EQUIPMENT OF A SLEDGE EXPEDITION 165 



three-eighths of an inch and in the course of a very few days 

 is torn to pieces if the sledges have to pass over rough ice. 

 Even if the under-runners hold, the snow will get in between 

 them and the main runners and make the surface uneven, thus 

 causing the sledge to pull hard. Of course the under-runner 

 protects the main runner for a few days, which is of some 

 importance, but not enough to counterbalance its inconvenience 

 or extra weight. However, as soon as the under-runner is 

 stripped off, the main runner gets chipped surprisingly soon by 

 contact with sharp, fresh ice, and this chipping is mainly due 

 to the runners. 



Instead of the thin, loose under-runner and the equally thin 

 main runner, we think that a heavier runner, about one inch 

 thick, would be more advisable, and for several reasons. First, 

 the runner would be less apt to split ; secondly, it would be 

 considerably stronger and would give, as it were, more back- 

 bone to a sledge. It is not my opinion that a sledge should 

 be rigid ; far from it ; but a sledge may happen to be hung 

 up at both ends on two pieces of ice, and will then be badly 

 strained when the load is not supported by anything but the 

 thin runners. 



The shoeing of the runner is a highly disputed question, the 

 more so as each explorer has had different conditions to 

 confront ; but our experience showed that the runner is best 

 shod with steel plate, no thinner than can be fastened with 

 bolts through the main runner. Such steel shoeing would 

 prevent the runners from splitting, less care would be necessary 

 in going over rough ice, and so time would be gained. Last, 

 but not least, a wooden runner drags very heavily over salty 

 ice, while frozen lanes with rough ice on either side would 

 often afford some good travelling, so that also in this respect it 

 would be a great advantage to have a shod sledge. The 

 German silver shoeing is of no use on the pack ice, as a sharp 

 piece of ice is enough to tear it open, and once ripped it gives 

 no end of trouble. A thin under-runner could be taken, fixed 

 in such a manner as to be easily attached to a sledge, for use 

 over level and snow-covered icefloes, but for general use a 

 thick and shod sledge-runner is to be preferred to the double 

 runner system. 



The crossbars of our sledges were eight inches above the 



