CHAPTER XVI. 



THE ELK continued. 



|O terrible was the cold, that, having made a 

 movement for the purpose of wrapping my- 

 self up more warmly in my bison-skin, I 

 felt my hand, though only exposed for a mo- 

 ment to the air, stiffen, as if caught in an invisible vice. 

 I wrapped my head in a thick coverlet, and, ten minutes 

 afterwards, my breath had formed on its hairy surface a 

 coat of ice which chilled my very lips. The rarefied air 



