nty as to his whereabouts.

"Well, you call that gun Baby! I don't want her crying anywhere near me,
after this. I say, La Salle, you _sure_ my head all right on shoulders?"

La Salle hastened to assure him that all was correct, but Regnar gave a
grim smile, and continued:--

"It no use; I can't hear, not if it thunder. I've no doubt you say
you're sorry, but I no hear your 'pology, and I don't think I ever shall
again. Well, never mind. No time then to say, 'By your leave, sir,' and
I glad George got clear all right."

Drawing their knives the party commenced the less pleasant and exciting
task of flaying and butchering their victims. The ten "hoods" were
enormous fellows, averaging eight feet in length, and nearly six in
circumference, and weighing from five to six hundred weight each. Only
two were eviscerated for the sake of the heart and membranous vessels;
but the heads of all were struck off for the sake of the brains, and the
large sinews were extracted for "sewing thread." It was noon when the
first load was sent off, under the care of Regnar and La Salle, to the
home berg, and, two hours later, when they returned to the floe, they
found, with pleasure, that the distance between the two points had
materially lessened.

[Illustration]

Climbing the highest point of the floe, La Salle looked down upon a
strange spectacle. Reaching away a mile or two to windward was a
succession of floes, similar to the one on which he stood. Upon them all
the seals were gathered in hundreds, and beyond the last of the chain a
huge iceberg--a perfect mountain of congealed water--rose nearly a
hundred feet into the air. From its sides, resplendent with prismatic
colors and reflected light, flashed more than one cascade of pure fresh
water, and the light breeze, as it blew against its vertical walls, or
perhaps some currents deep down below the surface, was impelling the
huge mass, and the line of floes pushed before it, down the lane of open
water, which led to the floating home of the wanderers.

"We shall have but a short distance to row this load," said La Salle, as
he descended to the party; and indeed at that very moment the discolored
mound, surmounted by its dusky banner, appeared in sight, and before
long only about a quarter of a mile separated the two. At this point the
undetermined cause which had produced this change ceased, and the party
rowed homeward with their last load, just in time as the pack closed in,
a