THE FIRST SEARCH. 845 



to blow during the whole of that night, the next day, 

 and the next night. It was impossible to move until 

 the next day morning, when it cleared up a little, but, 

 in the mean time, we had nothing to eat. It was too 

 stormy to make a fire to make tea, and the venison 

 bones which the natives had dug out were full of mag- 

 gots. We chopped this up in little cubes and swallowed 

 it whole, which made me so sick after it wanned up in 

 my stomach that I vomited it all out again. 



" About seven o'clock in the morning I got ready to 

 start the teams to the southward, turning the short 

 team back again to go home. The short team of dogs 

 had something like two hundred and fifty versts (about 

 a hundred and seventy miles) to go northwest, and no 

 supplies but two dried fish and a quarter of a pound of 

 tea. I put all the loads from the three sleds on to two 

 sleds, and started for Bulcour, the nearest place where 

 I could make a fire. I arrived at Bulcour about eleven 

 or twelve o'clock at night. It stormed so during this 

 day, the wind had carried clogs and sleds whither it 

 would. Owing to the manner in which the sleds were 

 made, in traveling over the sand banks the runners 

 were worn away, so that the lashings were constantly 

 cut and the sleds were continually breaking down. I 

 set to work repairing the sleds, and the next day 

 started for the native village known as Ku Mark Surka, 

 about fifty or fifty-five versts (thirty-three to thirty-six 

 miles) from Bulcour. On my journey to the northward. 

 I had traversed this fifty versts in about seven hours, 

 but on my return it was so stormy and the snow so 

 deep that it took about fourteen hours. The dogs were 

 so exhausted from starvation that they could only drag 

 the sleds along. I was frozen so badly that I could not 

 walk. The natives were not frozen, but were so tired 



