352 ICE-BOUND ON KOLGUEV 
September 13th.—‘ NE. Strong wind with rain showers. 
(It may be worth noticing that the barometer in the 
last three days stood 29°8, 29°3, 28°9, 29°5 in. These 
extraordinary fluctuations boded no good.) Alexis, who 
also has an aneroid, says he cannot understand what I 
mean by saying it won't be fine, for the finger of his 
glass points, he says, to “fine.” I tried, but without 
any success, to explain to him how we calculate from 
relative rise and fall. His answer always was that if the 
glass said ‘“‘ wet” it must be wet, if it said “fine” it must 
be fine, unless the glass was broken.’ 
September 13th.—‘ Now both the karbasses are ready. 
Their holds are filled with barrels full of reindeer meat 
and the seal-fat from last winter’s catch. Over these 
are spread reindeer and seal-skins, and the pelts of two 
walrus (all they have taken), and skins also are hanging 
from the rigging to dry.’ 
Alexis’ karbass was rather smaller than ours, but the rig 
was the same. My sketch will explain this better than 
any words. So at six o’clock on this evening we made 
amove, and sailed out till we were just inside the entrance 
to the harbour. 
» We had a visit from Verrmyah and Katrina just before 
we left, and divided between them and their parents such 
little property as we could spare—to Uano our saucepan 
(the only cooking utensil we possessed), to Katrina the 
red flannel flag (for Adski), to Mekolka the axe, and so 
