nd. The slivers were lighted; they kindled: the fat meat
began to sizzle; then caught fire from the pine; and soon a ruddy,
spluttering flame was blazing with marvellous fierceness.

"Hurrah!" Kit shouted. "The first fire these grim old ledges have seen
since they cooled their glowing, molten billows into flinty granite!"

CHAPTER XII.

The "Spider."--Fried Eggs.--The "Plates."--"Awful Fresh!"--No
Salt.--Plans for getting Salt from
Sea-Water.--Ice-Water.--Fried Goose.--Plans to escape.--A
Gloomy Night.--Fight with a Walrus.--Another
"_Wood-Pile._"--Wade Sick.--A Peevish Patient and a Fractious
Doctor.--The Manufacture of Salt.

We stood and warmed our hands. It felt comfortable,--decidedly so; for
though the sun was high and bright, yet the north-west wind drove
smartly across the rocks above us. Currents of air fresh from the lair
of icebergs can't be very warm ever. There was plenty of ice all
about.

"Ready to cook those eggs, Weymouth?" Raed exclaimed. "You were going
to furnish spider, kettle, or something of that sort, you know."

"Yes, sir; and all I'll ask is that some of you will be dressing a
couple of those geese while I am gone. I've a mind to dine off goose
to-day."

"Well, that's reasonable," said Donovan. "Go ahead, matey! Bring on
your spider! We'll have the geese ready for it!"

"If you will go with me," Weymouth said, nodding over to where I was
enjoying the fire. "Two may perhaps find what I want sooner than one."

I followed him.

"My idea is," said he, turning when we were off a few rods, "to get a
flat, _hollowing_ stone,--'bout as big over as a milk-pan, say; kind
of hollowed out on the top side, just so grease won't run off it. We
can set that up on small rocks, and let the fire run under. It'll soon
get hot: then grease it, and break the eggs into it just as they do
into a spider. You see?"

I saw it,--a very reasonable project. The only difficulty was to find
such a stone. To do that we separated. Weymouth followed out along
the shore, while I climbed up among the crags. There were plenty of
flat rocks; but to find one sufficiently spider-shaped for our purpose
was not so easy. At length I came upon one--a flake of felspar of a
dull cream-color--hollowed enough on one side to hold a pint or
upwards. But it was heavy: must have weighed fully a hundred pounds. I
called to Weymouth: he was out of hearing. Nothing to do but carry it.
So, after some mus