r, while the condition of
the ice at the edge seemed to indicate that Marvin had made repeated
efforts to drag himself from the water, but that the ice was so thin
that it had crumbled and broken beneath his weight, plunging him again
into the icy water. He must have been dead some time before the Eskimos
came up. It was, of course, impossible for them to rescue the body,
since there was no way of their getting near it. Of course they knew
what had happened to Marvin; but with childish superstition peculiar to
their race they camped there for a while on the possibility that he
might come back. But after a time, when he did not come back, Kudlooktoo
and "Harrigan" became frightened. They realized that Marvin was really
drowned and they were in dread of his spirit. So they threw from the
sledge everything they could find belonging to him, that the spirit, if
it came back that way, might find these personal belongings and not
pursue the men. Then they hurried for the land as fast as they could go.

Quiet in manner, wiry in build, clear of eye, with an atmosphere of
earnestness about him, Ross G. Marvin had been an invaluable member of
the expedition. Through the long hot weeks preceding the sailing of the
_Roosevelt_, he worked indefatigably looking after the assembling and
delivery of the countless essential items of our outfit, until he,
Bartlett, and myself were nearly exhausted. On the northern voyage he
was always willing and ready, whether for taking an observation on deck
or stowing cargo in the hold. When the Eskimos came aboard, his good
humor, his quiet directness, and his physical competence gained him at
once their friendship and respect. From the very first he was able to
manage these odd people with uncommon success.

Later, when face to face with the stern problems of life and work in the
arctic regions, he met them quietly, uncomplainingly, and with a steady,
level persistence that could have but one result, and I soon came to
know Ross Marvin as a man who would accomplish the task assigned to him,
whatever it might be. The tidal and meteorological observations of the
expedition were his particular charge, while, during the long dark
winter night, his mathematical training enabled him to be of great
assistance in working out problems of march formation, transportation
and supplies, and arrangements of the supporting parties. In the spring
sledge campaign of 1906 he commanded a separate division. When the gr