try and make their way south overland than stay there. I told them that
they were fools, but I admit that the prospect of a winter there was
enough to frighten any man. I did not like it myself, but I thought it was
wiser to remain there than to move. Some of the men went along the shore,
or out in the boat, and managed to kill several sea-cows. They made a
sledge, piled the meat on it, and started.

"Meanwhile I had been busy building a sort of hut. I piled great stones
against the foot of the cliffs, and turned the boat upside down to form a
roof. The men helped me to do that job the last thing before they started.
Then I blocked up the entrance, leaving only just room for me to crawl in
and out. The snow began to fall steadily three days after the others had
gone, and very soon covered my hut two feet deep. I melted the blubber of
the whale in the boat's baler, for we had towed the fish ashore. The first
potful or two I boiled over a few bits of drift-wood. After that it was
easy enough, as I unravelled some of the boat's rope, dipped it in the hot
blubber, and made a store of big candles. There was a lot of meat left on
the sea-cows, so I cut that up, froze it, and stowed as much as I could in
the hut. I was bothered about the rest, as I knew the bears were likely to
come down; but I found a ledge on the face of the perpendicular rock, and
by putting the boat's mast against it I was able to get up to it. Here I
piled, I should say, a ton of meat and blubber. Then I set to work and
collected some dried grass, and soon I had enough to serve as bed and
covers. It took me a month to do all this, and by that time winter was
down on me in earnest. I had spent my evenings in making myself, out of
the skins of the three cows, breeches, high boots, and a coat with a hood
over the head, and in order to make these soft I rubbed them with hot oil.
They were rough things, but I hoped that I might get a bear later on.
Fortunately the boat had two balers, for I required one in which to melt
the snow over the lamp.