The Cairo bulletin., 1909-09-13


some huge brink.
Goes Twenty Miles in Ten Hours.
set good pace for about tcr
hours. Twenty-Five miles took me
well beyond The SSth parallel, Whilt
was building my igloos long leac
formed by the east and southwest oI
us at a distance Of few miles.
A few hours sleep and We We're
on the trail again. AS the going was
now practically horizontal. we wert
as we pleased and sleep as late as
| we wished. The weather was fine and
| the going like that of the previous
| day. except at the beginning, when
| piekaxes We're required This and a
brief stop at another lead cut down
our distances. But We had made 20
miles In ten hours and were half way
to the S9th parallel.
The ice was grinding audibly in ev-
cry direction. but no motion was Wis
ible. Evidently il was settling back
into equilibrium, aud probably sag
ging due northward with its release
from the wind pressure
Again there was a few hours sleep
aud we hit the trail before midnight.
The weather and going were even bet
ter. The surface, except as inter
rupted by infreduent ridges. was as
level as the glacial fringe from Hecla
TO Columbia, and harder.
Ice Breaks Under Siedees.
We marched something over ten
hours, the dogs being often on the
trot. and made twenty miles Near
the end of the march we rushed
across a lead 100 yards wide, which
buckled under our sledges and finally
broke as the last sledge left it.
We stopped in sight of the seth
parallel, in a temperature of 40 de-
grees below zero. Again seant
sleep. and we were on our way once
more and across the seth parallel.
This march duplicated the previous
one us to weather and going. The last
few hours it was on young Ice. and
occasionally the dogs were galloping.
We made % miles or more, the air.
the sky and the biting wind burning
the face till 1t cracked. 1t was like
the great interior cap of Greenland.
Even the natives complained of the
bitter air. 1t was as keen as frozen
steel.
A little longer sleep than the pre-
vious ones had to be taken here, a.,
we were all in need of 1t, Then on
again
Up to this time. with each success.
siye march, our fear of an impossible
lead had increased At every in
equality of the ice found myself
.2urrying breathlessly forward, fear
ing that it marked lead, and when
arrived at the summit would catch
my breath with relief--only to find
myself hurrying on In the same way
at the next one
But on this march, by some strange
shift Of feeling, this fear fell from
me completely The weather was
thick, but 1t gave me no uneasiness.
Horizon Black and LifeIess.
Before | turned In | took an OBJ
~o Walton which indicated our posi-,
ton as 1926. A dense. lfeless pail
hung overhead. The horizon VISA
black and the ice beneath was
CHASTITY, ehalky white. with no relief
striking contrast to the glimmering,
sunlit fields OF it over which we had
been travelling for the previous four
days
The going was even better and
there was scarcely any show on the
hard, granular last summers surfee
of the old foes, dotted with the sap.
phire ice of the previous summer
lakes
A rise in temperature to Is below
reduced the friction of the sledges
and gave the dogs the appearance of
having caught the spirits of the party.
The more sprightly ones, as they went
along with tightly curled tails, fire..
quently tossed their heads, with short
sharp barks and yelps.
In twelve hours we had made forty |
miles. There was no sign of a lead
In the march.
The Pole at Last.
| had now made my five marches, |
and was in time for a hasty noon OBJ
servation through a temporary break |
In the clouds. which indicated our po-
sition as S9.57 quote an entry from
my journal some hours later:
The pole at last The prize OF |
three centuries; my dream and goal
for twenty years; mine at last. | can |
not bring myself to realize it.
1T all seems SO simple and com,
AS Bartlett said when
turning back when speaking Of his |
being in these exclusive Agiof
which no mortal has ever penetrated
before.
1T is just like every day"
Thirty Hours Taking Observations
or course | had my sensations that |
made sleep impossible for hours, |
despite my utter fatigue--the sensa.
lions of lifetime; but | have no
room for them here.
The first thirty hours at the pole
we're spent IN taking observations; in
going some ten miles beyond our