attached, and we were to sleep there. We had traveled fifty miles over one of the roughest trails in Alaska, and had brought with us a good supply of beans, bacon, flour, and hard bread, as one can never tell for how many days a storm or accident may prolong his journey.
The cache was on the brow of a hill, and Amalik, one of our drivers, was the first to see it in the fading light. The practised eye of these Northmen can pick out a dog or a goat on a remote mountain-top, so that when Amalik cried out the good news, no one doubted him, and we gladly followed his pulk as it turned from the trail and led the way across the intervening gulches to the cache, where we were sure of a night’s shelter from the Arctic cold.
The interior of the cache was indeed cheerless, but each one of us lighted one of the oil-lamps, in which seal-oil is burned, that were ranged round the room, and sat down on the walrus-skins, which we drew up over our shoulders, and placed the half-warm lamps between our feet. There were mats of dried grass, and deerskin blankets which were to be used for coverlets when we lay down on the floor to sleep. Soon Amalik and Oosilik came in from securing the reindeer and began to cook our supper. They were as slow as slow could be, but we knew better than to try to hurry them, or to show the least impatience.
Resting after a hard day’s journey.
Every second while we watched their deliberate motions and the frequent bickerings that interrupted the preparation of the longed-for meal seemed an hour to us, but at last supper was ready, and we ate ravenously of the plain fare that was set before us. Amalik and Oosilik kept up a constant procession around us with frying-pan in one hand and steaming coffee-pot in the other.
The long ride and the intense cold made us sleep soundly and late, and we awakened the following morning to find that we were having a terrible snow-storm, which the eye could not penetrate, so thick and fast fell the snow-flakes, that looked like a sheet caught up by a whirlwind. This was a bitter disappointment to us, for no living soul would dare venture forth into a storm such as this one, which was likely to last for days. And it did. Amalik and Qosilik, after one glance out at the blinding snow, curled themselves up in a corner of the room, and slept the entire four days except when stirred up to cook our meals and to look after the deer.
We were forced to wait three days after it had stopped snowing for a crust to form so that we could travel again. It was with many misgivings that we began the last half of the journey, since the snow was now very deep and the danger of our sinking into drifts was great.