WITH BARON KLEIST 
273 
ture grew colder the rain turned to a very wet snow¬ 
storm, accompanied by a thick fog. We could 
hardly see ahead of the dogs and steered altogether 
by compass. 
We were bound for a reindeer settlement half 
way along the north side of St. Lawrence Bay 
and after a while we brought up at what seemed 
to the natives a place they knew; on looking 
around, however, they discovered that they were 
uncertain where they were. Working our way 
along slowly, we finally got out to the slopes of the 
bay shore and stopped. The Eskimo were deep 
in a discussion of where they were and, as the 
baron told me, seemed clear enough about it, when 
suddenly the dogs started, pell-mell. I managed 
to drop on to the sledge and before I could do 
more than catch my breath we were tearing down 
hill at a terrific pace. The dogs had scented the 
reindeer and had started in their direction without 
more ado. How we got along without being flung 
bodily against the numerous boulders that lined our 
pathway and killed outright, I never knew; we 
reached the bottom of the slope without a mishap. 
Here we came across a trail which brought us to 
the settlement. 
The reindeer here were the first I had seen in 
Siberia; they had spent the winter inland, but now 
that spring was opening they had come out to the 
