THE SHIP AT LAST 429 



company with several of the Eskimos, and we were 

 soon alongside. 



No one, unless he has had a similar experience, can 

 fully appreciate my sensations as I stepped again 

 upon the Roosevelt's deck, and once more shook 

 the hands of my own kind after a year in the savagery 

 and desolation of the Arctic. Commander Peary, 

 Captain Bartlett and all on board gave me a cordial 

 welcome. 



"What day of the month is it?" was my first 

 question. 



"August sixteenth," was the reply. 



And thus I learned that I had gained fourteen days 

 in my calculation of time, due to the periods of sun- 

 less night and perpetual day, and doubtless to some 

 extent to my eagerness for the time to come when I 

 should leave for home. In view of the fact that I 

 had no calendar this was not, after all, so bad. 



When the first confusion of our greetings was over 

 I noticed that Marvin was not in the group on deck. 

 I asked for him and learned of his tragic death on 

 the Polar sea. Marvin was a splendid, lovable fel- 

 low. A friendship had grown between us on the 

 voyage northward, and I recalled vividly our fare- 

 well at Etah, and his injunction to the Eskimos to 

 take good care of me. He had broken through young 

 ice, I was told, and drowned. 



Six days before we sighted her the Roosevelt had 

 passed southward to hunt walrus in Whale Sound to 

 supply winter food for the Eskimos who had been 

 with the Polar party, and although we had kept a 



