Ii8 FARTHEST NORTH 



spun, such as are used in our army, which we wore inside 

 our "homager" (particularly myself) on the latter part of 

 the journey, when the snow was wet. They are comfort- 

 able to wear and easy to dry, as one can spread them out 

 under one's coat or trousers at night. 



On our hands we wore large gloves of wolfskin, in 

 addition to ordinary woollen mittens underneath, neither 

 of them having separate divisions for the fingers. Ex- 

 actly the same drying process had to be gone through 

 with the gloves as with the foot-gear. Altogether the 

 warmth of ones unfortunate body, which is the only 

 source of heat one has for this sort of work, is chiefly ex- 

 pended in the effort to dry one's various garments ; and 

 we spent our nights in wet compresses, in order that the 

 morrow might pass in a little more comfort. 



On our heads w^e wore felt hats, which shaded the eyes 

 from the dazzling light, and were less pervious to the 

 wind than an ordinary woollen cap. Outside the hat we 

 generally had one or two hoods of cloth. By this means 

 we could regulate the warmth of our heads to a certain 

 extent, and this is no unimportant thing. 



It had been my original intention to use light one-man 

 slccpiug-bags, made of the skin of the reindeer calf. As 

 these, however, proved to be insuf^ciently warm, I had to 

 resort to the same principle we went on in Greenland, 

 i.e., a double bag of adult reindeer-skin ; a considerable 

 increase of warmth is thus attained by the fact that the 

 occupants warm each other. Furthermore, a bag for two 



