Peary took a series of photographs of seventy-five Eskimo, and Dr. Cook took the anthropometrical measurements. It may here be mentioned that Peary’s photographic work was excellently done, and added very much to the value of his explorations.
On 18th April 1892, Peary started on a trip round Inglefield Gulf. The purpose of the journey was to complete the necessary complement of dogs for the ice-cap march, to purchase furs and materials for the equipment, and as far as practicable map the shores of the gulf. Peary was accompanied by his wife. He returned on 24th April, having in the short space of one week made a sledge-journey of some 250 miles.
During the month of April most of the supplies for the great journey over the ice-cap had been carried up to the edge of the ice. On the last day of April, Dr. Cook, Gibson, Astrup, and five Eskimo left Red Cliff with two sledges and twelve dogs, dragging the last of the supplies. Peary and Henson followed on the 3rd May with the remaining eight dogs and a large dog-sledge.
The three sledges used by Peary on this journey consisted of two long, broad wooden runners curved at both ends, with standards supporting light but strong cross-bars. The largest sledge was 13 feet long and 2 feet wide, with runners 4 inches wide, and standards 6 inches high. It was composed entirely of wood, horn, and raw-hide lashings. It weighed 48 lb., and carried easily a load of 1000 lb.
The second sledge was 11 feet long and 2 feet wide, with 3½-inch runners and 6-inch standards. It weighed 35 lb., and carried a load of 500 lb.
The third sledge, made by Astrup, was 10 feet long and 16 inches wide, with 3-inch runners and 2-inch standards. It weighed 13 lb., and carried a load of 400 lb.
The clothing consisted of a hooded deer-skin coat weighing 5¼ lb., a hooded seal-skin coat weighing 2½ lb., a pair of dog-skin knee-trousers weighing 3-9/16 lb., seal-skin boots with woollen socks and fur soles weighing 2 lb., and an under-shirt; total, about 13 lb. With various combinations of this outfit, Peary could keep perfectly warm and yet not get into a perspiration, in temperatures from +40° F. to −50° F., whether at rest, or walking, or dragging a sledge.
Peary had twenty dogs for the journey, but one died from the fatal piblockto, at the edge of the ice-cap. His dog-food consisted of pemmican.
The provisions included pemmican, butter, Liebig extract, biscuit, condensed milk, compressed pea-soup, compressed tea, and extract of coffee. The daily ration was 2½ lb. per man.
From the edge of the ice-cap the sledges had to be dragged up one snow-slope and down another for a distance of 15 miles, before reaching the gradual slope of the true Inland Ice. This point was not reached until the 15th May.