84 ICE-BOUND ON KOLGUEV 



the ice sheets on the river. Down into the sunlight 

 strutted a splendid old willow-grouse, his wings droop- 

 ing, his tail fanned. On the very edge of the bank he 

 stood and crowed, bowing like a Mussulman till his head 

 touched the Qround. He did more. He went through 

 a kind of dance, turning round and round, and stopping 

 now and then to flirt his tail, and answer with all the 

 power of his lungs his rival on a little hillock not twenty 

 yards away. 



June i^tk. — I was writing in the tent this morning at 

 1.30 when Hyland, who had been walking along the 

 shore, came in with a very interesting piece of news. 



Some creature, a seal he thought, was hunting ducks 

 among*; the floes. 



In a moment I was round the corner of the cliff and 

 at the water's edge. It was true enough. 



A group of long-tailed ducks were just settling on a 

 little bit of open water close in front of us. As they 

 lit they drew up together in a bunch. Before long there 

 was a panic among them, and they rose wildly in different 

 directions. Right in their midst — or what had been 

 their midst — appeared the dark head of a seal. Risen 

 from below, had he been trying to take a duck, or had 

 he not ? The point was soon settled. 



The clucks flew round and lit again in the next pool. 

 The seal raised his head a moment higher from the 

 water, and then sinking, disappeared. We watched the 



