Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1909-09-21
PEARY's CONQUEST.
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able sledges or less perfect equipment
It would have been an impossiblity.
Last Words to Marvin.
At our position at the end Of the Sec
ond march Marvin obtained salts
factory sight for latitude in clear
weather, which placed us at S5.4S.
This result agreed very satisfactorily
with the dead reckoning Of Marvin.
Bartlett and myself. Up to this time
| the slight altitude Of the sun had
made it not worth while to waste time
In observations.
On the next two marches the going
improved, and we covered good dis
| tances. In one Of these marches lead
delayed us a few hours. We finally
ferried across on the ice cakes.
The next day Bartlett let himself
out, evidently for a record, and reeled
Off plump twenty miles. Here Mar
vim obtained Il satisfactory sight on
latitude, which gave the position as
| Nansen and Abruzzi, and showed that
we had covered fifty minutes of lati'
tude IN three marches. In these three
marches we had passed the Norwegian
record of sci by Nansen and the ltal-
ian record OF 1884 by Cagni.
From this point Marvin turned back
| i'm command of the third supporting
party. My last words to him We're.
"Be careful of the leads, my boy"
| The party from this point comprised
. men. I sledges and GO dogs.
The north march was over good go
ing. but for the first time since leaving
land we experienced that condition,
| frequent over these ice fields. of Il
haZy atmosphere in which the light Is
equal everywhere. All relief Is de-
stroyed. aud it is Impossible to see for
any distance.
In the next march we encountered
the heaviest and deepest snow of the
| Journey. through thick. smothering
mantle lying in the depressions OF
heavy rubble ice came upon Bart
lett and his party. tagged out and
temporarily discouraged by the heart
racking work of making road. l
rallied them Il bit, lightened their
| sledges and sent them on, encouraged
| again.
A Marrow Escape.
During the next march we Travelled
through thick, low lying. smoky haze
drifting over the Ice before biting air
from the northeast. At the end Of the
march we came upon the captain
| canned beside n wide open lead, with a
dense black water sky northwest, north
and northeast. We built our igloOs and
turned In. but before l had fallen
asleep was reused out by movement
| of the ice and found Il startling condi-
ton of affairs. A rapidly widening
| road Of black water ran but few feet
from our igloos. One Of my teams OF
dogs had escaped by only few feet
from being dragged by the movement
| Of the ice into the water.
Another team had an equally mar
row escape from being crushed by the
ice blocks piled over them. The Ice
| on the north side Of the lead was NOV
ing around eastward. The small floor
| on which were the captains iglOos
was drifting eastward In the open
| water. and the sides of our iSloOs
threatened to follow suit.
| Kicking out the doors OF the igloos,
| called to the captains men to pack
their sledges and be ready for a quick
| dash when favorable chance arrived.
| We hurried our things OH our sledses.
hitchea the dogs and moved on to IL
| large foe west of us. Then. leaving
one man to look out for the dogs and
sedges, we hurried over to assist the
captains party to join us.
| A corner of their raft impinged on
| the ice on our side. For the rest OF
| the night and during the next day
the Ice suffered the torments OF the
damned. surging together, opening out,
grooming and grinding. while the open
water belchcd black smoke like a
prairie fire. Then the motion ceased,
the open water closed, the atmosphere
to the north was cleared. and we
rushed across before the ice should
open again.
| A succession Of laterally open leads
heavy old ice. and tnen we came to Il
layer of young Ice, some Of which
buckled under our sledges, and this
gave us Il straight way of six miles to
the north. Then came more heavy old
foes covered with hard snow.
| This was good long march. The
next march was also long one. II
was Bartlett's last hit. He let him
self out over series of large old foes
steadily increasing in diameter and
covered with hard SNOW.
| During the last few miles l walked
beside him or in advance. He was
very solemn and anxious to 20 farther.
but the program was for him 10 20
back from here in command of the
fourth supporting party. and there
We're no supplies for an increase in
the main party.
In this march we encountered high
wind for the first time since the three
days after we left Cape Columbia. 1t
was dead on our faces. bitter and in
slstent. but had no reason to com
plain. 1t WAS better than an eaSterly
or sOutherly wind. either of which
would have set us adrift in open WA
ter. while this was closing UP every
lead behind This furnished another
| advantage of my supporting parties
True. by so doing it was pressing to
| the south the ice over which We lrav-
elel and so robbing Us Of Il hundred
miles of advantage.
Bartlett's Far North.
We concluded we We're on or near the
eighty-eia nth parallel unless the north
wind had lost us several miles. The
wind blaw all night and all the fol-
lowing day. At this camp in the
morning Bartlett started to walk five
or six miles to the north to make sure
Of reaching the eighty-eighth parallel.
Bartlett returned in time to take Il
satisfactory observation for latitude
In clear weather and obtained for our
position S7.4S, and that showed that
the continued north wind had robbed
us of number of miles Of hard earned
distance.
/ RarlaIt took the observations here.