IN THE BARREN GROUNDS 215 



my cheeks and nose and chin froze, but they would have 

 done so anyway, and I could thaw them out by rubbing 

 with snow a limbering process to which the worsted 

 hood was not susceptible. To be sure, the method was 

 rather hard on my face, which by the time I returned to 

 Beniah's lodge was as blackened and cut up as an alligator- 

 skin ; and it was hard on my fingers too, which froze with 

 about every treatment of this sort, but that was no more 

 than I expected. So long as my feet did not freeze to 

 stop my progress, I suffered all else without a murmur. 

 I was as careful of my feet as of my eyes. There was not 

 much danger of their freezing during the almost contin- 

 uous running of the daytime, and at night when we 

 camped my first act was to put on my unborn musk-ox- 

 skin slippers and a pair of fresh duffel, which I carried in- 

 side my shirt, next my skin ; then I would put on two 

 more pair of duffel and a pair of moccasins, taken from 

 my sledge. Those I took off I put inside my sweater 

 and slept on them. In the morning I again put my 

 musk-ox-skin slippers and one pair of duffel inside my 

 shirt, where I carried them all day. 



But then these are details and probably uninteresting 

 ones and I must get on to my first musk-ox hunt. 



