o long
delayed us. I was given instructions to govern my conduct for the
following five marches and I was told to be ready to start right after
breakfast.

Dr. Goodsell came to me, congratulated me and, with the best wishes for
success, bade me good-by. He was loath to go back, but he returned to
the ship with the hearty assurance of every one that he had done good
and effective work, equal to the best efforts of the more experienced
members of the party.

My boys, Ootah, Ahwatingwah, and Koolootingwah, under my command started
north, to pioneer the route for five full marches, and it was with a
firm resolve that I determined to cover a big mileage. We had been
having extreme cold weather, as low as 59 deg. below zero, and on the
morning my party started the thermometers in the camp showed 49 deg. below
zero.

An hour's travel brought us to a small lead, which was avoided by making
a detour, and about four miles beyond this lead we came up to heavy old
floes, on which the snow lay deep and soft. The sledges would sink to
the depth of the cross-bars. Traveling was slow, and the dogs became
demons; at one time, sullen and stubborn; then wildly excited and
savage; and in our handling of them I fear we became fiendlike
ourselves. Frequently we would have to lift them bodily from the pits of
snow, and snow-filled fissures they had fallen into, and I am now sorry
to say that we did not do it gently. The dogs, feeling the additional
strain, refused to make the slightest effort when spoken to or touched
with the whip, and to break them of this stubbornness, and to prevent
further trouble, I took the leader or king dog of one team and, in the
presence of the rest of the pack, I clubbed him severely. The dogs
realized what was required of them, and that I would exact it of them in
spite of what they would do, and they became submissive and pulled
willingly, myself and the Esquimos doing our share at the upstanders.

We got over the heavy floe-ice, to find ourselves confronted with
jagged, rough ice, where we had to pickax our way. In one place we came
to pressure-ridges separated by a deep gulch of very rough and uneven
ice, in crossing which it took two men to manage each sledge, and
another man to help pull them up on to the more even ice. We crossed
several leads, mostly frozen over, and kept on going for over twelve
hours. The mileage was small and, instead of elation, I felt
discouragement. Two of the sledges had split