434 THE JEANNETTE ARCTIC EXPEDITION. 



his teeth were not equal to the contest with frozen walrus 

 meat, and when he showed ine the teeth I agreed with him. 



It was a long journey across the mouth of the bay to 

 Kolyutschin Island, and my dogs were not equal to the 

 emergency ; so when night came on I halted and built a 

 snow house. The natives who had started with us reached 

 the village that night, and were much alarmed for our safety 

 when they found we did not get in during the night. Their 

 anxiety was increased when the following day brought a 

 snowstorm which shut out the island from view, and left us 

 as they supposed without anything to guide us. 



When we started in the morning I cautioned Constantine 

 to keep faithfully in the tracks of the sleds that preceded 

 us, as they were but faintly discernible under the falling 

 snow. He told me his leader was a good one and knew how 

 to keep the road. For a while I trusted the dog's instinct, 

 but when I found the wind upon my back instead of nearly 

 directly in front of me, as it should have been, I began to 

 doubt it, and asked Constantine where Kolyutschin Island 

 was. He pointed straight ahead as I expected ; but I had 

 taken the bearing of the island by my pocket compass when 

 we halted the night before, and on again regarding it I 

 showed my driver that we were going almost exactly in the 

 opposite direction. 



I then took charge of the course myself, and after about 

 an hour heard the barking and quarreling of dogs in a team. 

 I could not see them, but shouted, and soon two sleds came 

 up that had been sent out to look for us. They seemed glad 

 to have found us, and said they had been worried all night 

 thinking we were wandering around on the ice. I told them, 

 however, that we were comfortably housed and that I knew 

 where Kolyutschin lay, at the same time pointing in the 

 proper direction. Then I showed them my compass, and as 

 the island happened to be just magnetic north of us it 

 appeared all the more wonderful to them. They imagined 

 that it always pointed in the direction you wanted to go. 



While we were at Kolyutschiu, Wanker came up, being 



