308 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[chap. 
tolerably good idea of time by the help of the stars and the 
sun; instead of an almanac they used a piece of wood, in which 
for every day they cut a notch. Although they sometimes 
quarrelled with and threatened one another, they were, however, 
on the whole friendly, and reasonable, and showed much kind¬ 
ness to the four shipwrecked men, whom they provided with 
warm skin clothes, and during the whole time with food in 
abundance, according to their circumstances, so that they did 
not suffer any want. 
Ole Andreas Olsen and Henrik Mlsen had, when they were 
separated in the snowstorm from the sledge party, half a pound 
of flesh and their guns, and nothing more. They did not 
succeed in finding any game, and though they were not very 
far from the house, they required three days and a half to get 
back to it. In the meantime, also, these two comrades in mis¬ 
fortune had been separated. Henrik Nilsen found the house 
first, lighted a fire, roasted and ate some pieces of fox flesh that 
he found remaining. Ole Andreas Olsen, who in desperation 
had endeavoured to quench his thirst with sea-water, was so 
weak that, when late at night he came to the boat, he could not 
crawl up to the house. He had kept himself in life by eating 
snow and devouring large pieces of his '' pesk,’' which was 
made of the raw hides of reindeer he had previously shot. 
After having lain a while in the boat he crept up to the house, 
where he found Henrik sleeping by the fire, which was not yet 
quite extinguished. The following day they both began to 
make arrangements for a lengthened stay in the house. But 
here they found nothing, neither food, household furniture, nor 
aught else. Nor did they succeed at first in getting any game ; 
and for more then a fortnight they sustained life by boiling and 
gnawing the flesh from the bones of the reindeer, the seal, and 
the bear, that lay under the snow, remains from the Russian 
hunting excursions of the preceding year. Finally, before 
Christmas they succeeded in killing a reindeer. Their lucifers 
