258 THENORTHPOLE 



discouraged by the heart-racking work of making a 

 road. 



I told him to take a good long sleep before getting 

 under way again; and while my men were building 

 the igloos, I lightened the loads of Bartlett's sledges 

 about one hundred pounds, to put them in better 

 trim for pioneering in this rough going. The added 

 weight would be less burdensome on our own sledges 

 than on his. Notwithstanding the crazy road over 

 which we had traveled, this march netted us twelve 

 good miles toward the goal. 



We were now across the 87th parallel and into the 

 region of perpetual daylight, as the sun had not set 

 during the last march. The knowledge that we had 

 crossed the 87th parallel with men and dogs in good 

 condit on, and plenty of supplies upon the sledges, 

 sent me to sleep that night with a light heart. Only 

 about six miles beyond this point, at 87° 6', I had been 

 obliged to turn back nearly three years before, with 

 exhausted dogs, depleted supplies, and a heavy and 

 discouraged heart. It seemed to me then that the 

 story of my life was told and that the word failure 

 was stamped across it. 



Now, three years older, with three more years of 

 the inevitable wear and tear of this inexorable game 

 behind me, I stood again beyond the 87th parallel 

 still reaching forward to that goal which had beckoned 

 to me for so many years. Even now, on reaching my 

 highest record with every prospect good, I dared not 

 build too much on the chances of the white and treach- 

 erous ice which stretched one hundred and eighty 

 nautical miles northward between me and the end. I 



