216 BAD TRAVELLING. 



the dogs will draw it with ease. I have known a team of four good 

 dogs to draw a load of nearly a thousand pounds of iron for eight 

 miles, and the roads not in the best of conditions. 



While the men were piling the sleds with wood — we had two 

 teams — to carry across to the summer house, I put on my warm 

 clothing and prepared to accompany them on foot. It was a clear, 

 beautiful morning, and after walking some little distance the bracing 

 air seemed to give me renewed spirits ; but soon a misfortune quite 

 dampened them again, and rendered me unfit both in body and 

 mind to enjoy fully the sport of the day, or rather the sport that 

 might have been during the day. This was the loosening of the 

 stopper of my powder flask, so that before I could stop it, the horn 

 had swung behind me, mouth downward, and the povvder, to the 

 amount of about half a pound, was instantly a long, black, snake-' 

 like train on the snow beneath. Strange to say, my first impulse 

 was (thinking that the snow would soon wet it, and that it was im- 

 possible to collect any again) to utilize the waste ; so imagining that 

 it was Fourth of July, or Washington's birthday, I cannot remember 

 which, I hastily drew a match and touched the train. With a whiz 

 it exploded and a long burnt track alone remained to tell the story. 

 I had then time to think that but a single load remained in my gun ; 

 and that the sleds were fast overtaking me. 



It was very nearly as far home as forward to the island, and the 

 thought that a single load will often do the work of a dozen 

 impelled me forward rather than backward. By this time the sleds 

 had arrived, and together we went forward at a medium pace, a 

 fast walk, over the not very good ice toward the island. When I 

 say not very good ice, I mean bad for the dogs' feet and the easy 

 running of the komatik, yet not thin. We did not come to thin ice 

 until the point of the island opposite us was reached, and here we 

 came upon a narrow platform of thin ice, with the water close to 

 us on each side, over which we must pass. The water rippled up 

 to its edge in a treacherous manner, and the surface looked dark, 

 thin and wet. Thinking that we could clear it, with a shout the 

 driver urged forward his dogs, and with a rush we made for the 



