XXII 



BEYOND THE ARCTIC CIRCLE 



ON the morning following our first musk-ox killing, the 

 bare skeletons of the cow and bull told what good use the 

 dogs had made of their opportunity. And it was consider- 

 able satisfaction to me when we broke camp to know that 

 at least the dogs had something to travel on, even though 

 our share of the feast had been very scanty. 



We went to the musk-oxen Seco had killed, and there, 

 after taking the robes, made a meal on the fat and replen- 

 ished our supply of dog -meat. Then we took up our 

 northward journey again. 



All day long we maintained a steady pace, with the 

 weather remaining about as it had been the day before, 

 except for a little more wind and a little less sun. We 

 had hopes of following the tracks of the remainder of the 

 herd Seco had chased so long the night before, but they 

 had been covered by the drifting snow, and we had seen 

 neither musk-ox nor caribou when we camped at night. 



Another ten hours of travel in increasing cold, and the 

 sun had gone down behind the clouds which all day it had 

 been vainly endeavoring to dispel, and we were about camp- 

 ing, when from one of the little round-top hills we viewed 

 two bands of musk-oxen. One of fourteen was galloping 

 directly from us about two miles off; another of three 

 was about a mile to the westward of the larger herd and 

 running almost due west. Seco, two other Indians, and 



