Luxuries have no place in arctic work.

Supplies for an arctic expedition naturally divide themselves into two
classes: those for the sledge work in the field; those for the ship,
going and returning, and in winter quarters. The supplies for sledge
work are of a special character, and have to be prepared and packed in
such a way as to secure the maximum of nourishment with the minimum of
weight, of bulk, and of tare (that is, the weight of the packing). The
essentials, and the only essentials, needed in a serious arctic sledge
journey, no matter what the season, the temperature, or the duration of
the journey--whether one month or six--are four: pemmican, tea, ship's
biscuit, condensed milk. Pemmican is a prepared and condensed food, made
from beef, fat and dried fruits. It may be regarded as the most
concentrated and satisfying of all meat foods, and is absolutely
indispensable in protracted arctic sledge journeys.

The food for use on shipboard and in winter quarters comprises standard
commercial supplies. My expeditions have been perhaps peculiar in
omitting one item--and that is meat. For this important addition to
arctic food I have always depended on the country itself. Meat is the
object of the hunting expeditions of the winter months--not sport, as
some have fancied.

Here are a few of the items and figures on our list of supplies for the
last expedition: Flour, 16,000 pounds; coffee, 1,000 pounds; tea, 800
pounds; sugar, 10,000 pounds; kerosene, 3,500 gallons; bacon, 7,000
pounds; biscuit, 10,000 pounds; condensed milk, 100 cases; pemmican,
30,000 pounds; dried fish, 3,000 pounds; smoking tobacco, 1,000 pounds.

CHAPTER III

THE START

From her berth beside the recreation pier at the foot of East
Twenty-fourth Street, New York, the _Roosevelt_ steamed north on the
last expedition, about one o'clock in the afternoon of July 6, 1908. As
the ship backed out into the river, a cheer that echoed over Blackwell's
Island went up from the thousands who had gathered on the piers to see
us off; while the yacht fleet, the tugboats and the ferryboats tooted
their good wishes. It was an interesting coincidence that the day on
which we started for the coldest spot on earth was about the hottest
which New York had known for years. There were thirteen deaths from heat
and seventy-two heat prostrations recorded in Greater New York for that
day, while we were bound for a region where sixty below zero is not an
exce