TRAPPERS 3 



in 1743, who contrived to subsist on neighbour- 

 ing resources until 1749. 



The sailors in question were members of a 

 walrus expedition to western Spitzbergen. One 

 day their boat was carried away in the surf, 

 and they were left stranded on what appears 

 to have been Edge Land. The boat disap- 

 peared amid the ice and was never seen again. 

 Examination revealed that the men had with 

 them no more than one gun with twelve charges, 

 a hatchet, a knife, a small boiler, some matches 

 and twenty pounds of flour, in addition to a 

 quantity of tobacco and their pipes. Inevit- 

 ably, despair seized them when they realised 

 that fate had marooned them. The dauntless 

 courage of a quartermaster named Himkof, 

 however, inspired them with renewed hope. 

 Himkof induced them to prepare for the 

 approaching winter without loss of time. 



A hut was constructed from timber cast 

 ashore ; twelve reindeer fell to the gun ; clothes 

 were made from the skins ; lamps were moulded 

 from clay, the fat of the reindeer provided oil, 

 the men's shirts wicks. From the bolts of a 

 ship's planks floating in the surf, spikes were 

 fashioned ; the bolts being made red hot and 

 hammered into shape between two stones. 

 Bows and arrows were also manufactured, and 



B 2 



