300 THE VOYAGE OF THE « DISCOVERY ' [Sept. 



for the then unprecedented period of twenty-nine days. It was 

 under his directions that our sledges and tents were made in 

 1848; and these designs, with comparatively slight modifica- 

 tions, have continued in favour in all subsequent expeditions. 



4 The tent requires little description. It is a pent-roof 

 about seven feet high along the ridge, supported on boarding 

 pikes or poles crossed at each end, and covering an oblong 

 space sufficient to enclose the party when closely packed 

 together ; its duty is merely to afford shelter from the wind 

 and snowdrift. . . . The sledge is a more important article of 

 equipment. That which our experience has proved to be the 

 most suitable is a large runner sledge ; the runners are rather 

 broad — that is, three inches — and they stand high, carrying the 

 lading about a foot above the ice. An average sledge is three 

 feet wide and ten feet long, and is drawn by seven men. It is 

 constructed with only just so much strength as is absolutely 

 necessary, since every pound of weight saved in wood and iron 

 enables so much more provisions to be carried. All our 

 sledges have been drawn by the seamen, and the labour of 

 doing so is most excessive. The first sledge expedition in the 

 search for Franklin was led by Sir James Ross in person. By 

 very great efforts a distance out and home of 500 statute miles 

 was accomplished in forty days ; but out of the twelve picked 

 men by whom the two sledges were drawn five were completely 

 knocked up, and every man required a considerable time under 

 medical care to recruit his strength after this lengthened period 

 of intense labour, constant exposure, and insufficient food. 



' It is necessary to apprehend clearly the nature of the 

 surface over which our sledges had to travel. People un- 

 acquainted with the subject commonly fall into one or the 

 other extreme, and suppose that we either skate over glassy ice 

 or walk on snow-shoes over snow of any conceivable depth. 

 Salt-water ice is not so smooth as to be slippery ; to skate 

 upon it is very possible, though very fatiguing. But hardly is 

 the sea frozen over when the snow falls and remains upon it all 

 the winter. When it first falls the snow is soft and perhaps a 

 foot or fifteen inches deep ; but it is blown about by every 



