276 THE CONQUEST OF THE NORTH POLE 



own supervision. He had two 9-foot sledges, 13 inches 

 wide, made of hickory, steel, and hide, on a modified 

 Hudson Bay pattern. With drag-ropes and lashings each 

 weighed 23 lb. He carried jacketed alcohol-stoves, 

 9-foot double-ended ash alpenstocks with steel point 

 and chisel, rubber creepers, snow-shoes, and ski. His 

 rations consisted of tea, sugar, condensed milk, hard 

 bread, pemmican, cranberry jam, baked beans, Liebig 

 extract, and an experimental mixture of meat, biscuit, 

 and desiccated potato. 



The natives left the party at the edge of the ice-cap. 

 On the 29th June, Peary and Maigaard started due east. 

 A few hours after setting out, a furious storm came on, 

 and it was deemed advisable to return to the head of the 

 fiord and wait there till the weather improved. 



On the 5th July the storm abated, and Peary and 

 Maigaard set out once more. They reached the sledges, 

 dug them out of the snow, and started due east again. 



After crossing a network of crevasses, they encountered 

 a series of lakes which were not frozen hard enough to 

 support them. They had frequently to wade through 

 a morass of saturated snow. 



On the 15th July another storm compelled them to 

 lie up four days at an elevation of 7525 feet above the 

 sea. This camp was 100 miles from the margin of the 

 ice-cap, and was the farthest point reached. Only six 

 days 1 provisions were left, and Peary decided to return. 



The return journey was made rapidly, but they had 

 several exciting experiences. On one occasion Maigaard 

 was nearly lost in a crevasse, and on another Peary was 

 swept away in a glacier stream. 



On his return to Ritenbenk, Peary set out for the 

 Noursoak Peninsula, which he crossed alone to the edge 

 of the Great Kariak Glacier, and then returned. This 

 journey across the peninsula occupied three days. 



