34 



The National Geographic Magazine 



your dreamland at night thawing out 

 your sleeping bag of ice, — and you can 

 imagine this sleeping bag thawed out 

 in the moist atmosphere of its interior. 

 These are simply ideas ; we go there for 

 that and we are perfectly satisfied. But 

 this is the description of the thing that 

 is of interest to most people, as some 

 one has expressed it. And then the 

 next morning you get up at your usual 

 time and it often seems as though you 

 only had half an hour or even fifteen 

 minutes' slumber, and sometimes if you 

 get that much on a very cold night you 

 are lucky. 



So you have to confront a problem of 

 a trip of 500 miles up and then there is 

 500 miles back ; your dogs eat a pound 

 a day and a man eats three pounds a 

 day. If you make 10 miles a day, which 

 has never been made, it would take you 

 100 days. Your dogs eat one pound a 

 day, and if you have 10 dogs that 

 means 10 pounds ; a man eats three 

 pounds a day, and without taking into 

 consideration the weight of your sleep- 

 ing bag, tent, or any of the equipment, 

 there would be an expenditure of 13 

 pounds a day. Now you can put about 

 600 pounds on a sledge, so you can 

 realize what the total weight must be, 

 and you will realize some of the prob- 

 lems that stand before the explorer. 



Then of course you know about these 

 sledge trips. We have to work many 

 hours a day. We start out about 5 

 o'clock in the morning and work late 

 in the afternoon, and some days we do 

 not make more than a mile and a half, 

 the poor little dogs pulling as only dogs 

 can, do their best. 



To me it seems that the end of the 

 Pole will be reached, but as to how 

 soon I cannot know. I have often 

 thought that a drift ship would be the 

 way — a drift ship equipped with wire- 

 less telegraphy, and then the party 

 would leave it and go off on their 

 sledge trips and communicate back and 

 forth with the drift ship by means of 



the wireless telegraph. But the prob- 

 lem of reaching the Pole is yet to be 

 solved. 



I thank you, ladies and gentlemen, 

 for your kindness. I appreciate this 

 honor of standing before you. The 

 Arctic is a grand subject; it is a great 

 country; there is very little known 

 about it even in a commercial sense ; 

 but the value in dollars and cents has 

 paid for the exploration. Millions of 

 dollars have been returned to the coun- 

 tries who have sent out these exploit- 

 ing parties, and so there is work in that 

 way ; and furthermore, as I have stated 

 already, we have received the com- 

 mandment, "Subdue the earth," and as 

 long as there is a spot in the earth that 

 has not been subdued, man will try to 

 accomplish what he was placed on the 

 earth to do. (Applause.) 



The; Toastmaster 



In inviting Mr Champ, who led the 

 expedition that rescued Mr Fiala — of 

 which he did not tell you — after they 

 had been in the Arctic over two years 

 and their position had become one of 

 extreme peril, I have promised him that 

 I would not call on him to speak. In 

 this I am reminded of an incident that 

 occurred when General Sherman was 

 invited over to Philadelphia to attend a 

 dinner of the Clover Club. He arose to 

 speak, but the members made cat calls, 

 and the quartet sang, and he was finally 

 compelled to sit down in confusion 

 without finishing his speech, and he 

 was naturally angry. The next year, 

 realizing they had offended the Gen- 

 eral, a committee came over and stated 

 to him that they felt extremely sorry 

 for what had occurred the year before, 

 and asked if he would not show that he 

 had forgiven them by coming again. 

 The General agreed, but exacted a 

 promise from the president that he 

 would not ask him to speak. The night 

 of the banquet came. The General had 

 enjoyed a good dinner and was serene, 



