SHIPWRECKED ON YETORUP 
115 
being frozen. Our fire was made in the middle of 
the hut, with an outlet for the smoke above it in the 
roof. Surrounding the fire on three sides, the floor 
was covered with skins of foxes and bears, which 
served us as seats and beds. We had had consider¬ 
able trouble with these our nocturnal visitors at first, 
until we had thinned their ranks with our rifles ; 
now they seldom bothered us. Farther back were 
our provisions, solid and fluid, ranged on shelves 
resting on boulders round the sides of the cabin. 
We had two kegs of powder besides several tins and 
powder-horns, all inside with the provisions. Our 
rifles were slung from the rafters. We had landed 
on the last day of October, and had now arrived at 
December 24. Our hunting, so far, had been very 
successful, as we had already 172 skins dried, and 
six more on the frames; the dried skins being 
folded up, bundled fifteen together, and sewn up 
in canvas. The skins on the frames were during the 
night piled up close to the entrance, and near the fire ; 
during the day they were taken outside to get the 
benefit of the little sun we occasionally got a 
glimpse of. 
6 6 Our party now consisted of nine persons, all 
Europeans, young, strong, and fearing neither man 
nor beast. We had to be up before daylight every 
day, and after a hasty cup of coffee had to get out 
in the boats, no matter how fierce it blew, as the water 
was always smooth, the wind being off shore, and, 
after pulling for half a mile, land on a cluster of 
rocks, where the otters generally hauled up during 
the cold nights, as they could no more stand the 
cold than we could. Here we had to wait for day¬ 
light, and, as soon as we could distinguish anything, 
