The Land of the Long Night

ay.-Intelligence of the Horses.-Upset in the Snow.-Difficulty of Righti

s, a few flakes of snow began to fall, then more and more came down,

e in time. After a while the snow fell so thick that I could see nothing ahead. To make things worse it began to blow hard. Then I dropped the reins and let the horse go as he pleased. As he knew that

se ploughs were of triangular form, made of heavy timber braced with crossbeams. They were generally from eight to ten feet in wi

wed by heavy rollers o

it after a snowstorm. The number of horses he furnishes is regulated by the size of his farm. It

roll in the snow; they enjoyed it! The horses that we drove would of

me fun! So he fell on his side and was about to roll over and enjoy himself, taking the sleigh with him; but we did not see the joke. We succeeded in putting him on his

nd deeper every hour. Snow-ploughs were now drawn

ted over four days, and with no appearance of

along. In some places the ploughs had not passed over the road since two days before, for we were now going through a very sparsely inhabited country. Some parts of the road were honeycombed with holes about fi

ade to extricate himself, we had either to get out of the sleigh or be thrown out. The poor brute would often sink to his neck, and sometimes almost to his head when he got out of the snow-plough's

men. The struggles of the poor animals as they sank continually in the deep

d packed by the snow-ploughs and the rollers. Sometimes we could not tell where it was, for the la

the first intimation we had was that of the horse sinking suddenly, being ourselv

to let the horse go by himself. He is accustomed every year to go in deep

n the right track. If he thought he was on the left of the road, it was his left foot that came down first; if he thought he was to the right of the road, h

and-bang! he fell on his side, taking the sleigh with him. We were pitched out, and as we got up on our legs we f

es seeming to say, "Are you not going to help me out of this?" I gave a great shout of laughter, for the sight was so funny that I forgo

ight the sleigh. Then we found that the harness was broken in several places, and we had to mend

ther our poor horse will be able to stand it. Look at him! He looks as if he were a smoke-stack, so much steam is rising f

Lars the driver, and he r

nd reproached myself for not havin

ou have some hay, and he will not starve. As for ourselves, we will try to reach some farm and

as now between the sixty-third and sixty-fourth degrees of north latitude, and I had to travel on the road nearly two hundred miles more before I came to the southern part of "The Land of the Long

the snow-ploughs and the rollers were busy, and the centre of the highway was made passable for some miles further north. So bidding go

were buried out of sight; only the tops of the birches and of the fir and pine trees could be seen. I had not met such deep snow before! I had never encountered such a continuous snowstor

s had been planted in two rows to show the line of the road. I could not tell now whe

n summer, full of stones and boulders, without a house in sigh

," he replied, "it will t

y you have brought with you to the horse. Aft

se had not kept to the road. We had a hard time to right the sleigh and bring the horse back to firm snow.

"the snow is too deep and soft to go on. The snow-ploughs ha

n if we should reach there to-day. But I am sure we cannot do it, and we shall have to stop at

her. What a sight! Many of the small houses were buried in the snow, and only their roofs or

windows, or that communication could be had between the buildings, especially those wher

ndeed! and I said to myself,