290 
A VOYAGE TO SPITZB EE GEN. 
the carpenter died. Their number remaining was 
sixteen. 
The ground was frozen so hard that they could not 
make a ditch, but they nevertheless began to erect 
their building, the sides of which they constructed of 
timbers squared so as to lay smooth and close one upon 
another ; and they made large fires to soften the earth, 
by which means they enclosed their building round 
about with it like a rampart, which must have been 
a great defence against the severity of the weather. 
Whilst thus employed, on the 26 th of September, the 
wind came from the west, which drove the loose ice 
that was afloat out from the land, and left tbe sea 
open near the coast; but if the ship had been in good 
condition, no advantage could have been taken of this, 
for the ice on which she rested was a close-packed 
body, of depth that reached to the bottom and took 
the ground, so that she lay as upon a fixed and solid 
rock. They therefore diligently continued their work, 
with the frost at times so severe, that if a man inad¬ 
vertently put a nail in his mouth, as is frequently 
done by workmen, it took off the skin, and the 1 flood 
would follow ; and one man lost a great toe by the 
frost; but by the 2nd of October the hut was com¬ 
pleted. The latitude was at different times observed 
to be 76° North. 
