THE JOURNEY SOUTHWARD 579 



From the experience he had had on the northward 

 voyage, Captain Brown had come to the conchision that 

 he would find his way out of the ice most easily by first 

 steering in a southeasterly direction towards Novaya 

 Zemlya, which he thought would be the nearest way to 

 the open sea. This proved also to be exactly the case. 

 After having gone about 220 knots through the ice, we 

 came into the open sea at the end of a long bay, which 

 ran northward into the ice. It was just at the right 

 spot ; had we been a little farther east or a little farther 

 west, we might have spent as many weeks drifting about 

 in the ice as we now spent days in it. Once more we 

 saw the blue ocean itself in front of us, and we shaped 

 our course straight for Vardo. It was an indescribably 

 delightful feeling once more to gaze over the blue ex- 

 panse, as we paced up and down the deck, and were day 

 by day carried nearer home. One morning, as we stood 

 looking over the sea, our gaze was arrested by some- 

 thing ; what could that be on the horizon '^. We ran on 

 to the bridge and looked through the glass. The first 

 sail. Fancy being once more in waters where other 

 people went to and fro ! But it was far away ; we could 

 not go to it. Then we saw more, and later in the day four 

 great monsters ahead. They were British men-of-war, 

 probably on their way home after having been at Vadso for 

 the eclipse of the sun, which was to have taken place on 

 August 9th. Later in the evening (August 12th) I saw 

 something dark ahead, low down on the horizon. What 



