Robert E. Peary

“ As to the quality of the personnel of a polar expedition, my experience has proved over and over again the accuracy of my theory that it should be made up wholly of young men, of first-class physique, perfect health, education, and attainment. Such men, interested in their work and the success of the expedition, with resources within themselves and plans for the future, are able to resist in a large measure the depressing effects of the long polar night, and in field-work their enthusiasm more than makes up for lack of experience or toughened endurance. ”

“ A trail oftentimes must be hewed out with pick-axes, and the heavily loaded sledges pushed, pulled, hoisted, and lowered over the hummocks and steep acclivities, even unloaded, and the equipment carried over on one’s back. On our return from farthest north in 1906 we encountered a seemingly endless and indescribable chaos of broken and shattered ice at the place where we had been held up by the big lead on our upward march, and it took hours of grim and exhausting work to carry us through it. ”

“ For all those who aspire to the north pole the road lies over the frozen surface of an ocean the ice on which breaks up completely every summer, drifting about under the influence of wind and tide, and may crack into numerous fissures and lanes of open water at any time, even in the depth of the severest winter, under the influence of storms. ”

“ Two or three times blocks of this kind on their way up struck the bottom of the Roosevelt a resounding thump just as she was released from the strain of ice pressure and had settled back into the water. The shock is different from the tense vibrations of ice pressure or the crash of butting ice at full speed, or the grinding crunch of running on a rock. It is an upward shock as from the blow of a great hammer, that jars every timber in the ship. ”

“ One storm will play more havoc with the dogs and their harnesses and traces than the work of two weeks’ continuous traveling. To get the sledges and the dogs and tent dug out, to say nothing of untangling and repairing the dogs’ traces, which become terribly twisted and tangled, is enough to keep two men busy for hours. After almost every snowfall we had to help the dogs drag the sledges. For this purpose a long line of walrus hide was tied to the front of the sledge, running out over the dogs, so that one of us could attach it to our shoulders and pull in advance of the team. ”

“ Tired dogs near the end of a march can be brightened up and enticed over the last mile or two if the leader of the party snow-shoeing in advance of the sledges, indulges in the Eskimo pantomime of sighting, following, and creeping up upon an imaginary seal, polar bear, or musk-oxen. ”

“ The inert collapse of half a ton or more of flesh and bone under the impact of a bullet in the brain is sufficient to tilt a small ice-pan and slide the dead walrus into the water. The slightest touch of the ship as she forges alongside the cake to hoist the animal on board will have the same result, and on two or three occasions when I have lowered a boat to put a man on the ice and make a line fast to the animal, the man’s weight has been enough to disturb the balance and throw the precious meat into the water. ”

“ Men who have passed the winter in comfort and ample warmth have more vitality and endurance and will stand the strain and exposure of the spring sledge-journey better than men who have been uncomfortable and chilly through the winter. This is just as definite a proposition as that Eskimo dogs that have been well fed during the winter will stand the sledge-journey better than dogs that have been half fed. The ideas of toughening one’s self against the cold, of training for the sledge-journey, of inuring one’s self to scant rations, are fallacies. ”

“ Low temperatures, ranging anywhere from twenty to sixty degrees below zero, keeping a party’s brandy solid; having to march all day in the face of a blinding snow-storm, with the wind piercing every opening in the clothes, and then having to build an igloo for shelter at the end of the day, are other hardships. During some sledge journeys the wind scarcely ceases to blow for an hour. ”

“ On one occasion a harpooned animal, while fast to a line and float, invariably rose to the surface facing the boat, and had the entire front of its head back to the eyes literally smashed off, tusks and all, by eight or ten shots before he was killed. It is an utter waste of powder and walrus meat to shoot these animals in the water unless they have been harpooned and are fast to a line and float. If instantly killed, they go to the bottom like rocks. If mortally wounded, they struggle to the same place. ”

“ There is probably no place where ice navigation is so hazardous as in the Smith Sound, or American, route to the pole, where the heaviest of ice, swift currents, narrow channels, and iron shores make the pressures sudden, erratic, almost continuous, and of great intensity. The negotiation of the three hundred and fifty miles of virtually solid ice of all conceivable shapes and sizes that lie between Etah and Cape Sheridan presents problems and difficulties, which will test the experience and nerve of the ablest navigator, and the powers of the strongest vessel that man can build. ”

“ Two miles of young ice, which would not for an instant have supported us without snow-shoes, had to be crossed, the party spreading out in widely extended skirmish-line, with fifty or sixty feet between each man, each one of us constantly and smoothly gliding one shoe ahead of the other with the greatest care and evenness of pressure, the undulations going out in every direction through the thin ice as we advanced. ”

“ Tobacco is equally or more objectionable in polar work. It affects the wind endurance of a man, particularly in low temperatures, adds an extra and entirely unnecessary article to the outfit, vitiates the atmosphere of tent or igloo, and, when the supply gives out, renders the user a nuisance to himself and those about him.
Of all the items which go to make up the list of supplies for a polar expedition, the one which ranks first in importance is pemmican. It is also the one which starts the most instant interrogation from the average person. ”

“ In an attack by fifty or more of these infuriated beasts a small whale-boat is no place for a nervous person, and I have known Eskimos, accustomed for years to such encounters, when surrounded by these huge, ivory-tusked creatures, with angry, bloodshot eyes, emitting vicious roars through thick, stiff-bearded lips, and making savage attempts to get at the occupants of the boat, to lose their heads so completely as to drop their harpoons, begin to yell, and even to spit at their formidable foes. ”

“ In powers of endurance, in ingenuity and intelligence in adapting themselves to their surroundings and in using to advantage every one of the all too few possibilities of their land, they are, in my opinion, unequaled by any other known aboriginal race. With their wonderful knowledge of ice technic and their ability to handle sledges and dogs, the Eskimos were really more necessary as members of individual parties than white men; for although they were not qualified to lead, they could follow another’s lead and drive dogs much better than any white man. ”

“ In this way, by following every step of the ship’s growth, and sitting up night after night studying every detail with a view to improving and strengthening it, when the work is done, he will know every inch of his ship inside and out. Later, in the grim, protracted fight with the ice, he will feel in regard to his ship as Sullivan and Willard each felt on the eve of a great battle regarding his powerful body, that it can be depended upon absolutely. It is a wonderfully satisfactory feeling, and it counts far toward success. ”

“ While we were enjoying our feast, it began snowing, and at its conclusion we lay down as we were, upon the snow-covered shore of the little pond, without tent or sleeping-bag or anything except the clothes we wore, and, with the snowflakes falling thickly upon us, slept.
Demoralization is also much more easily caused by a disloyal or cowardly member in a large party than in a small one. The success of any expedition depends upon the magnetism and force of its leader. ”

“ When strong northerly winds combine with spring-flood tides, it rushes through with a violence that is startling.
Entering the widely flaring funnel between Cape Joseph Henry and Cape Stanton, then the narrower one between Cape Sheridan and Repulse Harbor, the ice is compressed between the iron cliffs of Cape Beechey and Polaris Promontory (less than eleven miles) , while the swift current of this deep gorge does not permit it to stop, and despite a slight overflow into Newman Bay, is forced sometimes a hundred feet up the cliffs by the resistless momentum and pressure from behind. ”

“ Large men take up more space than small ones, necessitating the building of larger snow igloos when on the march, or the carrying of larger tents than would be needed for a party made up of small men. Every pound in weight beyond the maximum requirement tends to lessen a man’s agility; in fact, renders him clumsy and more apt to break his equipment. For instance, if a large man on snow-shoes stumbles, a sudden lunge to save himself more often than not results in a broken snow-shoe. The decided disadvantage which a large man is under in crossing a lead or new ice is apparent. ”

“ Movements of ship and ice are sometimes too rapid to risk a man.
To a ship built as sturdily as the Roosevelt, with no greater speed and with a lively helm, icebergs are no bugbear. During the upward voyage it is continuous daylight, so that even in thick weather there should be no difficulty, with ordinary care, in detecting the proximity of bergs along the Labrador coast and in Greenland, waters in time to avoid them. North of Kane Basin real icebergs are rarely seen, and these only small ones. In the polar ocean there is nothing that can be dignified by the name. ”

“ UTILIZATION OF ESKIMOS AND DOGS Next after the special ship, the most important tool in my campaign of polar work has been the Eskimo, as dog drivers. A fundamental principle of all my work has been the utilization of the Eskimos and dogs. I have used the Eskimos to a greater extent than any other explorer. They have formed the rank and file of my sledging- and hunting-parties, and have built my sledges, dog harnesses, and other equipment; the women have skilfully fashioned the fur clothing, essential for comfort in these regions. ”

“ In loose ice or in one season’s ice or in any kind of ice in the open sea a ship like the Roosevelt may be regarded as immune.
Really serious conditions are those met in threading a way through a succession of big floes of heavy ice in contracted channels where the tides run rapidly, and where the impingement of one floe against an unyielding headland may cause a jam extending for miles, the floes coming together like the cars of a long freight train in a head-on collision. ”

“ The larger the party, the more difficult it becomes to fill it with courage and hopefulness when confronted by serious disappointment or disaster, or to put down insubordination. The impetus of a sledge party in particular centers in the physical condition of its leader, and my various sledge-journeys have shown me how vital it is that things that drain his energies should be reduced to a minimum. ”

“ In blizzards on this desert of snow this drift surpasses in fury the sand-storms of the African Sahara, the snow rising in the air hundreds of feet in hissing, roaring, blinding torrents, which make it almost impossible for one to breathe, and which bury anything stationary in a short time. ”

“ The ice of the polar sea during the summer is constantly moving, large fields of ice ranging from ten or fifteen to over one hundred feet in thickness, break away from glaciers, crushing the thin ice and smashing against other fields, splitting them and forming new ridges until the surface, when it again hardens in the winter, is simply a chaos of broken ice. Nine-tenths or more of the distance between northern Grant Land and the pole is composed of these floes, the rest being ice, formed by the sea-water freezing during the autumn and winter months. ”

“ Then it needs skill as well as power, and progress is a matter of dodging, turning, squeezing, twisting, rushing along a narrow lane of water and striking sledge-hammer blows at points or masses of blue granite; then, when further progress is absolutely impossible, banking fires to save coal and waiting for the next round. ”

“ When I stretch myself or drop my hand on the thick, black felt of the musk-ox robes in my study, the touch of them conjures up many a vivid picture, and I have a more than friendly feeling for those strange, black denizens of the highest North. ”

“ Starvation is inevitable when, as a result of the loss of ship or supplies, a large number of men find themselves dependent upon the resources of the country even for a short time, whereas a small company would have an abundant food-supply. On more than one occasion, on long sledge journeys with one or two companions, a single hare has made a hearty meal for us, which, followed by a good sleep, made it possible for us to travel some days more without meat. ”

“ In such a suit a man, seated or curled up in the lee of an ice hummock, with arms drawn in and face bent on his chest, can weather in comfort a blizzard at -50 F. In a snow house, on scant rations, such a suit will conserve a man’s heat and strength equivalent to several days’ rations. Such a suit renders a sleeping-bag superfluous, thus allowing its equivalent weight of more pemmican to be carried. On sea ice it is imperative as a matter of safety. In it a man is always ready for instant action, and if the ice-floe splits beneath him while asleep, he can escape. ”

“ Another absolute essential in every sledge is that there shall be no rigid joints. Such joints go to everlasting smash very quickly under the continuous succession of blows, with the entire weight of the load acting as a hammer at every impact with the flinty ice. Every joint must be lashed,—preferably with rawhide,—thus giving a certain elasticity, which eases the blow. Some expeditions have never learned this, but the Eskimos have worked it out very thoroughly, and I availed myself fully of their wonderful ingenuity and adaptation of lashings and knots for the different parts of a sledge. ”