114 A YEAR WITH A WHALER 



him on the main deck in the waist. His right 

 leg was broken below the knee. Sailors and 

 boat-steerers rushed to him and carried him into 

 the cabin, where Mr. Winchester set the broken 

 bones. We put into Unalaska a week later and 

 the surgeon of the revenue cutter Bear reset the 

 leg. This was in the last days of March. The 

 captain was on crutches in July, when we caught 

 our first whale. 



The storm did not blow itself out. It blew us 

 out of it. We must have drifted sidewise with 

 the seas about six hundred miles. At dawn of 

 the second day, after leaving the fury of the 

 forties behind, we were bowling along in smooth 

 water with all sails set. The sky was clear 

 and the sea like hammered silver. Far ahead a 

 mountain rose into the sky — a wedge-shaped 

 peak, silver- white with snow, its foot swathed in 

 purple haze. It rose above Unimak Pass, which 

 connects the Pacific Ocean and Behring Sea be- 

 tween Unimak and Ugamok islands of the Fox 

 Island chain. 



Unimak Pass is ten miles broad, and its tow- 

 ering shores are sheer, black, naked rock. Mr. 



