244 THENORTHPOLE 



along and driven his dogs with almost the skill of an 

 Eskimo, in a way that commanded the admiration of 

 the whole party and would have made his father's 

 eyes glisten could he have seen. But with all his 

 enthusiasm for this kind of work, he was still inexperi- 

 enced in the many treacheries of the ice; and I was not 

 willing to subject him to any further risks. He had 

 also, like MacMillan, frosted one of his heels. 



It was a serious disappointment to Borup that he 

 was obliged to turn back; but he had reason to feel 

 proud of his work — even as I was proud of him. He 

 had carried the Yale colors close up to eighty -five and 

 a half degrees, and had borne them over as many miles 

 of polar ice as Nansen had covered in his entire jour- 

 ney from his ship to his "farthest north." 



I can still see Borup's eager and bright young face, 

 slightly clouded with regret, as he turned away at 

 last and disappeared with his Eskimos and steaming 

 dogs among the ice hummocks of the back trail. 



A few minutes after Borup went south, Henson 

 with two Eskimos, three sledges, and twenty -four dogs 

 began to follow Bartlett's trail to the north. Marvin 

 and myself, with four Eskimos, five sledges, and forty 

 dogs, were to remain in camp twelve hours longer in 

 order to give Bartlett one march the start of us. With 

 the departure of Borup's supporting party, the main 

 expedition comprised twelve men, ten sledges, and 

 eighty dogs. 



From this camp on, each division comprised three 

 men instead of four; but I did not reduce the division 

 daily allowance of tea, milk, and alcohol. This meant 

 a slightly greater individual consumption of these 



