230 Inasmuch 



hand, Mr. Bompas stumbled onward for three 

 days further until at length he reached the first 

 snow-house. Of snow-blindness, caused by the 

 glare of the sun upon unbroken wastes of snow, 

 he wrote, &quot;The effect of this is to produce, after 

 a time, acute inflammation of the eyes. These, 

 in the end, may be so entirely closed as to involve 

 a temporary blindness, accompanied by much 

 smarting pain The voyager feels very help 

 less during the acute stage of snow-blindness, and, 

 like Elymas the sorcerer, or St. Paul himself, he 

 seeks some one to lead him by the hand. &quot; 

 Erection of ^ a man ^ n ^ s sympathetic spirit and acute 

 Snow House observation, every detail in his new surroundings 

 was of the greatest interest. The erection of a 

 snow-house he could &quot;compare to nothing but 



the skill of the bee in making its honeycomb 



The snowy material is so beautiful that the work 

 proceeds as if by magic. The blocks of frozen 

 snow are cut out of the mass with large knives, 

 and built into solid masonry, which freezes to 

 gether as the work proceeds, without the aid of 

 mortar. Being arched over, a dome-shaped 

 house is formed, with a piece of clear ice for a 

 window, and a hole, through which you creep on 

 all-fours, for a door or entrance. One-half of 

 the interior is raised about two feet, and strewn 

 with deer-skins as beds and sofas, on which the 

 long nights are passed in sleep, for which an 

 Eskimo seems to have an insatiable capability 

 and relish.&quot; 



