s monotonous and uneventful. Gradually
as they advanced the travelling improved again, as the March winds
drifted away the soft, loose snow and left the bottom solid and firm
for the dogs.

Ptarmigans were plentiful, as were also arctic hares, and a white fox
and one or two white owls were killed. The flesh of all these they
ate, and were thus enabled to keep in reserve the provisions they had
brought with them. Bob was rather disgusted than amused to see the
Eskimos eat the flesh of animals and birds raw. They appeared to
esteem as a particular delicacy the freshly killed ptarmigans, still
warm with the life blood, eating even the entrails uncooked.

One afternoon they turned the komatik from the land to the far
stretching ice of a wide bay directing their course towards a cove on
the farther side, where the Eskimos said they expected to find
igloos.

All day a stiff wind had been blowing from the southwest and as the
day grew old it increased in velocity. The komatik was taking an
almost easterly course and therefore the wind did not seriously hamper
their progress, though it was bitter cold and searching and made
travelling extremely uncomfortable.

Less than half-way across the bay, which was some twelve miles wide, a
crack in the ice was passed over. Presently cracks became numerous,
and glancing behind him Bob noticed a wide black space along the shore
at the point where they had taken to the ice, and could see in the
distance farther to the northwest, as it reflected the light, a white
streak of foam where the angry sea was assailing the ice barrier. He
realized at once that the wind and sea were smashing the ice.

They were far from land and in grave peril. The Eskimos urged the dogs
to renewed efforts, and the poor brutes themselves, seeming to realize
the danger, pulled desperately at the traces.

After a time the ice beneath them began to undulate, moving up and
down in waves and giving an uncertain footing. Between them and the
cove they were heading for, but a little outside of their course, was
a bare, rocky island and the Eskimos suddenly turned the dogs towards
it. The whole body of ice was now separated from the mainland and this
island was the only visible refuge open to them. Behind them the sea
was booming and thundering in a terrifying manner as it drove gigantic
ice blocks like mighty battering rams against the main mass, which
crumbled steadily away before the onslaught.

It had become a