218 THE NORTH POLE 



I felt that if we encountered nothing worse than this in 

 the first hundred miles from the land we should have 

 no serious cause for complaint. 



A little farther on, while walking alone behind my 

 division, I met Kyutah of Marvin's division, hurry- 

 ing back with empty sledge. He had smashed his 

 sledge so badly that it seemed better to go back to Cape 

 Columbia for one of the reserve sledges there than to 

 attempt to repair the broken one. He was cautioned 

 not to waste a minute and to be sure to overtake us at 

 our camp that night, and he was soon disappearing into 

 the wind haze in our rear. 



Still farther on I met Kudlooktoo, returning on the 

 same errand, and a little later came upon some of the 

 other divisions that had been obliged to stop to repair 

 their sledges which had suffered severely in their 

 encounters with the rough ice. 



Finally I reached the captain's first camp, ten miles 

 out. Here I took one of the two igloos, and Marvin 

 took the other. The divisions of Goodsell, MacMillan, 

 and Henson were to build their own igloos this first 

 night. Bartlett and Borup being in advance, would 

 each build an igloo at every one of their camps. I, being 

 the oldest man in the party, was to take one of these, 

 and the order of precedence in which the divisions of 

 Marvin, MacMillan, Goodsell, and Henson were to 

 occupy the second of the already constructed igloos had 

 been determined by lot at Columbia, the first lot falling 

 to Marvin. Later, when Bartlett's division alone was 

 in the lead, there was only one igloo already built at 

 each camp on the line of march. 



The day twilight, which now lasted about twelve 



