nder
way at once, sending by one of them a brief note of encouragement to
Bartlett, telling him that his last camp was beyond 86 deg., that he would
probably sleep that night beyond the Norwegian record, and urging him to
speed us up for all he was worth.

In this march there was some pretty heavy going. Part of the way was
over small old floes, which had been broken up by many seasons of
unceasing conflict with the winds and tides. Enclosing these more or
less level floes were heavy pressure ridges over which we and the dogs
were obliged to climb. Often the driver of a heavily loaded sledge would
be forced to lift it by main strength over some obstruction. Those who
have pictured us sitting comfortably on our sledges, riding over
hundreds of miles of ice smooth as a skating pond, should have seen us
lifting and tugging at our five-hundred-pound sledges, adding our own
strength to that of our dogs.

The day was hazy, and the air was full of frost, which, clinging to our
eyelashes, almost cemented them together. Sometimes, in opening my mouth
to shout an order to the Eskimos, a sudden twinge would cut short my
words--my mustache having frozen to my stubble beard.

This fifteen mile march put us beyond the Norwegian record (86 deg. 13' 6'';
see Nansen's "Farthest North," Vol. 2, page 170) and fifteen days ahead
of that record. My leading sledge found both Bartlett and Henson in
camp; but they were off again, pioneering the trail, before I, bringing
up the rear as usual, came in. Egingwah's sledge had been damaged during
this march, and as our loads could now be carried on four sledges, owing
to what we had eaten along the way, we broke up Marvin's damaged sledge
and used the material in it for repairing the other four. As Marvin and
two Eskimos were to turn back from the next camp, I left here his
supplies for the return and part of his equipment, in order to save
unnecessary transportation out and back. The time employed in mending
the sledges and shifting the loads cut into our hours of sleep, and
after a short rest of three hours we were again under way, with four
sledges and teams of ten dogs each.

The next march was a good one. Bartlett had responded like a
thoroughbred to my urging. Favored by good going, he reeled off full
twenty miles, notwithstanding a snowstorm part of the time, which made
it hard to see. The temperature, which varied from 16 deg. to 30 deg. below
zero, indicated that there was more or less