travel people always have each other's noses and cheeks in charge, and
one readily acquires the habit of occasionally taking hold of his nose,
especially when it feels comfortable, to see if it is frozen. The
frost-bite is at once detected by a white, wax-like patch, with edges
sharply defined against the ruddy color of the healthy flesh. When you
touch it, it feels cold and hard, and as if you had hold of somebody
else's nose. It thaws readily, and without further inconvenience, under
the pressure of a warm finger, unless it has been frozen for a long
time. During the second winter, though exposed to an intensity of cold
that is seldom encountered, it was seldom that I had a frozen nose or
cheek. No serious frost bites occurred to any of our party, and I
noticed that the Inuits suffered from the cold quite as much as the
white men. The skin invariably comes off the frozen part within a few
days, even when only slightly nipped. The consequence was that my nose
was constantly peeling, and at all times as tender as an infant's. Now
that the freezing days were about over, it began to peel from sunburn.
I don't know how many layers of skin were thus removed, but more than I
could account for, unless a man's nose is like an onion.

The sun was now having a very perceptible effect upon the snow, even
when the black rocks began to peep up through the surface, and great
patches of moss could be seen completely bare. The great bugbear of
sledge travelling is stony ground, or a hidden rock beneath a thin
layer of snow that cuts through and sweeps the ice from the runners
before the sled can be stopped. When the ice is gone from the runners
all comfort has gone with it. The sled that the dogs would drag without
apparent difficulty suddenly seems to weigh tons. All hands in harness
and pulling like slaves cannot accomplish more than two miles an hour.
The ice is put upon the runners the first thing in the morning when
coming out of the igloo. The sled is turned upside down, and the water,