did not change shape until hidden in the mist. I don't think we were ever
surrounded by so many open lanes of water as now. Lots of pochards
and screaming white gulls are flying about. Oh, these gulls! How often,
at night, they keep me awake with their fuss and bustle and bickering
over the entrails of a shot seal thrown out onto the ice. Like evil spirits
they mock at us, laughing hysterically, screeching, whistling and all but
cursing. How long, I wonder, will I be haunted by these 'cries of the
snow-white gull', by these sleepless nights in a tent, by this sun which
never sets and shines through its canvas!
Saturday, June 20. During the week we have been halted we have
drifted a whole degree southward with the ice.
Monday, June 22. In the evening, as usual, I climbed to the top of
some pack-ice to scan the horizon. This time, E. of where I stood, I saw
something which made me so excited that I had to sit down on the ice
and start hastily rubbing both my eyes and my binoculars. It was a
bright strip like a neat stroke made by a brush on a light-blue ground. At
first I took it for the moon, but the left segment of that moon grew
gradually dimmer while the right one became more sharply etched.
During the night I went out four or five times to look through my
binoculars and each time I found this piece of moon in the same place. I
am surprised none of my companions saw it. How hard it was for me to
restrain myself from running into the tent and shouting at the top of my
voice: 'What are you sitting here like dummies, why are you sleeping,
don't you see we are being carried towards land?' But for some reason I
kept it to myself. Who knows, maybe it was a mirage too. Hadn't I seen
myself on the sea-front of a southern town on a hot summer's day, in
the shade of tall buildings!
159
The first notebook ended on this sentence. The second started on July
11.
Saturday, July 11. We killed a seal from which we drew two bowls of
blood. With this and some pochards we made a very good soup. When
we are making tea or soup we are usually very serious about it. This
morning we ate a pailful of soup and drank a pailful of tea; for dinner we
ate a pailful of soup, drank a pail of tea; and now for supper we have
eaten over a pound of meat each and are waiting impatiently for our pail
of tea to boil. Our pail is a big one, shaped like a truncated cone. I
daresay we wouldn't mind cooking and eating another pail of soup right
now, only we feel we must restrict ourselves, 'economise'. Our appetites
are more than wolfish; it is something abnormal.
And so we are now sitting on an island, and beneath us is not ice, on
which we have been these last two years, but earth and moss. All is well
but for one thought, which gives me no peace: why did the Captain not
come with us? He did not want to leave his ship, he couldn't go back
empty-handed. 'They'll make short work of me if I come back empty-
handed.' And then that childish, foolhardy idea:
'Should desperate circumstances compel me to abandon ship I shall
make for the land which we have discovered.' Lately, I think, he had
that land on the brain. We sighted it in April 1913.
Monday, July 13. To E.S.-E. the sea is free of ice right up to the
horizon. Ah, St. Maria, this is where we could do with you, my beauty!
This is where you could bowl along without using your engines!
Tuesday, July 14. Today Sotkin and Korolkov went to the tip of the
island where they made a surprising discovery. Slightly inshore they saw
a small mound built of stones. They were struck by its regular shape. On
coming closer they saw an empty English beer bottle with a screw cap.
The men quickly uncovered the mound and found an iron container
under the stones. In it was a well-preserved British flag, and beneath it
another bottle. This bottle had a paper pasted on it with several names
and inside it was a note written in English. With some difficulty and by
the joint efforts of Nils and myself, I made out that the British polar
expedition led by Jackson, having sailed from Cape Flora in August 1897
had arrived at Cape Mary Harmsworth, where it had placed this flag and
the note. The note said that all was well on the good ship Windward.
In this surprising manner all my doubts were cleared up: we were on
Cape Mary Harmsworth, the south-western tip of Alexandra Land.
Tomorrow we intend to go to the southern shore of the island and make
for Cape Flora where this famous Englishman Jackson had his base.
Wednesday, July 15. Broke camp. We had the choice of either going
all together across the glacier and dragging our baggage along or
breaking up into two parties, one of which would go across the ice on
skis while the other, consisting of five men, would sail along the icefield
in the kayaks. We chose the latter method.
Thursday, July 16. In the morning Maxim and Nils started to bring
the kayaks closer in to where we had halted, and Nils was carried out so
far by the current that two men had to be sent to his aid. I looked
through my binoculars and saw Nils ship his paddle and look at the
approaching rescue craft with a helpless air. Nils must be very sick; it's
the only way I can account for his behaviour. He acts rather strange-
walks unsteadily and sits apart all the time. Today, for supper, we
cooked two pochards and an eider.
160
Friday, July 17. Dirty weather. Still sitting on Cape Grant, waiting for
the shore party. Weather cleared up at night. E.N.-E. ahead, seemingly
quite near, we can see a rocky island across the icefield.
Can this be Northbrook, where Cape Flora is? We shall soon know
whether I was right in trying to make this cape. Twenty years is a long
time. There may be nothing left of Jackson's log houses. But what else
could we do? Make a wide detour? Would my wretched, sick
companions have stood it, their clothes, soaked in blubber oil, all in rags
and full of vermin?
Saturday, July 18. Tomorrow, weather permitting, we will push on. I
cannot wait any longer. Nils can hardly walk and Korolkov is almost as
bad. Dunayev complains of pains in his legs, too, but he does not show
signs of that apathy and exhaustion which frightens me in Nils and
