Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 1.djvu/330

Rh ascending it, an extensive view was before me. On the west of us I could see a lakelet, long and narrow, that extended in a northerly direction to the base of Alden Mountain. This lakelet, on my way back, proved to be influenced in its waters by the sea for two or three days at the periods of high tides—full and change.

It was now 8 We were both much fatigued, and yet it would not do to remain. Not a blanket had we, nor any article that would serve to keep warmth in us during the night, which, however, was now daylight all through. The heavens were covered with portentous clouds, and many circumstances led me to conclude it most advisable to return; but I could hardly determine in what direction it would be best to go. There were the plains, but they were covered deeply with the treacherous snow. As I reflected, a passage in the "Good Book" came to my mind: "Be angry, and sin not;" but, whether I sinned or not, God only is my judge. This, however, I must confess: that as I walked on that treacherous snow-crust, every now and then going down, down, down, my temper at length would fly up, up, up, making the scale-beam keep dancing for full three hours, until some fair walking gave ease to my weary limbs and quiet to my ruffled soul.

On a careful survey of the routes we could follow, I finally decided upon going to a low ridge which was farther west of us and free from snow. That ridge extended in a line running to the S.S.E. and lay in about the direction I wanted to go. To reach it we had to traverse along an abrupt sand-bank bordering the lakelet already mentioned. We then came to a beautiful grassy plain quite destitute of snow, and over which it was a perfect luxury to travel. All my weariness and pain were quite forgotten in walking across this carpet of Nature. It was surrounded by rugged, sombre, rocky mountains, and consequently appeared to me like an oasis in the great desert. For nearly one year I had sighted nothing but rocks, rocks, rocks, here, there, and everywhere, piled into mountains of such varied and horrible shapes that they seemed as if created to strike terror into the heart of man; and now to fall thus