Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1911-05-05

bergen, which has had a permanent
population of. $4,000 souls, lies 800
miles farther north than this I'M
charted coast which Philip Cayley saw
before him.
But the great ice cap which covers
the top Of the world is irregular in
shape, and Just here, northward from
Alaska, 1t juts its im%penetrable bar
rier far down into the Arctic sea.
Rogers, Collinson and the Inflated De
Long-they all had tried to penetrate
this barrier, and had been turned
back.
Cayley wheeled sharply up into the
wind, and scared aloft to a height of,
perhaps, q quarter Of a mile. Then,
with a long. flashing. shimmering
sweep. he descended, in the arc of a
great circle, and hung, poised, over
the land itself and behind the jutting
shoulder of tho mountain.
The land was a narrow-necked PEE
ninsula. Mountain and cliff prevented
him from seeing the immediate coast
on the other side Of it; but out a little
way to sea he was amazed to discover
open water, nj the smoke-like vapor
that he saw rising over the clifhead
made It evident that the opening ex-
tended nearly, II not quite, to the,
very lands edge. 1t was utterly TN.
expected, for the side Of the PENN
sula which he had approached was
icelocked for miles.
He would have lowered again
above the rocky ridge which shut OF
his view, and gone to investigate this
phenomenon at closer range, had
he not, Just then, got the shock Of an
other surprise, greater than the dis
covery Of land itself.
The little valley which he hung
poised above was sheltered by a second
ridge of rocky, ice-capped hills to the
north, and, except for streaks. denot-
ing crevices. here and there. was quite
free from ice and snow. There were
bright patches Of green upon it, ev-
identity some bit of towering northern
grass, and it was flecked here and
there with bright bits Of color, yellow
poppy. he judged 1t to be, and saxi-
frage. Hugging the base of the noun
tain on the opposite side of h valley,
then %notching the clin and grinding
down to sea at the other side Of 1t
was q great white glacier, all the
whittier, and colder, and more dazzling
for its contrast with the brown noun
tain-side and the green-clad valley
Up above the glacier, on the farth-
er side, were great broad yellow
patches, which he would have thought
were poppy field, but for he impos-
sibility of their growing in such a
place. No vegetable growth was pos
sible, he would have thought, against
that clean-cut. almost vertical, rocky
face. And yet, what else could have
given 1t that blazing yellow color?
Some day he was to learn the answer
to that question.
But the thing that caught his eye
now, that made him start and draw in
a little involuntary gasp of wonder.
was the sight of a little clump of
black dots moving slowly, almost i'm
p~erceptibly from this distance, across
the face of the glacier. He blinked his
eyes. as If he suspected them OF play
ing him false. Unless they had played
him false, these tinysdots were men.
All of the party, but one man. were
dressed exactly alike, in hooded bear
skin shirts and breeches, and boots
Of whit he guessed was walrus hide.
They moved along with the peculiar
wary shuttle of men accustomed, by
long habit, to the footing and to the
heavy combining garb they wore. So
far as he could see they were UNI
armed.
The other ruan was strikingly diff
ferent. He appeared to be clad much
~ Cayley was himself, in leather.
rather than In untanned hide. He
seemed slighter. sprightlier. and in