194 ICE-BOUND ON KOLGUEV 
and burns even in a high wind. When in need of a fire 
on the mainland we cut some green bark off a growing 
tree, and found it burned equally well. 
Sailor’s kennel was a question of some moment. We 
had not a box or barrel, nor anything that would answer. 
However, the old dog himself solved the case. For 
when we had provisionally staked him out under the lee 
of a sandy mound, he set so vigorously to work that very 
soon he had a snug retreat well out of the wind. When 
the wind changed he made a second on the other side. 
And now let the wind shift as it might, he had only to 
move to the one or the other to lie as snug as a fox. 
‘Now, Hyland,’ I said, when all was complete, ‘we 
have two things to remember : first, that we have now 
to trust to our guns for food ; and secondly, that we can’t 
afford to waste a shot.’ 
So leaving him to try and sleep off his feeling of illness, 
I set off walking down the coast, which at this point is 
much like the Kriva district. There is the old raised 
beach of yellow sand, with the bogs and flats beyond. 
But the ground—as a bird and flower ground—seemed 
in no way equal to the Kriva, for the flats were a 
monotonous waste of moss and peat, which apparently 
ran on and on till it rose to some high hills or mountains 
in the extreme distance. 
I found one willow-grouse on the sand-ridge, and that 
I secured. It was getting its dark plumage. I saw no 
other bird of this species, whereas hitherto they had been 
round us every day. 
