IN GREEN ALASKA 



SIBERIA 



According to our original programme our outward 

 journey should have ended at the Seal Islands, but 

 Mrs. Harriman expressed a wish to see Siberia, and, 

 if all went well, the midnight sun. "Very well," 

 replied Mr. Harriman, "we will go to Siberia," and 

 toward that barren shore our prow was turned. It 

 was about eight o'clock in the evening when we left 

 St. Paul ; a dense fog prevailed, hiding the shore. 

 We had not been an hour under way when a horrible 

 raking blow from some source made the ship tremble 

 from stem to stem; then another and another, still 

 more severe. The shock came from beneath: our 

 keel was upon the roqks. Many of the company 

 were at dinner; all sprang to their feet, and looked 

 the surprise and alarm they did not speak. The 

 engines were quickly reversed, a sail was hoisted^ ; 

 in a few moments the ship's prow swung off to 

 the right, and the danger was passed, — we were 

 afloat again. The stem of the ship, which was two 

 feet deeper in the water than the bow, had raked 

 across the rocks. No damage was done, and we had 

 had a novel sensation, something analogous, I fancy, 

 to the feeling one has upon land during an earth- 

 quake. 



Some of us hoped this incident would cause Mr. 

 Harriman to turn back. Bering Sea is a treacherous 

 sea; it is shallow; it has many islands ; andinsum- 

 107 



