PERSONAL EQUIPMENT 365 



That is a rough outline of what we were doing in the 

 course of the winter in " working hours." Besides this 

 there were, of course, a hundred things that every man 

 had to do for his personal equipment. During the 

 winter each man had his outfit served out to him, so 

 that he might have time to make whatever alterations 

 he found necessary. Every man received a heavy and a 

 lighter suit of reindeer-skin, as well as reindeer-skin mits 

 and stockings. He also had dogskin stockings and 

 sealskin kamiks. In addition, there was a complete 

 outfit of underclothing and wind-clothes. All were 

 served alike; there was no priority at all. The skin 

 clothing was the first to be tackled, and here there was 

 a good deal to be done, as nothing had been made to 

 measure. One man found that the hood of his anorak 

 came too far down over his eyes, another that it did not 

 come down far enough; so both had to set to work at 

 alterations, one cutting off, the other adding a piece. 

 One found his trousers too long, another too short, and 

 they had to alter those. However, they managed it; 

 the needle was always at work, either for sewing a piece 

 on, or for hemming the shortened piece. Although we 

 began this work in good time, it looked as if we should 

 never have finished. The room orderly had to sweep 

 out huge piles of strips and reindeer-hair every morning, 

 but the next morning there were just as many. If we 

 had stayed there, I am sure we should still be sitting 

 and sewing away at our outfit. 



