THE WORLD OF ICE. 149

“Safe!” cried lred, as he hauled on the sledge rope
to drag it farther out of danger.

“So we are,” replicd O'Riley, breathing very hard ;
“and it’s meself thought to have had a wet skin at
this minute——Come, West, lind a hand to fx the dogs,
will ye?”

A few minutes sufficed to put all to rights and
enable them to start afresh. Being now in the neigh-
bourhood of dangerous ice, they advanced with a little |
more caution; the possibility of seals being in the
neighbourhood also rendered them more circumspect.
It was well that they were on the alert, for a band
of seals were soon after desevied in a pool of open
water not far ahead, and one of them was lyine on
the ice.

There were no hummocks, however, in the neigh-
bourhood to enable them to approach unseen; but the
Esquimau was prepared for such a contingency. He
had brought a small sledge, of about two feeb in
length by a foot and a half in breadth, which he
now unfastened from the large sledge, and proceeded
quictly to arrange it, to the surprise of his compa-
nions, who had not the least idea what he was about
to do, and watched his proceedings with much interest.

“Ts it to sail on the ice ye’re goin’, boy?” inquired
O'Riley at last, when he saw Meetuck fix a couple of
poles, about four feet long, into a hole in the little
sledge, like two masts, and upon these spread a piece
of canvas upwards of a yard square, with a small hole
in the centre of it.