h depots along the
route, at each seven or eight days' march. When the sledge was
ready it was at once fitted up, and covered with a skin tent. The
whole weighed some seven hundred pounds, which a pack of five
dogs might easily carry over the ice.

On the 22nd of October, as the captain had foretold, a sudden
change took place in the temperature. The sky cleared, the stars
emitted an extraordinary light, and the moon shone above the
horizon, no longer to leave the heavens for a fortnight. The
thermometer descended to twenty-five degrees below zero.

The departure was fixed for the following day.

CHAPTER IX.

THE HOUSE OF SNOW.

On the 23rd of October, at eleven in the morning, in a fine
moonlight, the caravan set out. Precautions were this time taken
that the journey might be a long one, if necessary. Jean
Cornbutte followed the coast, and ascended northward. The steps
of the travellers made no impression on the hard ice. Jean was
forced to guide himself by points which he selected at a
distance; sometimes he fixed upon a hill bristling with peaks;
sometimes on a vast iceberg which pressure had raised above the
plain.

[Illustration: The caravan set out]

At the first halt, after going fifteen miles, Penellan prepared
to encamp. The tent was erected against an ice-block. Marie had
not suffered seriously with the extreme cold, for luckily the
breeze had subsided, and was much more bearable; but the young
girl had several times been obliged to descend from her sledge to
avert numbness from impeding the circulation of her blood.
Otherwise, her little hut, hung with skins, afforded her all the
comfort possible under the circumstances.

When night, or rather sleeping-time, came, the little hut was
carried under the tent, where it served as a bed-room for Marie.
The evening repast was composed of fresh meat, pemmican, and hot
tea. Jean Cornbutte, to avert danger of the scurvy, distributed
to each of the party a few drops of lemon-juice. Then all slept
under God's protection.

After eight hours of repose, they got ready to resume their
march. A substantial breakfast was provided to the men and the
dogs; then they set out. The ice, exceedingly compact, enabled
these animals to draw the sledge easily. The party sometimes
found it difficult to keep up with them.

But the sailors soon began to suffer one discomfort--that of
being dazzled. Ophthalmia betrayed itself in Aupic and Misonne.
The moon's light,