Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 1.djvu/279

258 show all becoming respect for the dead, and equally our duty to guard well the living against the exposures that threatened us on our return, for it was now five o'clock, and we were full ten miles by direct route from the ship. "Captain B and myself concluded to make his grave ashore, at the base of a noble mountain bluff or headland, that would stand for ever as the monument of the deceased. But it was soon found that not a stone could be moved. We then decided to make his grave upon the ice, on the very spot where he died, covering his form with the unspotted ice and snow that lay in profusion around. This sad duty was performed with weeping hearts. When all was completed, with reverential awe of the God of the heavens and the earth, we bent over the grave of our friend, and shed the tears of mourning, tempered with the hope that 'now it is better with thy spirit!' "With slow steps we moved from this toward the dogs and sledge, by which we were to travel for hours to our quarters. It was half-past five when we left the grave of John Brown. Our team of twelve dogs made rapid progress some of the way, while at times there seemed to be a 'hugging' of the sledge-shoes to the snow that made the draught very heavy. We had some earnest work to do to keep ourselves from freezing. Every now and then we took turns in jumping off and running. Captain B had unfortunately ventured out with a pair of civilization boots, having found his native ones too small. On the return passage he got Johnston to pull off one of his boots, as he found one foot freezing. This simple, quick act of pulling off the captain's boot (with unmittened hand), gave Johnston a pile of frozen fingers. Half a dozen times Johnston's nose was frozen, and as often I rubbed it into order. I took the precaution of keeping myself in active exercise by running along beside the sledge for more than half of the way home. The thermometer was down to 49° below the freezing point, with a fresh wind from the northwest. Thus we had severe battling to do to keep from becoming subjects of King Cold.