68 BY ESKIMO DOG-SLED 



was fully six feet thick. And I was the more 

 disturbed because my drivers and I were all 

 ready to travel to Hebron in the morning with 

 one of the missionaries ; and how were we to 

 go if the ice was broken ! We had a long talk 

 over it, and decided at the least to go in the 

 morning and have a look at things. Then we 

 went to bed. 



Five o'clock came all too soon : I was hardly 

 warm among the blankets before thumps 

 resounded on the door, and I crawled out of 

 bed to find the drivers dressed in their seal- 

 skins, the dogs in harness, and the sled stand- 

 ing ready for its load. 



It was a bleak and dispiriting business, this 

 pulling on of cold clothes and boots by the 

 lamplight ; but there was work ahead, and 

 we were eager to be at it ; and by the time 

 I was dressed the sled was ready, and a crowd 

 of people were keeping the dogs from running 

 away. 



It was anything but a pleasant morning, 

 if morning it could be called. It was pitchy 

 black, with never a star and no glimmer of 

 moonshine ; and only the fact that the dogs 

 could smell their way along the beaten track 

 made it possible for us to start at all. 



For two hours the team trotted on through 

 the darkness, and then the sky began to grow 



