The sledges were made of Canada elm, the cross-bars of ash. The upper and lower pieces were called the bearer and the runner, the uprights being tenoned through them. A shoeing of ⅛-inch iron, 3 inches wide and slightly convex on its under surface, was riveted and clinched to the runner. The length of a ten-man sledge was 13 feet, of a six-man sledge 9 feet. The cross-bars were lashed on with strips of hide whilst warm and wet, so that drying would shrink them and make all tight. The width of the bearer was 2½ inches, and there were six uprights, and six cross-bars 3 feet long. At each corner there were light iron stanchions dropped into sockets, forming supports to the sides of a canvas tray or boat capable of ferrying the sledge crew across water. The weight of the sledge was 125 lb. The tents were 15 feet long by 8 feet high, of closely woven duck, the head-rope of horsehair. The four tent-poles were of ash, pointed at one end with metal, 9 ft. 8 in. in length; the weight of tent and poles 55 lb. Seven flannel or felt sleeping bags weighed 42 lb., and a wolf or buffalo robe over all 40 lb., waterproof floor-cloth 12 lb., and shovel 5½ lb. The cooking apparatus consisted of a spirit-lamp holding 1½ gills, a kettle with a short spout and two handles fitted on it, and the stand, all weighing 17 lb. Then there were knapsacks for spare clothes, and a sundry bag. The irreducible constant weights amounted to 440 lb. The scale of diet per man per day was as follows: Lime-juice ½ oz. Pemmican[129] 1 lb. Biscuit 12 oz. Boiled Pork for luncheon 6 „ Rum ½ gill Biscuit dust 1 oz. Tea and Sugar ¾ „ Chocolate and Sugar ½ „ Tobacco ½ „ besides salt, pepper, curry, and onion powder. The fuel for this ration would be 21½ oz. of spirits of wine, or rather over a pint. The provisions and fuel for seven men for forty days weighed 876 lb., which in addition to the constant 440 lb. gave a total of 1316 lb., or 220 lb. per man at starting, the weight being reduced by 22 lb. each day. M’Clintock’s plan was that each division of sledges should have an auxiliary sledge to fill them up at a distance of 50 miles from the ship; and each extended sledge was to have a limited sledge to fill it up at a hundred miles further. At an average rate of only ten miles a day this would enable the extended sledges to advance 350 miles from the ships, picking up depôts as they returned.