180 ICE-BOUND ON KOLGUEV 
good. It is; but when you have eaten white-fronted 
goose, bean goose, king eider, and long-tailed duck for 
many days on end, you begin to feel with Mark Twain’s 
American after watching the dead bodies, ‘Cussed if I 
want any breakfast.’ 
And after all the white-fronted goose and the bean 
goose, though they have different names and different 
feathers, when they are cooked are only—goose. 
Of the other two, however, king eider is excellent, but 
long-tailed duck very poor. We came to hate long- 
tailed duck. 
Verrmyah, also called Philipo, Katrina’s husband and 
Uano’s eldest son, appeared to-day. It seemed he had 
been southward. He 
brought very cheering 
news. The ice, he 
said, did not touch the 
south of the island. 
I asked him whether 
any ships could get 
through to the south. 
He did not know; 
there might be a 
channel, and a boat mzgh¢ get into the gulf; but truly, 
he did not know. 
UANO AND VERRMYAH HIS SON 
But this set me thinking whether we ought not to be 
somewhere nearer the gulf or Scharok harbour in case 
a vessel should come. For this was just about the time 
