ng bags, the three all-important cooking
utensils of the wilderness--kettle, fry-pan, and teapot--an axe, and
Cabot's bag of specimens. With this outfit Yim was to conduct them
over the first half of their 400-mile journey, or to Indian Harbour,
where, through a letter from the missionary, they expected to procure a
fresh team, renew their supply of provisions, and obtain another guide,
who should go with them to Battle Harbour.

When the time for starting arrived, the entire population of the new
settlement turned out to see them off and help get their heavily laden
sledge up the steep ascent from the beach. At the crest of the bluffs
the men fired a parting salute from their smooth-bore guns, the women
and children uttered shrill cries of farewell, and the missionary gave
them his final blessing, Yim cracked his eighteen-foot whiplash like a
pistol shot, shouted to his dogs, and the yelping team sprang forward.
Our lads gave a fond backward glance at their loved schooner, so far
below them that she looked like a toy boat, and then, with hearts too
full for words, they faced the vast white wilderness outspread like a
frozen sea before them.

All that day they pushed steadily forward almost without a pause,
holding a westerly course to pass around a deep fiord that penetrated
far inland, and might not yet be crossed with safety. Yim ran beside
his straining dogs, encouraging the laggards with whip and voice; White
led the way and broke the trail, while Cabot brought up the rear and
helped the sledge over difficult places.

For several hours they followed the signal line with its fluttering
flags, and felt that they were still on familiar ground. At length
even these were left behind, and for three hours longer they plodded
sturdily forward, guided only by Yim's unerring instinct. Then the
short day came to an end and night descended with a chill breath of
bitter winds. Cabot was nearly exhausted, and even White was painfully
weary, but both had been buoyed up by a hope that they might reach
timber and have abundant firewood for their first camp. Now, when Yim,
throwing down his whip and giving his dogs the command to halt, calmly
announced that they would make camp where they were, both lads looked
at him in dismay.

"We surely can't camp here in the snow without a fire or any kind of
shelter!" exclaimed Cabot. "Why, man, we'll be frozen stiff long
before morning."

"A' yite. Me fix um. You see," respond