CHAPTER VIII 



AMONG THE WALRUS HERDS 



DURING the night we came south in a heavy fol- 

 lowing wind that kicked up a big sea and rolled 

 the old barge about a lot. We ran through 

 points of loose ice making out eastward from the main 

 body and between them across pieces of rough open 

 water. 



The XJ. S. Revenue Cutter "Corwin," striving to 

 reach Wrangell Island in 1881, found at first exactly the 

 same ice conditions as we did thirty-two years later. 

 The vessel was somewhat south of the island with no 

 leads visible by which it could be approached. "The 

 solid appearance of the ice," reported Captain Hooper, 

 "and the fact that there was no material change in the 

 depth of the water, convinced me that there was no 

 possibility of reaching the land from this direction until 

 a decided change should take place. So we determined 

 to follow the ice to the westward. . . . Accordingly 

 after getting out of the lead, we followed the edge of the 

 western pack towards the southwest, keeping close along- 

 side of the ice. On account of the thick weather, and in 

 our anxiety to find the pack trending westward, we kept 

 running into leads in that direction, only to find our- 

 selves disappointed and forced to turn back. Instead of 

 trending westward, as I had hoped, it gradually took a 

 more southerly direction, until it ran nearly north and 

 south, and presented an almost unbroken front, and in 



(125) 



