ioo tCE-BOUND ON KOLGUEV 



rabbits till a good big hole was scooped out, and then 

 built round it a fortification against the wind. 



Now fine dry sand has its advantages, but also its 

 drawbacks. The wind played with this sand through 

 every chink in the rampart — built of lumps of saxifrage 

 -and drove it home. By which I mean that sand- 

 very fine — all but impalpable — went into your eyes, into 

 your hair, up your nose, through your trousers and socks. 

 I slept blindfold, with a handkerchief tied round my 

 head. Hyland, who did not take this precaution, suffered 

 much from his eyes for a day or two afterwards. I 

 suppose it must in reality have found its way into our 

 lungs. Anyway, our throats, on our awaking, were full 

 of sand. 



We found nothing here with which to make a fire, so 

 we had to boil water with the spirit-lamp, and making 

 some cocoa, ate a lunch biscuit each and a raw rasher of 

 bacon. We were obliged to be a bit careful with the 

 biscuits on Sailor's account. As it was, the poor old dog 

 s^ot very short commons. 



The country through which we now passed when we 

 moved on at 8 a.m. consisted of a wide stretch of high- 

 lying mosses and swamps containing many enormous 

 beds of peat. As I shall have occasion later on to refer 

 more particularly to these peat-beds, I will here only 

 remark that many of these were of most curious 

 formation. Some perfectly circular, many absolutely 

 rectangular in shape, they rose suddenly from the bog 



