122 ICE-BOUND ON KOLGUEV 
played out. Always, as horsemen say, I had a leg to 
spare. But now that there was no instant occasion for 
haste, now that we had really found that which we had 
been seeking, it was just reversed. Hyland was grown 
quite fresh and filled with new energy in this discovery, 
while I had found that I was really tired, and that the 
constant carrying of this heavy weight had in some way 
told on my spine. 
So we stopped half-way up a hill, and made some tea, 
using for that our last drop of methylated spirits. 
At one o'clock in the morning we came among the 
deer. To my surprise we found that a large proportion 
of them were white. Meantime a very heavy fog had 
settled down upon the hills. We could not see with any 
certainty more than twenty yards in front of us. I had 
been sitting down to rest, and on rising again to move 
away my companion remarked that I was going in the 
wrong direction, and that the choom was just the other 
way. And indeed I had done a foolish thing. For, 
since sighting the choom at first, I had put away the 
compass for good and all, knowing that to walk straight 
up to it from that point was only a question of keeping a 
clear head. But no sooner had we entered the hills than 
we lost all sight of the choom and the reindeer, and 
had not since seen the choom at all. 
And as I had been lying on the ground with closed 
eyes, I supposed that I had become confused, and there- 
fore followed Hyland’s lead. But it did not answer. 
