i$o4] PACKING 345 



for was sugar,' or ' The thing we craved for was fat,' and with- 

 out doubt this argues that the party would have been better 

 provided had they carried a greater proportion of these articles 

 and less of something else. 



In this connection I may point out that Barne's allowance 

 contained more biscuit than mine, and I am not sure that he 

 was not right, as our biscuit was certainly on the short side, 

 and we had a distinct craving for more. On the whole, how- 

 ever, our parties went well in this respect. Our people on 

 getting back to the ship wanted food and plenty of it, but did 

 not especially demand it in any particular form. 



From the above list it will be seen that our variety of food 

 was not a very large one. Nansen seems to have been of 

 opinion that variety was of great importance, but in this I 

 cannot agree. During our long absences our food was pretty 

 much the same day after day, and though we sighed for greater 

 quantity we were never particularly desirous of changing the 

 quality. The great drawback to a large variety is the compli- 

 cation which is introduced into the packing arrangements ; 

 that these should be as simple as possible with a party of men 

 is of the greatest importance. Our biscuit was packed on the 

 sledges in boxes or in canvas tanks specially made on board 

 for the purpose, but although the boxes were of the lightest 

 Venesta packing material, the additional weight involved by 

 either tank or box was considerable. The packing of biscuit 

 is especially difficult, because if packed loosely it will grind 

 itself into fine powder with the movement of the sledge, so 

 that probably much will be lost. 



All the remaining provisions were carefully weighed out 

 into amounts which constituted the allowance for three men 

 for one week ; this amount was placed in a small light bag, 

 and then all the small bags were placed in a canvas tank on 

 the sledge. 



In addition to this, each tent party of three men possessed 

 a ready-use bag containing all the small bags allowed for the 

 week. It will be seen that this was an extremely simple 

 arrangement ; all the trouble and care had been taken on 



