136 Chapter V. 



Now our fate was to be decided, I had always said 

 that it' we could get safely across the Kara Sea and past 

 Cape Chelyuskin, the worst would be over. Our pros- 

 pects were not bad an open passage to the east, along 

 the land, as far as we could see from the masthead. 



An hour and a half later we were at the eclo-e of the 



o 



ice. It was so close that there was no use in attempting 

 to go on through it. To the north-west it seemed much 

 looser, and there was a good deal of blue in the atmos- 

 phere at the horizon there. * We kept south-east along the 

 land through broken ice, but in the course of the day 

 went further out to sea, the blueness of the atmosphere 

 to the east and north-east promising more open water in 

 that direction. However, about 3 p.m. the ice became 

 so close, that I thought it best to get back into the open 

 channel along the land. It was certainly possible that 

 we might have forced our way through the ice in the sea 

 here, but also possible that we might have stuck fast, and 

 it was too early to run this risk. 



Next morning (August 5th), being then off the coast 

 near to the mouth of the River Kara, we steered across 

 towards Yalmal. We soon had that low land in si^ht, 



o 



but in the afternoon we got into fog and close ice. Next 



* There is a white reflection from white ice, so that the sky above 



t J 



fields of ice has a light or whitish appearance ; wherever there is open 

 water it is blue or dark. In this way the Arctic navigator can judge by 

 the appearance of the sky what is the state of the sea at a considerable 

 distance. 



