We had six three-man tents, all made in the navy workshops.  The workmanship could not have been better; they were the strongest and most practical tents that have ever been used.  They were made of the closest canvas, with the floor in one piece.  One man was sufficient to set up the tent in the stiffest breeze; I have come to the conclusion that the fewer poles a tent has, the easier it is to set up, which seems quite natural.  These tents have only one pole.  How often one reads in narratives of Polar travel that it took such and such a time —­ often hours —­ to set up the tent, and then, when at last it was up, one lay expecting it to be blown down at any moment.  There was no question of this with our tents.  They were up in a twinkling, and stood against all kinds of wind; we could lie securely in our sleeping-bags, and let it blow.

The arrangement of the door was on the usual sack principle, which is now recognized as the only serviceable one for the Polar regions.  The sack patent is quite simple, like all patents that are any good.  You cut an opening in the tent of the size you wish; then you take a sack, which you leave open at both ends, and sew one end fast round the opening of the tent.  The funnel formed by the open sack is then the entrance.  When you have come in, you gather up the open end of the funnel or sack, and tie it together.  Not a particle of snow can get into a tent with the floor sewed on and an entrance of this kind, even in the worst storm.

The cases for sledging provisions were made of fairly thin, tough ash, which came from the estate of Palsgaard in Jutland, and the material did all it promised.  These cases were 1 foot square and 15 1/2 inches high.  They had only a little round opening on the top, closed with an aluminium lid, which fitted exactly like the lid of a milk-can.  Large lids weaken the cases, and I had therefore chosen this form.  We did not have to throw off the lashing of the case to get the lid off, and this is a very great advantage; we could always get at it.  A case with a large lid, covered by the lashing, gives constant trouble; the whole lashing has to be undone for every little thing one wants out of the case.  This is not always convenient; if one is tired and slack, it may sometimes happen that one will put off till to-morrow what ought to be done to-day, especially when it is bitterly cold.  The handier one’s sledging outfit, the sooner one gets into the tent and to rest, and that is no small consideration on a long journey.

Our outfit of clothing was abundant and more complete, I suppose, than that of any former Polar expedition.  We may divide it into two classes, the outfit for specially low temperatures and that for more moderate temperatures.  It must be remembered that no one had yet wintered on the Barrier, so we had to be prepared for anything.  In order to be able to grapple with any degree of cold, we were supplied with the richest assortment of reindeer-skin clothing; we had