k
squares marking the spots where pieces had been cut out at each of the
"Farthests" of its brave bearer, and left with the records in the
cairns, as mute but eloquent witnesses of his achievements. At the North
Pole a diagonal strip running from the upper left to the lower right
corner was cut and this precious strip, together with a brief record,
was placed in an empty tin, sealed up and buried in the ice, as a record
for all time.

Commander Peary also had another American flag, sewn on a white ground,
and it was the emblem of the "Daughters of the Revolution Peace
Society"; he also had and flew the emblem of the Navy League, and the
emblems of a couple of college fraternities of which he was a member.

It was about ten or ten-thirty A. M., on the 7th of April, 1909, that
the Commander gave the order to build a snow-shield to protect him from
the flying drift of the surface-snow. I knew that he was about to take
an observation, and while we worked I was nervously apprehensive, for I
felt that the end of our journey had come. When we handed him the pan of
mercury the hour was within a very few minutes of noon. Laying flat on
his stomach, he took the elevation and made the notes on a piece of
tissue-paper at his head. With sun-blinded eyes, he snapped shut the
_vernier_ (a graduated scale that subdivides the smallest divisions on
the sector of the circular scale of the sextant) and with the resolute
squaring of his jaws, I was sure that he was satisfied, and I was
confident that the journey had ended. Feeling that the time had come, I
ungloved my right hand and went forward to congratulate him on the
success of our eighteen years of effort, but a gust of wind blew
something into his eye, or else the burning pain caused by his prolonged
look at the reflection of the limb of the sun forced him to turn aside;
and with both hands covering his eyes, he gave us orders to not let him
sleep for more than four hours, for six hours later he purposed to take
another sight about four miles beyond, and that he wanted at least two
hours to make the trip and get everything in readiness.

I unloaded a sledge, and reloaded it with a couple of skins, the
instruments, and a cooker with enough alcohol and food for one meal for
three, and then I turned in to the igloo where my boys were already
sound asleep. The thermometer registered 29 deg. below zero. I fell into a
dreamless sleep and slept for about a minute, so I thought, when I was