288 THE CONQUEST OF THE NORTH POLE 



Here Peary left Astrup to look after the dogs while 

 he hastened down to the land for the purpose of climbing 

 a summit some 5 miles from the edge of the ice. He 

 had not gone far when a snow-bunting fluttei'ed up from 

 behind a rock, and not long afterwards he came across 

 the traces of musk-oxen. As he got farther from the ice, 

 flowers of various hues made their appearance, among 

 them the yellow Arctic poppy. 



Instead of 5 miles, the distance of the mountain 

 lengthened to at least 12, and when it was reached 

 at the end of an eight hours' march, it was only to find 

 that two or three other summits intervened between 

 Peary and the view he wished. By this time the soles 

 of Peary's kamiks were cut through, and some of the 

 sharp stones had cut his feet. He patched his foot-gear 

 with a pair of seal-skin mittens and a skull-cap, and after 

 an hour's rest he started on his return to Astrup, and 

 reached him after an absence of fifteen hours. 



Peary now decided to take Astrup and the dogs, which 

 numbered eight, and three or four days' supplies, 

 and march overland. They started out on 3rd July 

 1892, carrying about 40 lb. each on their backs. On 

 the second day's march they were fortunate in coming 

 across musk-oxen, and succeeded in killing two. This 

 gave both the men and the dogs a welcome change of 

 food, and they feasted till they could eat no more. 



After several hours' rest, they again set out, and suc- 

 ceeded in gaining a rocky plateau, 3800 feet above sea- 

 level. This dropped in a perpendicular cliff into a bay 

 below. Looking out over a mighty glacier on the right 

 and through the broad mouth of the bay, they saw 

 stretching away to the horizon the great ice-fields of the 

 Arctic Ocean. To the west was the opening of a fiord 

 which Peary believed was the one which barred his 

 northern advance, and he had paralleled its course across 



