lo NEAREST THE POLE 



In the captain's room, at the after end of the port 

 side of the deck house, was a folding berth, a wash- 

 basin, a table and a camp chair, and these, with the 

 chronometer, a trunk, and several pictures and photos 

 on the walls, completed its furnishing. 



At the after end of the starboard side of the deck 

 house was my own room. This room, owing to the 

 thoughtful care of Mrs. Peary and friends, was more 

 luxuriously furnished than any room occupied by me 

 on previous expeditions or than it would have been had 

 I furnished it myself. 



The room (lo x i6) was also larger than I had 

 ever had on a previous expedition. The room 

 occupied by Mrs. Peary and myself at Red cliff e was 

 7x12 feet, and the one at Anniversary Lodge 8x18 feet. 

 But one of the most annoying circumstances of the long 

 Arctic winter is always the crowding of cramped 

 quarters, the inability to move without knocking 

 against something, the feeling of oppression. This, on 

 top of the contracted horizon and feeling of com- 

 pression from the protracted darkness, is at times 

 almost intolerable, and in planning the Roosevelt quar- 

 ters I felt that I was justified in giving myself a little 

 more room. Two ports and a window looking aft 

 lighted the room and, as in the captain's room, a door 

 opened aft on to the quarter-deck, while another gave 

 me direct access to the engine room. 



A berth, a table, and a chair, are of course essentials 

 and were present. Then came the piece de resis- 

 tance, the beautiful pianola given me by my friend 

 H. H. Benedict. This, with a rack of nearly 150 music 

 rolls, popular operas, marches, waltzes and rag- time, 



