CHAPTER XIII 



SHAKING HANDS WITH SIBERIA 



THE ship's prow was turned northward af- 

 ter work on the whale had been finished. 

 I expected we would soon run into the ice 

 again. ,We sailed on and on, but not a block 

 of ice big enough to make a highball did we sight. 

 The white floes and drifts and the frozen conti- 

 nent floating southward, along the coasts of 

 which we had cruised for whales and which had 

 surrounded us and held us captive for three 

 weeks, had disappeared entirely. The warm 

 water from the south, the southern winds, and 

 the spring sunshine had melted the ice. Its ut- 

 ter disappearance savored of magic. 



A long hilly coast rose ahead of us covered 

 with grass, barren of trees or shrubs, dotted with 

 blackened skeletons of old ice — an utterly deso- 

 late land. It was Siberia. We put into a bight 



149 



