314 THE VOYAGE OF THE 'DISCOVERY' [Sept. 



and Nansen covered his Greenland sledge-runners with the 

 same material. The drawback to this is that it is liable to 

 rust, and in a rusty state the friction is of course much 

 increased. In his Northern journey Nansen substituted 

 German silver, a non-corrosive metal, for steel, and reported 

 the result as satisfactory ; in consequence the runners of all 

 our sledges were covered with this metal, which added con- 

 siderably to their weight, though that quoted for the n-foot 

 sledge includes this item. This shoeing gives rise to a 

 difficulty, since there are certain conditions of surface when 

 German silver offers great friction, whereas it is impossible to 

 strip the runners to meet these conditions and then to replace 

 the metal. To get over this difficulty Nansen devised thin 

 under-runners of wood with light steel attachments, thus 

 providing for the condition when a wooden surface for the 

 runner would be desirable, but again adding to the weights 

 carried. As far as our experience went, both the German- 

 silver shoeing and the wood under-runner proved unsatisfac- 

 tory ; in nine cases out of ten on the snow surfaces over 

 which we travelled, wood runners offered less resistance than 

 metal, and though the idea of the under-runner is theoretically 

 good, we found that practically the thing was too flimsy ; the 

 snow tended to pack above it, and it was liable to become 

 loose and distorted. Moreover, it introduced a complication 

 where simplicity should be the first consideration. As far as 

 all our journeys made over the flat on snow surfaces were con- 

 cerned, the plain wood runner of the sledge itself, without any 

 covering, would have been amply sufficient, and in fact, as I 

 have pointed out, well-seasoned wood would stand far more wear 

 than could well be given it in the course of a single expedition. 

 But many of our journeys lay over hard rough ice or places 

 where sand and grit had been blown over the snow, and where 

 an unprotected wood runner would soon be torn to shreds. It 

 was here that the German silver should have served us, and to 

 some extent it did ; but in the main we found it altogether too 

 soft — grit was liable to score it deeply, and the metal once 

 pierced, the runner gave an infinity of trouble. 



