beside
which the Gordian knot would be as nothing. Then, in a temperature
anywhere between zero and 60 deg. below, the driver has to remove his heavy
mittens and disentangle the traces with his bare hands, while the dogs
leap and snap and bark and seem to mock him. And this brings me to an
incident which practically always happens when a new man starts out to
drive Eskimo dogs.

[Illustration: "PEARY" TYPE OF SLEDGE

12-1/2 ft. Long, 2 ft. Wide, 7 in. High; With Steel Shoes 2 in. Wide]

[Illustration: ESKIMO TYPE OF SLEDGE USED ON JOURNEY

9 ft. 6 in. Long, 2 ft. Wide, 8 in. High; With Steel Shoes 1-1/4 in.
Wide

Each has standard load of supplies for team and driver for fifty
days--pemmican, biscuit, milk, tea, oil, alcohol]

A member of the expedition--I, who have also suffered, will not give his
name away--started out with his dog team. Some hours later shouts and
hilarious laughter were heard from the Eskimos. It was not necessary to
inquire what had happened. The dog team had returned to the
ship--without the sledge. The new dog driver, in attempting to unsnarl
the traces of his dogs, had let them get away from him. Another hour or
two went by, and the man himself returned, crestfallen and angry clear
through. He was greeted by the derisive shouts of the Eskimos, whose
respect for the white man is based primarily on the white man's skill in
the Eskimo's own field. The man gathered up his dogs again and went back
for the sledge.

The gradual breaking in of the new men is one of the purposes of the
short trips of the fall. They have to become inured to such minor
discomforts as frosted toes and ears and noses, as well as the loss of
their dogs. They have to learn to keep the heavy sledges right side up
when the going is rough and sometimes, before a man gets hardened, this
seems almost to rip the muscles from the shoulder blades. Moreover, they
have to learn how to wear their fur clothing.

On the 16th of September the first train of supplies was sent to Cape
Belknap: Marvin, Dr. Goodsell, and Borup, with thirteen Eskimos, sixteen
sledges, and about two hundred dogs. They were an imposing procession as
they started northwest along the ice-foot, the sledges going one behind
the other. It was a beautiful day--clear, calm, and sunny,--and we could
hear, when they were a long distance away, the shouts of the Eskimo
drivers, "_Huk, huk, huk_," "_Ash-oo_," "_How-eh_," the cracking of the
whips, and the crisp rust