hat, if it should unfortunately go out, they had no means of lighting
it again; for though they had a steel and flints, yet they wanted both
match and tinder. In their excursions through the island they had met
with a slimy loam, or a kind of clay nearly in the middle of it. Out of
this they found means to form a utensil which might serve for a lamp,
and they proposed to keep it constantly burning with the fat of the
animals they should kill. This was certainly the most rational scheme
they could have thought of; for to be without a light in a climate
where, during winter, darkness reigns for several months together, would
have added much to their other calamities----"

_Tommy._--Pray, sir, stop. What! are there countries in the world where
it is night continually for several months together? _Mr
Barlow._--Indeed there are. _T._--How can that be? _Mr B._--How happens
it that there is night at all? _T._--How happens it! It must be so, must
it not? _Mr B._--That is only saying that you do not know the reason.
But do you observe no difference here between night and day? _T._--Yes,
sir, it is light in the day and dark in the night. _Mr B._--But why is
it dark in the night? _T._--Really I do not know. _Mr B._--What! does
the sun shine every night? _T._--No, sir, certainly not. _Mr B._--Then
it only shines on some nights, and not on others. _T._--It never shines
at all in the night. _Mr B._--And does it in the day? _T._--Yes, sir.
_Mr B._--Every day? _T._--Every day, I believe, only sometimes the
clouds prevent you from seeing it. _Mr B._--And what becomes of it in
the night? _T._--It goes away, so that we cannot see it. _Mr B._--So,
then, when you can see the sun, it is never night. _T._--No, sir. _Mr
B._--But when the sun goes away the night comes on. _T._--Yes, sir. _Mr
B._--And when the sun comes again what happens? _T._--Then it is day
again; for I have seen the day break, and the sun always rises presently
after. _Mr B._--Then if the sun were not to rise for several months
together, what would happen? _T._--Sure, it would always remain night,
and be dark. _Mr B._--That is exactly the case with the countries we
are reading about.

"Having therefore fashioned a kind of lamp, they filled it with
reindeer's fat, and stuck into it some twisted linen shaped into a wick;
but they had the mortification to find that, as soon as the fat melted,
it not only soaked into the clay but fairly ran out of it on all sides.
The thing, th