SECOND AUTUMN IN THE ICE 581 



secured, though there are those doubtless who hold that 

 a barren coast, where you must first scrape your food 

 together before you can eat it, is a poor retreat for hun- 

 gry men ; but that is really an advantage, for such a 

 retreat would not be too alluring. A wretched inven- 

 tion, forsooth, for people who wish to push on is a 

 'line of retreat' — an everlasting inducement to look be- 

 hind, when they should have enough to do in looking 

 ahead. 



" But now for the expedition itself. It will consist of 28 

 dogs, two men, and 2100 pounds of provisions and equip- 

 ments. The distance to the Pole from '^'^ is 483 miles. 

 Is it too much to calculate that we may be able to accom- 

 plish that distance in 50 days? I do not of course know 

 what the staying powers of the dogs may be ; but that, 

 with two men to help, they should be able to do 9^ miles 

 a day with 75 pounds each for the first few days, sounds 

 sufficiently reasonable, even if they are not very good 

 ones. This, then, can scarcely be called a wild calcula- 

 tion, always, of course, supposing the ice to be as it 

 is here, and there is no reason why it should not be. 

 Indeed, it steadily improves the farther north we get; 

 and it also improves with the approach of spring. 

 In 50 days, then, we should reach the Pole (in 65 days 

 we went 345 miles over the inland ice of Greenland at an 

 elevation of more than 8000 feet, without dogs and with 

 defective provisions, and could certainly have gone con- 

 siderably farther). In 50 days we shall have consumed a 



