CHAPTER IV 
VARDO TO KOLGUEV 
Tue Land of Hope was far indeed from being the Land 
of Promise. 
Only one person in all England knew as much about 
Kolguev as ourselves, and he was now away in a boat 
too big to take into those shallow seas. 
And we knew little enough. The Russians had failed 
me altogether. 
I had been at the pains the year before to go for 
information all the way to the White Sea coasts, only 
to find that not a soul among the Pomors could tell me 
anything at all. 
How an ignorance so curious had come about I will 
explain later in this book. But you can easily see how 
all this would just give an added element of interest to 
our venture. 
Whether those were right who had maintained that 
we should find it quite impossible to land at all; whether 
if we did succeed in landing, we should discover a har- 
bour where the Saxoz might be secure; what birds, 
flowers, and mammals we should chance upon; whether 
we should find people there, or only a desolate and barren 
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