254 VOYAGE TO THE POLAR SEA. March 



allow provisions for two or three days to be added. 

 To advance fifteen or twenty days the maximum weight 

 of 240 lbs. a man must be transported. It is thus evident 

 that if the crew of each sledge is to be provided with 

 a boat, the usual mode cannot be adopted of pushing 

 forward one sledge to an extreme distance by pro- 

 visioning it through a system of relays and supporting 

 parties, which return to the ship one at a time. 



After calculating the weights most carefully, I 

 finally decided to follow the plan of Sir Edward Parry, 

 namely, for the travellers to advance the requisite 

 weights each day by stages ; first dragging forward the 

 boat, then to return and transport a second sledge 

 laden with provisions. From my former experience 

 I well knew, as is stated in the fifteenth paragraph of 

 my orders, that * in the absence of continuous land, 

 sledge travelling has never yet been found practicable 

 over any considerable extent of unenclosed frozen sea! 

 Nevertheless, I trusted that we might advance such 

 a distance from the land as would enable us to ascertain 

 the nature of the pack-ice in the offing, and learn 

 whether it could ever be travelled over for a reason- 

 able distance, on a future occasion, with or without 

 boats. There was also the chance of a northern land 

 being sighted. 



Knowing well how extremely irksome such a 

 journey would prove to all concerned in it, I deter- 

 mined to despatch two sledge crews to mutually 

 support each other. 



As the north-western exploration promised to be 

 the most important, I offered the command of it to 

 Commander Markham ; but he considering that the 



