EQUIPMENT. 19 
inspected, and needed very little to make lier all a 
seaman could wish. She was a hermaphrodite brig of 
one hundred and forty-four tons, intended originally 
for carrying heavy castings from an iron-foundry, but 
strengthened afterward with great skill and at large 
expense. She was a good sailer, and easily managed. 
We had five boats; one of them a metallic life-boat, 
the gift of the maker, Mr. Francis. 
Our equipment was simple. It consisted of little 
else than a quantity of rough boards, to serve for 
housing over the vessel in winter, some tents of India- 
rubber and canvas, of the simplest description, and 
several carefully-built sledges, some of them on a 
model furnished me by the kindness of the British 
Admiralty, others of my own devising. 
Our store of provisions was chosen with little regard 
to luxury. We took with us some two thousand 
pounds of well-made pemmican, a parcel of Borden’s 
meat-biscuit, some packages of an exsiccated potato, 
resembling Edwards’s, some pickled cabbage, and a 
liberal quantity of American dried fruits and vege¬ 
tables; besides these, we had the salt beef and pork 
of the navy ration, hard biscuit, and flour. A very 
moderate supply of liquors, with the ordinary et cetera* 
of an Arctic cruiser, made up the diet-list. I hoped 
to procure some fresh provisions in addition before 
reaching the upper coast of Greenland; and I carried 
some barrels of malt, with a compact apparatus for 
brewing. 
We had a moderate wardrobe of woollens, a full 
