THE FIRST MUSK-OX 223 



and the Indians feasting on raw and half-frozen musk- 

 ox fat. 



Gnawing a piece of this fat, and hardly able to crawl 

 with the cold and fatigue, I followed back my tracks from 

 here until I found my capote and belt. It was nearly 

 midnight before Seco, badly frozen, turned up to report 

 the killing of two musk-oxen, and we had tea (for the 

 little fire is never kindled until all are in, because the tea 

 would freeze in a very few minutes after making). Sev- 

 eral of the men were snow-blind, and what with their 

 groans, the fighting of the dogs over the frozen musk-cow, 

 my ice-coated shirts, to thaw which there was not warmth 

 enough in my body, and a 67-below-zero temperature, 

 the night of our first musk-ox killing was memorable. 



