202 HUNTERS OF THE GREAT NORTH 



I don't think any of the men worried much about the 

 accident except insofar as they were sorry for Storkerson. 

 As for me, I was delighted with one aspect of the situa- 

 tion, for the Eskimos had told me that in prehistoric 

 times (before the memory of the fathers of the old men 

 living) there had been a big Eskimo settlement on one 

 of the Jones Islands which lay in a row parallel to the 

 coast a few miles offshore from where the accident oc- 

 curred. This island was a little bigger than Flaxman. 

 I say was, designedly; for it and all the other islands are 

 growing smaller year by year; It seems the north coast 

 of Alaska is sinking gradually. So long as the sea ice 

 remains in winter and spring, nothing happens to the in- 

 jury of the islands. But when the ice goes away, as it 

 does nearly every summer, and when a gale comes from 

 the open sea, the waves will undermine the cliffs of the 

 islands at a great rate, so that the coastline sometimes 

 recedes as much as a hundred yards in a single summer. 

 When the early whalers came to the north coast of 

 Alaska, Flaxman Island was probably some eight or ten 

 miles long. It is now no more than half that long and 

 than half as wide as it used to be. The Eskimos said 

 that similarly the ocean was rapidly cutting away the 

 sites of the villages on the Jones Islands and that all sorts 

 of ancient implements and other relics were being washed 

 away by the sea. 



It was, accordingly, decided that while Storkerson and 

 the rest of the party returned as fast as they could to 

 Flaxman Island, I should remain on the Jones Islands 

 with an Eskimo companion and a sailor, investigating 

 these ancient ruins until a whaling ship came along to 

 pick us up. 



'1 he island containing the house ruins was a low, roll- 



