ARRIVAL AT THE COAST 79 



necessary that one of us should travel in front of the dogs and 

 they would follow. This was our mode of travelling: a runner 

 going in front of the dogs and they following. 



Late in the afternoon, I was the leader and we came to a 

 little hill. I was feeling tired and thought I would drop out and 

 let the dogs go on ; but instead of that they ran up the little hill 

 after me and struck a log and upset the machine and then they 

 turned on each other and had a fight. When we camped that 

 night, we decided that the dogs with the toboggan were of no use 

 to us and we resolved that after this the dogs would be packed and 

 so we would travel in that way. This evening, while at supper, 

 I complained of feeling somewhat sick as I was shaky all over and 

 Horetzky said, "Well, let us see what the thermometer is." We 

 found it was down to zero. 



"The weather had now become very cold, the mercury stand- 

 ing at zero at sundown. This night, we made our first winter 

 camp of the season. Having chosen a convenient spot with 

 plenty of green spruce and a sufficient quantity of dry wood at 

 hand, one of us cleared away the snow while another cut spruce 

 branches and a third chopped dry wood in lengths of eight or 

 ten feet. Spreading the spruce on the ground to a depth of six 

 inches or so, we arranged the wood in front and soon had a roaring 

 fire by which we boiled water for tea and were presently in the 

 enjoyment of a good supper of pemmican, bread, and scalding 

 hot tea. After supper, we all spent half an hour in getting an 

 extra supply of wood which was piled up close at hand to replenish 

 the fire, and spreading our blankets we lay down with our feet to 

 to the blaze and were soon snoring with faces upturned to the 

 clear and glittering sky. In a winter encampment, a covering is 

 rarely, if ever, used although sometimes a piece of thin sheeting 

 cotton is spread behind to break the force of the wind." 



"The following morning at six o'clock the mercury stood at 

 ten degrees below zero and the air was sufficiently keen to render 

 heat from about a cord of blazing logs perfectly enjoyable." 



Our camp was by a lake which we designed to cross in the 

 morning. While they were packing up, I went down to the lake 

 shore with an axe and tried the ice and found it three inches thick 



