134 PEARY'S FIRST VOYAGES 



"The doctor, who formed one of the party, immediately set the limb; 

 but the sufferer refused to return home, and when, a few days later, the 

 Kite reached McCormick Bay (near latitude 78 degrees) he was carried 

 ashore strapped to a plank. 



"The material for a comfortably-sized house was part of the outfit of 

 the expedition, and this was in course of erection the day that Lieutenant 

 Peary was landed. For the accommodation of himself and wife, a tent was 

 put up behind the half -completed house, and, as a high wind arose, the re- 

 mainder of the party returned on board the Kite. 



"As the hours passed away the wind became stronger. The tent swayed 

 to and fro, and Mrs. Peary, as she sat beside her invalid and sleeping husband, 

 realized what it was to be lonely and helpless. She and her husband were the 

 only people on shore for miles ; her husband was urtable to move, and she was 

 without even a revolver with which to defend herself. What, she asked 

 herself, would be the result if a bear came into the tent ? She could not make 

 the people on board the Kite hear, and she was without a weapon. Through- 

 out the stay in the North, Mrs. Peary proved herself not only to be a woman 

 of strong nerve and self-reliance, but also an excellent shot with either gun, 

 rifle or revolver. It was, however, as much as she could stand when her 

 anxious ears caught the sound of heavy breathing outside the tent. 



"For a time she sat still, fearing to disturb her husband, until the con- 

 tinuance of the sound compelled her to look out. A school of white whales 

 were playing close inshore, and it was the noise of their blowing, softened 

 by the wind, which had so disturbed her. But so self-possessed was she over 

 it that her husband did not know till long afterwards the anxiety she had 

 experienced during the first night she spent on the Greenland shore. 



"The following day rapid progress was made with the house, and some 

 of the party stayed on shore for the night, so that there was always someone 

 within call of the invalid's tent until the house was completed and he was 

 removed into it. By that time the Kite had started home again, and the 

 little party of seven were left to make all their arrangements for the winter. 



"They had determined to rely entirely upon their own exertions for the 

 supply of meat for the winter and also to obtain their fur clothing on the 

 spot, killing the animals necessary for the material and engaging some of the 

 local Eskimo to make up the suits. Deer would give both meat and fur, and 

 as there was every prospect of the neighborhood affording them in plenty, as 



