Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1897-04-19
HOUSEKEEPING IN THE NORTH.
An Explorer and His Larder--Tea thu
Only Drink

An Explorer and His Larder-Tea the
Only Drink.
Lieut.. Peary, whose brilliant exploits in
the far North have only been eclipsed
thus far by DR.. Nansen, has impaired a
few Of his ideas in housekeeping in the
Arctic regions Of course the mainstay
OF the larder is a supply of canned arti-
cles, such as preserves, jams, biscuits,
vegetables, butter, tea, coffee, chocolate,
cocoa and, in short, every variety of
food that is capable of being preserved in
a canister Such supplies are, of course,
most useful on board ship; during sledge
journeys it is, however, different. "On
these" said Peary, there must be the
sternest simplicity in the matter Of food.
The changes which, | should make in an
other expeditions sleGge equipment would
be all in the direction Of cutting down the
variety of food supplies. There are just
four things in the way of provisions that
I should take and those are pemmican,
ships biscuit, tea and condensed milk.
A fifth article would be furnished in the
shape of fresh meat of any kind that we
might kill on the way. On my previous
journeys [ took q great many things that
were not only useless, but worse, be-
cause they merely added weight to the
sledges and thus wasted our strength I'M
necessarily. If a man cannot get along
with pemmican and biscuit, with tea to
drink the Arctic regions are no place for
him. He mustn't expect the luxuries OF
a hotel dinner.
''Pemmican is Beef mixed with con-
siderable quantity of suet. 1t is the sta
pie Arctic food, and is not at all dis
agreeable to the taste. 1t is much COM
pressed. One pound of it is equal to four
pounds of ordinary meat so that the car
rying Of it reduces the sledge weights
n i.
ration for man. OF the hard ship bis
cult one pound is also Il days allow
ance, and of tea about quart. These
ratiOns are. consumed almost always in
two meals which are all we have time to
stop for on sledge journeys.
1.-THE tea is in compressed, quarter
pound cakes which are further marked
off somewhat like a cake of chocolate,
into little. divisions of quarter-ounce
each. One of these makes a pint of
tea, and it is stronger than one gener-
ally drinks at home. The condensed milk
is the ordinary article which you see
everywhere. 1t freezes, of course, often
perfectly sOlid but that does not impair
it, 9ea is the only drink for sledge jour
neys. Coffee is not satisfactory, nor is
chocolate or cocoa, which produces
thirst. Lime juice | have no faith in at
all and [ shall never try it again. 1t
has always been thought necessary to
eounteract a tendency to scurvy, FROM the
consumption Of SO much salt and fatty
food. But | never had any indication
of scurvy in any of my party.
''Dried vegetables have been carried
by some explorers, and while they are
we'll enough to have at the headquarters,
where as [ said, there may be any va
riety one chooses, they are entirely SUI
perfuous while sledgfng. A man can
get, along perfectly well without vege,
at home. and there isn't much nourish-
ment in them for Arctic work. There
is only one thing besides those | have
mentioned which consider good. and
that is compressed pea soup. 1t has a
great, deal of nutriment in 1T and IS es-
pecially palatable But it can be dis
pensed with if reduction of weight be-
comes highly important point, for the
pemmican and biscuit are trustworthy
standbys. New York Telegram.