iration. And the point which it seems fit to
make in the beginning is that success crowned the efforts of years
because strength came from repeated defeats, wisdom from earlier error,
experience from inexperience, and determination from them all.

Perhaps, in view of the striking manner in which the final event bore
out the prophecies that I had made, it may be of interest to compare in
some detail the plan of campaign that was announced, over two months
before the _Roosevelt_ sailed from New York on her final voyage to the
North, with the manner in which that campaign was actually executed.

Early in May, 1908, in a published statement I sketched the following
plan:

"I shall use the same ship, the _Roosevelt_; shall leave New York early
in July; shall follow the same route north, via Sydney, C. B., Strait of
Belle Isle, Davis Strait, Baffin Bay, and Smith Sound; shall use the
same methods, equipments, and supplies; shall have a minimum party of
white men, supplemented with Eskimos; shall take on these Eskimos and
dogs in the Whale Sound region as before, and shall endeavor to force my
ship to the same or similar winter quarters on the north shore of Grant
Land as in the winter of 1905-1906.

"The sledge march will begin as before in February, but my route will be
modified as follows: First, I shall follow the north coast of Grant Land
as far west as Cape Columbia, and possibly beyond, instead of leaving
this land at Point Moss as I did before.

"Second, leaving the land, my course will be more west of north than
before, in order to counteract or allow for the easterly set of the ice
between the north coast of Grant Land and the Pole, discovered on my
last expedition. Another essential modification will be a more rigid
massing of my sledge divisions en route, in order to prevent the
possibility of a portion of the party being separated from the rest by
the movement of the ice, with insufficient supplies for a protracted
advance, as happened on the last expedition.

"There is no doubt in my mind that this 'big lead' (a lane of open
water), encountered in both my upward and return marches in my last
expedition, is an essentially permanent feature of this part of the
Arctic Ocean. I have little doubt of my ability to make this 'lead,'
instead of the north coast of Grant Land, my point of departure with
fully loaded sledges. If this is done it will shorten the route to the
Pole by nearly one hundred miles and distinc