36 THE START FOR THE POLE 



less, the sledges would become lighter and lighter, and 

 when the time came for reducing their number to 

 twelve, we should only have two sledges left. This 

 time again our calculations came out approximately 

 right ; it was only in reckoning the number of days that 

 we made a little mistake — we took eight days less than 

 the time allowed. The number of dogs agreed exactly; 

 we reached this point again with twelve. 



After the question had been well discussed and each 

 had given his opinion, we went out to get the repacking 

 done. It was lucky the weather was so fine, otherwise 

 tliis taking stock of pro^asions might have been a bitter 

 piece of work. All our supplies were in such a form 

 that we could count them instead of weighing them. 

 Our pemmican was in rations of 1 kilogram (1 pound 

 li ounces). The chocolate was divided into small 

 pieces, as chocolate always is, so that we knew what 

 each piece weighed. Our milk-powder was put up in 

 bags of 101 ounces — just enough for a meal. Our 

 biscuits possessed the same property — they could be 

 counted, but this was a tedious business, as they were 

 rather small. On this occasion we had to count 6,000 

 biscuits. Our provisions consisted only of these four 

 kinds, and the combination turned out right enough. 

 We did not suffer from a craving either for fat or sugar, 

 though the want of these substances is very commonly 

 felt on such journeys as ours. In our biscuits we had 

 an excellent product, consisting of oatmeal, sugar, and 



