Page:Narrative of the extraordinary adventures of four Russian sailors (2).pdf/14

, however, of these ferocious attacks, threw the poor men into great terror and anxiety, as they were in almost a perpetual danger of being devoured. The three different kinds of animals abovementioned, viz. the rein deer, the blue and white foxes, and the white bears, were the only food these wretched mariners tasted during their continuance in this dreary abode.

In their excursions through the island, they had met with slimy loam, or a kind of clay, nearly in the middle of it. Out of this they found means to form an utensil which might serve for a lamp ; and they proposed to keep it constantly burning, with the fat of the animals they should kill. This was certainly the most rational scheme they could have thought of, for to be without a light in a climate where, during winter, darkness reigns for several months together, would have added much to their other calamities. Having therefore fashioned a kind of lamp, they filled it with rein-deer's fat, and stuck in it some twisted linen, shaped into a wick. But