Voyage through the Kara Sea. 167 



On August 2Sth, I noted in mv diarv that in the 



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afternoon we had seven islands in sight. They were 

 higher than those we had seen before, and consisted 



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of precipitous hills. There were also small glaciers <>r 

 snow-fields, and the rock formation showed clear traces 

 of erosion by ice or snow, this being especially the case 

 on the largest island, where there were even small valleys, 

 partially filled with snow. 



This is the record of August 26th : " Many new 

 islands in various directions. There are here," the 

 diary continues, "any number of unknown islands, 

 so many that one's head gets confused in trying to 

 keep account -of them all. In the morning we passed a 

 very rockv one, and bevond it I saw two others. After 



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them land or islands farther to the north and still more 

 to the north-east. \Ye had to go out of our course 

 in the afternoon, because we dared not pass between 

 two large islands on account of possible shoals. The 

 islands were round in form, like those we had seen 

 farther back, but were of a good height. Now we held 

 east again, with four biggish islands and two islets in the 

 offing. On our other side we presently had a line of flat 

 islands with steep shores. The channel was far from safe 

 here. In the evening we suddenly noticed large stones 

 standing up above the water among some ice-floes close 

 on our port bow, and on our starboard beam was a shoal 

 with stranded ice-floes. \Ye sounded, but found over 

 21 fathoms of water." 



