EQUIPMENT. One of the important results of polar research is the present methods and outfit for work and life in the ice zones, evolved from the experience of three centuries. The problem of fairly comfortable and hygienic existence for white men in the polar regions has been solved. For more than 250 years white men in the Arctic su&red severely from scurvy. The food supplies long included large quantities of salt meat, and until recently the dietary of Arctic whalers and explorers was almost certain to breed scurvy. If they now fall victims to this disease it is the result of great carelessness or ignoranee. The art of selecting and preserving foods of healthful and great nutritive quality for use on polar expeditions has been reduced to a science. The ships employed by explorers were formerly poorly equipped for battling with the ice; but the ex ploring craft of the present, of which the Pram, DiReorcry. and Gauss are the best examples, arc
believed closely to approximate the ideal type of vessel for ice navigation. They are built with rounded sides, so as to offer as little hold as possible to the clutches of the ice pack, and they provide comparatively comfortable accommoda tions for the men. The substitution of steam for sails, the larger use of dogs instead of men at the sledge ropes, the adoption of the snowshoe and Norwegian ski in snow work, the great improvements in sledges, the utilization of Arctic game for food and to a considerable extent of the methods of living, the boats, the snow houses, and sonic other appliances of the Eskimos, have been very helpful factors in recent exploratory work.