214 THENORTHPOLE 



o'clock in the morning. When Bartlett had left the 

 ship a week before, it was still so dark that he had been 

 obliged to use a lantern in order to follow the trail 

 northward along the ice-foot. 



When I finally got away from the ship, there were in 

 the field, for the northern work, seven members of the 

 expedition, nineteen Eskimos, one hundred and forty 

 dogs, and twenty-eight sledges. As already stated, the 

 six advance divisions were to meet me at Cape Colum- 

 bia on the last day of February. These parties, as well 

 as my own, had all followed the regular trail to Cape 

 Columbia, which had been kept open during the fall 

 and winter by the hunting parties and supply-trains. 

 This trail followed the ice-foot along the coast the 

 greater part of the way, only taking to the land occa- 

 sionally to cut across a peninsula and thus shorten the 

 road. 



On the last day of February Bartlett and Borup got 

 away to the North with their divisions, as soon as it was 

 light enough to travel. The weather still remained 

 clear, calm, and cold. After the pioneer division had 

 started north, all the remaining sledges were lined up, 

 and I examined them to see that each had the standard 

 load and full equipment. On leaving the Roosevelt I 

 had in the field exactly enough dogs to put twenty 

 teams of seven dogs each on the ice, and had counted on 

 doing this; but while we were at Cape Columbia the 

 throat distemper broke out in one team, and six dogs 

 died. This left me only enough for nineteen teams. 



My plans were further disarranged by the disabling 

 of two Eskimos. I had counted on having a pickax 

 brigade, composed of Marvin, MacMillan, and Dr. 



