282 ON SNOW-SHOES TO THE BARREN GROUNDS 



in our robes all day at its mercy and without tea. More- 

 over, our supplies did not permit of idleness, and every one 

 of us would rather face all the furies of the Barren Ground 

 blasts when we knew that at its end we should be a day 

 nearer the timber. 



It took us some time to harness the dogs, and then we 

 started, first getting the direction from my compass. No 

 language of mine can describe the violence of that storm or 

 the extremity of our difficulties in facing it. At first it was 

 utterly impossible to see fifty feet ahead of us, and as we 

 went on, beating our way into the very teeth of the bliz- 

 zard, the wind increased and the snow turned to sleet that 

 cut our faces and covered us with ice from head to foot. I 

 do not suppose we travelled more than a mile an hour. 



When we " spelled " we threw ourselves face downward 

 to the leeward of the sledges to escape the cutting sleet 

 and furious wind ; and when we started on again we had 

 first to dig the dogs and the sledges from under the snow 

 that in a few moments completely buried us all every time 

 we stopped. 



I blessed Foro that day, and forgave him all the trib- 

 ulation he had visited upon me earlier in the trip. But 

 for that dog I fear I should have been lost. From the tail 

 of my sledge it was impossible to see the one immediately 

 ahead of me, and the wind so rapidly swept away its tracks 

 I could not trust my dogs to follow them ; so I went 

 ahead of my dogs, keeping just far enough behind the 

 sledge in front of me to keep it in view, and just far 

 enough in front of Foro that he might not lose sight 

 of me. Both Flossie and Finnette, my two middle dogs, 

 were dragging in the harness, and it was all I could do to 

 keep them moving at all, while faithful Foro had the 

 double duty of pulling them as well as his share of the 

 load. It was impossible to distinguish the color of one dog 



