100 ICE-BOUND ON KOLGUEV 
rabbits till a good big hole was scooped out, and then 
built round it a fortification against the wind. 
Now fine dry sand has its advantages, but also its 
drawbacks. The wind played with this sand through 
every chink in the rampart—built of lumps of saxifrage 
—and drove it home. By which I mean that sand— 
very fine—all but impalpable—went into your eyes, into 
your hair, up your nose, ¢hrough your trousers and socks. 
I slept blindfold, with a handkerchief tied round my 
head. Hyland, who did not take this precaution, suffered 
much from his eyes for a day or two afterwards. [| 
suppose it must in reality have found its way into our 
lungs. Anyway, our throats, on our awaking, were full 
of sand. 
We found nothing here with which to make a fire, so 
we had to boil water with the spirit-lamp, and making 
some cocoa, ate a lunch biscuit each and a raw rasher of 
bacon. We were obliged to be a bit careful with the 
biscuits on Sailor’s account. As it was, the poor old dog 
got very short commons. 
The country through which we now passed when we 
moved on at 8 A.M. consisted of a wide stretch of high- 
lying mosses and swamps containing many enormous 
beds of peat. As I shall have occasion later on to refer 
more particularly to these peat-beds, I will here only 
remark that many of these were of most curious 
formation. Some perfectly circular, many absolutely 
rectangular in shape, they rose suddenly from the bog 
