22O 



ON SNOW-SHOES TO THE BARREN GROUNDS 



and still going, but four had separated from the band, and 

 were running through some hollows that bore almost due 

 east. I instantly determined to follow these four be- 

 cause I saw I could get to the leeward of them, and I felt 

 they would eventually head north to rejoin 

 the herd. A caribou always circles up wind, 

 but musk-oxen travel in any direction that 

 necessity demands. Seco, with his dogs, was 

 just ahead of me, keeping after the main band, 

 and Echeena I had lost sight of. I knew that 

 separation from the Indians might cost me my 

 life, but musk-ox was the first and life the 

 secondary consideration at that moment. And 

 I started off at my fastest gait to the north- 

 east, keeping a ridge between the musk-oxen 

 and me, and knowing if they crossed ahead to 

 the north I should come on their tracks. 



I do not know how far I ran, or how long I 

 ran ; I only remember that after a time the 

 rocks and the snow whirled around me at 

 such a pace I could not distinguish where one 

 began and the other ended ; the great, dull, 

 dead white surface before me appeared to 

 rise and fall, and when I tripped over a rock I seemed 

 to tumble a hundred feet and to take a hundred years to 

 regain my feet. 



Sometimes I had to pull myself up on to my feet by 

 the aid of the very rock which perhaps had laid me low. 

 Once I lost my snow-shoe, and though it was really not a 

 yard away, I started on a run after it it seemed so far off. 

 Everything looked as though I were peering through the 

 wrong end of my field-glasses. As I ran, my eyes pained 

 me exquisitely, and I remember the horrible possibility 

 occurred to me of my right eye (which is, in fact, much 



ONE OF THE 

 FIRST STEEL 



KNIVES 



TRADED TO 



INDIANS 



