Nearest the Pole: a narrative of the polar expedition of the Peary Arctic Club in the S.S. Roosevelt, 1905-1906Peary, Robert E. (Robert Edwin)
History
Nearest the Pole: a narrative of the polar expedition of the Peary Arctic Club in the S.S. Roosevelt, 1905-1906
Peary, Robert E. (Robert Edwin)
Arctic regions
Then the snow slopes of the shore, interrupted with patches of bare
rocks, past Hamilton Fish Peak, then the sea ice less broken here, then
the shore snow, and a river and strip of bare land, over which the
sledges were run on pole rollers, and finally to our camp on dry gravel
at View Point, the first time this side of Columbia. An arduous march,
long in time but short in distance. Fortunately the finest of weather.
Cape Joseph Henry is the most satisfying perhaps of any of these
northern capes, in an æsthetic sense. A striking vertical cliff dropping
into deep water, there is no buffer between it and the heaviest floes
which crash and grind against it incessantly, throwing up a stupendous
ice-foot, and making the surroundings of the cape savage in the extreme
throughout the entire year.
At the View Point camp, I told Egingwah he was to go on to the
_Roosevelt_ in the morning alone, with a letter to the Captain to send
some men and dogs out to meet me; and Ooblooyah and myself, after
caching one sledge and half our loads, would follow after him. Of the
five dogs remaining only one could really do any work, and one was
entirely useless.
Following Egingwah some two hours later, his trail was of great
assistance in negotiating the cracks and pools. For perhaps three miles
from camp there was such a labyrinth of these, that I feared it would
take four days to reach the ship. Then the going improved, and on a
direct course to Cape Richardson, we made good progress. Near the cape
the ice was rotten and we kept out into the bay. Finally after wading
several pools mid-thigh deep, we pitched our tent on an elevated floe
about a mile west of the north end of William’s Island. Still fine
weather. About eight in the evening, we heard shouts, which were
answered, and a little before eleven, Marvin came in with Ahwegingwah,
Teddylingwah and Sigloo. Marvin told me the _Roosevelt_ had broken out
from winter quarters at Sheridan on the 4th of July, and had squeezed
down along the shore past Cape Union when she was smashed against the
ice-foot just south of the cape, tearing another blade from the
propeller, and breaking off her stern-post and rudder. She was now
laying at Shelter River just south of Cape Union effecting repairs.
Marvin had been unable to get north from Hecla, owing to the breaking up
of the ice, and working westward had carried a valuable line of
soundings along the Grant Land coast as far west as Cape Fanshawe
Martin.
Captain Bartlett had made cross-sections of Robeson Channel in
accordance with my instructions. Marvin and the Eskimos had come over to
Sheridan to wait for me. On the arrival of Egingwah they started
overland to meet us.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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