256 Arctic and Antarctic Exploration [part i 
and every detail was practically left to that officer. He 
had inaugurated autumn sledge travelling and depots 
had been established for the spring journeys. 
The sledges were made of Canada elm, the cross-bars 
of ash. The upper and lower pieces were called the bearer 
and the runner, the uprights being tenoned through them. 
A shoeing of J-inch iron, 3 inches wide and slightly 
convex on its under surface, was riveted and clinched to 
the runner. The length of a ten-man sledge was 13 feet, 
of a six-man sledge 9 feet. The cross-bars were lashed on 
with strips of hide whilst warm and wet, so that drying 
would shrink them and make all tight. The width of 
the bearer was z\ inches, and there were six uprights, 
and six cross-bars 3 feet long. At each corner there 
were light iron stanchions dropped into sockets, forming 
supports to the sides of a canvas tray or boat capable of 
ferrying the sledge crew across water. The weight of 
the sledge was 125 lb. The tents were 15 feet long by 
8 feet high, of closely woven duck, the head-rope of 
horsehair. The four tent-poles were of ash, pointed at 
one end with metal, 9 ft. 8 in. in length; the weight 
of tent and poles 55 lb. Seven flannel or felt sleeping 
bags weighed 42 lb., and a wolf or buffalo robe over all 
40 lb., waterproof floor-cloth 12 lb., and shovel 5| lb. 
The cooking apparatus consisted of a spirit-lamp 
holding j\ gills, a kettle with a short spout and two 
handles fitted on it, and the stand, all weighing 17 lb. 
Then there were knapsacks for spare clothes, and a 
sundry bag. The irreducible constant weights amounted 
to 440 lb. 
The scale of diet per man per day was as follows: 
Lime-juice \ oz. 
Pemmican 1 i lb. 
Biscuit 12 oz. 
Boiled Pork for luncheon 6 
Rum i gill 
Biscuit dust i oz. 
Tea and Sugar f 
Chocolate and Sugar J 
Tobacco J 
besides salt, pepper, curry, and onion powder. The fuel 
1 Pemmican is a preparation of beef from which all that is fluid has 
been evaporated over a wood fire. The fibre is then pounded, and mixed 
with an equal weight of pounded beef fat. 
