BACK TO LAND 
did think of the ghosts of other parties, flit- 
ting in spectral form over the ice-clad wastes, 
especially of that small detachment of the 
Italian expedition of the Duke D'Abruzzi, of 
which to this day neither track, trace, nor 
remembrance has ever been found. We 
crossed lead after lead, sometimes like a bare- 
back rider in the circus, balancing on cake 
after cake of ice, but good fortune was with 
us all of the way, and it was not until the 
land of recognizable character had been lifted 
that we lost the trail, and with the land in 
sight as an incentive, it was no trouble for us 
to gain the talus of the shore ice and find 
the trail again. 
When we "hit the beach for fair" it was 
early in the morning of April 23, 1909, nearly 
seventeen days since we had left the Pole, 
but such a seventeen days of haste, toil, and 
misery as cannot be comprehended by the 
mind. We who experienced it, Commander 
Peary, the Esquimos, and myself, look back 
to it as to a horrid nightmare, and to describe 
it is impossible for me. 
Commander Peary had taken the North 
Pole by conquest, in the face of almost in- 
141 
