up to the
curled-up dogs and started them off over rough ice covered with deep
soft snow. It was like walking in loose granulated sugar. Indeed I might
compare the snow of the Arctic to the granules of sugar, without their
saccharine sweetness, but with freezing cold instead; you can not make
snowballs of it, for it is too thoroughly congealed, and when it is
packed by the wind it is almost as solid as ice. It is from the packed
snow that the blocks used to form the igloo-walls are cut.

At the end of four hours, we came to the igloo where the Captain and his
boys were sleeping the sleep of utter exhaustion. In order not to
interrupt the Captain's rest, we built another igloo and unloaded his
sledge, and distributed the greater part of the load among the sledges
of the party. The Captain, on awakening, told us that the journey we had
completed on that day had been made by him under the most trying
conditions, and that it had taken him fourteen hours to do it. We were
able to make better time because we had his trail to follow, and,
therefore, the necessity of finding the easiest way was avoided. That
was the object of the scout or pioneer party and Captain Bartlett had
done practically all of it up to the time he turned back at 87 deg. 48'
north.

March 29: You have undoubtedly taken into consideration the pangs of
hunger and of cold that you know assailed us, going Poleward; but have
you ever considered that we were thirsty for water to drink or hungry
for fat? To eat snow to quench our thirsts would have been the height of
folly, and as well as being thirsty, we were continuously assailed by
the pangs of a hunger that called for the fat, good, rich, oily, juicy
fat that our systems craved and demanded.

Had we succumbed to the temptations of thirst and eaten the snow, we
would not be able to tell the tale of the conquest of the Pole; for the
result of eating snow is death. True, the dogs licked up enough moisture
to quench their thirsts, but we were not made of such stern stuff as
they. Snow would have reduced our temperatures and we would quickly have
fallen by the way. We had to wait until camp was made and the fire of
alcohol started before we had a chance, and it was with hot tea that we
quenched our thirsts. The hunger for fat was not appeased; a dog or two
was killed, but his carcass went to the Esquimos and the entrails were
fed to the rest of the pack. We ate no dogs on this trip, for various
reasons, main