ed Yim, cheerfully.

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE COMFORT OF AN ESKIMO LAMP.

In that dreary waste of snow, unrelieved so far as the eye could reach
by so much as a single bush, the making of a camp that should contain
even the rudiments of comfort seemed as hopeless to White, who had
always been accustomed to a timbered country, as it did to Cabot, who
knew nothing of real camp life, and had only played at camping in the
Adirondacks. Left to their own devices, they would have passed a most
uncomfortable if not a perilous night, for the mercury stood at many
degrees below zero. But they had Yim with them, and he, being
perfectly at home amid all that desolation, was determined to enjoy all
the home comforts it could be made to yield.

First he marked out a circular space some twelve feet in diameter, from
which he bade his companions excavate the snow with their snowshoes,
and throw it out on the windward side. While they were doing this he
went a short distance away, and, from a mass of closely compacted snow,
carved out with his knife a number of blocks, as large as could be
handled without breaking, to each of which he gave a slight curve.
With time enough Yim could have constructed from such slabs a perfect
igloo or snow hut, but the fading daylight was very precious, and he
did not consider that the cold was yet sufficiently severe to demand a
complete enclosure. So he merely built a low, hood-like structure on
the windward side of the space the others had cleared. One side of
this was still further extended by the sledge, relieved of its load and
set on edge.

The precious provisions were placed inside the rude shelter, the
sleeping bags covered its floor, and, when all was completed, Yim
surveyed his work with great satisfaction.

"It is pretty good so far as it goes," admitted. White, dubiously,
"but I don't see how we are to get along without at least enough fire
to boil a pot of tea, and of course we can't have a fire without wood."

"That's so," agreed Cabot, shivering.

Yim only smiled knowingly as he groped among the miscellaneous articles
piled at the back of the hut. From them he finally drew forth a
shallow soapstone bowl having one straight side about six inches long.
It was shaped something like a clam shell, and was a specimen of the
world-famed Eskimo cooking lamp. He also produced a bladder full of
seal oil.

"Good enough!" cried Cabot. "Yim has remembered to bring along his
travel