138 THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



On this point I saw no reason to disagree with Peary. Four 

 or five hundred miles away from the base and back seems to be 

 about the limit of a journey that can be made with that system. 

 But though the North Pole is only about 400 miles away from the 

 nearest land upon which a base can be established, there are many 

 other points within the polar regions that are much more remote 

 from a base on any known land and these would be unattain- 

 able by the Peary system. It is in this connection that we have pre- 

 pared the map of comparative inaccessibility of various points 

 within the polar regions which is published in this volume.* 



This consideration of the Peary system, which is admirable 

 within its scope, shows clearly why we could not possibly have 

 carried on by that method. To begin with, to be successful in the 

 task entrusted to us by the Government we had to make journeys 

 longer than either the one Peary made, or any he considered the 

 system capable of. And then we had not the men nor the sledges, 

 though we could doubtless have purchased the dogs. It was liter- 

 ally a choice between the absolute failure of our geographic pro- 

 gram and the testing of the method of "living off the country." 



As a last plea I used to point out to the men that I had an- 

 nounced the intention to live by forage on the sea ice not only in 

 the official statements of the expedition but also in newspaper 

 interviews, in speeches made to "Canadian Clubs" and other or- 

 ganizations just before leaving, and, in fact, in every public state- 

 ment made by me on the point. They had known from the start, 

 therefore, that I might call on them for just this work. Some of 

 them replied they had never supposed this was anything but news- 

 paper talk. It might perhaps be justifiable to use this argument to 

 create public interest and secure funds for an expedition. But a 

 man's life is the only one he has and he can not be expected to risk 

 it lightly. 



But I did get volunteers enough for the minimum number of 

 assistants needed. To these loyal men, poets enough in their out- 

 look on life to be willing to take new risks that new lands might 

 be found, new seas charted and a new idea tried out, I owe grati- 

 tude for support at a critical time. And no less do I owe it to 

 Storkerson, Andreasen and Castel whom I was able to engage 

 from outside. Their consistent support when they were with me, 

 their energy and discretion when they had to carry out tasks on 

 their own, enabled us finally to do without the Karluk most of the 

 geographic work that we had been expected to do with her help. 



* See ante, p. 8. 



