78 SIDE-LIGHTS ON THE PEARY EXPEDITION 



Cape Morris K. Jesup, it is well to say, is the most northerly and 

 nearly the most easterly point in that region, it being in the north 

 of an island known as Peary Land, and the best place to leave an 

 easterly food cache for the explorers, in case they were rapidly 

 carried to the east, as in the former expedition. MacMillan 

 continues : 



"On April 23d we crossed Robeson Channel and we reached 

 Hand Bay, in Hall Land, the next day. In four marches we made 

 the distance that the Lockwood and Brainard expedition took twelve 

 days to cover. We reached Peary's cairn at Cape Washington 

 which he had erected in 1900 at 83 degrees 30 minutes, on May 4th, 

 and we got to Cape Morris K. Jesup two days later. We had been 

 following the route of the Lockwood-Brainard party up as far as 

 DeLong fiord and one day we found directly in our path a linen cuff 

 with the name 'Lockwood' pencilled on the face of it. It had been 

 there ever since Lockwood himself had passed that way. 



"It was on May 8th that Karko and Wee-Shah-Ok-Sie, two of 

 the 'Roosevelt's' Eskimos, hurried up to us with a message from 

 Peary." 



MacMillan went to his bunk and returned with a worn and 

 soiled sheet of paper bearing the "Roosevelt" letterhead. It read : 



"APRIL 28, 1909. 

 "Mv DEAR MACMILLAN: 



"Arrived on board yesterday. Northern trip entirely satisfac- 

 tory. There is no need of Greenland depots. Captain Bartlett came 

 aboard the 24th. Concentrate all your energies on tidal observa- 

 tions and line soundings north from Cape Morris Jesup. Use in- 

 tended supplies for me for this purpose. 



"COMMANDER R. E. PEARY." 



"You can imagine how happy that letter made me," MacMillan 

 continued, "although it left so much unsaid. How successful had 

 Peary's northern trip been? Did he mean that he had reached the 



