nty wood too. Spose field break up, loosem sartin," said Peter.

"You're right. Come, boys. We don't know how long we may be on this
ice-field, and we shall need all the shelter we can get, and fuel too."

It was nearly an hour before they found the box and its pile of decoys,
but the box had been furnished with rude runners, and being already
clear of the ice, there was no delay in what was evidently becoming a
dangerous proximity to the sea; for that edge of the ice was already
breaking up, as the rollers broke over it, bearing it down with the
weight of water. Sunset must have been close at hand when the party
arrived, wet, weary, and almost despairing, at the berg.

"Now, boys," said La Salle, "we must build our house at once, for no one
can tell how long this storm may last. Luckily we have two shovels and
two axes. Peter and I will cut away the ice, and you two will pile up
fragments, and clear away the snow and rubbish."

Choosing a crater-like depression on the summit of the berg, La Salle
laid out a parallelogram about eight feet square, and motioning to
Peter, proceeded to sink a square shaft into the solid ice, which, at
first a little spongy, rapidly became hard and flinty. Aided by the
natural shape of the berg, in the course of an hour a cavity had been
cleared out to the depth of about six feet. Over this was inverted the
box belonging to Davies, and this was kept in place by fragments of ice
piled around and over it, after which the interstices were filled with
wet snow, and the whole patted into a firm, impermeable mound.

On the leeward side the wall had been purposely left thin, and through
this a narrow door, about three feet high, was cut into the excavation.
Lighting his lantern, La Salle stepped inside, finding himself in a
gloomy but warm room, about nine feet high in the walls, and eight feet
square. Taking the dryest of the fir decoys, he cut the cords which
bound them together, and laying the icy branches of their outer covering
on the bare ice, soon formed a non-conducting carpet of fir-twigs, of
which the upper layers were nearly dry.

The whole party then entered, carefully brushing from their clothes and
boots as much of the snow as possible, and, seating themselves, for the
first time rested from incessant exertion amid the furious peltings of a
driving north-east snow-storm.

La Salle motioned to the rest to place their guns in a nook near the
door, and taking the boiler of the lan