rter
and shorter as they advanced. But this did not much interfere with their
travelling. The long nights of the Polar regions are not like those of
more Southern latitudes. They are sometimes so clear, that one may read
the smallest print. What with the coruscations of the aurora borealis,
and the cheerful gleaming of the Northern constellations, one may travel
without difficulty throughout the livelong night. I am sure, my young
friend, you have made good use of your globes, and need not be told that
the length of both nights and days, as you approach the pole, depends
upon two things--the latitude of the place, and the season of the year;
and were you to spend a whole year _leaning against the pole itself,
(!)_ you would _live but one day and one night_--each of them six months
in length.

But no doubt you know all these things without my telling you of them,
and you are impatient to hear not about that, but whether the young
voyageurs safely reached the end of their journey. That question I
answer briefly at once--they did.

Some distance below the point where they had struck the Mackenzie, they
fell in with a winter encampment of Dog-rib Indians. Some of these
people had been to the Fort to trade; and Norman being known to them, he
and his Southern cousins were received with much hospitality. All their
wants were provided for, as far as it lay in the power of these poor
people to do; but the most valuable thing obtained from the Indians was
a full set of dogs and dog-sledges for the whole party. These were
furnished by the chief, upon the understanding that he should be paid
for them on his next visit to the Fort.

Although the reindeer of North America are not trained to the sledge by
the Esquimaux and Indians, several kinds of dogs are; and a single pair
of these faithful creatures will draw a full-grown man at a rate that
exceeds almost every other mode of travelling--steam excepted. When our
voyageurs, therefore, flung away their snow-shoes, and, wrapped in their
skin cloaks, seated themselves snugly in their dog sledges, the five
hundred miles that separated them from the Fort were soon reduced to
nothing; and one afternoon, four small sledges, each carrying a "young
voyageur," with a large bloodhound galloping in the rear, were seen
driving up to the stockade fence surrounding the Fort.

Before they had quite reached the gate, there was a general rush of
trappers, traders, voyageurs, _coureurs-des-bois_ a