In that dreary waste of snow, unrelieved so far as the eye could reach
by so much as a single bush, the making of a camp that should contain
even the rudiments of comfort seemed as hopeless to White, who had
always been accustomed to a timbered country, as it did to Cabot, who
knew nothing of real camp life, and had only played at camping in the
Adirondacks. Left to their own devices, they would have passed a most
uncomfortable if not a perilous night, for the mercury stood at many
degrees below zero. But they had Yim with them, and he, being
perfectly at home amid all that desolation, was determined to enjoy all
the home comforts it could be made to yield.
First he marked out a circular space some twelve feet in diameter, from
which he bade his companions excavate the snow with their snowshoes,
and throw it out on the windward side. While they were doing this he
went a short distance away, and, from a mass of closely compacted snow,
carved out with his knife a number of blocks, as large as could be
handled without breaking, to each of which he gave a slight curve.
With time enough Yim could have constructed from such slabs a perfect
igloo or snow hut, but the fading daylight was very precious, and he
did not consider that the cold was yet sufficiently severe to demand a
complete enclosure. So he merely built a low, hood-like structure on
the windward side of the space the others had cleared.
Pages:
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179