s, and going through the water at racing speed.

"Well done, Norrak!" shouted the father, in rising excitement.

"Not so fast, Ermigit; not so fast," roared Simek.

Heedless of the advice, the brothers pushed on until they were brought
up by the pack-ice at the mouth of the bay. Here they turned as quickly
as possible, and raced back with such equal speed that they came in
close together--so close that it was impossible for those on shore to
judge which was winning as they approached.

As in all similar cases--whether on the Thames or on the Greenland
seas--excitement became intense as the competitors neared the goal.
They were still a hundred yards or so from land, when Ermigit missed a
stroke of his paddle. The consequence was that the kayak overturned,
and Ermigit disappeared.

A kayak, as is generally known, is a very long and narrow canoe, made of
a light wooden frame, and covered all over with sealskin with the
exception of a single hole, in what may be called the deck, which is
just big enough to admit one man. This hole is surrounded by a strip of
wood, which prevents water washing into the canoe, and serves as a ledge
over which the Eskimo fastens his sealskin coat. As canoe and coat are
waterproof, the paddler is kept dry, even in rough weather, and these
cockle-shell craft will ride on a sea that would swamp an open boat.
But the kayak is easily overturned, and if the paddler is not expert in
the use of his paddle, he runs a chance of being drowned, for it is not
easy to disengage himself from his craft. Constant practice, however,
makes most natives as expert and fearless as tight-rope dancers, and
quite as safe.

No sooner, therefore, did Ermigit find himself in the water, head
downwards, than, with a rapid and peculiar action of the paddle, he sent
himself quite round and up on the other side into the right position--
dripping, however, like a seal emerging from the sea. He lost the race,
as a matter of course. Norrak, after touching the beach, returned to
Ermigit, laughing at his mishap.

"You laugh," said his brother somewhat sharply, "but you cannot do that
as quickly as I did it."

Without a word of reply, Norrak threw himself on one side, vanished in
the water, and came up on the other side in a decidedly shorter time.

"Well done!" cried Ermigit, who was, in truth, a good-natured fellow;
"come, let us practise."

"Agreed," responded Norrak; and both brothers pushed a little nearer t