CHAP. x. THE ICE BREAKS UP. in 



began to look grave. We took council together, and we 

 decided to transport ourselves and our baggage to some 

 houses that stood on higher ground, halfway towards the 

 mouth of the Zylma. It took us some hours to do this. We 

 were beginning to make preparations for a week's camping 

 in the midst of floods, when towards four o'clock we discerned 

 in the distance the figures of our yemschiks. They were 

 coming, but they were coming without horses. When they 

 reached us we learned from them that the ice was broken up 

 on both shores of the Petcbora. They had come across in a 

 boat ; that they had dragged for a couple of versts in a sledge 

 across the central field of ice, being forced to leave it on 

 the shore five or six miles off. We determined to put the 

 bulk of our baggage under the charge of two yemschiks, 

 and to return with the other men in the boat 



We felt rather nervous as we entered the boats, and put 

 to sea on the open water across which we had sledged so 

 recently, and we had some little difficulty in finding a solid 

 piece of ice on which to land. The central ice of the Pet- 

 chora was evidently on the eve of being broken up. Every 

 nerve was strained to drag the boats across the mile of ice, 

 and relaunch them on the safe side of the river without a 

 moment's unnecessary loss of time. It was past midnight, 

 and at any moment the crash might come. The ice was 

 obviously under great pressure. Cracks running for miles 

 with a sound like distant thunder warned us that a mighty 

 power was all but upon us, a force which seemed for the 

 moment to impress the mind with a greater sense of power 

 than even the crushing weight of water at Niagara, a force 



