206 HUNTING WITH THE ESKIMOS 



scarcely move, and were kept going only by constant 

 shouting and whipping by the drivers. 



How long a time we were beating our way to- 

 ward land before we reached it I could not estimate. 

 The time seemed interminable, and at times the effort 

 hopeless. The ice was piled in mighty heaps. The 

 toil was awful. But finally we reached land in the 

 midst of pitchy darkness, and drift and falling snow 

 so thick it seemed that all effort at self-preserva- 

 tion must cease and one must perish. 



Once on land we groped about like blind men in 

 the dense blackness for a suitable drift in which to 

 build a snow igloo as shelter, our only source of pro- 

 tection from cold and storm. Fortunately a com- 

 pact drift was stumbled upon, and in blinding snow 

 and impenetrable darkness the Eskimos began at once 

 the building of an igloo while the kooner, the pic- 

 caninnies and myself, wrapped in deerskins, huddled 

 and shivered on a sledge. In the darkness, the gale 

 and the thick driving snow it seemed an impossible 

 task, and how it was accomplished I do not know, 

 but in an hour the igloo was finished and ready for 

 us. 



Skins were taken inside, snow beaten out of them, 

 and they were spread as a floor-covering. Then our 

 other things were taken in, and arranged around the 

 sides. A stone lamp was set up, but the seal blubber, 

 frozen hard, had to be thawed before it could be 

 burned. This was done by the Eskimos chewing, 

 and spitting it, when softened, into the lamp. Pres- 

 ently by this means and after some trouble, a fairly 



