"With pleasure, but we'll have to camp out."
"Well, it won't be the first time."
"D'you know that the thermometer stood at forty below zero this morning
before breakfast?"
"I know it; what then? Mercurial fellows like you don't freeze easily."
I did not condescend to reply, but set about preparing for our
expedition, resolving to carry my largest blanket with me, for camping
out implied sleeping in the snow.
Of course I must guard my readers--especially my juvenile readers--from
supposing that it was our purpose that night to undress and calmly lie
down in, or on, the pure white winding-sheet in which the frozen world
of the Great Nor'-west had been at that time wrapped for more than four
months. Our snow-bed, like other beds, required making, but I will
postpone the making of it till bed-time. Meanwhile, let us follow the
steps of Lumley, who, being taller and stronger than I, _always_ led the
way.
This leading of the way through the trackless wilderness in snow
averaging four feet deep is harder work than one might suppose. It
could not be done at all without the aid of snow-shoes, which, varying
from three to five feet in length, enable the traveller to walk on the
surface of the snow, into which he would otherwise sink, more or less,
according to its condition. If it be newly fallen and very soft, he
sinks six, eight, or more inches. If it be somewhat compressed by time
or wind he sinks only an inch or two. On the hard surface of exposed
lakes and rivers, where it is beaten to the appearance of marble, he
dispenses with snow-shoes altogether, slings them on his gun, and
carries them over his shoulder.
Our first mile lay through a clump of pine-wood, where snow had recently
fallen. When I looked at my comrade's broad back, and observed the
vigour of his action as he trod deep into the virgin snow at every
stride, scattering it aside like fine white powder as he lifted each
foot, I thought how admirably he was fitted for a pioneer in the
wilderness, or for the work of those dauntless, persevering men who go
forth to add to the world's geographical knowledge, and to lead the
expeditions sent out in search of such lost heroes as Franklin and
Livingstone.
My own work was comparatively light. I had merely to tread in the
beaten path. I was not, however, thereby secured from disaster, as I
found when, having advanced about half a mile, my right shoe caught a
twig to which it held for a moment, and then, breaking loose, allowed me
to pitch head down with such violence that I almost reached mother earth
four feet below the surface.
This kind of plunge is always awkward owing to the difficulty of rising,
and usually disagreeable, owing to the manner in which snow stuffs
itself into neck, ears, nose, eyes, mouth--if open--and any convenient
crevice of person or garments. The snow-shoes, too, which are so
serviceable when you are above them, become exasperatingly obstructive
when you are below them. After a struggle of two minutes I got my head
clear, winked the snow out of my eyes, blew it from my mouth and
nostrils, and looked up. Lumley was standing there with a bland smile
on his amiable face; he seldom laughed, though he sometimes chuckled!
"What do you mean by grinning there like a Cheshire cat?" I exclaimed,
"why don't you lend a hand?"
"What do you mean by tumbling there like a Christmas goose?" he
retorted, "why don't you look out for stumps and twigs as I do?"
He made some amends for this reply by extending his hand and helping me
to rise.
In a few minutes we were clear of the pine-wood, and came out upon a
piece of swampland, where the stunted willow bushes just showed their
tops above the surface of the snow. This led us to a bend of the broad
river, near to which, further down, stood our outpost--Fort Dunregan.
For four months there had been neither sight nor sound of water in that
river. It was frozen to the bottom, except in the middle where its dark
unseen waters flowed silently under six feet or more of solid ice
through many a river-channel and lake to the distant sea. In fact, save
for the suggestive form of its banks, the river might have been mistaken
for an elongated plain or piece of open land. The surface of the snow
here was, from exposure to wind and sun, as hard as pavement. We
therefore took off our snow-shoes, and, the necessity for maintaining
the Indian-file position being removed, we walked abreast.
"The air is keen here," remarked Lumley, pulling the thick shawl that
was round his neck as far up over his mouth as his well-developed nose
would permit.
"It is," said I, following his example with greater success, my own nose
being a snub.
There was no wind; not even a breeze--there seldom is at such
temperature--but there was a very slight movement of the air, caused by
our own advance, which was just sufficient to make one appreciate the
intensity of the cold. It became necessary now to pay frequent
attention to our noses and cheek-bones and toes, to prevent frostbite.
But the sun was brilliant and the air invigorating. So was the aspect
of nature, for although there was no grandeur in the character of the
scenery, there was extreme beauty in the snow lacework of the trees and
leafless shrubs; in the sky, whose bright blue was intensified by the
white drapery of earth; and in the myriads of snow-crystals which
reflected the dazzling sun with prismatic splendour.
Indeed, the scene was too dazzling, and as there was a tendency in it to
produce snow-blindness, we soon returned to the friendly shelter of the
woods.
"Tracks!" exclaimed Lumley, in a low voice, pointing to the ground,
where footmarks were clearly visible, "and fresh," he added, turning up
the snow under the track with the butt of his gun.
"Ptarmigan!" said I in a whisper, pointing towards a little knoll, not
quite a gunshot ahead of us, where some dozens of the beautiful
snow-white creatures stood gazing at us in motionless surprise. Their
plumage was so white that we had not observed them at first, almost the
only black specks about them being their sparkling eyes, and the tips of
their wings and tails.
Our guns were pointed instantly. I am ashamed to say that we were
guilty of shooting them as they stood! In that land we shot for food as
much as for amusement, and, some of us being poor shots, we were glad to
take our game sitting! Nay, more, we tried to get as many of the birds
in line as possible, so as to make the most of our ammunition. We were
not sportsmen in the civilised sense of that term.
The extreme stillness of the woods was broken by the report of our guns
in quick succession. A very cloud of pure white birds arose, as if
Nature had taken to snowing upwards in rather large flakes, and seven
victims remained behind.
"A good supper," remarked Lumley, as we bagged the game and re-loaded.
It is not my intention here to describe a day's shooting. Let it
suffice to say that a little before nightfall we arrived at a place
where was a snowy mound capped by a clump of spruce firs of small size
but picturesque appearance.
"Behold our camp!" said Lumley.
"Not inviting at present," said I, as we slowly toiled up the mound, for
we were weary, having walked about twenty miles, weighted with heavy
flannel-lined deerskin-coats, blankets, and cooking utensils, besides a
small quantity of pemmican, sugar, tea, and ship's biscuit, axes and
firebags. It is true, the cooking utensils were few and simple,
consisting of only two tin kettles and two tin mugs.
Dreary indeed--lonesome, desolate, and eerie was our mound when we got
to the top of it. By that time the sun had set, and a universal ghostly
grey, fast deepening into night, banished every sensation of joy aroused
by the previous lightness. Although the scene and circumstances were
nothing new to us we could not shake off the depressing influence, but
we did not allow that to interfere with our action. Silently, but
vigorously--for the cold was increasing--we felled several small dead
trees, which we afterwards cut into lengths of about four feet. Then we
cleared a space in the snow of about ten or twelve feet in diameter
until we reached the solid earth, using our snow-shoes as shovels. What
we threw out of the hole formed an embankment round it, and as the snow
lay at that spot full four feet deep, we thus raised the surrounding
wall of our chamber to a height of six feet, if not more. Standing on
the edge of it in the ever-deepening twilight, and looking down into the
abyss, which was further darkened by the overspreading pines, this hole
in the snow suggested a tomb rather than a bed.
At one end of it we piled up the firewood. Extending from that towards
the other end, we spread a carpet of pine-branches, full six inches
thick. To do all this took a considerable amount of time and labour,
and when Lumley stood up at last to strike a light with flint, steel,
and tinder, we felt pretty well exhausted. The night had by that time
become profoundly dark, insomuch that we had to grope for the various
articles we required.
"We've been rather late of beginning to make the camp," said I, as I
watched the sparks.
"Never mind, Max, my boy, we shall soon be all right," replied my
friend, as one of the sparks at last caught on the tinder. In a few
seconds the spark was blown into a blaze, and placed in the midst of a
handful of dry moss and thin chips. This was applied to some dry twigs
under our piled-up logs, and a vivid tongue of flame shot upward.
Blessed fire! Marvellous light! It is a glorious, wonder-working
influence, well chosen by the Almighty as one of his titles. There is
no change in Nature so intense as that from darkness to light as well in
physical as in spiritual things. No sudden change from heat to cold, or
from calm to storm; no transformation ever achieved in the most gorgeous
of pantomimes, could have the startling effect, or produce the splendid
contrast that resulted from the upward flash of that first tongue of
fire. It was a vivid tongue, for the materials had been well laid; a
few seconds later it was a roaring tongue, with a host of lesser tongues
around it--all dancing, leaping, cheering, flashing, as if with
ineffable joy at their sudden liberation, and the resulting destruction
of dismal darkness.
Our snow-abyss was no longer black and tomb-like. Its walls sparkled as
though encrusted with diamonds; its carpet of pine-branches shone
vividly green; the tree-stems around rose up like red-hot pillars, more
or less intense in colour, according to distance; the branching canopy
overhead appeared to become solid with light, and the distance around
equally solid with ebony blackness, while we, who had caused the
transformation, stood in the midst of the ruddy blaze like jovial
red-hot men!
"There's nothing like a fire," I remarked with some enthusiasm.
"Except supper," said Lumley.
"Gross creature!" I responded, as he went about the preparation of
supper with a degree of zest which caused me to feel that my epithet was
well deserved.
"Gross creature!" he repeated some time afterwards with a pleasant smile
of intense enjoyment, as he sat in front of the blaze sipping a can of
hot tea, and devouring pemmican and biscuit with avidity. "No, Max, I
am not a gross creature. Your intellects are probably benumbed by the
cold. If phrenologists are right in dividing the human brain into
compartments, wherein the different intellectual powers are said to be
located, I should think that some of those chambers lying nearest to the
top of the skull are apt to freeze at a temperature of forty below zero,
in which case the perfect working of the half-paralysed machine can
scarcely be looked for. Hold your head to the fire, and thaw it while I
expound this to you."
"Stay," said I, holding out my tin pannikin for more tea; "inward heat
as well as outward is necessary to my thorough comprehension of _your_
expositions."
"True, Max, all the faculties of such mind as you possess, in their most
active condition, are required to enable you to take in the simplest
proposition. Just give my bird a turn, like a good fellow."
He referred to a ptarmigan which, plucked, split open, roughly cleaned,
and impaled on a stick, was roasting in front of the fire. I turned his
bird and my own, while he continued:--
"To gratify the appetite with thorough and hearty appreciation after
working hard for your food, or walking far to find it, is not gross.
Grossness consists in eating heavily when you have not toiled, and
stimulating with fire-water, pepper, or mustard, your sluggish appetite.
To call me a gross creature, then--"
He stopped short, and, looking up, performed that operation with the
nose which is styled sniffing.
"What do I smell?"
"My bird--burnt!" I shouted, snatching at the stick on which it was
impaled. In doing so I capsized our can of tea. Lumley looked at it
with a sigh, while I regarded with a groan the breast of my bird burnt
to a cinder.
"Max, you should remember that a fire strong enough to subdue forty
degrees below zero is intense--also, that our supply of tea is limited.
All this comes of your unwisely calling me a gross creature."
"No, it comes of the intense application of my unthawed intellect to
your absurd expositions."
"Whatever it comes of," returned Lumley, "we must remedy the evil.
Here, fall upon my ptarmigan. I'm not quite ready for it, being still
engaged with the pemmican. Meanwhile, I'll replenish the kettle."
So saying, he took up the kettle, went to the margin of our hole, and
filled it with fresh snow well pressed down. This being put on the
fire, soon melted; more snow was added, till water enough was procured,
and then fresh tea was put in to boil. We were not particular, you see,
as to the mode of infusion. While my friend was thus engaged, I had
plucked, split, cleansed and impaled another bird. In a marvellously
short time--for our fire was truly intense--the tea and ptarmigan were
ready, and we proceeded with supper as comfortably as before.
"Now I shall continue," said Lumley, with a satisfied clearing of the
throat, "the exposition of grossness,--"
"Oh, pray spare me that," said I, quickly, "but tell me, if you can, why
it is that such a tremendous fire as that does not melt our snow walls."
"Put your head nearer to it, Max, for some of the phrenological chambers
must still be frozen, else it would be clear to you that the intensity
of the cold is the reason. You see that only a small part of the snow
quite close to the fire is a little softened. If the fire were hotter
it would melt more of it--melt the whole hole and us too. But the cold
is so great that it keeps the walls cool and us also--too cool indeed,
for while my face and knees are roasting my back is freezing, so I shall
rise and give _it_ a turn. Now," he continued, rising and turning his
back to the blaze as he spoke, "I will resume my remarks on gross--"
"You've no objection to my making our bed while you lecture?" said I,
also rising.
Lumley had not the least objection, so, while he held forth, I spread a
large green blanket over our carpet of pine-brush. A bundle of the same
under the blanket formed a pretty good pillow. Wrapping myself tightly
round in another blanket (for physical heat evaporates quickly in the
frozen regions) I lay down. My friend lay down beside me, our feet
being towards the fire.
After a silent interval, while lying thus, gazing up through the
overhanging branches at the stars that twinkled in the clear frosty sky,
our thoughts became more serious. The grandeur of creation led us to
think and speak of the Creator--for we were like-minded friends, and no
subject was tabooed. We conversed freely about whatever chanced to
enter our minds--of things past, present, and to come. We spoke of God
the Saviour, of redemption and of sin. Then, with that discursive
tendency to which most minds are prone, we diverged to home and
civilised lands, contrasting these with life in the wild-woods of the
Great Nor'-west. After that we became sleepy, and our converse was more
discursive--at times even incoherent--in the midst of which Lumley
reverted to his unfinished exposition of grossness, and, in the
enthusiasm of his nature, was slowly working himself back into a wakeful
condition, when I put an abrupt end to the discourse by drawing a
prolonged snore. It was a deceptive snore, unworthy of success, yet it
succeeded.
My friend turned round and, with a contented sigh, went to sleep. After
a brief space the snore which had been a fiction became a reality, and
thus, on our bed of snow, in the depths of an Arctic night, in the heart
of the frozen wilderness, and while the mighty fire burned slowly down,
we unitedly took our departure for the land of Nod.