140 BY ESKIMO DOG-SLED 



failed, by reason of the awful frost. He had 

 even hired an old Eskimo woman to sleep in 

 the greenhouse on the nippiest nights, and 

 keep up a fire to prevent the cabbages and 

 lettuces from freezing ; he banked his green- 

 house round with a thick wall of snow ; he 

 had a sackcloth .cover made to put over it 

 like a blanket ; but in spite of the snow wall, 

 and in spite of the blanket, and in spite, even, 

 of the old woman and her fire, the greenhouse 

 did no good. Okak was too cold a place for 

 greenhouses. So the missionary sold the green- 

 house to one of the seal hunters for a few 

 dollars, and the happy hunter made a home 

 of it. And there I slept, on the floor, of course, 

 wrapped in a sealskin sleeping-bag, with the 

 dogs prowling about outside and snuffing at 

 the glass walls, and the stars twinkling through 

 the glass roof. 



It was a cold place for a home : in the 

 morning the bread was frozen, and the water 

 in the bucket was just a solid lump of ice, 

 the butter was like stone, and the tinned milk 

 was wonderfully stiff stretching out in long 

 strings when we tried to help ourselves with 

 spoons ; but the hunter's wife was up at 

 dawn to light a fire, and in spite of the frost 

 we had a hot breakfast before we went out 

 of doors. 



I wanted to see the hauling of the seal net ; 



