| Lime-juice | ½ oz. |
| Pemmican[129] | 1 lb. |
| Biscuit | 12 oz. |
| Boiled Pork for luncheon | 6 „ |
| Rum | ½ gill |
| Biscuit dust | 1 oz. |
| Tea and Sugar | ¾ „ |
| Chocolate and Sugar | ½ „ |
| Tobacco | ½ „ |
besides salt, pepper, curry, and onion powder. The fuel for this ration would be 21½ oz. of spirits of wine, or rather over a pint. The provisions and fuel for seven men for forty days weighed 876 lb., which in addition to the constant 440 lb. gave a total of 1316 lb., or 220 lb. per man at starting, the weight being reduced by 22 lb. each day.
M’Clintock’s plan was that each division of sledges should have an auxiliary sledge to fill them up at a distance of 50 miles from the ship; and each extended sledge was to have a limited sledge to fill it up at a hundred miles further. At an average rate of only ten miles a day this would enable the extended sledges to advance 350 miles from the ships, picking up depôts as they returned.
The dress consisted of flannel waistcoats and drawers, woollen socks with a square of blanket folded over them, and duck boots with leather soles or moccasins in extreme cold. Box-cloth trousers, waistcoat with chamois leather sleeves, and a box-cloth monkey jacket were worn, and over all a white duck jumper as a snow repeller, with chamois leather on the shoulders, and pockets for ammunition, watch, and note-book. The head covering was a fur cap with ear-flaps. A water-bottle covered with flannel was carried next the flannel waistcoat, but until June the water always became ice. The weight of an entire suit was from 16 to 20 lb.
March was the coldest month, the mean being -34° Fahr, and the minimum -53° Fahr. From March 10th nothing was thought of but making the sledge equipments complete. The Commodore issued a series of questions in minutest detail relating to the various requirements.
These details are of the greatest importance, because they constitute the original basis of sledge travelling, of which Leopold M’Clintock was the founder. He placed a most comprehensive means of search for our missing countrymen in the hands of the Commodore. Nothing to be compared with it, in magnitude and efficiency, has ever been seen in the Arctic regions before or since. There were, including Penny’s crews, no less than 220 men ready to start, all full of zeal and enthusiasm.
Commodore Austin had no clue as to the position of the missing crews, and at that time little was known of the region to be searched. He accordingly resolved to explore in every direction to the utmost extent of the means at his disposal. Penny undertook Wellington Channel. He had a team of dogs and the best dog driver in Greenland in the person of a Dane named Carl Petersen, a man of large experience and full of ancient lore as well as modern knowledge. M’Clintock and two other parties, led by Aldrich and Bradford, took the direction of Melville Island. Captain Ommanney led another division to Cape Walker, and smaller parties were to examine the intermediate coasts and islands. Altogether, search parties were despatched in eight different directions.
Each sledge had a name, motto, and flag. They exercised all through March, and April 4th was the day selected for starting, the starting-point being at the north-west point of Griffith Island. The sledges with their crews went in two long columns to the appointed place with colours flying, a splendid sight, the Commodore delivered a spirit-stirring address to the assembled travellers, paying a just tribute to all they owed to the genius of M’Clintock, and the explorers started in two great divisions, one to the west and the other to the south.
The ice surface was fairly good, though sometimes interrupted by lines of hummocks. Sails were set with the wind aft or on the quarter, the tent poles being used as sheers and as a yard, and the floor-cloths for a sail. Under favourable circumstances this was a great success. Large square kites, invented by Mr Leigh Smith’s father, were partially successful.
We travelled at night and slept in the day-time. As soon as the tent was pitched, the floor-cloth was put down, sleeping-bags laid out, and the buffalo robe placed over them. The men took it in turn to be cook of the mess, supper consisting of pemmican, biscuit, and grog. Boots were taken off, feet carefully examined for frost-bites, snow blindness doctored with vinum opii (“open eye” the men called it) and then all got into their bags.