Page:Narrative of the extraordinary adventures of four Russian sailors (1).pdf/13

 their great joy, it did not leak. But for greater security, they dipped linen rags in their paste, and with them covered all its outside. Succeeding in this attempt, they immediately made another lamp, for fear of an accident, that in all events they might not be destitute of light; and when they had done so much, they thought proper to save the remainder of their flour for similar purposes. As they had carefully collected whatever happened to be cast on shore to supply them with fuel, they had found amongst the wrecks of vessels some cordage, and a small quantity of oakum, (a kind of hemp used for calking ships) which served them to make wicks for their lamp. When these stores began to fail, their shirts and their drawers (which are worn by almost all Russian peasants) were empoyed to make good the deficiency. By these means they kept their lamp burniug without intermission, from the day they first made it (a work they set about soon after their arrival on the island) until that of their embarkation for their native couutrycountry [sic].

The necessity of converting the most essential parts of their clothing, snchsuch [sic] as their shirts and drawers, to the use above specified, exposed them the more to the rigour of the climate. They also found themselves in want of shoes, boots and other articles of