it required all the skill of our practised drivers to avoid accident.
Clouds of snow flew from the spiked poles with which they vainly tried
to arrest our downward rush; cries and warning shouts from those in
advance, multiplied by the mountain echoes, excited our dogs to still
greater speed, until we seemed, as the rocks and trees flew past, to
be in the jaws of a falling avalanche, which was carrying us with
breathless rapidity down the dark canon to certain ruin. Gradually,
however, our speed slackened, and we came out into the moonlight on
the hard, wind-packed snow of the open steppe. Half an hour's brisk
travel brought us into the supposed vicinity of the Korak encampment,
but we saw as yet no signs of either reindeer or tents. The disturbed,
torn-up condition of the snow usually apprises the traveller of his
approach to the _yurts_ of the Koraks, as the reindeer belonging to
the band range all over the country within a radius of several miles,
and paw up the snow in search of the moss which constitutes their
food. Failing to find any such indications, we were discussing the
probability of our having been misdirected, when suddenly our leading
dogs pricked up their sharp ears, snuffed eagerly at the wind, and
with short, excited yelps made off at a dashing gallop toward a low
hill which lay almost at right angles with our previous course. The
drivers endeavoured in vain to check the speed of the excited dogs;
their wolfish instincts were aroused, and all discipline was forgotten
as the fresh scent came down upon the wind from the herd of reindeer
beyond. A moment brought us to the brow of the hill, and before us in
the clear moonlight, stood the conical tents of the Koraks, surrounded
by at least four thousand reindeer, whose branching antlers looked
like a perfect forest of dry limbs. The dogs all gave voice
simultaneously, like a pack of foxhounds in view of the game, and
dashed tumultuously down the hill, regardless of the shouts of their
masters, and the menacing cries of three or four dark forms which rose
suddenly up from the snow between them and the frightened deer. Above
the tumult I could hear Dodd's voice, hurling imprecations in Russian
at his yelping dogs, which, in spite of his most strenuous efforts,
were dragging him and his capsized sledge across the steppe. The vast
body of deer wavered a moment and then broke into a wild stampede,
with drivers, Korak sentinels, and two hundred dogs in full pursuit