BORUP'S FARTHEST NORTH 243 



to the Pole and back did not seem sufficiently vital 

 to our enterprise to make me rectify the thermometer 

 every night. When I was not too tired, I got the 

 bubbles out. 



Again Marvin, who was still pioneering the trail, 

 gave us a fair march of fifteen miles or more, at first 

 over heavy and much-raftered ice, then over floes of 

 greater size and more level surface. But the reader 

 must understand that what we regard as a level surface 

 on the polar ice might be considered decidedly rough 

 going anywhere else. 



The end of this march put us between 85° 7' and 

 85° 30', or about the latitude of our "Storm Camp'* 

 of three years before; but we were twenty-three days 

 ahead of that date, and in the matter of equipment, 

 supplies, and general condition of men and dogs there 

 was no comparison. Bartlett's estimate of our posi- 

 tion at this camp was 85° 30', Marvin's 85° 25', and my 

 own 85° 20'. The actual position, as figured back later 

 from the point where we were first able, by reason of 

 the increasing altitude of the sun, to take an obser- 

 vation for latitude, was 85° 23'. 



In the morning Bartlett again took charge of the 

 pioneer division, starting early with two Eskimos, 

 sixteen dogs, and two sledges. Borup, a little later, 

 with three Eskimos, sixteen dogs, and one sledge, 

 started on his return to the land. 



I regretted that circumstances made it expedient 

 to send Borup back from here in command of the sec- 

 ond supporting party. This young Yale athlete was 

 a valuable member of the expedition. His whole heart 

 was in the work, and he had hustled his heavy sledge 



