THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 165 



by one or another of the islands of the Arctic Archipelago. They 

 are probably well adapted, too, to the level expanses of the Ant- 

 arctic continent. Where the ice is smooth or the land flat, skis are 

 useful, especially before a fair wind when one can glide almost 

 without effort and at a higher speed than is attainable on snow- 

 shoes. But such places are rare in the areas we have had to explore. 

 Among the jaggedly broken ice of the open ocean skis are almost 

 as much out of place as in a thick forest. We would not carry them 

 at all except that they are useful in constructing the frame of our 

 sled boat, a process to be described later. For this purpose we al- 

 ways have a pair or two along, and on rare occasions use them to 

 walk on. On this trip my companions were both Norwegians and 

 habituated to skis, yet none of us thought of using them. I am 

 now of the opinion, however, that late in the spring after the snow 

 begins thawing in the daytime and freezing with a hard crust at 

 night, it might be advisable to use them occasionally where the ice 

 is less rough. The hunting snowshoe of one of several Indian models 

 is a very useful thing in any except the roughest ice. The type 

 used by the Eskimos on the north coast of Alaska — with a length 

 of between three and four feet and a greatest width of about ten 

 inches — is the most convenient. 



By the beginning of the present ice trip both Storkerson and I 

 had spent over five years with the Eskimos of northern Canada and 

 Alaska, dressing as they did and making camp after their fashion. 

 It is therefore probable that few arctic explorers have been quite 

 as familiar as we with the technique of comfort. A classic fea- 

 ture of the popular polar narrative is the discomfort of life in 

 camp, but this can never truthfully mark any of our stories. We 

 had an important advantage over even such masters of arctic tech- 

 nique as Peary in the difference of our theory of fuel supply and 

 the consequent temperature of our camps. Peary's parties depended 

 on alcohol or kerosene in limited quantity, which they hoarded, 

 knowing that on the polar ice there are no stores or oil supply sta- 

 tions. And they were always on strict fuel rations. The cooking 

 apparatus was specially designed to concentrate all the heat against 

 the bottom of the cooking pot, allowing as little as possible to es- 

 cape into the body of the snowhouse or tent. When the pot came to 

 a boil the fire was instantly extinguished. This was certainly nec- 

 essary if the fuel was to last the whole journey. But with us there 

 are supply stations wherever we go. Our cooking apparatus is not 

 designed to conserve heat, for we want heat to spread and when the 

 I cooking is done we do not extinguish the fire until the house is as 



