the treacherous ice gave way under me, and I sank below the surface. It
was with great difficulty that I regained the firm ice, and by this
time my clothing was so heavy and stiff that I had to take off my
outside tocklings, or trousers, in order to walk at all. It was now
about ten o'clock in the morning, and in half an hour we reached about
two miles distant from the island, but only to find an impassable
channel of open water from a quarter to half a mile wide. We could see
some one walking upon the shore of the island, but could hold no
conversation with him. The natives who were with me said that when the
tide turned perhaps the channel might close, and they proposed to wait;
but in the meantime I was afraid I might freeze to death unless I kept
moving. In the course of a few hours, during which I found out that I
could not get back to Rabbit Island before dark, I became so faint for
the want of food that I had to get some tepee walrus from the natives,
and I ate it with a keen appetite. It did not taste as badly as I
anticipated, so I ate a quantity, including some pieces of hide, about
three quarters of an inch thick, which was cut into small pieces and
looked like cheese. After eating several pieces I thought I would bite
off the outside rind, which, on closer examination, I noticed to be the
short stiff hair of the animal which I had been eating. Presently I
began to feel warm all over my body, despite my frozen clothing--a
condition attributable partly to the peculiar qualities of frozen food,
and partly perhaps to the rasping in my interior, produced by the stiff
walrus hair that I had eaten. It was now nearly dark, but we could see
that the ice-floes were coming together, and crunching up a pudge of
soft ice between them. At last the men started out over this pudge,
stepping quickly from one piece of moving ice to another, until at last
we reached firm footing again, though only by the exercise of
considerable agility and looking sharply to where you went. It was a
great relief to be again upon the shore; but we were still a