A BREAKDOWN ON THE MOUNTAIN 



shouted the bedraggled dogs into movement again. 

 He sat by me on the sledge, and thumped my 

 shoulders to shake off the snow, and shouted in my 

 ear " Going back is best for you : you would only 

 freeze out here." 



After that the two drivers sat like solid men of 

 snow, and only came to life when their pipes wanted 

 filling or when the dogs threatened to stop. The 

 sledge toiled slowly on, creaking and groaning 

 through the soft new snow, and the dogs seemed to 

 be finding the way for themselves. I was mystified 

 until Johannes told me that we were on the wood 

 track. " Dogs come this far every day," he shouted ; 

 they know the road." It was a wearisome kind 

 >f travelling, with nothing to be seen but a whirl of 

 lowflakes, and nothing to vary the monotony : the 

 Irivers sat still and puffed, and I sat still and 

 livered. 



After we had crossed the last neck of land before 

 >kak Bay, we ran into fine weather, and no doubt 

 ic village was rather surprised to see us back so 

 >on. The people came running over the ice to 

 teet us, fearing that something had gone wrong, 

 id shouting in alarm ; but the first sight of the 

 tree of us all heaped with snow must have been 

 lough to tell them what things were like behind 

 hill, and no doubt the drivers had plenty to say 

 >ver the pipes during the evening. 



Three days later we made another start, when 

 ie storm had blown itself out, and found very little 

 the snowfall of the previous days : the wind .had 

 swept it away and banked it into huge drifts among 

 the trees, so that our road upon the frozen sea was 



none the worse. But though our first day's run was a 



183 



