210 FOUR YEARS IN THE WHITE NORTH [Dec. 



pelled us to take to the ice-foot. Here our troubles 

 began. Huge snow-drifts on the hillside fell abruptly 

 into the sea. It was more like mountain-climbing than 

 sledging. We cut our way along these dangerous 

 slopes with our hatchets, so hard and slippery that it 

 was impossible to walk upright on them. Three times 

 my sledge skidded down the slope and disappeared over 

 the edge, being held only by the bow, the dogs dropping 

 to their bellies and clinging to the hard snow with their 

 toes. The first time I was foolhardy enough to hold 

 on to the sledge and try to save it. W^hen on the very 

 brink I realized that I was gone and prepared myseK for 

 the splash into the water which I knew to be below. 

 To my astonishment and satisfaction, the water only 

 reached my waist, for it happened to be low tide, thus 

 saving me from a complete bath. The sledge was with 

 me, bottom up, with bows resting against the face of 

 the ice. With the help of Ka-ko-tchee-a, I was soon out, 

 beating the forming ice from my bearskin pants with 

 the snow-beater and stripping off the wet boots to be 

 replaced with a dry pair of Ak-pood-a-shah-o's. Within 

 a half-hour the devil-bewitched sledge repeated this 

 operation twice. Once it was saved by fat old Ah-took- 

 sung-wa, the wife of Panikpa, who sat down on the 

 traces and called lustily for help. 



My sledge was now a mass of ice and my sleeping- 

 bag full of salt water. I must go on. A low tempera- 

 ture on the surface of the glacier would have made it 

 most uncomfortable for us that night, covered with 

 perspiration as we were from our late exertions. Fort- 

 unately, there was a light breeze and a temperature 

 of only ten below. Sixteen hours was our time for the 

 forty-eight miles, the longest and hardest trip over 



