Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 2.djvu/256

Rh in it, and waits till the walrus comes to the surface of the water, into which he has plunged on feeling the stroke of the harpoon; then the animal is quickly despatched by the use of a long lance. The recklessness and cool daring of the Innuit is forcibly shown in this operation, for if he should fail to free his neck of the coil at just the right moment, he would inevitably be drawn headlong beneath the ice.

At length, on the morning of April 7th, I resumed my trip. Ebierbing had come over with the sledge on the previous day, and I made an exchange with him, taking his, and giving him that belonging to the ship. My company consisted of Koojesse, his wife Tunukderlin, Kar-nei-ung ("Sharkey") his wife Noud-larng ("Jennie"), and young Henry Smith. We proceeded on the sea-ice, nearly north-west, for Chapel's Point, at the west side of the entrance of Wiswell's Inlet. Our sledge was heavily laden, especially with kow (walrus hide) for dog food, and walrus beef for our own eating; but the travelling was good, and we made better progress than I had expected, arriving at the place named at about 4 Then Sharkey and Koojesse proceeded to build an igloo in the regular manner, which may be described thus: They first sounded or "prospected" the snow with their seal-spears to find the most suitable for that purpose. Then one commenced sawing out snow blocks, using a hand-saw, an implement now in great demand among the Innuits for this purpose; the blocks having been cut from the space the igloo was to occupy, the other Innuit proceeded to lay the foundation tier, which consisted of seventeen blocks, each three feet long, eighteen inches wide, and six inches thick. Then commenced the "spiraling," allowing each tier to fall in, dome-shaped, till the whole was completed, and the key-stone of the dome or arch dropped into its place, the builders being within during the operation. When the igloo was finished the two Innuits were walled in; then a square hole was cut at the rear of the dwelling, and through this Smith and I passed some snow blocks which we had sawed out. These Sharkey and Koojesse chipped or "minced" with their snow knives, while