Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-01-16

store the meat to keep it from the
hungry dogs, and the other to protect
the dogs themselves. 1t is very sell
dom that these people ever build
such snow-kennels for their dogs,
however cold or stormy the weather,
but now the flying spray freezing on
their fur, and the want of something
to do to distract their attention from
their perilous situation, determined
them to build snow-house for these
animals.
The war vessel seemed to be of the
ram order, and of the most belliger-
ent class, too, for it went crashing fore
and aft into every other ship of its
own kind, without regard to their size,
and the Esquimau crew were often re-
called with view of boreal battle,
in which missiles of ice, score OF
times greater than Krupp ever
dreamed of, weee hurled backwards
and forwards by the contending foes,
as they came crashing together.
The snow-hut built, and everything
being housed, they had time to look
their situation fairly in the face, and
it was not very inviting one. The
danger of life, it is true, was not as
great as less experienced persons
might infer from such situation, as
these great iceields, tough as oak, in
the depth of an Arctic winter, very sell
dom went to pieces, and when they
did it was because two greater foes
would crush them between them,
and on to the surviving
fields the men could escape. But
| if the storm continued long, they
might get so far away that the lighter
southern winds would never watt
them back, or at least before the
summer was on them and the Ice be-
came so rotten that it was likely ogo
to pieces in storm from the mere
motion OF the waves, and be reduced
to such small cakes that each and all
were constantly overturning, so that
life would be as unsafe as that OF a
bug on a lot of sawdust in a rapid.
Again, their ship might bring into
a foreign port from which, though
safe, they could never return, or only
after long interval; for there was
case among the Iwillik Esquimaux,
man whom they had left that very
morning, who some twenty years be-
fore had been carried away on the
ice-foe and landed three weeks later
on the southern shore OF Southampton
Island, and from there had been q
long, lonesome year and half getting
from the natives of that strange land
back to his beloved Iwillik, where his
friends and relatives had long since
given him up as having joined that
great Esquimau majority in the lard
where the fountains spouted pure seal
oil and the houses were built OF blocks
of frozen reindeer and walrus meat.
The only chance Of sudden danger
was in case the foe should, in some
of its'collisions with others, split d.
rectly through Il cir snow-house and
drop them into the sea. But such a
chance for a violent collision was
hourly growing less, for towards the
weather side long line OF other cakes
torn from the wide shore ice or blown
out of some big inlet was forming
veritable ice-pack-or a long but con-
tinuous string OF ice-cakes OF all sizes
from the largest foes to the smallest
pieces, and oftentimes but few hun
dred yards wide, but a number of
miles in length-and where the" pack"
forms nature has built as good a break
water to stop the furious waves and
breakers OF sea as amy ever de-
vised by the art of man. was once
on a sailing vessel off the mouth of
Hudson's strait and in bowling
storm that made it impossible for
land-crab like myself to keep my feet
under me on the deck. We were
lacking up and down in front of an
ice-pack trying to get through, an at
tempt that would have been suicide
if we had plunged into the grinding
ice. A break was finally found,
however, and through it we sailed,
finding ourselves between two
ice-packs half mile apart, but ex-
tending for miles in length, and as
soon as we got through the sea was
smoothed down to half its dimensions.
Getting through the next ice-pack the
water was as still as a river, although
wind was blowing that sent us plow-
ing along at twelve knots an hour.
/ BY 2 O'Clock p. NJ. darkness had set
in, and they were at their wits end
to know what to do for light, al
though they had all the walrus blub-
Der needed from which to extract the
oil, but they were without the
semblance of lamp in which to burn
it. Nannook, however, overcame this
by fashioning one from the inch-thick
hide of the walrus, sewing it with
sealskin thongs cut from the dog har-
ness, while wicking was had by cut
ting up Ikqueesik's WOODEN tobacco
bag, and matches were plentiful
enough among all my hired natives
who smoked tobacco, and both
Nanneok and Ikqueesik stood
we'll toward the head on the list.
In a little while, therefore, a bright
enough fire for light was had,
though hardly strong enough to heat
the house to any extent, and they
were sitting on the snow bed discuss
ing the dismal prospects. For supper
they had raw frozen walrus meat, but
this was not so bad, as it was often
the staple diet OF their meals, and
even at home they could only expect
to supplement it with some hot soup
and a piece of steaming walrus flipper.
The principal worry about their meat
supply was quantity, not quality, and
the chance for renewing that sup
ply when the present gave out; and
this latter did not look so generally
bad, as the floating ice-packs were
known to contain more seal and wal
rus than the solid shore ice, as they
had often remarked when hunting on
the latter. Should they go off their
own little island OF ice, however, to
hunt for an animal, the drifting
waters might separate them from it so
that they could never return, and this
probability would confine their hunt
ing tours to very limited area. So,
take it all in all, however dark and
| dismal their outlook seemed thare