Why doesn't karana have any lights for the first winter after the aleuts left the island?

Karana doesn't have any lights the first winter, because she wasn't able to go and gather smelts, since the Aleuts took all of her abalone. She used the small fish to use as a type of kindling to start fires. Without them she wasn't able to find enough dry matter to make light.

Karana did not have lights during the first winter after the abandonment of the island by the Aleuts, this is because she lived in caves and needed small flashlights and did not have the possibility of acquiring other types of lights. During that period he did not have great illumination but he did get enough light to live.