Page:Adrift in the Pacific, Sampson Low, 1889.djvu/92

 "We'll see about that to-day. What does the thermometer register?"

The thermometer in the store-room showed only 41°, although the stove was doing its best. But when the instrument had been taken outside, and exposed against the outer wall, it went down to zero.

This cold was intense, and it would certainly increase if the weather remained clear and dry for a few weeks. Already, notwithstanding the roaring of the stoves in the hall, and the cooking-range, the temperature went down in the interior of French Den.

About nine o'clock, after breakfast, it was decided to be off to Trap Woods, and bring in a stock of fuel.

When the atmosphere is calm the lowest temperature can be supported. It is during the bitter wind that hands and face are frost-bitten, and life is in danger. Fortunately, on this day the wind was extremely feeble, and the sky without a cloud, as if the air was frozen. In place of the soft snow into which the night before the legs would sink, the surface was now as hard as iron, and to avoid falling the boys had to walk as carefully as if they were on Family Lake or Zealand River, which were now entirely frozen over. With a few pairs of snow-shoes, such as are used by the natives of polar regions, or even with a sledge drawn by dogs or reindeer, the lake could have been explored from north to south in a few hours.

But no such long expedition was intended to-day. To go to the neighbouring forest to replenish the stock of fuel, that was the immediate necessity; and to bring a sufficient quantity to the cave would be arduous work, if it had to be transported in the arms or on the back. But Moko had an idea which he proceeded to put into execution. The big table in the store-room, strongly built, and measuring twelve feet in length by four in breadth, would that not do for a sledge if the legs were turned uppermost? Why, certainly, and that is what was