Polar Pathways: Robert E. Peary's Arctic Expeditions
The North Pole - Inaction
A campsite where the teams and dogs rested
"During those five days I paced back and forth,
deploring the luck which, when everything else was favorable—weather,
ice, dogs, men, and equipment—should thus impede our way with open
water...
"Only one who had been in a similar position could understand the gnawing
torment of those days of forced inaction, as I paced the floe in front
of the igloos most of the time, climbing every little while to the top
of the ice pinnacle back of the igloos to strain my eyes through the dim
light to the south, sleeping through a few hours out of each twenty-four,
with one ear open for the slightest noise, rising repeatedly to listen
more intently for the eagerly desired sound of incoming dogs—all
this punctuated, in spite of my utmost efforts at self-control, with memories
of the effect of the delay at the "Big Lead" on
my prospects in the previous expedition. Altogether, I think that more
of mental wear and tear was crowded into those days than into all the rest
of the fifteen months we were absent from civilization."- Robert E.
Peary in The North Pole, published in 1910
"Camp on sea ice - our tents" 1909, Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum Collections
