Eskimos Became Hysterical At the first camp beyond Conger, my best Eskimo was taken sick, and the following day I brought him back to Conger, leaving the While we were drinking our tea one of the rest of the party to cross the channel to the younger Eskimos fell in a fit, and the others Greenland side, where I would overtake them. became hysterical. I felt a peculiar dizzy senThis I did two or three days later, and we be- sation myself. Recognizing the effect of our gan our journey up the northwest Greenland alcohol cooker in the close atmosphere of the coast. As far as Cape Sumner we had almost igloo, with every aperture sealed by the newly continuous road-making through very rough fallen snow, I hurriedly kicked out the door ice. Before reaching Cape Sumner we could and a portion of the front wall. This relieved see a dark water sky lying beyond Cape Bre- matters, and I sent three of the Eskimo outvoort, and knew that we should find open I took the two worst ones in hand personally, side to get the benefit of the fresh air, while and finally succeeded in quieting them down. After this they were "ankooting" all day. The open water ahead of us, the groaning pack close beside us, the bad weather, and the, to them, mysterious attack of the morning, had combined to put them all in a very timid and unsteady frame of mind. water there. From Cape Sumner to the Polaris Boat Camp in Newman Bay we cut a continuous road. Here we were stalled until the 21st by continued and severe winds. Getting started again in the tail end of the storm, we advanced as far as the open water, a few miles east of Cape Brevoort, and camped. This open water, about three miles wide at our end, extended clear across the mouth of Robeson Channel to the Grinnell Land coast, where it reached from Lincoln Bay to Cape Rawson. Beyond it, to the north and northwest, as far as could be seen, were numerous lanes and pools. The next day was devoted to hewing a trail along the ice-foot to Repulse Harbor, and on the 23d, in a violent gale, accompanied by drift, I pushed on to the Drift Point of Beaumont (and later Lockwood), a short distance west of the Black Horn Cliffs. The ice-foot as far as Repulse Harbor, in spite of the road-making of the previous day, was very trying to sledges, dogs, and men. The slippery side slopes, steep ascents, and precipitous descents, wrenched and strained the men and animals, and capsized, broke, and ripped shoes from the sledges. Open Water and a Moving Pack I was not surprised to see from the Drift Point igloos that the Black Horn Cliffs were fronted by open water. The pack was in motion here, and had only recently been crushing against the ice-foot, where we built our igloo. I thought I had broken my feet in pretty thoroughly on my journey from Etah to Conger, but this day's work of handling a sledge along the ice-foot made me think they had never encountered any serious work before. A blinding snowstorm on the 24th kept us inactive in a camp which could well be called "Camp Woeful." When we awoke in the morning it was snowing heavily, and some three inches had already fallen. We could scarcely see across the ice-foot. Testing Young Ice at 25° Below Zero The next day I made a reconnaissance to the cliffs, and the day after set the entire party to work hewing a road along the ice-foot. That night the temperature fell to -25° F., forming a film of young ice upon the water. The next day I moved up close to the cliffs, and then, with three Eskimos, reconnoitered this young ice. I found that by proceeding with extreme care a man could move across it in most places. With experienced Ahsayoo ahead, constantly testing the ice with his seal spear, myself next, and two Eskimos following, all with feet wide apart, and sliding instead of walking, we crept past the cliffs. Returning, we used our feet like brooms, brushing the thin film of newly fallen snow off the ice for a width of some four feet, to give the cold free access to it. Around a Great Barrier I quote from my diary for the 27th: At last we are past the barrier which has been looming before me for the last ten days,* the open water at the Black Horn Cliffs. This morning sent two of my men, whose nerves were disturbed by the prospect ahead, back to Conger. This leaves me with Henson and three Eskimos. My supplies can now be carried on the remaining sledges. Still farther stiffened by the contin * The Black Horn Cliffs are one of the crucial points in the traverse of the Greenland northwest coast. They extend for several miles along the shore, and, rising vertically from the water, no ice-foot can form at their base. Flanking them by a detour inland is an arduous undertaking for an experienced mountaineer with a light pack, and a physical impossibility with loaded sledges. The great depth of water and the strong current in front of them keep the ice broken at all times, and for the greater portion of the year cause a large area of open water here. ard at these cliffs seventeen years before, and knowing the present season was an open one, I had, from the time we reached Cape Sumner, been certain we should find open water here, and had been praying that it might not be extensive enough to turn us back. Familiar with the trying experience of Lockwood and Brain MAP SHOWING LIEUTENANT PEARY'S DIFFERENT EXPEDITIONS TOWARD THE POLE. uous low temperature of last night, the main sheet of lane of water extended along the ice-foot. A new ice in front of the cliffs was not hazardous as long little west of Cape Bryant I killed two musk as the sledges kept a few hundred feet apart, did not oxen, which my dogs highly appreciated. stop, and their drivers walked a few yards away to one side. Beyond the limit of yesterday's reconnaissance there were areas of more recent ice, which caused me considerable apprehension, as it buckled to a very disquieting extent beneath dogs and sledges, and from the motion of the outside pack was crushing up in places, while narrow cracks opened in others. Finally, to my relief, we reached the ice-foot this side the cliffs, and camped. The Ice Opens Behind Us The next day there was a continuous lane of water, one hundred feet wide, along the icefoot by our camp, and the space in front of the cliffs was again open water. We had crossed just in time. Up to Cape Stanton we had to hew a continuous road along the ice-foot. After this the going was much better to Cape Bryant. Off this section of the coast the pack was in constant motion, and an almost continuous Finding a Predecessor's Marks A long search at Cape Bryant finally discovered the remains of Lockwood's cache and cairn, which had been scattered by bears. At 3.30 P.M. on the 1st of May I left Cape Bryant to cross the wide indentation lying between Cape Bryant and Cape Britannia. Three marches, mostly in thick weather, and over alternating hummocky blue ice and areas of deep snow, brought us at 1 A.M. of the 4th to Cape North (the northern point of Cape Britannia Island). From this camp, after a sleep, I sent back two more Eskimos and the twelve poorest dogs, leaving Henson, one Eskimo, and myself, with three sledges and sixteen dogs, for the permanent advance party. An Advance Party of Three From Cape North a ribbon of very young ice on the so-called tidal track, which extends along this coas, gave us a good lift nearly across Nordenskjold Inlet ; then it became unsafe, and we climbed a heavy rubble barrier to the old floe-ice inside, which we followed to Cape Bennett and camped. Here we were treated to another snowstorm. Another strip of young ice gave us a passage nearly across Mascart Inlet until, under Cape Payer, I found it so broken up, that two of the sleges and nearly all of the dogs got into the water before we could escape from it. Then a pocket of snow, thigh and waist deep, over rubble ice, under the lee of the cape, stalled us completely. I pitched the tent, fastened the dogs, and we devoted the rest of the day to stamping a road through the snow, with our snowshoes. Even when we started the next day, I was obliged to put two teams to one sledge, in order to move it. Cape Payer was a hard proposition. The first half of the distance round it we were obliged to cut a road, and on the last half, with twelve dogs and three men to each sledge, pushed and pulled them, snowplow fashion, through the deep snow. for sleep at this camp were taken up by observations and a round of angles. The polar pack north from Cape Washington was in a frightful condition, utterly impracticable. Leaving Cape Washington, we crossed the mouth of the fjord, packed with blue-top floebergs, to the western edge of one of the big glaciers, and then over the extremity of the glacier itself, camping near the edge of the second. The Place Where Floebergs are Born Here I found myself in the birthplace of the "floebergs," which could be seen in all the various stages of formation. They are merely degraded icebergs-that is, bergs of low altitude, detached from the extremity of a glacier, which has for some distance been forcing its way along a comparatively level and shallow sea bottom. A Polar Bear Hunt From this camp we crossed the second glacier, and a short distance beyond our eyes were gladdened by the sight of a polar bear. We were crossing the mouth of one of the fjords, and I was behind with my sledge, making a sketch of the fjord, when I heard the cry of Nannooksoah ("bear") from Henson, Distant Cape was almost equally inhospita- and looking up, I saw the animal coming toble, and it was only after long and careful ward us from seaward. For a moment all was reconnaissance that we were able to get our excitement. I had scarcely time to seize the sledges round it, along a narrow crest of the upstanders when my dogs were off. As we huge ridge of ice, forced up against the rocks. neared the bear, all the dogs were loosened, After this we had comparatively fair going, and were at him like a cloud. He continued on past Cape Ramsay, Dome Cape, across to approach until they were close to him, Meigs Fjord, as far as Mary Murray Island. when he turned and ran for the ice-foot, Then came some heavy going, and at 11.40 where he was brought to bay, followed up, and P.M. of May 8th we reached Lockwood's a couple of bullets from my carbine quickly cairn, on the north end of the island. From transformed him into dog meat for my faiththis cairn I took the record and thermometer ful teams. deposited there by Lockwood eighteen years before. The record was in a perfect state of preservation. Undiscovered Land Sighted Ahead One march from here carried us to Cape Washington. Reaching the low point, which is visible from Lockwood Island, just at midnight, great was my relief to see, on rounding it, another splendid headland, with two magnificent glaciers debouching near it, rising across an intervening inlet. I knew now that Cape Washington was not the northern point of Greenland, as I had feared. It would have been a great disappointment to me, after coming so far, to find that another's eyes had forestalled mine in looking first upon the coveted northern point. Nearly all of my hours Northern Cape of the World Discovered evidently water clouds showed very distinctly on the horizon. This water sky had been apparent ever since we left Cape Washington, and at one time assumed such a shape that I was almost deceived into taking it for land. Continued careful observation destroyed the illusion. My observations completed, we started northward over the pack, and camped a few miles from land. The two following marches were made in a thick fog, through which we groped our way northward over broken ice and across gigantic, wavelike drifts of hard snow. One more march in clear weather, over frightful going, consisting of fragments of old floes, ridges of heavy ice thrown up to heights of twentyfive to fifty feet, crevasses and holes masked by snow, the whole intersected by narrow leads of open water, brought us at 5 A.M. on the 16th to the northern edge of a fragment of an old floe, bounded by water. A reconnaissance from the summit of a pinnacle of the floe, some fifty feet high, showed that we were on the edge of the disintegrated pack, with a dense water sky not far distant. Mapping the Arctic Ultima Thule My hours for sleep at this camp were occupied in observations, and making a transit profile of the northern coast from Cape Washington eastward. The next day I started back for the land, and, having a trail to follow, wasted no time in reconnaissance, and reached it in one march, and camped. Leaving this camp on the 18th, as we were traveling eastward on the ice-foot an hour later, I saw a herd of six musk oxen in one of the coast valleys, and in a short time had secured them. Skinning and cutting up these animals, and feeding the dogs to repletion, consumed some hours; we then resumed our march, getting an unsuccessful shot at a passing wolf as we went. Within a mile of our next camp a herd of fifteen musk-oxen lay fast asleep. I left them undisturbed. From here on, for three marches, we reeled off splendid distances, over good going, in blinding sunshine, and in the face of a wind from the east, which burned our faces like a sirocco. On Around North Greenland The first march took us to a magnificent cape, at which the northern face of the land trends away to the southeast. This cape is in the same latitude as Cape Washington. The next two carried us down the east coast to the eighty-third parallel. In the first of these we crossed the mouth of a large fjord penetrating for a long distance in a southwesterly (true) direction. On the next, in a fleeting glimpse through the fog, I saw a magnificent mountain of peculiar contour, which I recognized as the peak seen by me in 1895 from the summit of the interior ice-cap south of Independence Bay, rising proudly above the land to the north. This mountain was then named by me Mt. Wistar. Finally the density of the fog compelled a halt on the extremity of a low point composed entirely of fine glacial drift, which I judged to be a small island in the mouth of a large fjord. The Last Look Northward From my camp of the previous night I had observed this island (?), and beyond and over it a massive block of a mountain, forming the opposite cape of a large intervening fjord, and beyond that again another distant cape. Open water was clearly visible a few miles off the coast, while not far out, dark water clouds reached away to the southeast. Out of Provisions; Turning Back At this camp I remained two nights and a day, waiting for the fog to lift. Then, as there seemed to be no indications of its doing so, and my provisions were exhausted, I started on my return journey at 3.30 A.M. on the 23d of May, after erecting a cairn in which I deposited the following record: Copy of Record in Cairn at Clarence Wyckoff Island. Arrived here at 10.30 P.M. May 20th, from Etah, via Fort Conger, and north end of Greenland. Left Etah March 4th. Left Conger April 15th. Arrived north end Greenland May 13th. Reached point on sea-ice, Lat. 83° 50' N., May 16th. ward. Two days' dense fog have held me here. Am now starting back. On arrival here had rations for one more march south With me are my man, Mathew Henson; Ahngmalokto, an Eskimo; sixteen dogs, and three sledges. with funds furnished by, the Peary Arctic Club of New This journey has been made under the auspices of, and York City. At Cape Jesup, the northern extremity, I erected a prominent cairn, in which I deposited the following record: Copy of Record in Cairn on Cape Jesup. R. E. PEARY, where along this coast I was impressed by the startling evidences of the violence of the blizzard of a few days before. The polar pack had been driven resistlessly in against the iron May 13, 1900, 5 A.M. coast, and at every projecting point had risen Have just reached here from Etah via Ft. Conger. to the crest of the ridge of old ice along the Left Etah March 4th. Left Conger April 15th. Have with outer edge of the ice-foot, and pouring over me my man, Henson; an Eskimo, Ahngmalok to; sixteen dogs, and three sledges; all in fair condition. Proceed this, had descended upon the ice-foot in a to-day due north (true) over sea-ice. Fine weather. I terrific cataract of huge blocks. In places am doing this work under the auspices of, and with funds these mountains of shattered ice were one furnished by, the Peary Arctic Club of New York City. hundred feet or more in height. The old ice (Signed) in the bays and fjords had had its outer edge loaded with a great ridge of ice fragments, and was itself cracked and crumpled into huge swells by the resistless pressure. All the young ice which had helped us on our outward passage had been crushed into countless fragments, and swallowed up in the general chaos. Though hampered by fog, the passage from Cape North to Cape Bryant was made in twenty-five and one-half marching hours. At 7 A.M. on the 6th of June we camped on the end of the ice-foot, at the eastern end of the Black Horn Cliffs. A point a few hundred feet up the bluffs, commanding the region in front of the cliffs, showed it to be filled by small pieces of old ice, held in place against the shore by the pressure of the outside pack. It promised, at best, the heaviest kind of work, with a certainty that it would run abroad at the first release of pressure. Civil Engineer, U.S.N. May 17. Have returned to this point. Reached 83° 50′ N. Lat. due north of here. Stopped by extremely rough ice intersected by water cracks. Water sky to north. Am now going east along the coast. Fine weather. May 26. Have again returned to this place. Reached point on east coast about N. Lat. 83°. Open water all along the coast a few miles off. No land seen to north or east. Last seven days continuous fogs, wind, and snow. Is now snowing, with strong westerly wind. Temperature 20° F. Ten musk-oxen killed east of here. Expect to start for Conger to-morrow. Lockwood's Record Carried North At Cape Washington, also, I placed in a cairn a copy of Lockwood's record, from the cairn at Lockwood Island, with the following endorsement: This copy of the record left by Lieutenant J. B. Lockwood, and Sergeant (now Colonel) D. L. Brainard, U.S.A., in the cairn on Lockwood Island, southwest of here, May 16, 1882, is to-day placed by me in this cairn, on the farthest land seen by them, as a tribute to two brave men, one of whom gave his life for his Arctic work. May 29, 1900. A Glimpse of the North Coast For a few minutes in one of the marches the fog lifted, giving me a magnificent panorama of the North Coast Mountains. Very somber and savage they looked, towering white as marble with the new fallen snow, under their low, threatening canopy of lead-colored clouds. Two herds of musk-oxen were passed, one of fifteen and one of eighteen, and two or three stragglers. Four of these were shot for dog food, and the skin of one, killed within less than a mile of the extreme northern point, has been brought back as a trophy for the club. Ice Piled Mountain High by a Storm Once free of the fog off Mary Murray Island, we made rapid progress, reaching Cape North in four marches from Cape Washington. Clear weather showed us the existence of open water a few miles off shore, extending from Dome Cape to Cape Washington. At Black Cape there was a large open water, reaching from the shore northward. Every A Dash Across Floating Broken Ice The next day, when about one-third the way across, the ice did begin to open out, and it was only after a rapid and hazardous dash from cake to cake that we reached an old floe, which, after several hours of heavy work, allowed us to climb upon the ice-foot at the western end of the cliffs. From here on rapid progress was made again, three more marches taking us to Conger, where we arrived at 1.30 A.M. June 10th, though the open water between Repulse Harbor and Cape Brevoort, which had now expanded down Robeson Channel to a point below Cape Sumner, hampered us seriously. In passing I took copies of the Beaumont English Records from the cairn at Repulse Harbor, and brought them back for the archives of the club. They form one of the finest chapters of the most splendid courage, fortitude, and endurance under dire stress of circumstances that is to be found in the history of Arctic explorations. Pain, Labor, and Joy We had been in the field from the 4th of March until the 10th of June. From Etah to |