One by one, the twelve others hobbled in from the tidal flats to join them. Sending up exhausted cheers, they assembled on the beach—dazed, elated, relieved to have crossed this remarkable threshold. They were now standing on the continent of Asia. From the place of the Jeannette’s sinking, they had covered nearly a thousand miles—though most of the men, having backtracked multiple times across the ice cap to haul belongings, actually had trekked a distance in excess of twenty-five hundred miles. Their odyssey had ended one phase and was now beginning an entirely new one. Whatever obstacles
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