190 HUNTING IN THE ARCTIC 



said, stoutly, as Elting was di'essing the painful wound; 

 "I'll be thankful if I get to Seattle with only that much of 

 a loss." 



The old "Abler" was now pounding in the seaway 

 raised by the wdnd hauling to the southeast, nearly ahead, 

 and we were tacking off and on in an effort to hold the 

 progress that we had made on the preceding day. Fog 

 shut us in once more, and in such familiar atmosphere 

 we came up with Kodiak Island, passing many rocks 

 which projected above the surface, and were surrounded 

 by numerous seals. Our first glimpse of Kodiak was the 

 sandy beach on the south coast called Low Cape, and we 

 had run within a half mile of it before the fog thinned 

 sufiiciently to reveal it. Shifting our course to the west- 

 ward we ran up Shelikoff Straits in a favorable breeze 

 which sucked aroimd the south end of the great island. 



Our foiu-th day out from Pirate Cove was beautiful. 

 Afognak Island, closely fitting the northern end of Kodiak, 

 rose steeply from the sea, clothed with the welcome 

 greenery of many trees. Ahead of us a group of sinister 

 rocks entitled ''The Barren Islands" jutted hundreds of 

 feet above the waves. We speculated idly, as we went by, 

 upon the miseries of living on them, little dreaming that 

 we were soon to face the possibility of landing there in 

 spite of our utmost efforts to avoid them. 



Most of the day we spent clad in oilskins, putting into 

 barrels our walrus head skins and other trophies secured 

 thus far, and after the greasy work was over we trailed 

 the garments overboard at the end of a rope to clean them 

 as much as possible. 



We were eagerly anticipating our arrival in Seward. 

 "Tomorrow night," said the mate, *T will have my hair 

 cut in Seward." But the mate's usually reliable prophe- 



