The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1909-10-14
IL would have been an impossiblity.
Last Words 10 Marvin.


factory sight for latitude in clear
weather, which placed US at S.. 4S.
1his 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 1t 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 a lead
delayed us a few hours. We finally
ferried across on the ice cakes.
The next day Bartlett let himself
out, evidently for record, and reeled
off plump twenty miles. Here Mar
vim obtained satisfactory sight on
latitude, which gave the position as
1898, or beyond the farthest north of
Nansen and Abruzzi, and showed that
we had covered fifty minutes of lati.
tude in three marches. In these three
marches we had passed the Norwegian
record Of S6.14 by Nansen and the Ital-
ian 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 careful of the leads, my boy"
The party from this point comprised
8 men, sledges and 60 dogs.
The north march was over good GO
ing, but for the first time since leaving
land we experienced that condition,
frequent over these ice fields, of a
hazy atmosphere in which the light is
equal everywhere. All relief is de-
stroyed, and 1t is impossible to see for
any distance.
In the next march we encountered
the heaviest and deepest snow Of the
journey, through a thick, SIN thering
mantle lying in the depressions of
heavy rubble ice. l came upon Bart
lett and his party, tagged cut and
temporarily discouraged by the heart
racking work of making road.
rallied them bit, lightened their
sledges and sent them OH, encourage
again.
A Narrow Escape.
During the next march we Travelled
through thick, low lying, smoky haze
drifting over the ice before 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, north
and northeast. We built our igIoos and
turned in, but before | had fallen
asleep l was reused out by movement
Of the ice and found a startling cOndi-
ton of affairs. A rapidly widenin,,
road of black water ran but a few feet
from our igloos. One f 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
ice 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 igIoos
water, and the sides Of our igloos
threatened to follow suit.
Kicking out the doors of the igloos,
l called to the captains men to pack
their sledges and be ready for quick
dash when a favorable chance arrived.
We hurried our things on our sledges,
hitched the dogs and moved on to a
large foe 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,
grooming and grinding, while the open
water belched black smoke like a
prairie fire. Then the motion ceased,
the open water closed, the atmosphere
to the north was cleared, and we
flushed across before the ice should
open again.
A succession of literally open leads
were crossed, and after them some
heavy old ice, and then we came to a
layer of young ice, some of which
buekled under our sledges, and this
gave US straight way of six miles to
the north. Then came more heavy old
foes covered with hard snow.
This was good long march. The
next march was also a long one. It
was Bartlett's last hit. He let him
self out over a series of large old foes
steadily increasing in diameter and
covered with hard snow.
During the last few miles l walked
beside him or in advance. He was
very solemn and anxious to go farther,
but the program was for him to go
back from here in command Of the
fourth supporting party, and there
were no supplies for an increase in
the main party.
In this march We encountered a high
wind for the first time since the three
days after we left Cape Columbia. 1t
was dead on our faces, bitter and in
sistent, but I had no reason to COM
plain. 1t was better than an easterly
or Southerly wind, either Of which
would have set us adrift in open wa
ter, while this was closing up every
lead behind This furnished another
advantage of my supporting parties.
True, by so doing it was pressing to
the south the ice over which we trav-
eled and so robbing US Of hundred
miles of advantage.
Bartlett's Far North.
We concluded we were on or near the
eighty-eighth parallel unless the north
wind had lost us several miles. The
wind blew all night and all the fol-
lowing day. At this camp in the
morning Bartlett started to walk five
or six miles to the north to make sure
Of reaching the eighty eighth parallel.
Bartlett returned in time to take a
satisfactory observation for latitude
In clear weather and obtained for our
position s7.4s, and that showed that
the continued north wind had robbed
us of a number of miles of hard earned
distance.
Bartlett took the observations here,
as had Marvin five camps back. partly
to save my eyes, but largely to give