IN SEARCH OF THE EIRA. 151 



been in rather dangerous proximity to a bad reef two 

 miles south-west of Cape Brit win, on which we saw 

 great masses of ice piled up, making it look like an 

 island. Over this reef the northerly current, setting 

 out of the bay, rushes with great velocity, making it 

 a very dangerous place for a sailing vessel to get into 

 in light winds. We tailed the Kara on astern of the 

 Martha, Sir H. Gore-Booth and Mr Grant, his com- 

 panion in adventure, coming on board the Hope to 

 spend the night ; and thus, in stately procession, the 

 three vessels paraded Moder Bay all through the 

 night, sometimes making the land, sometimes seeing 

 nothing within fifty yards of us because of the fog, 

 and unable to anchor because we found nothing but 

 hard rock wherever we hove the lead. In the morn- 

 ing the fog suddenly lifted and rolled off up the hills, 

 revealing an Arctic scene of snow-clad mountains and 

 ice-dotted sea, bathed in warm sunshine. We were 

 instructed to land a depot of provisions at the Rus- 

 sian settlement, known to be somewhere in the great 

 bight called Moder or Moller Bay. After much ex- 

 amination of the inlets, we decided upon one as the 

 likeliest for the settlement to be in, chiefly from 

 seeing a vessel's masthead peeping over an interven- 

 ing point of land, and finally steamed into Little 

 Karmakula harbour, which turned out to be the 

 right place, there being here a few wooden houses 

 tenanted by Eussians and Samoyedes, and several 

 Eussian schooners at anchor off them. The bay-ice 



