200 THE NORTH POLE 



I am often asked if we were hungry on that journey. 

 I hardly know whether we were hungry or not. 

 Morning and night we had pemmican, biscuit and tea, 

 and the pioneer or leading party had tea and lunch in 

 the middle of the day's march. Had we eaten more, our 

 food supply would have fallen short. I myself dropped 

 twenty -five pounds of flesh between my departure from 

 the ship and my return to it. 



But fortitude and endurance alone are not enough 

 in themselves to carry a man to the North Pole. Only 

 with years of experience in traveling in those regions, 

 only with the aid of a large party, also experienced in 

 that character of work, only with the knowledge of 

 arctic detail and the equipment necessary to prepare 

 himself and his party for any and every emergency, 

 is it possible for a man to reach that long sought goal 

 and return. 



