SNOW-CLEARING 



there was always work to be done, either outdoors 

 or in. 



As soon as Easter was over we set to work on 

 the snow-clearing. This was a task for the women 

 and the old men, while the hunters were after the 

 reindeer. The snow that had drifted against our 

 walls during the winter had to be dug away: it 

 seemed an immense task, but to leave it undone 

 would mean that when the thaw came our floors 

 would be swamped and our foundations washed 

 away, so we followed the example of the Eskimos 

 and cleared it away. The biggest task was to dig 

 out the river. This was buried under thirty feet of 

 snow, caked hard with the wind, and in some parts 

 of it the people had to work like navvies at a railway 

 cutting. The men used to cut the snow into blocks 

 with great sword-knives, and heap it on the sledges ; 

 then the women raced with the load down to the 

 beach, and tipped it among the ice-hummocks. 

 Easter fell late one year, and the river began to run 

 before its course was properly made. The first hint 

 I had of it was a noise at the back of the hospital, 

 and there I found a sort of miniature Niagara roaring 

 over the edge of the snow-drift and lashing against 

 our walls. The church floor was flooded ; and some 

 Eskimos in a hut near by woke from their slumbers 

 to find their chairs and their boxes floating about, 

 and themselves in bed in a house full of water. We 

 called for volunteers, and had soon given out all the 

 spades and shovels; those who were too late for 

 spades took hatchets and snow-knives, poles, oars, 

 planks, and anything, and before the day was 

 out the river was running furiously in its proper 



channel. 



325 



