Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1908-10-26
TENTING IN THE ARCTIC.
How Comforts Can Be Obtained in
Coolest Weather.

The experience of those who tent in the
aItic during the colder winter months Is
to be summarized about as follows:
When the tent has been pitched the
temperature within it is some - or ~
degrees higher than outside, or ~ degrees
if it is 20 degrees in the open; one IS
damp and warm from the StenuouS eNei-
else Of the day, but soon becomes cold
and shivers: one craWis into his sleeping
bag and makes entries i'll the diary Gums
ilN with ones mittenS on, the neat from
ones body forms hoar frost on everything
in the tent, and conGcals in the sleeping
bag, so that it becomes stiff AND heavy
With ice during the days tIave! wien 1t
freezes ana soaking wet when one gets
into it at night and thaWs it out. fhlS Ill
turn Vets Cne'S clothing. ana the trousers
and coat freeze stiff as sole leather when
one breaks camp in the morning: the =
hours ar a round of Wretchcdress, anG
the ice-crusted tent ana icy sleeping bag
become Il heavy load for the sled.
When one follows Eskimo methods the
conditions are markedly different. on any
treelcss open nrlesS it be perhaps during
he first month of winter an area of COM
pactly driftcd snow is easily found: the
snoW-kniVcs (of bone or iron according
to ciicumstances) are brought out and the
surface Of the drift is divided into blocks
of domino shape, say IA by 80 inches and
the desired ground area of the dcne.
shaped hut: then. on the principles of
architecture that apply to domeS: whether
,nade of stone or snow, the beehive house
is completed.
Two men can in an hour build a house
large enough for eight to sleep in, When
the house is completed u doorway is cut
in It's side near the ground, skins are
spread over the floor. one brushes himself
as clear IF snow as possible and crhWls
inside The oil lamps are then it, and
the house is soon brought to Il tempera-
| ture corfideraby above the freezing
point: for snow is one Of the best known
| ron conductors of heat, and the int use
cold of the outside pcnetratcS the walls
| l,f,l,t han
| the house gets warm the inner side of
| the snow dome begins to thaW. and the
water formed is sucked up int" the snow,
| hlottel' fashion: when this water pohe-
| tratcS far enough into the snow to Elect
| the cold from the outside it freezes. and
your snow house is turned into an ice
| dome So strong that a polar bear can
| crawl over it without danger of breaking
| through.
| When orce inside tho house tho Eski-
| mos strip naked to thu waist and hang
| their clothes to dry on pegs in the wall.
| IN some journeys we had sheet iron
| stoves (rrocurcd from wFalcrs in for nor
| years.. which VIC installed in the snow
| houses and in which we built roaring
| fires
Onc is we'll placed to take comfort in
| the ingenuity of man overcoming a harsh
environment whom sitting snug, warm and
| lightly clad one listens to an arctic biz
| gard whining hclpleSSiv over the ice vault
| that two aours before WAS an oval snow
| hank. | lcnSed for q dressing gown and
| Shippers, hut one cannot burden his sled
| with such luXurics. There was no cold
| To make the hands numb in writing the
| diary, n" frost to CONCEAL on the bed
clothing. and ,raEc IL vet none of the
nights GiscnmfoltS and the morrow s
fore"ndin@s that have Loen the stock in
trade of the makers of arctic hooks And
when W" broke camp in the morning we
lid not h;rden the sled with an Ice-stif-
ened houndiedpound tert. but stuck in
our belt tho ten-oIince snow knife, our
potential roof for the coming night