THE PEARY PLAN 
Columbia, ninety- three miles northwest, in an- 
ticipation of the journey to the Pole. Those 
who remained at headquarters did not find life 
an idle dream. There was something in the 
way of work going on all of the time. I was 
away from the sliip on two hunting trips of 
about ten days each, and while at headquarters, 
I shaped and built over two dozen sledges, be- 
sides doing lots of other work. 
Naturally there were frequent storms and 
intense cold, and in regard to the storms of 
the Arctic regions of North Greenland and 
Grant Land, the only word I can use to de- 
scribe them is "terrible," in the fullest mean- 
ing it conveys. The effect of such storms of 
w^ind and snow, or rain, is abject physical ter- 
ror, due to the realization of perfect helpless- 
ness. I have seen rocks a hundred and a hun- 
dred and fifty pounds in weight picked up by 
the storm and blown for distances of ninety 
or a hundred feet to the edge of a precipice, 
and there of their own momentum go hurtling 
through space to fall in crashing fragments at 
the base. Imagine the effect of such a rain- 
fall of death-dealing bowlders on the f eehngs 
of a httle group of three or four, who have 
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