th three more years of the inevitable wear and
tear of this inexorable game behind me, I stood again beyond the 87th
parallel still reaching forward to that goal which had beckoned to me
for so many years. Even now, on reaching my highest record with every
prospect good, I dared not build too much on the chances of the white
and treacherous ice which stretched one hundred and eighty nautical
miles northward between me and the end. I had believed for years that
this thing could be done and that it was my destiny to do it, but I
always reminded myself that many a man had felt thus about some dearly
wished achievement, only to fail in the end.

When I awoke the following day, March 28, the sky was brilliantly clear;
but ahead of us there was a thick, smoky, ominous haze drifting low over
the ice, and a bitter northeast wind, which, in the orthography of the
Arctic, plainly spelled open water. Did this mean failure again? No man
could say. Bartlett had, of course, left camp and taken to the trail
again long before I and the men of my division were awake. This was in
accordance with my general plan, previously outlined, that the pioneer
division should be traveling while the main division slept, and _vice
versa_, so that the two divisions might be in communication every day.

After traveling at a good rate for six hours along Bartlett's trail, we
came upon his camp beside a wide lead, with a dense, black, watery sky
to the northwest, north, and northeast, and beneath it the smoky fog
which we had been facing all day long. In order not to disturb Bartlett,
we camped a hundred yards distant, put up our igloos as quietly as
possible, and turned in, after our usual supper of pemmican, biscuit,
and tea. We had made some twelve miles over much better going than that
of the last few marches and on a nearly direct line over large floes and
young ice.

I was just dropping off to sleep when I heard the ice creaking and
groaning close by the igloo, but as the commotion was not excessive, nor
of long duration, I attributed it to the pressure from the closing of
the lead which was just ahead of us; and after satisfying myself that my
mittens were where I could get them instantly, in an emergency, I rolled
over on my bed of deerskins and settled myself to sleep. I was just
drowsing again when I heard some one yelling excitedly outside.

Leaping to my feet and looking through the peep-hole of our igloo, I was
startled to see a broad lea