86 PLAN AND PREPARATIONS 



main southern journey. We were so many in a tent, 

 and space was so limited, that I dared not risk using it. 

 If one has room enough, it is ideal in my opinion. 



We had with us ten pairs of snow-shoes and one 

 hundred sets of dog-harness of the Alaska Eskimo 

 pattern. The Alaska Eskimo drive their dogs in tandem ; 

 the whole pull is thus straight ahead in the direction the 

 sledge is going, and this is undoubtedly the best way of 

 utilizing the power. I had made up my mind to adopt 

 the same system in sledging on the Barrier. Another 

 great advantage it had was that the dogs would pass 

 singly across fissures, so that the danger of falling through 

 was considerably reduced. The exertion of pulling is 

 also less trying with Alaska harness than with the 

 Greenland kind, as the Alaska harness has a shallow, 

 padded collar, which is slipped over the animal's head 

 and makes the weight of the pull come on his shoulders, 

 whereas the Greenland harness presses on his chest. 

 Raw places, which occur rather frequently with the 

 Greenland harness, are almost entirely avoided with the 

 other. All the sets of harness were made in the navy 

 workshops, and after their long and hard use they are 

 as o-ood as ever. There could be no better recommenda- 



o 



tion than this. 



Of instruments and apparatus for the sledge journeys 

 we carried two sextants, three artificial horizons, of 

 which two were glass horizons with dark glasses, and 

 one a mercury horizon, and four spirit compasses, made 



