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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



THE "nimrod" pushing through heavy pack ice on her way south, carrying 



THE SHACKLETON PARTY 



to germs from a bale of blankets, we ex- 

 perienced no sickness at all at the winter 

 quarters. 



In the second place, the food taken for 

 use on the sledging expeditions must be 

 as light as possible, remembering always 

 that extreme concentration renders the 

 food less easy of assimilation, and there- 

 fore less healthful. Extracts that may 

 be suitable enough for use in ordinary 

 climates are of little use in the polar re- 

 gions, because under conditions of very 

 low temperature the heat of the body can 

 be maintained only by use of fatty and 

 farinaceous foods in fairly large quanti- 

 ties. Then the sledging foods must be 

 such as do not require prolonged cook- 

 ing — that is to say. it must be sufficient 

 to bring them to the boiling point, for 

 the amount of fuel that can be carried is 

 limited. It must be possible to eat the 

 foods without cooking at all, for the fuel 

 may be lost or become exhausted. 



Some important articles of food were 

 presented to the expedition by the manu- 

 facturers, and others, such as biscuits and 



pemmican.were specially manufactured to 

 my order. The question of packing pre- 

 sented some difficulties, and I finally de- 

 cided to use "venesta" cases for the 

 foodstuffs and as much as possible of the 

 equipment. These cases are manufac- 

 tured from composite boards prepared 

 by uniting three layers of birch or other 

 hard wood with waterproof cement.. 

 They are light, weather-proof, and 

 strong, and proved to be eminently 

 suited to our purposes. The cases I 

 ordered measured about two feet six 

 inches by fifteen inches, and we used 

 about 2,500 of them. The saving of 

 weight, as compared with an ordinary 

 packing case, was about four pounds per 

 case, and we had no trouble at all with 

 breakages, in spite of the rough handling 

 given our stores in the process of landing 

 at Cape Royds after the expedition had 

 reached the Antarctic regions. 



FUR CLOTHING OF THE BEST 



Our furs did not make a very large 

 order, for after the experience of the 



