114 EXTRAORDINARY ADVENTURES 
to devour them. All the bears did not, it is true, show an equal 
degree of fury; either because some were less pressed by 
hunger, or were naturally of a less ferocious disposition ; for 
several which entered the hut immediately betook themselves 
to flight on the first attempt of the sailors to drive them away. 
A repetition of the formidable attacks threv/ the men into great 
terror and anxiety, as they were in almost perpetual danger 
of being devoured. The rein-deer, the blue and white foxes, 
and the white bears, were the only food these wretched mari- 
ners tasted during their continuance in that dreary abode. 
In their excursions through the island, they had found near- 
ly at the middle of it a slimy loam, or a kind of clay. Out of 
this they found means to form a utensil to serve for a lamp, 
and they proposed to keep it constantly burning with the fat 
of the animals they might kill. To have been destitute of 
light, in a country where, in winter, darkness reigns for seve- 
ral months together, would have greatly increased their other 
calamities. Having, therefore, fashioned a kind of lamp, they 
filled it with some rein-deer fat, and stuck in it some linen 
twisted in the shape of a wick. But they had the mortifica- 
tion to find that as soon as the fat melted, it not only soaked in- 
to the clay, but fairly ran through it on all sides. It was, there- 
fore, necessary to contrive some method of preventing this in- 
convenience, which did not proceed from cracks, but from the 
substance of which the lamp was made being too porous. 
They made another one, dried it thoroughly in the air, then 
heated it red hot, and afterward quenched it in their kettle, in 
which they had boiled down a quantity of flour to the con- 
sistency of starch. The lamp being then dried and filled with 
melted fat, they now found, to their great joy, that it did not 
leak. But, for greater security, they dipped linen rags in their 
paste, and with them covered it all over on the outside. Hav- 
ing succeeded in this attempt, they immediately made another 
lamp, for fear of accident, that at all events they might not be 
destitute of light; upon which they determined to reserve the 
remainder of their flour for similar purposes. 
As they had carefully collected whatever happened to be 
cast on shore to supply themselves with fael, they had found 
among the wrecks of vessels some cordage and a small quan- 
tity of oakum, Avhich served them to make wicks for their 
lamps. When these stores began to foil, their shirts and 
trowsers were employed to make good the deficiency. By 
these means they kept their lamp burning without intermis- 
sion, from the day they first made it, which was soon after 
