CAMP FIRE YARNS 345 



and my driver had great difficulty in preventing a 

 smash-up. For a short time the deer held their own, 

 and, in fact, gained on us, but before the yourta came 

 in sight we were gaining rapidly. While we were 

 still at some distance the people of the village, warned 

 by the cries of the dogs, comprehended what was the 

 matter, and arming themselves with sticks and spears, 

 came running toward us. As they came on they spread 

 out in a fan-like formation across the trail. When the 

 terrified deer reached them they opened and let the 

 team through, and instantly closed again to dispute 

 the passage of our dogs. Chrisoffsky was in no wise 

 minded to let these natives club his dogs and perhaps 

 injure the valuable animals, so he resorted to the last 

 expedient. Giving a shout of warning to me, he sud- 

 denly, by a deft motion, turned our sledge completely 

 over, landing me in a snowdrift on my head. ,In 

 this position the sledge was all brake, and the dogs 

 were forced to stop, leaping in their harness and yelling 

 like fiends incarnate. I sat up in the snowbank and 

 laughed. The other drivers had followed our example, 

 and the struggling tangle of sledges, harness, dogs, 

 and men formed a scene that to the novice at least 

 was highly ludicrous. The drivers and the village 

 people were belabouring the dogs, and the entire herd 

 of reindeer belonging to the village were escaping in 

 all directions up the hills." 



Mr. Harry Whitney has many good stories to tell 

 of the Eskimos, one of which, though rather horrible, 

 will serve to show the high value placed upon a piece 

 of meat. 1 " Illaabrado's kooner was visiting at one of 

 the other tupeks when her children set up a cry which 

 8 See Bibliography, 7. 





