PREPARING FOR WINTER 
ming a popular air, and I knew that for the 
present all was well with him. 
With the ship lightened, by being unloaded, 
to a large extent, of all of the stores, she did 
not very appreciably rise, but the Commander 
and the Captain agreed that she could be 
safely worked considerably closer to the shore, 
inside of the tide-crack possibly; and the 
Roosevelt was made fast to the ice-foot of 
the land, with a very considerable distance be- 
tween her and open water. Her head was 
pointed due north, and affairs aboard her as- 
sumed regulation routine. The stores ashore 
were contracted, and work on getting them into 
shape for building temporary houses was soon 
under way. The boxes of provisions them- 
selves formed the walls, and the roofing was 
made from makeshifts such as sails, overturned 
whale-boats, and rocks; and had the ship got 
adrift and been lost, the houses on shore would 
have proved ample and comfortable for hous- 
ing the expedition. 
A ship, and a good one like the Roosevelt, 
is the prime necessity in getting an expedition 
within striking distance of the Pole, but once 
here the ship (and no other boat, but the 
36 
