302 THE CONQUEST OF THE NORTH POLE 



Peary to make preparations to meet it, and for some 

 time it was not observed that Maksingwah had decamped 

 rather than face a storm on the dreaded ice-cap. It was 

 afterwards ascertained that it took the Eskimo four days 

 to reach the Lodge, and he was then in an extremely 

 exhausted condition. 



The storm confined Peary and Henson to the tent six 

 weary days. Peary's thoughts during this time were far 

 from pleasant. He saw that this terrible storm was 

 destroying the last chance of finding his caches, and this 

 meant not only the destruction of all the work of that 

 year, but also of the resources on which depended his 

 chance of success next year. 



When the storm passed over, a diligent search was 

 made for the cache, but no trace of it could be found. 

 Peary had to acknowledge the terrible fact that all his 

 alcohol and pemmican, which with other provisions weighed 

 nearly a ton and a half, were buried beneath the ice-cap. 



The blow was a severe one, but with his characteristic 

 tenacity of purpose Peary determined that venison and 

 walrus-meat must take the place of pemmican, and that 

 coal-oil must serve instead of alcohol. The idea of 

 abandoning the journey, even after this overwhelming 

 disaster, he could not entertain. 



During December, Peary and Lee made a sledge-journey 

 to Cape York. One of the main objects was to determine 

 accurately the positions of some of the capes, but the 

 weather was unfavourable most of the time. During 

 the last stage of the return journey Peary was without 

 food or sleep forty-six hours, and travelled 60 miles. 



Several other journeys were made during the winter, 

 for dog-food and various articles of equipment. Every 

 effort was made to be prepared for the ice-cap journey, 

 but when the time came to depart Peary was far from 

 satisfied with his resources. 



