1 64 HUNTERS OF THE GREAT NORTH 



follow the narrow beach between cliffs two or three hun- 

 dred feet high on one side and the impassable ice on the 

 other. There was soft snow under the cliff in places 

 where there was a lee, and here and there the rough ice 

 had been shoved actually up against the cliff in such a 

 way that we had great difficulty in scrambling over. Oc- 

 casionally we had to use axes to hack away snags of ice 

 to make a road for the sleds. 



We spent the first night in Amundsen's abandoned 

 house at King Point. The next morning there was a howl- 

 ing blizzard and it continued for three days. By that 

 time we had eaten up all the food we had with us, for 

 we had expected to reach Herschel Island in three travel- 

 ing days. It was still blowing rather hard on the fourth 

 morning but we had to do one of two things — turn and 

 travel before the wind back to Shingle Point and get a 

 fresh start, or face the wind and travel some twenty miles 

 against it to Stokes Point where we knew a family of 

 Eskimos were living about ten or twelve miles our side 

 of Her?chel Island. My companions were inclined to 

 turn back, but I had a little pride in such things and 

 urged that we should go on. Accordingly, we set out and 

 I had my first arctic experience with a blizzard in the 

 open. 



In Dakota I had seen many blizzards (and some of 

 them are as bad as any in the polar regions) but there 

 had been no occasion to tra linst them any length 



of time, for houses or other shelters had always been avail- 

 able. Dressed as we were in Dakota, we should have 

 fro/en to death anyway trying to walk twenty miles into 

 a storm. Dressed in El I imo clothes it is another matter. 

 Hut although our lives were in no danger, we had diffi- 

 culties of two kinds. 



