AN UNCOMFORTABLE NIGHT 



turned the back of the stove to the doorway, we got 

 something better, and we hung our boots from the 

 rafters and sat down to our toasted but rather frost- 

 bitten bread and mutton with quite a feeling of 

 luxury. 



But oh, that night ! The Eskimos thought we 

 were in for a real treat ; there was actually a platform 

 bed of moss, as dry as we could wish ; and we lay 

 down upon it side by side. Soon I heard the usual 

 snores, but I well, I was in the hands or claws or 

 jaws of creatures left by previous occupants of that 

 bed. There are no fleas in Labrador, but there are 

 things that bite as hard, I will not try to give their 

 scientific name, for I never saw them : they just bit 

 and fled. I will not prolong the memory of that 

 night : suffice it to say that I was glad to see the 

 morning. The storm had gone : we could see our 

 landmarks, and the only disadvantage was soft snow 

 knee deep, through which the dogs slowly wallowed. 

 I was worn out. The end of our journey is prosaic 

 enough, after the excitement of yesterday, but, be the 

 fact prosaic or not, I knew that there was work wait- 

 ing for me ; so I got into my sleeping-bag, and the 

 drivers laid me on the sledge and tucked me snugly 

 in, and there I slept. I woke late in the afternoon 

 to the shout of " Kemmutsit " (the sledge), and as I 

 raised my head I saw the Okak people running 

 out to welcome us home. 



180 



