VI 

 FITTING FOR ARCTIC WEATHER 



DESPITE our sheltered position and the big fire, I put 

 in an uncomfortable night in this picturesque camp. It 

 was, in fact, the first of many uncomfortable nights before 

 I adjusted my blankets and robes properly. I had ample 

 bedding, and of course could have got warm quickly 

 enough had I used it at all, but that was precisely what I 

 did not want to do. I wished to use the smallest amount 

 of covering possible, and yet be not too uncomfortable to 

 preclude sleep. I did not lose sight of the fact that the 

 cold I was then experiencing was as summer compared 

 with that which I should be obliged to endure in the 

 Barren Grounds. And as I had trained before leaving New 

 York for extreme physical exertion, so now I began fitting 

 myself for excessive cold. Indeed, I am entirely con- 

 vinced it was my very careful and thorough previous con- 

 ditioning that enabled me to sustain the starving and 

 freezing to which I was subjected on this (about) six 

 months' trip, and yet come out of it in sound physical 

 condition and without having had a day's sickness. My 

 camping experience had been rather extensive, and was 

 now valuable in suggesting ways of making most out of 

 little. An old campaigner will, simply by his method of 

 wrapping it about him, get as much if not more warmth 

 out of a single blanket than the novice will out of two. 

 Nevertheless, with all my experience, for the first week I 



