os bottle, dry clothing, matches, wood,
and everything on it for making a fire to attract attention.

It is easy to see a dark object on the ice in the daytime, for the
gorgeous whiteness shows off the least thing. But the tops of bushes
and large pieces of kelp have often deceived those looking out.
Moreover, within our memory no man has been thus adrift on the bay
ice. The chances were about one in a thousand that I should be seen at
all, and if I were seen, I should probably be mistaken for some piece
of refuse.

To keep from freezing, I cut off my long moccasins down to the feet,
strung out some line, split the legs, and made a kind of jacket, which
protected my back from the wind down as far as the waist. I have this
jacket still, and my friends assure me it would make a good Sunday
garment.

I had not drifted more than half a mile before I saw my poor komatik
disappear through the ice, which was every minute loosening up into
the small pans that it consisted of, and it seemed like a friend gone
and one more tie with home and safety lost. To the northward, about a
mile distant, lay the mainland along which I had passed so merrily in
the morning,--only, it seemed, a few moments before.

By mid-day I had passed the island to which I had crossed on the ice
bridge. I could see that the bridge was gone now. If I could reach the
island I should only be marooned and destined to die of starvation.
But there was little chance of that, for I was rapidly driving into
the ever widening bay.

[Illustration: DR. GRENFELL AND JACK
WITH THE JACKET MADE FROM MOCCASINS]

It was scarcely safe to move on my small ice raft, for fear of
breaking it. Yet I saw I must have the skins of some of my dogs,--of
which I had eight on the pan,--if I was to live the night out. There
was now some three to five miles between me and the north side of the
bay. There, immense pans of Arctic ice, surging to and fro on the
heavy ground seas, were thundering into the cliffs like medieval
battering-rams. It was evident that, even if seen, I could hope for no
help from that quarter before night. No boat could live through the
surf.

Unwinding the sealskin traces from my waist, round which I had wound
them to keep the dogs from eating them, I made a slip-knot, passed it
over the first dog's head, tied it round my foot close to his neck,
threw him on his back, and stabbed him in the heart. Poor beast! I
loved him like a friend,--a beautiful dog,