222 ICE-BOUND ON KOLGUEV 



a circular cul de sac. The netting was about four feet 

 in height, of some three-inch mesh, and round the cul 

 de sac was double. The uprights which carried it were 

 strengthened by spurs. 



A net trap of this kind the Samoyeds call ' Po-iim-ga.' 



Loner before we could see the boats, for the mist had 

 thickened, we could hear shouting and the cries of the 

 o-eese. But after a bit first one and then another boat 

 came into view. On the men came, but very slowly ; 

 now pulling across a creek, now pushing the ' arnoh ' 

 over a bit of mud or hauling it over a sand-ridge, some- 

 times leaving it altogether and running off to head the 

 geese. So slowly they came zig-zagging along. 



By this time we could see geese by thousands through 

 the mist. I could even distinguish the short trumpet- 

 note of the brent among the general babel. It was 

 indeed a babel. How to convey to you any idea of 

 it I do not know. If you can imagine many hundred 

 farm-yard geese, and many thousand cornets all sound- 

 ino- together and crowded on by a handful of screaming 

 wild men — if you can imagine this, then you are not far 

 off the mark. 



On they came. Now I could see big grey geese 

 running, heads up and wings outstretched like any farm- 

 yard geese, breaking away to the right and left. And 

 now I saw that they had small young ones with them. 



Nearer they came and nearer, the middle a dense 



