ought Bob, and he voiced the
sentiment to Matuk.

"Atsuk"--I don't know--said the Eskimo with a shrug of the shoulders.

While, as we have seen, none of the Eskimos would take the place of
Akonuk and Matuk, they gave them sufficient seal meat and blubber for
a two weeks' journey, and early the next morning the march eastward
was resumed.

Bob was now driven to eating seal meat, as all his other provisions
were exhausted, though, fortunately, he still had an abundance of tea.
He had often eaten seal meat at home and was rather fond of it when it
was properly cooked, but now no wood with which to make a fire was to
be had. The land was absolutely barren, and even the moss was so
deeply hidden beneath the snow it could not be resorted to for this
purpose. Evenings in the igloo he boiled some meat over the stone
lamp--enough to last him through the following day--but at best he
could get it but partially cooked. However, he soon learned not to
mind this much, for hunger is the best imaginable sauce, and in the
cold of the Arctic north one can eat with a relish what could not be
endured in a milder climate.

For several days they traversed mountain passes where they were shut
in by towering, rugged peaks which seemed to reach to the very
heavens. Bleak and desolate as the landscape was it possessed a
magnificence and grandeur that demanded admiration and called forth
Bob's constant wonder. He would gaze up at the mysterious white
summits and ejaculate,

"'Tis grand! 'Tis wonderful grand!"

Such mountains he had never seen before, and like all wilderness
dwellers he was a lover of Nature's beauties and a close observer of
her wonders.

It was near the middle of April now and the sun's rays, reflected by
the snow, were growing dazzlingly bright and beginning to affect their
eyes. Goggles should have been worn as a protection against this glare
but they had none and did not trouble to make them until one night
Matuk found that he was overtaken by a slight attack of
snow-blindness. This is an extremely painful affliction which does not
permit the sufferer to approach the light or, in fact, so much as open
his eyes without experiencing agony. The sensation is that of having
innumerable splinters driven into the eyeballs with the lids when
opened and closed grating over the splinters.

While they were waiting for Matuk to recover his eyesight Akonuk and
Bob removed one of the wooden cross-bars from the komatik and with