364 THE END OF THE WINTER 



could be taken without being weighed. We were all 

 weighed on August 6, and it then appeared that 

 Lindstrom was the heaviest, with 13 st. 8 Ibs. On 

 that occasion he was officially christened " Fatty." The 

 tent-pegs Johansen made were the opposite of what 

 such pegs usually are; in other words, they were flat 

 instead of being high. We saw the advantage at once. 

 Besides being so much lighter, they were many times 

 stronger. I do not know that we ever broke a peg on 

 the trip; possibly we lost one or two. Most of them 

 were brought home undamaged. 



Hassel worked at his whip-lashes down in the 

 petroleum store. It was an uncomfortable place for 

 him always cold; but he had the lashes ready by the 

 time he had promised them. 



Prestrud made charts and copied out tables. Six of 

 us were to have these copies. In each sledge there was 

 a combined provision and observation book, bearing the 

 same number as the sledge. It contained, first, an 

 exact list of the provisions contained in each case on 

 that sledge, and, in addition, the necessary tables for 

 our astronomical observations. In these books each 

 man kept a daily account of every scrap of provisions he 

 took out; in this way we could always check the 

 contents of the cases, and know what quantity of 

 provisions we had. Farther on in the book the observa- 

 tions were entered, and the distance covered for the day, 

 course, and so on. 



