“Atsuk”—­I don’t know—­said the Eskimo with a shrug of the shoulders.

While, as we have seen, none of the Eskimos would take the place of Akonuk and Matuk, they gave them sufficient seal meat and blubber for a two weeks’ journey, and early the next morning the march eastward was resumed.

Bob was now driven to eating seal meat, as all his other provisions were exhausted, though, fortunately, he still had an abundance of tea.  He had often eaten seal meat at home and was rather fond of it when it was properly cooked, but now no wood with which to make a fire was to be had.  The land was absolutely barren, and even the moss was so deeply hidden beneath the snow it could not be resorted to for this purpose.  Evenings in the igloo he boiled some meat over the stone lamp—­enough to last him through the following day—­but at best he could get it but partially cooked.  However, he soon learned not to mind this much, for hunger is the best imaginable sauce, and in the cold of the Arctic north one can eat with a relish what could not be endured in a milder climate.

For several days they traversed mountain passes where they were shut in by towering, rugged peaks which seemed to reach to the very heavens.  Bleak and desolate as the landscape was it possessed a magnificence and grandeur that demanded admiration and called forth Bob’s constant wonder.  He would gaze up at the mysterious white summits and ejaculate,

“’Tis grand!  ’Tis wonderful grand!”

Such mountains he had never seen before, and like all wilderness dwellers he was a lover of Nature’s beauties and a close observer of her wonders.

It was near the middle of April now and the sun’s rays, reflected by the snow, were growing dazzlingly bright and beginning to affect their eyes.  Goggles should have been worn as a protection against this glare but they had none and did not trouble to make them until one night Matuk found that he was overtaken by a slight attack of snow-blindness.  This is an extremely painful affliction which does not permit the sufferer to approach the light or, in fact, so much as open his eyes without experiencing agony.  The sensation is that of having innumerable splinters driven into the eyeballs with the lids when opened and closed grating over the splinters.

While they were waiting for Matuk to recover his eyesight Akonuk and Bob removed one of the wooden cross-bars from the komatik and with their knives cut from it three pieces each long enough to fit over the eyes for a pair of goggles.  These were rounded to fit the face and a place whittled out for the nose to fit into.  Then hollow places were cut large enough to permit the eyelids to open and close in them, and opposite each eye hollow a narrow slit for the wearer to look through.  Then the interior of the eye places were blackened with smoke from the stone lamp, and a thong of sealskin was fastened to each end of the goggles with which to tie them in place upon the head.