Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 1.djvu/230

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
STORM-BOUND.
209

while still upon the frozen sea. A storm was also gathering, and its darkness, with the howling wind, which had changed from off the land to right upon it, was foreboding. We were likewise much wearied with the day's labours, and it was some time after we stopped before a suitable place was found and our second igloo erected. At length, though long after dark, we were comfortably located, enjoying a hot supper beneath the snowy dome, the foundation of which rested on the frozen

STORM-BOUND—ENCAMPMENT ON THE FLOE IN DAVIS'S STRAITS, JANUARY 11th AND 12th, 1861.

bosom of the mighty deep. But not too soon were we under shelter. The storm had burst in all its fury, and we could hear the wind roaring outside as we warmed ourselves within.

All night long the gale continued, and the next morning—the third of our journey—it was found impossible to go on. It was blowing a strong gale, and continued so all day, with snow in impenetrable thickness. We were therefore obliged to keep inside our shelter, wrapped in furs.