120 ICE-BOUND ON KOLGUEV 
that very soon we had learned to distrust these appear- 
ances, which the glass too often showed to be nothing 
better than a heap of stones or a ridge of peat. 
And just as once I should have only looked to confirm 
my certainty that here were human beings, so now I 
only did so to make sure of my belief that here were not. 
You can therefore imagine a little of my astonishment 
when the glass showed me this time, as it really seemed, 
a native choom and many reindeer well defined against 
the sky. 
Now, when you reflect upon men in our case, it would 
seem an intelligible impulse to have danced about or 
cheered, to celebrate this great moment. But then, I 
thought, what if, after all, this should be but a creation 
of the mirage as others had been before! It would be 
but a cruelty to have raised my companion’s hopes only 
to dash them again. 
These considerations made me careful, so that I only 
said, ‘We will stop here and wait a moment.’ 
And then, having looked again with a steadier glass, I 
saw with such clearness the choom, and the reindeer as 
they moved along the sky-line, that I could no longer 
doubt. But when Hyland at last asked me what I was 
looking at so intently, I said quietly and very casually : 
‘I fancy I see a choom and many reindeer.’ 
For now that I was certain it seemed pleasant to play 
with the occasion,.nor would I startle Hyland into excess 
of joy. But, owing to the tone of my voice, this 
