A SUMMER ON THE YENESEI 309 



went down and tautened the chains that secured it, but 

 it was soon knocking about as badly as ever. The Skule 

 had dropped so far astern that she was out of sight, and 

 as efforts to get into communication with her by wireless 

 proved ineffectual, some concern was felt for her safety, 

 for she carried even more deck cargo than did the Ragna. 

 However, before nightfall, our telegraphist called up the 

 station at Ingoe, which reported that the Skule had 

 telegraphed that she was weathering the storm all right, 

 but that her operator was not able to communicate with 

 us because he had collapsed with sea-sickness ! The 

 peoj)le at Ingoe added a rider to the effect that the 

 storm now raejing round the coast was the worst within 

 the memory of man. 



The gale was at its height at eight o'clock when Miss 

 Curtis and I went on to the bridge. The ship was 

 rolling to an angle of 30° to 35°, and the waves towered 

 so high above the decks that it seemed as if they must 

 infallibly swamp her. But how can a plain pen write 

 of those grand seas that hurled themselves unbroken 

 upon us out of the dimness, and then thundered away 

 to leeward ? In the ice all had been still except for the 

 grinding of the floes, but here there was storm music 

 enough. The creaking of timber, the rumble of the 

 stearing-gear, the howl of the wind round the mast, and 

 through it all the whirr and hum of the dynamos in 

 the charthouse — all blent into a roaring groan which 

 might have been the voice of the ship herself as she 

 wallowed into the trough of the sea and then rushed 

 up the giant shoulder of the next wave. Now and then, 

 in the twilight, I saw a dozen moth-like fulmars, who, 



