My own material and forces and those of my friends had been devoted to this object.

This journey was my eighth into the arctic wilderness.

In that wilderness I had spent nearly twelve years out of the twenty-three between my thirtieth and my fifty-third year, and the intervening time spent in civilized communities during that period had been mainly occupied with preparations for returning to the wilderness.

The determination to reach the Pole had become so much a part of my being that, strange as it may seem, I long ago ceased to think of myself save as an instrument for the attainment of that end.

To the layman this may seem strange, but an inventor can understand it, or an artist, or anyone who has devoted himself for years upon years to the service of an idea.
[Illustration: EGINGWAH SEARCHING THE HORIZON FOR LAND] [Illustration: PEARY SEARCHING THE HORIZON FOR LAND] From Top of Pressure Ridge Back of Igloos at Camp Jesup But though my mind was busy at intervals during those thirty hours spent at the Pole with the exhilarating thought that my dream had come true, there was one recollection of other times that, now and then, intruded itself with startling distinctness.