CHAPTER XV. 



The Kara Gates — Sir Hugh Willoughby— The magic of the Arctic— Captain 

 Wiggins — The Kara Sea route — Ingoe — A storm — Bird passengers 

 — Midnight off North Cape — Hammerfest — Rumours of war — 

 Tromsoe — Sidelight on German mobilisation — From Bergen to 

 Newcastle — War-fever — Loudon again. 



Early next morning we entered the Kara Strait. 

 Narrow as the passage appears on the map, it is in 

 reality some fifty miles wide, and as we skirted along 

 the coast of Novaya Zemlya, we could see nothing of 

 Waigatz Island, which lay to the southward. The older 

 expeditions generally entered the Kara Sea through the 

 Yugor Strait, which lies to the south of Waigatz. It 

 was supposed that the more northerly passage was 

 perpetually choked with ice, and it was from this idea 

 that it took its name of the Iron Gates. However, of 

 late years ships have used the Kara, in preference to 

 the Yugor, Strait. 



To the north lay the cliflfs of Novaya Zemlya, ribbed 

 with newly fallen snow. From the broad tundras 

 behind them, a perpetual stream of bird life poured 

 southwards. During migration times, Waigatz prob- 

 ably plays the part of an immense bridge, spanning 

 the channel between Novaya Zemlya and the mainland. 

 Even as we steamed through the strait, I saw some 



evidence of this. All day long, divers crossed our 



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