208 THE CHILDREN OF THE COLD. 



all .out, we found the hatchet below, at 

 the bottom. It seemed as absurd as to 

 leave an ax on a frozen lake and to see 

 it slowly sink through three or four feet 

 of ice to the bottom. 



We built no other house for ourselves 

 than this mixture of ice-walls and snow- 

 roof, though all the Eskimo built regular 

 igloos of snow as soon as that material 

 was in good condition ; and when the 

 bitter days of winter came on they always 

 complained of cold when they came into 

 our house. 



The reason why we did not build a 

 warmer house of snow was that we had 

 planned to leave our home in North Hud- 

 son's Bay, and to pay a long visit to some 

 whale-ships that were frozen in a harbor 

 about a hundred miles farther south. 

 There were four of these ships in a safe 



