CHAPTER XV 



NEWS FROM HOME 



WITH the first breeze, we set sail for 

 Port Clarence, Alaska, the northern 

 rendezvous of the Arctic Ocean whal- 

 ing fleet in early summer. There in the latter 

 part of June or the early part of July, the fleet 

 always met the four-masted schooner Jennie, 

 the tender from San Francisco, by which all 

 firms in the whaling trade sent mail and sup- 

 plies to their vessels. On our way across from 

 Siberia to Alaska, we passed just south of 

 Behring Straits and had our first distant glimpse 

 of the Arctic Ocean. When we dropped anchor 

 in the windy roadstead of Port Clarence, eight- 

 een whale ships were there ahead of us. 



The land about Port Clarence was flat and 

 covered with tall, rank grass — a region of tun- 

 dra stretching away to distant hills. The Jen-" 



171 



