the polar sea. Just as soon as a party consumes the provisions of one or two sledges, the drivers and dogs, being just so many superfluous mouths, should be sent back to headquarters with their empty sledges. When another sledge-load or two of provisions have been depleted, their drivers and dogs should likewise return. In all, four supporting parties were sent back one after another, the last one in command of Captain Bartlett, leaving me near the eighty-eighth parallel. Up to this point I had traveled in the rear of my party in order to see that everything was going smoothly. On sending back Bartlett's division, however, I took my place at the head of the party that was to make the final dash. This was of necessity a small group and most carefully chosen, consisting of Henson and four of my best Eskimos.

The second important duty of the supporting parties is to keep the trail open so that the main party can return rapidly. That this is no slight consideration is shown by the fact that in twenty-four hours, or sometimes in twelve hours, the fierce winds of the North will start the jamming of the ice-floes, throwing up pressure ridges and forming leads. Ordinarily, though, the ice will not change much in eight or ten days, and a party in returning follows the outward trail, patching up any faults or breaks that have occurred in it since it was broken. The next party, returning a few days later from a point still farther north, knits together the broken places in its own trail, and, coming to that of the first returning party, smooths over any breaks which may be found. The next party does the same, and so on until the main party, on its return, has simply to follow the trail of the supporting parties instead of having to reconnoiter for one. With no trail to make and the dogs eager to follow the homeward track, the speed of the main party on my last expedition was greatly increased on its return march, the upward journey having been accomplished in twenty-seven marches, while the return was made in sixteen. In addition to the

advantage of having a broken trail to return by, the returning division uses the snow igloos which were built on the way north, thus saving the time and energy which the building of a new igloo at the end of each long march would mean.

As far as the polar dash was concerned, the work of each supporting party was finished as soon as it reached land. Each of these parties, consisting of four men, was entirely independent, having its own provisions and a complete traveling outfit. With the exception of the kitchen box, containing the alcohol-stove and cookingutensils, each sledge was complete. In the event of a mishap and the loss of the cooking outfit, the division losing it would have to double up with another division.

The number of miles covered in each march was first estimated by dead reckoning; that is, by taking the compass course for direction and the mean estimate of Marvin, Bartlett, and myself for distance traveled. At intervals of several marches this was checked by observations for latitude, and proved to be satisfactorily approximate to the results obtained by our astronomical observations.

Thorough preparedness for a sledgingtrip is of vital importance, and no time devoted to the study and perfection of the equipment for a long journey can be considered wasted. It must be devised to meet every condition and every extreme, and my sledge-trips have always been preceded by days and weeks and months of careful attention to the slightest details. To the inexperienced the amount of work thus involved, even for a small party, would be surprising.

Every precaution should be taken to render every article of equipment as impervious to the dangers of injury or breakage as possible. This not only saves the extra burden of a repair outfit, but valuable time in the field.

Next in importance comes weight. Everything should be just as light as it can possibly be made; for the number of miles a party can travel depends on the amount of food it can carry, and every pound deducted from the weight of equip

ment means an extra pound added to the food-supply.

The first item of equipment to be considered is the sledge. Upon it all depends, and no detail of its construction is too small to be of the utmost importance. It must be of as easy traction as possible, and as light in weight as it can be without the sacrifice of strength for lightness. Twenty-three years of arctic sledgetraveling and experience with all types of sledges have given me clear and definite ideas as to essentials and non-essentials in the construction of sledges. Those built for my first expedition were modeled on the same general principles as the McClintock sledge, but weighing about one third as much. Each succeeding expedition has seen some improvement in our sledge designing and building, and the Peary sledge, used for the first time on my last expedition, is, in my opinion, the best type of sledge yet built for polarsea ice-work. Because of the length and shape of this style of sledge, it proved itself more durable and much more easily

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drawn than any others I have ever used. It is two feet wide, from twelve to thirteen feet long, with a height of seven inches. The sides are of solid oak, curving up in back as well as in front. runners two inches wide are attached to the sides. The runners are equipped with steel shoes two inches wide. All fastenings except of the shoes to the runners are of sealskin lashings, making a sledge which is strong enough to support from one thousand to twelve hundred pounds.

I also used on my last expedition the regular type of sledge that has been in use among the Eskimos since the early days when they had to depend on the bones of the walrus and whale and the antlers of the deer for material for building their sledges. This type of sledge has two oak runners seven inches in width and one and a quarter inch in thickness. These are steel shod, but are curved only at the front. To render them better adapted to the special work before us, I increased the length of these Eskimo sledges from six

or seven feet to nine and a half feet.

Sledges intended for inland ice-work may differ from those to be used in sea ice-work. Deep, soft snow is generally prevalent in the interior regions, and to keep a sledge from sinking into it, it must be equipped with broad, flat runners. There can also be a decided gain in lightness in the sledges for this class of work, although the strong winds of the ice-cap carve portions of it into sharp, almost marble-like sastrugi, which test the powers of endurance of the best of sledges. None of those used by me in my Greenland inland-ice cap-work weighed over fifty over fifty pounds, while those used on my trip to the pole averaged ninety-five pounds.

After the matter of a suitable sledge, come questions of rations, dress, instruments, dogs, and the size of the party required for the work in hand. For any serious sledge-journey in polar regions there are four and only four food essentials, whatever the time of year, the temperature, or the length of the trip. These are pemmican, tea, ship-biscuit, and condensed milk. Long experience with these foods as staples has convinced me that nothing else is necessary either to provide heat for the body or to build muscle. The pemmican for my last expedition was a preparation of lean beef dried until it was. friable, then ground fine, and mixed with beef fat, sugar, and a few raisins. No more concentrated or more satisfying meat food can be prepared, and it forms the one absolutely indispensable item of any polar sledge-ration. Our tea also was compressed in order to save bulk.

A daily ration of one pound of pemmican, one pound of biscuits, four ounces of condensed milk, and half an ounce of compressed tea, with six ounces of alcohol or oil for fuel, will keep a man in good working condition for an indefinite period even in the coldest of weather, and this has been the standard ration on all my later polar sledge-trips. I have always tried to keep my dogs as well, if not better, fed than myself, and have found one pound of pemmican per day sufficient to keep a dog healthy and strong, although, if necessary, an Eskimo dog can keep hard at

In my expedition of 1891-92 I deliberately planned to use dogs for food for the first time, I believe, in the history of arctic exploration. As the dogs wore out, we fed them to those remaining, or ate them ourselves, thus making our load of provisions last much longer. This has been the principle of all my subsequent trips, and results have fully proved it to be a sound one.

My parties in the field have had two meals a day, one before the march, the other after it. As the days shortened, and it became necessary to utilize every moment of daylight for traveling, our meals were eaten before daylight and after dark, there sometimes being a period of twentyfour hours between meals. On the polar trips the party that went ahead to break a way for the main party was allowed tea and a lunch at noon, so strenuous was the work.

The matter of suitable clothing for a sledge-journey is of the greatest importance to arctic explorers, and there is a wide difference of opinion among various authorities on this subject. I consider the impervious integument of animal skin absolutely essential, and the more fur is substituted for woolen clothing, the more comfortable the traveler will be. The clothing of the Eskimos is made entirely from the furs and skins of the various animals and birds of the North. Their patterns for clothing and the use of certain materials for certain purposes are the results of generations of experience in adapting themselves to the rigors of arctic life.

Believing their dress perfect for conditions under which they wear it, I have adopted it, with slight modifications, for my parties. The costume consists of a kooletah, or fur jacket; an ahteah, fur shirt; nannookies, or fur trousers; hareskin stockings; kamiks, or boots of skin; and fur mittens. A light-weight union suit was worn under our fur clothing to prevent chafing.

With an outfit of this kind it is pos

sible for a party to undertake the longest of sledge-journeys in very low temperatures, and under all conditions from sleeping in the open to the hard work of lifting and hauling the sledges over difficult places, with the minimum of discomfort.

The instrumental equipment for sledge-journey of any length over the inland ice should comprise a theodolite, a sextant and artificial horizon, compasses, chronometers, thermometers, good fieldglasses, cameras, and aneroids. The same instruments are required for a sledgejourney over the polar sea, and a sounding outfit should be added. Special items for sea ice-work are floats for crossing lanes of water, and coils of walrus lines for various purposes. Of course no equipment is complete which does not include firearms and snow-shoes.

Another important item of equipment on my last sledge-journey was an entirely new alcohol-stove of my own design, on which I spent days in perfecting and trying out during the long winter night. This new device worked splendidly, enabling us to melt ice and make tea in ten minutes, a process which on previous trips, with the old-style stoves, had taken a full hour or more. A saving of something over an hour and a half every day on a long sledge-journey over the sea-ice may mean

the difference between success and failure.

A sleeping-bag has always been considered an essential item of equipment for sledge-parties, but I have not used one since my expedition of 1891-92. My parties in the field, on turning in for the

night, simply place a musk-oxskin or deerskin on the floor of the tent or snow igloo, and lie down with their clothes on. I have found this much more practicable than the bags, and much safer. In work on sea ice a man in a sleeping-bag would have virtually no chance to save himself should a lead open through his igloo.

In all winter sledgetraveling, and on my trips from Cape Columbia to farthest north in 1905 and to the pole

in 1909, we depended entirely on snow igloos for shelter. Hunting-parties on my last two expeditions and sledge-parties sent out with supplies to the various depots between Cape Sheridan and Cape Columbia used specially made tents.

These tents are absolutely snow-proof, being made of a light weight of canvas, with a floor of canvas stitched to it. The fly of each tent is sewed up, and a small opening large enough for a man to crawl through is cut in the fly. A circular flap sewed round the opening, with a drawstring, make it perfectly tight. The tents are pyramidal in shape, supported by a single pole in the middle. Sledges or snow-shoes may be used to hold the sides down. They were made large enough to accommodate four men.

In addition to being snow-proof, they were also rendered water-proof by an application of linseed-oil. The tents were colored brown by soaking in tea grounds and a little hemlock bark, suggested by the custom of Labrador and some other fishermen thus treating the sails of their