66o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



advance of nine miles on the straight line, to take them there and 

 back. As an actual fact they could travel for six or seven months 

 if necessary, and the going would probably be better in winter 

 than in summer, for snow is the traveler's friend in high lati- 

 tudes. 



The main party, with an interpreter for communicating with 

 the Eskimos, would start out with sixteen dog teams carrying 

 tents, stoves, fuel, blankets, etc., and two big Peterboro canoes. 

 The fuel would have to be specially constructed. Coal is unsuit- 

 able and wood is too bulky. I know from personal experience 

 that an ordinary porous brick soaked in coal oil for twenty-four 

 hours will burn for over two hours, and makes a first-class torch 

 for spearing fish by ; and I do not see why compressed bricks 

 made of sawdust soaked in coal oil would not make a capital fuel. 

 In a properly constructed sheet-iron stove it would throw an in- 

 tense heat and could be lighted in an instant. In summer time, 

 of course, very little fire would be needed except for cooking, but 

 after the thermometer got below zero fires would be necessary 

 night and morning. The best fuel for the purpose could easily 

 be determined by experiment, but whatever its character it must 

 be compact in form and must yield the greatest possible combus- 

 tion for its bulk. All provisions should be packed in sealed tin 

 cases of a convenient size and weight for handling. They would 

 then suffer no injury from rain. The tents should be conical in 

 shape, eleven feet in diameter at the bottom, and stretched on ten 

 light cedar poles hinged to a ring at the top, and shod with iron 

 at the bottom. This is the most convenient tent made. It can be 

 set or struck in less than a minute, because it opens and shuts like 

 an umbrella. It gives the greatest floor room for the amount of 

 canvas. There is no large space overhead to absorb the heat. 

 And it offers the least resistance to the wind, and if properly 

 spiked can not blow down a valuable property when the ther- 

 mometer is away below zero. Four such tents would accommo- 

 date the exploring party. The character and quantity of food 

 would be easily determined by the surveyors, but one article 

 would have to be sternly eliminated, and that is alcohol. My 

 allowance for sixteen men for five months would be two bottles 

 of brandy, and I think they would come back unopened. The 

 traveler's standby in cold weather is tea, and men will do more 

 hard work on it than they ever could accomplish on any form of 

 spirit. Of course, there are many minor details which need not 

 be enumerated here. 



What difficulties the party would have to contend with above 

 the eighty-second parallel, of course, can not be known. Their 

 motto at starting would be, " Get there somehow," and there is no 

 doubt they would live up to it. If the theory of a Polynia or 



