acted as guide for the sake of a ride. Away we went again, but the snow
was so spotless that it was impossible to see the track. Braisted and I
ran upon a snow-bank, were overturned and dragged some little distance,
but we righted ourselves again, and soon afterwards reached our
destination.

In the little inn the guests' room lay behind the large family kitchen,
through which we were obliged to pass. We were seized with a shivering
fit on stripping off our furs, and it seemed scarcely possible to get
warm again. This was followed by such intense drowsiness that we were
obliged to lie down and sleep an hour before supper. After the cold
weather set in, we were attacked with this drowsy fit every day, toward
evening, and were obliged to take turns in arousing and stimulating each
other. This we generally accomplished by singing "From Greenland's icy
mountains," and other appropriate melodies. At Innertafle we were
attended by a tall landlady, a staid, quiet, almost grim person, who
paid most deliberate heed to our wants. After a delay of more than two
hours, she furnished us with a supper consisting of some kind of fresh
fish, with a sauce composed of milk, sugar and onions, followed by
_gryngrot_, a warm mush of mixed rice and barley, eaten with milk. Such
was our fare on Christmas eve; but hunger is the best sauce, and our
dishes were plentifully seasoned with it.

CHAPTER V.

PROGRESS NORTHWARDS.--A STORM.

We arose betimes on Christmas morn, but the grim and deliberate landlady
detained us an hour in preparing our coffee. I was in the yard about
five minutes, wearing only my cloth overcoat and no gloves, and found
the air truly sharp and nipping, but not painfully severe. Presently,
Braisted came running in with the thermometer, exclaiming, with a yell
of triumph, "_Thirty_, by Jupiter!" (30 deg. of Reaumur, equal to 35-1/2 deg.
below zero of Fahrenheit.) We were delighted with this sign of our
approach to the Arctic circle.

The horses were at last ready; we muffled up carefully, and set out. The
dawn was just streaking the East, the sky was crystal-clear, and not a
breath of air stirring. My beard was soon a solid mass of ice, from the
moisture of my breath, and my nose required constant friction. The day
previous, the ice which had gathered on my fur collar lay against my
face so long that the flesh began to freeze over my cheek-bones, and
thereafter I was obliged to be particularly cautious. As it