snow,
lighted with a magnificent golden flush at sunrise. The morning was
icy-clear and dazzling. There was not the least warmth in the sun's
rays, but it was pleasant to see him with a white face once more. We
could still stare at him without winking, but the reflection from the
jewelled snow pained our eyes. The cold was so keen that we were obliged
to keep our faces buried between our caps and boas, leaving only the
smallest possible vacancy for the eyes. This was exceedingly
disagreeable, on account of the moisture from the breath, which kept the
squirrel tails constantly wet and sticky. Nevertheless, the cold
penetrated through the little aperture; my eyes and forehead were like
marble, the eyeballs like lumps of ice, sending a sharp pang of cold
backward into the brain. I realised distinctly how a statue must feel.

Beyond Pello, where we stopped to "fire up," our road lay mostly on the
Russian side. While crossing the Tornea at sunset, we met a drove of
seventy or eighty reindeer, in charge of a dozen Lapps, who were
bringing a cargo from Haparanda. We were obliged to turn off the road
and wait until they had passed. The landlord at Juoxengi, who was quite
drunk, hailed us with a shout and a laugh, and began talking about
Kautokeino. We had some difficulty in getting rid of his conversation,
and his importunities for us to stay all night. This was the place where
they tried to make us leave, on the way up. I replied to the landlord's
torrent of Finnish with some choice specimens of Kentucky oratory, which
seemed to make but little impression on him. He gave us excellent
horses, however, and we sped away again, by the light of another
brilliant auroral arch.

Our long exposure to the extreme cold, coupled as it was with lack of
rest and nourishment, now began to tell upon us. Our temperature fell so
low that we again had recourse to the rum, which alone, I verily
believe, prevented us from freezing bodily. One is locked in the iron
embrace of the polar air, until the very life seems to be squeezed out
of him. I huddled myself in my poesk, worked my fingers and toes, buried
my nose in the damp, frozen fur, and laboured like a Hercules to keep
myself awake and alive--but almost in vain. Braisted and I kept watch
over each other, or attempted it, for about the only consciousness
either of us had was that of the peril of falling asleep. We talked of
anything and everything, sang, thumped each other, but the very nex