THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 137 



was gone and we had only two good sledges to start with; the 

 system of relays of many support parties was out of the question. 

 It was now a case of either letting the geographic program go or 

 else trying out the method of "living off the country" while doing 

 with that program what we could. 



How thoroughly beyond the scope of our diminished equipment 

 the Pear>^ system of relays or support parties was, can most clearly 

 be shown by a brief review of Peary's trip to the North Pole. 



When Peary started north from Cape Thomas Hubbard he 

 had before him a journey of just over 400 miles and back. Accord- 

 ing to his calculations, he needed for this 139 dogs, 24 men and 

 19 sledges. The sledges were loaded mainly with food and fuel 

 for, on his theory that you have to carry with you everything you 

 are going to use, clothing, camp gear and the like had to be cut to 

 the minimum. For 24 men he carried only two rifles. On other 

 journeys he had carried only one and had even sawed off half the 

 barrel to make it lighter. I believe he carried only one pair of 

 field glasses for the entire party. No matter what the latitude, 

 it is always uncomfortable to sleep at night in the clothes you 

 wear in the daytime, but the saving of weight was so essential 

 that he permitted the carrying of no bedding and he and the men 

 slept in their clothes. 



As they traveled north the sledges rapidly became lighter. The 

 139 dogs ate a pound each per day, the 24 men ate two pounds 

 each, and there was a certain amount of fuel consumed. Before 

 many days several "standard loads" of 600 pounds each had been 

 used up, leaving that many empty sledges. Peary would send these 

 back with the poorest dogs and the men who were for one reason 

 or another least suited to the work, giving them just enough food 

 for a rapid journey ashore. A few days later a few more sledges 

 would be empty and similarly sent back. No man ate an ounce 

 more than he was entitled to, seldom was an extra ounce of fuel 

 used to warm even the coldest camp; the men worked to the limit 

 of their strength and the dogs beyond the limit, so that one by 

 one they fell behind on the trail and either lay there frozen or 

 were fed to the other dogs. By this system Peary finally found 

 himself with three sledges loaded with provisions and with three 

 or four of the men best adapted to traveling, within striking dis- 

 tance of the Pole. He made it and he got back safely. But he 

 has said to me that had the Pole been a hundred miles farther away 

 it probably could not have been reached with this method in a 

 way to provide for a safe return ashore. 



