58 SPORT, TRAVEL, AND ADVENTURE 



At three o'clock we had travelled but two and a 

 half miles, and the storm was yet rising. Had we 

 been provided with food our position would not have 

 caused us much alarm, but coffee had been our lot 

 for forty-eight hours, and now raw coffee alone must 

 be our portion, for we were above timber limit, and 

 so could have no fire. Starvation from cold and hunger 

 combined promised to be rather a miserable finish 

 to our labours. The deep breathing of my companions 

 betrayed their sufferings ; their weakened frames could 

 ill endure such buffetings. At every other step they 

 would sink in the vapoury snow, while poor Dave's 

 muffled howls were pitiful to hear. 



' We'll have to camp again, boys,' I shouted. But 

 where could we camp and preserve our already freezing 

 bodies? As I have said, we were beyond timber limit ; 

 only the dull drifting snow appeared on every side, 

 and the darkness was quickly hiding even that from 

 view. I relinquished my sleigh rope, and battled for- 

 ward against the blizzard alone. My snow-shoes 

 skimmed rapidly over the treacherous drifts, but the 

 extreme exertion was too much for me, and I had to 

 come to a halt. The air in such a latitude, and at 

 3,500 feet altitude, is keen enough even when there is 

 no blizzard raging. In the few hundred yards I had 

 sped ahead I had left my comrades hopelessly behind ; 

 they were blotted from my sight as if by an impene- 

 trable pall. Suddenly, through a cleft in the driving 

 sleet, I caught a glimpse of a blue glistening mass 

 close before me. I remembered that I was in the 

 vicinity of the large glacier at ' Happy Camp/ but 

 the glacier had evidently ' calved,' for it was formerly 

 well up the mountain-side. I staggered over to it, and 



