nds of provisions and equipments. The distance
to the Pole from 83 deg. is 483 miles. Is it too much to calculate that
we may be able to accomplish that distance in 50 days? I do not of
course know what the staying powers of the dogs may be; but that,
with two men to help, they should be able to do 9 1/2 miles a day
with 75 pounds each for the first few days, sounds sufficiently
reasonable, even if they are not very good ones. This, then, can
scarcely be called a wild calculation, always, of course, supposing
the ice to be as it is here, and there is no reason why it should
not be. Indeed, it steadily improves the farther north we get; and
it also improves with the approach of spring. In 50 days, then, we
should reach the Pole (in 65 days we went 345 miles over the inland
ice of Greenland at an elevation of more than 8000 feet, without
dogs and with defective provisions, and could certainly have gone
considerably farther). In 50 days we shall have consumed a pound of
pemmican a day for each dog [73]--that is, 1400 pounds altogether;
and 2 pounds of provisions for each man daily is 200 pounds. As
some fuel also will have been consumed during this time, the freight
on the sledges will have diminished to less than 500 pounds; but a
burden like this is nothing for 28 dogs to draw, so that they ought
to go ahead like a gale of wind during the latter part of the time,
and thus do it in less than the 50 days. However, let us suppose
that it takes this time. If all has gone well, we shall now direct
our course for the Seven Islands, north of Spitzbergen. That is 9 deg.,
or 620 miles. But if we are not in first-rate condition it will be
safer to make for Cape Fligely or the land to the north of it. Let us
suppose we decide on this route. We set out from the Fram on March
1st (if circumstances are favorable, we should start sooner), and
therefore arrive at the Pole April 30th. We shall have 500 pounds of
our provisions left, enough for another 50 days; but we can spare none
for the dogs. We must, therefore, begin killing some of them, either
for food for the others or for ourselves, giving our provisions to
them. Even if my figures are somewhat too low, I may assume that by
the time twenty-three dogs have been killed we shall have travelled
41 days, and still have five dogs left. How far south shall we have
advanced in this time? The weight of baggage was, to begin with, less
than 500 pounds--that is to say, less than 18 pounds fo