Secrets of Polar Travel

by Robert E. Peary

Every reduction that can be made in the number of articles of food or equipment necessary, and in the number of routine operations or motions that have to be gone through with daily, as making and breaking camp, preparing meals, etc., conserves time, temper, and mental as well as physical energy, leaving more minutes for sleep and more vim for traveling.

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. Provisions must be rendered immune from loss or injury by wetting.

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

The fundamental conditions of the supreme polar sledge-journeys should be fully comprehended. On leaving land to force a way across the surface of the north polar ocean, or leaving headquarters to drive to the center of the antarctic continent, not an ounce of food or supplies or equipment can be obtained on the way. Everything to use or eat on the journey must be carried on the sledges. The load that can be carried upon the sledges is a certain fixed amount, depending upon the character and amount of the tractive power. In my work it was fixed at five hundred pounds for a team of eight dogs.

That load is made up of two parts, the “constant” weights of cooking-outfit, rifle, instruments, etc., and the “variables” comprising supplies which are constantly decreasing as consumed by men and dogs. For every pound of “constant” weight that can be saved by elimination or refinement a pound of pemmican can be substituted, and this is a day’s, or, in an emergency, two days’, ration for a man or a dog. A saving of nine pounds in the “constants” represents a full day’s rations for a driver and his eight dogs, and this transformed into distance may mean anywhere from ten to forty miles.

For tractive power I have always used the Eskimo dogs, and believe they are the only thing for such work. Eight dogs are required to haul the standard load, but, with an extra load or for fast traveling, I have sometimes used ten or twelve good dogs.

A good team of eight dogs should always have one or two bitches in it. This makes a livelier and better-working team, and the bitches of the Whale Sound dogs almost without exception pull harder per pound of their weight than the dogs. If, when bitches go in heat, they are put in the leading team, there is no occasion to use the whip with the other teams.

From every point of view and under every consideration the Eskimo dog is at the present time the only motor for polar work. He is capable of wider adjustment to varying and always adverse conditions than any other; he can go where no other can; he can stand more cold and hardship than others; he uses the same fuel (pemmican) as the men; he requires no water, no special care or attention or shelter; and when he is no longer of use as a motor, he can be utilized as fuel for the other motors or the men of the party.

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 drag easily and be as light in weight as it can be without the sacrifice of strength for lightness.

Twenty-three years of experience in polar sledge-traveling and acquaintance with all types of sledges have given me clear and definite ideas as to essentials and non-essentials in the construction of sledges.