256 HUNTING WITH THE ESKIMOS 



insisted upon returning south the following morning, 

 giving as their reason, when I urged them to remain 

 another day, that they had left the little piccaninnies 

 alone and must get back to them. 



More good fortune favored us. A day or two 

 after Ilabrado's visit I was shoveling away snow be- 

 hind the shack in search of buried boxes to utilize for 

 kindling wood, when I came upon a forgotten sack 

 of coal. It was like finding gold! It gave us fuel 

 and comfort. 



My face was a spectacle at this time. All winter 

 I had been freezing and refreezing it, and now it 

 began to peel in great, unsightly splotches, and was 

 very sore. When one's face becomes frost-bitten 

 the skin turns dark, and finally when the dead skin 

 comes off white patches are left to mark the frosted 

 places. 



For two or three days we had very changeable 

 weather. Now it would snow, now clear and the sun 

 would come out from behind the clouds warm and 

 fine. It was a delightful sensation to feel its heat 

 after its long absence. But at length came thick 

 snow the wind terrific and day after day it lasted 

 until it lengthened into the longest continuous storm 

 of the winter. 



The enforced confinement without exercise and the 

 continuous wind began finally to act upon my nerves. 

 I remember lying awake one evening listening to the 

 wind's mournful soughing and high-pitched shrieks 

 as it beat against the shack, until I imagined that 

 some one outside was crying for help and then moan- 



