crystals that form on the top of the ice make the surface like a
gravelled path, and there is consequently no danger that the wheel would
slip.

He says that where the snow covers the ice it is pounded so hard by the
winds that the crust is quite solid enough to bear the weight of a man.

In his opinion a wheelman would find no difficulty in travelling over
it.

He thinks wheeling to the Pole is the simplest and most practical plan
that has yet been proposed.

If he goes with Lieutenant Peary, Mr. Lee declares that he will take his
wheel along with him and make the experiment. He thinks that a man could
wheel to the Pole and back from the north of Greenland in one week.

The great difficulty in the way of his scheme is that it would not be
safe for one man to make the trip alone.

He thinks that at least half a dozen ought to start together. In those
far northern lands the fewer white men there are in a party the better
its chance of success, because they require so much more food than the
Eskimos, and it has to be of a more dainty character. Where provisions
are so scarce, this is a serious consideration.

Mr. Lee says that the present pneumatic tires would not be of the
slightest use, as rubber cracks and splits with the extreme cold. He has
a plan for a new kind of tire that could withstand the climate.