OUR FIRST LANDINGS 59 
the kindness and good friendship of this; but the mind 
which is completely made up is no longer open to 
alternatives. 
And so ended the sixth day of our disappointment. 
June 21st.—The morning settled it. The wind was 
chiefly north ; but sometimes it was north-west, and then 
in little over an hour’s time had swung right across to 
the north-east. Anyway, it was bad as bad could be for 
the northern ice. 
Over the north of the island swept the same fog- 
clouds, black and copper, and wicked in look. When 
they lifted for a moment there was the ice-blink, as 
steady as it had been before. 
We talked over our position. It came to this. We 
had just enough coal for a run to Vardé—we had thirteen 
tons or so—but not more. To go on playing this game 
of dodging and waiting was to ruin all. What would I 
not have given to be back at the Kriva! But it was 
now too late; the ice was chasing us up. 
And so I had to land. 
And then this question arose. Should I go alone or 
should I take Hyland with me? I was strongly inclined 
to go alone. I mentioned it to Hyland; he begged me 
not to leave him behind. And when I pointed out to 
him that it would be no child’s play—that, indeed, we 
might not come upon the natives at all and should 
have to trust to our guns for food, he still said he would 
