1914] THE RETURN FROM THE POLAR SEA 89 



The sky had an ominous appearance in the morning; 

 the long-delayed storm was certainly coming. It was 

 now blowing and drifting. A two or three days' delay 

 here, consuming what little food we did have, would be 

 fatal to our plans. We must move, and move at once. 

 Telling Green to proceed down the coast two marches 

 and back in one, E-took-a-shoo and I headed north for 

 the dugout, calling back, "Good-by, Pee-a-wah-to." 

 Above the sound of drifting snow I heard his faint reply 

 in broken English and saw him turn toward the south. 



In an hour we realized that there were more com- 

 fortable places in the world than the northern shore of 

 Axel Heiberg Land in a blizzard. Unable to see for 

 swirling snow, and at times fighting for breath, we 

 groped our way along under the cliffs toward a shelter. 

 Was it possible for E-took-a-shoo to find the old igloo 

 this side of the dugout .^^ Repeatedly the violence of the 

 wind was such that our dogs could not move an inch. 

 With faces protected from the icy blast by burying them 

 in our sleeping-robes on top of the sledges, we slowly 

 pushed our way from point to point. Long after I 

 thought we had passed the igloo and were well on our 

 way to the dugout, a yell from the native announced 

 that he had stumbled upon it. 



The roof had fallen and it was full of snow, but it 

 was still a home, as any hole would have been under 

 such conditions. By vigorous use of feet and hands 

 it was soon cleared out, our grass bags were crammed 

 into the door opening, the blue-flame was lit, and the 

 storm was over as far as we were concerned. 



By morning the roof had fallen so low that it was 

 almost resting upon our bodies as we lay on the bed 

 platform. Frequent visits to the peep-hole brought 



