242 THENORTHPOLE 



on Bartlett would return with two Eskimos, twenty 

 dogs, and one sledge, leaving the main party six men, 

 forty dogs, and five sledges. 



I hoped that with good weather, and the ice no worse 

 than that which we had already encountered, Borup 

 might get beyond 85°, Marvin beyond 86°, and Bart- 

 lett beyond 87°. At the end of each five-march sec- 

 tion I should send back the poorest dogs, the least 

 effective Eskimos, and the worst damaged sledges. 



As will appear, this program was carried out with- 

 out a hitch, and the farthest of each division was even 

 better than I had hoped. At this camp the supplies, 

 equipment, and personal gear of Borup and his Eski- 

 mos were left for them to pick up on their way home, 

 thus avoiding the transportation of some two hundred 

 and fifty pounds out and back over the next march. 



The 19th was a brilliant day of yellow sunlight. 

 The season was now so far advanced that the sun, 

 circling as always in this latitude around and around 

 the heavens, was above the horizon nearly half the 

 time, and during the other half there was almost no 

 darkness — only a gray twilight. 



The temperature this day was in the minus fifties, 

 as evidenced by the frozen brandy and the steam- 

 enshrouded dogs; but bubbles in all my spirit ther- 

 mometers prevented a definite temperature reading. 

 These bubbles were caused by the separation of the 

 column, owing to the jolting of the thermometer with 

 our constant stumbling over the rough ice of the polar 

 sea. The bubbles might be removed at night in camp, 

 but this required some time, and the accurate noting 

 of temperatures during our six or seven weeks' march 



