A RAVENOUS PACK. 329 



complains again of his leg, and was unable to proceed 

 further when we camped. He is groaning with the 

 pain. Knorr sticks at the work with a tenacity and 

 spirit most admirable. He has never once confessed 

 fatigue ; and yet, to-night, after the severe labors of 

 the day in lifting the sledge, and the endless trouble 

 and confusion with the dogs, when I asked him if he 

 was tired and wanted to camp, his answer was a 

 prompt, " No, sir." And yet, when we did camp and 

 the work was done, I found him keeled over behind a 

 hummock, where he had gone to conceal his prostra- 

 tion and faintness, — but there was no faintness of 

 the spirit. McDonald never shows eagerness for the 

 halt, but the labor is beginning to tell upon him. He 

 has the true grit of the thorough-bred bull-dog, and 

 holds to his work like a sleuth-hound to the scent. 



Let me finish my grievances. The dogs again show 

 symptoms of exhaustion, — my own fault, however, in 

 some measure, for I have watched with miserly care 

 every ounce of food ; and, last night, I gave to each 

 animal only one and a half pounds. Result — as I 

 have stated ; and, besides, to revenge themselves, they 

 broke into Jensen's sledge, which, owing to the fatigue 

 of everybody, was not unlashed, but covered instead 

 with three feet of snow. The brutes scattered every 

 thing around, tried to tear open our tin meat-cans 

 with their wolfish fangs, and ate up our extra boots, 

 the last scrap of skin-line that was left, some fur stock- 

 ings, and made an end of Knorr's seal-skin covered 

 meerschaum pipe, which he had imprudently hung 

 upon the upstander. Hemp lines now make the 

 sledge lashings and traces, and, as a consequence, the 

 sledges are continually tumbling to pieces and the 

 traces are constantly breaking. Another dog tore 



