The sacrifice made of their shirts and drawers exposed them more to
the intense cold. Their shoes, boots, and other parts of their dress,
were worn out. In this emergency, it was necessary to form some plan
for defending themselves from the inclemency of the climate. The skins
of the reindeer and foxes, which they had converted into bedding, now
afforded the materials for clothing. They were submerged in fresh
water for several days, till the hair was so loosened that it was
easily removed; the leather was then rubbed with their hands till
nearly dry, then melted reindeer fat was spread over it, and then it
was again rubbed. It thus became soft, and fit for the use to which it
was to be put. Some of the skins which they wished to reserve for furs
did not undergo exactly the same process, but were merely left in
water for one day, and were then prepared in the same manner, without
removing the hair. Though now furnished with the materials for
clothing, they were without the implements necessary for making them
into articles of dress. They had neither awls for making shoes and
boots, nor needles for sewing their clothes. Their ingenuity was,
therefore, again put to the test, and was not slow in making up the
deficiency. They contrived to make both very well, out of the bits of
iron which they had collected from time to time. One of their most
difficult tasks, was to make eyes to their needles; but this they
accomplished with the help of their knife; for having ground it to a
very sharp point, and heated a kind of wire, forged for the purpose,
red-hot, they pierced a hole through one end, and by whetting and
smoothing it on stones, brought the other to a point. These needles
were astonishingly well formed, nothing being amiss with them but the
roughness of the eye, by which the thread was sometimes cut. It was
indeed surprising that they were so well made, considering the rude
instruments with which they were fashioned. Having no scissors, they
were obliged to cut out their clothes with the knife; and though this