Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-02-24

Of supplies properly placed for falling back
upon. is so small as scarcely to deserve
consideration.
And yet we go, as men should ALWAYS
go in the arctics, prepared for a great va
riety of emergencies While cur plan is
to return home in the autumn. we have
not lost sight of the possibility of being
compelled to winter at Spitzbergen. We
expect to return to SpitZbergen from our
dash for the pole about the middle of Sep
TENDER, though the little hunting vessels
or the daring Norwegians often leave Spitz-
bergen as late as the first or even the
middle of October, reaching Tromsoe or
HammerfeSt soon afterward. But il some
Unforeseen delay or accident should render
vii tering in that cherries region I'M
az oidable, we shall have at hand the means
of doirg it. At Danes Island we shall
have house, food fuel. But these are placed
there only as precaution, and with the
expectation that there is no more than
one chance in a hundred of their use
Must Return to Headquarters
We are often asked what will happen to
us if we Go not get back to Spitzbereen. Inst
what happens to a man who goes down in
coal mine and has the shaft cave in on
him; precisely the same thing that happens
to the man who suffers a stroke of COM
plete final heart failure, or to the passenger
IN the last seat of the rear coach when
there is tail-end collision. In other words
We must return to our headquarters If
we make the pole or our farthest north in
nifty days. when our loads are heaviest
and when whatever drift there is works
against us, why can we not return over
the same road in the same number of DAYS
with our loads growing lighter all the time
by consumption of food and fuel and with
the drift which sets in to the south about.
the middle of the summer carrying us
toward safety while we sleep? Nor is this
all. If we consume fifty or even ffty-fye
Grlr hk-a nd nd tIn, a..
every reason to believe we shall still have
sixty or more days in which to reach our
headquarters in ample time to leave for
Norway before the west coast of Spitz-
bergen is crowded with the autumn ice
Simply to reach Spitzbergen, which will
be safety, even at the Inconvenience of a
tedious Wintering, we should have for the
return journey at least eighty days before
the setting in of winter Again, on our
return from the far north in September it
is probable shall find the sea compare
lively free of ice for a distance of 100 miles
to the north of the shores of SpitZbergen
The highest latitude ever reached with a
ship was made in this same region
Wherever the edge of the ice is there our
stanch little steamer is to be waiting for
us, thus shortening by so much the length
of our return journey upon the pack.
The Question of Food.
1t is true that we are going provisione ed
for only 10 days, and should our journey
be extended beyond that period we might
run short Of supplies. But there is enough
elasticity in our equipment to provide for
such an emergency. We count on a bear
row and then, for ice bear have been found
as far north in the pack as man has ever
been. An occasional bear would be a great
edition to our larder, for he weighs from
800 to 1000 pounds. There are seal in the
pack ice, too, and though seal blubber is
not the most appetiZing of meat hunger
Is a sauce which makes the palate easy
to satisfy. Then there are our dogs, our
handsome long-eared draught hounds from
Belgium and Holland, which it would be
a pity to lead to the shambles, and which
we would much rather bring to America
But necessity knows no law, and we might