438 THE JEANNETTE ARCTIC EXPEDITION. 



left behind, while Wile-d6te, the native of the neighboring 

 village, and Wanker and I floundered on through the storm. 



At last we reached a hillside swept by the wind, and found 

 sled-tracks which Wile-do'te recognized as the right trail, and 

 we trotted along merrily until the sleds were caught by the 

 wind and swept over a precipice. I saw Wile-d6te and his 

 team disappear over the edge of the cliff into a cloud of 

 whirling snow, and knew that in a second we must go too. 

 I could do nothing but close my eyes and set my teeth when 

 I felt myself in the air and falling I knew not where. 

 Fortunately it was a fall of but about twenty feet to a snow- 

 bank, down which the dogs, the sled, and I rolled to the 

 bottom, while I saw Wanker, who had been sitting on the 

 other side of the sled, with his back to the cliff, shot over 

 my head and reach the bottom first. I knew no one had 

 been hurt, for the snow was very soft and we were almost 

 buried by the drift before we could regain our feet ; and I 

 could not help laughing at the ridiculous figure poor Wanker 

 cut as he passed over my head, rolled up in a little ball and 

 desperately grasping his brake. He looked like a witch 

 riding on her broomstick. Wile-d6te's sled was broken, and 

 falling on his leg caused a slight but not very painful con- 

 tusion. 



We then began to look around to find some way out of 

 this pit, but found it surrounded by a high wall of rock and 

 snow, except one narrow drift that led again to the top of 

 the hill. We plunged along as well as we could, but could 

 only make a few yards' advance at a time, for the dogs had 

 to be dragged along by main force. Time and time again 

 we were compelled to throw ourselves down in the snow and 

 rest for ten or fifteen minutes before making further exertion. 

 Once again we were blown off the hill, but this time into a 

 valley, which Wile-d6te recognized as the road to the village 

 not more than half a mile away. 



We now moved along more rapidly and soon found the 

 coast, and a short turn to the right brought us directly into 

 the houses before we could see them. Several times during 



