gone up into the crow's-nest to look out for bears
and walrus on the ice-floes, saw land to the south of us. At 10 A.M. I
went up to look at it--we were then probably not more than 10 miles
away from it. It was low land, seemingly of the same formation as
Yalmal, with steep sand-banks, and grass-grown above. The sea grew
shallower as we neared it. Not far from us, small icebergs lay
aground. The lead showed steadily less and less water; by 11.30
A.M. there were only some 8 fathoms; then, to our surprise, the
bottom suddenly fell to 20 fathoms, and after that we found steadily
increasing depth. Between the land and the blocks of stranded ice on
our lee there appeared to be a channel with rather deeper water and
not so much ice aground in it. It seemed difficult to conceive that
there should be undiscovered land here, where both Nordenskioeld and
Edward Johansen, and possibly several Russians, had passed without
seeing anything. Our observations, however, were incontestable, and
we immediately named the land Sverdrup's Island, after its discoverer.

As there was still a great deal of ice to windward, we continued our
southwesterly course, keeping as close to the wind as possible. The
weather was clear, and at 8 o'clock we sighted the mainland, with
Dickson's Island ahead. It had been our intention to run in and anchor
here, in order to put letters for home under a cairn, Captain Wiggins
having promised to pick them up on his way to the Yenisei. But in the
meantime the wind had fallen: it was a favorable chance, and time was
precious. So we gave up sending our post, and continued our course
along the coast.

The country here was quite different from Yalmal. Though not very
high, it was a hilly country, with patches and even large drifts of
snow here and there, some of them lying close down by the shore. Next
morning I sighted the southernmost of the Kamenni Islands. We took
a tack in under it to see if there were animals of any kind, but
could catch sight of none. The island rose evenly from the sea at
all points, with steep shores. They consisted for the most part of
rock, which was partly solid, partly broken up by the action of the
weather into heaps of stones. It appeared to be a stratified rock,
with strongly marked oblique strata. The island was also covered with
quantities of gravel, sometimes mixed with larger stones; the whole
of the northern point seemed to be a sand heap, with steep sand-banks
towards the sho