g to keep up. But
sometimes over broken ice it is a constant task to get her on at all.
You hear, "One, two, three, _haul_" all day long, as she is worked out
of one ice "cradle-hole" over a hummock into another. Different parties
select different hours for travelling. Captain Kellett finally
considered that the best division of time, when, as usual, they had
constant daylight, was to start at four in the afternoon, travel till
ten P.M., _breakfast_ then, tent and rest four hours; travel four more,
tent, dine, and sleep nine hours. This secured sleep, when the sun was
the highest and most trying to the eyes. The distances accomplished with
this equipment are truly surprising. Each man, of course, is dressed as
warmly as flannel, woollen cloth, leather, and seal-skin will dress him.
For such long journeying, the study of boots becomes a science, and our
authorities are full of discussions as to canvas or woollen, or carpet
or leather boots, of strings and of buckles. When the time "to tent"
comes, the pikes are fitted for tent-poles, and the tent set up, its
door to leeward, on the ice or snow. The floor-cloth is laid for the
carpet. At an hour fixed, all talking must stop. There is just room
enough for the party to lie side by side on the floor-cloth. Each man
gets into a long felt bag, made of heavy felting literally nearly half
an inch thick. He brings this up wholly over his head, and buttons
himself in. He has a little hole in it to breathe through. Over the
felt is sometimes a brown holland bag, meant to keep out moisture. The
officer lies farthest in the tent,--as being next the wind, the point of
hardship and so of honor. The cook for the day lies next the doorway, as
being first to be called. Side by side the others lie between. Over them
all Mackintosh blankets with the buffalo-robes are drawn, by what power
this deponent sayeth not, not knowing. No watch is kept, for there is
little danger of intrusion. Once a whole party was startled by a white
bear smelling at them, who waked one of their dogs, and a droll time
they had of it, springing to their arms while enveloped in their sacks.
But we remember no other instance where a sentinel was needed. And
occasionally in the journals the officer notes that he overslept in the
morning, and did not "call the cook" early enough. What a passion is
sleep, to be sure, that one should oversleep with such comforts round
him!

Some thirty or forty parties, thus equipped, set