TRAVELLING WITH DOG-SLEIGIIS. 135 



track, tlian on the best road without tliem; but 

 when the trail is frozen perfectly hard, the voyageur 

 casts them off, and runs behind the dogs, who are 

 able to gallop at great speed along the slippery path ; 

 and in this manner the most extraordinary journeys 

 have been made. 



On entering the hut it proved to be empty, Milton 

 being still at White Fish Lake. They had observed 

 strange footmarks leading to the hut as they crossed 

 the lake, and were puzzled whose they could be. 

 Some one had evidently visited the house that day, 

 for the chimney was not yet cold, nor the water in 

 the kettle frozen. 



After feeding the dogs, and making a hasty 

 supper on raw pemmican and tea, Isbister set to 

 work to convert the sleigh into a rude cariole, or 

 passenger sleigh. Then wrapping himself in robe 

 and blanket, he seated himself therein, and in two 

 hours after his arrival was on his way back again to 

 Carlton. The dogs ran in with him by eleven o'clock 

 on the following morning, having accomplished up- 

 wards of 140 miles in less than forty-eight hours, 

 and the last seventy without stopping for rest or 

 food. 



Cheadle meanwhile remained a prisoner at Fort 

 Milton, being so stiff and sore from his unusual 

 kind of exercise, and so lame from using snow-shoes, 

 that he crept about slowly and painfuUy, to perform 

 the necessary duties of cutting wood and cooking. 

 As he sat over the fire in the evening, alone, in 

 somewhat dismal mood, the door opened, and in 



