THE WHITE WORLD 



the " Swallow " was not in those waters to catch whales, 

 but to buy furs and walrus ivory, a trade that was con- 

 trolled and watched over by Russian authorities, who at 

 times had one or two cruisers in those waters, to prevent 

 poachers and traders from carrying off these valuable goods. 

 We made considerable headway in our trading, but in the 

 hope of getting a valuable lot of furs that we had sent 

 some natives to secure, we held on too long and were 

 nipped by the ice, and despite all our efforts to get out, we 

 were obliged to spend the winter in the Arctic. 



After the captain found that we were destined to pass 

 several months in our icy house, he seemed to lose all his 

 snap, and from the closest mouthed man of all on board, 

 to me especially, he became as a child in my hands, a"nd 

 in my capacity as ice pilot, I virtually took command of 

 the vessel. After sending down the light spars and lower- 

 ing the top masts, I directed nearly all the provisions to be 

 taken on shore and safely stored, so that in the event of the 

 vessel being crushed by ice, we might have food until the 

 whaling fleet came early next summer. 



Fortunately, our anchorage was near the spot where the 

 whaleship " Richmond," of Cold Spring, New York, had 

 been wrecked the year before, so that her timbers gave us 

 ample firewood for the winter. We lived a quiet, unevent- 

 ful life during this term of our imprisonment, with about 

 a dozen natives in our company. Occasionally we had 

 fresh bear meat, some fish, and upon the whole fared well. 



It was toward the end of May that with the spars all 

 " a taunto," the remainder of the provisions on board, and 

 a valuable lot of furs and several tons of walrus tusks in 

 the hold, we bade farewell to our dusky friends, and headed 

 the little brig to the southward. 



We were very fortunate in getting through the ice with- 

 out many delays and were speeding south with a favoring 

 breeze, when the lookout sang out " Sail Ho! " which was 

 a rarity that brought every one to the deck. 



It was not long before we made her out to be a bark- 

 rigged Russian cruiser, a trifle larger in tonnage than the 

 brig. As soon as he discovered us, he clapped on all 

 drawing canvas and stood for us. We were soon given to 

 understand by our captain that the Russian could not have 



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