ANTARCTIC TRAIL

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 129, 27 November 1929, Page 11

ANTARCTIC TRAIL

THE PROBLEM OF FOOD

BYRD PARTY'S RATIONS

FRUIT OF HARD STUDY

(By Kussell Owen—Copyright by Sydney "Sun" and New York "Times.")

LITTLE AMERICA, Ist October.

The most important thing on the trail is food, and the greatest trail problem is to carry enough food so as to give a well-balanced, and sufficient ration.

Too often the rations carried by I?3lar explorers have been deficient in quantity Of in nutritive value, for exposure and hard work in low temperatures quickly reduce men's stamina, and if their food runs low they wear out quickly.

If a tragedy does not result, it is only after the greatest suffering that they manage to regain their base.

The food for use on the trail by members of the Byrd expedition has been selected after a careful study of ■the rations used by former expeditions and a careful inquiry as to tho value of various kinds of concentrated foods. It gives each man a daily ration of about thirty-six ounces, or approximately 500 calories a day, or 1200 pounds for six men for ninety days.

It consists of pemmican, biscuits, butter, peanut butter, bacon, concentrated soup, oatmeal, sugar, powdered' milk, cocoa, malted milk, tea, salt, and chocolate. PEMMICAN AND BISCUITS. The pemmican was made in Denmark, and is the same kind as used by Amundsen. The biscuits are in themselves a good ration, as they contain many things. The concentrated soup comes in sausage form, and has long been the standard ration for the Ger- j man armies and has been used before in Polar regions. A lemon powder which contains the important vitamin • C is also an important part of the- diet, because of its antiscorbutic properties. The meals on the trail are cooked in a stove which is a modification of Dr. Nansen's famous cooker, and which was made by Master Technical Sergeant Victor Czegka. It is called the Nansen-Czegka Cooker, and will cook a meal for six men easily. It is built around a twoburner Primus stove which burns gasoline. It consists of a centre pot over the burners, which is filled with snow. The heat passes up the sides of the centre pot between it and a ling pot until stopped by a top pot, which acts as a cover and also contains snow. After •hitting the bottom of" this top pot, the heat passes over and down the outside of the ring pot and out at the bottom of the cooker. It will' hold twenty-one quarts. METHOD OF. COOKING. This cooker has proved very successful when tested in a temperature of thirty degrees below zero Fahrenheit. The snow in the centre pot'was melted in seven minutes, and began to boil at the end of twelve minutes. This represented about a third of a pot of water, but by the time the water in the centre, pot was hot, enough water had accumulated in the top and ring pots to be drained off through spigots and used for filling the centre pot. When camp is made for the night, the stove is filled with snow and started. When the water in the centre pot has boiled, the concentrated soup and pemmican arc put in and dissolved and heated. This makes a thick, nutritious soup. When that is finished, it is taken off and another centre pot is put in place and more water put into it to make tea. By the time the soup is eaten, the tea is ready. Then the first centre pot is put back and oatmeal is put in it. As soon as it begins to boil it is taken off and put into a vacuum jug and by next morning it is thoroughly cooked, savins tißie and fuel. At breakfast oatmeal is eaten with milk made from milk powder, and then tea is made and put into the vacuum jug to be used at the noonday halt. THE OTHER MEALS. The noon lunch consists of a piece of cold pemmican, a cracker or two and a piece of chocolate. The evening drink will probably be malted milk or chocolate, instead of tea, most of the time. The bulk of this ration is, of course pemmican, biscuit, tea, and sugar which are the most necessary items' the others being added for variety with the exception of the lemon powder, which has a distinct value. It can best be used in the. tea. There will be little-change from the soup and oatmeal rations most of the time, although biscuit or bacon can be added to the soup, and the ingenuity of men on the trail in getting a new combination of food sometimes produces surprising results. Almost anything new tastes good after a month or two of the same diet. „„ It is also possible, of course, that into the geological base by aeroplane on a base-laying flight. The coarser food is packed in bags, each of which contains a daily ration and the lighter foods are packed in Ltfn'n ea% °f w?J ch holds a wavtr V,% Paekmg the food in this way it can be stowed securely in the canvas tanks on the sledges, a/d only a small amount need be taken out each night for use, thus cutting down the time used m breaking camp in thp

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