CHAPTER IX 



BACK TO THE KENAI PENINSULA 



When landing at Portage Bay from Sand Point I had 

 arranged with the skipper, Captain Harry, who conveyed 

 me across, that he should make his way to the eastward as 

 far as Ivanoff Bay, where he was to arrive on a certain date, 

 and then pick up Glyn and Little. After taking them to 

 Sand Point, he was to cross and meet us on my return to 

 the Pacific coast. So well had we timed matters, and so 

 propitious was Father Neptune, that on the morning after 

 our arrival at Portage Bay Captain Harry was seen beating 

 his way into the harbour. A couple of hours found our 

 party safely on board, and forthwith we commenced another 

 ding-dong contest with the wind and waves to reach the 

 kindly shelter of Popoff Island. I shall ever regard that 

 crossing to and from Portage Bay as about the longest and 

 worst fifteen miles I have traversed on the sea, always, 

 however, with the exception of the passage across Skelikoff 

 Straits, which we made early in the season from Kodiak Island. 

 It took us almost as many days, in the Alice, to cross that 

 inferno, as there were miles of water to traverse. 



It was late that night ere we reached Sand Point, and 

 as soon as the sloop had dropped anchor, I made Nicolai 

 launch the bidarki and we paddled ashore. I have never 



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