AN AUTUMN JOURNEY 99 



the best kind of blotter, soaking up all moisture. If you 

 have on several thicknesses of woolen socks, for instance, 

 you may slip to your ankle into water and get your foot 

 out of the water into the snow so quickly that this blotter 

 sucks the moisture out before it gets through all the dif- 

 ferent layers in to your skin. If you know in advance 

 you are going to get into the water anyway, it is a fine 

 idea to go to some place where you can stand firmly on 

 one foot while you stick the other quickly into water 

 and then into a snowbank. This will form a coating of 

 frost in your outer stockings which will later on be water- 

 proof and keep out further wettings almost as well as a 

 rubber boot. 



The Eskimos make admirable water boots out of seal 

 skin. These are always used in summer, but in winter 

 they are too cold and are put on only when you know for 

 certain that you are going to have a good deal of wading 

 during the day. This day we had not put on our water- 

 proofs and, as I was inexpert in waterproofing my foot- 

 gear by dampening and freezing it, I got wet through my 

 deer skin boots and socks. That evening when we got 

 home and when I removed my footgear, I found that my 

 heel was frozen slightly. Since then I have spent ten 

 winters in the North and this is the only time that I have 

 had a foot even touched by frost. I have already given 

 part of the reason — my inexperience. Another part was 

 that we were still wearing autumn clothing and were not 

 as admirably prepared for meeting the cold as we would 

 have been had the journey been made a month later. 



