Page:Polar Exploration - Bruce - 1911.djvu/114

110 food required for a journey has to be carried by the explorers. There is no food in the interior of Antarctica. There is not a single living thing, except possibly a stray lichen or moss, which may harbour an insect or two, or some microscopical invertebrates and unicellular algæ.

In the Arctic Regions, on the other hand, with the perfect and light equipment that is carried nowadays and with the modern and accurate long-range firearms, so different from those used by Franklin, Rae, Richardson, Back, and others, who actually starved with reindeer in sight, there is little chance of explorers not being able to obtain food supplies. It is true there may be difficulty on occasions in obtaining food by one's own gun, in certain districts, for several days, but it is scarcely possible now to be reduced to such extremities as Arctic explorers were in the days of Franklin and Rae, with their heavy equipment and primitive firearms. Even as late as the Nares expedition of 1875, extraordinary "regulation" equipment was carried—great solid sledges, massive canteens, heavy ships' boats, etc., instead of light sledges, thin aluminium canteens, canvas kayaks, and the like, which are the Polar equipment of the present day. A modern Polar explorer marvels at the wonderful achievements of his predecessors, which