IN THE FROZEN NORTH.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXIV, Issue 51, 23 April 1897, Page 29

IN THE FROZEN NORTH.

Among the perils of the regions of perpetual ice, which Nansen's book brings home to the reader, was the danger of suddenly becoming frozen to some foreign substance. The dogs were specially liable to this mischance. On one occasion one poor creature curled itself up against one of the arms of a windmill, used to generate electricity, and when a breeze set the thing in motion the animal, frozen fast by the skin, was whirled round and round through the air. Again, take this extract from Nansen's diary: "As I was sitting at work last night I heard a dog on the deck howling fearfully. I sprang up and found it was one of the puppies that had touched an iron bolt with its tongue and was frozen fast to it. There the poor beast was straining to get free, with its tongue stretched out so far that it looked like a thin rope proceeding out of its throat ; and it was hewling piteously. Bentzen, whose watch it was, came up, and scarcely knew what to do. He took hold of it, however, by the neck, and held it close to the bolt, bo that its tongue was less extended. After having warmed the bolt somewhat with his hand he managed to get the tongue free. The poor little puppy seemed overjoyed at its release, and to show its gratitade, licked Bentzen with its bloody tongue and seemed as if it could not be grateful enongh to its deliverer."