NINDEMANX AND NOROS. 813 



were badly worn. When they had gone a mile further 

 they abandoned the east bank and recrossed the river. 

 The wind was now blowing and the snow was driving, 

 but for the rest of the day they struggled onward until 

 they came to some hillocks, which appeared to be piles 

 of snow and sand. They tried to dig into them for 

 shelter, but found hard ice below. Again moving on 

 they came to some drift-wood, where they hoped to 

 find a piece large enough to afford some shelter, but in 

 vain. They kept crossing streams and sand spits, and 

 it was midnight before they finally struck a solid river 

 bank. There was drift-wood there for a fire, but the 

 wind was too high to suffer them to light it, and so 

 they had recourse to their expedient of the former 

 night, and dug a hole in the snow, sheltering them- 

 selves as best they could by a barrier of snow-blocks. 



It was too cold to sleep, and they started again at 

 daybreak, Tuesday, the 18th, along the river bank to 

 the southward. They were now on the west bank of 

 the main stream, but found it easier at times to move 

 on the ice-bed of the river. Now and then they would 

 climb the bank above them to see what lay before them, 

 but the moss and snow there were so deep that they 

 sank to their knees at every step. They halted at ten, 

 when they made a fire, partook of willow tea and seal- 

 skin, but at six o'clock, when they had climbed the bank, 

 they saw a hut about a mile inland. They walked to 

 it and found it a peaked hut, without a door, and al- 

 most snowed over. A hundred yards farther on they 

 saw a pile of something which proved to be sleds. 

 There was no drift-wood near by, so they broke up 

 the sleds and used them for fire-wood. They dug out 

 enough snow from the hut to give them sleeping room, 

 and after staying themselves with willow tea and seal- 



