PIONEERING 
each sledge, and another man to help pull them 
up on to the more even ice. We crossed sev- 
eral leads, mostly frozen over, and kept on go- 
ing for over twelve hours. The mileage was 
small and, instead of elation, I felt discourage- 
ment. Two of the sledges had split their en- 
tire length and had to be repaired, and the 
going had been such that we could not cover 
any distance. We had a good long rest at 
the Big Lead for over six days, but at the end 
of this, my first day's pioneering, I was as 
tired out as I have ever been. It should be 
understood that while I was pioneering I was 
carrying the full-loaded sledges with about 550 
pounds, while the other parties that were in 
the lead never carried but half of the regular 
load, which made our progress much slower. 
March 15 : Bright, clear, and I am sure as 
cold as the record-breaking cold of the day 
previous. We made an early start, with hopes 
high; but the first two hours' traveling was 
simply a repetition of the going of the day 
before. But after that, and to the end of the 
day's march, the surface of the ice over which 
we traveled was most remarkably smooth. 
The fallen snow had packed solid into the areas 
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