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sledge-load into blank nothingness is still more difficult. The leader should always be in advance, setting the course and the pace, and encouraging the dogs with his presence, voice, and trail. During dull or foggy weather the work of keeping a direct course becomes particularly arduous. For days I have traveled into gray nothingness, feeling, but unable to see, the snow beneath my snow-shoes, and the long marches, when it was almost impossible to see the length of the sledge, were among the most trying experiences I had on the inland ice.

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the most disagreeable features of sledgetraveling over ice, and preparations should immediately be made to camp when one is seen approaching. If the equipment does not include a tent, a snow igloo should be built as quickly as possible. there is not time for this, then a dugout can be made or a snow-wall erected as a shelter from the wind and driving snow. Everything possible should be carried inside the tent or igloo, with the dogs securely fastened outside. Storms on the ice-cap are so severe that, when possible, the dogs should be protected from them by a snow-wall.

At times we raised a pennant on a bamboo staff, and used the wind as a guide, I have been confined to tent or igloo for taking its compass direction at intervals, days at a time by these storms, but the keeping the wind-vane at the proper angle, most accursed hours I ever spent on the and in this way holding a fair course. ice-cap were those spent in a small tent, The endeavor to keep a direct course for six long days and nights, five thousand feet any length of time under such conditions above sea-level, during a furious storm imposes such a strain on mind and body which I knew was destroying my last that travel sometimes seems impossible. chances for finding a ton and a half of In addition to this, the feeling of fatigue supplies, including all my pemmican and and heaviness which is the result of the alcohol, which I had cached the year befog and altitude makes traveling still more fore for my spring work in 1895. Any difficult. one, seeing our camp at the end of one of A severe and protracted storm is one of these storms, would believe us buried alive,

the only signs of our presence being the snow-mounds covering us and the dogs.

One severe storm will play more havoc with the dogs and their harness than weeks of ordinary traveling. To get the sledges and the dogs and tent dug out, to say nothing of untangling and repairing the dogs' traces, which become twisted and knotted, requires hours. After almost every snowfall we had to help the dogs drag the sledges. For this purpose a long line of walrus hide was tied to the front of the sledge, running out over the dogs, so that one of us could attach it to our shoulders and pull in advance of the team. To the side of the sledge a short line was fastened to enable the other man to drive the dogs and pull at the same time.

Dragging the sledges through soft snow is very disheartening work for dogs, and every expedient that ingenuity can devise or that is known to the Eskimos must be used to urge them forward. Only one thing can make traveling harder on the inland ice, and that is a precipitation of frost, which, covering the surface, renders it so sticky that the sledges drag like so many pounds of lead. Dogs, which in ordinary going can haul two sledges at a fair rate of speed, then require the combined assistance of two men to move one. For this condition of snow even icing the runners seems to do but little, if any, good.

The process of covering sledge-runners with a coating of ice, taught me by the Eskimos, is most interesting, and wonderfully increases the tractive power of a sledge in low temperatures.

A long strip of thick walrus skin, which, when frozen, is the toughest and most unbreakable of substances, the same width as the runner and from which the hair has not been removed, is first applied to the bottom of each runner, being fastened by lashings of rawhide run through slits in the edges of the walrus hide. After this has been allowed to freeze solid, the entire length of each runner is covered with soft snow that has been dipped in warm urine. This is pressed and shaped with the hand until it is three quarters of

an inch or an inch thick. When this has been given time to freeze solid, it is chipped smooth with the aid of a knife, and rubbed over with water. As the dogs get tired and the altitude increases the sledges should be iced every day on inlandice cap-work. The effect of high elevation is very perceptible upon men and dogs, and it is difficult to get more than from two to two and one half miles an hour out of the dogs. At times we iced the sledge-runners twice a day.

The routine on our long marches varied little. The work of caring for the dogs, harnessing them in the morning, unharnessing and tying them to stakes at night, and feeding them at the end of the day's march was my special work. During the march my companion took charge of them. while I kept the course except when, to vary the monotony, we exchanged duties. My companion always built the snowshelter that served as a kitchen, and we took turns acting as cook. The man on duty in the kitchen slept there all night, and stood ready to secure any dogs which might break away during the night.

To catch a loose dog requires more or less time and ingenuity, and frequently results in a few bites. Our usual method of capturing one of these arctic wolves was to coax him within reach by throwing out morsels of meat to him, then throwing ourselves upon him and burying his head in the snow. We soon became expert enough in this to avoid more than a few bites. Some dogs are too wily to be caught in any such way, and have to be lassoed and choked almost senseless before they can be put back into harness.

Until 1895 the basic principle of arctic sledging was that overland traveling was not practicable, that the only highway lay along the sea ice off the coast. Therefore the journey that I mapped out for this year-the crossing of the inland ice-cap of northern Greenland-was an unprecedented one in point of distance to be covered without caches, or supply-depots. The successful carrying out of this plan showed the practicability of the inland ice for a road, and since that time Green

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Many are under the impression that the ice of the polar sea is as smooth as glass and that explorers simply ride to their destination on dog-sledges. In summer the ice of the polar sea is constantly moving, large fields of ice, ranging from ten or fifteen to over one hundred feet in thickness, drifting under the influence of wind and tide, smashing against other fields, splitting them, crushing up their edges and forming new ridges until the surface, when it again hardens in the winter, is in many places simply a chaos of broken ice. Nine tenths or more of the distance between northern Grant Land and Greenland and the pole is composed of these floes, the rest being ice formed by the sea-water freezing during the autumn and winter months.

Continued northerly winds during the autumn, when the masses of ice are gradually freezing together, will force the ice toward the shore, while farther out

water, and on these new ice, fairly smooth, and never over eight or ten feet thick, will form. Such a condition is very favorable for sledge travel.

The difficulties and hardships of travel over ragged pressure ridges must be experienced to be appreciated. A trail oftentimes must be hewed out with pickaxes, and the heavily loaded sledges pushed, pulled, hoisted, and lowered over the hummocks and steep acclivities, and sometimes even unloaded, and the equipment carried over on one's back.

On our return from farthest north in 1906 we encountered a seemingly endless and indescribable chaos of broken and shattered ice in the region where we had been held up by the big lead on our upward march, and it took grim and exhausting work to carry us through it.

Bad as the pressure ridges are for sledge-traveling, however, they are not nearly so dangerous as the leads or lanes

of open water caused by the action of wind and tides on the ice. In some cases these are mere cracks running across the floes in almost straight lines; in other cases they take an irregular course across the ice, and are just wide enough to prevent crossing. Again they will be as large as rivers, a mile or two wide and many miles long. For a polar-sea explorer leads are an omnipresent nightmare. When or where they will occur is impossible to tell. It may be with a loud report directly ahead of a party, cutting off their advance northward or cutting off their return to land on the way back. It may be directly in the midst of camp and through an igloo. With every northward march on my last two sledge-journeys fear of impassable leads increased, and I would find myself hurrying breathlessly forward toward every pressure ridge, fearing it concealed a lead beyond it. Arriving at the summit and finding no lead ahead, I would soon find myself hurrying on in the same way to the next one.

The best way to cross wide leads is learned only by long experience. Sometimes a detour east or west will result in finding a place narrow enough to permit long sledges to be bridged across. In very cold weather it may be found practicable to wait until new ice forms thick enough to allow a sledge to be rushed across; or a lead may show signs of closing, in which case a party can wait until it is quite close together. Occasionally large pieces of floating ice are to be found in a lead, forming a sort of pontoon bridge across it. One member of the party goes ahead to pick the

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way, jumping from one cake to another, and making sure the weight of dogs and sledge will not tilt the cake, then encouraging the dogs to go forward, while the driver of the sledge steers it, and at the same time balances the cake of ice to keep it from overturning.

To make dogs leap across a widening crack is work which requires an expert dog-driver. Some can do it without any trouble by use of the whip and voice; others have to go ahead of the dogs and coax them to make the jump by holding their hands low and making a pretense of shaking a morsel of food. Leads which are too wide to jump the dogs and sledges across can be ferried by hacking out a cake of ice large enough to bear the weight of dogs and sledges. It sometimes happens that a narrow lead will open before the entire party has crossed. This occurred on my last trip north, an Eskimo with his sledge and dogs being left on the other side. An impromptu ferry-boat was cut out of the ice on our side of the lead; two coils of rope were fastened to each other and slipped around the cake. Two Eskimos boarded it; a line was thrown across

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the lead to the other Eskimo, while one on our side held that end. Then the two men on the ice-cake took hold of the rope and pulled the raft across the lead. The dogs and sledge and other Eskimo were taken upon the ice-cake, and we hauled them across to our side. Leads which assume the proportions of rivers, such as the one we encountered on the way north in 1906 and on Our way back the same season, are a different matter, and the only thing one can

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do is to wait until young ice forms strong enough to afford safe passage. With low temperatures ranging to sixty degrees below zero, the necessity of having to march all day in the face of a blinding snow-storm, with the wind piercing every opening in the clothes, and then having to build an igloo for shelter at the end of the day, are other hardships.

An ever-present danger in sea-ice work is that of breaking through young ice and getting wet. A mishap of this kind is to be dreaded, for even if a man is able to get out of the water quickly, it means some uncomfortable hours, and sometimes the delay of building an igloo in which he can get dry clothing on.

For a sledge-journey of any length across the polar sea, the method of pioneer and supporting parties has proved the most effective. A pioneer party was introduced for the first time in my work, and while supporting parties had been used in arctic work before, they had never been utilized on such a scale as on my last expedition. The pioneer party was made up of four experienced and energetic men, with lightly loaded sledges and the best dogs in the pack. This division left Cape Columbia under the leadership of Bart

lett twenty-four hours ahead of the main party. In all kinds of weather and regardless of every obstacle except impassable leads, a march was to be made every twenty-four hours. Later, when the sunlight was continuous during the twentyfour hours, the advance party kept only twelve hours ahead of the main division, breaking the way and, in fact, setting the pace for the main party, which, having to waste no time in choosing and breaking a trail, could cover the same distance as the reconnoitering party in less time, even with more heavily loaded sledges. Bartlett traveled ahead of his division, usually on snow-shoes, picking a trail. My main party was large enough to permit the withdrawal of the men from the advance party to the main party as they became exhausted by the hard work and lack of sleep, and the sending out of fresh men to continue the work. This enabled me to conserve the strength of those who were to make the final dash for the pole.

The advantages of supporting parties cannot be too strongly emphasized. It is impossible for a party, either large or small, to drag food and fuel enough to sustain life in themselves and their dogs for a distance of nine hundred miles across

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