Voyage through the Kara Sea. 165 



and we might come on rocks at any moment. We could 

 have eone on in front with the boat and sounded, but I 



O 



had already had more than enough of rowing in that 

 current. For the present we must stay where we were and 

 anoint ourselves with the ointment called Patience, a medi- 

 cament of which every polar expedition ought to lay in a 

 large supply. We hoped on for a change, but the current 

 remained as it was, and the wind certainly did not 

 decrease. I was in despair at having to lie here for 

 nothing but this cursed current, with open sea outside, 

 perhaps as far as Cape Chelyuskin, that eternal cape, 

 whose name had been sounding in my ears for the last 

 three weeks. 



When I came on deck next morning (August 23rd) 

 winter had come. There was white snow on the deck, 

 and on every little projection of the rigging where it had 

 found shelter from the wind ; white snow on the land, 

 and white snow floating through the air. Oh ! how the 

 snow refreshes one's soul, and drives away all the gloom 

 and sadness from this sullen land of fogs ! Look at it 

 scattered so delicately, as if by a loving hand, over 

 the stones and the grass flats on shore ! But wind 

 and current are much as they were, and during the 

 day the wind blows up to a regular storm, howling and 

 rattling in the Fraui s rigging. 



The following day (August 24th) I had quite made 

 up my mind that we must get out some way or other. 

 When I came on deck in the morning the wind had gone 



