298 A SUMMER ON THE YENESEI 



ately, however, the Skule, like the Ragna, had a deck 

 cargo of heavy timber. The donkey engines were 

 started, and by dint of swinging the logs overboard in 

 the cranes, the ice around was smashed sufficiently to 

 relieve the pressure, and the ship ultimately struggled 

 out. Her pilot was so much upset by this experience 

 that he sent a despairing marconigram : " For God's 

 sake steer south, or we shall all he frozen in." When 

 this appeal was communicated to Captain Johansen in 

 the crow's nest, he chuckled mightily. Before leaving 

 Tromsoe, our good ice-pilot had consulted a wise woman 

 who based her predictions upon the forms taken by the 

 " grounds " in a cup of coffee. She had assured him that 

 all would be well on the voyage, and as Captain 

 Johansen had great faith in her prophecies, he did not 

 doubt but that we should come through safely. It 

 would have been awkward, to say the least of it, if an 

 accident had occurred at this point. There were neither 

 the equipment nor the stores necessary for a winter in 

 the Arctic Ocean, to say nothing of the fact that an iron 

 ship could not withstand the grinding of the floes. 

 Besides, we were at least five hundred miles from any 

 human habitation, and two hundred miles from com- 

 munication with any wireless station. Therefore the 

 Skule had a lucky escape. 



For the rest of the evening,we forced our way through 

 tightly packed " pancake " ice. The effect was most 

 curious, for there was no open water to be seen, and 

 the ship seemed to be steaming over a boundless white 

 shingle beach, strewn with stones and pebbles and 

 boulders of all shapes and sizes. 



