58 ICE-BOUND ON KOLGUEV 



thus will put himself into my place, will, I venture to 

 believe, acquit me of everything but a very sensible 

 intention to carry out, as I might be able, the object at 

 which we had been at so much pains to arrive. 



< And I did not dislike this island. ' A good island ; 

 may God bless it,' people had said in the priest's paper. 

 And these words had stuck in my head. 



But, to be sure, my thoughts were not shared by all. 

 Our old Greenland hands had conceived a very immov- 

 able prejudice against this place. They could not 

 imagine what in the world any one could want with 

 such a miserable-looking and inhospitable district. No 

 whales, if we except a beluga who showed for a moment 

 at the Gusina mouth — no bears — nothing that seemed to 

 them worth the trying for. 



And this part of the consideration weighed much with 

 my friend, and very naturally, as I could not but admit. 

 For not every one is so much concerned in flowers and 

 birds and objects of nature that he will venture himself 

 for them into the unknown. And to a keen sportsman 

 ever hoping for large game worth the killing it seemed 

 indeed a promise of disappointment. So, very wisely, 

 Powys determined that he would journey still further 

 afield. To Novaya Zemblya he would go, and he went, 

 for bigger quarry. 



He was very much set against my purpose. He urged 

 that I might not find these people, and what should I 

 do then, with much to the same effect. I acknowledged 



