and for repairing their hut. The twelve charges of powder, which they had brought with them, soon procured them as many rein-deer; 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 was 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 unimpared 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 the less trouble, 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 those 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 on any of the islands of Spitzbergen; a circumstance of the most
