PEARY'S FARTHEST NORTH OF 1905-6 161 



dogs and most of the Eskimos lived in this region, subsisting upon 

 the country, and in every full moon season sending sledge-loads of 

 meat to the ship, taking back tea, sugar, biscuit and oil. The winter 

 proved one of unusual mildness, adding to the ease of this hunting 

 life and the comfort of those remaining in the camp. 



On February ^th the last of the field parties came in, and on 

 rounding up the dogs it was found that there were one hundred and 

 twenty left, enough for twenty teams of six dogs each. The time 

 was near at hand for the beginning of the polar dash, and prepara- 

 tions for it were set in train, parties being sent west to Cape Hecla, 

 the proposed starting point, with advance loads of supplies. From 

 the summit of Hecla, 1,600 feet high, a telescope showed the dis- 

 agreeable prospect of many leads of open water, sure to give trouble 

 to the expedition now at hand. 



By the 23d the total exploring party, with their sledges and 

 dogs, were collected at Cape Hecla, ready to start northward as soon 

 as all their apparatus was in condition. The leader proposed an 

 advance in four divisions, Captain Bartlett, commander of the 

 "Roosevelt," leading the first, and Commander Peary the last. The 

 route was to be divided into sections of about fifty miles each, each 

 section to be under the charge of a white man and a few Eskimos 

 with dogs and sledges. Each party was to continually traverse its 

 section back and forth, thus steadily carrying forward supplies and 

 forming caches for the aid of the party of advance when the time of 

 retreat should arrive. A well devised plan, but the chances of polar 

 travel were to render it of no avail. 



In advance of all was to go a pioneer party, with very light 

 sledge-loads, to pick out a route and break a trail for the heavier 

 sledges that followed. 



This seemed an ideal organization of the party, and would have 

 been such on a solid surface, but on drifting ice it was in constant 

 peril of disruption. It might well have enabled Peary to reach the 

 Pole and return in safety in tfcat unusually open season but for the 



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