breaking up. The solid
ground failed beneath us. Our feet were sucked into yielding
quicksands of snow and splintered ice. We threw ourselves flat to
distribute our weight and clutched the larger lumps. We lost our
kerosene stove, the tray for lighting fires on, some of our
cartridges, and most of our instruments. The sleeping-bags, fur
coats, and other remnants of our supplies we managed to save."

The despairing howls of their lost dogs cut them to the heart. The men
lost courage. Borissoff and the two scientific men had to threaten the
others with revolvers; and a tragedy on the ice was imminent, when
they found themselves being carried into an extensive bay surrounded
by lofty cliffs. On an iceberg they discovered brackish water. Later
it gave them unbearable thirst, until the men cried: "Oh, God, for one
small cup of warm water, to die in peace!"

_Making a Fire with Seal Fat_

Borissoff killed a seal and implored them to be patient while he made
a fire with its oily fat to melt snow for drinking--a trick he had
learned among the Samoyeds. Ravenously eating the liver, lights,
kidneys, and brains raw, they began cutting the necessary pieces of
fat. Borissoff would take a tiny log of firewood, cut it small, pour
kerosene over it, rub it with fat, and light it. This had to be done
in a tea-tin. They put fat on the fire. It burned splendidly. One
small stick warmed the kettle; and the famished men were soon drinking
lukewarm cocoa. During their further wanderings from floe to floe,
they carried with them the embers of wood and treasured every little
piece of rag and paper "to keep the lamp of our life burning as long
as we should have seal fat. The wood embers seemed capable of burning
for ever, provided there was enough fat!"

They grew attached to particular floes on which they had built
shelters. But the sleeping-bags were becoming unendurable, the fur
rubbed off, the leather wet and clammy, like the skin of a putrefying
carcass. They had almost got to lying in the sleeping-bags by day,
when a Samoyed declared he smelt the smoke of a native encampment. A
sailor thought he heard the barking of dogs; but they paid no
attention, for the howls of their own poor beasts, wandering aimlessly
on the floes, often came to them. After drinking tea, they rose up and
prepared to make some effort.

_The Party Rescued by Samoyeds_

It grew lighter. There was something moving on the shore. It could not
be merely birds!