THE SLEDGES AND THEIR BURDEN 253 

 England." He gave a lecture on sledging at one of the 

 winter entertainments. It was interesting but not en- 

 couraging. He told his hearers that if they could 

 imagine the hardest work they had ever been called 

 upon to perform in their lives intensified to the utmost 

 degree, it would only be as child's play in comparison 

 with the work they would have to perform whilst 

 sledging. "These prophetic words," says Markham, 

 " were fully realised, and were often recalled and com- 

 mented on by the men." 



They had four different kinds of sledges. From the 

 illustrations it will appear how the eight-feet sledges 

 differed from those used by M'Clintock, the Nares 

 sledge being higher and more slender in the uprights. 

 The eight-men sledge, such as the Marco Polo which 

 was bound for the Pole had six uprights eighteen 

 inches apart. It was eleven feet long, thirty-eight 

 inches wide, eleven inches high, and weighed one 

 hundred and thirty pounds. The tent, made of light, 

 unbleached duck, was nine feet four inches long at the 

 bottom, eight feet at the top, seven feet wide and high, 

 and weighed forty-four pounds. The tent poles, five 

 in number, weighed five pounds apiece. The coverlet 

 weighed thirty-one pounds and a half, and the extra 

 coverlet twenty pounds. The lower robe weighed 

 twenty-three pounds, the waterproof floor-cloth fifteen. 

 The eight sleeping-bags weighed eight pounds apiece, 

 and the eight knapsacks, when packed, twelve pounds 

 apiece. The shovel and two pickaxes accounted for 

 twenty-one pounds, the store-bag for twenty-five, the 

 cooking gear for twenty-nine, the gun and ammunition 

 for twenty-five, the medical stores for twelve, the 



