78 BY ESKIMO DOG-SLED 



footprints of deer on that bank of snow. 

 Between fifteen and twenty of them have 

 passed towards the East this morning." 



That night we slept in a hut a few miles 

 from the foot of the pass, where an Eskimo 

 was spending the winter to be nearer to the 

 hunting places. As I lay in my sealskin 

 sleeping-bag, trying to find a soft spot on the 

 hard floor, I heard the Eskimos talking about 

 those deer tracks ; and when we got up in 

 the morning the owner of the hut was making 

 ready to go and see them for himself. Before 

 we left we watched him drive his dog-team 

 away towards the mountains, turning every 

 now and again to wave his hand to us. I 

 think that he had a special smile for me that 

 morning, because I had given him some hand- 

 fuls of hard biscuits, which he said would do 

 splendidly for food for his trip. " Biscuits 

 never freeze," said he, and he put them in a 

 little bag and tied them to his sled, popping 

 a piece in his mouth meanwhile He munched 

 his biscuit very happily while he put the 

 harness on his dogs ; and I thought of my 

 frozen bread and butter of the day before, 

 for I knew that the biscuit was almost as 

 hard. But that hunter had Eskimo teeth, 

 which are made for chewing hard things. 

 He drove away, and we watched him out 



