, 1885-09-06

somr laad, when, If be recogni ed it he
would wend hs way home; all this It
he WIS Fortunate enough to XIII some
game to prevent starvation, OIL his home
OF Ice did not break mp into smaller
pieces. and b5 rolling over tumUie him
intost Vie water, when he must. sure y
drown. ANt AtH Fl
- he 9 we'll enough thai such drifts
OF 90 sea were not uncommon, and that
inanyb Of his friends had experiences of
heing absent two mud three days. and
occasionally as many weeks. liz also
remembered bitterly that some Of them
never rain ned 10 tell the sad utlu II
their Quincy to their death
have spoken OF il ~ winter. hut IL
Was late in hat time. and so abruptly
do the Arctic seasons change that winter
jumps TO summer without spring and
sumintr makes one bound mto winter
again without any appreeiable fall or
autumn mo OF his greatiears, there.
fore, WIS tho chance OF this warm
we,ther. which would make his ship of
ice less babe TO. hold togeihar in the
fierce winds OF the Arctic spring. He
d%e,outly hoped for the coolest lime
possible to help him out, of until he
could return.
The es uimau people are so used to
lardships and danger that they are not
prone TO sit down and bemoan their
tatc in a great emergency like this
shoe koke at once looked about him 10
comprehend his surroundings. and was
much surprised to see a dark oh cot on
the foe, to which he walked. thinking
i possibly another batch of kelp, and
was astonished indeed 10 see that il was
his light sledge and four dogs.
that he had brought with him.
The poor dogs, poorly fed for
the last few weeks, had curled up
together, and were so comfortable that
they had not even noticed that they
were atioat. Taking his huge snow
knife, which every 1 squimau man or boy
has with him, no built him a snow
house, near a large hummock of ice,
into which he could crawl and protect
himself from the fury of the gale, which
sent sprays of flying scud across the
open boat. Another snow house was
made for the dogs, into which they
were glad enough TO go.
For four long days he saw nothing,
and was commencing to get weak from
AH IAttthHtd ldHiluEs liO WAS llllkr
ing Of killing a dog to stay the pangs of
hunger, when to his delight he saw a
huge wslrus on a cake OF ice not far
away, and, arming himself with his
walrus spear and line, he prepared to
Stay 1t. Imagine his utter chagrin to
have the two cakes I oat by each other
Just so that no could not reach the one
on which was perthed the sea- horse.
and see it-enough to last him and his
dogs for months-thus just elude his
grasp, Again he went to bed supperless,
tut with such an improvement in the
weather that he hoped to be able to Kill
ON game very o and save Staying his
dogs, on which so much depended to
reach home again.
Hardly were his eyes closed when be
heard a most tremendous snariing and
swapping and barking out of doors, and
to which he rushed with his spear ia
hand, 70 find that his dogs had brought
TO bay a fair-sized polar bear on an ad-
joining cake of ice. Mr.. Bruin had
scented the camp, and was inyestigat
ing when he woke up the dogs. I'm
daunted, Shoe hoke resolutely attacked
him, and though he sorely wished for
his lance. away of home, or better
still, some gun in the village, he did not
despair, and after being nearly killed
by a feroeious charge from the creature
he got a thrust in his neck which killed
bin. The sub ect of food for a long
time was settled by this lucky stroke.
II would be altogether too long to tell
yon about hoo oke S adventures with
polar lears, walrus and seals, hut in
these encounters he kept himself and
his four dogs well supplied with food
- hilo he was hutehering tbs FIRST lear
on its separate cake of ice, and chai. 70
ing to look around, he saw that his
snow house and sledge had disappeared,
and ho had to build another igloo on
the new roe.
AnNiously he watched for land, sit
ting on the top Of his snow house and
scanning the sea with its drifting ice
packs. If course no looked only in the
dire ton from whence he had come. the
northward, but was surprised and glad
dened Wy seeing it to the east one day.
That night another gale arose, and his
Ice 10 broke into several, one crack
running right through the center of his
house and splitting it in two. When
morning broke he saw that he was not
over fifty yards from land, and he lost
no time in reaching it over the danger
Gus rolling axes OF ice, ha ing been out
10 sea over a moon, as they reckon time
from one full moon to another
About a day alter Ian ing he came
across ONE squimaux, who took him
for d ghost. lille they could talk to
each other, yet their language was very
strange to him.
lie now found that he wa on the
great island o Sed-luk Southampton
of which his tribe had n hal tabled
knowledge They treated him kindly.
rs all these Esquimaux do strangers
and they soon became great friends.
The ice had already broken up between
Scd-luk and another greater island
farther north, and, as his new friends
had no good boats. he had TO wait until
the next winter TO cross on the ice with
his dogs and n sledye they gave him.
Here he travelled 200 to 300 miles north
ward from tribe TO tribe, all strangers
until he crossed the frozen STRAIT. and
then turned southwark and westward
and Travelled almost y like distance
before he reached home, when ho
frightened them rs q ghost, they having
long since given him up rs dead. as he
had been gone within a month or two
OF q year Surely II was q most mirac
rlous es ape from death in many ways.
49, 49,.