THE DISCOVERY OF THE -POLE 



901 



Photo and Copyright by Underwood & Underwood 



ARCTIC HUNTERS AND ESKIMOS HAVING JUST LANDED THREE FINE SPECIMENS 



OE WALRUS 



adrift in open water, while this was clos- 

 ing up every lead behind. This fur- 

 nished another advantage of my support- 

 ing parties. True, by so doing, it was 

 pressing to the south the ice over which 

 we traveled, and so robbing us of a hun- 

 dred miles of advantage. 



We concluded we were on or near the 

 88th parallel, unless the north wind had 

 lost us several miles. The wind blew all 

 night, and all the following day. At this 

 camp in the morning Bartlett started to 

 walk five or six miles to the north, to 

 make sure of reaching the 88th parallel. 

 While he was gone I selected the forty 

 best dogs in the outfit and had them 

 doubled, and I picked out five of the best 

 sledges and assigned them expressly to 

 the captain's party. I broke up the tent 

 for material with which to repair the 

 others and set Eskimos at this work. 



Bartlett returned in time to take a sat- 

 isfactory observation for latitude in clear 

 weather, and obtained for our position 

 87.48, that showed that the continued 

 north wind had robbed us of a number 



of miles of hard-earned distance. Bart- 

 lett took the observation here, as had 

 Marvin five camps back, partly to save 

 my eyes, but largely to give an inde- 

 pendent record and determination of our 

 advance. The observations completed, 

 and two copies made, one for him and 

 the other for me, Bartlett started on the 

 back trail in command of my fourth sup- 

 porting party, with 2 Eskimos, 1 sledge, 

 and 18 dogs. 



When he left I felt for a moment the 

 pangs of regret as he disappeared in the 

 distance, but it was only momentary. My 

 work was still ahead, not in the rear. 

 Bartlett had done good work, and had 

 been a great help to me. Circumstances 

 had thrust the brunt of pioneering upon 

 him instead of dividing it among several, 

 as I had planned. 



He had reason to take pride in the fact 

 that he had bettered the Italian record by 

 a degree and a quarter, and had covered 

 a distance equal to the entire distance of 

 the Italian expedition from Eranz Josef's 

 Land to Cagni's farthest north. I had 



