28 ICE-BOUND ON KOLGUEV 
It had remained clear till 1 A.m.; then at 1.30 A.M. we 
had run into a fog, and ten minutes later had met the ice 
about longitude 45° E. with the Kanin coast distant ten 
miles. The plan at the end of this book will explain far 
better than any words exactly how the ice lay. 
The skipper was below: it was the mate’s watch. At 
first he stood in for a bit between the ice and the land, 
hoping for a way through. But, finding that the ice was 
packed hard against the land, he had been compelled to 
beat a retreat; and the Saxoz, now under less than half 
steam, was feeling her way north-west along the edge of 
the pack. 
Before I go any further, it may be as well to say 
something about the nature of this ice; for after we had 
once left it we saw nothing of exactly the same character 
again. 
This ice, then, taken as a whole, was flat—almost 
tabular. There were of course odd pieces and aggrega- 
tions which were considerably thicker, but the general 
run of it was, say, some foot and a half higher than the 
water. The colour varied from pure white to a peculiar 
green, with here and there a darker dirty piece, which 
had evidently grounded somewhere. The green colour 
is very characteristic of White Sea ice, and I have little 
doubt that this, the ice which first obstructed us, had 
come from the White Sea. 
There was a certain amount of movement noticeable 
here and there away out over the pack, but on the whole, 
