SIDE-LIGHTS ON THE PEARY EXPEDITION 77 



"I had to turn back at 85 degrees because I had frozen one of 

 my feet pretty badly." Others had said that MacMillan kept up 

 for days with his frozen foot before Peary himself ordered him back. 

 "You see, we all wore grass between our deerskin socks and the 

 soles of our kauiks or boots. Should that grass slip out and allow 

 the soles of the feet to touch the boot insole itself the feet would 

 surely freeze in cold weather. That's what happened to me. I had 

 my foot frozen on March I5th, when the thermometer was down to 

 58 degrees below zero. 



"So Peary ordered me dragged back to the ship on a sledge and 

 left with me the command that when I got to the 'Roosevelt' I 

 should go with Marvin on a geodetic survey and tidal measurement 

 expedition to Cape Morris K. Jesup in North Greenland. But I had 

 to take Borup instead of Marvin, because before we started the 

 Eskimos had come to me to tell of Marvin's death. They hung their 

 heads in the telling and pointed downward, repeating, 'Young ice, 

 young ice/ We understood. 



"One day before we left the 'Roosevelt' for Greenland Borup 

 and I tried a little stunt. There was a ribbon of open water near 

 the ship and we stripped and plunged in. It was on April I7th, I 

 remember, and the thermometer stood at 29 degrees above. When 

 we got out we found that the ice wasn't as cold at the water and we 

 ran up and down on the ice sheet near the ship for about five min- 

 utes while the huskies yelled with laughter. They thought we were 

 off our dot, first because we had taken a bath at all and then because 

 of the manner of our taking it. 



"On April iQth we left the ship for the trip across Grant Land 

 and North Greenland to Cape Morris K. Jesup. We had six sledges 

 and forty-eight dogs with four Eskimos who helped drive. We took 

 provisions according to Peary's order to put in caches along the 

 Greenland coast in case he might be carried thither on his return 

 trip as he had been on his return from the 87 degrees 6 minutes 

 mark in 1906." 



