Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 2.djvu/264

Rh was very thick. Soon after seven we started on our return journey to our encampment, and at nine o'clock we were abreast of the place where we had passed the previous night. At that time the wind was freshening, and it was snowing hard. Our passage thence to the place of our encampment was very difficult. Not only had we to encounter a severe north-west gale, charged with cold at 32° below the freezing-point, accompanied by drift-snow filling the air so thickly that often no object at three fathoms' distance could be seen but the dogs became perfectly exhausted from being over-worked, and from going long without food. On making inquiries THE RETURN FROM NEWTON'S FIORD.

of Henry Smith, I learned that Sharkey and Koojesse had been feeding their own dogs and neglecting my "Greenlanders," which were now just upon the point of giving out. Two of them were so knocked up before reaching home that they could not pull a pound; one was so fatigued that he repeatedly fell down. I was obliged to lead the way for several miles by the compass, it being impossible to see the land, though the fiord was only from half a mile to two miles wide. During the afternoon the sun shone down through the