288 Hall Builds an Igloo Near the Ships. [November, isee. 



wliere Rae had liis tents in 1847, Ids party succeeded within the next 

 nine days in killing forty-one deer, but complained that the animals 

 were shy and had kept off the coast. The crisping of the snow under 

 foot was heard by the deer a long way off, and Hall himself had very 

 little success, for when taking aim, his excitement was such that he 

 invariably failed. He does not give his reasons for finding himself 

 under the influence of this "buck-fever"; they may be almost in- 

 ferred from what has been just written. His right eye had suffered 

 some injury from his having neglected to use the colored glasses when 

 taking his sextant observations; yet he made daily tramps from twelve 

 to fifteen miles in the hunts. 



Under the anxieties which have been named and the rumor that 

 the ships were to winter at Marble Island in the middle of the month, 

 he again visited the Ansell Gibbs. The harbor was already filled with 

 heavy ice, and the ships were constantly employed in keeping them- 

 selves free; but the decision as to the place of wintering had not yet 

 been made. On his return, before reaching Iwillik, he met with a 

 severe storm which nearly capsized the Sylvia, and in landing he was 

 gale-bound for three days, soon after which Ebierbing became danger- 

 ously ill, continuing sick the whole of the following month. Hall 

 seldom left him. 



His cliief trials, however, seemed now about to end. The cap- 

 tains decided they would remain in the bay, and he had volunteers 

 for his next journey. For carrying out his plans, therefore, and for 

 a closer social intercourse, on the 24tli of November, he moved near 

 the ships, building for himself an igloo on one of the small islands of 

 the group within which the whalers had anchored (No. 1 of the map 

 of Ship's Harbor Island). Intercourse with the ships then became still 

 more cordial. 



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