i9i i] SLEDGING NECESSITIES AND LUXURIES 157 
follows the sacrifice to comfort is negligible. Certainly 
we could not have increased our mileage by making such 
a sacrifice. 
But beyond this it may be argued that we have an 
unnecessary amount of food : 32 oz. per day per man is 
our allowance. I well remember the great strait of 
hunger to which wc were reduced in 1903 after four or five 
weeks on 26 oz., and am perfectly confident that we were 
steadily losing stamina at that time. Let it be supposed 
that 4 oz. per day per man might conceivably be saved. 
Wc have then 3 lbs. a day saved in the camp, or 
63 lbs. in the three weeks, or xitfth part of our present 
loads. 
The smallncss of the fractions on which the comfort 
and physical well-being of the men depend is due to the 
fact of travelling with animals whose needs arc proportion- 
ately so much greater than those of the men. It follows 
that it must be sound policy to keep the men of a sledge 
party keyed up to a high pitch of well-fed physical condition 
as long as they have animals to drag their loads. The 
time for short rations, long marches and carefullcst 
scrutiny of detail comes when the men are dependent on 
their own traction efforts. 
6 p.m. — It has been blowing from the S.W., but the wind 
is dying away — the sky is overcast — I write after 9 hours' 
sleep, the others still peacefully slumbering. Work with 
animals means long intervals of rest which arc not altogether 
easily occupied. With our present routine the dogs remain 
behind for an hour or more, trying to hit off their arrival in 
the new camp soon after the ponies have been picketed. 
