CHAPTER XIV 



A DROWNING ACCIDENT A BREAKDOWN ON THE MOUNTAIN 

 JOHANNES IN A STORM CROSSING A CREVICE 



ODDLY enough, a drowning accident was the 

 cause of my next sledge journey. The message 

 came, as Labrador messages do, sudden and terse, 

 carried by two stolid men post haste over the hills 

 as soon as the ice was firm enough for them to travel. 

 There had been a drowning accident in November, 

 wrote the superintendent ; would I go and teach the 

 people life-saving drill ? The messengers were be- 

 sieged with anxious questions, and from their laconic 

 answers I pieced together the story of the mishap. 

 It appears that a strong storm was blowing, and 

 some of the men home from the seal-hunt saw their 

 big boat beginning to drag its anchor. Absorbed by 

 the idea of saving their boat, four of them put off 

 from the beach in a little flat-bottomed punt; and 

 after a short battle with the waves over they went. 

 Eskimos are no swimmers ; they are more used to 

 ice than water ; and it is no wonder that the poor 

 fellows made but a feeble fight against the stormy 

 sea. One of them was floundering face downwards 

 when a big wave caught him and cast him on a 

 boulder, where he sprawled, gasping and half choked : 

 the other three had never a chance, and their bodies 

 were washed up on the beach half-an-hour later. 



A plucky little Eskimo put out in a punt and 



managed to save the man on the boulder at the risk 



181 



