144 CBUISE OF THE NEPTUNE 



the sled and put the house in order for the night. The bed is 

 formed by laying, upon the snow, mats of closely woven branches 

 of a small willow, which separate the deerskins from the snow. 

 The bedding is composed of several thicknesses of deerskins, 

 dressed with the hair on; these completely prevent any cold 

 from penetrating from below. On the bed thus formed rest the 

 deerskin sleeping bags, which are only closed for about a third 

 of the length at the bottom, or not at all. The lamp is next put 

 in position, on the shelf at one side of the house between the 

 door and bed. It is made of stone, and rests upon three or four 

 short sticks thrust into the snow. When the soapstone, out of 

 which the lamp is usually made, cannot be obtained, any other 

 easily worked rock is used. On top the lamp is roughly triang- 

 ular in outline, the sides of the triangle being long concave 

 curves. There is one long side and two equal short ones which 

 meet each other in a wide angle ; this results in a triangle with 

 a base about twice the length of the vertical. The length varies 

 from ten inches to more than thirty inches, eighteen being an 

 ordinary length. The upper surface of the lamp is slightly 

 hollowed to form a receptacle for the blubber and oil. The lower 

 side is curved so that the lamp has a thickness varying from an 

 inch to two inches. The lamp is fed with seal blubber, or deer 

 fat; the former most commonly. The blubber is cut in thin 

 strips, partly suspended above the lamp on a stick, and a part 

 of it bruised to start the extraction of the oil. A wick of dry, 

 pulverized moss is placed around the edge of the lamp, and 

 squeezed deftly into shape by the finger and thumb, after being 

 moistened in the blubber. When the wick has been properly 

 arranged, it is usually set alight with an ordinary match, or 

 with a flint and steel, iron pyrites often taking the place of flint. 

 The old usage of making fire by friction is seldom employed, 

 and only in the case of the absence of the easier methods. At 

 first the flame from the lamp is small, but the heat soon warms 

 up the stone, and the blubber melts without much attention. As 



