inarch, 1869.1 The SUdgcs Heavily Laden. 379 



loaded sledges ; this was additionally necessary to inure himself and 

 party for a journey involving" all the hardships and the length of time 

 now required. A gale blowing with the force of 8 prevailed at the 

 time of starting out ; it had the peculiarity of many Arctic storms in 

 its being filled with drift for a few feet upward only, while " above all 

 was clear as a bell." At 10 p. m., they completed the first ifjloo on the 

 east side of North Pole Lake, and retired to sleep on a full Arctic 

 meal. The quantity of food consumed by the party of eleven for 

 their supper and for breakfast the next morning, was forty -four pounds, 

 exclusive of coffee and molasses ; Hall says he allowed every one to 

 eat as much as he would, and he himself ate as much as any one. In 

 the morning, a heavy di'ift, with a cutting wind from the northwest, 

 discouraged the Innuits ; yet the}^ went forward to please their leader. 

 At this time he had loaded the sledges more heavily than on any of his 

 ])revious journeys, for on weighing them accurately, he found that the 

 gross weight of the sledge Grinnell was 2,724 pounds, and that of Bre- 

 voorf, 2,.'')21, making an aggregate of 5,24') pounds, exclusive of the 

 weight of any of the party who might ride. This was an average of 

 292 * pounds for each of his eighteen dogs when all tlie travelers 

 walked. But the lame dog- Svlvia was not at the first attached to 

 either sledge, and for several days six of the others were missing; 

 the rest were, at times, busy with their usual fights. The runners of 

 sledge Brevoort — 16 feet in length, with a depth of 10 inches — were 

 shod with slabs from the jaw-bone of a whale. Its seventeen cross- 

 bars were each 2 feet 1 1 inches. 



* Lyon, in liis Journal of the Hecla, under Parry, says that his nine dogs dreAv l,Gll jiounds 

 on a sledge of wooden runners, neither shod nor ieed, a mile in nine nuuutes; and that, had liis 

 sled been iced, 40 pounds more could have been put upon it for every dog. Hall's loads exceeded 

 Lyon's, and were for a long pull. 



