OLD KOLLEK GETS CAUGHT 



On my very first journey I had noticed two heavy 

 loops of walrus hide, tucked under the lashings at 

 the front of the sledge, and had wondered about 

 them. I soon knew what they were. Looped over 

 the front of the sledge runners they make powerful 

 drags. One is enough to check the pace on any 

 ordinary hill, while with two the sledge will stop on 

 slopes that look quite alarming. It is only seldom 

 I that the drivers really let the sledge go, because they 

 dare not risk a smash over an ice-hummock or a 

 wave of frozen snow. 



I have had breathless rushes on some of the 

 beaten tracks, where the men shout the dogs to one 

 side, or unfasten them and leave them to follow, and 

 the sledge whizzes down in a whirl of powdery snow 

 kicked up by the drivers' heels. There are very few 

 | hills smooth enough for this kind of work. For the 

 most part the winter passes follow the beds of 

 mountain streams, where jagged rocks and awkward 

 turns abound. But if the pace is not often thrilling, 

 the ride is crammed with adventure ; and many a 

 time as I clung to the sledge, bumping and heaving 

 down the slope, have I marvelled at the skill of my 

 jdrivers. The two men think like one, and the sledge 

 pimply obeys them. 



Julius, being the stronger man, has the lion's 

 share of the actual guiding ; Johannes is always 

 ready to run forward to the dogs. " Kollek, Kollek," 

 he would shout, " keep to the track : keep to the 

 track, you rascal. Ra-ra-ra-ra, go round that rock ! " 

 Kollek was a foolish dog ; his place was the outside 

 3ne in the team, and there he would be ! He did not 

 >eem to like running with the others ; and not all 

 :he shouting in the world would bring him into line 



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