when in a party usually pass frosty nights on the moor-side.
They cut quantities of heather, and strew part of it as a bed on the
ground; then all the party lie down, side by side, excepting one man
whose place among the rest is kept vacant for him. His business is to
spread plaids upon them as they lie, and to heap up the remainder of the
heather upon the plaids. This being accomplished, the man wriggles and
works himself into the gap that has been left for him in the midst of his
comrades.

[Sketch of sleeping arrangement].

On Snow.--I shall have to describe snow-houses and snow-walls covered
with sail-cloth, under "Huts." Here I will speak of more simple
arrangements. Dr. Kane says:--"We afterwards learnt to modify and reduce
our travelling-gear, and found that in direct proportion to its
simplicity and to our apparent privation of articles of supposed
necessity, were our actual comfort and practical efficiency. Step by
step, as long as our Arctic service continued, we went on reducing our
sledging outfit, until we at last came to the Esquimaux ultimatum of
simplicity--raw meat and a fur bag." Lieut. Cresswell, R.N., who, having
been detached from Captain McClure's ship in 1853, was the first officer
who ever accomplished the famous North-West passage, gave the following
graphic account of the routine of his journeying, in a speech at
Lynn:--"You must be aware that in Arctic travelling you must depend
entirely on your own resources. You have not a single thing else to
depend on except snow-water: no produce of the country, nor firewood, or
coals, or anything off the sort; and whatever you have to take, to
sustain you for the journey, you must carry or drag. It is found by
experience more easy to drag it on sledges than to carry it. The plan we
adopt is this:--we have a sledge generally manned by about six or ten
men, which we load with provisions, with tents, and all requisites for
travelling, simple cooking utensils, spirits-of-wine for cooking, etc.,
and start off. The quantity of people can generally drag over the ice is
forty days' provisions; that gives about 200 lbs. weight to each. After
starting from the ship, and having travelled a certain number of
hours--generally ten or eleven--we encamp for the night, or rather for
the day, because it is considered better to travel at night and sleep at
day, on account of the glare of the sun on the snow. We used to travel
journeys of about ten hours, and then encamp,