258 I. P. Косн. 
The cartographical equipment of a sledge party generally con- 
sisted of: 
1 small universal instrument with compass and tripod, 
1 pocket chronometer and 1 or 2 ordinary watches, 
2 swing thermometers as well as during the coldest period one 
alcohol thermometer, 
1 prism binocle, 
1 hodometer, 
1 drawing portfolio with chequered paper, 
Pocket book and drawing materials, 
Almanac and logarithm tables. 
The travelling universal instrument has been mentioned 
on an earlier occasion (see p. 204). Here I shall only add that the 
instrument is arranged in such a manner that it may, in an emer- 
gency, be fastened upon the box, so as to be used without applying 
the tripod, which measure became of great importance, as I myself 
lost my tripod in a snowstorm on Peary Land. The compass could 
be fitted on the instrument, in which manner it became possible 
conveniently to perform cursory determinations of the magnetic 
declination, simultaneously with the determinations of azimuth. The 
idea was that in dull weather one might substitute an azimuth by 
the compass for an azimuth of the sun; the compass, however, be- 
came of no practical importance to the survey, because an overcast 
sky together with bright weather was a great rarity. 
Also the pocket-chronometers have been mentioned on 
earlier occasions. As I had been taught by my experience of the 
first autumn that they could not stand the cold, because the oil 
froze, we later on carried them on our bare breasts in a chamois 
leather or flannel bag. They were only taken out for quite short 
periods to compare the watches and be wound up in the evening, 
as well as now and then for watch comparisons before and after an 
observation. 
Before leaving home I had thought that a sledge party would 
on an average break two swing thermometers per month, and 
we had consequently laid in a stock of a hundred. However, we 
soon learned to make solid cases for these instruments, consisting 
of tubes from boiler piping, and so we broke comparatively few. On 
the return of the expedition we had still more than sixty thermo- 
meters left. 
The alcoholthermometers were superfluous for cartographic 
use; at temperatures below the freezing point of the mercury one 
ought, as a general rule, not to make astronomical observations. 
