LAND AT LAST 3^3 



silent stroke. It was like being in a gondola on the 

 Canale Grande. But there was something almost un- 

 canny about all this stillness, and the barometer had 

 gone down rapidly. Meanwhile, we sped towards the 

 headland in the south -southwest, which I thought was 

 about 1 2 miles off.* After some hours we espied ice 

 ahead, but both of us thought that it was only a loose 

 chain of pieces drifting with the current, and we paddled 

 confidently on. But as we gradually drew nearer we saw 

 that the ice was fairly compact, and extended a greater 

 and greater distance ; though from the low kayaks it 

 was not easy to see the exact extent of the pack. We 

 accordingly disembarked and climbed up on a hummock 

 to find out our best route. The sight which met us 

 was anything but encouraging. Off the headland we 

 were steering for were a number of islets and rocks, ex- 

 tending some distance out to sea ; it was they that were 

 locking the ice, which lay in every direction, between 

 them and outside them. Near us it was slack, but farther 

 off" it looked much w^orse, so that further advance by sea 

 was altogether out of the question. Our only expedient 

 was to take to the edge of the shore-ice, and hope for 

 the chance that a lane might run along it some way far- 

 ther on. On the way in we passed a seal lying on a tloe, 

 and as our larder was beginning to grow empty, I tried to 

 get a shot at it, but it dived into the water before we came 

 within rano^e. 



^ Clements Markham's Foreland. 



