VOYAGE THROUGH THE KARA SEA 187 



higher than those we had seen before, and consisted of 

 precipitous hills. There were also small glaciers or 

 snow-fields, and the rock formation showed clear traces 

 of erosion by ice or snow, this being especially the case 

 on the largest island, where there were even small valleys, 

 partially filled with snow. 



This is the record of August 26th : " Many new isl- 

 ands in various directions. There are here," the diary 

 continues, " any number of unknown islands, so many 

 that one's head gets confused in trying to keep account 

 of them all. In the morning we passed a very rocky 

 one, and beyond it I saw two others. After them land 

 or islands farther to the north and still more to the north- 

 east. We had to go out of our course in the afternoon, 

 because we dared not pass between two large islands on 

 account of possible shoals. The islands were round in 

 form, like those we had seen farther back, but were of 

 a good height. Now we held east again, with four big- 

 gish islands and two islets in the offing. On our other 

 side we presently had a line of flat islands with steep 

 shores. The channel was far from safe here. In the 

 evening we suddenly noticed large stones standing up 

 above the water among some ice-floes close on our port 

 bow, and on our starboard beam was a shoal with stranded 

 ice-floes. We sounded, but found over 21 fathoms of 

 water." 



I think this will suffice to ofive an idea of the nature 

 of this coast. Its belt of skerries, though it certainly can- 



