unch. A mile farther on was the cabin of a
white man, and we paid him a brief visit and got a little tea from him,
for ours was nearly gone. It did me good to hear him sing the praises of
Deaconess Carter, the trained nurse at the mission. She had taken him
in, crippled with rheumatism, and had cured him. Already the new mission
was proving a boon to whites as well as natives. We made no more than
four or five miles farther when, coming to spruce with no more in sight
for a long distance, we pitched the tent, all very tired.

That night the thermometer went to 5 deg. below zero, the coldest weather of
the season so far. As a consequence the next day we had a new and very
disagreeable trouble. The cold weather, by increasing the amount of
running ice in the still open stretches, had brought about a jam that
had raised the level of the water and caused an overflow of the ice--a
very common phenomenon of a closing river. We picked our way wet-foot
much of the day, and towards evening came to a complete _impasse_ in the
middle of the river, with open water in front and on one hand, and new
thin ice on the other. So we had to turn round and go back again a long
way, the mid-river being the only traversable place, until, when it
seemed that we should have to go round another bend to reach a crossing,
Arthur proposed that he and William, who wore mukluks, should carry the
doctor and me, who wore moccasins across the overflow, and then rush the
sled across; and this we did, wetting its contents somewhat, however. We
camped immediately, for we had landed on impassable gravel.

[Sidenote: THE RED MOUNTAIN]

That night the thermometer went to 20 deg. below zero, and we took good hope
that the cold, which began to approach the real cold of winter, would
put an end to overflow; but, on the contrary, it only aggravated the
trouble. For the first mile or two there was nothing for it but to go
through it, and at 20 deg. below it is a miserable business to be wading in
moccasins even for an hour. We had rearranged our load so that it stood
up somewhat higher, but we could not avoid wetting the things on the
bottom of the sled, and the ice formed about it very inconveniently.
Moreover, the little dog, who had a great dislike to wetting his feet,
began to give us a good deal of trouble, and at one time nothing but the
admirable presence of mind and prompt action of William saved us from
losing our whole load. We had reached a strip of ne