SHIPWRECKED ON YETORUP 119 
over our heads, and by making use of the skins we 
saved we had good beds ready for us. Of the 172 
dried skins, we had lost forty-five completely, and 
several more or less burned, besides all the skins on 
the frames. Of our provisions, we had saved a bag 
of hard bread and a few tins of preserved meat, and 
part of a keg of rum. Fortunately, we had managed 
to get the two kegs of powder out before they had 
ignited and blown all to pieces, but our rifles were 
gone, and the powder was therefore useless. What 
were we now going to do ? “ Take a drink,” some¬ 
body proposed, which we accordingly did, and I 
think Gough himself would have taken a drink if he 
had found himself in a similar fix. We had either 
to pull around to the Ainu settlement and deliver 
ourselves up to the Japanese, in which case we would 
lose our dearly-bought skins, or else wait for the 
arrival of the schooner ; but we could not expect 
her for some time yet, and in the meantime how 
were we going to exist ? We adopted the latter 
alternative, after all, and concluded to make our¬ 
selves as comfortable as we could. Of pieces of 
blankets and sails we made enough covering for our 
bodies, and we kept a good fire going night and day, 
as we had plenty of driftwood on the beach. 
“ Next morning we started out as usual on our 
hunt, and got one otter ; but it was dreadfully cold 
work. No matter how we wrapped up our feet, 
they were freezing, and constantly reminding us 
that we had no boots. The weather, too, for the 
next two days was very bad, snowing and blowing, 
and we suffered terribly. As long as the keg of rum 
lasted, we kept our spirits up pretty well, though 
artificially; but on the 29th we had the last drink, 
