WE REACH THE POLE 301 



told them that we had reached the goal, yet they also 

 seemed to be under the same exhilarating influence 

 which made sleep impossible for me. 



Finally I rose, and telling my men and the three 

 men in the other igloo, who were equally wakeful, 

 that we would try to make our last camp, some thirty 

 miles to the south, before we slept, I gave orders to 

 hitch up the dogs and be off. It seemed unwise to 

 waste such perfect traveling weather in tossing about 

 on the sleeping platforms of our igloos. 



Neither Henson nor the Eskimos required any 

 urging to take to the trail again. They were naturally 

 anxious to get back to the land as soon as possible — 

 now that our work was done. And about four o'clock 

 on the afternoon of the 7th of April we turned our 

 backs upon the camp at the North Pole. 



Though intensely conscious of what I was leaving, 

 I did not wait for any lingering farewell of my life's 

 goal. The event of human beings standing at the 

 hitherto inaccessible summit of the earth was accom- 

 plished, and my work now lay to the south, where 

 four hundred and thirteen nautical miles of ice-floes 

 and possibly open leads still lay between us and the 

 north coast of Grant Land. One backward glance 

 I gave — then turned my face toward the south and 

 toward the future. 



