SCHAROK AGAIN 263 



I made a little geological excursion after that, huntino- 

 up a river for sections and fossils, but that was all I could 

 do. The wind had gone to the east ; it was drizzling and 

 blowing half a gale, and at high tide the ice for the first 

 time came right in at the harbour mouth till it grounded 

 all about on the mud, the biggest bits floating up the 

 channel under the tent. 



Sunday, July 29th. — Any one would have thought 

 that we might have rested content with having once 

 taken out a half-rotten boat and come back in safety. 

 But we were hungry men. There was only one wretched 

 long-tailed duck in the larder ; we wanted geese, and 

 geese we saw on the sand-banks away out on the ice. 



' What a pity we can't get one of those old geese ! ' I 

 said to Hyland. Esculapius could not have done it 

 more quickly ! He had been ill and unable to move 

 beyond a crawl till then. 



'We can get one, can't we, sir ? I can pull the boat out.' 



I knew very well he couldn't, with his bad back, but 

 the tide was running out, so it was only a question of 

 keeping the boat straight. I thought I could steer her 

 through the ice. 



Well, we started. The ice did not look very pleasant 

 at times ; it could easily have knocked a hole in our 

 ancient craft. Some of it was in very pretty, light-topped 

 pieces ten feet or so above the water, with hollows and 

 green caves in them, and gulls sitting on the spires. 



