THE DAILY WORK OF AN ARCTIC EXPLORER 



with fuel and provisions for three months or more. All 

 of this is in such shape that at any moment he is pre- 

 pared to carry his baggage on his back for miles. There 

 are no half-way inns, no houses, no shelter, and no bazaars 

 by the wayside. If he has forgotten or lost anything, it 

 cannot be replaced. He is far away from the familiar 

 world, far from the accustomed comforts of life, and as 

 completely isolated as if he was on the surface of the moon. 

 Day after day he plods along over desolate fields of rough 

 ice, pushing and pulling sledges, urging and whipping the 

 wolf dogs. He is always too tired to talk, frequently too 

 weary to eat, and often also too uncomfortable to sleep. 

 Still, he has resolved to make the effort of his life, and he 

 continues to press onward. 



One day he advances five miles, the next twenty miles, 

 and again but a mile; and then a storm comes which causes 

 a halt of five days. As time goes on, the stock of provis- 

 ions decreases, the load becomes lighter, but he finds the dis- 

 tance covered all too small. Half rations are now served. 

 Heretofore the full ration would seem a starvation diet, but 

 now it is only half, and the character of this is such as to 

 make one's marrow shrink. Here is the day's gastronomic 

 comfort: For breakfast, two cups of tea, a few ship's bis- 

 cuits, hard and tough, a bit of pemmican, twenty years old, 

 which is made of equal quantities of dried meat and beef 

 tallow. No luncheon, except a soap-like cake of bacon- 

 fat, mixed with pulverized peas. For dinner, the break- 

 fast is repeated with an extra treat in the form of a large 

 drink of water, if the fuel supply will permit such a luxury. 

 Experience has proven that this is the most practicable 

 bill of fare, and it does not permit of much elaboration. 

 Except the tea, everything is taken cold, and to-day, when 

 I think of my chattering teeth and quivering muscles, while 

 trying to devour the straw-like pemmican,' I am doubly 

 glad of the comforts of home. 



It is really remarkable to see how this scant polar diet 

 keeps up the physical powers, and it is even more remark- 

 able to see how a fat piece of frozen pemmican will change 

 a hungry man's mind. Hunger is as normal to the ex- 

 plorer as the shivers, and both complaints are treated by the 

 same remedy, food — for when the stomach is full the body 



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