PREPARING FOR ARCTIC DAY 213 



uah's, worst of all, looked very badly indeed. They 

 told me that Awhella and Oxpuddyshou were fol- 

 lowing them to Annootok, and had met with fearful 

 hardships on their southern walrus hunt. They had 

 gone adrift a second time on the ice, escaping by 

 the narrowest margin, and had finally been forced 

 to abandon their effort to obtain walrus. I was sin- 

 cerely thankful, when I heard this, that I had not 

 accompanied them. 



On the day of Kulutinguah's arrival one of the 

 worst storms of the winter broke over the country. 

 It seemed to me that I had never experienced such 

 a gale. From the heavens above an avalanche of 

 snow fell, and the wind tore loose, and swept before 

 its mighty force, the great body of snow that already 

 covered the earth, until one could not breathe be- 

 yond the shelter of igloo or shack. I ventured to 

 thrust my head out of the tunnel leading from our 

 shack, but was promptly forced back to cover, or 

 I should have smothered. During the night of the 

 thirtieth, however, the storm subsided, and the fol- 

 lowing morning when I arose we were released from 

 its bondage and again free to move about. 



I was in the shack near midday when an unusual 

 excitement broke out among the Eskimos of the set- 

 tlement. Every one began rushing wildly about and 

 shouting incoherently. So great was the excitement, 

 in fact, that for a moment I believed all of the peo- 

 ple had suddenly gone problokto. I ran out at once 

 to discover the cause of the trouble, and learned that 

 Oxpudclyshou and Ahwella had been sighted in the 



