Hunting Musk-Ox "with the Dog Ribs 



found that his own affairs would require 

 all his attention. Esyuh helped me to 

 skin two, while I finished the third by 

 moonlight, freezing my fingers in the 

 operation. He afterward demanded sev- 

 enty skins — thirty- five dollars — for his 

 labor. 



It was impossible to skin the heads in 

 the darkness. I wrapped the skins around 

 them so that they would not freeze during 

 the night. 



Another blizzard was raging in the 

 morning, which prevented moving, but 

 enabled me to attend to the heads, which 

 had not frozen very much ; but the skins 

 around them were stiff and solid, so that it 

 was impossible to fold them up for trans- 

 portation. 



I spent the day sawing the skulls in 

 halves, so that they might be loaded on 

 the sled, sitting beside a little smoke aris- 

 ing from the bones of the musk-ox, which 

 contained enough grease to burn, though 

 not very readily. Our fires were started 

 with birch-bark, a small roll being carried 

 by each man for that purpose. The pine- 

 wood was cut in sticks a foot in length, 

 and finely split, then built up in a " log 

 cabin " or a cone. Each man took his 

 turn blowing to keep it alight, as the 

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