erefore, was to devise some means of preventing this
inconvenience, not arising from cracks, but from the substance of which
the lamp was made being too porous. They made, therefore, a new one,
dried it thoroughly in the air, then heated it red-hot, and afterwards
quenched it in their kettle, wherein they had boiled a quantity of flour
down to the consistence of thin starch. The lamp being thus dried and
filled with melted fat, they now found, to their great joy, that it did
not leak; but for greater security they dipped linen rags in their
paste, and with them covered all its outside. Succeeding in this
attempt, they immediately made another lamp for fear of an accident,
that at all events they might not be destitute of light; and, when they
had done so much, they thought proper to save the remainder of their
flour for similar purposes. As they had carefully collected whatever
happened to be cast on shore, to supply them with fuel, they had found
amongst the wrecks of vessels some cordage and a small quantity of oakum
(a kind of hemp used for caulking ships), which served them to make
wicks for their lamps. When these stores began to fail, their shirts and
their drawers (which are worn by almost all the Russian peasants) were
employed to make good the deficiency. By these means they kept their
lamp burning without intermission, from the day they first made it (a
work they set about soon after their arrival on the island) until that
of their embarkation for their native country.

"The necessity of converting the most essential part of their clothing,
such as their shirts and drawers, to the use above specified, exposed
them the more to the rigour of the climate. They also found themselves
in want of shoes, boots, and other articles of dress; and as winter was
approaching, they were again obliged to have recourse to that ingenuity
which necessity suggests, and which seldom fails in the trying hour of
distress. They had skins of reindeer and foxes in plenty, that had
hitherto served them for bedding, and which they now thought of
employing in some more essential service; but the question was how to
tan them. After deliberating on this subject, they took to the following
method: they soaked the skins for several days in fresh water till they
could pull off the hair very easily; they then rubbed the wet leather
with their hands till it was nearly dry, when they spread some melted
reindeer fat over it, and again rubbed it wel