CHAPTER VII 



POLAB BEAR AT HERALD ISLAND 



^T last we turned our prow again toward the 

 /"A Arctic. On the morning of August 8th we weighed 

 anchor and passed out into Port Clarence Bay- 

 under a cloudy sky in a sHght drizzle with a hght north- 

 west air stirring. Later the sky cleared and Cape Prince 

 of Wales, the most westerly poiut of continental America, 

 stood out bold and stately against a red and golden sun- 

 set in the northwest. Two faint dark spots on the 

 horizon of a calm sea marked the Diomede Islands. In 

 the swift current which set northward through Bering 

 Strait we plowed our way into the Arctic for the second 

 time. Once it had thrown us out crippled; we could 

 not know what adventures now awaited us in this defi- 

 ance of its powers. 



We were aroused early next morning to look at a 

 young hmnpback whale which lay dead, floating on its 

 back. Its enormous fore-flippers extended far to each 

 side of its black, fluted body, which was swollen with the 

 gases of decomposition. 



East Cape lay on the port quarter, Cape Unikin 

 abeam. At noon we were three hundred miles from 

 Wrangell Island, going well with the aid of foresail and 

 spanker and motor, the good breeze astern, the weather 

 sunny and delightful. For the fifth time on this voyage 

 we crossed the Arctic Circle. 



Bright sunshine continued to temper the increasing 



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Hi t • 



