248 THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE KARLUK 
Perhaps she could not get along with her mother- 
in-law and took it out on her babv. At all events 
the mother-in-law, who was very old, was a tough 
customer. Quite unknowingly I sat down in her 
place and fell asleep. Some time after midnight 
I was awakened by a smart slap on the cheek. I 
was too drowsy to pay much attention to this but 
presently was brought up broad awake by having 
the old woman step on my face. I found her 
snorting and grunting; the young mother was 
still crooning and talking to the baby. I had all 
my clothes on, so I shook Kataktovick and we went 
outdoors. 
The light was just showing along the eastern 
horizon. We made a little snow shelter, had some 
tea and pemmican and started on our way about 
two o’clock in the morning. We travelled hard 
all day. There was a strong northwest gale and 
the air was filled with drifting snow so that we 
could not see very far ahead. When we came to 
Cape Onman we were disappointed to find no 
arangas there; only the framework was left and 
we found out later that the people had moved to 
Koliuchin Island. We kept along the trail, 
which to our surprise took us away from the land 
and out on to the ice on the broad entrance to Koli¬ 
uchin Bay, and presently we came to Koliuchin 
Island, a high formation, like a warship bottom up. 
