APPENDIX 709 



bum, as everything was frozen up. They had to stand up all night 

 and move around to keep from freezing, waiting for daylight, which 

 in the early part of January was quite a long wait. The next day 

 they got to us more dead than alive. I forget who it was made the 

 next trip — the last. I was busy finishing the Peary-type sleds, so I 

 made no trips. 



Every night during the time the sleds were away we had a grand 

 illumination to show the way to Shipwreck Camp. But of course no- 

 body ever arrived at night, for it was simply impossible to travel over 

 that ice when it was so dark you could cut it. Furthermore, it was 

 too dangerous. During all these bonfires we burned the Peterborough 

 canoes, the whale boats and most of the drums of oil and gasoline, and 

 the case oil [kerosene in cases] besides. It is a wonder we didn't 

 blow ourselves to eternity. I reminded the Captain of how he had 

 burnt all the hair off his face last winter when he put a package of 

 Eastman's flash papers in the cabin stoves, and I advised him to look 

 out that nothing worse happened. 



I think it was February 4th or 5th that we heard dogs howling 

 several miles from camp. Some of the men went out to look and 

 shortly after the sleds returned to camp with the news that they had 

 left the Mate's party on the ipe about three miles from Herald Island 

 with a lead of open water (three miles wide) between them and the 

 land. They had one sled, three sled-loads of provisions and no dogs. 

 The feet of one of the four were badly frozen already. I thought 

 this a bad position for the Mate's party to be in, for if the ice started 

 to crush, which in all probability it would do, it was all off with his 

 outfit. They might save themselves but they wouldn't save much of 

 their gear. I had advised the Mate before he started that if they 

 wanted to leave him with water between him and the land, and no 

 dogs, if I were in his place I would refuse to stay and would return 

 with the dogs to Shipwreck Camp. He said at the time he would do 

 so. I was told now that when Mamen was about to turn back with the 

 dogs the Mate wanted to come with him but gave it up because one 

 of the sailors made fun of him, saying, "Give me a rifle and I will 

 walk to Point Barrow." The Mate then said he didn't like to have it 

 told that he was the first to retreat. Poor fellow, it would have been 

 better if he had done so. 



There was great excitement in camp that evening. The Doctor's 

 party were planning to start out on their own account and were anxious 

 to get news from Mamen's party. Some said that if the Doctor wanted 

 to leave the rest he had better act on his own ideas and that we should 

 not give him any information. I did not agree with this, for it seemed 

 to me that if no steps were taken to prevent him from going, it was 

 not fair to withhold information which might help his party on the 

 road. The next day the Doctor's party got ready and packed their 

 sled with fifty days' rations for four men. The Captain told them they 



