64 HUNTING IN THE ARCTIC 



dence Bay, and to the south, where a low reach of tundra 

 extended to the sea, barren mountains shut in the port 

 completely, openings in them being blocked by more 

 distant ridges and peaks. 



The boat from our neighbors arrived and discharged 

 on our deck several sailors, a second officer in uniform, an 

 interpreter who spoke German, and the Russian servant 

 of Baron von Kleist. It turned out that the vessel was 

 a Russian supply ship, awaiting the arrival of two ice- 

 breakers, which were on their way north, and were 

 expected next day. The Baron was absent in Anadyr, 

 about two hundred and fifty miles west, on his boat with 

 his yoimg bride, and would not be back for two weeks. 

 The officer looked at Collins' and Elting's passports, and 

 declared they would not permit us to shoot, collect butter- 

 flies, or stay in the harbor except to take on water. As 

 for obtaining hunting licenses that was out of the 

 question. 



"You might try tomorrow," he said, "to telegraph to 

 Anadyr Bay and ask the Baron to give you a permit, if 

 the captains of the ice-breakers are wiUing to do that for 

 you by wireless." 



It looked dubious when we went to bed, but the ice- 

 breakers offered a hope. 



Two able-looking black vessels now lay near the 

 supply ship. Their bows rockered up from the water 

 about eight feet abaft the stem, and, with an over- 

 hanging rounded angle, rose vertically to a high forepeak. 

 Their torpedo stems showed a loaded draft of twenty 

 feet. They constituted the Russian Hydrographical 

 Expedition, which had been for several seasons surveying 

 and charting the eastern and northern coast of Siberia. 



Kleinschmidt, Elting and Collins boarded them to 



