156 PEARY'S FARTHEST NORTH OF 1905-6 



of meat for the dogs, forming an ample supply. The Eskimos were 

 sent back, one by one, as the stores taken on their sledges were 

 exhausted, until the white and black Americans, with a reduced 

 number of dogs and sledges, were left to make the last stage of their 

 journey alone. 



It was an ugly road over which they had to travel, the rough- 

 ness of the ice being made doubly difficult by gales of wind and 

 spaces of open water. Such a lead as these water spaces were 

 called was encountered on the I3th, but the next day it closed 

 sufficiently for them to rush the sledges across. Beyond the lead 

 they came upon a series of high ice ridges, followed by another series 

 of rugged old floes, the whole so obstructive to rapid travel that it 

 took them sixteen hours to advance two or three miles. 



On the next day the same trouble was encountered, fragments 

 of heavy old floes, drifting eastward, frequently forcing them to halt 

 until the cakes of floating ice massed together sufficiently to offer a 

 path for the sledges. Day after day this continued, the leader of 

 the expedition slowly losing hope in view of the obstructions con- 

 stantly confronting him. By the 2ist he felt obliged to give up the 

 fight. Only he and Henson then remained, and it was impossible 

 for so small a party to make farther headway. On the night of this 

 day of steady struggle he wrote these words of deep discouragement 

 in his journal: 



"The game is off. My dream of sixteen years is ended. It 

 cleared during the night and we got under way this morning. Deep 

 snow. Two small old floes. Then came another region of rubble 

 and deep snow. A survey from the top of a pinnacle showed this 

 extending north, east and west as far as could be seen. The two 

 old floes over which we have just come are the only ones in sight. 

 ft is impracticable and I gave the order to camp. I have made the 

 best fight I knew. I believe it has been a good one. But I cannot 

 accomplish the impossible." 



Such are the words of a valiant soldier who finds the task before 



