128 BY ESKIMO DOG-SLED 



done we sat upon the rocks around the 

 bubbling tea kettle and sang our evening 

 hymn. The men cleared a space on the floor 

 of the boat, and spread the sail for an awning, 

 and I laid me down in my sealskin sleeping- 

 bag and listened to the lapping of the water. 

 Before morning the lapping had ceased : the 

 water had frozen round the boat, even on a 

 July night. The Eskimos are a hardy folk. 

 I found my five boatmen sleeping on a patch 

 of moss among the rocks, snoring contentedly 

 in the cold air without so much as a blanket 

 among them ; and they woke in the morning 

 fresh and bright, and sang and laughed as 

 they pushed the boat among the ice. Daniel 

 skipped from one part of the boat to another, 

 always seeming to be in the very thick of the 

 work ; and once he seized a rope and ran over 

 the ice to haul us through a narrow passage, 

 while the others lolled and filled their pipes 

 again, and made remarks about Daniel being 

 a " Pujolik, ai " (steamer again). Daniel came 

 to a sudden stop, and shouted, " Jump out, 

 all of you," and in a moment we were on the 

 ice dragging the boat across, high and dry, 

 to plump it into the water again on the other 

 side of the floe. At midday we anchored 

 against a small iceberg, and Daniel clambered 

 upon it to fill his kettle at a pool that the sun 



