COSTUME AND SLEEPING-BAGS 221 



know, these were never used, except as pillows or 

 mattresses. 



The subject of sleeping-bags has no doubt been 

 thoroughly threshed out on every Polar expedition. I 

 do not know how many times we discussed this question, 

 nor can I remember the number of more or less success- 

 ful patents that were the fruit of these discussions. In 

 any case, one thing is certain, that the adherents of one- 

 man bags were in an overwhelming majority, and no 

 doubt rightly. As regards two-man bags, it cannot be 

 denied that they enable their occupants to keep warm 

 longer; but it is always difficult to find room for two 

 big men in one sack, and if the sack is to be used 

 for sleeping in, and one of the big men takes to snoring 

 into the other's ear, the situation may become quite 

 unendurable. In the temperatures we had on the 

 summer journeys there was no difficulty in keeping 

 warm enough with the one-man bags, and they were 

 used by all of us. 



On the first southern journey, in September, Johansen 

 and I used a double bag between us ; in the intense cold 

 that prevailed at that time we managed to get through 

 the night without freezing ; but if the weather is so cold 

 that one cannot keep warmth in one's body in good, 

 roomy one-man bags, then it is altogether unfit for 

 sledging journeys. 



November 10. — Immediately after the start this 

 morning we tried how we could get on without a 



