THE WINTER PARTY 49 



furs and not to spend their days lolling round the store hoping 

 for pickings. One man said that he came on behalf of Renatus 

 to say that he heard he was to be imprisoned in Nain, and if 

 that was the case he would rather be killed now. Baker said that 

 when he got to Nain he would certainly not be put in jail but would 

 jolly well have to go hunting for his living and work for the survey 

 party. 



Most of Tuesday was spent by Renatus in going to the store, 

 where the party were living, with various objections to his 

 travelling south. But it was clearly put to him that he was coming 

 south whether his family was ready or not, and so on Wednesday 

 morning the journey began, Renatus travelling with his family on 

 his own komatik. Good time was made to Itibliasuk where once 

 again the hospitality of Willie Tuglavina was very welcome, there 

 being quite a crowd sleeping in his hut that night ; there were 

 Buck, Dennis and Bingham, Willie Tuglavina and his wife and 

 two tubby boys, the old mother and Job Allack, an Eskimo who 

 had decided to travel south from Hebron with the party. When 

 the travellers arrived there was a seal in front of the fire, thawing 

 out preparatory to skinning, and after supper Job skinned it, 

 removed the blubber, and fed the teams. 



It was blowing like hell on Thursday and the party lay up all 

 day in the overcrowded hut, sleeping or cursing the weather; 

 but on Friday they were on the trail again, reaching Nutak that 

 evening, where a day was spent waiting for Stevenson to be fit 

 enough to travel. 



Renatus was proving very friendly and amenable and for many 

 hours at a time Buck travelled with Renatus on his komatik. 

 The shack at the foot of the Kurukuluk Brook was reached early 

 on Sunday afternoon and after a brief 'mug-up' in the hut, the 

 ascent of the Kiglerpaits began again, the snow being very 

 'mowya' up the brook. To get through this heavy going one of 

 the party had to break trail with snowshoes ahead of the dogs. 

 At dusk the highest point of the pass was reached and here a 

 camp was made, using the tents, while Renatus made a snow 

 house for his family and Dennis. It was a fine clear night, the 

 loveliness of which was accentuated by beautiful aurora with a 

 delicate pink shade on the edge of the usual yellow bands of 

 light; the night was quiet, crisp and still, as the travellers listened 



