202 



ICE-BOUND ON KOLGUEV 



After this, leaving Hyland to lie down and rest, I 

 pushed on across some small inlets to find out the nature 

 of a heap of wood piled at the point of a spit of sand. 



And this it seemed served two purposes. It was both 

 a guide or beacon, and also a means of supplying the 

 chance wanderer with a Ioq- or two for the fire. For 

 this sand-spit was quite evidently a leading passage by 

 which the marsh could be entered and left. 



The fox-trao which I have figured here we found about 

 two miles below our camp. It is really a form of dead- 



fall trap, and was baited with seal-fat ; but though foxes 

 had been about it I could find no evidence that any had 

 been lately caught. The trap was not set, and I think 

 the bait had remained there from the winter catch. For 

 there is no value in the fur of a summer fox. 



Had we not been better informed, the mirage to-day 

 might well have deluded us into the expectation that 

 our friends had come. For, as we walked home, there 

 appeared on the cliffs in front of us a high flag-staff with 

 a brave flag floating atop. But it dwindled as we came 

 up, as well we knew it must. For it was nothing finer 

 in reality than a little three-foot stick with which, when I 



