72 



ICE-BOUND ON KOLGUEV 



found oneself at the bottom, I really do not know how 

 one could have got out. For we had no ropes, nor any 

 appliances for snow or ice work. 



Old Sailor, too, was an anxiety. The old dog was 

 pretty active, considering his years, but I was always 

 afraid of his getting caught. He was very quaint about 

 these places ; inspecting them most carefully before he 

 would commit himself in any way. He didn't at all 

 like this mysterious sound of water in the depths, and 

 when he came to a little bit of a thing which I could step 



across, he would make the most prodigious leap— landing 

 often with a couple of feet to the good. This satis- 

 factorily accomplished, he would just look over his 

 shoulder at the place, and then rush about like a puppy 

 and roll in the snow, as much as to say, ' That was 

 rather a fine jump — another of them defeated.' 



Well, at last, after following several curious horse-shoes 

 which the river makes, we came to a grassy cliff from 



