Voyage through the Kara Sea. 187 



This land we had been coasting along bore a strong 

 resemblance to Yalmal. The same low plains, rising- 

 very little above the sea, and not visible at any great 

 distance. It was perhaps rather more undulating. At 

 one or two places I even saw some ridges of a certain 

 elevation a little way inland. The shore the whole way 

 seemed to be formed of strata of sand and clay, the 

 margin sloping steeply to the sea. 



Many reindeer herds were to be seen on the plains, 



and next morning (September 8th) I went on shore on a 



hunting expedition. Having shot one reindeer, I was on 



my way farther inland in search of more, when I made a 



surprising discovery, which attracted all my attention, and 



made me quite forget the errand I had come on. It was 



a large fjord cutting its way in through the land to the 



north of me. I went as far as possible to find out all I 



could about it, but did not manage to see the end of it. 



So far as I could see, it was a fine broad sheet of water, 



stretching eastwards to some blue mountains far, far 



inland, which, at the extreme limit of my vision, seemed 



to slope down to the water. Beyond them I could 



distinguish nothing. My imagination was fired, and for 



a moment it seemed to me as if this might almost be a 



strait, stretching right across the land here, and making an 



island of the Chelyuskin Peninsula. But probably it was 



only a river, which widened out near its mouth into a 



broad lake, as several of the Siberian rivers do. All 



about the clay plains I was tramping over, enormous 



