34 ICE-BOUND ON KOLGUEV 



only line of soundings shown on any chart was just here, 

 viz., from Indiga to the Waskina, pointed to the same 

 conclusion. Moreover, I remembered to have seen in 

 an old coast-line map of Kolguev the word ' Hutte' on 

 the right bank of the river. I also believed that the big 

 lake Promoince was the scene of the goose hunts, and 

 therefore on the whole it really seemed that here we 

 might find either a harbour, or at least people who 

 would come off to us in boats. 



As we steamed slowly down the coast, we saw now and 

 then a little heap, which the glasses showed to be drift- 

 wood piled. Once too we passed a burial ground, as it 

 seemed to us, with posts and Russian crosses. 



I scanned all the coast most anxiously for any sign of 

 a big river, but saw none. Now and again we passed a 

 little river entrance, or what looked like it, but it was 

 always completely blocked with snow or ice. 



At last, to the disgust and disappointment of us all, we 

 aeain met the ice. 



It was ice of a totally different character from that 

 which we had left behind. It was hummocky. 



That one fact expressed much. It meant that the ice 

 had not, like the other, been formed in these seas. It 

 meant that it was polar ice, come down from the east and 

 north. It meant — though this we did not know at the time 

 -that, driven in upon the shallows by wind and tide, it 

 would form a barrier round the island which none 

 might pass for many a day to come. 



