However, we left the matter to be settled by our friends at the fort, who were more conversant with winter travelling than ourselves.

Indeed the loads appeared to us so great that we should have been inclined to listen to the complaints of the drivers.

The weight usually placed upon a sledge, drawn by three dogs, cannot, at the commencement of a journey, be estimated at less than three hundred pounds, which, however, suffers a daily diminution from the consumption of provisions.

The sledge itself weighs about thirty pounds.

When the snow is hard frozen, or the track well trodden, the rate of travelling is about two miles and a half an hour, including rests, or about fifteen miles a day.