326 ICE-BOUND ON KOLGUEV 



itself. It is too square in shape. I calculated, as we 

 drove round it, that it was about I mile wide and some 

 mile and a half long. 



We found here drying grounds for fish. And when 

 we were about half-way round we came upon the eldest 

 of the Bulchikoff brothers, come to fetch away a barrel 

 of salted fish. He said they were quite good ; but they 

 smelled horribly. These men will not take the trouble 

 to salt their fish before it gets bad. The fish were sik, 

 a kind of bream, and besides this, they told me, the lake 

 held only goletz, which ran up into it from the sea. 

 Goletz is a species of salmo or of coregonus. I am not 

 quite sure which. 



I inquired of Bulchikoff how deep the Kriva lake 

 might be. He said, ' My toorr — more big, yes, yes,' — it 

 was deeper than his toorr. But I wanted to know 

 exactly. At last he laid his toorr down, and walked 

 away from it two or three paces, and said, ' Two toorr — 

 no, my big toorr, my little toorr, yes so, yes, yes.' His 

 was a twelve-foot toorr, and the small toor would be a 

 ten-foot one. This would make the depth about twenty- 

 two feet. 



So we left, and crossing the head of the river where it 

 leaves the lake, wound round the lake itself. I saw a 

 glaucous gull hammering at something by the side. It 

 rose as we approached, and flying off left behind it a fine 

 sik dead on the stones. It had its guts torn out, but 

 was quite fresh and clean, weighing, I should say, two 



