62 ICE-BOUND ON KOLGUEV 



though we hung about for a bit we could not make it 

 other than an undertaking far too dangerous. We had 

 all but left the return till too late. The ice, as we pulled 

 back, was fairly racing up upon the yacht. 



How wicked it looked ! Monstrous lumps indeed they 

 were, pounding on, one after the other, dipping and 

 swaying like great hungry sea-bears thrown forward as 

 cavalry from the pack. ■ 



There was an old man pulling in the stern thwarts who 

 had spent a lifetime in the Greenland seas. He made an 

 impression on me I shall not hurriedly forget. His hard 

 old face, half fear and half defiance, he never stopped 

 inveiehinsf at the ice. 'Damn thee,' he said, 'damn 

 thee, are ye coming on then, ye blackguard, are you 

 going to have us this time ? God Almighty, but it 's close 

 you are ! — Now then, boys,-— oh, the devil ! ' and we just 

 missed a big block. Thus ran his adjuration ; only 

 he said it in the Scotch, and he said it in the whaler's 

 form of words. 



'You don't seem very fond of the ice, Jim?' I 

 remarked. 



' I have lost too many relations by it,' he replied, ' and 

 blood is thicker than water.' 



There came to my tongue-tip, but I did not say it : 

 ' And thicker than either is ice.' 



We were on board again, catching up the boat and 

 slipping off only just in time. 



You can imagine something of our feelings. I 



