class="smcap">Desperate and Dangerous Hunting, in Order to Secure Adequate Supplies for the Polar Dash—A Thrilling and Adventurous Race Is Made Over Frozen Seas and Icy Mountains to the Walrus Grounds—Terrific Explosion of the Ice on Which the Party Hunts—Success in Securing Over Seven Sled-Loads of Blubber Makes the Pole Seem Nearer—An Arctic Tragedy

IX MIDNIGHT AND MID-WINTER 130 The Equipment and Its Problems—New Art in the Making of Sledges Combining Lightness—Progress of the Preparations—Christmas With Its Glad Tidings and Auguries for Success in Quest of the Pole X EN ROUTE FOR THE POLE 149 The Campaign Opens—Last Weeks of the Polar Night—Advance Parties Sent Out—Awaiting the Dawn XI EXPLORING A NEW PASS OVER ACPOHON 162 From the Atlantic Waters at Flagler Bay to the Pacific Waters at Bay Fiord—The Mecca of the Musk Ox—Battles With the Bovine Monsters of the Arctic—Sunrise and the Glory of Sunset XII IN GAME TRAILS TO LAND'S END 176 Sverdrup's New Wonderland—Feasting on Game En Route to Svartevoeg—First Shadow Observations—Fights With Wolves and Bears—The Joys of Zero's Lowest—Threshold of the Unknown XIII THE TRANS-BOREAL DASH BEGINS 194 By Forced Efforts and the Use of Axes Speed is Made Over the Land-Adhering Pack Ice of Polar Sea—The Most Difficult Travel of the Proposed Journey Successfully Accomplished—Regretful Parting With the Eskimos XIV OVER THE POLAR SEA TO THE BIG LEAD 208 With Two Eskimo Companions, the Race Poleward Continues Over Rough and Difficult Ice—The Last Land Fades Behind—Mirages Leap Into Being and Weave a Mystic Spell—A Swirling Scene of Moving Ice and Fantastic Effects—Standing on a Hill of Ice, a Black, Writhing, Snaky Cut Appears in the Ice Beyond—The Big Lead—A Night of Anxiety—Five Hundred Miles Already Covered—Four Hundred to the Pole XV CROSSING MOVING SEAS OF ICE 221 Crossing the Lead—The Thin Ice Heaves Like a Sheet of Rubber—Creeping Forward Cautiously, the Two Dangerous Miles are Covered—Bounding Progress Made Over Improving Ice—The First Hurricane—Dogs Buried and Frozen Into Masses in Drifts of Snow—The Ice Parts Through the Igloo—Waking to Find One's Self Falling Into the Cold Sea XVI LAND DISCOVERED 232 Fighting Progress Through Cutting Cold and Terrific Storms—Life Becomes a Monotonous Routine of Hardship—The Pole Inspires With Its Resistless Lure—New Land Discovered Beyond the Eighty-Fourth Parallel—More Than Two Hundred Miles From Svartevoeg—The First Six Hundred Miles Covered XVII BEYOND THE RANGE OF LIFE 248 With a New Spring to Weary Legs Bradley Land is Left Behind—Feeling the Aching Vastness of the World Before Man Was Made—Curious Grimaces of the Midnight Sun—Sufferings Increase—By Persistent and Laborious Progress Another Hundred Miles is Covered XVIII OVER POLAR SEAS OF MYSTERY 260 The Maddening Tortures of a World Where Ice Water Seems Hot, and Cold Knives Burn One's Hands—Anguished Progress on the Last Stretch of Two Hundred Miles Over Anchored Land Ice—Days of Suffering and Gloom—The Time of Despair—"It Is Well to Die," Says Ah-We-Lah; "Beyond is Impossible" XIX TO THE POLE—LAST HUNDRED MILES 269 Over Plains of Gold and Seas of Palpitating Color the Dog Teams, With Noses Down, Tails Erect, Dash Spiritedly Like Chariot Horses—Chanting Love Songs the Eskimos Follow With Swinging Step—Tired Eyes Open to New Glory—Step by Step, With Thumping Hearts the Earth's Apex Is Neared—At Last! The Goal Is Reached! The Stars and Stripes are Flung to the Frigid Breezes of the North Pole! XX AT THE NORTH POLE 286 Observations at the Pole—Meteorological and Astronomical Phenomena—Singular Stability and Uniformity of the Thermometer and Barometer—A Spot Where One's Shadow Is the Same Length Each Hour of the Twenty-Four—Eight Polar Altitudes of the Sun XXI THE RETURN—A BATTLE FOR LIFE 314 Turned Backs to the Pole and to the Sun—The Dogs, Seemingly Glad and Seemingly Sensible That Their Noses Were Pointed Homeward, Barked Shrilly—Suffering From Intense Depression—The Dangers of Moving Ice, of Storms and Slow Starvation—The Thought of Five Hundred and Twenty Miles to Land Causes Despair XXII BACK TO LIFE AND BACK TO LAND 326