AND KAYAK 165 



hills she tasted some of the hardships of the 

 third-class travellers in the old English coach 

 ing days she had to push. 



On Easter Tuesday morning the sleds make 

 their start, and track westward up the frozen 

 rivers and through the winding valleys to the 

 moss-covered wilderness where the reindeer 

 find their food. The hunters have no luggage 

 on their sleds : no tent, no sleeping gear, only 

 a scrap of dried seal meat or fish for themselves 

 and the dogs, and a gun, an axe, a knife, a 

 packet of sticking plaster for the inevitable 

 cuts, and a tin of grease for their sunburnt 

 lips and cheeks that is their whole equip 

 ment, with the occasional addition of a kettle 

 for the making of a cup of Eskimo tea, weak 

 as water, and flavoured with a mouthful of 

 molasses out of a bottle. 



They start together, but after a while they 

 get separated, and travel in ones and twos, 

 or alone. This man s dogs are slow, and lag 

 behind ; the other man wants to try such and 

 such a valley instead of the beaten trail ; and 

 so they separate. 



When night comes they build snow huts for 

 shelter, and sleep on a bed of dogs harness 

 spread on the hard snow floor not for any 

 great comfort there is in it, but because if 

 they left it outside the dogs would devour it 



