32 ICE-BOUND ON KOLGUEV 



I naturally felt very anxious about our first approach 

 to this island of ill-fame; knowing that the sea about 

 it was, for a very long- way out, exceedingly shoal. 

 It might be that we should find the ice grounded and 

 lying all about the island ; or possibly in the shallow sea 

 the surf might make it impossible for our small boats to 

 take us in. 



The skipper was, I considered, an excellent navigator. 

 But he was perhaps not a thoroughly self-reliant man ; 

 and after I found that whenever things came to a pinch 

 he was in the habit of looking to me for advice, I never, 

 at these junctures, left the bridge. And after all, when 

 it really is a case of dealing with the unknown and with 

 conditions which are changing every minute, it all comes 

 to a question of alertness and common sense. In other 

 words, there is a good deal which is instinctive in this 

 kind of work. 



Well, at any rate, by seven o'clock we were well with- 

 in sight of Kolguev ; going very cautiously with the lead 

 constantly at work, in some thirty fathoms of water ; and 

 so far meeting no sandbanks. 



Drawing up in this way we arrived by 8 p.m. some 

 three miles off the coast, and had about seventeen 

 fathoms of water. Then we turned a bit and steamed 

 slowly down. 



It was certainly about as miserable and uninviting a 

 coast as you can well imagine. Trees you cannot expect 

 to find in these latitudes, but often their absence is more 



