ly start in sledges along the route of their
supplies.

_The Abandonment of the Ship_

"It was in navigating the Sea of Kara that we encountered our first
acute peril," says Borissoff. "The further north we got, the more
numerous were icebergs. Often our small ship was wedged in tight
between walls of ice that threatened to crush us.

"We decided to turn back; but it was too late. Winter was closing in
earlier than we had anticipated; and the broken ice about us was
becoming a solid field. After two weeks' battle, we had to surrender.
Nature had captured us. We were being carried off into regions of
certain death. Our only escape lay in abandoning our ship, and
attempting to regain the coast by journeying across the dreadful sea
of ice on foot. Gathering what provisions we could carry, our party of
nine, including the five sailors, set out with but little expectation
of ever reaching land."

Everything was put into three canoes, to be pulled along the edges of
ice-banks by nine men and some twenty dogs. Soon the free water froze
tight; and they had to drag the boats over the ice. The wind made this
too difficult. The canoes were abandoned; and the most necessary
supplies were placed on sledges made of skis. With the snow up to
their waists, they plodded on--until they discovered that they were on
a drifting island of ice!

_Drifting Out to Sea on Floes of Ice_

"We noticed that the ice a little way in front of us was flying at a
terrible speed toward the north, while we seemed to be standing still;
but this was merely an optical illusion--the ice in front of us was
standing still, for it was shore-ice, while we were being carried at a
giddy pace out to sea!

"Our only salvation was to reach the stationary shore-ice. The edge of
the moving floe was grinding it into a devilish porridge. Immense
blocks, weighing tens of thousands of tons, were whirled round, leaped
out of the sea, climbed on each other, rearing on high, groaning and
roaring, and plunging and vanishing!"

[Illustration: PAINTING OF A SLEDGE SET UPON END FOR THE NIGHT, WITH
SKINS AND MEAT HUNG UPON IT SO AS TO BE OUT OF REACH OF THE DOGS]

They made the crossing and dragged on inland for three days. A gentle
breeze was blowing. Borissoff heard a suspicious plash of water.

"It was horrible to believe our ears. We climbed a hummock; and
there our eyes assured us that another channel of water really
separated us from firm land! The floe began