avelling by dog-sledge among the Eskimos is rapid and exhilarating
when the ice is unbroken. When the explorers left the village and made
for the far east, the plain of ice before them was level and smooth as
far as the eye could reach. They therefore went along at a swinging
pace, the team stretching out at full gallop, a crack from the whip
resounding only now and then, when one of the dogs inclined to become
refractory.

The short day soon vanished, and the long night with its galaxy of stars
and shooting aurora still found them gliding swiftly over the white
plain.

At last a line of hummocks and icebergs rose up before them, as if to
bar their further progress, and the dogs reduced their speed to a trot,
until, on reaching the broken ice, they stopped altogether.

"We will camp here," said Cheenbuk, jumping off and stretching himself.
"Make the igloe there," he added, pointing to a convenient spot in the
lee of a small berg.

The whole party went to work, and in a wonderfully short time had
constructed one of their snow bee-hives large enough to contain them
all.

Here they ate a hasty supper and spent several hours in a slumber so
profound and motionless that it seemed as if they were all dead; not a
sigh, not even a snore, broke the stillness of the night. Next morning
they were up and off long before the first glimmer of dawn proclaimed
the advent of a new day.

Fortunately a passage among the ridges of broken ice was found, through
which the sledge was hauled with comparative ease, and before noon they
had reached the open sea-ice beyond, over which they again set forth at
full swing.

Little food had been brought, for they depended chiefly on their weapons
to supply them, and as seals abounded everywhere, as well as walruses,
they had no lack.

Thus they advanced for several days, sometimes being retarded a little
by broken ice, but for the most part dashing at full speed over smooth
surfaces.

One day they came to a long stretch of land, extending to the right and
left as far as the eye could reach, which seemed to be a check to their
progress, for it was extensively covered with willow bushes. Cheenbuk
climbed a neighbouring berg with Nazinred to have a look at it. The
Eskimo looked rather glum, for the idea of land-travelling and
struggling among willows was repugnant to him.

"I don't like the look of this," he said, turning to his companion;
"there seems no end to it."

"Let not my so