Secrets of Polar Travel

by Robert E. Peary

Bearskin trousers, reaching from the top of the pelvic bone to just below the knee-cap. These trousers were made from the selected skin of a yearling or two-year-old bear with thin, soft, yet tough, leather, and thick, soft, almost wool-like fur. Two pieces, carefully cut to have the grain of the fur running down and the thinner parts to come in the crotch between the legs, make the trousers. The only seams are up the inside of each leg, and from the middle of the waist in front down through the crotch and up to the middle of the waist in the back. Triangular bits of tanned sealskin at the ends and intersections of seams reinforce against ripping. At the top of the trousers a binding of tanned sealskin incloses a thin, strong rawhide line as a draw-string, by which the trousers are adjusted closely to the wearer’s body. The bottom of the legs are made just as small as will allow the feet to go through, and when the trousers are pulled up into place, they fit the leg closely just below the knee. A band of bearskin about two inches wide is sewed round the bottom of each leg, which in very cold, windy weather, in drifting or deep snow, or when the wearer is in danger of getting into the water, is turned down, and the tops of the boots are tied firmly over it to make a tight joint. The trousers are lined with fine, soft red flannel. There are no buttons, hooks, clips, or fastenings of any kind in these trousers, or any openings. The cord at the waist is adjusted to the wearer, and by a contraction of the muscles the trousers can be slid down over the hips to mid-thigh without loosening it.

I consider this garment perfect for polar work. It is impervious to cold,—I do not recall ever being chilly for a moment from waist to knees,—is almost indestructible, gives the wearer perfect freedom of movement, and possesses the quality, essential in every garment for polar work, of permitting the fine snow driven in by the wind to be beaten out with whip-handle or snow-knife.

POLAR CLOTHING

Spring and Summer working costume. Sealskin coat, bearskin trousers, sealskin boots

A deerskin hooded coat of selected autumn skins of doe or young buck. The front and back of the coat are each cut from a single skin, the front being of lighter weight than the back. The head of the back skin forms the foundation of the hood. The remainder of the skins furnish material for the sleeves, which are cut in a way to bring the thinner parts of the belly skin in the armpits and inner part of the arm.

In length the coat is more a jacket than a coat, the bottom of it coming only a few inches below the top of the bearskin trousers. It is shorter on the hips than in front or back, where it cuts to two rounded points, the one in the back a little longer than the other. In this way the action of the legs in walking, running, snow-shoeing, climbing pressure ridges, or lifting on the sledges is entirely unimpeded. The bottom of the coat must fit closely over the fur of the trousers. Round the bottom of the coat a binding of tanned sealskin, as at the top of the trousers, contains a thin, strong rawhide draw-string. A loop of this projects from the point of the coat behind, and the two ends from the point in front. By passing these ends back between the legs, then through the loop and forward again, the bottom of the coat can be drawn closely into the fur of the trousers, making a tight joint to keep out driving snow when on the march, or the cold when sleeping. To make this joint still more close, an inch-wide strip of fur was sewed round inside the bottom of the coat, just within the draw-string.

At the wrists the sleeves, which should come fully to the hand, are made just as small as possible and allow the hand to be pushed through them. On the inside a two-inch-wide band of fur, hair inside, is sewed like the packing round a piston-rod, to keep this joint tight when wrist and hands are in motion.

The face-opening in the hood is made just large enough to allow the hood to be pushed back from the head in calm weather. Around this opening is a roll of soft bearskin, with only one edge sewed down. This is partly to protect the face from the wind, partly to serve as a packing, as at the wrists and bottom, to prevent the entrance of cold air or the escape of warm.

Worn ordinarily turned down like a coat-collar, in bitter winds, this bearskin roll can be turned up like a collar to form a wind-guard for the eyes and face.