  Gloucester, 23
+
+  "_Godthaab_," S. S., Supply Ship, 461
+
+  Godhaven, Sheltered in, 36, 37
+
+  Goggles, Amber-Colored, Used to Protect the Eyes, 226
+
+  "Gold Brick," Slurs, 39
+
+  Gore, Professor, 540, 563
+
+  Gramatan Inn, 535
+
+  Grand Republic, 479, 480
+
+  Grant Land, 191, 212, 214, 215, 226
+
+  Great Iron Stone, 513
+
+  Greely Expedition, Camp of, 158;
+    Peary Throws Discredit Upon the, 433, 515
+
+  Greely, General A. W., 168, 544, 560
+
+  Greely River, 168
+
+  Greenland, Steered for, 31;
+    Interior, 32, 37, 45, 62, 69, 79, 117, 364, 408, 433, 436, 489, 497
+
+  Grinnell Land, 191
+
+  Grinnell Peninsula, 337, 342
+
+  Grosvenor, Gilbert, 543, 544
+
+  Gulf, Inglefield, 46, 59;
+    Crossing, 60, 453;
+    of St. Lawrence, Sailed Over, 31
+
+  Gum Drop Story, Explanation of, 30
+
+
+  Hague Tribunal, The, 441
+
+  Hampton, Benjamin, 546, 553
+
+  Hampton's Magazine, 546, 552, 553
+
+  "_Hans Egede_," S. S., Sailed on, 464, 466, 467
+
+  Hansen, Dr. Norman, 462
+
+  Hares, Arctic, 67, 163
+
+  Harry, T. Everett, 552, 554
+
+  Hassel Sound, 329, 334
+
+  Hatherton, Cape, 67
+
+  Hayes, Dr., 66, 222
+
+  Hearst, W. R., Offer From, 491
+
+  Hell Gate, 348;
+    Drifting Towards, 350, 353
+
+  Henson, Matthew, Statement of, 506, 559
+
+  Holland House, Compact Made at, 24
+
+  Holsteinborg, 32
+
+  "_Hope_," S. S., 513
+
+  Hovgaard, Commander, 468, 472
+
+  "Hubbard, Cape Thomas," 201, 489
+
+  Hubbard, General Thomas, 528, 558
+
+  Humboldt Glacier, 45, 100, 106, 109
+
+  Hunting, Caribou, 109;
+    Bear, 177, 184, 189, 432;
+    Hare, 67, 89, 163;
+    Musk Ox, 171, 184, 378-392;
+    Narwhal, 87;
+    Walrus, 54, 64, 367-373;
+    In the Moonlight, 114-129
+
+
+  Icarus, 43
+
+  Ice, Explosion of, 124
+
+  Iceberg, Adrift on an, 346
+
+  Iceland, 464
+
+  Igloo, Building an, 166
+
+  Ik-wa, the Cruelty of, 55, 56, 57
+
+  Inglefield, Cape, 68
+
+  Inglefield, Gulf, 46, 59;
+    Crossing, 60, 453
+
+  Instruments, Carried on Journey to Pole, 198;
+    Left With Whitney, 450;
+    Buried, 499
+
+  Investigation of Peary's So-Called Proofs, 544, 545
+
+  Isabella Cape, 428
+
+  Island, Bonsall, 106;
+    Brook's, 106;
+    Coburg, 428;
+    Disco, 34, 50;
+    Littleton, Passing Inside of, 67;
+    Dundas, 337;
+    Faroe, 464;
+    North Cornwall, 336;
+    Saunders, 54;
+    Schei, 185;
+    Shannon, 203;
+    Shelton, 478;
+    Weyprecht, 159
+
+  Itiblu, Near, 59, 453
+
+
+  Jensen, Inspector Dougaard, 461, 463, 464, 497
+
+  Jesup, Mrs. Morris K., 514
+
+  Jones Sound, 324, 342, 383, 396, 406, 426
+
+
+  Kraul, Governor, 457, 458, 459, 460, 461, 497
+
+  Kane Basin, 66, 101
+
+  Kane, Dr., 66
+
+  Kanga, 59
+
+  Karnah, 60
+
+  Kennedy Channel, 66
+
+  King Christian Land, 336
+
+  "King's Guest House," Only Hotel in Greenland, 462
+
+  "_Kite_," S. S., 511
+
+  Kookaan, 63
+
+  Koo-loo-ting-wah, Leading Man, 101, 105, 108, 109, 184;
+    Took Instructions to Francke, 204;
+    Paid by Peary to Abandon Supplies, 448
+
+  Ky-un-a, the Death of, 127
+
+
+  Labrador, 9, 31, 463, 484, 557
+
+  Lancaster Sound, 192, 336, 342, 425
+
+  Lands-Lokk, 195
+
+  Lerwick, Sent First Cable to New York From, 464
+
+  Lonsdale, 477, 494, 537
+
+  Loose, 15;
+    Faked Observations, 535, 537, 538, 539, 540, 563
+
+  Louis Napoleon, Cape, 435
+
+  Lifeboat Cove, Searched for Relics Along, 67
+
+  Lincoln Land, 191
+
+  Lincoln Sea, 214
+
+  Littleton Island, Passing Inside of, 67
+
+
+  MacDonald, J. A., Describes the Mt. McKinley Ascent, 531, 532, 533
+
+  McLaughlin, A. J., 563
+
+  Ma-nee, the Romance of, 55, 56, 57
+
+  Mann, Colonel, 13, 529
+
+  Marshal, Colonel, 527
+
+  Marvin, Ross, the Suspicious Death of, 485;
+    Letters Suppressed, 488
+
+  _Matin_, Paris, offer $50,000, 494
+
+  McMillan, Makes False Statements, 484
+
+  "_Melchior_," S. S., 476
+
+  Melville, Admiral, 502
+
+  Melville Bay, 38;
+    Entered, 39, 42, 44, 45, 455
+
+  Meteorite, "Star Stone," Stolen by Peary, 435, 454, 512
+
+  _Mirror_, St. Louis, the Only Paper to Grant Space to Uncover the
+          Unfair Methods of the Pro-Peary Conspiracy, 490, 491, 492
+
+  Mitchell, Roscoe, 525, 527
+
+  "_Morning_," S. S., 458
+
+  Mountain, Table, "Oomanaq," 46
+
+  Mt. McKinley, Affidavit, 13, 14;
+    Scaled, 29, 522;
+    Description of ascent, 531, 535, 541
+
+  Murchison Sound, 453
+
+  Museum of Natural History, 513
+
+  Musk Ox Fiord, 343
+
+  Musk Ox Hunting, 171, 184, 387
+
+  My-ah, Disposes of Wives to Gain Dogs, 48;
+    Direct Hunting, 51
+
+  Mylius Erickson, 133, 453
+
+
+  Nansen, introduced the Kayak, 133, 495
+
+  Nansen Sound, Through, 164, 193, 195, 203
+
+  Nansen Straits, 77
+
+  Narwhal Hunt, Description of, 87
+
+  Naval Committee, 10
+
+  National Geographic Society, 10, 13, 540, 541, 542, 544, 549, 561, 564
+
+  Needles, Eskimo, How They are Made, 91
+
+  Newfoundland Boats, 31
+
+  New York _Globe_, 528
+
+  New York _Herald_, 465, 482, 493, 527, 538, 557
+
+  New York _Times_, Published Lying Document, 15;
+    Peary's Questions Sent to, 483, 521, 540, 557, 561, 564
+
+  New York _World_, 506
+
+  New York, University of, Graduated From, 27
+
+  Nordenskjold, 495
+
+  Nordenskjold, Expedition, 468
+
+  Nordenskjold System Borrowed by Peary, 511
+
+  North Cornwall Island, 336
+
+  North Devon, 183, 342, 359, 396, 423
+
+  North Lincoln, 406
+
+  North Pole, 3, 4, 5, 8, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 24, 30, 74, 155, 284, 287,
+          310, 449, 452, 455, 557
+
+  North Star Bay, 44, 46;
+    Anchored in, 50, 462
+
+  Norwegian Bay, 336
+
+  Nuerke, 447, 451, 453
+
+
+  Observations, 245, 257, 274, 292, 302
+
+  Olafsen, Professor, 472
+
+  Olrik's Bay, 59, 63
+
+  "Oomanaq," Table Mountain, 46
+
+  Oomanooi, Village of, Visited, 47, 453
+
+  _Oscar II_, S. S., Sailed on to New York, 475, 476, 477, 494, 495
+
+
+  Paget, Cape, 428
+
+  Palatine Hotel, 554
+
+  Parker, Professor Herschell, 13, 523, 524
+
+  Parry, Cape, 59
+
+  Peary, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 18, 19, 20, 27, 28, 38, 39, 77,
+          112, 131, 200, 212, 244, 253, 433, 438, 439, 440, 441, 443,
+          444, 447, 448, 451, 452, 454, 459, 463, 474, 477, 482, 483,
+          484, 485, 487, 490, 491, 492, 493, 496, 499, 500, 501, 502,
+          505, 506, 507, 508, 509, 510, 511, 512, 513, 514, 516, 517,
+          518, 519, 527, 528, 529, 530, 540, 542, 543, 544, 545, 557,
+          558, 563, 565
+
+  Peary, Mrs., 63
+
+  Pennsylvania R. R. Station (Washington), Casual Examination of Peary's
+          Instruments in, 10
+
+  Penny Strait, 337
+
+  Petowik Glacier, 45
+
+  Phoenix Hotel, Stayed at, 468
+
+  Pioneer Bay, 340, 341
+
+  Polar Ethics, Accused of Violating, 439
+
+  Poe, Edgar Allen, 140
+
+  "_Polaris_," S. S., Stranded in Sinking Condition, 67
+
+  Pole, Copy of Note Left in Tube at, 313
+
+  Pole Star, 136
+
+  _Politiken_, 465, 473
+
+  Pond's Inlet, 425
+
+  Portland, 560
+
+  Press, Injustice of the, 19
+
+  Printz, F., 525
+
+  Proofs, Peary's Demands for, 547, 548, 549
+
+
+  Quebec, 553
+
+
+  Rassmussen, Knud, Lived Among Eskimos, 46;
+    Heard Story From Eskimos of Finding the "Big Nail," 462;
+    Foretold Return of Peary and Prophesied Discord, 463
+
+  Rensselaer Harbor, 101
+
+  Rice Strait, Through, 158
+
+  Roberts, Mr., 548
+
+  Robertson Bay, 63
+
+  Robertson, Cape, Proceed to, 61, 62
+
+  Robeson Channel, 218
+
+  "Robinson Crusoe" Life, 391
+
+  Rocky Mountains, 33
+
+  Rood, Henry, 485
+
+  Roosevelt, Stolen Tusk Presented to, 443
+
+  "_Roosevelt_," S. S., 438;
+    Piratical Career of the, 444, 447, 451, 484, 557
+
+  Route to the Pole, 285
+
+  Royal Geographical Society, 472, 473, 475
+
+  Rutherford, Cape, 159
+
+
+  Sabine, Cape, Notes Left at, 149, 150, 154, 157, 158, 161, 336;
+    Tragedies of, 426, 431, 433, 434, 515
+
+  Saunders Island, 54
+
+  Schei Land, 185
+
+  Schley Land, 79, 164, 191
+
+  Schley, Rear-Admiral, 168, 544, 584
+
+  Schley River, 168
+
+  Schwartz, Dr. Henry, 490
+
+  Seattle _Times_, 527
+
+  Seiper, Cape, 103
+
+  Ser-wah-ding-wah, 122, 152
+
+  Shackleton's Journey to the South Pole, 458
+
+  Shadows at the Pole, 304, 306, 308
+
+  Shainwald, Ralph L., 469
+
+  Shakespeare, 140
+
+  Shelter Island, 478
+
+  Shannon Island, 203
+
+  Sheridan, Cape, 78
+
+  Schoubye, Captain Henning, 46, 515
+
+  Sledges, Making of, 128
+
+  Smith, Mrs., 514
+
+  Smith Sound, Entered, 65, 66;
+    Left, 71, 104, 122, 150
+
+  Snag's Fiord, 193
+
+  Sontag, Astronomer, Lost Life, 222
+
+  Sontag Bay, 451
+
+  Sound, Booth, 453;
+    Eureka, 182, 183, 192;
+    Fridtjof Nansen, 315, 327;
+    Hassel, 329, 334, 365;
+    Jones, 324, 342, 383, 396, 406, 426;
+    Lancaster, 192, 336, 425;
+    Murchison, 453;
+    Nansen, Through, 164, 193, 195, 203;
+    Smith, Entered, 65, 66;
+    Left, 71, 164, 122, 150;
+    Whale, Entered, 59;
+    Wolstenholm, 46;
+    Walrus Adventure in, 50, 433.
+
+  Sparbo, Cape, 344, 355, 357, 363, 364, 377, 378, 413, 497
+
+  Speed Limits, Criticized, 502;
+    Peary's, 505
+
+  Spitzbergen, 289
+
+  Squint, Boreal, 275
+
+  Stanley, 7, 495
+
+  "Star Stone," 435, 454, 512
+
+  Stars and Stripes Pinned to the North Pole, 287
+
+  Stead, William T., 467, 468, 491
+
+  Steinsby, Professor, 461
+
+  St. Lawrence, Gulf of, 31
+
+  St. Louis, Lecture, 496
+
+  Stockwell, Professor, 503
+
+  Stokes, Frank Wilbert, 112
+
+  Straits, Davis, 31;
+    Belle Isle, Entering, 31;
+    Rice, Through, 158;
+    Vaigat, Passed, 38;
+    Cardigan, 350
+
+  Stromgren, Professor Elis, 472, 550
+
+  Stork, Visits at Christmas, 142
+
+  Supplies, 197;
+    Taken for Journey to Pole, 198, 199;
+    Seized by Peary, 444
+
+  Sydney, Harry Whitney, Arrives at, 12;
+    Journey to, 236, 558, 561
+
+  Svarten Huk, 38
+
+  Svartevoeg, 180;
+    Camped South of, 193, 194, 195, 201, 206, 247, 287, 363
+
+  Sverdrup, Captain Otto, Exploration of, 80, 191;
+    Mapped Channels by, 192, 201, 342;
+    Peary Stole the Honor of the Naming of Svartevoeg From, 489, 490,
+          516, 560
+
+
+  Table Mountain, "Oomanaq," 46
+
+  Tacoma, 528, 530
+
+  Talbot's Fiord, 429
+
+  Tassuasak, Arrived at, 456
+
+  Temperature of the Body, 324
+
+  Tennyson, Cape, 427, 428, 429
+
+  "Tent, The," Meteorite, 513
+
+  Tents, Eskimo, 49
+
+  Thompsen, Professor, 461
+
+  "Thumb, The Devil's," 39
+
+  Tittman, O. H., 544
+
+  Torp, Professor, 472, 549, 560
+
+  Townsend, Director, of the New York Aquarium, Falsely Accused Dr. Cook
+          of Stealing a Dictionary Compiled by Thomas Bridges of Indian
+          Words, 497, 498
+
+  To-ti-o, 107;
+    Joy in Killing of Bear, 108
+
+  Troy, 553
+
+  Tung-wing-wah, 95
+
+
+  Umanak, 449, 461, 462
+
+  Umanak Fiord, 38
+
+  United Steamship Company, 477
+
+  Upernavik, Island, Appeared, 38, 206, 448, 449, 457, 459, 461
+
+
+  Vaigat Straits, Passed, 38
+
+  Veile, Cape, 154, 161
+
+  Vera, Cape, 343, 352, 353
+
+  Verhoeff, John M., the Death of, 63, 511, 515
+
+  Vespucci, Amerigo, 7
+
+
+  Wack, H. Wellington, 527
+
+  Waldorf-Astoria, Arrived at, 481;
+    Dinner Given at, 504, 535
+
+  Wallace, Dillon, 536
+
+  Walrus Hunting, 15, 50, 122, 123, 367-373;
+    In the Moonlight, 114-129
+
+  Whale Sound, Entered, 59
+
+  Whitney, Harry, 12;
+    Instruments left with, 244, 437;
+    Ill Treated by Peary's Boatswain Murphy, 445, 449, 451;
+    Peary Refused Permission to Bring From the North Instruments and
+          Data Left in His Hands, 497;
+    Forced to Bury Instruments, 499, 558
+
+  Weapons, Making, 381
+
+  Weche, Handelschef, 461
+
+  Weed, General, 527
+
+  Wellington, Channel, 336, 340
+
+  Weyprecht Island, 159
+
+  Wolstenholm Sound, 46, 50, 453
+
+  "Worm Diggers' Union," 529
+
+  Wyckoff, E. G., 471
+
+
+  York, Cape, 44, 454, 455
+
+
+
+
+INDEX OF NEW MATERIAL
+
+
+  Arctic Club of America (b)
+
+
+  Balch, Edwin Swift, Article by, 595-599 (b)
+
+  Bates, R. C., Credits Mt. McKinley ascent, 534 (b)
+
+  Bradley Land, 597-598
+
+
+  Chautauqua Managers Association, Article by (a, b, c)
+
+  Caines, Ralph H., Credits Mt. McKinley ascent, 534 (b)
+
+  Cook-Peary Controversy, 606, 607, 608
+
+  Cook Must Have Been First, 597
+
+  Cook's Three Achievements, 598
+
+  Carr, Wooda N. Letter to and from, 606
+
+  Can Government Escape Responsibility, 605
+
+  Clark, Champ, Letter from, 608
+
+
+  Danish Geographical Society (b)
+
+  "Discoverer of the Pole," Peary denied title (a)
+
+  Daniels, Josephus, Card to, 603
+
+  Discoverers Doubted, 596
+
+
+  Explorers, Verdicts of, 584
+
+
+  Geographic Societies, European, Forced to Honor Peary (a)
+
+  Greely, Gen. A. W., 603 (b)
+
+  Glacial Land, Discovery of, 598
+
+
+  Hubbard-Bridgeman, Arctic Trust, 600
+
+  Hoax the World, 606
+
+  High, Fred, Editor of Platform, Article by, 604, 605, 610
+
+
+  King of Belgium (b)
+
+  Kill Brother Explorer, Tried to, 602
+
+
+  Lecointe, Prof. Georges, 603
+
+  Lyceum and Chautauqua Magazine, 604, 610
+
+
+  Mann, Congressman James R., Card to, 604
+
+  Mt. McKinley Expedition, 534
+
+  Moore, Prof. Willis, 601, 603
+
+
+  North Pole, 595, 604, 606
+
+  National Investigation, Desired by Cook, 600
+
+  National Geographical Society, 601, 603, (a)
+
+
+  Overland Magazine, Article by R. H. Caines, 534
+
+  Official Evidence not Necessarily Correct, 607
+
+  O'Hara, Barrett, 609
+
+
+  Pension Peary, Old Age, 602, 603
+
+  Purple Snow, 598, 599
+
+  Peary's Data proves Cook's, 596, 597, 599
+
+  Poindexter, Miles, Letter from, 607
+
+  Petty Cliques in Washington, 607
+
+  Peary-Parker-Brown Humbug up to date, 534
+
+  Parker-Brown Mt. McKinley Expedition, 534
+
+
+  Schley, Rear Admiral W. S. (b)
+
+  Sverdrup, Capt. Otto, 603 (b)
+
+  Sampson-Schley Controversy, 607
+
+  Scientific Pioneers, U. S. first rank, 602
+
+
+  Tribune, N. Y., Article from, 595
+
+  Travelers Called Liars, 595
+
+  Taft, Wm. H., Telegram to, 606
+
+
+  University of Copenhagen, Conferred Degree, Ph. D. (a, b)
+
+
+  Wilson, Woodrow, Letter to, 602
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+OTHER BOOKS BY DR. COOK
+
+
+You have read Dr. Cook's narrative of his expedition to the North Pole.
+His other books are of equal interest.
+
+
+Through the First Antarctic Night
+
+A narrative of the Belgian South Pole Expedition of 1897, in charge of
+Commander de Gerlache, with Dr. Cook as surgeon.
+
+This expedition came near sharing the fate of Captain Scott of the
+English expedition. Captain Roald Amundsen, discoverer of the South
+Pole, in speaking to the Press of the hardships which the members of the
+Belgica expedition withstood says: "During the winter scurvy broke out
+and at the same time several of the party showed signs of mental
+trouble. Dr. Cook proved himself a surgeon equal to the situation. All
+of his patients recovered. Here I learned to know Dr. Cook and to
+appreciate him as one of the ablest, most honest, most reliable men I
+have ever met. Members of the Belgica expedition owe their lives to Dr.
+Cook, as it was through his ingenious plan of sawing the channel through
+the pack-ice to open water, thus releasing the ice locked ship, that
+saved the entire party from death."
+
+The above is covered in detail in similar words on pages 19, 20, 23
+Volume One of "The South Pole" a late book by Captain Amundsen. On page
+24 of the same volume he says:
+
+"Upright, honorable, capable and consciencious in the extreme; such is
+the memory we retain of Dr. Frederick A. Cook."
+
+
+To the Top of the Continent
+
+Exploration in Sub-Artic Alaska. A thrilling account of the first ascent
+of America's highest mountain--Mount McKinley.
+
+Dr. Cook has been engaged in exploration for twenty years--the best part
+of his life--all without pay. He has furnished his own money for most of
+his expeditions. He is a quiet, unassuming man and has done all of his
+work with little thought of personal gain or honorary publicity.
+Quietly he came forward and told us that one of the greatest exploits
+ever made in mountain climbing was now accomplished. It did not occur to
+him to beat a drum or blow a trumpet to make this known to the world.
+The work was accomplished; this was sufficient for him. Little was known
+of the Mt. McKinley trip until Peary brought it up as a side issue to
+throw doubt on Dr. Cook's Polar Claim; see page 534 of this book.
+
+
+My Attainment of the Pole
+
+Edition de Luxe
+
+Captain Amundsen in speaking of Dr. Cook's Polar trip says: "It was a
+pity that Peary should besmirch his beautiful work by circulating
+outrageous accusations against a competitor who had WON THE BATTLE in
+open field. If Peary is to prove the accusation by the evidence of
+Cook's two followers, I must confess it is a very weak foundation."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The above books by Dr. Frederick A. Cook have been printed in edition de
+Luxe, especially for subscription purposes. The regular price is $5.00
+each, but to accommodate those further interested in exploration, we
+have arranged to make a special reduced price; see next page.
+
+
+                                ....................................
+                                    ....................................
+
+  The Polar Publishing Co.,
+     601 Steinway Hall,
+        Chicago, Ill.
+
+  Gentlemen:
+
+  Enclosed find three dollars ($3.00) for which please send me postpaid,
+  one copy of "Through the First Antarctic Night," by Dr. Frederick A.
+  Cook, and oblige
+
+                              Yours truly,
+                                ........................................
+                                    ....................................
+
+
+                                ........................................
+                                    ....................................
+
+  The Polar Publishing Co.,
+     601 Steinway Hall,
+        Chicago, Ill.
+
+  Gentlemen:
+
+  Enclosed find three dollars ($3.00) for which please send me postpaid,
+  one copy of "To the Top of the Continent," by Dr. Frederick A. Cook,
+  and oblige
+
+                              Yours truly,
+                                ....................................
+                                    ....................................
+
+
+                                ....................................
+                                    ....................................
+
+  The Polar Publishing Co.,
+     601 Steinway Hall,
+        Chicago, Ill.
+
+  Gentlemen:
+
+  Enclosed find three dollars ($3.00) for which please send me postpaid,
+  one copy of "My Attainment of the Pole," Edition de Luxe, by Dr.
+  Frederick A. Cook, and oblige
+
+                              Yours truly,
+                                ....................................
+                                    ....................................
+
+
+Remove this sheet, clip and fill out any or all of the above coupons and
+mail to this office and we will forward the books at once.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's My Attainment of the Pole, by Frederick A. Cook
+
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