2 FOUR YEARS IN THE WHITE NORTH [July 



engine-room, the weary, anxious months of preparation 

 now shaped themselves into the foundation of the 

 structure which we were to build. Our long voyage to 

 the top of the earth had begun. 



Important and decisive battles in the North have been 

 won weeks and even years before they were fought. A 

 man returns from the Polar Sea and says, "I have failed." 

 The average mind visualizes open water, rough ice, 

 pressure ridges, unsurmountable barriers, but the leader 

 knows that he failed before he ever left home, because of 

 carelessness and poor judgment in the selection of his 

 food, his men, his equipment; a failure to discriminate 

 between the important and the unimportant objects to 

 be attained; a total ignorance of the varying phases 

 of the work; and a lack of that most important and 

 very valuable characteristic of an Arctic man — re- 

 sourcefulness in grappling with the ever-arising unknown 

 factors of the problem. 



Too much care cannot be exercised in the selection of 

 food, equipment, and men; the selection must be based 

 upon one's own experience and upon the experience of 

 all those who have preceded him in the field. The real 

 work of an expedition is borne by the leader for months 

 prior to its departure, and then comes a relaxation, a 

 school-boy's Saturday feeling — a long, long holiday. 

 When going far beyond the confines of civilization, 

 nothing must be forgotten which would tend to ex- 

 pedite and facilitate the work planned; not a single 

 item of the many thousands which help to spell success, 

 from pins, and bands for birds to sheet lead for broken 

 boats and crutches for broken limbs! One expedition 

 sailed away some years ago without brooms. For two 

 years the house was swept with birds' wings! 



