FOUR ESKIMO CHILDREN. 183 



Before long, their situation became 

 known, and many a brave man started 

 out in the rough waters in his little frail 

 seal-skin canoe, or kiak, to do his best 

 to rescue the children. In a little while, 

 Koomanah saw their rescuers ; but the 

 storm had made the waves so heavy that 

 the edges of the ice-field were broken 

 into a thousand floating cakes, many 

 of them as big as small houses, which 

 turned and tumbled over one another 

 in a way to appall even the stoutest 

 heart. But brave young Koomanah was 

 equal to the emergency, and, fearful as 

 it seemed, he knew he must cross that 

 wide space of rolling, heaving, tumbling 

 blocks of ice before he could reach the 

 skin canoes of the rescuers, who, of 

 course, picked out the best place possible 

 to accomplish their daring attempts. 



