IN WINTER QUARTERS 129 



Danish interpreter of the English expedition of 1875-76. 

 He died as the result of exposure on a sledge trip, and 

 was buried there abreast of the Alert's winter quarters. 

 The grave is covered with a large flat slab, and at 

 the head is a board covered with a copper sheet from 

 the boiler room of the Alert, with the inscription 

 punched in it. There may be a lonelier grave somewhere 

 on earth, but if so I have no knowledge of it. No 

 explorer, not even the youngest and most thoughtless, 

 could stand before that "mute reminder of heroic 

 bones" without a feeling of reverence and awe. There 

 is something menacing in that dark silhouette against 

 the white snow, as if the mysterious Arctic were re- 

 minding the intruder that he might be chosen next 

 to remain with her forever. 



Not far away is the Alert's cairn, from which I 

 took the British record in 1905, a copy of it being re- 

 placed by Ross Marvin, according to the custom of 

 explorers. In view of his tragic end, in the spring of 

 1909, the farthest north of all deaths known to man, 

 this visit of Marvin's to the neighborhood of Petersen's 

 grave has a peculiar pathos. 



The Roosevelt cairn, erected by Marvin in 1906, is 

 directly abreast of the ship's location at Cape Sheridan 

 in 1905-06 and about one mile inland. It is on a 

 high point of land, about four hundred feet above 

 the water. The record is in a prune can, at the 

 bottom of the pile of stones, and was written by 

 Marvin himself in lead-pencil. The cairn is sur- 

 mounted by a cross, made of the oak plank from our 

 sledge runners. It faces north, and at the intersection 

 of the upright and the crosspiece there is a large 



