OVER THE LAND 



beckoned me to follow. It was with a little natural 

 trepidation that I set my foot upon the pasty-looking 

 surface; but I was not so heavy as the Eskimos, 

 and judged that what bore them would be safe for 

 me too. " KannoMungitok, immakka " (it is probably 

 all right) were the first words they said when I 

 joined them on the queer elastic ice, and one of them 

 stamped his foot and set the whole field shuddering. 

 It rocked and swayed as we walked to and fro, and 

 I wondered how the heavy sledge would fare round 

 the steep face of the headland. " Is it safe for the 

 sledge ? " I asked them. " Immakka " (probably it 

 may be), was their answer. " Are we to travel over 

 the ice or over the land," said I ; " what do you 

 think." " Issumangnik " (just as you please) said 

 the drivers ; and that was as much as I could get 

 them to say. To my mind they seemed none too 

 sure about it, and I felt that there was nothing to 

 be gained by taking a needless risk. " Over the land," 

 I said, and with a nod of agreement and never a 

 word the men turned cheerfully to help the sledge 

 up the steep wall. The dogs clawed and slipped 

 and whined as they struggled up the frozen brook, 

 and the drivers hauled and heaved at the groaning 

 sledge, while I clung to it in a hopeless effort to 

 keep my feet. The little flexible feet of the 

 Eskimos, with their tight- fitting and supple sealskin 

 boots, seemed to grasp the waves and roughnesses 

 in the slippery fresh-water ice, and up the two 

 willing fellows clambered, shoving the nose of the 

 sledge this way and that to give it the best road. 

 We found our tracks of two days before in the soft 

 snow on the land, and the dogs put their noses down 



and went whimpering along, distressed because they 



140 



