e orders
to set sail, and soon we were pushing on northward through the ice,
under steam, and with every stitch of canvas that we could crowd
on. Cape Chelyuskin must be vanquished! Never had the Fram gone so
fast; she made more than 8 knots by the log; it seemed as though she
knew how much depended on her getting on. Soon we were through the ice,
and had open water along the land as far as the eye could reach. We
passed point after point, discovering new fjords and islands on the
way, and soon I thought that I caught a glimpse through the large
telescope of some mountains far away north; they must be in the
neighborhood of Cape Chelyuskin itself.

The land along which we to-day coasted to the northward was
quite low, some of it like what I had seen on shore the previous
day. At some distance from the low coast, fairly high mountains or
mountain chains were to be seen. Some of them seemed to consist of
horizontal sedimentary schist; they were flat-topped, with precipitous
sides. Farther inland the mountains were all white with snow. At one
point it seemed as if the whole range were covered with a sheet of
ice, or great snow-field that spread itself down the sides. At the
edge of this sheet I could see projecting masses of rock, but all
the inner part was spotless white. It seemed almost too continuous
and even to be new snow, and looked like a permanent snow mantle.

Nordenskioeld's map marks at this place, "high mountain chains inland";
and this agrees with our observations, though I cannot assert that
the mountains are of any considerable height. But when, in agreement
with earlier maps, he marks at the same place, "high, rocky coast,"
his terms are open to objection. The coast is, as already mentioned,
quite low, and consists, in great part at least, of layers of clay or
loose earth. Nordenskioeld either took this last description from the
earlier, unreliable maps, or possibly allowed himself to be misled
by the fog which beset them during their voyage in these waters.

In the evening we were approaching the north end of the land, but
the current, which we had had with us earlier in the day, was now
against us, and it seemed as if we were never to get past an island
that lay off the shore to the north of us. The mountain height which
I had seen at an earlier hour through the telescope lay here some
way inland. It was flat on the top, with precipitous sides, like
those mountains last described. It seemed to be sand