72 ICE-BOUND ON KOLGUEV 
found oneself at the bottom, I really do not know how 
one could have got out. For we had no ropes, nor any 
appliances for snow or ice work. 
Old Sailor, too, was an anxiety. The old dog was 
pretty active, considering his years, but I was always 
afraid of his getting caught. He was very quaint about 
these places; inspecting them most carefully before he 
would commit himself in any way. He didn’t at all 
like this mysterious sound of water in the depths, and 
when he came to a little bit of a thing which I could step 
across, he would make the most prodigious leap—landing 
often with a couple of feet to the good. This satis- 
factorily accomplished, he would just look over his 
shoulder at the place, and then rush about like a puppy 
and roll in the snow, as much as to say, ‘That was 
rather a fine jump—another of them defeated.’ 
Well, at last, after following several curious horse-shoes 
which the river makes, we came to a grassy cliff from 
