VOYAGE THROUGH THE KARA SEA 215 



Never had the Fram gone so fast ; she made more 

 than 8 knots by the log ; it seemed as though she knew 

 how much depended on her getting on. Soon we were 

 through the ice, and had open water along the land as 

 far as the eye could reach. We passed point after point, 

 discovering new fjords and islands on the way, and soon 

 I thought that I caught a glimpse through the large 

 telescope of some mountains far away north ; they must 

 be in the neighborhood of Cape Chelyuskin itself. 



The land along which we to-day coasted to the north- 

 ward was quite low, some of it like what I had seen on 

 shore the previous day. At some distance from the low 

 coast, fairly high mountains or mountain chains were to 

 be seen. Some of them seemed to consist of horizontal 

 sedimentary schist; they were flat-topped, with precipi- 

 tous sides. Farther inland the mountains w^ere all white 

 with snow. At one point it seemed as if the whole range 

 were covered with a sheet of ice, or great snow-field that 

 spread itself down the sides. At the edge of this sheet I 

 could see projecting masses of rock, but all the inner part 

 was spotless white. It seemed almost too continuous 

 and even to be new snow, and looked like a permanent 

 snow mantle. 



Nordenskiold's map marks at this place, " high moun- 

 tain chains inland"; and this agrees with our observa- 

 tions, though I cannot assert that the mountains are of 

 any considerable height. But when, in agreement with 

 earlier maps, he marks at the same place, " high, rocky 



