CROSSING THE LAKE 187 



Authorities differ as to the time it took for the crew 

 to make up their minds. Two seconds and eleven 

 seconds are perhaps the extremes of estimate. They 

 came jumping aboard as fast as they could. 



We attacked the floe, each with a lodge-pole; that is, 

 Billy and Preble did in the bow, while Freesay and 

 I did at the rear; and in thirty-five minutes we had 

 pushed through and were sailing the open sea. 



The next day we had the same scene repeated with 

 less intensity, in this case because Freesay sided with 

 me. What would I not give to have had a crew of 

 white men. A couple of stout Norwegian sailors would 

 have done far better than this whole outfit of reds. 



When we stopped for supper No. 1 a tiny thimble- 

 ful of down on two pink matches ran past, and at once 

 the mother, a Peetweet, came running in distress to 

 save her young. The brave Beaulieu fearlessly seized 

 a big stick and ran to kill the little one. I shouted 

 out, "Stop that," in tones that implied that I owned the 

 heaven, the earth, the sea, and all that in them is, but 

 could not have saved the downling had it not leaped 

 into the water and dived out of sight. It came up two 

 feet away and swam to a rock of safety, where it bobbed 

 its latter end toward its adversaries and the open sea in 

 turn. 



I never before knew that they could dive. 



About eight o'clock we began to look for a good place 

 to camp and make meal No. 6. But the islands where 

 usually we found refuge from the dogs were without 

 wood, and the shores were too rugged and steep or had 

 no dry timber, so we kept going on. After trying one 



