The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-03-30
From Robert E. Peary's ''Discovery o the North Pole in April Hampton's.


 the North Pole.' in April Hampton's.
 A MANS first night in canvas
 A tent in the Arctic Is likely to be rather wakefuL The ice makes mysterious noises; the dogs bark and fight outside the tent where they are teth- cred: and as three EslSimos and one white man usually occupy a small tent, ana the oil stove is left burning all night, the air, notwithstanding the cold. Is not over pure; and sometimes the Eskimos be- gin chanting to the spirits. of their an- cestors in the middle of the night. Some times, too, the new mans nerves are tried by hearing wolves howl in the dis tance.
 The tents are specially made. They are of lightweight canvas. and the floor of the tent is sewed directly into 1t. The fly is sewed up, a circular opening cut and that opening fitted with circular flap which is closed by a draw string, making the tent absolutely snow-proof. An ordi- nary tent. when the snow is flying, would be filled in no time.
 The tent is pyramidal with one pole in the center, and the edges are usually held down by the sledge runners or by snow shoes used as tent pegs. The men sleep on the floor in their clothes, with a musk OK skin or couple of deerskins wrapped around them I have not used sleeping bags since my Arctic trip of 1S91-2.
 The "kitchen box for our sledge jour neys is simply wooden box containing two double-burner oil stoves, with four inch wicks. The two cooking pots are the bottoms of fve-gallon coal oil tins fitted with covers. When packed they are turned bottom side up over each stove. and the hinged cover of the wooden box is closed On reaching camp. whether tent or snow igloo, the Kitchen box is set down inside; the top of the box Is turned up and keeps the heat of the stove from melting the wall of the isloo or burning the tent; the hinged front of the box is turned down and forms a table. The two cooking pots are filled with pounded ice and put on the stove; when the ice melts one pot is used for tea, and the other may be used to warm beans. or to boil meat if there is any Each man has a quart cup for tea. and
 
 q hunting knife which serves many pur- poses. He does not carry fork, and one teaspoon is considered quite enough for party of four. Each man helps himself from the pot-sticks in his knife and fishes out piece of meat.
 Tho theory of field work Is that there sl,; r be two meals day, one In the morning and one at night. AS the days grow short, the meals are taken before light and after darls leaving the period of light entirely for work. Sometimes it is necessary to travel for 24 hours with out stopping for food.
 The Cape Richardson party returned on Inc evening of the 18th and I sent them out again on the Fist with 19 Esklmos and % sledges. to take 66c0 pounds of dog pemmican to Porter Bay. McMillan, be- ing still under the weather with grip, missed this preliminary training; but | felt certain that he would catch up with | he experience of the others as soon as he was able to travel. When my third party returned on the .ith, they prousn' | in 14 deers,sins and the meat.
 | On the 2Sth there was general exoaus from the skip. Henson, Oo-tah, Aile-tan' and In-i-ghi-to were to hunt on the north side of Lake Hagen Marvin. Pood-loo- nah, Slg-lo and A-re-o on tne e's' e'''' and the south side of Lake Hazen ana the captain, Pan1ik-pah. In-i-shi-to' uo- ke-yah, Dr. Goodsell. kesh-ung-wah, Ky -oo-tah. Borup. Kar-ko, Taw-cn'ng-wa n and Ah-wa -ting-whn were to go straight through to Cape Columbla
 had planned from tho beginning to leave most of the hunting and other field work to the younger members of the ex-
 nedition Twcnty-odd years of Arctic experience had dulled for me the excite l ment of even Q polar bear chase; the younger men were eager for the work;