It ate away from beneath; the sun ate from above.

Air-holes formed, fissures sprang and spread apart, while thin sections of ice fell through bodily into the river.

And amid all this bursting, rending, throbbing of awakening life, under the blazing sun and through the soft-sighing breezes, like wayfarers to death, staggered the two men, the woman, and the huskies.
With the dogs falling, Mercedes weeping and riding, Hal swearing innocuously, and Charles's eyes wistfully watering, they staggered into John Thornton's camp at the mouth of White River.

When they halted, the dogs dropped down as though they had all been struck dead.

Mercedes dried her eyes and looked at John Thornton.