r slumbers were broken and
restless. The uncertainties of the morrow, the peculiar nature of the
road they had yet to travel, and the excitement consequent upon nearing
the end of their journey, which none of them believed to be over fifty
miles away, all combined to render them wakeful and uneasy. So they were
up by the first sign of daylight, and off before sunrise.

As there were now but three dogs to a sledge, the load of the one driven
by Serge was divided between it and the one that brought up the rear in
charge of Jalap Coombs. A few sticks of dry wood were also placed on
each sledge, so that in crossing the upper ice-fields they might at
least be able to melt snow for drinking purposes.

"Now for it!" cried Phil, cheerfully, as they emerged from the scanty
timber, and shivered in the chill blast that swept down from the
towering peaks above them. Between two of these was a saddlelike
depression that they took to be the pass, and to it the young leader
determined to guide his little party.

"Up you go, Musky!" he shouted. "Pull, Luvtuk, my pigeon! Amook, you old
rascal, show what you are good for! A little more work, a little more
hunger, and then rest, with plenty to eat. So stir yourselves and
climb!"

With this the long whip-lash whistled through the frosty air, and
cracked with a resounding report that would have done credit to the most
expert of Eskimo drivers, for our Phil was no longer a novice in its
use, and with a yelp the dogs sprang forward.

Up, up, up they climbed, until, as Phil remarked, it didn't seem as
though the top of the world could be very far away. The sun rose, and
flooded the snow-fields with such dazzling radiance that but for their
protecting goggles our travellers must have been completely blinded by
the glare. The deep gulch whose windings they followed held in
summer-time a roaring torrent, but now it was filled with solidly packed
snow from twenty-five to one hundred feet deep.

As they advanced the gulch grew more and more shallow, until at length
it was merged in a broad uniform slope so steep and slippery that they
were obliged to cut footholds in the snow, and at frequent intervals
carve out little benches two feet wide. From one of these to another
they dragged the sledges, one at a time, with rawhide ropes. Even the
dogs had to be assisted up the glassy incline, on which they could gain
no hold. So arduous was this labor that three hours were spent in
overcoming the la