LABRADOR WHALING STEAMER
OFF FOR WHALES—LABRADOR COAST
When it came to the matter of sledge-supplies, even greater care in packing was applied. Pemmican for the dogs was put up in tins just as long as the width of my sledges, so that in a standard sledge-load of dog pemmican the tins formed a continuous flooring to the sledge. The pemmican for the men was put up in tins that were creased in such a way that the block of pemmican, when removed from the tin, was lightly scored in a way that marked it off into one pound cakes, and whoever had the distribution of the pemmican ration at a camp had only to insert a hunting-knife or saw-knife or edge of a hatchet into these marks, and with a blow or two separate the pemmican at once into standard rations.
All these refinements and details may seem amusing to those who have read the accounts of some polar expeditions where such supplies as ship’s biscuit or flour or the like were carried in bags, with no protection from moisture or water, and where contact with the sharp edges of ice or the sledge could easily punch a hole through a bag, with a consequent loss of some of the provisions before the mishap was noted.
Some of the same expeditions would get out their scales at each camp and carefully weigh out the various amounts of each item of the rations.
On my polar expeditions my ship’s biscuit were all made rectangular in form and sixteen to the pound, so that the matter of adjusting the size of a ration of biscuit was simply the matter of counting a certain number. If it was a full ration,—that is, a pound per man per day,—then the number of biscuit was sixteen. If it was half-ration, eight; a quarter ration, four.
These things may seem trivial to some readers, but every movement and operation which can be eliminated and every minute that can be saved under the trying accompaniments of cold, wind, hunger, and fatigue, which are inevitable in polar travel, make for the conservation of the energy, vitality, and morale of the members of the party.
My last two expeditions carried no food experiments, no wonderful preparations, no condensed products of astonishing powers. I had been through all this in earlier expeditions, and had tried preparation after preparation, only to find them of no value on the serious northern sledge-journey, which was the object and climax of each expedition. For that journey only the four tried articles, pemmican, tea, condensed milk, and hard tack, are necessary, and I could not change or better them for another expedition. On various expeditions I made and tried out several food mixtures, but discarded them all after trial.
In obtaining many of the special items of materials a great deal of time was spent searching through the stores in various places for the particular thing needed.