Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 1.djvu/246

Rh It appeared, by what I read, that every one on board the ship, as also the natives in the two villages, had given us up for lost during the gale we encountered when encamped on the ice. From the long absence of all information about us, and the fact that the same gale had broken up the ice in Field Bay, it was concluded that we had been driven out to sea, and probably had perished. Koodloo's wife never expected to see him again; and old Ookijoxy Ninoo, the grandmother of Ebierbing, said she dreamt about him in such a way that his death was almost assured to her.

My information from the ship told me that the natives in both villages were still badly off, not having caught one seal since our departure. I must now mention, briefly, how Ebierbing obtained the fine seal he brought with him. On his way to the ship he discovered a seal-hole, but, being hurried for time, he merely erected a small pile of snow near at hand, and squirted tobacco-juice as a mark upon it. On his return, he readily found the hole by this mark, and, though he felt the necessity of hastening on to our relief, and had received instructions from the captain to hurry forward, yet he determined to try for the prize by spending the night in attempting to gain it. Accordingly, binding my shawl and various furs around his feet and legs, he took his position, spear in hand, over the seal-hole. This hole was buried in two feet of snow, and had been first detected by the keen sagacity of one of the dogs with him. Ebierbing, while watching, first thrust the spindle shank of the spear a score of times down through the snow, until he finally hit the small aperture leading through the ice. It was a dark night, and this made it the more difficult, for, in striking at a seal, it will not do to miss the exact spot where the animal comes to breathe—no, not by a quarter of an inch. But, to make sure of being right when aiming, Ebierbing put some dark tuktoo hair directly over it, and thus, after patiently watching the whole night long, he was rewarded in the early morning by hearing the seal blow. In a moment more he captured it by a well-directed aim of his spear.