148 FARTHEST NORTH 



that if we could get safely across the Kara Sea and past 

 Cape Cheliuskin. the worst would be over. Our pros- 

 pects were not bad — an open passage to the east, along 

 the land, as far as we could see from the masthead. 





■ ■ ■j|ni^'"Hi * 



LANDING ON YALMAL 



(By Otto SiHdins,froin a Fhotcgraph) 



An hour and a half later we were at the edu:e of the 



»' 



ice. It was so close that there was no use in attempting 

 to iro on throuoh it. To the northwest it seemed much 

 looser, and there was a 8:ood deal of blue in the atmos- 

 phere at the horizon there.* We kept southeast along 



* There is a white reflection from white ice, so that the sky above 

 fields of ice has a light or whitish appearance; wherever there is open 

 water it is blue or dark. In this way the Arctic navigator can judge by 

 the appearance of the sky what is the state of the sea at a considerable 

 distance. 



