ard journey
soon was obliterated. Once in the forenoon, as I pushed blindly on
against the storm, I heard a snort, and, looking up, beheld, only a few
yards away, a big caribou. He was standing directly in my path. For a
second he regarded me, with his head thrown back in fear and wonder;
and then, giving another snort, he dashed away into the maze of
whirling snow.

My eyes troubled me greatly, and the pain at length grew so intense
that I was forced to sit down in the snow for perhaps half an hour with
both eyes tightly closed. I was keeping some distance from the river,
as the obstructions here were fewer than near the bank. In the
afternoon it occurred to me that I might have turned in my course, and
I took my compass from its case, to satisfy myself that I was going in
the right direction; but my sight was so impaired that I could not read
the dial, nor be certain which way the needle pointed. And I wondered
vaguely whether I was becoming totally blind.

My day's progress was not satisfactory. I had hoped to reach the place
where George and I had forded the river, and cross to the north shore
before bivouacking, but in the deepening snow it was impossible. With
the first indications of night, I halted in a thick spruce grove near
the river and drew together a fairly good supply of dead wood. On the
under side of the branches of the fir trees was generally to be found a
thick growth of hairy moss, and with a handful of this as tinder it did
not take me long to get a good fire blazing. Close to the fire I threw
a pile of spruce boughs that I broke from low branches and the smaller
trees. I melted snow in my cup for water, and in this put a few lumps
of mould from the flour bag, eating the mixture after it had cooked a
while. On the couch of boughs by the fire I spent a fairly comfortable
night, waking only at intervals to throw on more wood and shake the
snow from my back.

The storm was still raging in the morning (Wednesday, October 21st).
With the first grey streaks of dawn, I boiled another cup of snow water
and mould, and then, slinging the flour bag over my shoulder, began my
day's struggle. The snow was now knee-deep. Soon I reached the fording
place. The river was beginning to freeze over. For two or three yards
from shore the ice bore my weight; then I sank up to my waist in the
cold current. Approaching the other shore, I broke the outer ice with
my arms until it became thick enough to per