52 ICE-BOUND ON KOLGUEV 



out a boat to sound in every direction. Not a bit of it. 

 Not a Sfhost of a channel could we find : luck was 

 clearly against us. 



The wind shifted to N.NW., and a vile, drying, freez- 

 ing fog came on : so all day we could not move. 



But we made the best of it. Powys kept up our 

 spirits with the banjo, and we sang, skinned, and ate 

 many figs. 



June i gtk- -The changes in the air temperature in 

 the shade were instructive. When the fogs came on 

 the thermometer fell through io°, the surface water 

 temperature varying only from 33° to 30° as the ice was 

 near or farther off. 



This miserable fog lasted all night, and only cleared at 

 ten o'clock this morning. Then we went ashore to 

 see something of the place and to get fresh water. 



We had tough work to get in. Again there was a 

 bar — a bad bar. But over it was running the river very 

 fiercely all in Hood, and the water where it met the sea 

 — for the tide was then making — curled and rolled 

 and broke in a very ticklish manner. But we had 

 good men at the oars, and biding our time ran in at 

 last on the crest of a big wave, and found ourselves in a 

 channel no more than six feet deep. 



I had taken my collecting gun, so while the man was 

 filling the barrel Powys and I walked about. We had 

 landed on the eastern side. We could see no sign 



