They grew attached to particular floes on which they had built shelters. But the sleeping-bags were becoming unendurable, the fur rubbed off, the leather wet and clammy, like the skin of a putrefying carcass. They had almost got to lying in the sleeping-bags by day, when a Samoyed declared he smelt the smoke of a native encampment. A sailor thought he heard the barking of dogs; but they paid no attention, for the howls of their own poor beasts, wandering aimlessly on the floes, often came to them. After drinking tea, they rose up and prepared to make some effort.
The Party Rescued by Samoyeds
It grew lighter. There was something moving on the shore. It could not be merely birds! They let off a gun. Two shots answered. Lines of tiny black dots advanced toward them. They were Samoyed dog-sledges. “And fancy what a stroke of luck!” says Borissoff; “they were old friends of mine, with whom I had lived on my first sojourn in the tundra!”
A STUDY MADE IN NOVA ZEMBLA AT THE TIME OF THE COMPLETE ECLIPSE OF THE SUN, JULY 27, 1896
Brought finally to shore by the natives, they rejoiced childishly at its contact. Here was solid land! Here were real stones! “Strange phenomenon,” says Borissoff, “an hour before, we had scarcely been able to lift our weary feet. Now we wanted to leap, dance, laugh, cry, pray, and run about aimlessly! Timofeieff and I took two rifles and went along the shore northward. We ploughed through the snow, why and whither we did not know. We could not sit still. Then, when we returned to the snug tents, we ate boiled reindeer meat, drank hot tea, and lay down to sleep twenty-seven hours without once waking!” The land journey back to their portable house was accomplished in dog-sledges.
