THE DAILY WORK OF AN ARCTIC EXPLORER 



to their utmost, he must have proper rest, but this rest is 

 generally of short duration and is always carefully guarded. 

 Much depends upon the mood of the elements, the location 

 of the camp, the cut of your sleeping-bag, and also upon 

 your companions. If the wind blows hard it always car- 

 ries needle-like crystals of ice, and these drive down your 

 back with an unpleasurable ease. If the camp is pitched 

 in some nook, out of the wind, you are quickly buried 

 under the drift of snow. If the sleeping-bag is too thin or 

 too thick, if it is too long or too short, or if it has any one 

 of a dozen faults, it makes life a torture. Some prefer 

 a " one-man " bag, others a bag for three. Now, I like 

 a " three-man " bag, but I want to choose my bed-fellows 

 carefully, and I also want to select my position in the bag. 

 When three men are slipped into a bag, like fingers into a 

 glove, there is not much room for discussion. Such men 

 must not have bristles which can be rubbed the wrong way, 

 for there is nothing worse than sulphurous language in a 

 sleeping-bag. It doesn't matter how charming a man may 

 ordinarily be, he is another sort of a creature in a bag; and 

 then, too, men have such different ways when asleep. 



" The chronicles of three men in a bag " would make an 

 excellent title for a story of exploring life, but I am not 

 going to write this story just now. To illustrate the com- 

 forts and discomforts, however, I must recount a part of 

 this experience. In field work one seldom has shelter 

 except a small tent or a snow-house, but usually, when the 

 weather is at all tolerable", the bag is spread out upon the 

 open field of ice. One man attends to the culinary busi- 

 ness; his duties are simple. After building a wall of snow 

 as a wind guard for the little blue-flame oil stove, he selects 

 some blocks of snow to be melted for tea. The tea is 

 several hours in preparation, and while this is being done, 

 the other two undress and slip into the bag. It is remark- 

 able how quickly men will jump out of their clothing in a 

 temperature of forty degrees below zero. 



As the men quiver and shuffle and grunt in the bags to 

 overcome the chill of their cold air bath, the cook chops 

 off pieces of pemmican with an ax, and, with a package of 

 biscuits, he tosses it to them. For a half hour they punch 

 each other and munch the hard food, and then a reaction 



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