4 THE NORTH POLE 



ters on the north shore of Grant Land as in the winter 

 of 1905-1906. 



"The sledge march will begin as before in Febru- 

 ary, but my route will be modified as follows: First, 

 I shall follow the north coast of Grant Land as far 

 west as Cape Columbia, and possibly beyond, instead 

 of leaving this land at Point Moss as I did before. 



"Second, leaving the land, my course will be more 

 west of north than before, in order to counteract or 

 allow for the easterly set of the ice between the north 

 coast of Grant Land and the Pole, discovered on my 

 last expedition. Another essential modification will 

 be a more rigid massing of my sledge divisions en route, 

 in order to prevent the possibility of a portion of the 

 party being separated from the rest by the movement 

 of the ice, with insufficient supplies for a protracted 

 advance, as happened on the last expedition. 



"There is no doubt in my mind that this 'big lead* 

 (a lane of open water), encountered in both my 

 upward and return marches in my last expedition, is 

 an essentially permanent feature of this part of the 

 Arctic Ocean. I have little doubt of my ability to 

 make this 'lead,' instead of the north coast of Grant 

 Land, my point of departure with fully loaded sledges. 

 If this is done it will shorten the route to the Pole by 

 nearly one hundred miles and distinctly simplify the 

 proposition. 



"On the return march in the next expedition I shall 

 probably do voluntarily what I did involuntarily last 

 time; that is, retreat upon the north coast of Green- 

 land (a course diagonally with the set of the ice) instead 

 of attempting to come back to the north coast of Grant 



