a line attached to the cross-pieces of the sledge-runners, flung it up on the ice-foot, and then piloted my dogs out of their slough. In about ten minutes we were sweating along at eight miles an hour.

"May 22.-The dogs were in excellent condition-no longer foot-sore, but well rested and completely broken, including the four lately obtained from the Esquimaux, animals of great power and size. Two of these, the stylish leaders of the team, a span of thoroughly wolfish iron-greys, have the most powerful and wild-beast-like bound that I have seen in animals of their kind. All attention was bestowed on these indispensable essentials of Arctic search. Dr. Hayes told me that in many places they could not have advanced a step but for the dogs;' and they are again mentioned as 'the indispensable reliance of the party.""

Recounting a severe journey, it is said,-"Our effort to escape would indeed have resulted in miserable failure, had we been without our little Esquimaux dog-team to move the sick and forward the intended lading of the boats, and keep up supplies along the line of march.

"I find by my notes that these six dogs, well worn by previous travel, carried me with a fully-burdened sledge between seven and eight hundred miles during the first fortnight after leaving the brig—a mean travel of fifty-seven miles a day."

CHAPTER XVII.

WHEN, whilst drawing a sledge, the dogs come on weak,

rotten, and unsafe ice, they tremble, lie down, and

refuse to go farther.

farther. Dr. Kane was once nearly lost in sealhunting on bad ice.

"I started," says he, "with Hans the Esquimaux, and five dogs, all we could muster from our disabled pack, and reached the Pinnacled Berg' in a single hour's run. But where was the water? where were the seal? The floes had closed, and the crushed ice was all that told of our intended huntingground.

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Ascending a berg, however, we could see to the north. and west the dark cloud-stratus which betokens water.

"In a couple of hours we emerged upon a plain unlimited to the eye and smooth as a billiard-table. Feathers of young frosting gave a plush-like nap to its surface, and towards the horizon dark columns of frost-smoke pointed clearly to the open water. This ice was firm enough; our experience satisfied us that it was not a very recent freezing. We pushed on without hesitation, cheering ourselves with the expectation of coming every minute to the seals. We passed a second ice-growth; it was not so strong as the one we had just come over, but still safe for a party like ours. On we went at a brisker gallop, may be for another mile, when Hans

6

sang out, at the top of his voice, Pusey! puseymut! seal, seal!' At the same instant the dogs bounded forward, and, as I looked up, I saw crowds of grey netsik, the rough or hispid seal of the whalers, disporting in an open sea of

water.

"I had hardly welcomed the spectacle when I saw that we had passed upon a new belt of ice that was obviously unsafe. To the right and left and front was one great expanse of snow-flowered ice. The nearest solid floe was a mere lump, which stood like an island in the white level. To turn was impossible; we had to keep up our gait. We urged on the dogs with whip and voice, the ice rolling like leather below the sledge-runners; it was more than a mile to the lump of solid ice. Fear gave to the poor beasts their utmost speed, and our voices were soon hushed in silence.

The suspense, unrelieved by action or effort, was intolerable; we knew that there was no remedy but to reach the floe, and that everything depended on our dogs, and our dogs alone. A moment's check would plunge the whole concern into the rapid tideway; no presence of mind or resource, bodily or mental, could avail us. The seals-for we were now near enough to see their expressive faces-were looking at us with that strange curiosity which seems to be their characteristic expression: we must have passed some fifty of them, breast-high out of water, mocking us by their selfcomplacency.

"This desperate race against fate could not last: the rolling of the tough salt-water ice terrified our dogs, and when within fifty paces from the floe, they paused. The lefthand runner went through; our leader Toodlamick' fol

lowed, and in one second the entire left of the sledge was submerged. My first thought My first thought was to liberate the dogs. I leaned forward to cut poor Tood's traces, and the next minute was swimming in a little circle of frosty ice and water alongside him. Hans, dear good fellow! drew near to help me, uttering piteous expressions in broken English; but I ordered him to throw himself on his belly, with his hands and legs extended, and to make for the island by cogging himself forward with his jack-knife. In the mean time-a mere instant-I was floundering about with sledge, dogs, and lines, in confused puddle around me.

“I succeeded in cutting poor Tood's lines and letting him scramble to the ice, for the poor fellow was drowning me with his piteous caresses, and made my way for the sledge; but I found that it would not buoy me, and that I had no resource but to try the circumference of the hole. Around this I paddled faithfully, the miserable ice always yielding when my hopes of a lodgment were the greatest. During this process I enlarged my circle of operations to a very uncomfortable diameter, and was beginning to feel weaker after every effort. Hans meanwhile had reached the firm ice, and was on his knees, like a good Moravian, praying incoherently in English and Esquimaux; at every fresh crushing-in of the ice he would ejaculate God!' and when I recommenced my paddling he recommenced his prayers.

"I was nearly gone. My knife had been lost in cutting out the dogs, and a spare one which I carried in my trowsers'pocket was so enveloped in the wet skins that I could not reach it.

"I owed my extrication at last to a newly-broken team

dog, who was still fast to the sledge, and in struggling carried one of the runners chock against the edge of the circle. All my previous attempts to use the sledge as a bridge had failed, for it broke through, to the much greater injury of the ice. I felt that it was a last chance. I threw myself on my back, so as to lessen as much as possible my weight, and placed the nape of my neck against the rim or edge of the ice; then with caution slowly bent my leg, and, placing the ball of my mocassined foot against the sledge, I pressed steadily against the runner, listening to the half-yielding crunch of the ice

beneath.

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Presently I felt that my head was pillowed by the ice, and that my wet fur jumper was sliding up the surface. Next came my shoulders; they were fairly on. One more decided push, and I was launched upon the ice and safe. I reached the ice-floe, and was frictioned by Hans with frightful zeal. We saved all the dogs; but the sledge, kayack, tent, gun, snow-shoes, and everything besides, were left behind. It is with real gratitude that I look back upon my escape."

The Polar bear is a redoubtable beast; his activity is far beyond what his apparently unwieldy form indicates, and his strength is gigantic. In size he frequently much surpasses those exhibited in this country. Wrangell tells of one which was nine feet long, estimated to weigh 1260 pounds, and took twelve good dogs to draw him along: Parry, another which was 8 feet 7 inches long, and weighed 1627 pounds. Yet, with the aid of his brave dogs, the Esquimaux does not hesitate to assail him single-handed with his lance.