246 ON SNOW-SHOES TO THE BARREN GROUNDS 



myself, with several dogs, started after the three, which 

 were going at right angles to the course we had been 

 travelling, while the remainder of the Indians and dogs 

 went after the fourteen. 



After we had run about a mile the two Indians turned 

 back, and with them all the dogs that had started with 

 us but two. 



Seco was about fifty yards ahead of me and going very 

 fast. The more I saw of this Indian's running the greater 

 my admiration grew for him. He was 

 certainly a good runner, and, despite my 

 utmost efforts, and I was going well 

 too, I found it impossible to cut down 

 his lead. 



Both our dogs had gone ahead, and 

 we had run, I suppose, a couple of miles 

 farther, the musk-oxen being hidden 

 from us by intervening ridges for most 

 of the time, when, reaching the top of 

 one of the ridges, we saw the dogs 

 holding the musk-oxen at bay. 



Redoubling our exertions, for I felt 

 the two dogs would not long hold our 

 quarry, we crossed a couple of small, 

 rocky ridges, that lay between us and 

 them, and Seco, who had gained a little 

 on me, got within about one hundred 

 yards, when he fired both barrels of his 

 muzzle-loader, and missed. Simultane- 

 ously with his shooting the dogs left 

 the musk-oxen, which started on again, but more to the 

 southward, and, as I had not stopped running, this put me 

 fifty yards nearer them. Another half-mile of running 

 brought me to within about one hundred to one hundred 



CO-YUKON SHOE 



(Curved toe), 



Yukon River, 



4 feet long 



