74 THE EXPLORER'S RETURN 



In relating further incidents of his expedition, when there remained but 

 two faithful Eskimos as an escort as he plunged over the vast extent of polar 

 seas, Dr. Cook gave another version of the final dash. On approaching the 

 pole, he said, the icy plain took on animated motion, as if rotating on an 

 invisible pivot. 



"A great fissure then opened up behind," he added, "and it seemed as 

 if we were isolated from the world. My two Eskimos threw themselves 

 at my feet and, bursting into tears, refused to continue either one way or 

 another, so paralyzed with fear were they. . Nevertheless, I calmed them 

 and we resumed our journey. 



"You ask my impression on reaching the pole. Let me confess I was dis- 

 appointed. Man is a child, dreaming of prodigies. I had reached the pole 

 and now at a moment when I should have been thrilled with pride and joy, 

 I was invaded with a sudden fear of the dangers and sufferings of the return." 



The most northerly land he saw was between 84 and 86 degrees. There 

 were two bodies of land at this point east of his route. One was about 1,000 

 feet high. He could not say whether they were islands or not, as he was not 

 equipped to make a detour to explore them. 



Dr. Cook said he was strongly of the opinion that no white man could 

 reach the pole unless he was able to wear the same clothes, eat the same food 

 and live in all ways just as do the Eskimos. He said he owed his success 

 largely to choice of a route where game was more plentiful on the routes 

 formerly attempted, and to the fact that he traveled in winter. 



Although the lowest temperature experienced was 83 degrees below zero, 

 the explorer said he did not feel the cold nearly so much then as in higher 

 temperatures when the wind was blowing. 



For a long time the explorer lived on musk oxen ; he wore the fur of these 

 animals, ate their meat and used their fat to burn in lamps. 



By way of contrast with Dr. Cook's description of polar scenes is given 

 this word picture by one of his predecessors : 



"The air was warm, almost as a summer's night at home, and yet there 

 were the icebergs and the bleak mountains, with which the fancy, in this 

 land of green hills and waving forests, can associate nothing but cold re- 

 pulsiveness. The sky was bright and soft, and strangely inspiring as the 

 skies of Italy. The bergs had wholly lost their chilly aspect, and glittering 

 in the blaze of the brilliant heavens, seemed in the distance like masses of 

 burnished metal or solid flame. Nearer at hand, they were huge blocks of 



