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." "I'm afraid there's no use trying to build an _igloo_," acknowledged Bobby, "though we needn't perish if we can't make one.

But I don't want to give up yet.