and down-hill with lightened sledges, so that
we practically coasted the last miles from the twin peaks of Columbia to
the low, slanting fore-shore of Sheridan and the _Roosevelt_. After the
forty hours' rest at Cape Columbia, Commander Peary had his sledges
loaded up, and with Egingwah and the best of the remaining dogs, he got
away.

I was told I could remain at the camp for another twelve hours. A large
and substantial cache of supplies had been dropped at Cape Columbia by
various members of the expedition and when the Commander was gone, I
gave the boys full permission to turn in and eat all they wanted, and I
also gave the dogs all they could stuff, and it was not until all of us
had gorged ourselves to repletion that I gave the order to _vamoose_. We
were loaded to capacity, outward and inward, and we saw a bountiful
supply still lying there, but we could not pack another ounce. It was
early in the morning of April 25 when Peary started for the ship; it was
about four or five hours later, about noon, when I gave the word, and
Ootah, Seegloo, Ooqueah, and myself left Crane City, Cape Columbia,
Grant Land, for the last time.

We overtook the Commander at Point Moss, and we traveled with him to
Cape Colan, where we camped. Peary continued on to Sail Harbor, and we
stayed in our comfortable camp and rested. We again caught up with the
Commander at Porter Bay, where we camped for a few hours. The following
morning I rearranged the sledges and left two of them at Porter Bay. It
was my intention to reach the ship on this evening. We made a short stop
at Black Cliff Bay and had lunch, and without further interruption we
traveled on and at about eight-forty-five P. M. we sighted the
_Roosevelt_.

The sighting of the ship was our first view of home, and far away as she
was, our acutely developed senses of smell were regaled with the
appetizing odor of hot coffee, and the pungent aroma of tobacco-smoke,
wafted to us through the clear, germ-free air. The Esquimo boys, usually
excited on the slightest provocation, were surprisingly stolid and
merely remarked, "_Oomiaksoah_" ("The ship") in quiet voices, until I,
unable to control myself, burst forth with a loud "hip! hip! hurrah!"
and with all that was left of my energy hurried my sledge in to the
ship. We had been sighted almost as quickly as we had sighted the ship,
and a party of the ship's crew came running out to meet us, and as we
rushed on we were told about the saf