354 CONQUERING THE ARCTIC ICE 



and then, after the sun had left this part of the world, I started 

 to follow it, and expected shortly to see it rise over the southern 

 horizon. But I never saw the whole sun before it reached its 

 most southerly point and returned to bring warmth and light 

 to the northern zones. 



My travelling companion left his newly-wedded wife in the 

 care of Mr. Brower, who promised to take care of her until he 

 himself returned, and we drove out of town as fast as our dogs 

 would carry us. 



It was a glorious day, rather cold, 30 C., but calm and clear. 

 The wind had packed the snow of the trail till it was as hard as 

 brick, the sledges flew over it, and such of my old dogs as I had 

 taken with me were rested and in fine condition. The new 

 ones I had got pulled well, my sledge was light, and on we went. 

 Cape after cape was passed ; igloos and tents perching high on 

 the banks had no attraction for us, whose only aim was to go 

 southward, to use the fine days as long as we had them ; besides, 

 our goal for the day, a native shanty, was thirty odd miles 

 distant. And the reddish colours faded out of the sky, dusk set 

 in, but over the hills rose the bright orb of the moon, lighting 

 up the country far more effectually than the faint light of the 

 day, and yelping, with their tails lifted high in the air, our dogs 

 followed the man ahead of them, trying to play with him. The 

 last point was passed, and we saw a faint glow some way up a 

 ravine. We started towards it, the dogs smelt it, and we had 

 barely time to throw ourselves on the sledges when they whirled 

 by, and we were at the door. The people who had heard the 

 noise came out to greet us, and our day's work was done. The 

 natives unharnessed the dogs, fed them, placed our sledges so 

 that the dogs could not get at them, and cooked food for us. 

 Then we had a smoke, a short talk, and turned in, as the next 

 day we had to be on the trail again. Our host for the night 

 was a young native, married to the daughter of a white man, a 

 Portuguese, who had a small whaling station at Point Barrow, 

 and for whom the young man worked. The girl was intelligent 

 and rather well read, the husband a nice young Eskimo, and in 

 spite of the difference of race they seemed to be very fond of 

 each other. 



The next day was fine again, and with shouts and calls to the 

 dogs we hurried along over the frozen ground. We passed a 



