his return to the land.

I regretted that circumstances made it expedient to send Borup back from
here in command of the second supporting party. This young Yale athlete
was a valuable member of the expedition. His whole heart was in the
work, and he had hustled his heavy sledge along and driven his dogs
with almost the skill of an Eskimo, in a way that commanded the
admiration of the whole party and would have made his father's eyes
glisten could he have seen. But with all his enthusiasm for this kind of
work, he was still inexperienced in the many treacheries of the ice; and
I was not willing to subject him to any further risks. He had also, like
MacMillan, frosted one of his heels.

It was a serious disappointment to Borup that he was obliged to turn
back; but he had reason to feel proud of his work--even as I was proud
of him. He had carried the Yale colors close up to eighty-five and a
half degrees, and had borne them over as many miles of polar ice as
Nansen had covered in his entire journey from his ship to his "farthest
north."

I can still see Borup's eager and bright young face, slightly clouded
with regret, as he turned away at last and disappeared with his Eskimos
and steaming dogs among the ice hummocks of the back trail.

A few minutes after Borup went south, Henson with two Eskimos, three
sledges, and twenty-four dogs began to follow Bartlett's trail to the
north. Marvin and myself, with four Eskimos, five sledges, and forty
dogs, were to remain in camp twelve hours longer in order to give
Bartlett one march the start of us. With the departure of Borup's
supporting party, the main expedition comprised twelve men, ten sledges,
and eighty dogs.

From this camp on, each division comprised three men instead of four;
but I did not reduce the division daily allowance of tea, milk, and
alcohol. This meant a slightly greater individual consumption of these
supplies, but so long as we kept up the present rate of speed I
considered it justified. With the increasing appetite caused by the
continuous work, three men were easily able to consume four men's tea
rations. The daily allowance of pemmican and biscuit I could not
increase. Three men in an igloo were also more comfortable than four,
and the smaller igloos just about balanced in time and energy the lesser
number of men that were left to build them.

We had now resumed the program of advance party and main party, which
had been interrupted during the la