artly because of the thick weather, and partly because
of the number of islands. The little I did see was enough to give
me the conviction that the actual coast line differs essentially
from the one we know from maps; it is much more winding and indented
than it is shown to be. I even several times thought that I saw the
openings into deep fjords, and more than once the suspicion occurred
to me that this was a typical fjord country we were sailing past,
in spite of the hills being comparatively low and rounded. In this
supposition I was to be confirmed by our experiences farther north.

Our record of August 27th reads as follows: "Steamed among a variety
of small islands and islets. Thick fog in the morning. At 12 noon
we saw a small island right ahead, and therefore changed our course
and went north. We were soon close to the ice, and after 3 in the
afternoon held northeast along its edge. Sighted land when the fog
cleared a little, and were about a mile off it at 7 P.M."

It was the same striated, rounded land, covered with clay and large
and small stones strewn over moss and grass flats. Before us we saw
points and headlands, with islands outside, and sounds and fjords
between; but it was all locked up in ice, and we could not see far
for the fog. There was that strange Arctic hush and misty light over
everything--that grayish-white light caused by the reflection from the
ice being cast high into the air against masses of vapor, the dark land
offering a wonderful contrast. We were not sure whether this was the
land near Taimur Sound or that by Cape Palander, but were agreed that
in any case it would be best to hold a northerly course, so as to keep
clear of Almquist's Islands, which Nordenskioeld marks on his map as
lying off Taimur Island. If we shaped our course for one watch north,
or north to west, we should be safe after that, and be able again to
hold farther east. But we miscalculated, after all. At midnight we
turned northeastward, and at 4 A.M. (August 28th) land appeared out of
the fog about half a mile off. It seemed to Sverdrup, who was on deck,
the highest that we had seen since we left Norway. He consequently
took it to be the mainland, and wished to keep well outside of it,
but was obliged to turn from this course because of ice. We held to
the W.S.W., and it was not till 9 A.M. that we rounded the western
point of a large island and could steer north again. East of us were
many islands or points with