iO2 Chapter IV. 



through unless it had found navigable water further 

 south alono- the Russian coast. 



o 



Just as our prospects were at their darkest, and we 

 were preparing to seek a way back out of the ice which 

 kept getting ever denser, the joyful tidings came that 

 the fog was lifting, and that clear water was visible 

 ahead to the east on the other side of the ice. After 

 forcing our way ahead for some hours between the 

 heavy floes, we were once more in open water. This 

 first bout with the ice, however, showed us plainly what 

 an excellent ice-boat the Frain was. It was a royal 

 pleasure to work her ahead through difficult ice. She 

 twisted and turned "like a ball on a platter." No 

 channel between the floes so winding and awkward 

 but she could get through it. But it is hard work for 

 the helmsman. "Hard a-starboard ! Hard a-port ! 

 Steady! Hard a-starboard again! 1 ' goes on incessantly 

 without so much as a breathing-space. And he rattles 

 the wheel round, the sweat pours off him, and round 

 it goes again like a spinning-wheel. And the ship 

 swings round, and wriggles her way forward among 

 the floes without touching, if there is only just an 

 opening wide enough for her to slip through ; and 

 where there is none she drives full tilt at the ice, 

 with her heavy plunge, runs her sloping bows up 

 on it, treads it under her and bursts the floes asunder. 

 And how strong she is too ! Even when she goes 

 full speed at a floe, not a creak, not a sound is to 



