Voyage through the Kara Sea. i 79 



and falls with each twist of the fjord through the silent 

 land of mists. Now we have open water ahead, now 

 more ice, and it is impossible to make sure which it 

 is. Is this Taimur Strait ? Are we getting through ? 

 A whole year is at stake ! . . . No ! here we stop- 

 nothing but ice ahead. No ! it is only smooth water 

 with the snowy land reflected in it. This must be 

 Taimur Strait ! 



But now we had several large ice-floes ahead, and it was 

 difficult to get on ; so we anchored at a point, in a good, 

 safe harbour, to make a closer inspection. We now 

 discovered that it was a strong tidal current that was 

 carrying the ice-floes with it ; and there could be no 

 doubt that it was a strait we were lying in. I rowed out 

 in the evening to shoot some seals, taking for the 

 purpose my most precious weapon, a double-barrelled 

 Express rifle, calibre '577. As we w y ere in the act of 

 taking a sealskin on board, the boat heeled over, I 

 slipped and my rifle fell into the sea a sad accident. 

 Peter Henriksen and Bentzen, who were rowing me, took 

 it so to heart that they could not speak for some time. 

 They declared that it would never do to leave the 

 valuable gun lying there in 5 fathoms of water. So 

 we rowed to the Fram for the necessary apparatus, and 

 dragged the spot for several hours, well on into the dark, 

 gloomy night. While we were thus employed, a bearded 

 seal circled round and round us, bobbing up its big 

 startled face, now on one side of us, now on the other, 



N 2 



