The Glenwood post., 1909-09-18

and shaped like football by ex-
cessed reflection, just raised itself
above the horizon for a few minutes
and then dis. ppeared again. 1t was
the first time l had seen it since Oc-
tober l.
Fortunately on March IL, the lead
was practicable, and leaving a note
for Marven and Borup to push on af-
ter us by forced marches, we pre-
ceeded northward. The sounding of
the lead gave ITO fathoms. During
this march we cross the eighty-fourth
parallel and trayersed a succession of
1ust-frozen leads from few hundred
yards to mile in width. This march
was really simple. On the 14th we
got free Of the leads and came on
decent going. While we were waiting
courier came from Marven and in
formed ME he was on the march in
the rear. The temperature was-59
The following morning, March IA,
sent Hansen with his division north
to pioneer trail for five marches,
and DR.. Goodsell. according to pro-
gram, started back to Cape Columbia.
AT night Marven and Borup came
spinning in with their men and dogs,
steaming in the bitter air like a
squadron of battleships. Their arri-
val relieved me of all anxiety as to
my oil supply.
AT the end of two short marches
we came upon Hansen and his party
in camp, mending their sledges. We
devoted the remainder of the day to
o"erhauling and mending sledges. On
the next morning l put Marven in the
lead to pioneer the trail, with instruc-
tions to make two forced marches to
bring up our average, which had been
cut down by the last two short ones.
Marven carried out his instructions
implicitly.
One Party Travels While other
Sleeps.
A considerable amount of young ice
assisted in this. At the end of the
tenth march, latitude S5 degrees 23
minutes. Borup turned back in COM
mand of the second supporting party,
having travelled distance equivalent
to Nansen's distance from this far to
his farthest north.
From this point the expedition COM
prised twenty men, ten sledges and
seventy dogs. 1t was necessary for
Marven to take sledge from here,
and l put Bartlett and his division in
advance to pioneer the trail.
AT our position at the end of the
second march Marven obtained salts
factory sight for latitude in clear
weather which placed us at S5 degrees
AZ minutes. This result agreed very
satisfactory with the dead reckoning
OF Marven, Bartlett and myself Up
to this time the slight altitude of the
sun had made 1t not worth while to
waste time in observations In the
next two marches the going improved
and we covered good distances.
In one of these marches a lead de-
layed us few hours. We finally
ferried across on the ice cakes. The
next day Bartlett let himself out, evil
dently for a record. and reeled off a
plump twenty miles. Here Marvin OBJ
tanned satisfactory sight on latitude,
which gave the position as Sc de-
grees 3S minutes Cor beyond the
farthest north of Nansen and AbruzzD
and showed that we had covered fifty
minutes of latitude in three marches.
BE careful of the leads, my boy"
The party from this point COM
prised nine men, seven sledges and
sixty dogs. The conditions at this
camp and the apparently unbroken
expanse of fairly level ice in every di>
rection reminded me of Cagnis de-
scription of his farthest north, but |
was not deceived by the apparently
favorable outlook, for available condi-
tions never continue for any distance
or any length OF time in the Arctic re-
gions. The rorth march wound over
good going, bat for the first time since
leaving land we experienced that con.
dition, frequent over these ice fields,
of hazy atmosphere, in which the
light is equal everywhere. All relief
is destroyed and it is impossible to
see for any distance. We were
obliged in this march to make de-
tour around an open lead. In the next
march we encountered the heaviest
and deepest snow of the journey, a
thick, smothering mantle lying in the
depressions Of heavy rubble ice. I
came up on Bartlett and his party,
tagged out and temporarily discour-
aged by the heart-racking work OF
making road. knew what was
the matter with them; they were
simply spoiled by the good going on
the previous marches. I rallied them
a bit, nghteped their sledges and sent
them on, encouraged, again.
Ice Opens Almost Beneath the ioIoos.
During the next march we went
through thick fog driven by biting
air from the northeast. At the end OF
the march we came upon the captain
camped beside wide open lead with
a dense black water sky northwest.