210 THE NORTH POLE 



sledge journey toward the Pole on all expeditions has 

 been as follows: ; 



1 lb. pemmican, 1 lb. ship's biscuit, 4 oz. condensed 

 milk, J oz. compressed tea, 6 oz. liquid fuel, alcohol or 

 petroleum. A total of 2 lbs. 4£ oz. of solids per man, 

 per day. 



On this ration a man can work hard and keep in 

 good condition in the lowest temperatures for a very 

 long time. I believe that no other item of food, either 

 for heat or muscle building, is needed. 



The daily ration for the dogs is one pound of pem- 

 mican per day; but so hardy are these descendants of 

 the arctic wolves that when there is a scarcity of food 

 they can work for a long time on very little to eat. I 

 have, however, always endeavored so to proportion 

 provisions to the length of time in the field, that the 

 dogs should be at least as well fed as myself. 



A part of the scientific work of the expedition was 

 a series of deep-sea soundings from Cape Columbia to 

 the Pole. The sounding apparatus of the expedition on 

 leaving Cape Columbia comprised two wooden reels of 

 a length equal to the width of the sledge, a detachable 

 wooden crank to go on each end of the reel, to each reel 

 a thousand fathoms (six thousand feet) of specially 

 made steel piano wire of a diameter .028 inches, and 

 one fourteen-pound lead having at its lower end a small 

 bronze clam-shell device, self-tripping when it reached 

 the bottom, for the purpose of bringing up samples of 

 the ocean bed. The weights of this outfit were as fol- 

 lows: each thousand fathoms of wire 12.42 pounds, 

 each wooden reel 18 pounds, each lead 14 pounds. A 

 complete thousand-fathom outfit weighed 44.42 pounds. 



