EQUIPMENT OF A SLEDGE EXPEDITION 183 



The weight of these two daily rations was the same, but we 

 wanted to try their relative staying qualities while doing actual 

 fieldwork. For four weeks we ate alternately the malted milk 

 and pemmican rations, each ration a week at the time, but the 

 staying qualities seemed to be a little in favour of the pemmican. 

 However, we never suffered from actual hunger when using 

 the malted milk, only it seemed to be absorbed in the system 

 much more quickly than the pemmican, thus leaving an 

 unpleasant feeling of emptiness. When we had eaten these two 

 rations for four weeks without being able to decide in favour 

 of either of them, we tried to use them together that is, we 

 ate pemmican in the morning, in order to have the pleasure of 

 feeling full as long as possible, and malted milk at night. This 

 was an exceedingly good arrangement, and we can warmly 

 recommend it as a nutritious, simple, and reliable ration for men 

 on a sledge trip. 



The caloric value of our rations compared with those of 

 the Duke of Abruzzi and Captain Scott was high, especially 

 when taking into consideration the fact that our ration was 

 10*2 oz. smaller than the former and practically the same as 

 Captain Scott's. They compare in the following manner : 



( Malted milk . . 5,113 calories 



Ourratlons j Pemmican . . 5,185 



Duke of Abruzzi . . . 5,497 ,, 



Captain Scott .... 4,068 ,, 



which is strongly in favour of ours. The high value is caused 

 by our having a larger amount of fat than either the Duke of 

 Abruzzi or Captain Scott allowed. At the beginning of a 

 sledge trip, when it is excessively cold, there is no doubt that it 

 is beneficial, although some of it may be changed in favour of 

 products containing more proteid towards the time when the 

 warmer days commence. It would probably be advisable to 

 make this change of diet, but it would complicate the ration 

 more than is desirable. 



Although an advocate of the simplest ration possible, I must 

 admit that a project of Mr. Leffingwell's seems very tempting, 

 and deserves careful consideration on future expeditions. He 

 proposed to take some rice, beans, bacon, and dried fruit along, 

 and use that on days when travelling was impossible. It would 



