2S ICE-BOUND ON KOLGUEV 



It had remained clear till i A.M. ; then at 1.30 a.m. we 

 had run into a fog, and ten minutes later had met the ice 

 about longitude 45° E. with the Kanin coast distant ten 

 miles. The plan at the end of this book will explain far 

 better than any words exactly how the ice lay. 



The skipper was below : it was the mate's watch. At 

 first he stood in for a bit between the ice and the land, 

 hoping for a way through. But, finding that the ice was 

 packed hard against the land, he had been compelled to 

 beat a retreat ; and the Saxon, now under less than half 

 steam, was feeling her way north-west along the edge of 

 the pack. 



Before I go any further, it may be as well to say 

 something about the nature of this ice ; for after we had 

 once left it we saw nothing of exactly the same character 

 again. 



This ice, then, taken as a whole, was Mat — almost 

 tabular. There were of course odd pieces and aggrega- 

 tions which were considerably thicker, but the general 

 run of it was, say, some foot and a half higher than the 

 water. The colour varied from pure white to a peculiar 

 green, with here and there a darker dirty piece, which 

 had evidently grounded somewhere. The green colour 

 is very characteristic of White Sea ice, and I have little 

 doubt that this, the ice which first obstructed us, had 

 come from the White Sea. 



There was a certain amount of movement noticeable 

 here and there away out over the pack, but on the whole, 



