The Springfield herald., 1909-09-17

north and northeast. We built our
igloos and turned In. but before had
fallen asleep l was reused out by q
movement Of the ice, and found a
startling condition OF affairs-a rap
idly widening road of black water ran
but a few feet from our igloos. One OF
my teams Of Gogs had escaped by only
few feet from being dragged by the
movement Of the ices 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 moving
around eastward. The small floor ON
which were the captains igloos were
drifting eastward IN the open water,
and the side OF our igloos threatened
to follow suit. Kicking out the door
OF the igloos called to the captains
men to pack their sledges and be
ready for a quick dash when favor.
able chance arrived.
We hurried our things on our
sledges, hitched the dogs and moved
on to large floe west Of us. Then
leaving one man to look out for the
dogs and sledges, 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. groan-
ing and grinding, while the open wa.
ter belched back smoke like a prairie
fire. Then the motion ceased, the
open water closed. the atmosphere to
the north cleared, and we rushed
across before the Ice should open
again.
A succession of iaterally open leads
were crossed. and after them some
heavy old ice, and then we came to
layer of young lea, some Of which
buckled under our sledges. and this
gave us straight way of six miles to
the north. Then came more heavy old
floes covered with hard snow. This
was a good long march. The next
march was also long one. IL was
Bartlett's last lap. He let himself out
over series of large old floes, stead
lily increasing In diameter, and cov-
cred with hard snow,
with the disappearance of Bartlett
/ turned to the problem before me.
This was that for which had
worked for thirty-two years; for
which had lived the simple life; for
which | had conserved all my energy
on the upward trip: for which had
trained myself as for race; crush
ing down every worry about success"
Peary then goes into details OF how
he picked his dogs-powerful males
good sledges and ample provisions.
On and on he pressed into the frozen
zone. sleeping but little. When he
reached the seth parallel the ice floes
were grinding beneath his ieet but no
motion was visible. Peary thinks the
ice was settling back into equilibrium
and probably sagging nortnward.
The thermometer was 40 below
zero.
THE going was even better and
hard. granular, last summers sur
face on the old floes. dotted with the
sapphire ice of the previous summers
lakes" says Peary.
"A rise in temperature to 13 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 lightly curled
tails, frequently tossed their heads
with short. sharp barks and yelps.
in twelve hours we made forty
miles. There was no sign of lead
in the march. had now made my
five marches. and was in time for a
hasty noon observation through a
temporary break in the clouds. which
indicated our position as SO degrees
81 minutes. ! quote an entity from my
journal some hours later:
1.-The pole at last! The prize OF
three centuries, my dream and goal
for twenty years.
"'Mine at last! At last!
81 cannot bring myself to realize
it!
"Tt all seems so simple and COM
monplace. AS Bartlett said when
turning back, when speaking of his be-
ing in these exclusive regions, which
no mortal has ever penetrated before,
"'"It is just like every 1ay!"'"
"Of course, had my sensations that
made sleep impossible for hours. de-
spite my utter fatigue-the sensa-
tions of lifetime; but had no room
for them here.
Big Travel, Little Sleep.
"The first thirty hours at the pole
were spent in taking observations. in
ro'ng some ten miles beyond our
camp and some eight miles to the
right of it; in taking photographs, in
pl.nting my liags. aepositing my rec
ords, studying the horizon with my
telescone for possihle land and search
ing for practicable place to make
sounding.
zen hours after our arrivel the
clouds cleared before light breeze
from our left. and from that time un-
til our departure in the afternoon of
April 7th the weather was cloudless
and flawless. The minimum temper
ature during the thirty hours was SO
below; the maximum, IL.
1--WE had reached the goal-but the
return was still before us. 1t was es-
sential that we reach the land before
the next spring tide. and we must
strain every nerve to do so.
81 had a brief talk with my men.
from now on it was to be big travel.
little sleep and hustle every min
ute. We would try, l told them, to
double march on the return-that is.
to start and cover one of our north
ward marches, make tea and eat our
lunch on the igloos. then cover
number of marches, eat and sleep a
few hours and repeat this daily. AS
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