THE DISCOVERY OF THE POLE 



899 



sledge all the way from Cape Columbia, 

 and with his enthusiasm and the powers 

 -and physique of the trained athlete I had 

 •confidence in him for at least the 86th 

 parallel, but there was no alternative. 



The best sledges and dogs were se- 

 lected and the sledge loads brought up 

 to the standard. The sounding gave a 

 depth of 325 fathoms. We were over 

 the continental shelf, and, as I had sur- 

 mised, the successive leads crossed in the 

 fifth and sixth marches composed the big 

 lead and marked the continental shelf. 



On leaving this camp the expedition 

 •comprised 16 men, 12 sledges, and 100 

 ■dogs. The next march was satisfactory 

 as regards distance and character of 

 going. In the latter part there were pro- 

 nounced movements in the ice, both 

 visible and audible. Some leads were 

 •crossed, in one of which Borup and his 

 team took a bath, and we were finally 

 stopped by an impracticable lead opening 

 in front of us. 



We camped in a temperature of 50. 

 At the end of two short marches we came 

 upon Hensen and his party in camp 

 mending their sledges. We devoted the 

 remainder of the day to overhauling and 

 mending sledges and breaking up our 

 damaged ones for material. 



The next morning I put Marvin in the 

 lead to pioneer the trail, with instructions 

 to make two forced marches to bring up 

 our average, which had been cut down 

 "by the last two short ones. Marvin car- 

 ried out his instructions implicitly. A 

 considerable amount of young ice as- 

 sisted in this. 



At the end of the 10th of March, in 

 latitude 85.23, Borup turned back in com- 

 mand of the second supporting party, 

 "having traveled a distance equivalent to 

 Nansen's distance from this far to his 

 farthest north. I was sorry to lose this 

 young Yale runner, with his enthusiasm 

 and pluck. He had led his heavy sledge 

 •over the floes in a way that commanded 

 ■every one's admiration, and would have 

 made his father's eyes glisten. 



From this point the expedition com- 

 prised 12 men, 10 sledges, and 70 dogs. 

 It was necessary for Marvin to take a 



sledge from here, and I put Bartlett and 

 his division in advance to pioneer the 

 trail. 



The continual daylight enabled me to 

 make a moderation here that brought my 

 advance and main parties closer together, 

 and reduced the likelihood of their being 

 separated by open leads. 



Bartlett left camp with Henderson and 

 their division ; Marvin and I remained 

 with our divisions twenty hours longer, 

 and then followed. When we reached 

 Bartlett's camp, he broke out and went 

 on, and we turned in. By this arrange- 

 ment the advance party was traveling 

 while the main party was asleep, and 

 vice versa, and I was in touch with my 

 advance party every twenty-four hours. 



I had no reason to complain of the 

 going for the next two marches, though 

 for a less experienced party, less adapta- 

 ble sledges, or less perfect equipment it 

 would have been an impossibility. 



At our position at the end of the sec- 

 ond march Marvin obtained a satisfac- 

 tory sight for latitude in clear weather, 

 which placed us at 85.48. This result 

 agreed very satisfactorily with the dead 

 reckoning of Marvin, Bartlett, and my- 

 self. 



Up to this time the slight altitude of 

 the sun had made it not worth while to 

 waste time in observations. 



On the next two marches the going 

 improved, and we covered good dis- 

 tances. In one of these marches a lead 

 delayed us a few hours. We finally fer- 

 ried across on the ice cakes. 



The next day Bartlett let himself out, 

 evidently for a record, and reeled off 

 plump twenty miles. Here Marvin ob- 

 tained another satisfactory sight on lati- 

 tude which gave the position as 86.38 

 (or beyond the farthest north of Nansen 

 and Abruzzi), and showed that we had 

 covered 50 minutes of latitude in three 

 marches. In these three marches we had 

 passed the Norwegian record of 86.14 

 by Nansen and the Italian record of 86.34 

 by Cagni. 



From this point Marvin turned back 

 in command of the third supporting 



