Nansen rightly decided that woollen clothes were the best, as avoiding condensation. He paid specially close attention to the foot gear. Woollen stockings were worn next the skin, then thick goat’s-hair socks, and over these came the _finneskos_ of the Lapps with the hair outside, stuffed, as is the Lapp custom, with a grass (_Carex vesicaria_). Large woollen mitts were used, and fur caps with ear-flaps. The cooking apparatus consisted of a spirit-lamp with a copper tin-lined boiler above, tall and cylindrical, with a copper flue carried through the centre, by which the hot air passed to a broader and shallower copper vessel over the boiler to melt snow in, all cased in thick felt. With this apparatus and 12 oz. of spirits a gallon of chocolate and rather less of water was obtained in an hour. The provisions consisted of Beauvais dried meat (which contained insufficient fat), meat biscuits, chocolate with meat powder, pea soup with fat, and tea. Some luxuries such as condensed milk and whortleberry jam were taken, but Nansen was very strongly opposed to the use of spirits and tobacco, as being injurious stimulants. The instruments consisted of a theodolite and stand, a pocket sextant, artificial horizon, azimuth compass, four watches, thermometer, boiling-point thermometer, and aneroids. Four of the sledges when loaded had a weight of 200 lb. each, the fifth of 400 lb. Nansen was a master of ski-travel. This method of winter locomotion has been used by his countrymen from time immemorial, and by himself from childhood, and truly the speed attained and the feats performed by Norwegian experts are marvellous. On very soft snow, however, the Canadian snow-shoe is preferable. Of his five comrades Otto Sverdrup was the son of a Helgeland farmer with forest property, and was born on October 31st, 1855. He had been 17 years at sea. Olaf Dietrichsen, a surgeon and a keen sportsman, was aged 25, and Kristian Trana, aged 24, was a forester. The others were two Lapps, both young men. The expedition started in June, 1888, and the _Jason_, a Norwegian sealer, took them to the edge of the ice on the east coast of Greenland and some distance into it. The explorers then took to their boats, but it was long before they could reach the land. Drifted to the south, they came to an Eskimo encampment at Cape Bille, and having reached the inner lead of water on the 15th August, boats were at length hauled up on the beach and the great journey was commenced. From the 17th to the 20th they were detained by storms with heavy rain, but the 22nd saw the ascent commenced in fine weather. The ice was heavily crevassed and _nunataks_ were visible here and there.