The object of the work is the clearing up, or at least the fixing in their general proportions, of the remaining large problems in the American segment of the polar regions and the securing for the United States of that great world trophy which has been the object of effort and emulation among practically all the civilized nations of the world for the last three centuries." The details of this plan have been here set forth so explicitly because the faithfulness with which they were carried out constitutes a record which is perhaps unique in the annals of Arctic exploration.

Compare this scheme, if you please, with the manner of its execution.

As had been planned, the expedition sailed from New York early in July, 1908, July 6, to be exact.

It sailed from Sydney July 17, from Etah August 18, and arrived at Cape Sheridan, the winter quarters of the _Roosevelt_, on September 5, within a quarter of an hour of the same time it had arrived at the same spot three years before.

The winter was occupied in hunting, in various side journeys, in making our sledging equipment, and in moving supplies from the _Roosevelt_ along the northern shore of Grant Land to Cape Columbia, which was to be our point of departure from the land on our drive for the Pole itself.
The sledge divisions left the _Roosevelt_ from February 15 to 22, 1909, rendezvoused at Cape Columbia, and on March 1 the expedition left Cape Columbia, heading across the Polar Ocean for the Pole.