He also cut weight by abstaining from the kind of fancy treats that Fletcher loved, which meant no smoked-oyster hors d’oeuvres in the evening before dinner, nor any claret with which to wash them down. (While Fletcher’s “skin-out load”—the total weight of everything he carried, including food, water, and the clothing he wore—tipped the scales at sixty pounds, the contents of Grua’s pack never exceeded thirty.)
