20 SPITSBERGEN 



company were otherwise employed every one of them : 

 some in taking them down, others in making of them 

 clean and in bringing them in baskets into the tent. 

 Some in making morter, and hewing of boards to build 

 the other side withal, and two others all the while in 

 flaying of our venison. And thus, having built the 

 two outermost sides of the tent with bricks and morter, 

 and our bricks now almost spent, we were enforced to 

 build the two other sides with boards ; and that in this 

 manner. First we nailed our deal boards on one side 

 of the post or stanchion to the thickness of one foot : 

 and on the other side in like manner : and so filling up 

 the hollow place with sand, it became so tight and 

 warm as not the least breath of air could possibly 

 annoy us. Our chimney's vent was into the greater 

 tent, being the breadth of one deal board and four foot 

 long. The length of this our tent was twenty foot 

 and the breadth sixteen ; the height ten ; our ceiling 

 being deal boards five or six times double, the middle 

 of one joining so close to the shut of the other that no 

 wind could possibly get between. As for our door, 

 besides our making it so close as possibly it could shut ; 

 we lined it moreover with a bed that we found lying 

 there, which came over both the opening and the shut- 

 ting of it. As for windows, we made none at all, so that 

 our light we brought in through the greater tent, by 

 removing two or three tiles in the eaves, which light 

 came to us through the vent of our chimney. Our 

 next work was to set up four cabins, billeting ourselves 

 two and two in a cabin. Our beds were the deer skins 

 dried, which we found to be extraordinary warm, and a 

 very comfortable kind of lodging to us in our distress." 



