[Illustration: THE SETTLEMENT AT ST. ANTHONY]
It was late in April, when there is always the risk of getting wet
through the ice, so that I was carefully prepared with spare outfit,
which included a change of garments, snow-shoes, rifle, compass, axe,
and oilskin overclothes. The messengers were anxious that their team
should travel back with mine, for they were slow at best and needed a
lead. My dogs, however, being a powerful team, could not be held back,
and though I managed to wait twice for their sleigh, I had reached a
village about twenty miles on the journey before nightfall, and had
fed the dogs, and was gathering a few people for prayers when they
caught me up.
During the night the wind shifted to the northeast, which brought in
fog and rain, softened the snow, and made travelling very bad,
besides heaving a heavy sea into the bay. Our drive next morning would
be somewhat over forty miles, the first ten miles on an arm of the
sea, on salt-water ice.
[Illustration: ON A JOURNEY]
In order not to be separated too long from my friends, I sent them
ahead two hours before me, appointing a rendezvous in a log tilt that
we have built in the woods as a halfway house. There is no one living
on all that long coast-line, and to provide against accidents--which
have happened more than once--we built this hut to keep dry clothing,
food, and drugs in.
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