And while we are hauling them in here from the _sena_ we'll have a snug _igloo_ at each end of the trail, where we can make hot tea, if we wish, and drink it in comfort." They found an excellent drift in a spot well sheltered from the wind, and because he was taller and stronger than Bobby and a better builder than Jimmy, Skipper Ed, with a snow knife which looked very much like a sword but had a wider blade, which was straight instead of curved, marked a circle about ten feet in diameter upon the drift.
Then he cut a wedge out of the snow in the center, and with this as a beginning he carved from each side of the hole blocks of the hard-packed snow, each block about two feet long and a foot and a half wide and ten inches thick.

These he placed on edge around the circle, fitting their ends close together by trimming them as he found necessary, with the knife.
Bobby and Jimmy, each with a knife, now began also to cut other slabs from a drift outside the circle, and passed them to Skipper Ed when he had exhausted his supply within the circle.

They were very heavy, these blocks, and as much as the boys could manage.
When Skipper Ed had built a row of blocks completely around the circle, he trimmed the first blocks which he had placed to a wedge, that he might build his circle of blocks up in a spiral.
Each block of snow was so placed that it was braced against the one next it, and its top leaned a little inward, so that as the walls of the _igloo_ rose each was smaller than the one preceding it, until at last a key block in the top completed the dome-shaped structure.

As the house grew Bobby plastered the joints between the blocks full of snow, making its outside smooth like the surface of a snowdrift.
When Skipper Ed had finished the building, he cut a circular place through the side, close down to the bottom, and just large enough to permit him to crawl out.

Now with a snowshoe he shoveled the loose snow out of the opening, and leveled the floor within.
Bobby and Jimmy in the meantime busied themselves unlashing the loads upon the sledges and unharnessing the dogs.