CHAPTER XXII.
ESSENTIALS THAT BROUGHT SUCCESS Something has already been said regarding the fact that our journey to the North Pole was no haphazard, hit or miss "dash." It was not really a "dash" at all.

Perhaps it may properly be described as a "drive"-- in the sense that when the sledge journey got under way we pressed forward with a speed at times almost breathless.

But nothing was done impulsively.
Everything was done in accordance with a scheme long contemplated and plotted out in advance with every possible care.
The source of our success was a carefully planned system, mathematically demonstrated.

Everything that could be controlled was controlled, and the indeterminate factors of storms, open leads and accidents to men, dogs and sledges, were taken into consideration in the percentage of probabilities and provided for as far as possible.

Sledges would break and dogs would fall by the way, of course; but we could generally make one sledge out of two broken ones, and the gradual depletion of the dogs was involved in my calculations.
The so-called "Peary system" is too complex to be covered in a paragraph, and involves too many technical details to be outlined fully in any popular narrative.