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.
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