254 SMITH SOUND 



instruments for fifteen, and the tent for nine and a 

 quarter. To this must be added a thousand and eighty 

 pounds for forty-five days' provisions for the eight men, 

 and we have the total of sixteen hundred and sixty- 

 four pounds odd, which with seven men at the ropes 

 gives each man a drag of about two hundred and 

 thirty-eight pounds. In the spring the weight de- 

 creases as the provisions are consumed, but the rate of 

 decrease is not the same in the autumn, for then the 

 steadily falling temperature increases the weight of the 

 outfit by the moisture it adds to the tent and clothing. 

 In Markham's autumn journey the tent of thirty-two 

 pounds came back as fifty-five, the coverlet as forty- 

 eight, the lower robe as forty, the floor-cloth as forty, 

 and everything else was heavier than at the start. 



The sledges mustered for their journeys on the 3rd of 

 April. Seven in number, they were drawn up in single 

 line according to the seniority of the leaders, all fully 

 equipped and provisioned, and manned by fifty-three 

 officers and men. On each was its commander's banner 

 a swallow-tailed flag charged with a St. George's 

 cross and displaying the armorial bearings. As a pre- 

 caution against snow-blindness, the men had been 

 ordered to decorate the backs of their snow-jumpers 

 with any device they thought fit, the result being a dis- 

 play of comic blazonry that often formed a topic of 

 conversation when others failed. For the same reason 

 the two boats carried on the north-going sledges were 

 gaily decorated with the royal arms, and the rose, 

 shamrock, and thistle ; the artist, as on other occasions, 

 being Doctor Moss, whose great difficulty in the matter 

 was that in spite of the quantity of turpentine used in 



