The tops of spruce boughs were now cut and spread within, after which
they unlashed the komatik, and, covering the bed of boughs with
deerskins, stored everything that the dogs would be likely to destroy
safely inside the igloo. This done the dogs were unharnessed and fed,
the men standing over the animals with stout sticks to prevent their
fighting while they ravenously gulped down the chunks of frozen whale
meat.
This function completed, a fire was made outside the igloo and tea
brewed. With the kettle of hot tea the three crawled into the igloo,
dragging after them a block of snow which Akonuk fitted neatly into
the entrance and chinked the edges with loose snow.
Matuk now brought forth an Eskimo lamp into which he squeezed the oil
from a piece of seal blubber, first pounding the blubber with the axe
head, and with moss to serve the purpose of a wick, the lamp was
lighted. This lamp, which was made of stone cut in the shape of a half
moon, was about ten inches long, four inches wide and an inch deep.
The moss that served as a wick was arranged along the straight side,
and gave out a strong, fishy odour as it burned.
Besides the tea, hardtack and jerked venison, Bob ate pieces of the
frozen fat pork which had been boiled before starting, and found it
very delicious, as fat always is to a traveller in the far North.
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