32 COOK'S STORY OF HIS DISCOVERY OF NORTH POLE 



made familiar with his ideas on the subject, one of which was that ;t 

 was useless to attempt to reach the Pole with several white men in 

 the party; the fewer the white men the better the chances of success. 



That he had faith in his own convictions was shown when he 

 asked only for a single volunteer from the crew of Mr. Bradley's 

 schooner. And he proved it again when he started on the perilous 

 journey with Franke as his sole white companion. 



On February 19, 1908, the start north was made. The first 

 night was spent in three snow-houses on an ice-floe in Kane's Basin. 

 Cape Sabine was reached late the following evening and the next 

 day the party was stormbound. The next march brought the party 

 to Rice Strait, ten miles northwest of Greely's memorable winter 

 quarters of 1883-84. Finally Flagler Bay was reached. There the 

 rigors of the march exhausted Franke, and on March 3, 1908, Dr. 

 Cook, not wishing- to be encumbered with a sick man, ordered him 

 back to Annootok to watch the supplies. 



It should be stated here that Mr. Bradley, on his return from the 

 north brought with him the following letter to Mr. Herbert L. 

 Bridgman, secretary of the Peary Club : 



"I have hit upon a new route to the North Pole and will stay to 

 try it. By way of Buchanan Bay and Ellesmere Land and north- 

 ward through Nansen Strait over the Polar Sea, seems to be a very 

 good route. There will be game to the eighty-third degree, and here 

 are natives and dogs for the task. So here is for the Pole with 

 the flag." 



This was the first definite statement of Cook's intention, but it 

 cannot be said that it aroused much expectation in men's minds. 

 For a single adventurer, with no ship or base of supplies awaiting 

 his return and with only a few Eskimo companions to make such an 

 attempt, looked to the members of the club like "midsummer mad- 

 ness," and the stone which Cook had thrown in their midst started 

 hardly a ripple of interest in the geographical waters. 



