THROUGH HELL GATE. 345 



tearing up and fell into the hole, and on the heels of number two 

 came a third, which followed their example. 



This was the worst thing which had yet happened to us on this 

 perilous journey. Life and limb were at stake, and the fate of the 

 expedition was at that moment, perhaps, decided. As quickly as 

 could be I was on the spot to start the work of rescue, and it 

 was not long before the others came up, expecting an abundant 

 harvest of broken limbs and splintered sledges. 



In the grave lay pell-mell three men, eighteen dogs, and 

 three sledges with their loads, and the snow was flying up 

 from it in clouds. Here and there a sledge-runner, or a seal- 

 skin strap, was sticking out. Then I saw one of the men 

 crawling out of the medley and pulling himself together, then 

 another, and another. Thank God, they were all alive! And 

 the dogs ? They were lying in a black heap, one team on 

 top of the other, kicking, howling, and fighting, till we could 

 hardly hear the men's voices for their noise, so, apparently, they 

 too were alive. As soon as we had hauled them all up, we 

 set to work to shovel part of the drift away so that we could drag 

 up the loads. The first sledge, which, after much toil, we succeeded 

 in bringing up, strange to say, was whole, nor was there anything 

 wrong with number two, while number three was as intact as 

 the two former. The very astonishing result of this flight through 

 the air was, therefore, that not a limb, nor a lashing, nor bit of 

 wood was broken. 



Hardly had we recovered from this misfortune before we came 

 to a place where there had been a snowslip, and here, for a long 

 distance, we were obliged to clear a way ; but as this was pretty 

 straight across, and the slope not quite as steep as we often had 

 them, we decided to drive our loads in the usual manner. The 

 idea was that, if the sledges followed quickly on one another, we 

 should be able to get across all right, and this was the case with 

 the first two or three. Unluckily, however, one of the last to follow 

 overturned, and we who were in front had to let the other sledges 

 continue to move forward until they had come so far that there 

 was sufficient length for them all. 



"Whilst I was standing waiting for the others, I was told that 



