262 ICE-BOUND ON KOLGUEV 
and the blue fox. Nota hare, not a lemming lived upon 
the island. 
But we badly wanted an oven; something that would 
economise our fuel and keep the pot from the cold, which 
made the meat take far too long in the cooking. I 
had quite determined that an oven we must have. 
Now there were lying out on the mud some big slabs 
of sandstone and conglomerate. I put on a pair of india- 
rubber long-boots and went for these. Those I wanted 
most I could not lift, but the next in size I tackled, and 
after incredible back-breaking exertions, managed to get 
them out on to the bank. Once the mud pulled off my 
right boot, and while I was hopping round on the left leg 
trying to keep the right foot dry, I lost my balance and— 
squish squash—in went the. right foot and down, down, 
sending up a squirt of liquid mud and smelling bubbles. 
You would have laughed if you had seen it. I didn’t. 
Inch by inch I got my big stones up the bank, and 
built in a hollow quite a first-rate oven. At any rate, it 
would take our only pot and the little kettle. 
I cleaned and cut up some duck, stuffed the pot full, 
lit the fire, and was delighted to find it roar. I was 
squatting by it rejoicing in the white heat that showed 
inside, when it suddenly went off like a cannon, blowing 
the pot out to the entrance and smothering me with 
bits of stone and ash. A big stone had flown to bits. 
However, I got another, and by heating it more gradually 
all went well, and we had no further blastings. 
