176 
THE ICE-BELT. 
ing tlie sweeps of the bays and the indentations of 
rivers. 
This broad platform, although changing with the 
seasons, never disappears. It served as our highway 
MARY LEIPER R I V E R — T H E I C E*B E LT. 
of travel, a secure and level sledge-road, perched high 
above the grinding ice of the sea, and adapting itself 
to the tortuosities of the land. As such I shall call it 
the “ice-belt.” 
I was familiar with the Arctic shore-ices of the 
Asiatic and American explorers, and had personally 
