140 THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE KARLUK 
easterly gale and snowdrift. I wondered how the 
eight men of the advance guard were getting along 
and what they thought had become of the rest of 
us. Daily I had to rub poor Kerdrillo’s back and 
put plasters on it. His improvement was slow but 
fortunately his condition was not the only bar to 
our immediate departure, for the weather was too 
bad for efficient travel and it was far better for us 
to be eating supplies in camp where we had plenty 
than to be consuming them detained by the storm 
in some igloo along the trail. We fed the dogs 
seal meat, for we had several seal left, and also 
pemmican, for we still had plenty of that, and I 
was feeding the dogs all they would eat, to get 
them in as good condition as possible for the final 
march. This would be continuous travel with little 
sleep and now, on account of the storm, hard going 
and extra work in locating the trail. 
The Eskimo occupied some of their time in camp 
fitting up harpoons and spears to save ammunition. 
They also put our snowshoes in good condition and 
spliced hatchet-handles on to the handles of the 
snow-knives so that they could wield them better 
in cutting out snow-blocks for igloos. 
The supply-tent was all snowed under, but by 
digging around I succeeded in getting out a few 
things that I wanted. We all had a shave and a 
bath and changed our underclothing. I used a 
