64 FOUR YEARS IN THE WHITE NORTH [Mar. 



The bear tracks continued up the Sound, and the dogs 

 were again hot on the trail. Astride the sledges, with 

 rifles across our legs, we closely scanned every hummock 

 of ice, every crack and crevice. At last, disappointed, 

 we were forced to give it up, and pulled in toward the 

 ice-foot to find suitable snow for an igloo. The dogs 

 had worked long and well. I could not refuse them; 

 they would have their pound of pemmican, anyway. As 

 we sat there on our sledges, too lazy or too tired to begin 

 cutting snow blocks for a house, Pee-a-wah-to, whose little 

 black eyes were ever roaming over the hills, uttered an 

 exclamation of surprise, followed by a long, deep " Tak- 

 koor' ("Look!"). There, right above our heads, sound 

 asleep, were three woolly bodies. Our musk-oxen had 

 come into our camp and were patiently waiting for us. 

 The two Eskimo boys fairly beamed, repeating over and 

 over again: "Well, well! Right alongside of us!" 

 WTiite men would have gone up at once and made sure 

 of their game; not so with E-took-a-shoo and Pee-a- 

 wah-to. As if they had all the time in the world and 

 meat were of no value, they deliberately harnessed their 

 dogs, just as deliberately lit their pipes, laughed, joked, 

 and talked of things a hundred miles away. You can 

 imagine how constantly I kept my eye on those three 

 black balls which meant so much to me, although only 

 meat to them. With food we could do anything and 

 everything; without it we would be compelled to go 

 home, and home did not have any attractions for me 

 just then. 



Finally, the snow blocks were cut, the house built, 

 furs inside, and the stove humming, and off they started, 

 leading one dog only — the one which they could best 

 afford to lose, for musk-ox horns are sharp and inflict 



