I40 NEAREST THE POLE 



I feared that the cutting wind and snow, together 

 with the strain upon my eyes in taking the observa- 

 tions, had given me an acute attack of snow-bUndness. 

 but I repeatedly buried my eyes in the freezing snow 

 until the eyelids were numb, and after a time experi- 

 enced sufficient relief, so that my utter weariness sent 

 me to dreamless sleep. All regrets and disappoint- 

 ment had to yield temporarily to the imperious 

 demand of the overworked body. 



At this camp we took a full sleep, the last for several 

 days, then hurried on at top speed. Deep in my 

 heart I still had a lingering hope, fathered of course 

 by the wish, that Marvin might have crossed the big 

 lead before the storm came on, might have found 

 Storm Camp, and left provisions there for us in ac- 

 cordance wath my instructions left at the Storm Camp 

 igloos. I was very anxious, therefore, to keep our 

 outward trail, as far as Storm Camp, and now that the 

 number of my dogs had been reduced, and some of my 

 sledges discarded, I had spare men, and selecting two 

 of the most experienced trailers among my Eskimos, 

 I brought them alongside of me a few hundred yards 

 in advance of the sledges. Thus we travelled, the 

 three of us, with our eyes fixed upon the ice ahead, 

 noting each faintest indication of the trail. When- 

 ever the trail was faulted by the movement of the ice, 

 we spread out in skirmish line and veered to the right, 

 to the southwest, until we found it again. When we 

 came to a crack or lead too wide to jump the sledges 

 across, one of my Eskimos started to the right at once 

 on the run, the other to the left, and the one first find- 

 ing a practicable crossing signalled to the sledges in 



