^Travels in Alaska 



and finally in despair he hushed his cries, slid his little 

 feet slowly down into my footsteps out on the big 

 sliver, walked slowly and cautiously along the sliver 

 as if holding his breath, while the snow was falling 

 and the wind was moaning and threatening to blow 

 him off. When he arrived at the foot of the slope 

 below me, I was kneeling on the brink ready to assist 

 him in case he should be unable to reach the top. He 

 looked up along the row of notched steps I had made, 

 as if fixing them in his mind, then with a nervous 

 spring he whizzed up and passed me out on to the 

 level ice, and ran and cried and barked and rolled 

 about fairly hysterical in the sudden revulsion from 

 the depth of despair to triumphant joy. I tried 

 to catch him and pet him and tell him how good and 

 brave he was, but he would not be caught. He ran 

 round and round, swirling like autumn leaves in an 

 eddy, lay down and rolled head over heels. I told 

 him we still had far to go and that we must now stop 

 all nonsense and get off the ice before dark. I knew 

 by the ice-lines that every step was now taking me 

 nearer the shore and soon it came in sight. The head- 

 land four or five miles back from the front, covered 

 with spruce trees, loomed faintly but surely through 

 the mist and light fall of snow not more than two 

 miles away. The ice now proved good all the way 

 across, and we reached the lateral moraine just at 

 dusk, then with trembling limbs, now that the danger 

 was over, we staggered and stumbled down the 

 bouldery edge of the glacier and got over the danger- 

 ous rocks by the cascades while yet a faint light lin- 



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