danger and
hardships, and to work for their living; do you think it would have been
better for them to have been bred up gentlemen, that is, to do nothing,
but to have other people wait upon them in everything?" "Why, to be
sure," answered Tommy, "it was much better for them that they had been
used to work, for that might enable them to contrive and do something to
assist themselves, for, without doing a great deal, they must certainly
all have perished."

"Their first attention was employed, as may easily be imagined, in
devising means of providing subsistence, and for repairing their hut.
The twelve charges of powder which they had brought with them soon
procured them as many reindeer--the island, fortunately for them,
abounding in these animals. I have before observed, that the hut, which
the sailors were so fortunate as to find, had sustained some damage, and
it was this--there were cracks in many places between the boards of the
building, which freely admitted the air. This inconveniency was,
however, easily remedied, as they had an axe, and the beams were still
sound (for wood in those cold climates continues through a length of
years unimpaired by worms or decay), so it was easy for them to make the
boards join again very tolerably; besides, moss growing in great
abundance all over the island, there was more than sufficient to stop up
the crevices, which wooden houses must always be liable to. Repairs of
this kind cost the unhappy men less trouble, as they were Russians; for
all Russian peasants are known to be good carpenters--they build their
own houses, and are very expert in handling the axe. The intense cold,
which makes these climates habitable to so few species of animals,
renders them equally unfit for the production of vegetables. No species
of tree or even shrub is found in any of the islands of Spitzbergen--a
circumstance of the most alarming nature to our sailors.

"Without fire it was impossible to resist the rigour of the climate,
and, without wood, how was the fire to be produced or supported?
However, in wandering along the beach, they collected plenty of wood,
which had been driven ashore by the waves, and which at first consisted
of the wrecks of ships, and afterwards of whole trees with their
roots--the produce of some hospitable (but to them unknown) climate,
which the overflowings of rivers or other accidents had sent into the
ocean. Nothing proved of more essential service to these unfortun