sing and stretching
himself vigorously as the bright flame of a tin lamp shot forth and shed
a yellow lustre on the white walls.

"Aslape is it! be me conscience an' ye have just. Oh then, may I never
indulge in the same sort o' slumber!"

"Why so?" asked Fred in some surprise.

"You fell asleep on the ice, sir," answered West, while he busied
himself in spreading the tarpaulin and blanket-bags on the floor of the
hut, "and you were very near frozen to death."

"Frozen, musha! I'm not too shure that he's melted yit!" said O'Riley,
taking him by the arm and looking at him dubiously.

Fred laughed. "Oh yes; I'm melted now! But let's have supper, else I
shall faint for hunger. Did I sleep many hours?"

"You slept only five minutes," said West, in some surprise at the
question. "You were only gone about ten minutes altogether."

This was indeed the case. The intense desire for sleep which is
produced in Arctic countries when the frost seizes hold of the frame
soon confuses the faculties of those who come under its influence. As
long as Fred had continued to walk and work, he felt quite warm, but the
instant he sat down on the lump of ice to rest, the frost acted on him.
Being much exhausted, too, by labour and long fasting, he was more
susceptible than he would otherwise have been to the influence of cold,
so that it chilled him at once, and produced that deadly lethargy from
which, but for the timely aid of his companions, he would never have
recovered.

The arrangements for supping and spending the night made rapid progress,
and under the influence of fire and animal heat--for the dogs were taken
in beside them--the igloe became comfortably warm; yet the snow-walls
did not melt, or become moist, the intense cold without being sufficient
to counteract and protect them from the heat within. The fair roof,
however, soon became very dingy, and the odour of melted fat rather
powerful. But Arctic travellers are proof against such trifles.

The tarpaulin was spread over the floor, and a tin lamp, into which
several fat portions of the walrus were put, was suspended from a stick
thrust into the wall. Round this lamp the hunters circled, each seated
on his blanket-bag, and each attended to the duty which devolved upon
him. Meetuck held a tin kettle over the flame, till the snow, with
which it was filled, melted and became cold water, and then gradually
heated until it boiled; and all the while he employed him