They started two days later with a sledge heavily laden with supplies.

The runners sank deep in the growing slush, but under them was always the thick ice of Lake Athabasca, and going was not bad, except that David's feet were always wet.

He was surprised that he did not take a "cold." "A cold--what is that ?" asked Bouvais, who had lived along the Barrens all his life.
David described a typical case of sniffles, with running at eyes and nose, and Bouvais laughed.

"The only cold we have up here is when the lungs get touched by frost," he said, "and then you die--the following spring.

Always then.