xii ICE-BOUND ON KOLGUEV 
authority down to the police-master of the railway 
station, every official with whom I have been brought 
into relationship has done far more in my interests than 
I had any right to expect. Particularly I would offer 
my sincere thanks to’ his Excellency the Russian Am- 
bassador to London, his Excellency the Governor of 
the Province of Archangel, to both of whom I owed the 
papers which carried me through; the Ispravnik of 
Ust Tsilma, who went even to the length of advancing me 
a considerable sum of money without further assurance 
than my word that he would get it back. (Which of us, 
I wonder, would do this for an unknown foreigner ?) 
If I have said anything that may seem a little hard 
of my honest and faithful companion on Kolguev, 
Thomas Hyland, I beg he will take it in good part. It 
is not said in an unkind spirit. To take a quiet and inex- 
perienced country man away from his simple occupations 
to the wild life of an Arctic island is necessarily an ex- 
periment of doubtful event. But I trust the experience 
is not found an unpleasant one now that he comes to 
look back on it from the quiet of his home. 
Searching through old records is always arduous work ; 
and in this connection I cannot but acknowledge the 
kindness of Mr. J. Scott Keltie, Assistant Secretary to 
the Royal Geographical Society, and the courteous 
assistance of every official related to that body. 
