in transit as well as the
rough usage of a sledging journey. The effect of the high percentage
of plasmon, apart from its nutritive value, was to impart additional
toughness to the biscuit, which tested our teeth so severely that we
should have preferred something less like a geological specimen and more
like ordinary "hard tack," The favourite method of dealing with these
biscuits was to smash them with an ice-axe or nibble them into small
pieces and treat the fragments for a while to the solvent action of
hot cocoa. Two important proteins were present in this food: plasmon, a
trade-name for casein, the chief protein of milk, and gluten, a mixture
of proteins in flour.

The pemmican we used consisted of powdered dried beef (containing the
important protein, myosin) and 50 per cent. of pure fat in the form of
lard. The large content of fat contributes to its high caloric value,
so that it is regularly included in sledging diets. Hoosh is a stodgy,
porridge-like mixture of pemmican, dried biscuit and water, brought to
the boil and served hot. Some men prefer it cooler and more dilute, and
to this end dig up snow from the floor of the tent with their spoons,
and mix it in until the hoosh is "to taste," Eating hoosh is a
heightened form of bliss which no sledger can ever forget.

Glaxo is a proprietary food preparation of dried milk, manufactured in
New Zealand. It is without doubt an ideal food for any climate where
concentration is desirable and asepsis cannot be neglected. The value of
milk as an all-round food is well known. It contains protein as casein,
fat as cream and in fine globules, carbohydrate as lactose (milk sugar)
and mineral substances whose importance is becoming more recognized.
At the Western Base, Wild's party invented glaxo biscuits; an unbaked
mixture of flour and dried milk, which were in themselves a big
inducement to go sledging. At the Hut, making milk from the dried powder
required some little experience. Cold water was added to the dried
powder, a paste was made and warm or hot water poured in until the milk
was at the required strength. One of the professional "touches" was to
aerate the milk, after mixing, by pouring it from jug to jug.

Butter, although it contains nearly 20 per cent. of water is a food of
high heat-value and is certainly more easily digested than fat, such as
dripping, with a higher melting-point. Ours was fresh Victorian butter,
packed in the ordinary export boxes, and c