LEARNING TO BUILD A SNOWHOUSE 161 



Shingle Point and found everything well there, both in 

 Sten's house and in Roxy's. They had had during the 

 winter numerous visitors with dogs and, for one reason 

 and another, their store of fish had almost given out. 

 As there is no winter fishing at Shingle Point and no 

 sealing nearer than twenty miles from there, Roxy's 

 household had decided on breaking up. When Ovayuak 

 returned from Herschel Island Roxy and his family 

 would accompany him back to Tuktuyaktok, while 

 Oblutok's family would go up into the forest region of 

 the Mackenzie delta where the spring fishing is tolerable 

 and where there are rabbits and ptarmigan. 



I had now been living for the last six weeks on fish 

 (without salt) and water — no sugar, no flour, no vege- 

 tables, nothing whatever but fish and water — and before 

 that for three months on about 95% either fish and 

 water or meat and water. I had just passed through 

 the supposedly depressing midwinter period called "The 

 Long Arctic Night" and had just finished my first jour- 

 ney under the rigors of a polar winter. Apropos of all 

 of it, Sten remarked I must have been putting on weight. 

 I weighed myself — 176 pounds. That was ten pounds 

 more than I ever had weighed up to that time, and is 

 twenty pounds more than I normally weigh when living 

 in a city. 



