THE WHITE WORLD 



is warm. When the day's journey is ended, the tongue 

 burns, the throat is parched, and there is an uncomfortable 

 pinching at the pit of the stomach. One feels like eating 

 a mountain and drinking a river, but the effect of pemmican 

 upon this condition is marvellous. It is too hard to eat 

 rapidly, so one nibbles away, shivers and dreams of better 

 times. The dry, uncooked bits of meat go down with a 

 snatch and some effort, and 

 one is very conscious of its 

 position in the stomach by a 

 heavy, full feeling, which is 

 always a joy to hungry mor- 

 tals. Long before the half- 

 pound lump, which is the 

 usual allowance, disappears, the 

 pangs of hunger are forgotten, 

 and then a desire for. a hot 

 cup of tea, to take away the 

 scratchy feeling, is all that is 

 necessary to make life again 

 worth living. The diet of a 

 sledge traveler is not so bad 

 when you have nothing else 

 within reach, but the gods 

 could not force a man to eat 

 it if he could get some- 

 thing else instead. One 

 takes to it as kindly 

 as a convict does to 

 prison diet. 



It is not so bad 

 with the bed. 

 Among the inci- 

 dents of bed-going 

 are to be found the 

 happiest moments 

 of an explorer's 

 life. It is a pity that the North Pole cannot be reached 

 in a sleeping-bag, for therein lies the foundation of most 

 of the comforts of polar adventures. This is as it should 

 be, for when a man forces his powers of endurance 



AN ESKIMO BELLE 



138 



