NEWS FROM HOME 173 



He had run away from a whale ship three years 

 before, hoping to make his way to some white 

 settlement to the south and there secure passage 

 on shipboard back to San Francisco. He had 

 escaped, he said, in an Eskimo kyack tied along- 

 side his ship. As soon as he was missed officers 

 and boatsteerers put ashore in a boat and trailed 

 him. He led his pursurers a long chase inland 

 and though he was shot at several times, he man- 

 aged to elude them and reach the safety of the 

 hills. 



After he had seen the whaling fleet sail away, 

 he ventured back to the Eskimo village on shore 

 where he was welcomed by the natives. He 

 soon found that escape by land was practically 

 impossible; the nearest white settlement was 

 hundreds of miles distant and he would have to 

 thread his way through pathless forests and 

 across ranges of mountains covered at all sea- 

 sons with ice and snow. Moreover, he learned 

 what he should have known before he ran away 

 that no vessels except whaling ships, their ten- 

 der, and an occasional revenue cutter ever 

 touched at Port Clarence which at that time was 



