JF£ PREPARE EOR THE SLEDGE EXPEDITION 13 



for ourselves, besides a 2;oocl deal of food for the do2:s; 

 and we could, moreover, carry a dog or two on the deck. 

 In other respects they were essentially like the Eskimo 

 kayaks, full decked, save for an aperture in the middle 

 for a man to sit in. This aperture was encircled by a 

 wooden rino:, after the Eskimo fashion, over which we 

 could slip the lower part of our sealskin jackets, specially 

 adjusted for this purpose, so that the junction between 

 boat and jacket was water-tight. When these jackets 

 were drawn ti^ht round the wrists and face the sea mio-ht 

 sweep right over us without a drop of water coming into 

 the kayak. We had to provide ourselves with such boats 

 in case of having to cross open stretches of sea on our 

 way to Spitzbergen, or, if we chose the other route, be- 

 tween Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya. Besides 

 this aperture in the middle, there were small trap-doors 

 fore and aft in the deck, to enable us to put our hands in 

 and stow the provisions, and also get things out more 

 readily, without having to take out all the freight through 

 the middle aperture, in case what we wanted lay at either 

 extremity. These trap-doors, however, could be closed 

 so as to be quite water-tight. To make the canvas 

 quite impervious to water, the best plan would have been 

 to have sized it, and then painted it externally with or- 

 dinary oil paint ; but, on the one hand, it was very dif- 

 ficult to do this work in the extreme cold (in the hold the 

 temperature was -20^ C, —4° Fahr.), and, on the other 

 hand, I was afraid the paint might render the canvas 



