THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 113 



allowing the sledges of his party as well as my own to precede, 

 us there. It seemed best to say nothing more to him before reading 

 the letter. 



As we walked I read it. Together with O'Neill's answers to 

 occasional inquiries where some point was not quite clear, the letter 

 made me understand that our situation could scarcely have been 

 worse. Dr. Anderson, my second in command, acknowledged the 

 receipt of my instructions brought to him by Storkerson and said 

 that, after consultation with the scientific staff and with the other 

 members of the expedition, he had decided not to obey them. He 

 himself and the rest were of the opinion that my proposed journey 

 north over the ice was a "stunt" to get me newspaper notoriety; 

 that no serious scientific work was intended; and that if any were 

 intended none could be accomplished on any such plans as I was 

 contemplating. They considered themselves justified not only in 

 withholding assistance for this journey, but olso in preventing me 

 from using any supplies that were at Collinson Point on either of 

 the ships Alaska or Mary Sachs. 



The letter then referred to the supplies of the expedition being 

 carried by the Belvedere and said that the writer and the scientific 

 staff would protest against Captain Cottle's turning any of these 

 over to me, and would take the position that if I used any of them 

 it was "a criminal misappropriation of Government property." 

 The criminal part must have been that Dr. Anderson interpreted 

 the Government's instructions to mean that I had no right to these 

 supplies for any work except that in the vicinity of Coronation 

 Gulf, and my using any part of them for the ice work would be 

 disobedience to the Government. 



The wording of the letter, while it showed by its violence that 

 it had been written in what might be fairly termed "the heat of 

 passion," left no doubt of the full sincerity of its writer and the 

 staff. They were no stage villains bent themselves on being crimi- 

 nal. In their own esteem they were acting in the public interest 

 in trying to forestall misuse of public property. In the interests 

 of science they^were preventing a foray into a frozen ocean which 

 n their opinion could yield no knowledge, predestined as it was 

 :.o failure through inadequate plans; and in the interests of human- 

 ly they were discouraging a venture which, if carried as far as I 

 aid I intended, would lead to multiple death through freezing or 

 tarvation.* 



j * Dr Anderson's letter later had the following history. On leaving land 

 or the ice trip March 22, 1914, I left it, with other valuable papers and a 



