MY FIRST SLEDGE JOURNEY 



such a hurry that they tried to take short cuts of 

 their own, leaping over great snowdrifts and franti- 

 cally straining to climb huge hummocks of ice, 

 and we might easily have lost some of them, or at 

 least have had some broken harness, if it had not 

 been for the willing help of our army of spectators. 

 That dash between the hummocks to the sea ice 

 was like a nightmare : the flickering lantern, darting 

 hither and thither ; the dim shapes of men and 

 boys rushing about, chasing the unruly dogs; the 

 yelping and shouting, with the pad-pad of footsteps 

 and the grind of the runners the whole scene comes 

 back to me as I write. And all the while the people 

 were sticking to the sledge like flies, sitting, standing, 

 kneeling, clinging, getting a ride somehow, all in 

 a great good humour, and dropping off one by one 

 when we reached the sea ice. 

 So I got my first send-off. 



We were fairly on the way ; and Julius struck 

 a match and lit his pipe. In the flicker I got a 

 glimpse of his face, all glittering with frost ; his 

 stubby beard was decorated with icicles, and his 

 eyebrows were crusted with frozen snow ; and when 

 I passed a hand over my own face, I found that 

 I was in the same plight. Julius was on the watch : 

 he leaned over to me and said, "Did you wash your 

 face this morning ? " 



" No," said I, "the missionary told me not." 



"Good,"said Julius, "now your face will not freeze." 



I shivered to think what would have happened to 



my face if I had washed it : as it was, my cheeks 



and chin ached with the cold, and I could not help 



raising a furtive hand from time to time, just to 



make sure that I was not yet frozen. 



120 



