188 THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE KARLUK 
therefore, and got out on this young ice but I soon 
realized that it was not strong enough to hold me, 
so I hastily and carefully made my way back. 
Kataktovick, however, was lighter than I; he laid 
the poles on the ice and, with a rope fastened to him 
so that I could pull him back if he broke through, 
he crawled over on the young ice and reached the 
other side in safety. Then I unloaded the sledge 
and fastened another rope to it at the stem; Katak¬ 
tovick drew it across with just a few articles on it 
and I pulled it back empty. We repeated this 
until we got everything on the farther side of the 
lead. The dogs got across by themselves, all but 
Kaiser; I could take no chances with him, on ac¬ 
count of his propensity for running away, so he 
had to be tied and hauled across. I got over by 
lying face downward on the empty sledge and 
having Kataktovick, with the rope over his shoulder, 
run as fast as he could and pull me across. The 
ice, which.was only a single night’s freezing, buckled 
and the runners broke through in places but Kat¬ 
aktovick got going so fast that they did not break 
through their full length and I got over in safety. 
Kataktovick’s safe passage was a relief to me. As 
far as physical endurance went I think he was as 
well able to survive a fall in the water as I would 
have been but his experience had been less than 
mine and if he had fallen through he would have 
