This was a curious clump of some whitish shrub--cotton-grass of a flowering variety--which glimmered suddenly before me in the darkness.

Now, an hour earlier I had passed just such a square-headed, whitish clump; so that I was confirmed in the opinion which I had already begun to form, that I was wandering in a circle.

To make it certain I stooped down, striking a momentary flash from my tinder-box, and there sure enough was my own old track very clearly marked in the brown mud in front of me.
At this confirmation of my worst fears I threw my eyes up to heaven in my despair, and there I saw something which for the first time gave me a clue in the uncertainty which surrounded me.
It was nothing else than a glimpse of the moon between two flowing clouds.

This in itself might have been of small avail to me, but over its white face was marked a long thin V, which shot swiftly across like a shaftless arrow.

It was a flock of wild ducks, and its flight was in the same direction as that towards which my face was turned.