ate
men, during the first year of their exile, than some boards they found
upon the beach, having a long iron hook, some nails of about five or six
inches long, and proportionably thick, and other bits of old iron fixed
in them--the melancholy relics of some vessels cast away in those remote
parts. These were thrown ashore by the waves, at the time when the want
of powder gave our men reason to apprehend that they must fall a prey to
hunger, as they had nearly consumed those reindeer they had killed.
This lucky circumstance was attended with another equally fortunate;
they found on the shore the root of a fir-tree, which nearly approached
to the figure of a bow. As necessity has ever been the mother of
invention, so they soon fashioned this root to a good bow by the help of
a knife; but still they wanted a string and arrows. Not knowing how to
procure them at present, they resolved upon making a couple of lances,
to defend themselves against the white bears, by far the most ferocious
of their kind, whose attacks they had great reason to dread. Finding
they could neither make the heads of their lances nor of their arrows
without the help of a hammer, they contrived to form the above-mentioned
large iron hook into one, by beating it, and widening a hole it happened
to have about its middle with the help of one of their largest
nails--this received the handle; a round button at one end of the hook
served for the face of the hammer. A large pebble supplied the place of
an anvil, and a couple of reindeer's horns made the tongs. By the means
of such tools they made two heads of spears, and, after polishing and
sharpening them on stones, they tied them as fast as possible, with
thongs made of reindeer's skins, to sticks about the thickness of a
man's arm, which they got from some branches of trees that had been cast
on shore. Thus equipped with spears, they resolved to attack a white
bear, and, after a most dangerous encounter, they killed the formidable
creature, and thereby made a new supply of provisions. The flesh of this
animal they relished exceedingly, as they thought it much resembled
beef in taste and flavour. The tendons, they saw with much pleasure,
could, with little or no trouble, be divided into filaments of what
fineness they thought fit. This, perhaps, was the most fortunate
discovery these men could have made, for, besides other advantages,
which will be hereafter mentioned, they were hereby furnished with
stri