iS6 ON SNOW-SHOES TO THE BARREN GROUNDS 



rugged and confused whole. One can well imagine some 

 Titan ploughman had cross-sectioned the land into huge 

 ridge and furrow, stopping here and there to raise a mound, 

 and sowing all with rocks of every shape and size which 

 your fancy pictures into all kinds of animals. It looks for- 

 bidding, and it is a great deal more so than it appears. 



Twas over such going I had my first real experience in 

 dog-driving, for up till now there had been only the usual 

 handling of the sledge, and therein lie all the difficulties 

 of the art. If you can imagine a canoe pitching in short, 

 choppy waves, you will gain some idea of the action of a 

 lightly loaded sledge being dragged over this ridge and 

 furrow and rock. Without guidance the sledge would 

 soon pound itself to pieces, so you humor and coax it 

 through the furrows, ease it around or lift it over the 

 rocks, pull with the dogs in climbing the ridge, and pull 

 against them in going down. And all the time, because of 

 your enforced running alongside the head of the sledge, in 

 order to handle it by the "tail-line," you are tripping over 

 rocks you cannot see, being jammed in between others 

 you cannot escape, or blocking the progress of the sledge 

 with an arm or a leg, or, often as not, with your head. 



The Indians left me to work out my own salvation, and 

 my dogs added difficulties to those nature had already 

 liberally provided. The most exciting, and withal dis- 

 comforting, moments I had were in going downhill. 

 Whether in contempt for my inexperience, or misunder- 

 standing my commands, whenever we began a descent and 

 I called "W-h-o-a!" Foro, the foregoer, invariably broke 

 into a run, starting up the other dogs, and dragging me 

 after them, hanging to the tail-line, which I did not drop, 

 because I thought it just as well the dogs should learn 

 early in the game that they could not " shake " me. And 

 so sometimes I went downhill Head-first, at other times 



