306 ICE-BOUND ON KOLGUEV 
was after it. Mrs. Uano stood near the bottom of the 
gully, where she had been getting snow for water. 
Hearing the hubbub, and seeing the fox coming, she 
dropped her pot and stretched out her arms to receive the 
iox (who ran straight at her), made a grab at it, missed 
her footing, and went such a sprawler down the hill that 
all the field screamed with laughter. In a second the 
dogs had caught the fox, and there was a fine muddle. 
I stood at the top and laughed, for it really was comical. 
The bottom where they caught the fox was all mud and 
snow—a fine mess. You could have covered the whole 
thing with a sheet, and what with the mud and the snow, 
the dogs and the fox, the question was, which was Mrs. 
Uano? However, she was very good-tempered about it, 
poor old thing! The unfortunate fox was badly pinched, 
and does not look like living now. 
‘Verrmyah has been working hard all day making me 
a model sleigh. 
‘Uano and Ustynia went off to call on On Tipa, and 
returned in the evening, Ustynia looking very grand in 
her new panitsa, sitting on her father’s sleigh. She 
brought back with her a sack filled with curious odds and 
ends of mouldy bread and finery. 
‘IT had a long walk, taking the hill twice to look for 
Saxon, but the mirage was hopeless; even the Scharok 
huts seemed like some immense fortification. 
‘It has been such a lovely evening—a blood-red moon 
opposite the setting sun. The moon again very curiously 
