146 My Dogs in the Northland 



was on the great lakes, skirting along from 

 headland to headland, all that was neces- 

 sary was to point to some bold bluff or cliff 

 that showed up, say twenty miles away, and 

 say : " Voyageur, that is our next point, 

 now for it ! " Straight as a surveyor's line 

 would be the trail he would make, as with 

 his traces taut, and without a guide in front 

 or another word from his driver, he gal- 

 lantly dashed along. 



His worth and sagacity were specially 

 displayed where the route lay over danger- 

 ous, treacherous places on the ice. This was 

 not unfrequent during our late journeyings 

 in the spring months, when the brilliant 

 rays of the sun were disintegrating the ice 

 and so candelling or separating it into long 

 crystals that, although still several feet 

 thick, it was dangerous to travel on. A 

 person was liable to find himself suddenly 

 dropping down through this strangely disin- 

 tegrated ice that yielded to his weight and 

 let him down through it, while in innumer- 

 able long splinters it rasped or grated with 

 loud unpleasant sounds around him. To 

 be able to detect these weak places and wind 

 in and out and around them and thus keep 

 all the dogs and sleds following, on safe, 



