370 ICE-BOUND ON KOLGUEV 
the shore. We worked very hard, Alexis’ men coming 
to help. We sent the boat out to drop a kedge, and 
then some hauled on the line while others punted with 
the ‘pomorrna.’ I suppose most of us are happiest when 
we have real hard muscular work to do; when one can 
thoroughly let oneself out, so to say, until one can’t move 
another finger. These poor fellows all worked in silence, 
so I started a chant, which they tried to follow till we 
were all howling different tunes like demons. Then | 
wove the days of the week into a rough sing-song and 
cheered when Sunday came, and, poor chaps! they got 
very enthusiastic about this, and pounced down on 
Sunday with such a squall, you never heard anything 
like it. But this inch-by-inch work is very severe: we 
only made some half mile, if that, and at last the wind 
raged so wildly that eleven men on the rope could not 
move her half-an-inch, and it really was not safe to send 
out the boat. So we stayed. 
Alexander was fairly astonished, and said more com- 
plimentary things about Queen Victoria, and her islands, 
and her wonderful Englishmen, than modesty will let me 
repeat here. Frankly, I was glad to feel that all past 
unpleasantness was now wiped out. 
We did manage to get our boat off to the other 
karbass, but she could not return. 
And the following day a northerly gale raged, with 
pelting rain. The capstan creaked so badly that we 
feared it would go, and so the chain cable was wound 
