306 ICE-BOUND ON KOLGUEV 



was after it. Mrs. Uano stood near the bottom of the 

 gully, where she had been getting snow for water. 

 Hearing the hubbub, and seeing the fox coming, she 

 dropped her pot and stretched out her arms to receive the 

 fox (w T ho ran straight at her), made a grab at it, missed 

 her footing, and went such a sprawler down the hill that 

 all the field screamed with laughter. In a second the 

 dogfs had cauoht the fox, and there was a fine muddle. 

 I stood at the top and laughed, for it really was comical. 

 The bottom where they caught the fox was all mud and 

 snow — a fine mess. You could have covered the whole 

 thing with a sheet, and what with the mud and the snow, 

 the dogs and the fox, the question was, which was Mrs. 

 Uano? However, she was very good-tempered about it, 

 poor old thing ! The unfortunate fox was badly pinched, 

 and does not look like living now. 



' Verrmyah has been working hard all day making me 

 a model sleigh. 



' Uano and Ustynia went off to call on On Tipa, and 

 returned in the evening, Ustynia looking very grand in 

 her new panitsa, sitting on her father's sleigh. She 

 brought back with her a sack filled with curious odds and 

 ends of mouldy bread and finery. 



' I had a long walk, taking the hill twice to look for 

 Saxon, but the mirage was hopeless ; even the Scharok 

 huts seemed like some immense fortification. 



' It has been such a lovely evening — a blood-red moon 

 opposite the setting sun. The moon again very curiously 



