IN GREEN ALASKA 



SIBERIA 



According to our original programme our outward 

 journey should have ended at the Seal Islands, hut 

 Mrs. Harriman expressed a wish to see Siheria, and, 

 if all went well, the midnight sun. "Very well," 

 rephed Mr. Harriman, "we will go to Siberia," and 

 toward that barren shore our prow was turned. It 

 w^as about eight o'clock in the evening v/hen we left 

 St. Paul ; a dense fog prevailed, hiding the shore. 

 We had not been an hour under way when a horrible 

 raking blow from some source made the ship tremble 

 from stem to stern; then another and another, still 

 more severe. The shock came from beneath: our 

 keel was upon the rocks. Many of the company 

 w^ere at dinner; all sprang to their feet, and looked 

 the surprise and alarm they did not speak. The 

 engines were quickly reversed, a sail ^vas hoisted/, 

 in a few moments the ship's prow swung off to 

 the right, and the danger was passed, — we were 

 afloat again. The stern of the ship, which was two 

 feet deeper in the w'ater than the bow, had raked 

 across the rocks. No damage was done, and we had 

 had a novel sensation, something analogous, I fancy, 

 to the feeling one has upon land during an earth- 

 quake. 



Some of us hoped this incident would en use Mr. 

 Harriman to turn back. Bering Sea is a treacherous 

 sea; it is shallow; it has many islands; and in sum- 



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