492 



ARCTIC RESEARCH EXPEDITION. 



the pure, radiant snows around — took the jewel from its broken 

 casket, and bore it aloft to its home. 



" Is she not better off now than when in this sinful world ? ask- 

 ed my weeping heart, as I looked upon the ice-fixed features be- 

 fore me. But the scene I can not now dwell upon. 



"I turn to the simple record of my investigations of whatever 

 might lead to a conjecture of the time of this woman's death, and 

 other incidents relating thereto. 



"At the immediate entrance to the igloo — within the igloo — 

 was a drift of snow reaching from the base to the dome. This 

 snow had found its way in by a crevice not larger than my fin- 

 ger. On digging the drift away, I found a portion of a snow 

 block that had been a snow door. As it had become but a frag- 

 ment of insufficient size to seal up the entrance from the toohsoo, 

 or passage-way, into the main igloo, slabs of ' black skin' had been 

 piled up, to make up the deficiency of the snow block. Whether 

 this was done by the deserted woman or not I can not decide. 

 There is a probability that the Innuits, who so cruelly abandoned 

 her to her fate, nearly filled up the entrance, then withdrew, turn- 

 ed round, and, by means of their arms and hands, reaching within 

 through the small opening, completed the sealing up, the last act 

 being to place a block of snow in the small remaining crevice. 



" The woman, I doubt not, was so helpless as to be unable to 

 get off the bed -platform from the time the Innuits left till her 

 death. On the network over the fireplace was a single article — a 

 pau-loo (mitten). Over the instrument used by the Innuits to 

 contain their fire-light was hung a long iron pan in which to 

 make snow-water. This contained ice, leaving the evidence that 

 the woman's fire had ceased to burn, that the water had become 

 frozen, and that, in order to quench her burning thirst, she had 

 chipped ice from the pan (which hung close by her head as she 

 lay in bed) by means of her oodloo (woman's knife). A tobacco- 

 pipe was near her head also, apparently having been used just 

 before she died. By her side — between her and the wall of the 

 igloo — was a four-gallon tin can, containing articles of the char- 

 acter and variety possessed by every Innuit woman — needles, 

 reindeer sinews (for thread), oodloo, beads, etc., etc. There was 

 abundance of whale skin within the igloo, and so of ooksook with 

 which to continue a fire ; but all of it was down on the floor of 

 the igloo, without the reach of the woman, if she were unable to 

 get from her bed, which I presume was the case when the Innuits 



