ESSENTIALS OF SUCCESS 205 



expedition, with sledges lightly loaded with five or six 

 days' provisions, drawn by the best dog teams of the 

 entire pack. When we started from Cape Columbia, 

 this pioneer party, headed by Bartlett, went out twenty- 

 four hours in advance of the main party. Later on, 

 when we reached the time of continuous daylight and 

 sunlight through the twenty -four hours, the pioneer 

 party was but twelve hours in advance of the main 

 party. 



The duty of this pioneer party was to make a march 

 in every twenty-four hours in spite of every obstacle — 

 excepting, of course, some impassable lead. Whether 

 there was a snowstorm or violent winds to be faced, or 

 mountainous pressure ridges were to be climbed over, the 

 march of the pioneer party must be made; for past 

 experience had proved that whatever distance was 

 covered by the advance party with its light sledges 

 could be covered in less time by the main party even 

 with heavily loaded sledges, because the main party, 

 having the trail to follow, was not obliged to waste time 

 in reconnoitering. In other words, the pioneer party, 

 was the pace-maker of the expedition, and whatever 

 distance it made was the measure of accomplishment 

 for the main party. The leader of the pioneer party, 

 in the first instance Bartlett, would start out ahead of 

 his division, usually on snowshoes; then the light 

 sledges of the party would follow him. Thus the leader 

 of the pioneer division was pioneering ahead of his own 

 party, and that whole division was pioneering ahead 

 of the main party. 



It is necessary that the arduous work of trail-break- 

 ing for the first two-thirds of the distance over the 



