Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 1.djvu/242

Rh remaining strength was very, very small, and thus my efforts to get on soon nearly exhausted me. After a great struggle through the deep snow, I at last got within hailing distance, and sang out to know if it was really Ebierbing, as the party I had seen was no longer advancing. No reply came to my question, and I immediately hastened my feeble steps to see the cause. A moment or two brought me near enough to be convinced. It was Ebierbing, with the sledge and dogs, but so exhausted with his labours that he had been obliged to throw himself down, completely overpowered. Soon I was by his side grasping his hand, and, with a grateful heart, thanking him for the really good deed he had performed in thus coming alone with the relief I saw before me.

In a short time the loaded sledge was examined, and I found a box of sundries sent from the ship, as also a very fine seal, caught that morning by Ebierbing himself. There was likewise a quantity of whale-meat, brought from Rescue Harbour for the use of our dogs. Directly Ebierbing could renew his journey, we started together; but the dogs and both of us were hardly able to get the sledge along. Finally we reached the shore ice, and here we were so exhausted that not one inch farther could we drag the loaded sledge. Kunniu, wife No. 2 of Ugarng, seeing our condition, hastened to give assistance, and with her strong arms and our small help, the sledge was soon placed high on the shore by the side of the igloos. Ebierbing's first and most earnest call was for "water." This was supplied to him, and then we commenced storing our new supplies. The seal was taken into the igloo—the usual place for a captured seal—and the sledge, with its contents, was properly attended to. Of course the news of Ebierbing's arrival with a seal "spread like wildfire," and in our quiet little village, consisting of three igloos, all the inhabitants with exhausted stomachs—including my own—were prepared for wide distension. The seal weighed, I should say, about 200 lbs. and was