CAPE SHERIDAN AT LAST 125 



about fifteen feet by thirty. All the supplies were 

 especially packed for this purpose, in boxes of speci- 

 fied dimensions — one of the innumerable details 

 which made for the success of the expedition. In 

 building the houses the tops of the boxes were placed 

 inside, the covers removed, and the contents taken 

 out as needed, as from a shelf, the whole house being 

 one large grocery. 



The roofs were made of sails thrown over boat 

 booms or spars, and later the walls and roof were 

 banked in solidly with snow. Stoves were set up, so 

 that, if everything went well, the houses could be 

 used as workshops during the winter. 



So here we were, safely bestowed at Cape Sheridan, 

 and the prize seemed already in our grasp. The con- 

 tingencies which had blocked our way in 1906 were 

 all provided for on this last expedition. We knew 

 just what we had to do, and just how to do it. Only 

 a few months of waiting, the fall hunting, and the 

 long, dark winter were all that lay between me and 

 the final start. I had the dogs, the men, the experi- 

 ence, a fixed determination (the same impulse which 

 drove the ships of Columbus across the trackless 

 western sea) — and the end lay with that Destiny 

 which favors the man who follows his faith and his 

 dream to the last breath. 



