6
anti-chamber, about 12 feet broad, which had two doors, the one to shut it up from the outer air, the other to form a communication with the inner room : This contributed greatly to keep the larger room warm, when once heated. In the large room was an earthen stove, constructed in the Russian manner ; that is, a kind of oven, without a chimney, which serves occasionally either for baking, for heating the room, or, as is customary among the Russian peasants, in very cold weather, for a place to sleep upon.
They rejoiced greatly at having discovered the hut, which had however suffered much from the weather, it having now been built a considerable time : Our adventurers, however, contrived to pass the night in it. Early next morning they hastened to the shore impatient to inform their comrades of their success and also to procure from their vessel such provisions, ammunition, and other necessaries, as might better enable them to winter on the island.—I leave my readers to figure to themselves the astonishment and agency of mind these
