lashed whips in hand, and waiting.

On one of the sleds, dressed and enveloped in furs, sat the captain,
before giving the order to start. At the word from him, the dogs sprang
to their collars, the little bells jingled, and away they all dashed.
Team after team, over the well-trodden trail they went, keeping up a
continuous and sprightly trot for hours, while behind at the handle bars
ran the natives, and rocks, hills and mountains were passed all
unnoticed.

That night another Eskimo village was reached, and sixty miles of snow
trail were left behind. Shaktolik lay on the shore southeast of a
portage which would have to be made over a small point of land jutting
out into Norton Bay.

During the night a storm came up which would necessarily much impede
their progress, being called in the western world a "blizzard." This
storm fiend, once met, is never forgotten. None but the man in the
Arctic has seen him. None know so well how to elude him. Like a Peele,
or a "tremblor" this Arctic king gathers his forces, more mighty than
armies in battle, and sweeps all opponents before him. To resist means
death. To crouch, cower or bow down to this implacable lord of the polar
world is the only way to evade his wrath when he rides abroad, and woe
to the man who thinks otherwise.

Not long had the wind and snow been blowing when the little train
prepared to move. Ahead they could see the sled tracks of other
"mushers" (travelers by dog-team), and the captain concluded to hurry
along, notwithstanding that Ah Chugor Ruk shook his head, and spat
tobacco juice upon the ground, and Ung Kah Ah Ruk demurred stoutly in
few words. Punni Churah thought as the rest, but would go ahead if the
captain so ordered, and they headed northwest for the portage.

On the dogs trotted for hours. The snow and sleet were blinding, the
wind had risen to a gale. The dogs traveled less rapidly now, and their
faces were covered with frost, the moisture freezing as they breathed.

By this time the natives wanted to camp where they were, or head about
northeast for another Eskimo village called Ungaliktulik, which would
make the journey longer by twenty-five miles, but the captain decided to
keep on as they were going.

By the middle of the afternoon the gale had increased to fury, causing
the thermometer to fall with great rapidity, while the snow was
blinding. The dogs were curling up in the wind like leaves before a
blaze.

Ah Chugor Ruk was ahead