The rest of the spring and the early part of the summer were spent in exploring and mapping out the unknown shores of Melville Bay. During the course of one of these journeys Peary reached Cape York, where he “unsnowed” two gigantic meteorites, the reports of which had attracted many previous explorers, none of whom, however, had managed to find them. Later on he succeeded in conveying them to America, as well as a third of such vast proportions that its removal entailed several months of hard work. In August the _Falcon_ came to fetch the explorers, but Peary was by no means satisfied with his year’s work, and though prudence undoubtedly demanded that he should return at once, seeing that he was short of provisions and fuel and that he had no means of knowing whether or not a ship would be able to visit him during the following year, with characteristic determination he proclaimed his intention of staying at Bowdoin Bay for another year with two volunteers, Hugh Lee and his coloured servant Henson. So, sending the rest of his party home, he set about making preparations for the winter. The greater part of the autumn was spent in gaining Eskimo recruits, in hunting and in attempting to find the _caches_ laid down by Astrup. In the last of these enterprises Peary failed completely, but the hunting was very fairly successful, with the result that he and his two companions were able to spend the winter in comparative comfort. The spring journey was begun on April 2, 1895, the party consisting of Peary himself, his two volunteers, four Eskimos, and sixty-three dogs, drawing four sledges. The Eskimos did not prove of much assistance as one of them deserted with his outfit on the third day, while, a little later, Peary had to send back the remaining three. With Lee and Henson he now pushed on in the face of appalling difficulties. Snow-storms raged around them, obliterating their landmarks and so concealing their _cache_ of pemmican that it was nowhere to be found. Lee was frost-bitten, the dogs died one after another, and game was conspicuous by its absence, yet Peary persevered and, by dint of almost superhuman efforts, he arrived within a short distance of Independence Bay early in May. Here he was so fortunate as to kill ten musk-oxen, but no other game of any kind was to be found, and they now found themselves under the necessity of rushing back to the camp with all possible despatch. They had only nine dogs left and food for seventeen days, but by going on short rations and making forced marches they succeeded in winning their desperate race against starvation. They were only in the nick of time, however, for when they reached Bowdoin Bay, on June 25, they had eaten their last scrap of food, while only one dog remained to them out of the sixty-five with which they had started. The _Kite_ calling for them later in the summer, they reached Newfoundland in September after one of the most hazardous journeys on record. CHAPTER XXIX