296 THE START. 



Knorr with six dogs and the " Perseverance,'' to the 

 upstander of which he had tied a little blue flag bear- 

 ing this, his motto, " Toujours pret." Then came a 

 lively group of eight men, each with a canvas belt 

 across his shoulder, to which was attached a line that 

 fastened him to the sledge. Alongside the sledge 

 stood McCormick and Dodge, ready to steer it among 

 the hummocks, and on the sledge was mounted a 

 twenty-foot metallic life-boat with which I hoped to 

 navigate the Polar Sea. The mast was up and the 

 sails were spread, and from the peak floated our boat's 

 ensign, which had seen service in two former Arctic 

 and in one Antarctic voyage, and at the mast-head 

 were run up the Masonic emblems. Our little sig- 

 nal-flag was stuck in the stern-sheets. The sun was 

 shining brightly into the harbor, and everybody was 

 filled with enthusiasm, and ready for the hard pull 

 that was to come. Cheer after cheer met me as I 

 came down the stairway from the deck. At a given 

 signal Radcliffe, who was left in charge of the vessel, 

 touched off the u swivel," "March," cried McCormick, 

 crack went the whips, the dogs sprang into their col- 

 lars, the men stretched their "track ropes," and the 

 cavalcade moved off. 



The events which follow I will give from my " field- 

 book," trusting that the reader will have sufficient 

 interest in my party to accompany them through the 

 icy wilderness into which they plunged ; but for this 

 we will need a new chapter. 



