To add to our general feeling of fear, the reindeer behaved very badly and were exceedingly unruly. The wind had moderated somewhat, but it was still intensely cold.
We had traveled half the day without any serious mishap and were beginning to forget our fears at starting out, when we sped merrily down a mountain-side, singing and halloaing at the top of our voices, and ran into a gulch and stuck there. The songs stopped in our throats, and we sprang to our feet to sink waist deep in the drifts that had entrapped us.
Every movement of our bodies sank us deeper in the snow-drifts, and the infuriated reindeer, finding themselves caught mm the banked-up snow almost to their haunches, turned upon us and would have pawed us to death but for the forethought of Qosilik, who, seeing our danger, sprang forward, and hoisting the overturned pulks in his strong arms, brought them down over our heads and shoulders and pinned us out of sight in the snow.
We heard the hoofs of Uncle Ben beating on the pulk’s side as he pawed up the snow in his efforts to get at us, and if we had not held to the straps and had not kept the pulk over us, he would have tossed it into the air with one sweep of his horns and would still have had his bout with us, in which case we should have been helpless and completely at his mercy.
For the first time we had occasion to see how fierce an angry reindeer can he. When he was convinced that he could not reach us, Uncle Ben turned upon Oosilik, and we heard the Eskimo shouting and clubbing the deer as he ran in and out of the pulks in a swift circuit, pursued by the bellowing reindeer.
We spent an exciting half-hour under the pulks, with the hoofs of the deer rattling like hail on the frozen boards, and then the unusual commotion ceased all at once, for the reindeer had found a lichen-bed. In a jiffy they were pawing up the snow in their hurry to get at the succulent moss, and we were forgotten.
Amalik and Oosilik lifted the pulks from our heads and dug us up out of the snow and set us on our feet. By the time the reindeer had eaten themselves into a passable humor, Amalik and Oosilik led them back to the pulks.
We had four hours of traveling before we came in sight of the corral that had sent us the reindeer from Eaton Station. As soon as the deer scented the well-known corral, they quickened their strides so that we reached the Station before it was quite dark, and crawled from the sleds with a deep feeling of relief, glad beyond measure to be at home after the perils of our protracted journey.
Our friends turned out in a body and welcomed us joyfully, for they had begun to entertain the gravest fears for our safety, and had been on the lookout for us for almost a week.
“The Land of the Midnight Sun.”
