THE NEW YEAR, iSg6 483 



we used as fuel. For cooking on the journey we would 

 use the pot belonging to our cooking apparatus; and our 

 lamp we used as a brazier in which to burn blubber and 

 train-oil together. These provisions and this fuel did not 

 constitute a particularly light equipment ; but it had this 

 advantage, that we should probably be able to replace 

 what we consumed of it by the way. It was to be hoped 

 that we should find plenty of game. 



Our short sledges were a greater trouble to us, for of 

 course we could not get them lengthened now. If we 

 failed to find open water all the way over to Spitzbergen, 

 and were compelled to drag them over the uneven drift- 

 ice, we could scarcely imagine how we should get on 

 with the kayaks lying on these short sledges, without 

 getting them knocked to pieces on hummocks and press- 

 ure-ridges ; for the kayaks were supported only at the 

 middle, while both ends projected far beyond the sledge, 

 and at the slightest inequality these ends hacked against 

 the ice, and scraped holes in the sail-cloth. We had to 

 protect them well by lashing bearskins under them ; and 

 then we had to make the best grips we could contrive 

 out of the scanty wood we had to fix on the sledges. 

 This was no easy matter, for the great point was to make 

 the grips high in order to raise the kayaks as much as 

 possible and keep them clear of the ice ; and then they 

 had to be well lashed in order to keep their places. But 

 we had no cord to lash them with, and had to make it for 

 ourselves of raw bearskin or walrus hide, which is not the 



