RACKET WALK ACROSS THE BAY. 185 



over ridges of drifted snow and patches of smooth ice, on which 

 as with the schoolboy it seemed as if for every step forward I 

 took two backward, and that it would have been much better to 

 have turned, as he did, and walked backwards ; but at last the diffi- 

 culty was overcome and the snow reached again when the travelling 

 was smooth for some distance. 



The wind had as yet hardly sprung up, yet the clear but rather 

 cold air was unusually invigorating. The hills on either side 

 looked quite fresh and clear in outline against the sky, and 

 the day gave promise of being unusually fine. Everywhere, snow ! 

 snow ! snow ! It seemed as if the elements combined to make bad 

 travelling for the sledges, for it is hard work for the dogs to haul 

 the komatiks through the snow on the bay, especially when the salt 

 water penetrates the ice, or rather the partially thawed top of the 

 salt water ice, which, it must be remembered, requires a much lower 

 temperature to freeze than fresh water, alternate with the deep 

 ridges of soft snow ; but with rackets the case is different and these 

 snow heaps were just the kind of material for good walking. I soon 

 struck for the highland on the left and was just approaching a lit- 

 tle opening between the mainland and an island — such openings 

 are called here by the name of ''tickle" — when a gust of wind 

 from the northeast, and in the exact line through which I was to pass, 

 struck me fiercely. The snow was piled in deep, uneven ridges ; 

 cakes of ice had been thrown upon each other by a recent partial 

 thaw blocking the way before me ; and the wind, added to these 

 hindrances, almost forced me to abandon my design. The gust 

 swept fiercely through the narrow opening, and I was glad when 

 safe on the other side and once more set out across the long 

 stretch of bay between me and the island half-way to my stopping 

 place. 



The hills on the coast receded on the left in an oudine of un- 

 dulating crests far eastward ; on the far west was the ridge of high 

 hills that formed the entrance of Old Fort Bay ; beyond lay in- 

 numerable islands, often so close together that they seemed to form 



