102 ICE-BOUND ON KOLGUEV 
And again :— 
It happened once during foggy weather on the ice at Wahlen- 
berg Bay that the bear that was expected, and had been clearly 
seen by all of us, instead of approaching with his usual supple 
zigzag movements, and with his ordinary attempts to nose 
himself to a sure insight into the fitness of the foreigners for 
food, just as the marksman took aim, spread out gigantic wings 
and flew away in the form of a small ivory gull. Another time 
during the same sledge journey we heard from the tent in which 
we rested, the cook, who was employed outside, cry out, ‘A 
bear! a great bear! No! a reindeer, a very little reindeer!’ 
The same instant a well-directed shot was fired, and the bear- 
reindeer was found to be a very small fox, which thus paid with 
its life for the honour of having for some moments played the 
part of a big animal. From these accounts it may be seen how 
difficult navigation among drift-ice must be in unknown waters.” 
Well, we were constantly taken in in the same way. 
To-day, for instance, we were just coming up, as we 
thought, to a large lake when, turning to Hyland, who 
was following some little way behind, I said, ‘Look 
there. That is the first swan we have seen since we left 
the Kriva.’ 
‘So it is, sir,’ answers Hyland. ‘We must try and 
shoot that.’ 
I took the ‘number 6’ out of my gun and slipped in a 
brass cartridge with S.S.G. 
Presently—‘ That’s not a swan, but an old cock willow- 
grouse with his head up,’ I remarked. Hyland assented. 
(Polonius and the cloud.) 
1 Nordenskidld, Voyage of the Vega, vol. i. p. 348. 
