plit the different crews of men and dogs. He himself is
in very good shape and, due to his example, Captain Bartlett has again
taken the field. A heavy storm of wind and snow is in progress, but the
motion of the ice remains satisfactory.

This is not a regular camp. We are sheltered north of a huge
paleocrystic floeberg; and the dogs are at rest, with their noses in
their tails. Dr. Goodsell has set his boys to work building an igloo,
which will not be needed, for I see Ooqueah and Egingwah piling up the
loads on their sledges, and Professor MacMillan is very busy with his
own personal sledge. No halt, only a breathing spell and, as I have
predicted, we are on our way again. This is an extremely dangerous zone
to halt or hazard in. The ice is liable to open here at any moment and
let us either sink in the cold, black water or drift on a block of
frozen ice, much too thin to enable us to get on to the heavy ice again.
Three miles wide at least.

The foregoing was written while out on the ice of the Arctic Ocean, just
after crossing the raftered hummocks of the ice of the Big Lead. While
we were waiting for the rest of the expedition to gather in, I slumped
down behind a peak of land or paleocrystic ice, and made the entry in my
diary. We were not tired out; we had had more than six days' rest at
the lead; and when it closed we pushed on across the pressure-ridges on
to the heavy and cumbrous ice of the circumpolar sea. We were sure that
we had passed the main obstruction, and in spite of the failure of
Marvin and Borup to come in with the essentials of fuel-alcohol and
food, Commander Peary insisted on pushing forward.

Prof. Donald B. MacMillan was with the party, but Commander Peary knew,
without his telling him, that he was really no longer fit to travel, and
Dr. Goodsell was not as far north of the land as original plans
intended, so when both MacMillan and Goodsell were told that they must
start back to the ship, I was not surprised.

It was on March 14 that the first supporting-party finally turned back.
It was my impression that Professor MacMillan would command it, but
Commander Peary sent the Doctor back in charge, with the two boys Arco
and Wesharkoupsi. A few hours before the turning back of Dr. Goodsell,
an Esquimo courier from Professor Marvin's detachment had overtaken us,
with the welcome news that both Borup and Marvin, with complete loads,
were immediately in our rear, safe across the lead that had s