REDUCING THE SLEDGES 313 



and I stood in Bjaaland's and Stubberud's premises. 

 The place might be about 6 feet high, 15 feet long, and 

 7 feet wide. On the floor lay masses of shavings, which 

 made it warm and cosy. At one end stood a Primus 

 lamp with a large tin case over it, from which steam 

 was issuing. " How is it going?" " All right. We're 

 just bending the runners. I've made a rough estimate 

 of the weight, and find I can bring it down to 

 48 pounds." This seemed to me almost incredible. 

 Amundsen had told me on the way up this morning of 

 the heavy sledges they had 165 pounds each. And 

 now Bjaaland was going to bring them down to 

 48 pounds, less than a third of their original weight. 

 In the snow-walls of the room were fixed hooks and 

 shelves, where the tools were kept. Bjaaland's car- 

 penter's bench was massive enough cut out in the snow 

 and covered with boards. Along the opposite wall was 

 another planing-bench, equally massive, but somewhat 

 shorter than the first. This was evidently Stubberud's 

 place. He was not here to-day, but I could see that 

 he was engaged in planing down the sledge cases and 

 making them lighter. One of them was finished; I 

 leaned forward and looked at it. On the top, where 

 a little round aluminium lid was let in, was written: 

 ' Original weight, 9 kilos; reduced weight, 6 kilos." 

 I could understand what this saving of weight meant 

 to men who were going on such a journey as these had 

 before them. One lamp provided all the illumination, 



