SCHAROK AGAIN 253 
concern was to keep the boat’s head straight, I steering 
and sounding along with a hammer tied to a cord. 
The depth, on the whole, varied from six to ten feet, 
but even at that was crossed by a shoal in two places; 
and here, before we were aware, we ran aground. I got 
out, hauled the boat off, and then waded on for some 
distance towing the boat and sounding with a pole. 
The main channel after two sudden turns opens on the 
entry by a deep reach. On the southern side of this 
entry we landed on the outer sand-banks. 
Here we succeeded in hauling the boat up to the very 
top of a high sand-bank, where it would lie quite safe in 
any event but a north-east gale. 
This is that outer ridge of sand which separates the 
mud-flats from the sea. 
We found the ice grounded some half a mile to sea- 
ward, and thence stretching away as far as the eye 
could see. 
I walked off to inspect a big lump which stood up 
from the sand about two and a half feet. I found that 
it was deliberately built up of weeds’ and hydrozoans, 
round which sand had collected, and in the hollowed top 
was a single egg of the glaucous gull. The pair of these 
birds were flying over my head. 
We walked along the ridge. We came upon a whole 
row of glaucous gulls’ nests, but none of them held any 
1 They included the following species :— 
Fucus vesiculosus, Fucus serratus, Ceramium rubrum, Corallina officinalis. 
