116 BY ESKIMO DOG-SLED 



of the drivers leaning heavily back, with heels 

 dug into the snow, straining their utmost to 

 stop the sled. 



The whining, frightened dogs were all about 

 us. 



Julius turned the sled bodily upside down, 

 to prevent the dogs from running away with 

 it, and then, as I came forward to speak to 

 him, he held up a warning hand. His quiet 

 " Ajorkok " (it cannot be done) was enough : 

 I knew that we had missed the channel that 

 runs between the shoulders of the summit, 

 and were on the very brink of a slope that 

 runs steeper and ever steeper to end in a sheer 

 precipice, down which we might have fallen 

 headlong. There was a tight feeling in my 

 throat as I drew back from the giddy depth 

 of whirling snowflakes and joined the drivers 

 where they stood by the sled. It had been 

 a narrow escape. 



" We must go back," said Julius. 



" No," said Kristian, " a little further to the 

 left we can get safely down : it is too slow to 

 go back." 



" But no," said Julius. 



" But yes," said Kristian. 



It looked like the beginning of a quarrel : 

 they appealed to me. " Go back," I said. 



Kristian heaved the sled around, and Julius 



