Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1909-09-16

| OOES. Inc next marCh was SatlSfac'
tory as regards distance and character
OF going. In the latter part there
were pronounced movements IN the
Ice, both visible and audible. Some
leads were crossed, In one Of which
Borup and his team took a bath, and
we were finally stopped by an imprac,
ticnble lead opening in front Of us.
We camped in a temperature Of SO
below. At the end Of two short
marches we came upon Hansen and
MS party In camp, mendng their
sledges. We devoted the remainder of
the day 20 overhauling and mend ns
kledges and breaking up our damaged
ones for material.
The next morning l pot Marvin in
The lead to pioneer the trail, with in.
Htrrctions to make two forced marches
to bring up our average. which had
bacn cut down by the last two short
ones Marvin carried out his in
structions implicitly. A considera bic
amount of young ice assisted in this.
At the end of the tenth march. lati-
tude 1923. Borup turned back in com.
mnnd Of the second supporting party.
having travelled a distance equivalent
to Nansen's distance from this far to
his farthcst north.
From this point the expedition com
! prised 13 mon. 10 sledgcs and 20 dogs.
II was necessary for Marvin to take a
sledee from here. and I put Bartlett
and his division in advance to pioneer
the trail
The continual daylight enabled mo 10
make Il moderation here that brought
my advance and main parties closer to-
/ gcthc and reduced the likelihood Of
their being separated by open leads
After Bartlett left camp with Hen
d"rSon and their division Marvin and
l remained with our divisions twenty
! hours longer and then followed When
, we reached liartlctt's camp he broke
! out and went on and we turned in Nv
| this arrangement the advance party
was travelling while the main party
was asleep. and vice versa. and was
In touch with my advance party every
| twenty-four hours
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
it would have been an impossiblity.
Last Words to Marvin.
i vt our position ut the end Of the sec
ond march Marvin obtained salts
| factory sight for latitude in clear
weather which placed us at 81 As
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 IA lead
! delayed us Il few hours. We finally
ferrieh across on the ice cakes.
The next day Bartlett let himself
ont, evidently for Il record. and repied
nif plump twenty miles Here Mar
, win obtained Il satisfactory sight on
latitude, which gave the position as
SG3N, or beyond the farthest north Of
Nansen and Abruzzi and showed that
we had covered fifty minutes Of latl.
'ude in three marches. In these three
marches we had passed the Norwegian
record Of SELL by Nansen and the Ital-
ian record Of ST "A by Cagni
From this point Marvin turned back
in command Of the third supporting
party. My last words to him were.
f,,1 -.
The party from this point comprised
y men, sledges and 60 dogs
The north march was over good 60
ing, but for tic first time since leaving
Land we experienced that condition.
frequent over these ice fields of
hlzy atmosphere IN which the light is
equal everywhere. All relief is de-
stroyed. and it is impossible to See for
any distance.
In the next march we encountered
the heaviest and deepest snow Of the
journey. through IA thick, smothering
mantle lying In thu deprcssions of
heavy rubblc ice. | came upon Bart
lett and his psrtv, tagged out and
temporarily discouraged by the heart
rackng work of making road
rallied them a bit. lightcned their
slcdgcs and sent them on. encouraged
again.
Narrow Escape
During the next march we travelled
t4rc Iah thick, low lying, smoky haze
drifting o"er the ice before o biting air
from the northeast. At the end Of the
march We came upon the captain
campcd beside wide open lead, with a
dense black water sky northwest, north
and northeast. We built our igloos and
turned In, but before | had fallen
asleep | was reused out by movement
of the Ice and found a startling condl-
ton of affairs. A rapidly widening
road of black wafer 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
lee 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 igloos
threatened to follow suit.
Kicking out the doors of the igloos.
! called to the captains men to pack
their sledges and be ready for quick