THE WINTER PARTY 47 



surmounted, the snow being very 'mowya' and much time being 

 wasted; it was dark by the time the sea ice was reached on the 

 further side of the neck and it was difficult to pick out a trail. 

 There was an Eskimo encampment close by somewhere but 

 Willie was not quite certain where it was; then, after going a 

 mile or so Dennis suddenly saw the lights of the houses behind 

 and the teams were turned round. They soon smelt the place 

 and away they went, hell for leather, arriving at the huts to the 

 complete surprise of the Eskimos. Willie Tuglavina and Ephraim, 

 living here with their families, took the party in and made them 

 very welcome, everyone enjoying a really good night's rest. This 

 encampment, for this is all it was, consisting of huts of a very 

 temporary nature, was called Itibliasuk and was 3^ miles from 

 Nutak. It huddled imder the steep slopes of the Mugford Range 

 of mountains, great square blocks of rock 3000 feet high, with 

 sheer cliffs falling 2000 feet from the summits and then coming 

 dowTi to the sea ice in long scree slopes, a barren and forbidding 

 landscape. During the early part of the next day's run the 

 mountains lay to the westward and the going was good along the 

 sea ice and over the many low necks of land separating one bay 

 from another. About 10 o'clock the party was joined by an 

 Eskimo when they stopped for a 'mug up' ; he was hauling wood 

 to Hebron. Willie Metcalfe said he was one of the bad men of 

 Hebron, but he was a cheerful soul and could handle a primus 

 like a good one and as it is best not to make an enemy of such 

 a man in those parts, he came on with the party. 



At half-past three in the afternoon the komatiks came in across 

 Hebron Bay and Challenger would have been proud of her men if 

 she could have seen them racing across the sea ice, with their 

 white ensigns flying from each komatik. The Eskimos of the 

 Hebron Settlement had never seen such a sight and, as they watched 

 the arrival, there was much discussion as to who they were and 

 what they had come for, but suspicions were aroused and soon 

 there were few to be seen except Massie, the Hudson Bay trader. 



Hebron consists of a few huts clustered around a great barn of 

 a place which is the Hudson Bay store, right next to which is the 

 church, denoted by a tiny cupola on the ridge of the roof. 

 Despite the church it seemed to the travellers a God-forsaken 

 place, but it was the journey's end. 



