The North Pole Part 28

Distance made good in three marches, fifty minutes of lat.i.tude, an average of sixteen and two-thirds nautical miles per march. The weather is fine, going good and improving each day.

"ROSS G. MARVIN, "_College of Civil Engineering_, _Cornell University_."

With a sad heart I went to my cabin on the _Roosevelt_. Notwithstanding the good fortune with which we had accomplished the return, the death of Marvin emphasized the danger to which we had all been subjected, for there was not one of us but had been in the water of a lead at some time during the journey.

Despite the mental depression that resulted from this terrible news about poor Marvin, for twenty-four hours after my return I felt physically as fit as ever and ready to hit the trail again if necessary.

But at the end of twenty-four hours the reaction came, and it came with a b.u.mp. It was, of course, the inevitable result of complete change of diet and atmosphere, and the subst.i.tution of inaction in place of incessant effort. I had no energy or ambition for anything. Scarcely could I stop sleeping long enough to eat, or eating long enough to sleep. My ravenous appet.i.te was not the result of hunger or short rations, for we had all had plenty to eat on the return from the Pole.

It was merely because none of the s.h.i.+p's food seemed to have the satisfying effect of pemmican, and I could not seem to hold enough to satisfy my appet.i.te. However, I knew better than to gorge myself and compromised by eating not much at a time, but at frequent intervals.

Oddly enough, this time there was no swelling of the feet or ankles and in three or four days we all began to feel like ourselves. Anyone who looks at the contrasted pictures of the Eskimos, taken before and after the sledge trip, will realize, perhaps, something of the physical strain of a journey to the Pole and back, and will read into the day-by-day narrative of our progress all the details of soul-racking labor and exhaustion which at the time we had been obliged stoically to consider as a part of the day's work, in order to win our goal.

One of the first things done after reaching the s.h.i.+p and bringing our sleep up to date was to reward the Eskimos who had served us so faithfully. They were all fitted out with rifles, shotguns, cartridges, sh.e.l.ls, reloading tools, hatchets, knives, and so on, and they behaved like so many children who had just received a boundless supply of toys.

Among the things I have given them at various times, none are more important than the telescopes, which enable them to distinguish game in the distance. The four who stood with me at the Pole were to receive whale-boats, tents, and other treasures when I dropped them at their home settlements along the Greenland coast on the southward journey of the _Roosevelt_.

CHAPTER x.x.xV

LAST DAYS AT CAPE SHERIDAN

It is not long now to the end of the story. On returning to the _Roosevelt_ I learned that MacMillan and the doctor had reached the s.h.i.+p March 21, Borup on April 11, the Eskimo survivors of Marvin's party April 17, and Bartlett on April 24. MacMillan and Borup had started for the Greenland coast, before my return, to deposit caches for me, in the event that I should be obliged by the drifting of the ice to come back that way, as in 1906. (Borup, on his return to the land, had deposited a cache for me at Cape Fanshawe Martin, on the Grant Land coast, some eighty miles west from Cape Columbia, thus providing for a drift in either direction.)

[Ill.u.s.tration: PERMANENT MONUMENT ERECTED AT CAPE COLUMBIA TO MARK POINT OF DEPARTURE AND RETURN OF NORTH POLE SLEDGE PARTY]

Borup also, with the aid of the Eskimos, built at Cape Columbia a permanent monument, consisting of a pile of stones formed round the base of a guidepost made of sledge planks, with four arms pointing true north, south, east, and west--the whole supported and guyed by numerous strands of heavy sounding wire. On each arm is a copper plate, with an inscription punched in it. On the eastern arm is, "Cape Morris K. Jesup, May 16, 1900, 275 miles;" on the southern arm is, "Cape Columbia, June 6, 1906;" on the western arm is, "Cape Thomas H. Hubbard, July 1, 1906, 225 miles;" on the northern arm, "North Pole, April 6, 1909, 413 miles." Below these arms, in a frame covered with gla.s.s to protect it from the weather, is a record containing the following:

PEARY ARCTIC CLUB NORTH POLE EXPEDITION, 1908

_S. S. Roosevelt_, June 12th, 1909.

This monument marks the point of departure and return of the sledge expedition of the Peary Arctic Club, which in the spring of 1909 attained the North Pole.

The members of the expedition taking part in the sledge work were Peary, Bartlett, Goodsell, Marvin,[3] MacMillan, Borup, Henson.

The various sledge divisions left here February 28th and March 1st, and returned from March 18th to April 23rd.

The Club's Steamer _Roosevelt_ wintered at C.

Sheridan, 73 miles east of here.

R. E. PEARY, U. S. N.

Commander, R. E. Peary, U. S. N., Comdg. Expedition.

Captain R. A. Bartlett, Master of _Roosevelt_.

Chief Engr. George A. Wardwell.

Surgeon J. W. Goodsell.

Prof. Ross G. Marvin, a.s.sistant.

Prof. D. B. McMillan, "

George Borup, "

M. A. Henson, "

Charles Percy, Steward.

Mate Thomas Gushue.

Bosun John Connors.

Seaman John Coadey.

" John Barnes.

" Dennis Murphy.

" George Percy.

2nd Engr. Banks Scott.

Fireman James Bently.

Patrick Joyce.

Patrick Skeans.

John Wiseman.

On the 18th MacMillan and Borup with five Eskimos and six sledges had departed for the Greenland coast to establish depots of supplies in case my party should be obliged to make its landing there as in 1906, and also to make tidal readings at Cape Morris Jesup. I, therefore, at once started two Eskimos off for Greenland with a sounding apparatus and a letter informing MacMillan and Borup of our final success. It had been the plan to have Bartlett make a line of ten or five mile soundings from Columbia to Camp No. 8 to bring out the cross section of the continental shelf and the deep channel along it, and Bartlett had got his equipment ready for this purpose. However, I decided not to send him for the reason that he was not in the best physical condition, his feet and ankles being considerably swollen, while he was, moreover, afflicted with a number of Job's comforters. My own physical condition, however, remained perfect during the rest of our stay in the north, with the exception of a bad tooth from which I suffered more or less torture during a s.p.a.ce of three weeks.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PEARY CAIRN AT CAPE MORRIS K. JESUP, AS PHOTOGRAPHED BY MACMILLAN AND BORUP]

This was the first time in all my arctic expeditions that I had been at headquarters through May and June. Hitherto there had always seemed to be something more to be done in the field; but now the princ.i.p.al work was completed, and it remained only to arrange the results. In the meantime the energies of the Eskimos were largely employed in short journeys in the neighborhood, most of them for the purpose of visiting the various supply depots established between the s.h.i.+p and Cape Columbia and removing their unused supplies to the s.h.i.+p. Between them these various small expeditions did some interesting work. Most of this supplementary work in the field was accomplished by other members of the expedition, but I had plenty of work on board the _Roosevelt_. Along about the 10th of May we began to get genuine spring weather. On that day Bartlett and myself began spring housecleaning. We overhauled the cabins, cleared out the dark corners, and dried out everything that needed it, the quarter-deck being littered with all kinds of miscellaneous articles the whole day. On the same day spring work on the s.h.i.+p was also begun, the winter coverings being taken off the _Roosevelt's_ stack and ventilators, and preparations being made for work on the engines.

A few days later a beautiful white fox came to the s.h.i.+p and attempted to get on board. One of the Eskimos killed him. The creature behaved in an extraordinary manner, acting, in fact, just like the Eskimo dogs when those creatures run amuck. The Eskimos say that in the Whale Sound region foxes often seem to go mad in the same way and sometimes attempt to break into the igloos. This affliction from which arctic dogs and foxes suffer, while apparently a form of madness, does not seem to have any relation to rabies since it does not appear to be contagious or infectious.

The spring weather, though unmistakably the real thing, was fickle on the whole. On Sunday, May 16, for example, the sun was hot and the temperature high, and the snow all about us was disappearing almost like magic, pools of water forming about the s.h.i.+p; but the next day we had a stiff southwest gale with considerable wet snow. On the whole, it was a very disagreeable day.

On the 18th the engineer's force began work on the boilers in earnest.

Four days later two Eskimos returned from MacMillan, whom they had left at Cape Morris Jesup on the Greenland coast. They brought notes from him giving some details of his work there. On the 31st MacMillan and Borup themselves arrived from Greenland, having made the return trip from Cape Morris Jesup, a distance of 270 miles, in eight marches, an average of 34 miles per march. MacMillan reported that he got as far as 84 17'

north of Cape Jesup, had made a sounding which showed a depth of 90 fathoms, and had obtained ten days' tidal observations. They brought in as many of the skins and as much of the meat as the sledges could carry of 52 musk-oxen which they had killed.

Early in June, Borup and MacMillan continued their work; MacMillan making tidal observations at Fort Conger; and Borup erecting at Cape Columbia the monument which has been already described.

MacMillan while taking tidal observations at Fort Conger on Lady Franklin Bay, to connect our work at Capes Sheridan, Columbia, Bryant, and Jesup with the observation of the Lady Franklin Bay expedition of 1881-83, found still some remains of the supplies of the disastrous Greely expedition of 1881-84. They included canned vegetables, potatoes, hominy, rhubarb, pemmican, tea, and coffee. Strange to say, after the lapse of a quarter of a century, many of these supplies were still in good condition, and some of them were eaten with relish by various members of our party.

One of the finds was a text book which had belonged to Lieutenant Kislingbury, who lost his life with the Greely party. Upon its flyleaf it bore this inscription: "To my dear father, from his affectionate son, Harry Kislingbury. May G.o.d be with you and return you safely to us."

Greely's old coat was also found lying on the ground. This also was in good condition and I believe that MacMillan wore it for some days.

All hands were now beginning to look forward to the time when the _Roosevelt_ should again turn her nose toward the south and home.

Following our own housecleaning, the Eskimos had one on June 12. Every movable article was taken out of their quarters, and the walls, ceilings, and floors were scrubbed, disinfected, and whitewashed. Other signs of returning summer were observed on all sides. The surface of the ice-floe was going blue, the delta of the river was quite bare, and the patches of bare ground ash.o.r.e were growing larger almost hourly. Even the _Roosevelt_ seemed to feel the change and gradually began to right herself from the p.r.o.nounced list which she had taken under the press of the ice in the early winter. On June 16 we had the first of the summer rains, though the next morning all the pools of water were frozen over.

On the same day Borup captured a live musk calf near Clements Markham Inlet. He managed to get his unique captive back to the s.h.i.+p alive, but the little creature died the next evening, though the steward nursed him carefully in an effort to save his life.

On the summer solstice, June 22, midnoon of the arctic summer and the longest day of the year, it snowed all night; but a week later the weather seemed almost tropical, and we all suffered from the heat, strange though it seems to say it. The glimpses of open water off Cape Sheridan were increasing in frequency and size, and on July 2 we could see a considerable lake just off the point of this cape. The 4th of July as we observed it would have pleased the advocates of "a quiet Fourth." What with the recent death of Marvin and the fact that the day was Sunday, nothing out of the ordinary routine was done except to dress the s.h.i.+p with flags, and there was scarcely enough wind even to display our bunting. Three years ago that very day the _Roosevelt_ got away from her winter quarters at almost the same spot in a strong southerly gale; but the experience on that occasion convinced me that it would be best to hang on in our present position just as late in July as possible, and thus give the ice in Robeson and Kennedy Channels more time to break up.

It almost seemed as if the _Roosevelt_ shared with us our antic.i.p.ation of a speedy return, for she continued gradually to regain an even keel, and within four or five days she had automatically completed this operation. On the 8th we put out the eight-inch hawser and made the s.h.i.+p fast, bow and stern, in order to hold her in position in case she should be subjected to any pressure before we were ready to depart. On the same day we began in real earnest to make ready for the homeward departure.

The work began with the taking on of coal, which, it will be remembered, had been transferred to sh.o.r.e along with quant.i.ties of other supplies when we went into winter quarters, in order to make provisions against the loss of the s.h.i.+p by fire, or ice pressure, or what not, in the course of the winter. The process of getting the s.h.i.+p ready for her homeward voyage does not require detailed description. Suffice it to say that it furnished the entire party with hard work and plenty of it for fully ten days.

At the expiration of that period Bartlett reported the s.h.i.+p ready to sail. Observation of conditions off sh.o.r.e revealed the fact that Robeson Channel was practicable for navigation. Our work was done, success had crowned our efforts, the s.h.i.+p was ready, we were all fit, and on July 18, with only the tragic memory of the lost lamented Marvin to lessen our high spirits, the _Roosevelt_ pulled slowly out from the cape and turned her nose again to the south.

Off Cape Union the _Roosevelt_ was intentionally forced out into the ice to fight a way down the center of the channel in accordance with my deliberate program.