Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1909-09-16

| This early loss of Macmillan was seri-
| ously disappointing TO me. He had a
sledge all the way from Cape Columbia,
| and with his enthusiasm and the powers
and physique of the trained athlete I
had confidence in him for at least the
| S6th parallel but there was no alterna-
/ tive.
The best sledges and dogs were select
| ed and the sledge loads brought UP to
| the standard. The sounding gave a
| depth of 325 fathoms.
| We were over the continual shelf and.
as l had surmised, the successive leads
| crossed in the fifth and sixth marches
| composed the big lead and marked the
continual shelf. ,
| On leaving the camp the expedition
| comprised l6 men. II sledges and 100 dogs.
| The next march was satisfactory as re-
| CARDS distance and the character OF the
| going. In the latter part there We're
| pronounced movements in the ice, both
visible and audible.
Some leads were crossed, in one of
| which Borup and his team took bath,
and we were finally stopped by an inn
practicable lead opening in front Of us.
| We camped in a temperature Of 90 de-
| grees below.
At the end OF two short marches we
| came upon Hansen and his party in
camp. mending their sledges. We de-
voted the remainder of the day to over
hauling and mending sledges and break
| ing up our damaged ones for material
Make Forced Marches.
The next morning put Marvin In the
lead to pioneer the trail, with instruc-
/ tons to make two forced marches to
bring up our average which had been
/ cut down by the last two short ones.
/ Marvin carried out his instructions i'm
! plicitly A considerable amount of young
| Ice assisted in this.
/ At the end Of the tenth march, latitude
/ s5.23, Borup turned back In command of
the second supporting party, having trav-
| eled distance equivalent to Nansen's
distance from this far to his farthest
/ north.
| was sorry to lose this young Yale
4 runner, with his enthusiasm and pluck.
| He had led his heavy sledge over the
] foes In way that commanded every
| ones admiration and would have made
his fathers eyes glisten.
| Changes His Plan.
| From this point the expedition COM
| prised 20 men, 10 sledges, and 70 dogs. 1t
| was necessary for Marvin to take a
sledge from here, and / put Bartlett
| and his division in advance to pioneer
| the trail.
| The continual daylight enabled me to
make a moderation here that brought my
| advance and main parties closer together
| and reduced the likelihood OF their be-
ing separated by open leads.
| After Bartlett left camp with Hender-
| son and their division, Marvin and / re-
manned with our division 20 hours long
| err and then followed. When we reached
| Bartletts camp he broke out and went
on and we turned in. BY this arrange
| ment the advance party was travelling
| while the main party was asleep, and
| vice versa, and / was in touch with my
advance party every "a hours.
Moves ExpeditiousIy.
I had no reason to complain OF the
going for the next two marches, though
| for less experienced party, less adapt
able sledges, or less perfect equipment 1t
| would have been an impossiblity.
| At our position at the end of the SEQ
| ond march, Marvin obtained a satisfac-
| tory sight for latitude in clear weather,
which placed us at S5.4S The result
agreed satisfactorily with the dead reck-
| oning of Marvin, Bartlett and myself.
Up to this time, the slight altitude of
| the sun had made 1t not worth while to
| waste time in observations.
On the next two marches the going i'm
proved, and we covered good distances.
In one Of these marches a lead delayed
US few hours. We finally ferried across
the ice cakes
/ Makes Record Run.
The next day Bartlett let himself out,
1
miles. Here Marvin obtained another
| satisfactory sight on latitude, which gave
the position as Sc. 3S Cor beyond the farth-
| est north of Nansen and AbruzzD, and
| showed that we had covered so minutes
| of latitude in three marches.
In these three marches we had passed
the Norwegian record of 1914. by Nan
sen, and the italian record Of 1854. by
| Cagni.
From this point Marvin turned back in
command of the third supporting party.
My last words to him were: BE care
full of the leads, my boy
The party from this point comprised
nine men, seven sledges, and go dogs.
The conditions at this camp and the ap-
| parently unbroken eXpanse of fairly level
| ice in every direction reminded me OF
| Cagnis description of his farthest north.
Danger Is Encountered.
But was not deceived by the appar-
emily favorable outlook, for available
conditions never continue for any dis
lance or any length OF time in the arc
| tic regions.
The next march was over good GO
| ing, but for the first time since leaving
| land we experienced that condition, fire.
| quent over these ice fields, of hazy at
mosphere. in which the light Is equal
everywhere. All relief is destroyed. and
| 1t is impossible to see for any distance
|
detour around an open lead. 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.
Temporarily Discouraged.
I came upon Bartlett and his party
| tagged out and temporarily discouraged
| by the heartracking work of making
road
Lnau, x,ho+ me. e. 1890. u-.,.S
them. They were simply spoiled by the
| good going on the previous marches. 1
| rallied them a bit, lightened their sledges
and sent them on encouraged again.
During the next march we travelled
| through thick haze drifting over the
| ice before biting air from the north
| east. At the end Of the march we came
upon the captain camped beside wide
open lead with a dense black water sky
northwest, north and northeast.
Has Narrow Escape.
We built our igloos and turned in, but
before had fallen asleep / was reused
out by a movement of the ice. and found
startling condition of affairs-a rapid
ly-widening road of black water ran
only few feet from our igloos.
One of the teams Of dogs had escaped
by only few feet from being dragged
by the movement Of the ice into the wa
ter
Another team had an equally narrow
escape from being crushed by the ice
blocks piled over them. The ice on the
north side of the lead was moving around
eastward. The small floor on which
were the captains igloos was drifting
eastward in the open water. and the side
of our igloos threatened to follow suit
Saved by Quick Dash.
Kicking out the door of the igloos
/ called to the captains men to pack
their sledges and be ready for a quick
dash when a favorable chance arrived
We hurried our things on our sledges,
hitched the dogs, and moved on to