Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 1.djvu/240

CHAPTER XII.

Writing under Difficulties—No Fire or Lamp—Only two Inches of Black Skin for Food—Ravenous Hunger of the Dogs—Ebierbing's Return—A Seal captured—Supplies from the Ship—Great Consumption of Food at a time—Old Ookijoxy Ninoo's Dream—Tobacco-juice useful—Watching for the Seal—Innuit Endurance of Cold—Mode of cooking and partaking of Innuit Food—Burning the Fingers with cold Brass—First Reindeer seen—Author visits Kowtukjua, Clark's Harbour, and Ookoolear, Allen's Island—Tookoolito's Sadness—Quick Journey—Plaintive Look of a Seal—Arrive at the "George Henry."

At this time, though I kept in general good health and spirits, I was fast losing flesh. But almost worse than want of food was the want of light and fuel. On several occasions, the only way I had to keep myself from freezing was by sitting in bed with plenty of tuktoo furs around me. The writing of my journal was done with the thermometer + 15° to less than 0, while outside it was from - 25° to - 52°. During the day I several times went up the hill to look for Ebierbing's reappearance from the vessel, but no signs of him met my eye, and the night of January 24th (fourteen days from the ship) saw us with our last ration of food, viz., a piece of "black skin" 1¼ inch wide, 2 inches long, and ¾ of an inch thick. It was under these very "agreeable" circumstances I went to sleep, hoping to dream of better things, even if I could not partake of them. "Better things" fortunately did arrive, and in a way that I could partake of them.

At midnight I heard footsteps within the passage-way to our igloo. Intuitively I knew it was Jack with ook-gook—seal-blubber. I sprang out of bed and drew back the snow-block door. There was Jack, his spear covered with pierced seal-blubber hanging in strips like string-dried apples. I had allowed my poor starving dog "Merok" to sleep within the igloo that night, and, directly I had opened the door, on his