324 THE LIFE OF E. J. PECK 



offered to take some of our load on his sledge ; I 

 also remained with his conveyance. While passing 

 between some islands we met with what might have 

 been a most serious accident. All at once Mr. 

 Greenshield's sledge, which was some fifty yards 

 behind us, broke through the ice. Mr. G. himself 

 narrowly escaped a ducking, which under such condi- 

 tions might have meant at least some frozen limb 

 or limbs. With great difficulty we managed to haul 

 the sledge up on top of the ice again, but nothing, 

 I am thankful to say, was lost. The accident was 

 doubtless due to the thin state of ice which had been 

 eaten away by a strong under current. Shortly after 

 this strange experience we saw some snow-houses 

 which had evidently been only recently abandoned. 

 We took possession of the largest and cleanest, a 

 line of action quite lawful amongst this free and 

 sociable people ; here we made ourselves at home, 

 boiled our kettle, warmed our meat balls with a 

 methylated spirit lamp, and then fiercely attacked 

 our evening repast. Our special man for the trip 

 is a Christian, and the man who has kindly helped us 

 is a candidate for baptism, so altogether we were 

 quite a happy band, and right heartily we sang 

 hymns together before retiring to rest for the night. 

 Rest would have been impossible, for some of us at 

 least, had all the articles on Mr. G.'s sledge got wet. 

 Fortunately, however, the very articles we most 

 needed were on top of the load, and these we were 



