'382 NANSEN'S MEMORABLE VOYAGE IN THE "FRAM" 



already travel-stained clothing was rendered still more uncomfort- 

 able by being saturated with blood and fat. 



Returning to the camp with their walrus hides and blubber, 

 they explored the ridge lying behind the spot, and were fortunate in 

 finding some moss, which they carefully gathered and carried away 

 to assist in the building of the hut. The walls they had made of the 

 stones allowed for an internal space of about ten feet long by not 

 quite six feet wide. The crevices between the stones they filled in 

 with moss and gravel, and then stretching the walrus hides over 

 the ridge-pole, they weighted them down with more stones. Over 

 all of it they heaped snow and ice and, in order to avoid suffocation 

 by the smoke of their blubber cooking stove, they constructed an ice- 

 chimney. This, however, did not always carry off the smoke, while 

 it frequently thawed at the base, and made the interior very 

 draughty. Their guns and other articles and stores they placed 

 inside the hut, leaving the kayaks outside; and when everything 

 was stored conveniently, they built a wall before the door as a screen 

 to break the wind, and hung a curtain of skins across the doorway. 

 The floor of the hut was composed of stones which no ingenuity of 

 theirs could render smooth or even, and upon these their sleeping- 

 bag, the fur of which was almost worn entirely away, was stretched. 



The hut finished, a hunting expedition for winter provisions 

 was in place. Bears proved to be sufficiently abundant, and they 

 soon succeeded in getting meat enough to last them through the 

 winter and well into the following summer. They had put this in 

 cold storage on the top of the hut, and though during the winter 

 they often heard foxes gnawing at the frozen mass over their heads, 

 they let them feed in peace, knowing that they had more than they 

 needed for themselves. Bear's meat, fried at night and boiled in 

 the morning, was about all the food they had, and during the long 

 winter night, when the temperature within the hut was often near 

 the freezing point, they would frequently lie in their. sleeping-bag, 

 side by side, twenty-two hours out of the twenty-four. 



