The Siege and Conquest of the North PoleBryce, George
History
The Siege and Conquest of the North Pole
Bryce, George
Arctic regions; North Pole; Scientific expeditions
Two days later, Peary set out with the party; but at the moraine, at the
edge of the ice, it was found that three sledges which had been left
there had been blown away. They had in consequence to return to the
Lodge and make new sledges.
On 30th September, Peary, Davidson, and Lee succeeded in reaching the
camp on the ice-cap, and found the advanced sledges. Again they returned
to the Lodge for more dogs, and with these they advanced all the
supplies to a point 26½ miles from the moraine.
Peary wished to have them advanced still farther, but a gale kept the
party to their camp two days. They then descended to the Lodge, but the
storm lasted an entire week. Another attempt was made by nearly the
whole party to reach the ice-cap, but in consequence of a constant
succession of snowstorms and high winds it had to be given up.
The season was now so far advanced that Peary abandoned the idea of
taking the supplies farther until the spring.
On 31st October a large wave caused by a huge iceberg from the Bowdoin
Glacier burst up through the solid ice near the shore, rolled the
steam-launch over and over, and stove it in; dashed the whale-boat a
hundred yards up the valley, and ruined it; then, receding, carried away
all the oil-barrels. It had been Peary’s intention to put up an
electric-light plant, but the loss of the oil rendered this
impracticable.
While the ice-cap work was going on, Entrikin was busy hunting deer, in
which he was most successful. In two hunts he obtained no less than
sixty animals.
The long sunless winter had now begun, but the party were still kept at
work. Much in the way of Inland Ice equipment had to be got ready, and
various sledge-journeys were made for dog-food. About 700 miles were
travelled, and some 3000 lb. of dog-meat brought to the Lodge, and yet
no member of the party suffered any great discomfort. These journeys
were made in the moonlight.
The sun made its appearance on the 18th February 1894, and on this day
Lee, with two Eskimo and a team of dogs, set out for the cache on the
Inland Ice. Lee, unfortunately, lost his way during a storm, and after
wandering about for a night and a day, reached the Lodge in an exhausted
condition and with a frozen toe. This mishap disarranged Peary’s plans.
He had intended to start from the cache on 1st March. Lee was to free
the cache from the winter’s snows, bag the pemmican, and construct snow
igloos. The delay necessitated a further supply of dog-meat, which had
to be hauled a distance of at least 50 miles.
On the 6th March eight members of the party, with five Eskimo and some
eighty dogs, started for the ice-cap. Next day Peary left with two
Eskimo carrying several gallons of boiling hot tea in canteens, and
found the party about 2 miles from the moraine. Peary then returned to
the Lodge, which he finally left on 8th March, and reached the ice-cap
party in the evening.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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