Preparations for the spring sledge journey were carried on continuously, more sledges were built and tents, harnesses, traces, and fur clothing made; the Eskimo women in all work demanding sewing proving themselves invaluable. Pemmican was taken from the cases, canvassed in packages convenient for handling and stowing upon the sledges, and numbered, under the supervision of Mr. Bartlett, the mate. My own time was fully occupied in planning and supervision and in devising some new methods and items of equipment.
Personally I have never spent a winter in the Arctic regions so free from petty annoyances and discomforts, both physical and mental. The members of the party were congenial, cheerful, energetic, and interested in the work. The ship’s people were interested and willing, and the atmosphere of the ship lacked entirely the element of friction which is so often an extremely disagreeable feature of Arctic winter life.
Captain Bartlett relieved me of all detailed care of the ship, receiving and carrying out my general suggestions with great energy and intelligence. I felt that the physical well-being of the party was safe in the hands of Dr. Wolf, and Marvin relieved me of the routine drudgery of observations in addition to assisting in other ways. Added to this, Percy the steward was unremitting in looking out for my physical comfort.
There are, however, so many trump cards which can be played against him who attempts to do serious work in the highest latitudes, that there is always some vital point which in spite of every care and provision and forethought threatens to go wrong.
The present occasion was no exception to the rule. Besides my anxiety in regard to the Roosevelt, which in comparison was of minor importance, I was in a constant state of apprehension in regard to the dogs. Each party coming from the interior brought reports of additional deaths among these animals, until their number was reduced to the danger limit below which it would be impossible for me to carry out essential features of the spring campaign.
In spite of these anxieties, however, my freedom from minor annoyances afforded me time and suitable frame of mind to devise new methods and items of equipment which assisted materially later on. Among the latter was a quick-acting alcohol camp stove, built upon a new principle; and among the former a plan of campaign and method of advance which possesses valuable possibilities, and which had it not been for the unusual ice conditions marking the year, and particularly the disruption of the pack by the April storm, would have enabled us to grasp the prize which was the object of the Expedition.
Mingled with this work and these plans and anxieties, were times for thoughts and impressions some of which will be given here even though they may interest no one but myself, because to every normal mind they are as much a part of the Arctic winter night as the ice, the darkness, and the cold. Moments of exultation and moments of depression. Moments of eager impatience when I wished that the day for the departure north might be to-morrow. Moments of foreboding when I dreaded its arrival. Moments of sanguine hopes, others of darkest misgivings. Thoughts and memories of the home land, dreams and plans for the future. At times the days seemed to rush by with the velocity of the flood-tide past Sheridan, at others they were as tardy as if moored to a rock. At all these times the pianola, Mr. Benedict’s splendid gift, was invaluable, soothing and lightening many an hour, and sending me back to my work refreshed and with new energy. For rest and recreation from the monotony of incessant planning about the spring campaign, I began upon plans for another ship of the same general size and model of the Roosevelt for Arctic or Antarctic work, but with improvements and details modified in the light of experience gained with the Roosevelt.
November 1st I placed a minimum self-registering thermometer on the top of a hill 410 feet high about a mile distant from the Roosevelt. On the 2d among other work some baled hay was opened for use in connection with the snow houses ashore, and the perfume of it brought back a rush of associations. What a contrast—this frozen night-canopied land- and sea-scape, and warm summer hayfields in God’s country. It does not seem as if both could be upon the same planet.
On the 8th four families of Eskimos came in from the Ruggles River. They have been in the field twenty-seven days and have secured some seventy-five musk-oxen, thirty to forty hare and twenty to twenty-five foxes. Besides musk-ox meat they brought in some hundred pounds of the peerless salmon trout from Lake Hazen.
