by the door, and
then the captain stooped his head and entered the low, cabin-like place,
followed by the doctor and Steve.

The place was fairly extensive inside, and fitted up with a long, low,
stone bench, upon which lay quantities of dry sea-weed, the whole having
evidently been used for the occupants' bed. In the middle of the hut
was an arrangement of stones, with a roughly contrived flue, which had
formed a kind of stove for heating and cooking, and in it still lay a
quantity of ashes and some charred fragments of oak that must have been
bits of ships' timber.

That was all visible at first; but in the darkest part of the hut,
farthest from the door, the low, bench-like erection was piled with
sea-weed apparently, till they drew closer and found that there were
several mouldy bear-skins, from which the hair had rotted, and which
came away in fragments upon being touched.

It was Steve who gave a tug at one of the skins, and, throwing the
pieces down, he was about to drag another one right off, when the
captain checked him.

"Let him rest," he said gravely; and Steve started back as he realised
the fact that he was disturbing the resting-place of the dead.

He looked at the captain in horror as if to question him with his eyes,
and the answer came.

"Yes, some unfortunate Russian party, evidently left to winter here, and
they died off one by one. Let us go and look at the crosses."

It was with a sensation of relief that they all stood out once more in
the soft, bright sunshine, and breathed the clear, cold air, which came
fresh from the ice-fields; and soon after they stopped before the
crosses, beneath which were the resting-places of five unfortunate men.

"There is the history written plainly enough," said Captain Marsham in a
low voice, as if talking to himself. "These were the party of six left
here to collect skins during the winter, to be fetched away the next
season. One man died, and his kindly-hearted companions laboriously
made that rough, wooden coffin, and dug a few inches into this icy rock
for its reception. They covered it with these stones to guard it from
wild beasts, and put up this elaborate timber with its three
cross-pieces, cut in Russian characters as we see. Then another died,
and his four companions treated him nearly the same as the first; there
was as much care taken to bury him, and the cross is nearly as grand as
the first. The third man died, and the survivors were n