hese consisted in fishing and hunting, and repairing boats and
sledges. Their canoes were made of skins and whalebone, and bits of
wood; but they were large, and capable of sustaining great weight.
They proposed to start as soon as the ice was broken up, and to brave
all the dangers of so fearful a navigation. They were used to impel
themselves along in every open space, and to take shelter on icebergs
from danger. When one of these icy mountains went in the right
direction, they stuck to it; but at others they paddled away, amid
dangers of which they seemed wholly unconscious.

A month was taken up in fishing, in drying the fish, or in putting
it in holes where there was eternal frost. An immense stock was laid
in: and then one morning the Tchouktchas took their departure, and
the adventurers remained alone. Their hut was broken up, and all made
ready for their second journey. The sledges were enlarged, to bear
the heaviest possible load at starting. A few days' overloading were
not minded, as the provisions would soon decrease. Still not half so
much could be taken as they wished, and yet Ivan had nearly a ton of
ivory, and thirty tons was the greatest produce of any one year in all
Siberia.

But the sledges were ready long before the sea was so. The interval
was spent in continued hunting, to prevent any consumption of the
traveling store. All were heartily tired, long before it was over,
of a day nearly as long as two English months. Soon the winter set in
with intense rigor; the sea ceased to toss and heave; the icebergs and
fields moved more and more slowly; at last ocean and land were blended
into one--the night of a month came, and the sun was seen no more.

The dogs were now roused up; the sledges harnessed; and the instant
the sea was firm enough to sustain them, the party started. Sakalar's
intention was to try forced marches in a straight line. Fortune
favored them. Not an accident occurred for days. At first they did not
move exactly in the same direction as when they came, but they soon
found traces of their previous journey, proving that a plain of ice
had been forced away at least fifty miles during the thaw.

The road was now again rugged and difficult, firing was getting
scarce, the dogs were devouring the fish with rapidity, and only one
half the ocean-journey was over. But on they pushed with desperate
energy, each eye once more keenly on the look-out for game. Every one
drove his team in sullen