18 ICE-BOUND ON KOLGUEV 
harbour. Boats and steamers crowded the place, ponies 
were being hoisted on to decks, fish cut up and packed, 
and over all wheeled kittiwakes, herring gulls and lesser 
black-backs in hundreds. 
They do not up here use the words ‘keks,’ but name 
their boats by the number of oars they carry; as 
fembéring (5-oared), ottring (8-oared, though now they 
have but four oars), sekring, and so on. The boats are 
of the same light and graceful cut as those lower down. 
The gunwale stroke—splayed out so as to act as a bilge 
chock—is always painted some bright colour, red, yellow, 
blue or green, the gunwale itself being invariably 
white. The rest of the boat is of simple varnished pine. 
The fembGring are the largest boats, and carry besides 
the ‘raaseil’ (square sail) a fore and aft sail, the ‘ sne-seil,’ 
and have in the stern a cabin roofed with pine or birch 
bark. At the present time there are a thousand of these 
boats in Vardo. 
Vardé also has one hundred and twenty boats of a 
larger size called ‘ Kobrumsbots’—boats containing tanks 
for ‘kobs’ or seals. 
An incredible number of codfish are taken in these 
waters. Indeed, Vardo is chiefly a huge codfish drying 
ground. There are miles of split fish drying on rails. 
The current price this summer of a fresh cod, without 
head or liver, was 10 Gre, z.¢. one penny. A year or two 
ago it was worth twice as much. 
Mr. Carl Holmboe, the British Vice-Consul, very 
