THE DISCOVERY OF THE POLE 



895 



intense loneliness came with the further 

 scrutiny of the horizon. 



What a cheerless spot to have aroused 

 the ambition of man for so many ages ! 



An endless field of purple snows. No 

 life. No land. No spot to relieve the 

 monotony of frost. We were the only 

 pulsating creatures in a dead world of 

 ice. 



We turned our backs to the pole on 

 April 23 and began the long return 

 march. Counting on a continued easterly 

 drift, the course was forced further west. 



With fair weather, good ice and the 

 inspiration of the home run, long dis- 

 tances were at first quickly covered. 



Below the eighty-seventh parallel the 

 character of the ice changed very much., 

 and it became evident that the season was 

 advancing rapidly. 



With a good deal of anxiety we watched 

 the daily reduction of the food supply. 



It now became evident that the crucial 

 stage of the campaign was to be trans- 

 ferred from the taking of the pole to a 

 final battle for life against famine and 

 frost. 



The clear blue of the skies changed to 

 a steady, dismal gray. Several days of 

 icy despair followed each other in rapid 

 succession. 



There were some violent gales, but 

 usually the wind did not rise to the full 

 force of a storm. 



With starvation as the alternative, we 

 could not wait for better weather. 



Some advance was made nearly every 

 day, but the cost of the desperate effort 

 pressed life to the verge of extinction. 



On May 24 the sky cleared long enough 

 to give us a set of observations. 



We had reached the eighty-fourth par- 

 allel near the ninety-seventh meridian. 

 The ice was much broken and drifted 

 eastward, leaving many open spaces of 

 water. 



There remained on our sleds scarcely 

 enough food to reach our caches on Nan- 

 sen Sound unless we averaged fifteen 

 miles daily. With the disrupted "lalack" 

 and reduced strength we were hardly 

 equal to ten miles daily. 



Trying to make the best of our hard 



lot, a straight course was set for the musk 

 ox lands of the inner crossing. 



At the eighty-third parallel we found 

 ourselves to the west of a large tract, ex- 

 tending southward. The ice changed to 

 small fields. The temperature rose to 

 zero and a persistent mist obscured the 

 heavens. 



The events of the following day were 

 pressed into desperate action. 



With a few lines on paper to register 

 the life of suffering, the food for man 

 and dog was reduced to a three-quartex 

 ration, while the difficulties of ice travel 

 rose to disheartening heights. 



At the end of a struggle of twenty days 

 through thick fog the sky cleared and we 

 found ourselves far down in Crown 

 Prince Gustav Sea, with open water and 

 impossible small ice as a barrier between 

 us and Heiberg Island. 



In the next few days bears came along 

 as life savers. The empty stomachs were 

 spread and the horizon, for a time, was 

 cleared of trouble. 



With the return to Annootok rendered 

 difficult by the unfortunate westerly drift, 

 we now sought to follow the ice move- 

 ment south to Lancaster Sound, where 

 we hoped to reach a Scottish whaler. 



Early in July further southward prog- 

 ress became impossible, and in quest of 

 food we crossed the Firth of Devon into 

 Jones Sound. 



The dogs were here given the freedom 

 of their wolf propensities, and by folding 

 boat and sled we tried to reach Baffin's 

 Bay. With but an occasional bird to eat 

 and a long line of misfortune we pushed 

 eastward until the frost of early Septem- 

 ber stopped progress. 



With neither food, fuel nor ammuni- 

 tion we were forced to wrest winter sup- 

 plies from what seemed at first like a 

 lifeless desert. 



Pressed by hunger, new implements 

 were shaped, and Cape Sparbo was 

 picked as a likely place to find life. 



Game was located with the bow and 

 arrow, the line, the lance and the knife. 

 The musk ox, bear and wolves yielded 

 meat, skins and fat. An underground 



