CHAPTER XSLEDGE-TRAVELING

Sledge-travelingis the other twin of ice navigation, the two together forming polar exploration. The purpose of sledge-traveling is the transformation of food into miles, and the test of its perfection is the maximum number of miles for the minimum amount of food. Sledge-traveling may be of several kinds. It may be over the frozen surface of polar seas, or along a coast line, or over the elevated snow surfaces of the great interior ice-caps of Greenland and the antarctic continent.

In the attempts to reach the north pole the first of these methods was among the first to be attempted, the effort to sledge north from a ship. Then the second came into favor. The fourth method was the last to be exploited, and in this the writer feels he has some claim to having developed a new departure in polar sledging, through his years of Greenland ice-cap journeys.

In considering the two great prizes of polar exploration, the north pole and the south pole, the attainment of the former was dependent upon proficiencyin sledging over the surface of a polar ocean; while the latter—in fact all antarctic sledge work—is of the fourth kind, the traverse of the continuous permanent interior ice-cap of the antarctic continent.

Still considering these prizes, the great distinction and contrast between north polar and south polar sledge-traveling must be clearly and constantly borne in mind. In the north polar game the last stage of the journey—from 500 to 600 miles, according to the route selected, whether Grant Land or Greenland or Franz-Josef Land—is over the frozen surface of the Arctic Ocean. This ocean breaks up every summer, the great fields of ice drifting under the influence of wind and tide to an eventual exit into the North Atlantic; and at any time of year, even the depth of the severest winter, a storm will rift the icy surface in many places with cracks and lanes of open water, and throw up great ridges of ice-blocks by the pressure of the ice-fields. No place on the frozen surface of the ocean can be counted upon to be in the same locality a month later.

From these facts result the following fundamental circumstances in north polar sledge-travel: first, that the sledge-journey must be undertaken in the very coldest part of the year, so that the sea ice may be most firmly cemented together, and that open water, if it does appear, may be most quickly frozen over again by the extreme cold.Second, that no caches or depots of provisions can be deposited on the outward journey, to be picked up on the return, thus lightening loads and increasing speed, because there would not be one chance in ten of ever finding them again. Everything used on the journey, therefore, must be carried the entire distance, and the objects of the journey must be accomplished within the limits of a single sledging season, from the time a little light returns in February to the breaking up of the ice in June, or the whole thing must be done over again.

The average layman will probably consider the first of these conditions, the extreme cold, as the most serious. As a matter of fact, the second is the most vital, and is the one which has caused the discovery of the north pole to drag along through hundreds of years, while the south pole was attained twice within thirteen years after the first sledge-journey in that region.

In the south polar game the last stage of the journey—from 700 to 800 miles—is over the eternal surface of the glaciers and the interior ice-cap. On this surface a depot of provisions put down to-day will be found in the same place to-morrow or next month or next year or ten years from now. From this fact result unique and ideal conditions for the establishment of caches to any extent desired, so that a returning party may come dashing back the entire distance with nearly emptysledges. A journey of any length in that region is only a matter of time.

Second, sledge-travel in the antarctic can be carried on in the summer season of greatest warmth and continuous light.

On the other hand, sledge-traveling to the south pole encounters the serious disadvantage of the pronounced altitude, 10,000 to 11,000 feet in the last stages of the journey, with its decrease in efficiency in men, dogs, or ponies.

My knowledge of conditions to be encountered in overland sledging was gained in numerous short trips in Greenland and two long journeys of 1200 miles each across northern Greenland’s ice-cap, the “inland ice.”

To the average reader the expression “inland ice” suggests a surface of ice. This idea is erroneous. Greenland is a great glacial country, with an area of 740,000 or 750,000 square miles, fully four fifths of which are covered by the inland ice, the only portion of it that could be called land being a ribbon of mountains, valleys, and deep fiords along the coast. This narrow strip of land is for the most part from five to twenty-five miles wide, but there are several places where it is sixty or eighty miles.

HUGGING THE SHORE TO GET AROUND HUGE ICE FIELDSNote the yacht-like lines

HUGGING THE SHORE TO GET AROUND HUGE ICE FIELDS

Note the yacht-like lines

PARTY LEAVING THE “ROOSEVELT” FOR CAPE COLUMBIA

The interior of Greenland, or the inland ice, is so cold that it gets virtually no rain, and the snow does not have a chance to melt in the long summer day. So the snow has accumulated century aftercentury until it has filled the valleys, and not only leveled them with the tops of the mountains, but the highest of these mountain-tops have been gradually buried hundreds and even thousands of feet deep in ice and snow. To-day the interior of Greenland, with its 1500 miles in length and some 700 miles in maximum width, rising from 4000 to 9000 feet or more above sea-level, is simply an elevated and unbroken plateau of compacted snow.2

On this great frozen Sahara of the North the wind never ceases to blow. It invariably radiates from the center of the ice-cap outward, blowing perpendicularly to the nearest portion of the coast land, except when storms of unusually large proportions sweep across the country. Such a regular thing are the winds of these regions, and so closely do they follow the rule of perpendicularity to the coast, that it is always easy to determine the direction of nearest land. A sudden change inthe wind indicates the presence of large fiords, and the crossing of a divide can be detected by the area of calm or changeable winds which prevail, and which are followed by winds blowing from the opposite direction.

Sweeping along the most direct path to the coast, and with greater or less velocity, the wind always carries with it a flying mass of snow, which, on reaching the mountains, settles in the valleys or goes swirling over the cliffs into the sea. When there is only a light breeze the snow is very fine and flies only a few feet in the air; but the stronger the wind, the coarser the whirling snow becomes, and the greater the depth of its current. In blizzards on this desert of snow this drift surpasses in fury the sand-storms of the African Sahara, the snow rising in the air hundreds of feet in hissing, roaring, blinding torrents, which make it almost impossible for one to breathe, and which bury anything stationary in a short time. It penetrates like water, and on stepping into the drift its surface is very nearly as tangible and sharply defined as that of a pool of water of like depth.

The continuous transportation of vast quantities of the snow by the wind is a most important factor in retarding the increase in the depth of the ice-cap, and in my opinion is a factor equaling possibly the effects of evaporation, melting, and glacial precipitation all combined. Only investigations carried on for a period of years can definitelydetermine whether this snow deposit is increasing or decreasing as the years pass.

Undoubtedly the coldest spot in the world is to be found in the center of the great ice during the polar night, where at an altitude of one or two miles it gets the full benefit of the frigid polar air; is several hundred miles from the polar seas, and is insulated by a mile or more of ice and snow from any radiation of heat from the earth beneath.

During the winter months the whole surface of the inland ice is covered with a layer of fine, dry snow. The noonday sun of the late spring causes the snow along the edge of the ice to become soft, and the freezing of this at night makes a thin crust. As this layer of crust creeps into the interior with the approach of summer, the snow on the edge of the ice-cap turns to slush and finally melts, forming pools and streams which eat into the ice, opening up old crevasses and new ones as well. This condition likewise extends into the interior in the wake of the crust and the summer heat, and eroding streams, working on the border of the cap, make it so rough as to be in places quite impassable.

Traveling into the interior for fifteen or twenty miles, one finds that the mountains along the coast have quite disappeared under the landward convexity of the ice-cap, and the surface, which near the coast is composed of many hummocks, graduallymerges into long, flat swells, which in turn merge into a gently rising plain and finally into a level surface.

In my journey across the ice-cap of northern Greenland in 1891 I was continually turned from my course on the upward march by numerous crevasses and steep slopes which occur along the edge of the inland ice. These crevasses sometimes cover a tract several miles wide, and are usually marked by peculiar ice-mounds two or three feet in height. Covered with a light crust, the crevasses are difficult to detect, and one must be constantly on the alert to avoid getting into them. At times it is necessary to reconnoiter for hours before safe snow-bridges across these treacherous places can be found, and on several occasions I nearly lost all our provisions and dogs when the sledges broke through.

Determined to avoid such conditions on the return trip, I traveled well inland. Here, however, deep, soft snow makes sledge-traveling difficult; so on my second journey across Greenland, in 1895, I chose an intermediate route, hoping to avoid crevasses and slopes and slippery ice as well as soft going. This route proved to be by far the best one, the surface being much better, and the distance a few miles less than by either of the other two routes.

In addition to the wind there is another peculiarity of the inland ice which adds to the difficultiesto be encountered in this work. That is the extreme intensity of the sunlight, which can be realized only by those who have experienced it. During the summer months the sun shines continuously, and this continuous brilliancy is intensified a hundredfold by the reflection from endless fields of glistening, sparkling snow, unrelieved by a single object. The strongest eyes can stand such a blinding glare only a few hours without protection. We always wore heavy-smoked glasses, and when in camp found it impossible to sleep without still further protecting our eyes by tying a narrow band of fur about them to exclude the light. Only when a storm is brewing does this intense light become subdued. At such times, however, the sky and snow take on a peculiar gray, opaque light which is even more trying than the sunlight.

To direct a course across unbroken fields of snow, with absolutely nothing to guide or fix the eye, is a task which requires a good deal of experience. And to force a team of dogs dragging a heavy sledge-load into blank nothingness is still more difficult. During dull or foggy weather the work of keeping a direct course becomes particularly arduous. For days I have traveled into gray nothingness, feeling, but unable to see, the snow beneath my snow-shoes, and the long days and nights of marching when it was almost impossible to see the length of the sledge were amongthe most trying experiences I had on the inland ice.

On both my journeys across the ice-cap I was accompanied by only one man, and with compass in hand one of us would take the lead, go ahead as far as it was possible without losing sight of the party, (and at times this would be only a matter of a few yards), put himself on the course, and then wait for the other to come up with the dogs and sledges. At other times we devised a wind-vane and used the wind as a guide, taking a compass direction of it every quarter- or half-hour, keeping the wind-vane at the proper angle, and in this way making a fair course. The endeavor to keep a direct course for any length of time under such conditions imposes such a strain on mind and body that travel sometimes becomes impossible. In addition to this, the feeling of fatigue and heaviness which are the result of the fog and altitude make traveling still more difficult.

A severe and protracted storm is one of the most disagreeable features of sledge-traveling whether over land or sea ice, and preparations should be immediately made to camp as soon as one is seen to be approaching. If the equipment does not include a tent, a snow igloo should be built as quickly as possible. If there is not time for this, then a dugout can be made in a snow-bank or a snow-wall erected as a shelter from the wind and driving snow. Everything possible should becarried inside the tent or igloo, and the dogs securely fastened outside. Storms on the ice-cap are so severe that, when possible, the dogs should be protected from them by a snow-wall. I have been confined to tent or igloo for days at a time by these storms, but the most accursed hours I ever spent on the ice-cap were those spent in a small tent six long days and nights, five thousand feet above sea-level, during a furious storm which I knew was destroying my last chances for finding a ton and a half of supplies, including all my pemmican and alcohol, which I had cached the year before for my spring work in 1895.

Any one seeing our camp at the end of one of these storms would believe us buried alive, the only signs of our presence being the snow-mounds covering us and the dogs.

OVER A PRESSURE RIDGE

A HALT ON THE MARCH

One storm will play more havoc with the dogs and their harnesses and traces than the work of two weeks’ continuous traveling. To get the sledges and the dogs and tent dug out, to say nothing of untangling and repairing the dogs’ traces, which become terribly twisted and tangled, is enough to keep two men busy for hours. After almost every snowfall we had to help the dogs drag the sledges. For this purpose a long line of walrus hide was tied to the front of the sledge, running out over the dogs, so that one of us could attach it to our shoulders and pull in advance of the team. To the side of the sledge ashort line was fastened enabling the other man to pull and drive the dogs at the same time. Dragging the sledges through soft snow is very disheartening work for the dogs, and every expedient that ingenuity can devise or that is known to the Eskimos must be used to urge them forward. Only one thing can make traveling harder on the inland ice, and that is a precipitation of frost, which, covering the surface like sand, makes the sledges drag like so many loads of lead. Dogs that in ordinary going can haul two sledges at a fair rate of speed require the combined assistance of two men to move one. For this condition of snow even icing the runners seems to do but little, if any, good.

This process of covering sledge-runners with a coating of ice, taught me by the Eskimos, is most interesting, and wonderfully increases the tractive power of a sledge in low temperatures.

A long strip of thick walrus skin, which, when frozen, is the toughest and most unbreakable of all substances, the same width as the runner and from which the hair has not been removed, is first applied to the bottom of each runner, being fastened by lashings of rawhide run through slits in the edges of the walrus hide. After this has been allowed to freeze solid the entire length of each runner is covered with soft snow which has been dipped in warm urine. This is pressed and shaped with the hand until it is three-quarters ofan inch, perhaps an inch, thick. When this has been given time to freeze solid it is chipped and made smooth with the aid of a knife, and rubbed over by hand with water. As the dogs get tired and the going becomes harder, the ice coating on these shoes should be renewed nearly every day on inland ice cap-work. The effect of high elevation is very perceptible upon men and dogs, and it is difficult to force dogs to go faster than at the rate of two miles an hour. At such times we iced the sledge-runners twice a day.

The routine on our long marches was for the most of the time about as follows: The work of caring for the dogs, harnessing them in the morning and unharnessing and tying them to stakes at night and feeding them at the end of the day’s march, was my special work. During the march my companion took charge of them while I kept the course, except when to vary the monotony we exchanged duties. My companion always built the snow shelter at night which served as a kitchen, and we took turns acting as cook. The man on duty in the kitchen slept there all night, and stood ready to re-secure any dogs which might break away during the night.

In my first trip across the ice cap of Greenland I used a considerable number of Eskimo dogs which had just been purchased from the natives and were entirely unacquainted with us and we with them.

Naturally our unusual size, strange complexion and stranger language were at first a source of terror to them and in the earlier stages of the journey when a dog got loose at night it was sometimes quite an effort to secure him again. Before the journey was over we had no trouble with any of our dogs.

Other parties using Siberian dogs for the first time may have the same experience.

To catch a loose dog sometimes requires more or less time and ingenuity and may result in a few bites. Our usual method of capturing one of these polar wolves was to coax him within reach by throwing out morsels of meat to him, then throw ourselves upon him and quickly bury his head in the snow. We soon became expert enough in this to avoid more than a few bites. Sometimes a dog is too wily to be caught in any such way and has to be lassooed and choked almost senseless before he can be put back in harness.

Up to 1895 the basic principle of polar sledging was that overland traveling was not practicable, that the only highway lay along the sea-ice off the coast. Therefore the journey I mapped out—the crossing of the inland ice-cap of northern Greenland—was an unprecedented one in point of distance to be covered without caches or supply depots. The successful carrying out of this plan has shown the practicability of the inland ice for a road, and since that timeGreenland has been crossed by Nansen and Spitzbergen by Conway. The capabilities of overland traveling having been about exhausted in 1895, the invaluable experience gained in my Greenland work was concentrated upon a persistent effort to solve the polar question.

In this connection the following grouping of material may be of interest:

“My comprehensive scheme for work in Greenland, based upon the utilization of the Inland Ice for overland sledge journeys, and my subsequent development and execution, in actual practice, of methods, means, and details, justify me, I think, in claiming to have originated a new departure in Arctic work. Since my origination of that departure, Nansen has crossed Greenland; Conway has crossed Spitzbergen; and if our present idea of conditions in the Antarctic be correct,it is entirely within the possibilities, that the conqueror of the South Pole will achieve success by adopting my methods and equipment.”—Peary in “Northward Over the Great Ice,” 1898, Vol. I, page lvii.“The North Pole is reached.”In a flash the news spread over the world. The goal of which so many had dreamed, for which so many had labored and suffered and sacrificed their lives, was attained. It was in September, 1909, that the news reached us.At the same instant I saw quite clearly that the original plan of theFram’sthird voyage—the exploration of the North Polar basin—hung in the balance. If the expedition was to be saved, it was necessary to act quickly and without hesitation. Just as rapidly as the message had traveled over the cables I decided on my change of front—to turn to the right-about, and face to the south.The North Pole, the last problem but one of popular interest in polar exploration, was solved. If I was not to succeed in arousing interest in my undertaking, there was nothing leftfor me but to try to solve the last great problem—the South Pole.The British expedition was designed entirely for scientific research. The pole was only a side-issue, whereas in my extended plan it was the main object.If Peary could make a record trip on the Arctic ice with dogs, one ought, surely, with equally good tackle, to be able to beat Peary’s record.—Amundsen in “The South Pole,” 1913.

“The North Pole is reached.”

In a flash the news spread over the world. The goal of which so many had dreamed, for which so many had labored and suffered and sacrificed their lives, was attained. It was in September, 1909, that the news reached us.

At the same instant I saw quite clearly that the original plan of theFram’sthird voyage—the exploration of the North Polar basin—hung in the balance. If the expedition was to be saved, it was necessary to act quickly and without hesitation. Just as rapidly as the message had traveled over the cables I decided on my change of front—to turn to the right-about, and face to the south.

The North Pole, the last problem but one of popular interest in polar exploration, was solved. If I was not to succeed in arousing interest in my undertaking, there was nothing leftfor me but to try to solve the last great problem—the South Pole.

The British expedition was designed entirely for scientific research. The pole was only a side-issue, whereas in my extended plan it was the main object.

If Peary could make a record trip on the Arctic ice with dogs, one ought, surely, with equally good tackle, to be able to beat Peary’s record.—Amundsen in “The South Pole,” 1913.

SLEDGE PARTY ON THE MARCH WITH GOOD GOING

HARD GOING

My despatch telling of the discovery of the north pole was dated September 6, 1909. Amundsen sailed for the south pole in June, 1910. In the nine months before that time the details of my work were known everywhere. In Amundsen’s journey to the south pole he used dogs exclusively for traction; pemmican was his mainstay for food; his clothing was fur; he had one object, the south pole.

Many are under the impression that the ice of the polar sea is smooth as glass and that explorers simply ride to their destination on dog sledges. In reality the only smooth ice to be found is while still on the glacial fringe, an ice-foot which extends along the northern coast of Grant Land and Greenland, varying from one-half to five miles in width. Parts of the outer edge of this fringe rise and fall with the tide, and sometimes large areas of ice will separate from it and float off to sea, but as a body it is stationary. Outside the fringe is a shore lead, or tidal crack, which opens under the stress of offshore winds or ebb-tides in the spring, and shuts underthe effect of northerly winds and spring-flood tides. The constant battle which occurs here between this glacial fringe and the heavy, detached floes smashes the ice into all shapes and sizes, and piles it up in great pressure ridges which may be a few feet or a few rods high and several rods or a quarter of a mile wide.

Farther out huge floes are hurled against one another by the wind and tides, thus forming more pressure ridges. Between these series of ridges old floes are found which at times are comparatively smooth.

The ice of the polar sea during the summer is constantly moving, large fields of ice ranging from ten or fifteen to over one hundred feet in thickness, break away from glaciers, crushing the thin ice and smashing against other fields, splitting them and forming new ridges until the surface, when it again hardens in the winter, is simply a chaos of broken ice. Nine-tenths or more of the distance between northern Grant Land and the pole is composed of these floes, the rest being ice, formed by the sea-water freezing during the autumn and winter months.

Continued northerly winds during the autumn, when the masses of ice are gradually freezing together, will force the heavier ice toward the shore while farther out the edges of the ice-floes where they meet pile up in regular series of ridges. If, however, the winds are not strong during the autumnmany large ice-fields separate from other floes, and between these masses of ice new ice, fairly smooth, and never over eight or ten feet thick, will form. This remains until summer unless violent winds occur to crush it up.

The difficulties and hardships of travel over these ragged and mountainous pressure ridges must be experienced to be appreciated. A trail oftentimes must be hewed out with pick-axes, and the heavily loaded sledges pushed, pulled, hoisted, and lowered over the hummocks and steep acclivities, even unloaded, and the equipment carried over on one’s back. On our return from farthest north in 1906 we encountered a seemingly endless and indescribable chaos of broken and shattered ice at the place where we had been held up by the big lead on our upward march, and it took hours of grim and exhausting work to carry us through it.

Bad as the pressure ridges are for sledge-traveling, however, they are not as dangerous or trying as the lead or lanes of open water caused by the action of wind and tides on the ice. These are in some cases mere cracks running across the floes in almost straight lines. In other cases they take an irregular course across the ice, and are just wide enough to prevent crossing. Again they will be as large as rivers, a mile or two wide and many miles long. For a polar-sea explorer these leads are an omnipresent nightmare.When or where they will occur is impossible to tell. It may be with a loud report directly ahead of a party, cutting off their advance northward or cutting off their return to land on the way back. It may be directly in the midst of camp. With every northward march on my last two sledge journeys fear of impassable leads increased, and I would find myself hurrying toward every pressure ridge, fearing it concealed a lead beyond it. Arriving at the summit and finding no lead ahead, I would catch myself hurrying on in the same way at the next one.

The best way to cross wide leads is learned only by long experience. Sometimes a detour east or west will result in finding a place narrow enough to permit long sledges to be bridged across. In very cold weather it may be found practicable to wait until new ice forms thick enough to allow a sledge to be rushed across, or a lead may show signs of closing, in which case a party can wait until it is quite close together.

Occasionally large pieces of floating ice are to be found in a lead, forming a sort of pontoon-bridge across it. One member of the party goes ahead to pick the way, jumping from one cake to another, and making sure the weight of dogs and sledge will not tilt the cake, then encouraging the dogs to go forward while the driver of the sledge steers it and at the same time balances the cake of ice to keep it from overturning.

To make dogs leap across a widening crack is work which requires an expert dog-driver. Some can do it without any trouble by use of the whip and voice, others have to go ahead of the dogs and coax them to make the jump by holding their hand low and making a pretense of shaking a morsel of food. Leads which are too wide to jump the dogs and sledges across can be ferried by hacking out a cake of ice large enough to bear the weight of dogs and sledges. It sometimes happens that in crossing a narrow lead it will open before the entire party has crossed. This occurred on my last trip north, an Eskimo with his sledge and dogs being left on the other side. An impromptu ferry-boat was cut out of the ice on our side of the lead, two coils of rope were fastened to each other, and slipped around the cake. Two Eskimos boarded it; a line was thrown across the lead to the other Eskimo while one on our side held that end. Then the two men on the ice-cake took hold of the rope and pulled the raft across the lead. The dogs and sledge and other Eskimo were taken upon the ice-cake, and we hauled them across to our side.

Leads which assume the proportions of rivers, such as the one we encountered on the way north in 1906 and on our way back the same season, are a different matter, and the only thing one can do is to wait until young ice forms strong enough to afford a passage.

To know how to travel safely over young newly formed ice is one of the most important items of knowledge and training for a polar explorer. Prof. Marvin of my last expedition was drowned by breaking through young ice while returning in command of one of my supporting parties, and one of Captain Cagni’s supporting parties was totally lost in the same way.

Members of my expedition had frequent narrow escapes in spite of every precaution, and my entire party had a very close call in 1906 while crossing a two-mile wide stretch of extremely thin ice. Only the utilization of every known trick and method brought us through in safety.

That there were not more fatal accidents was due largely to my previously gained experience and the careful and repeated training and cautioning which my men received.

Snowshoes are a most necessary adjunct of such travel. The distribution of a man’s weight effected by a good pair of six-foot snowshoes will enable him to travel safely over ice which would not support him for an instant without them.

The Eskimos of Whale Sound as a result of their seal hunting on newly formed ice in the autumn, and their spring walrus hunting on young ice at Cape Chalon, have the art of traversing thin ice down fine.

They need to. It is often a matter of life or death to them.

When young ice is encountered which sinks and buckles under the feet at each step, the first precaution is to spread the feet—travel wide—and slide them along as evenly and rapidly as possible without lifting them from the ice.

The Eskimos say that the polar bear does this when stalking seals on thin ice. If this is not enough the next move is to get down on all fours with both hands and feet spread wide apart and then shuffle along without lifting hands or feet from the ice.

When an Eskimo does this in the seal hunt, he usually has his seal-spear in one hand and his lance in the other, both extended on the ice and sliding with the hands.

The distribution of weight resulting from this is very effective.

With the polar explorer two ice lances form a good substitute for the Eskimo spear and lance.

The final position is to lie flat with arms and legs extended and squirm and wiggle slowly along. If two pair of six-foot snowshoes are available to still further increase the bearing area and distribute the weight, it is possible to negotiate surprisingly thin ice.

Bartlett on his remarkable retreat from the crushed and founderedKarlukin Bering Sea, would never have made his astonishing traverse of the more than a hundred miles of thin moving ice in Long Strait between Wrangel Island andthe Siberian coast, but for his experience and training with thin ice while with me.

Nor would he have brought his crew to Wrangel Island in safety but for his extended experience with me in negotiating the apparently insuperable pressure ridges of the polar ocean.

The authority for these statements is Bartlett.

Low temperatures, ranging anywhere from twenty to sixty degrees below zero, keeping a party’s brandy solid; having to march all day in the face of a blinding snow-storm, with the wind piercing every opening in the clothes, and then having to build an igloo for shelter at the end of the day, are other hardships. During some sledge journeys the wind scarcely ceases to blow for an hour. Its infernal rush and assault cuts and blisters faces and sets eyes stinging with pain, and at the end of every day’s march in the field faces are rubbed with vaseline, and sometimes wine of opium applied to the eyes.

Another ever-present danger in sea ice-work is that of breaking through young ice and getting wet. A mishap of this kind is to be dreaded, for even if a man is able to get out of the water quickly he would soon freeze in such low temperatures with no igloo and change of clothes at hand.

For a sledge-journey of any length across the polar sea the method of advance and supporting parties has proved the most effective. A pioneer party was introduced for the first time in mywork, and while supporting parties had been used before in polar work, they had never been utilized on such a scale as on my last expedition.

CROSSING NARROW LEAD

THROUGH A CAÑON OF THE POLAR OCEAN

The pioneer party was made up of four experienced and energetic men, with lightly loaded sledges and the best dogs in the pack. This division left Cape Columbia under the leadership of Bartlett twenty-four hours ahead of the main party. In all kinds of weather and regardless of every obstacle except impassable leads, a march was to be made every twenty-four hours (later when the sunlight was continuous during the twenty-four hours the advance party kept only twelve hours ahead of the main division), breaking the way and in fact setting the pace for the main party, which, having to waste no time in choosing and breaking a trail, could cover the same distance as the reconnoitering party in less time, even with more heavily loaded sledges. Bartlett traveled ahead of his division, usually on snow-shoes, picking a trail. My main party was large enough to permit the withdrawal of the men from the advance party to the main party as they became exhausted by the hard work and lack of sleep; and the sending out of fresh men to continue the work. This enabled me to conserve the strength of those who were to make the final dash for the pole.

The advantages of supporting parties cannot be too strongly emphasized. It is impossible fora party, either large or small, to drag food and fuel enough to sustain life in themselves and their dogs for a distance of some nine hundred miles across the polar sea. Just as soon as a party consumes the provisions of one or two sledges the drivers and dogs, (being just so many superfluous mouths), should be sent back to headquarters with their empty sledges. When another sledge-load or two of provisions have been depleted, their drivers and dogs should likewise return. In all, four supporting parties were sent back one after another, the last one in command of Captain Bartlett, leaving me near the 88th parallel. Up to this point I had traveled in the rear of my party to see that everything was going smoothly. On sending back Bartlett’s division, however, I took my place at the head of the party which was to make the final dash. This was of necessity a small group and most carefully chosen, consisting of Henson and four of my best Eskimos.

The second important duty of the supporting parties is to keep the trail open so the main party can return rapidly. That this is no slight consideration is shown by the fact that in twenty-four hours or sometimes in twelve hours the fierce winds of the North will start the jamming of the ice-floes, throwing up pressure ridges and causing leads. Ordinarily, though, the ice will not change much in eight or ten days, and a partyreturning follows the outward trail, patching up any faults or breaks which have occurred in it since it was broken. The next party, returning a few days later from a point still farther north, knits together the broken places in its own trail, and, coming to that of the first returning party, smooths over any breaks which may be found. The next party does the same, and so on until the main party on its return has simply to follow the trail of the supporting parties instead of having to reconnoiter and make a new one. With no trail to make and the dogs eager to follow a beaten track leading homeward, the speed of the main party on my last expedition was greatly increased on its return march, the upward journey having been accomplished in twenty-seven marches while the return was made in sixteen. In addition to the advantage of having a well broken trail to return by, the returning division uses the snow igloos which were built on the way north, thus saving time and energy which the building of a new igloo at the end of each long march would mean.

As far as the polar dash was concerned, the work of each supporting party was finished as soon as it reached land. Each of these parties, consisting of four men, was entirely independent, having its own provisions and a complete traveling outfit. With the exception of the kitchen box containing the alcohol-stove and cooking-utensils,each sledge was complete. In the event of a mishap and the loss of the cooking-outfit, the division losing it would have to double up with another division.

The number of miles covered in each march was first determined by dead reckoning; that is, by taking the compass course for direction and the mean estimate of Marvin, Bartlett, and myself for distance traveled. At intervals of several days this was verified by observations for latitude, and proved to be satisfactorily approximate to the results obtained by our astronomical observations.

For tractive power I have always used the Eskimo dogs, and believe they are theonlymotor for polar work. Eight dogs are required to haul the standard load, but with an extra load or for fast traveling I have sometimes used ten or twelve good dogs. The dogs are attached to the sledges fanwise, the king dog of the team taking the lead, and there is no peace among the dogs of each team until it has been definitely settled among themselves which animal is the best or strongest of the lot. The Eskimos make their harnesses of sealskin, but when the dogs are living on short rations they will eat anything made of this material, and to prevent this I have used a special webbing or belting two and a half inches wide. Instead of making the traces of rawhide, as the Eskimos do, I have substituted braidedlinen sash-cord for it. My dog harnesses were made on the same pattern as the Eskimos’, two loops of belting, through which the dog’s forelegs pass, attached by a cross strip under the throat and another back of the neck. The ends of the loops are brought together over the middle of the dog’s back, and the trace fastened to them, making a flexible harness which will permit a dog to pull to the full extent of his strength without cramping or chafing him. The art of guiding a team of lively Eskimo dogs by the voice and rawhide whip twelve or eighteen feet in length is something which requires long time and great patience to master.

Other explorers, British and Norwegian, have smacked their lips in the pages of their narratives and reveled in their “hoosh” and pemmican stew, even though there were lumps of ice in it. In all my expeditions after the first one, when some members of the party made themselves sick by eating too much pemmican stew, no attempt has been made at cooking or even warming the pemmican ration. It has invariably been eaten like a piece of cake or pie, just as it came out of the tin. In this way much economy of time and fuel has resulted.

Pemmican is the most satisfying food I know of. Many times I have reached camp feeling as if I could eat my own weight, and the one half-pound ration of pemmican has seemed painfully small.But by the time I had finished I would not have gone out of the igloo for the finest spread New York could furnish.

The snow house, or igloo, of the Eskimos has a value and a meaning in the scheme of a serious polar sledge-journey far beyond its superior comfort as compared with a tent.

The igloo and suitable fur clothing permit discarding tent and accessories and sleeping-bags. These items are among the so-called “constants” of a sledge-load, that is, those items which remain the same throughout the journey as distinguished from the food, which is constantly diminishing.

As a matter of fact, tent and sleeping-bags do not remain a “constant” weight, butincreasein weight with steadily accumulating frozen moisture. On the British North Pole Expedition of 1875–76 the weight of tent outfit for a sledge-party, and its increase in weight during the journey, are given as follows. (“Voyage to the Polar Sea,” Nares, Vol. 1, page 172.):

Sleeping-bags increased in weight from 8 pounds 2 ounces to 17 pounds. That, however, is somewhat beside the main point, which is this: The elimination of tent, accessories, and sleeping-bags means the ability to carry an additional amount of pemmican equal to the weight of tent and bags, and pounds of pemmican mean miles of travel. The definite and vital application is this: Shackleton in 1909 was obliged to stop when within ninety-seven miles of the south pole and return because his food was not sufficient to take him there and back to his ship.

Shackleton’s tent and sleeping-bag outfit for his southern party of four men weighed,when dry, one hundred pounds.

Two tents, with poles and floor cloths, each weighing complete 30 lbs. Four sleeping bags, each weighing 10 lbs. when dry.—“The Heart of the Antarctic,” Shackleton, Vol. I, p. 249.

If in place of his tent and bags he had had one hundred pounds of pemmican, he could have made the distance and could have won the pole.

One hundred pounds of pemmican represents twenty-five days’ rations for four men.

During the winter of 1905–06, on board theRoosevelt, Marvin and I worked out very thoroughly, first with pencil and paper, and afterward graphically with the assistance of a long twelve-inch-wide board and a twelve-foot graduated measuring-rod, match-boxes for sledges, and percussioncaps, of which I had a large number, for rations, an arrangement for a continuous post-road transportation service, with snow igloo stations at convenient distances. This system, with my men and my equipment, could be kept in commission regardless of temperatures or the darkness of the winter night, barring only those occasional blizzards during which both man and beast must seek and remain in shelter.

By this arrangement an advance party could be pushed ahead, kept provisioned, and its communication with the rear kept intact during any season of the year and for any distance with the regularity of a Maine winter lumber-camp tote-road—granted a permanent surface.

I found that this method, attractive as it was, could not be utilized on the uncertain surface of the frozen north polar sea, and it was given up for that region.

It is entirely practicable in the antarctic region, where the surface is permanent and unchanging from year to year, and by utilizing it some future explorer of that region can travel at will as far as and in any direction he may desire.

In the active working out of a polar advance there are numbers of details of practical technic. If the line of march lies through deep, soft snow, an active man in the lead, with broad packers’ snowshoes, can tread a trail that greatly reduces the labor of the following dogs. If there are twomen to put in advance, the road is still further improved. Such a road, once made by snowshoes and sledges, can be detected even in the darkness of the winter night by its distinctly firmer consistency.

Sledges should always travel in single file so as to utilize to the utmost the trail-breaking of each sledge. Of course the brunt of the work comes on the leading sledge. The next sledge finds it somewhat easier, the next easier yet, until the last sledge has a firmly beaten trail over which to travel. To equalize work, I had the leading sledge at the end of each hour drop back to the rear. In this way each driver and team of dogs had an equal share of the work.

Contrary to popular opinion, a trail across sea ice or inland ice made by the passage of a party of several sledges and teams of dogs can be recognized and followed by those who have the training and knowledge, weeks or even months afterward. A snow-storm does not obliterate a trail for any considerable consecutive distance. In these latitudes a fall of snow is usually soon followed by wind, and while this wind may drift and pack snow over one section of the trail a few hundred yards in length, in other places it will scour the snow away and leave the straight lines of the sledge-runners, the print of a man’s moccasin, or the five-leaf clover-like impression of a dog’s foot standing up in relief from the surroundingsurface. Every effort, however, was made in my work to strengthen the marking of the trail, and thus make it easier to follow on the return march, because retaining the trail was such a vital matter in the interests of speed and conservation of energy. Tins of pemmican emptied at each camp in feeding the dogs and members of the party—these tins being painted bright red or blue—were cut in half and left on a pinnacle of ice or sticking up in the trail every half-mile or so of the next march.

Tired dogs near the end of a march can be brightened up and enticed over the last mile or two if the leader of the party snow-shoeing in advance of the sledges, indulges in the Eskimo pantomime of sighting, following, and creeping up upon an imaginary seal, polar bear, or musk-oxen. In crossing comparatively narrow lanes of very thin young ice, where a driver was obliged to cross in another place than the sledge in order not to concentrate the weight too much, and where it was vital that the dogs should go across at full speed and not stop until the load was across, for if they did, the sledge would go through, I sent one man across in advance to a place fifty or a hundred feet on the firm ice beyond the other edge of the lead, and then in plain sight of the dogs he would stoop down and chop up an imaginary piece of walrus meat, at the same time giving the food-call to the dogs. As a result of this deception,the dogs could hardly be restrained, and when at the proper moment they were allowed to start, nothing short of an earthquake could stop the team till it had reached the man on the other side. On one or two occasions the sledge partly breaking through before the other side was reached, was rushed out of the water and to safety by the dash and impetus of the dogs. This same method is also practicable in crossing the snow-bridges of the masked crevasses of the great ice of Greenland and the antarctic regions.

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