286 THE CONQUEST OF THE NORTH POLE 



this march a storm broke upon them, and they were 

 imprisoned in a rough shelter two days. 



Peary now found that he was on the southern edge of 

 a great glacier basin, and to avoid this he deflected 

 his course to the south-east, which forced him to 

 ascend steep icy slopes. It took two days of the hardest 

 work to get out of this trap, and at the end of them 

 he had lost 15 miles of his hard-earned northing. 

 During this climb, Peary's best dog, the king of the 

 team, received a sprain. After limping at the rear of 

 the sledges for two or three days, he lagged behind, and 

 was lost in one of the ice-cap storms. Two dogs fell 

 into a crevasse and hung suspended at the end of their 

 traces until hoisted out. 



Starting again on a north-east course, they had not 

 advanced far when they were brought up by a group of 

 enormous crevasses, and just as these were reached a 

 dense fog swept up from the glacier basin and delayed 

 them eighteen hours. 



Peary now decided to strike farther into the interior, 

 so as to avoid these glacier basins, but in carrying out 

 this plan he found the snow increasing and the grade 

 so steep that he was compelled to steer more to the 

 north. 



He had advanced in this direction only 4 miles when 

 the big sledge again broke down, and an entire day was 

 lost in repairing it. Next day the temperature became 

 so high and altered the surface of the snow so much that 

 they found it impossible to go on. They had to wait 

 a fall of temperature, and this did not occur for two days. 

 At this camp spare articles weighing 75 lb. were thrown 

 away. 



Starting again, they made a march of 6j miles, going 

 over the road twice. The following day, land again 

 made its appearance ahead of them, and Peary deflected 



