VARDO TO KOLGUEV 35 



And under these agencies much of it was already 

 stranded and piled up on those very sand-banks which 

 we had hoped to round. We could not dare, with the 

 little Saxon, to go very close to the pack, for advanced 

 outposts, in the shape of floating masses, any two of 

 which could have sent us to the bottom cracked up like 

 a hazel nut, challenged our approach. There was nothing 

 for it but to turn tail and find an anchorage elsewhere. 

 But where ? That was just the question. 



We steamed slowly up with the coast about two and a 

 half miles distant. Here we had about seventeen fathoms 

 of water, though we occasionally passed over a bank 

 where it was reduced to twelve fathoms. 



At this time we all thought that it was only a question 

 of patience and the ice would shift, allowing us to reach the 

 Waskina. 'Where shall we anchor?' asked the skipper. 



Some distance to the north a headland seemed to 

 stand out. ' We will anchor there,' I said ; ' we shall 

 probably find deeper water, and shall be a bit protected 

 from the wind.' 



The skipper was for drawing straight up to this posi- 

 tion, but I did not at all like the chances of sand-banks, 

 so preferred to take the boat out again, and then stand 

 straight in when abreast of the point. This we did, and 

 as we drew in very gradually, the men at the lead giving 

 us twenty fathoms, seventeen, fifteen, ten, we found our- 

 selves at about a mile and a half from the shore in five 

 fathoms of water. Here we anchored. For the Saxon 



