k of rescuing ourselves. The
savage had pointed out to us the direction of the place where the ships
passed, 'And now,' we thought, 'if we can only reach the land there
before the summer comes we shall be all right.' But if we should not get
to the proper place, or if the ships did not come along, then the
chances were that we might starve or freeze to death. Nothing daunted,
however, by the contemplation of that gloomy side of the picture, we
went earnestly to work, and very soon had contrived a plan.

"Of course we must have a sledge, as we were obliged to travel a long
distance, and must carry not only food to eat by the way, but blubber
for a lamp with which to melt water from the snow, and furs to keep us
warm while we slept. Eatum had taught us how to construct a snow hut, so
that we felt sure of being able to shelter ourselves from the storms.

"But the sledge was the great difficulty. How should we make a sledge?
was the question which most occupied our thoughts, and taxed our
ingenuity. Apparently we had nothing to make it of, nor tools to make it
with. To fasten together pieces of bone in the manner that Eatum had
done, and thus construct a runner, was not possible, as we had no drill
to make holes with,--and besides, if we had, the work would have
required too long a time for our present necessities. Our purpose was to
get away from the island with all possible haste.

"We made a sledge, however, at last, and in a very ingenious way as we
thought, though not a particularly good way as we afterwards discovered.
First we cut two strips of seal-skin, and sewed them into tubes. Then we
filled the tubes with hair, and pieces of meat chopped very fine, and
also bits of moss. Then we poured water into the tubes, and flattened
them down by stamping upon them. Very soon the whole froze together,
solid as a board, and these we soon fashioned into the proper shape for
runners. We found no difficulty in fastening the two together with
cross-ties of bone, which we lashed firmly to the runners. Thus, in
seven days from the time of beginning to work upon it, our sledge was
complete.

"Very much rejoiced over this triumph, we put a load on the sledge, and
set out to give it a trial. But one runner gave way before we had gone a
dozen fathoms, and we were in a state of great perplexity. We resolved
now to bundle up everything we needed in a bear-skin, and drag that over
the snow after us, so great was our haste to get away.