She gathered speed every moment, as the hill was steep, and was soon roaring down like a locomotive.
The snow flew up in showers from in front of her runners, and a loud buzzing sound came from them as they cut through the ice.
Away she flew, and reaching the bottom of the hill, Frank abruptly turned to the right to avoid a mass of rough ice ahead of her.
No sooner did she fly around the base of the hill, when to their amazement the boat began to sink.
She had run into a drift.
Above the snow rose the tops of a number of ice huts, shaped like inverted bowls, and a tremendous shout in a strange tongue emanated from the huts the boat struck and crushed in.
Some of the inmates of these huts had been hurt.
The rest swarmed out into the passages cut through the drift and got upon the level ground above the hollow where they had their huts.
All of them were dark-skinned people, somewhat resembling the Esquimaux of North America and Greenland.
They wore fur clothing, with pointed hoods for their heads, and carried walrus spears, muskets and knives in their hands.