The subject of sleeping-bags has no doubt been thoroughly threshed out on every Polar expedition.  I do not know how many times we discussed this question, nor can I remember the number of more or less successful patents that were the fruit of these discussions.  In any case, one thing is certain, that the adherents of one-man bags were in an overwhelming majority, and no doubt rightly.  As regards two-man bags, it cannot be denied that they enable their occupants to keep warm longer; but it is always difficult to find room for two big men in one sack, and if the sack is to be used for sleeping in, and one of the big men takes to snoring into the other’s ear, the situation may become quite unendurable.  In the temperatures we had on the summer journeys there was no difficulty in keeping warm enough with the one-man bags, and they were used by all of us.

On the first southern journey, in September, Johansen and I used a double bag between us; in the intense cold that prevailed at that time we managed to get through the night without freezing; but if the weather is so cold that one cannot keep warmth in one’s body in good, roomy one-man bags, then it is altogether unfit for sledging journeys.

November 10. —­ Immediately after the start this morning we tried how we could get on without a forerunner.  As long as we were in the line of flags this answered very well; the dogs galloped from one flag to another, while I was able to adopt the easy method of hanging on to Stubberud’s sledge.  About midday we were abreast of the depression already mentioned, where, on the third depot journey last autumn, we ran into a regular net of crevasses.  This time we were aware of the danger, and kept to the left; but at the last moment the leading team ran out to the wrong side, and we cut across the eastern part of the dangerous zone.  Fortunately it was taken at full gallop.  It is quite possible that I inwardly wished we were all a few pounds lighter, as our little caravan raced across those thin snow bridges, through which could be seen the blue colour of the ugly gulfs below.  But after the lapse of a few long minutes we could congratulate ourselves on getting over with our full numbers.

Not for anything would I have gone that mile without ski on my feet; it would practically have meant falling in and going out.  It is, perhaps, saying a good deal to claim that with ski on, one is absolutely secured against the danger these crevasses present; if misfortunes are abroad, anything may happen.  But it would require a very considerable amount of bad luck for man and ski to fall through.