NATIVES OF EASTERNMOST SIBERIA 83 



tack and stood offshore, stopping the motor to make the 

 vessel ride more easily while we slept. Nevertheless the 

 "Abler" rolled a great deal and was not comfortable 

 dm-ing the night. 



Early the next morning, July 29th, we came about to 

 the starboard tack and as the fog grew thinner toward 

 noon we sighted land: steep cliffs, nearly a thousand feet 

 high with surges dashing forty feet and more up the 

 sides. Presumably this was Cape Unikin. We came 

 within two miles and stood off again. The wind 

 increased and we tacked inshore in the middle of the 

 afternoon, but when land showed once more through the 

 mist, we had hardly gained any ground. Off we went 

 again, and lay to under short sail all night, stopping the 

 motor at five o'clock in the afternoon. We were just at 

 the Arctic Circle, having already crossed it three times 

 in the ''Abler." 



There was a hideous night ahead of us. The wind 

 had grown to half a gale and the crested combers bodily 

 blew the flat-bottomed schooner to leeward like a chip. 

 Strangely enough she did not pound, and shipped prac- 

 tically no water. Down in the hold the nine-ton engine 

 was excellent ballast. 



Tickling at the back of my head made we search the 

 long foHage with a fine-toothed comb, which Elting 

 bought at St. Michael, and three slender white seam- 

 squirrels were the harvest. Doubtless I had caught 

 them in the igloos. 



There was no sleep for me. The gale whistled 

 through the rigging and the seas threw us around in our 

 bunks all night. Three times I went out on deck in 

 pajamas (for I had not yet weaned myself from undress- 

 ing to go to bed) to see what weather we were making. 



