196 
A BIVOUAC. 
into shreds and rolled it into a ball, but never offered 
to interfere with our progress. I remember this, and 
with it a confused sentiment that our tent and buffalo- 
robes might probably share the same fate. Godfrey, 
with whom the memory of this day’s work may atone 
for many faults of a later time, had a better eye than 
myself; and, looking some miles ahead, he could see 
that our tent was undergoing the same unceremonious 
treatment. I thought I saw it too, but we were so 
drunken with cold that we strode on steadily, and, for 
aught I know, without quickening our pace. 
Probably our approach saved the contents of - the 
tent; for when we reached it the tent was uninjured, 
though the bear had overturned it, tossing the buffalo- 
robes and pemmican into the snow; we missed only a 
couple of blanket-bags. What we recollect, however, 
and perhaps all we recollect, is, that we had great diffi¬ 
culty in raising it. We crawled into our reindeer 
sleeping-bags, without speaking, and for the next three 
hours slept on in a dreamy but intense slumber. 
When I awoke, my long beard was a mass of ice. 
frozen fast to the buffalo-skin: Godfrey had to cut me 
out with his jack-knife. Four days after our escape, I 
found my woollen comfortable with a goodly share of 
my beard still adhering to it. 
We were able to melt water and get some soup 
cooked before the rest of our party arrived: it took 
them but five hours to walk the nine miles. They 
were doing well, and, considering the circumstances, in 
wonderful spirits. The day was most providentially 
