As the twilight closed over the broad river we were steering between two huge walls of sandstone rock, which towered up 700 feet above the shore.
The yellow light of the sunset still glowed in the west, lighting up the broad chasm through which the river flowed, and throwing many a weird shadow along the basaltic precipice. Right in our onward track stood a large dusky wolf. He watched us until we approached within 200 yards of him, then turning he held his course up the centre of the river. My five dogs caught sight of him, and in an instant they gave chase. The surface of the snow was now hard frozen, and urged by the strength of so many dogs the cariole flew along over the slippery surface.
THE WOLF-CHASE.
The driver was soon far behind. The wolf kept the centre of the river, and the cariole bounded from snow pack to snow pack, or shot along the level ice; while the dusky twilight filled the deep chasm with its spectral light. But this wild chase was not long to last. The wolf sought refuge amidst the rocky shore, and the dogs turned along the trail again.
Two hours later a few lights glimmered through the darkness, beneath the black shadow of an immense hill. The unusual sound of rushing water broke strangely on the ear after such a lapse of silence. But the hill streams had already broken their icy barriers, and their waters were even now hastening to the great river (still chained with the gyves of winter), to aid its hidden current in the work of deliverance.
Here and there deep pools of water lay on the surface of the ice, through which the dogs waded, breast deep, and the cariole floated like a boat. Thus, alternately wading and sliding, we drew near the glimmering lights.
We had reached Dunvegan! If the men and dogs slept well that night it was little wonder. With the intermission only necessary for food, we had travelled incessantly during four-and-twenty hours. Yet was it the same that night at Dunvegan as it had been elsewhere at various times. Outside the dogs might rest as they pleased, but within, in the huts, Swampy and Half-breed and Ojibbeway danced and fiddled, laughed and capered until the small hours of the morning.