"There's going to be a hard blow, and we'll have to find a place to build our igloo," Bobby at length suggested.
"Yes," agreed Jimmy. "I'm glad we've got the snow knives and the lamp. If it comes to blow hard we'd perish in the open."
"And I'm glad we've got these seals, and some tea and biscuits," added Bobby. "I'm famishing. We'll have to get back among the hummocks to find a drift for the igloo. Our old igloo, I suppose, has been washed away before this. Anyway, it's too near the surf to be safe."
"I'm afraid there's no drift, except among the big hummocks on the other side, that's big enough for an igloo" suggested Jimmy disconsolately, "and I think you're right about it being too near open water out there to be safe, for if the ice breaks it'll break there first."
"Yes, but we may find something toward the center," agreed Bobby, as he took up the whip and turned the dogs about. "We've got to make some kind of shelter."
And so they made their way back among the pressure hummocks, and, compelling the dogs to lie down, each with a snow knife began his search for a suitable snow drift upon which to build an igloo.
The fury of the storm increased with every moment. It drifted past and around them in dense and stifling clouds and at times nearly choked them. The wind shrieked and moaned among the hummocks. In the distance they could hear the boom of the seas hammering upon the floe and threatening it with destruction, and now with growing frequency rising above the sound of shrieking wind and booming seas they were startled by the cannon-like report of smashing ice.
At last the flying snow become so dense there was danger they would lose the komatik and lose each other, and they came together again, groping their way blindly to the komatik, which was nearly hidden under the drift, and the sleeping dogs, which by this time were wholly invisible.
"The snow is too soft," Bobby announced. "I've tried it everywhere, and every block that I cut falls to pieces."
"I couldn't find any, either," said Jimmy, "but we've got to do something. We'll perish without shelter."