MY FIRST SLEDGE JOURNEY 



impossible for one sledge to stop while the others 

 went on, for the simple reason that the dogs will not 

 do it ; besides, the Eskimo is a companionable soul, 

 and likes to have all these little things done in 

 company. 



My drivers fished a sealskin bag from under the 

 doubled-up bearskin on which they had been sitting, 

 and after exchanging a few words Jerry went off to 

 disentangle the dogs again, while Julius made ready 

 to do the icing. He sucked a mouthful of the luke- 

 warm water in the bag and squirted it over the iron 

 shoe of each runner, running quickly along as he did 

 it and rubbing it smooth with the back of his leather 

 glove. The water turned to ice instantaneously at 

 the touch of the cold iron, but the men were taking 

 no risks every sledge was turned so that the runners 

 were on the shady side, another instance of the natural 

 resourcefulness of the Eskimo. Most of the men had 

 brought jars or bags of water with them, and the few 

 who had not came to borrow from us because we had 

 the best supply. The borrower had a very simple 

 method of carrying the water : he just filled his mouth 

 and ran back to his own sledge, perhaps a hundred 

 yards or more. 



Our sledge caravan got rather scattered as the 

 day wore on ; in fact, with some of the men who 

 had only a few dogs it resolved itself into an earnest 

 race to do the sixty miles in the one day. My drivers 

 took no notice of their hurry. " Let them go," they 

 said, " we are all right, we shall get there." 



Just in front of us there was a curious erection in 

 the shape of a house on runners, a sort of square tent, 

 somewhere about the size of a Punch and Judy show 

 only not so tall, built on a sledge. This contained 



