ling cook stove."

Setting the lamp in the most sheltered corner of the hut, Yim filled it
with oil, and then, drawing forth a pouch that hung from his neck, he
produced a wick made of sphagnum moss previously dried, rolled, and
oiled. This he laid carefully along the straight side of the lamp.
Then, turning to Cabot, he uttered the single word: "Metches."

"Great Scott!" exclaimed the young engineer, "I forgot to bring any.
But of course you must have some, White."

"No, I haven't. Matches were among the things you were to look after,
and so I never gave them a thought."

The spirits of the lads, raised to a high pitch of expectation by the
sight of Yim's lamp, suddenly sank to zero with the discovery that they
had no means for lighting it. Yim, however, only smiled at their
dismay. Of course he had long since learned the use of matches, and to
appreciate them at their full value; but he also knew how to produce
fire without their aid in the simplest manner ever devised by primitive
man. It is the friction method of rubbing wood against wood, and, in
one form or another, is used all over the world. It was known to the
most ancient Egyptians, and is practised to-day by natives of the
Amazon valley, dwellers on South Pacific islands, inhabitants of Polar
regions, Indians of North America, and the negroes of Central Africa.
These widely scattered peoples use various models of wooden drills,
ploughs, or saws. But Yim's method is the simplest of all. When he
saw that no matches were forthcoming, he said:

"A' yite. Me fix um." At the same time he produced two pieces of soft
wood from some hiding place in his garments. One of these, known as
the "spindle," was a stick about two feet long by three-quarters of an
inch in diameter and having a rounded point. The other, called the
"hearth," was flat, about eighteen inches in length, half an inch
thick, and three inches wide. On its upper surface, close to one edge,
were several slight cavities, each just large enough to hold the
rounded end of the spindle, and from each was cut a narrow slot down
the side of the hearth. This slot is an indispensable feature, and
without it all efforts to produce fire by wood-friction must fail.

Laying the hearth on the flat side of a sledge runner and kneeling on
it to hold it firmly in position, Yim set the rounded end of his
spindle in one of its depressions, and holding the upper end between
the palms of his hands, began