The morning was fine and snappy. The snow, frozen and crisp, gave the
dogs good footing. The komatik slid freely over the surface. Dr.
Grenfell urged the animals forward that they might take all the
advantage possible of the good sledging before the heat of the midday
sun should soften the snow and make the hauling hard.
The fisherman's cottage where he had spent the night was on the shores
of a deep inlet, and a few rods beyond the cottage the trail turned
down upon the inlet ice, and here took a straight course across the
ice to the opposite shore, some five miles distant, where it plunged
into the forest to cross another neck of land.
A light breeze was coming in from the sea, the ice had every
appearance of being solid and secure, and Dr. Grenfell dove out upon
it for a straight line across. To have followed the shore would have
increased the distance to nearly thirty miles.
Everything went well until perhaps half the distance had been covered.
Then suddenly there came a shift of wind, and Grenfell discovered,
with some apprehension, that a stiff breeze was rising, and now
blowing from land toward the sea, instead of from the sea toward the
land as it had done when he started early in the morning from the
fisherman's cottage.
Pages:
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239