Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 2.djvu/241

222 the third? That was now the question, beyond the probability of being immediately answered. We sought here and there, but unsuccessfully for a while. Ebierbing took an oo-nar (seal-spear)—which was among the articles I indicated as pointing up through the snow which we saw as we made our approach—and 'sounded,' striking it down through the deep snow in one place after another, till he hit what told him the third igloo was there. He called to me, and pointed to the spot, withdrawing himself a little distance off, where he awaited my opening up whatever might be below. Stroke after stroke with my long knife loosened the hard pure snow-drift. I lifted the blocks up out of their bed, casting them aside. This was the final search. My feelings, as I delved away at this heart-tearing work, may be better conceived

SEEKING THE LOST VILLAGE.

than described. The dome of the igloo was reached. The heat that had been generated within from the fire-light had turned the snow of which it was made into solid ice, and I had difficulty in getting a hole through this. All this time we were exposed to the wind, blowing its cold, freezing blast from the north-west. My snow-knife gave way in cutting this icy dome, and I was obliged to take in its place the seal-spear. With this I quickly penetrated the wall under me, thus revealing the fact that a lining, or second envelope, was yet to be cut through before I could determine my success in