350 ICE-BOUND ON KOLGUEV 
straight course and act decidedly. But too often, poor 
beasts, they shift from point to point, and then the adliurs 
(which to-day was entirely in the hands of Marrk’s old 
wife) goes off with the dogs, and heading them by 
creeping up some hollow, brings them back. 
‘To-day a splendid young white-faced buck quite de- 
feated them. The five men all laid themselves out to 
take this beast. But he seemed to bear a charmed life. 
Time after time they threw the di-zha over him, but 
always he managed to escape. He trotted along right 
in front of his mother, and did move splendidly. At last 
they said he was not a reindeer, but the devil, and gave 
it up. I shot two purple sandpipers. A couple of turn- 
stones spend much time at our ombara, turning over the 
deer’s paunches.’ 
Sunday, September oth.—'W.to N. To-day we have 
had sun, snow, rain, hail, and frost. Everywhere on the 
tundra the ice is now thick, and the edges of the creek 
are frozen at low tide. The boat was floated off to-day, 
but as it was Sunday, they said it was not right to finish 
storing the barrels, only they might kill reindeer and 
drink vodki; which they did. I went off in a boat 
to the outer koski with Alexander to take observations 
of the harbour. He was much interested in the pris- 
matic compass, which he could not understand. While 
the men were taking the young bucks to-day one of 
them, caught by the horns, snatched the di-zha from 
