you are above them, become exasperatingly obstructive
when you are below them. After a struggle of two minutes I got my head
clear, winked the snow out of my eyes, blew it from my mouth and
nostrils, and looked up. Lumley was standing there with a bland smile
on his amiable face; he seldom laughed, though he sometimes chuckled!

"What do you mean by grinning there like a Cheshire cat?" I exclaimed,
"why don't you lend a hand?"

"What do you mean by tumbling there like a Christmas goose?" he
retorted, "why don't you look out for stumps and twigs as I do?"

He made some amends for this reply by extending his hand and helping me
to rise.

In a few minutes we were clear of the pine-wood, and came out upon a
piece of swampland, where the stunted willow bushes just showed their
tops above the surface of the snow. This led us to a bend of the broad
river, near to which, further down, stood our outpost--Fort Dunregan.

For four months there had been neither sight nor sound of water in that
river. It was frozen to the bottom, except in the middle where its dark
unseen waters flowed silently under six feet or more of solid ice
through many a river-channel and lake to the distant sea. In fact, save
for the suggestive form of its banks, the river might have been mistaken
for an elongated plain or piece of open land. The surface of the snow
here was, from exposure to wind and sun, as hard as pavement. We
therefore took off our snow-shoes, and, the necessity for maintaining
the Indian-file position being removed, we walked abreast.

"The air is keen here," remarked Lumley, pulling the thick shawl that
was round his neck as far up over his mouth as his well-developed nose
would permit.

"It is," said I, following his example with greater success, my own nose
being a snub.

There was no wind; not even a breeze--there seldom is at such
temperature--but there was a very slight movement of the air, caused by
our own advance, which was just sufficient to make one appreciate the
intensity of the cold. It became necessary now to pay frequent
attention to our noses and cheek-bones and toes, to prevent frostbite.
But the sun was brilliant and the air invigorating. So was the aspect
of nature, for although there was no grandeur in the character of the
scenery, there was extreme beauty in the snow lacework of the trees and
leafless shrubs; in the sky, whose bright blue was intensified by the
white drapery of earth; and in the