268 My Dogs in the Northland 



Then there were sometimes long delays. 

 Some were caused by the great cracks or 

 fissures in the vast icefields where, in spite 

 of the fact that the ice Avas several feet 

 thick, yet so great was the contractive 

 power of the frost that these fissures sud- 

 denly opened, and some were so wide and 

 long that great were the difficulties and 

 long the delays in getting across them. We 

 could sometimes, over the narrow ones, im- 

 provise a bridge out of a long dog sled, but 

 when the cracks were many yards wide and 

 extended each way as far as the eye could 

 reach we found the crossing over no easy 

 matter. 



A raft of ice was the best or, putting it 

 more accurately, the only way possible for 

 us to safely reach the other shore. This raft 

 we made by use of our axes. We selected 

 a spot where there would be the great- 

 est economjr in the ice cutting, for at the 

 best place the job before us was a. long 

 and laborious one. Then the axes were 

 kept busy and at length a great raft of ice 

 was cut loose and on it we embarked our 

 dogs and sleds, and by various manoeu- 

 vrings we managed to reach the farther 

 shore. 



