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.  The Eskimos each accepted a small piece of it from him, but when he offered them a second portion they both said “Taemet,”—­Thank you, enough—­and instead helped themselves liberally to raw seal blubber, which they ate with an evident relish and gusto along with the jerked venison and hardtack.

Akonuk, the older of these men, was perhaps thirty-five years of age, nearly six feet in height and well proportioned.  Matuk was not so tall, but like Akonuk was well formed.  Both were muscular and powerful men physically, and both had round, fat faces that were full of good nature.

Intense as was the cold out of doors, the stone lamp soon made the igloo so warm within that all were compelled to remove their outer skin garments.  The snow, however, was not melted, but remained quite hard and firm.

The Eskimos talked and smoked for a whole hour after supper, before stretching in their sleeping bags, but Bob crawled into his almost immediately, for he was very weary after his long day’s travel.  His knowledge of their language was not sufficient for him to take part in the conversation, or, indeed, to understand much they said, and the constant talk soon became tiresome to him, though he kept his ears open with a view to adding to his Eskimo vocabulary whenever an opportunity offered.

“‘Tis a strange language an’ I’m wonderin’ how they understands un,” he observed as he turned over to go to sleep.

Very early the next morning he heard Akonuk calling to Matuk to wake up.  Then for a little while the two Eskimos conversed together and finally the lamp was lighted.  Over this a snow knife was stuck into the side of the igloo and the kettle hung upon the knife in such a position that it was directly over the flame, and snow, cut from the side of the igloo near the bottom, was melted for tea, and thus the simple breakfast was prepared without going out of doors.

When Bob came out of his bag to eat he realized that a storm was raging outside, for he could hear the wind roaring around the igloo, and Akonuk made him understand that a heavy snow-storm was in progress and a continuation of the journey that day quite out of the question.  When daylight finally filtered dimly through the igloo roof, he removed the snow block that closed the entrance, and crawled to the outer world, where he verified Akonuk’s statement.