and, had made him acquainted with all the
vicissitudes of northern travel. Under his direction I had procured a
number of the skins of the common cabri, or small deer, had them made
into a large sack of some seven feet in length and three in diameter. The
skin of this deer is very light, but possesses, for some reason with
which I am unacquainted, a power of giving great warmth to the person it
covers. The sack was made with the hair turned inside, and was covered on
the outside with canvass. To make my bed, therefore, became a very simple
operation: lay down a buffalo robe, unroll the sack, and the thing was
done. To get into bed was simply to get into the sack, pull the hood over
one's head, and go to sleep. Remember, there was no tent, no outer
covering of any kind, nothing but the trees--sometimes not many of
them--the clouds, or the stars.

During the journey with horses I had generally found the bag too warm,
and had for the most part slept on it, not in it; but now its time was
about to begin, and this night in the pine-bluff was to record a signal
triumph for the sack principle applied to shake-downs.

About three o'clock in the morning the men got up, unable to sleep on
account of the cold, and set the fire going. The noise soon awoke me, but
I lay quiet inside the bag, knowing what was going on outside. Now,
amongst its other advantages, the sack possessed one of no small value.
It enabled me to tell at once on awaking what the cold was doing outside;
if it was cold in the sack, or if the hood was fastened down by frozen
breath to the opening, then it must be a howler outside; then it was time
to get ready the greasiest breakfast and put on the thickest duffel-socks
and mittens. On the morning of the 22nd all these symptoms were
manifest; the bag was not warm, the hood was frozen fast against the
opening, and one or two smooth-haired dogs were shivering close beside my
feet and on top of the bag. Tearing under the frozen mouth of the sack, I
got out into the open. Beyond a doubt it was cold; I don't mean cold in
the ordinary manner, cold such as you can localize to your feet, or your
fingers, or your nose, but cold all over, crushing cold. Putting on coat
and moccassins as close to the fire as possible, I ran to the tree on
which I had hung the thermometer on the previous evening; it stood at 37
below zero at 3:30 in the morning. I had slept well; the cabri sack was a
very Ajax among roosts; it defied the elem