CHAPTER II 



BACK TO SCHAROK 



August loth. — A day with the swans. 



I drove off about mid-day with Onaska and Mekolka. 

 Onaska, by the way, was not only a good scholar, but 

 could draw a little. The native-drawn pictures in this 

 book are by his hand. 



He was an ugly but kind-hearted man, who seldom 

 laughed, though some of his pictures betray a real sense 

 of humour. He always seemed to feel the cold severely, 

 and had a way of standing about with his hands tucked 

 under his ' malitsa,' which I was unkind enough to mimic 

 one day, so that it remained a standing joke against 

 him. 



We first followed a sleigh trail to the north-east. This 

 trail, covered with grasses and clearly visible even in 

 the sandy soil, was evidently very old, and seemed 

 to point to a time when Kolguev was far more thinly 

 populated than it is to-day. 



We passed many old beaches. Some of these, under 

 denuding influences, had been broken down, so that 

 only little conical hills were left. On the top of each 

 of these a fox-trap was set. As in all I visited, the 



