60 SPORT, TRAVEL, AND ADVENTURE 



and crackle, and far overhead a. deep rumbling broke 

 at intervals upon our ears. Our glacier home was 

 certainly no safe retreat, for it was gradually, yet 

 surely, moving downwards. My companions recog- 

 nized their perilous positions immediately they heard 

 the well-known grinding sound, but they said nothing 

 they were evidently of opinion that we were as safe 

 inside as out, and, as Stewart afterwards grimly said, 

 ' it would hae been an easier death, onywey.' 



The cold was very intense, and we shivered in the 

 darkness for hours without a word being spoken. To 

 such an extremity had we been reduced that Mac and 

 Stewart assiduously chewed the greasy strips of caribou 

 hide which did duty as moccasin laces, while I en- 

 deavoured, but with little success, to swallow some dry 

 coffee. If we could only have a fire, I reasoned, we 

 might live to see the morning, but without it there 

 seemed little hope. 



We had all grown apathetic, and, indeed, were quite 

 resigned to a horrible fate. I was aroused from a 

 lethargic reverie by the piteous cries of Dave, who 

 remained still harnessed. I patted his great shaggy 

 head, and, pulling my sheath -knife, cut the traces that 

 bound him. As I did so my hand came in contact with 

 the sleigh, and at once a new idea flashed over me. 



' Get up, boys ! ' I cried. * We've forgotten that the 

 sleigh will burn.' 



In an instant they were on their feet. One thought 

 was common to us all we must have a fire, no matter 

 the cost. Mac lighted a piece of candle and stuck it 

 on the hard ground. Then he and Stewart attacked 

 the sleigh energetically, and in a few moments the 

 snow-ship that had borne our all for seven hundred 





