Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 2.djvu/284

Rh their noses, made them turn sharply round in a second. The consequence was that the sledge-runner caught in the snow-crust, and sent me heels over head off the sledge, to which my Innuit companions clung with all their might. The runners of this sledge were twelve feet long, and the left one was split from stem to stern; but, though this was a serious disaster, yet no considerable regret was manifested on the part of the natives. Koojesse and Sharkey immediately set to work with their seal-spears, and succeeded in mortising three holes in the lower half of the runner in the short space of time that it took me to write the pencil notes recording the incident. It was not long before the runner was strapped together, and we were again on our way down on the western side of the large island which we passed in the morning, I hoping not to see another seal that day. It was 10 when we arrived at the south end of the Kikitukjua—Augustus Island, as I called it—and made our fourteenth encampment. We had travelled forty miles that day after leaving the thirteenth encampment, which was on a small island not far from the east side of Augustus Island. We slept soundly, though our couch was the bare rock. On the morning of the 12th, when we awoke, we found ourselves beneath a snow-drift—that is to say, some eight or ten inches of snow had fallen during the night, giving us a clean, warm coverlet. The weather being unpropitious for travelling, we remained at the same place during the day. The following day, May 13th, at 10 we resumed our journey, passing along down by the coast of Becher Peninsula, on the west side of the inlet, directing our course toward Mary's Island, the place of the twentieth encampment of my boat expedition the previous fall. We had not proceeded far on our way when a smart breeze from the north-west sprung up, and before we had made half the distance to Mary's Island it increased to a gale, accompanied with pelting drift. I know not that I ever experienced more disagreeable travelling than on this occasion.