368 
SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION 
[August 
contented themselves with hot water, deeming that tea 
might rob them of their slender chance of sleep. 
On sleeping-bags little new can be said — the eiderdown 
bag may be a useful addition for a short time on a spring 
journey, but they soon get iced up. 
Bowers did not use an eiderdown bag throughout, and 
in some miraculous manner he managed to turn his 
reindeer bag two or three times during the journey. The 
following are the weights of sleeping-bags before and after : 
Starting Final 
Weight. Weight. 
Wilson, reindeer and eiderdown . 17 40 
Bovvers, reindeer only .... 17 33 
C. -Garrard, reindeer and eiderdown . .18 45 
This gives some idea of the ice collected. 
The double tent has been reported an immense success. 
It weighed about 35 lbs. at starting and 60 lbs. on return : 
the ice mainly collected on the inner tent. 
The crampons are much praised, except by Bowers, 
who has an eccentric attachment to our older form. We 
have discovered a hundred details of clothes, mits, and 
footwear : there seems no solution to the difficulties 
which attach to these articles in extreme cold ; all Wilson 
can say, speaking broadly, is 6 the gear is excellent, 
excellent.' One continues to wonder as to the possibilities 
of fur clothing as made by the Esquimaux, with a sneaking 
feeling that it may outclass our more civilised garb. For 
us this can only be a matter of speculation, as it would 
have been quite impossible to have obtained such articles. 
With the exception of this radically different alternative, 
