344 ICE-BOUND ON KOLGUEV 



a remote idea of this man's astonishing appearance. 

 One eye was large and white and sightless, the other 

 rolled round and round, as though it were attached to 

 a stalk, like the orbit of a cuttle-fish. His retreating 

 forehead, with prominent gorilla-like orbital bones, lost 

 itself beneath a skin hood, from underneath which 

 appeared long locks of straight black hair. His mouth, 

 enormous and wide open, was hedged by a bristling- 

 row of ape-like teeth, and altogether there was some- 

 thing so ogreish and strange about this apparition that 

 I stared speechless, at which they roared with laughter, 

 and then arose a shout, ' Tima Fe ! Tima Fe!' It 

 was Tima Fe, a Samoyed from the other boat. He 

 grinned at his reception, and when he grinned he really 

 seemed to lose himself behind his mouth. 



This Tima Fe was sort of henchman to Alexis, and 

 had been sent ashore to get the isba ready. He sat 



down, was given some vodki, and 

 then we became, as usual, the sub- 

 ject of an up-and-down conversation. 

 Tima Fe listened to all they had to 

 say about us ; how we had lost our 

 ™*Te. ship, how we had lived with the 

 Samoyeds, and how we were hoping 

 to get to England, which was an island lying beyond 

 Norway right across another sea. On all this he 

 made no comment. But when they had told him all 

 they could he was silent and pondering for a bit, 



