112 ICE-BOUND ON KOLGUEV 
experienced were, of course, very trying, but we should 
have been all right if we had had sleeping bags or a 
tent, or even good warm great-coats. One cannot 
expect to be very comfortable anywhere where it freezes 
when lying out at night. It would be just the same in 
England for that matter. Try it. Some November day 
when the last beat is finished in the home coverts, and 
the other guns go back to tea, tryit. Take your gun, 
stroll off, and lie down for the night in a furrow in the 
middle of a ploughed field. You will not find your eyes 
frozen up, but otherwise, by the time the morning breaks, 
you will have gained a very fair idea of a night on 
Kolguev. 
But this day we suffered from eat. 
It came on gradually about ten o’clock with a sort of 
muggy, Torquay feeling. 
We began to feel our loads as we had not felt them 
before. From something Hyland said I fancied he 
thought his load was heavier than my own. So we 
changed loads. If we had been able to contrive a 
proper means of carrying these we could have managed 
that weight splendidly. Another time I should be strongly 
inclined to use one of those fish-creels which the women 
carry in the North Scotch towns. This would take 
everything, and would put the weight in the right place. 
As it was, we were all straps and cords, which cut on our 
shoulders and dragged on the neck and spine. My long 
indiarubber wading boots, though very important for 
