268 ICE-BOUND ON KOLGUEV 
But, bless you, sir, ‘taint no manner of use so long as 
this east wind lasts.’ 
And our rain wouldn’t stop. So at 2.30 a.m. the 
Samoyeds went off in a real pelter. We had never seen 
the deer travel so fast before. For now they were clean 
moulted. I must confess I envied Hyland his hut. It 
is true that the wet would trickle down the walls in 
places, but I was flooded. There was just one dry 
corner in the tent, and here I curled up. But sleep was 
out of the question. Every moment I thought the tent 
must go. But it stood wonderfully. That is the best 
point about these ‘Whymper’ tents, and a very strong 
point it is. But to pretend that they are waterproof is 
not even reasonable humour. 
The rain did stop at five o’clock. I contrived a gutter 
to carry off some of the water. Immense flocks of gulls 
had come in and were sitting out on the bog at the back. 
I wrote a note explaining to Powys our movements. 
This I put in the chapel in a most conspicuous place. 
‘We are moving up about .twenty-eight versts,’ I said. 
‘We shall be in full view of the sea. I shall send a team 
down here every other day. The Saxon cannot get in, 
but either boat can enter well. Sound carefully. Keep 
the two posts you will see on the land in line for three 
hundred yards. Then five hundred yards N.NW. by 
compass (be careful here of a shoal and a sunken head- 
land). Then, bearing due west, you can reach right in 
to the post one hundred yards below the southernmost 
