88 HUNTING IN THE ARCTIC 



largely by handling the sails, as the jury rudder did not 

 give enough resistance. At times several men had to 

 crawl down the planks close to the water, in order to 

 make it drag enough to turn the vessel. The fog 

 screened all glimpse of land. We were still to windward 

 of the Diomedes, drifting down upon them. Kusche 

 would not go to bed, ''till we passed dem dam Dio- 

 medes," for they offered only steep rocks and dangerous 

 beaches for landing, and he wanted to be ready to jump. 

 Although attempt ng to make a twenty-mile passage on 

 either side in the night we passed through the channel 

 one and one-half miles wide between the two islands 

 without seeing a sign of either of them in the dense fog. 



The morning after this day of trouble and anxiety 

 broke overcast, and with distant fog, but the sun after- 

 wards drove this away and we found ourselves southwest 

 of Cape York, nearly at the entrance to Port Clarence. 

 The desolate mountains were reddish yellow and nude of 

 vegetation. The sea was smooth; the light breeze 

 favorable, and we made into Grantly Harbor, where the 

 mining port Teller lay on a sandspit. The breeze lasted 

 imtil we had navigated the hundred-foot wide channel 

 and cast anchor in eight feet of water. Then it turned 

 around and blew gently from the opposite direction. 

 Had it not served us favorably to the last we could 

 hardly have come safely into port. 



We had been out sixteen days, had entered the Arctic 

 and four times crossed the Arctic Circle, and were now 

 disabled at a point only two days' voyage from St. 

 Michael, whence we had started. The season in which 

 it was possible to stay in the northern ocean was so 

 brief that any delay might be disastrous to success. On 

 entering Teller we held the fond hope that a hustling 

 machine shop would soon put things to rights for us. 



I 



