Farthest North (1898) Paperback - 2009

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: too hard and brittle, and apt to have holes knocked in it during transport over the ice. Therefore I preferred to steep it in a mixture of paraffin and tallow, which added somewhat to the weight of the kayaks, so that altogether they came to weigh about 36 pounds apiece. I had, moreover, some hand-sledges made especially for this expedition; they were supple and strong, designed to withstand the severe tests to which an expedition with dogs and heavy freights over the uneven drift- ice would necessarily expose them. Two of these sledges were about the same length as the kayaks--that is, 12 feet. I also made several experiments with respect to the clothes we should wear, and was especially anxious to ascertain whether it would do to go in our thick wolfskin garments, but always came to the conclusion that they were too warm. Thus, on November 29th I write: " Took another walk northward in my wolfskin dress; but it is still too mild (-37.6 C). I sweated like a horse, though I went fasting and quite gently. It is rather heavy going now in the dark when one cannot use snow- shoes. I wonder when it will be cold enough to use this dress." On December 9th again we went out on snow-shoes. " It was --41 C(-41.8 Fahr.). Went in wolfskin dress, but the perspiration poured down our backs enough to turn a mill. Too warm yet; goodness knows if it ever will be cold enough." Of course, we made some experiments with the tentand with the cooking apparatus. On December 7th I write: " I pitched the silk tent we are going to take, and used our cooking apparatus in it. From repeated trials it appeared that from ice of --35 C. ( -- 31 Fahr.), we boiled 3 litres of water (5) pints), and at the same time melted 5 litres (8 pints) in an hour and a half, with a consumption of about 120 grammes of snow...