Page:Narrative of the extraordinary adventures of four Russian sailors (2).pdf/9

 : they build their own houses, and are very expert in handling the axe. The intense cold, which makes those climates habitable to so few species of animals, renders them equally unfit for the production of vegetable. No species of tree, or even shrub, is found on any of the islands of Spitzbergen ; a circumstance of the most alarming nature to our sailors. Without fire it was impossible to resist the rigour of the climate ; and, without wood, how was that fire to be produced, or supported ? Providence, however, has so ordered it, that, in this particular, the sea supplies the defects of the land. In wandering along the beach they collected plenty of wood, which had been driven ashore by the waves ; and which at first consisted of the wrecks of ships, and afterwards of whole trees with their roots, the produce of some more hospitable, but to them unknown climate, which the overflowing of rivers, or other accidents, had sent into the ocean.

Nothing proved of more essential service to these unfortunate men,