160 THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



that sort which are convenient to have even under a sj'^stem of living 

 on the countr3^ These she would probably be able to carry much 

 farther north than either the Alaska or the Sachs; and in any sys- 

 tem of polar exploration a base far north is of paramount impor- 

 tance, although not quite as important to us as to those explorers 

 who believe in freighting with them on sledge journeys their food 

 and fuel. 



I had bought the Star from Captain Andreasen only a short 

 while before leaving the Alaska coast, and had planned all along 

 to put her under the command of Wilkins, of whom I had already 

 formed almost as high an opinion as his later service to the expe- 

 dition justified. Although the Arctic is a place of uncertainties 

 where schedules can seldom be adhered to, I had thus high hopes 

 of meeting Wilkins and the Star in August at northern Banks or 

 southern Prince Patrick Island. 



Carrying these instructions to our men ashore the support party, 

 Crawford, Johansen, and McConnell, left us at 70° 13' N. latitude 

 and 140° 30' W. longitude, on the afternoon of April 7th. They 

 had with them for a journey landward of fifty miles full rations for 

 thirty-one days for the men and about twenty-five days for the 

 dogs. We provided so much more than they needed because we had 

 no means of carrying the supplies ourselves, and because we were 

 unable to give them a rifle for sealing. With Wilkins' and Castel's 

 rifles gone and also the ammunition that had been in the bag at- 

 tached to their sled, the advance party needed both of the remaining 

 two, for not only was the journey across the ice to the northwest cor- 

 ner of Banks Island far too long to make on supplies we could haul, 

 but there was hunting to be done in Banks or Prince Patrick Island 

 to lay up winter food for the dogs and crew of the Star. It is also 

 always possible that one rifle may break, and one other offers by no 

 means a large margin of safety when your hunting means your sub- 

 sistence. With more mature experience, I would now never make a 

 long trip with less than one rifle for each man. We have on some 

 trips carried an extra rifle carefully packed away in a heavy case to 

 be protected against accidents and reserved for an emergenc3^ 



I have learned from McConnell's diary, a copy of which he 

 kindly gave me at the end of the expedition, that the party on their 

 way ashore had a good deal of trouble with open water, and with 

 high pressure-ridges where it was necessary to build a road with 

 pickaxes and where in one case they were able to make good only 

 a few hundred yards in a whole day of struggle. On one occasion 

 being without a rifle they had something of a fright from three polar 



