the rapidity with which they are destroyed.

A Saturday and Sunday were very welcome at Council, and the courtesy of
the Presbyterian minister, who gave up his church and his congregations
to me, Esquimaux in the morning and white at night, was much
appreciated.

[Sidenote: NORTON SOUND]

In warmer weather, the thermometer no lower than -5 deg. at the start, but
with the same gale blowing that had blown ever since we left Candle,
though it had shifted towards the northeast, we got away on Monday
morning, bound for Nome, ninety miles away, hoping to reach the half-way
house that night. Five or six hours' run over good trails, with no
greater inconvenience than the acceleration of our pace by the wind on
down grades, until the sled frequently overran the dogs with
entanglements and spillings, brought us to the seacoast at Topkok, and a
noble view opened up as we climbed the great bluff. There Norton Sound
spread out before us, its ice largely cleared away and blown into Bering
Sea by the strong wind that had prevailed for nearly a week, its waves
sparkling and dashing into foam in the March sunshine; the distant
cliffs and mountains of its other shore just visible in the clear air.
It was an exhilarating sight--the first free water that I had seen since
the summer, and it seemed rejoicing in its freedom, leaping up with glee
to greet the mighty ally that had struck off its fetters.

But from this point troubles began to grow. We dropped down presently to
the shore and passed along the glare surface of lagoon after lagoon, the
wind doing what it liked with the sled, for it was impossible to handle
it at all. Sometimes we went along broadside on, sometimes the sled
first and the dogs trailing behind, moving their silly, helpless paws
from side to side as they were dragged over the ice on their bellies.
When we had passed these lagoons the trail took the beach, running
alongside and just to windward of a telephone-line, with rough shore
ice to the left and bare rocks to the right. Again and again the already
injured sled was smashed heavily against a telephone pole. I would see
the impact coming and strive my utmost to avert it, but without a gee
pole, and swinging the sled only by the handle-bars, it was more than I
could do to hold the sled on its course against the beam wind that was
forcing it towards the ice and the telephone poles; and a gee pole could
not be used at the rate we had travelled ever since we left Cand