VARDO TO KOLGUEV 35 
And under these agencies much of it was already 
stranded and piled up on those very sand-banks which 
we had hoped to round. We could not dare, with the 
little Saxon, to go very close to the pack, for advanced 
outposts, in the shape of floating masses, any two of 
which could have sent us to the bottom cracked up like 
a hazel nut, challenged our approach. There was nothing 
for it but to turn tail and find an anchorage elsewhere. 
But where? That was just the question. 
We steamied slowly up with the coast about two and a 
half miles distant. Here we had about seventeen fathoms 
of water, though we occasionally passed over a bank 
where it was reduced to twelve fathoms. 
At this time we all thought that it was only a question 
of patience and the ice would shift, allowing us to reach the 
Waskina. ‘Where shall we anchor?’ asked the skipper. 
Some distance to the north a headland seemed to 
stand out. ‘We will anchor there,’ I said; ‘we shall 
probably find deeper water, and shall be a bit protected 
from the wind.’ 
The skipper was for drawing straight up to this posi- 
tion, but I did not at all like the chances of sand-banks, 
so preferred to take the boat out again, and then stand 
straight in when abreast of the point. This we did, and 
as we drew in very gradually, the men at the lead giving 
us twenty fathoms, seventeen, fifteen, ten, we found our- 
selves at about a mile and a half from the shore in five 
fathoms of water. Here we anchored. For the Saxon 
