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in the Canadian Government; a virtual deadlock was produced. Eventually the
supporters of one candidate seem to have proposed to the supporters of the other
that, since they could not agree on what to do, they had better agree to do
nothing. A telegram announcing this decision reached me in Reno, Nevada, on the
summer of 1921 and broke my heart for the time being.

We have dwelt in previous chapters upon the theoretical consider-
ations behind our belief in a coming new era and our plans for extensive and con-
tinuous northern exploration. But I had also been under constant pressure of
another sort. The tropical explorer becomes infatuated with the tropics and
either returns to them or eats out his heart deploring the circumstances that
keep him away. Is is so withThe like is true of the arctic traveler. There are few who once go north
who do not go alsowithout desiring to return therea second and a third time.or at least whine and complaineat out their heart with vain desire
because they cannot go. On my expedition of 1913-18 I had had with me a number
of men who had fallen in love with the North and who were pining to get back, there.
I had told them about the indefinite plans of the Canadian Government, promising
that if these materialized I would try to get them an opportunity to go along.
My files are filled with correspondence begging for such chances. Two of my
men, Knight and Maurer, had been specially urgent and I had promised them the
first opportunities.

E. Lorne Knight was had been a Seattle high school boy who had servered capablywhen he began in 1915
forcapable three year service on my last expedition. He was fitted for pioneer work both by
physique and temperament and washas been popular with his companions. I liked him
especially. In 1917 he accompanied me on the longest sledge trip I ever made,
and in 1918, when I was ill with fevertyphoid he accompanied my second-in-command, Storker
Storkerson, on one of the most remarkable of polar adventures. On that journey Storkersbn and
his four companions traveled in midwinter by sledge north from Alaska about two
hundred miles into the unexplored ocean, selected a substantial ice floe and
camped upon it for more than six months while it drifted four hundred and fifty