420 TRAVELS OF A NATURALIST 



vessel, the Alexie. It was run upon a sand-bank under 

 full sail about ten years ago by a careless or interested 

 captain. 



A ' choom ' of the Samoyedes was seen, and here and 

 there upon the edge of the tundra white crosses erected 

 by the Kussian fishermen who resort to these bleak 

 shores in summer to fish for Beluga and Salmon. The 

 great Salmon-fishing season in the Boluanski Bucht 

 does not, however, commence till the first week in August. 



After turning to the northward we had plenty of oppor- 

 tunities of witnessing some of the difficulties connected 

 with the navigation of the Great Shallow Sea, inside 

 the promontory of Russki Zavarot and the Golaievski 

 Banks. The day was lovely, the water smooth as a 

 mirror, and a slight haze somewhat obscured the horizon- 

 line. Refraction was at work, too, making objects diffi- 

 cult to recognise, or to distinguish dark shadows on the 

 water from the low level sand-banks we were in search of. 



Before reaching the far-out Golaievski chain of islands 

 and sand-banks, the true course for vessels runs between 

 two submerged sand-banks or shoals, one the Alexander 

 Bank on the west or left of the channel, and the other 

 the William Bank on the east or right of the channel. 



Our course was taken somewhat east of that marked 

 on the chart by Arendt's orders and the lead was in 

 constant requisition the whole afternoon. 



The compass on board was next to useless, owing to 

 the local attraction present in an iron ship, and from not 

 being properly protected from it. How the servants of 

 the Company can put up with such an article we could 

 not imagine. 



We got upon shallow water, and the difficulty was to 

 know whether we were upon the William or upon the 

 Alexander Bank. No one on board appeared to have the 

 faintest idea for some time. It transpired at last, how- 



