Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 2.djvu/245

226 'skin and bones.' As I looked upon her tattooed face, it was youthful and fair; even a smile was there, as if the King of Cold had fastened upon her at the very moment when her spirit welcomed the white-winged angel from heaven. "I know not how long I tarried in this that had been her living tomb, and was now the tomb of that only which is earthly. But at last I raised myself through the opening in the dome by which I had made my entrance, and, with the assistance of my Innuit friend, proceeded to cut out snow-blocks and place them over the excavated place in the igloo. Having secured it as well as we could, thus reburying, as it were, the dead, we turned our faces to the sledge and dogs, and were soon on our way to the ship." On Saturday, March 1st, news arrived by Koodloo of the ill success attending him and Ebierbing on their seal-hunts at Too-koo-li-to Inlet, and of the starving condition of their families. I thereupon determined to return with Koodloo and carry food to relieve them, and also to effect arrangements to have Koodloo and Ebierbing, with their families, removed to Field Bay. We started with eight dogs attached to our sledge, but the deep yielding snow made our progress at first very slow. Our course for the first four miles was nearly due north, when we struck the land on the east side of Grinnell Mount; thence, for a distance of fifteen miles, our journey was inland, first traversing a chain of lakelets embosomed amid mountains. When about three miles inland on our way, we came across an igloo nearly buried in snow; it was one that had been made a half-way house by Ebierbing and his party in going up. After this our way wound in and out among the mountains, up and down the steep sides, the sledge often nearly running over the dogs, till we came to Tookoolito Inlet, where we expected to find Ebierbing, his wife, and Koodloo's family. "Isaiah," the little son of Koodloo, was seen coming out to meet us, and soon afterward we reached the igloos. Tookoolito gladly welcomed us, her husband being out over a seal-hole. The next day, March 3rd, finding that Ebierbing