en useful in giving us exercise in the long polar night. We
found, however, that there were plenty of other things to do, and
we never used it; on the other hand, the windmill proved extremely
serviceable. For illumination when we might not have enough power to
produce electric light, we took with us about 16 tons of petroleum,
which was also intended for cooking purposes and for warming the
cabins. This petroleum, as well as 20 tons of common kerosene,
[15] intended to be used along with coal in the boiler, was stored
in massive iron tanks, eight of which were in the hold, and one on
deck. In all, the ship had eight boats, two of which were especially
large, 29 feet long and 9 feet wide. These were intended for use
in case the ship should, after all, be lost, the idea being that
we should live in them while drifting in the ice. They were large
enough to accommodate the whole ship's company with provisions for
many months. Then there were four smaller boats of the form sealers
generally use. They were exceedingly strong and lightly built, two
of oak and two of elm. The seventh boat was a small pram, and the
eighth a launch with a petroleum engine, which, however, was not very
serviceable, and caused us a great deal of trouble.

As I shall have frequent occasion later on to speak of other details
of our equipment, I shall content myself here with mentioning a few
of the most important.

Special attention was, of course, devoted to our commissariat with
a view to obviating the danger of scurvy and other ailments. The
principle on which I acted in the choice of provisions was to combine
variety with wholesomeness. Every single article of food was chemically
analyzed before being adopted, and great care was taken that it should
be properly packed. Such articles, even, as bread, dried vegetables,
etc., etc., were soldered down in tins as a protection against damp.

A good library was of great importance to an expedition like ours,
and thanks to publishers and friends, both in our own and in other
countries, we were very well supplied in this respect.

The instruments for taking scientific observations of course formed
an important part of our equipment, and special care was bestowed
upon them. In addition to the collection of instruments I had used on
my Greenland expedition, a great many new ones were provided, and no
pains were spared to get them as good and complete as possible. For
meteorological observations, in add