BREAK-UP

Tue sun rose each day a little higher over the
shoulders of hills to the south until it touched the
cabins of Telegraph Creek. Each day it penetrated
a little more deeply into valleys and hollows and
dark-lipped canyons. In its increasing strength it
began to melt the surface of the glittering snow.
The hills and lakes of the north and east lay glaring
and blazing in their vast white splendour, and the
mountains and chasms to the south were intensified
in their heights and depths by the searching strength
of the light.

The frozen river creaked and groaned, and here
and there great clefts broke the level stretch of its
snow-clad surface. Deep down between these walls
of ice ran the dark and urgent waters.

Little things began to happen in the sudden hours
of warmth. Snow melted on cliffs and slopes and
river-banks that faced the sun, and the deep silence
was surprisingly broken by the tinkling sound of
water, the rattle of sliding pebbles and the soft slip-
ping of snow. There were slight shiftings and small
movements along the borders of creeks and among

$i