Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-04-21

watchfulness to detect signs Of the pack
closing in on us. Many fine schooner
has gone to Davy Jones locker with
the suddenness of stone dropped over
ff-side, when the ice closed in I'M
eXpectedly. and squeezed the heavy
timberS of the hull to splinters.
Those of us who slept at all took
brief cat maps with our clothes on,
ready to leap to the pack ice oversize.
Morning found us as solidly surrounded
by enormous and apparently impossible
| foes, as on the previous day. We had
run lead after lead, only to find our way
blocked before us each time, with the
| whole diScouraging business of hunting
a new path to freedom and the open
seas TO be repeated over again.
Our Russian passenger, M. Astrosoff,
was certainly one of the coolest men
have ever met. Seeing there was moth
ing he could do to help, he had consid-
erately taken himself out of the way and
retired to the hatch top, where he rolled
himself in heavy fur coat and calmly
studied an English book. There was no
pretense or attempt to impress us with
his Indifference in this. He was ambi-
tious to learn English, and quite simply
took this time of inaction to work over
a list of words and common phrases I
had prepared for him several days be-
fore.
1t was very beautiful and exceedingly
lonely. The horizon appeared reversed.
AS one looked out at the encircling ex-
panse of roughly packed ice. the schoon-
er seemed to be bound in the bottom of
a great white saucer, the edges and
sides of which were ruffled in gigantic
patterns with large ice caps projecting
from tho Y0QRR COY11o nf fHpco
jectionS assumed shapes similar to ami
mails, trees and great mushrooms.
The Arctic has many cross currents,
which sometimes create deceiving eff
fects. Upon one occasion it seemed GER
tain another schooner was meeting us.
In reality 1t was an iceberg, sailing di-
rectly opposite our course and not over
1000 feet distant upon our starboard
hand. The berg was so cut and worn by
wind and water as to give at distance
clear impression of q vessel.
This edge of the saucer, as we looked
out and up to it, was our only horizon,
unless we climbed to the crow's-nest,
and from there We only saw the same
saucer several times enlarged.
BY the third day of our captivity.
noticed tendency on the part of every
one to fall into gloomy silence and stare
duly out across the monotonous white
ness that was shutting us away from
the rest Of the world. In a storm, no
matter how great the danger, there is
always something to be done; hands
and brains are occupied to the exclu-
sion of fears and forebodings. But in
our case there was nothing we could do
except wait for the wind to shift and
stop our northern drift, or for the ice
to break and open leads through which
,irI, &c
hard for even the most naturally opti-
mistic to avoid the strain.
X X X x
ON the fifth day, about the middle of
that afternoon, lookout in the
; crow's-nest made out far in the dis
lance two figures toiling over the rough
ice. They had no dogs, but were max
ing their way to us with the help OF
pick-poleS. AS they drew near enough
to see plainly with the glasses, we dis
covered they were Chukchis, and that
the taller, and evidently the elder of
the two, seemed near the point of ex-
haustion His companion was giving
him what help he could, but they were
both stumbling, painting and about "all
in" by the time we helped them over
the Iskum's rail.
They each had skin knapsacks strap
ped over their shoulders and carried,
besides their pole, 5000 rife. They
wore, in spite of the intense cold, only
their parkas, seal trousers and muck
luks. Their weather-beaten faces looked
long blue lines of tattooing down both
cheeks.
Our first act, Of course, was to fill
them with food and hot coffee, which
revived them to the point or CONVERSE
ton. Through out interpreters we
learned that our visitors had toiled
across many miles of rough ice in their
efforts to reach us. They had been on
seal hunt when they made out our
masts far in the distance. and came
all the way to investigate and offer
help If it should be needed.
Our visitors agreed to take note
to Carl johnson, our trader at Kalu-
chin, telling him of our position and
danger. So after being well fed, warm
ed and presented with small articles
from our stores that took their fancy,
they departed for Kaluchin over the
boundless sea of ice-a long and diff
ficult journey that we feared they could
never make without relaying to other
hunters.
They are wonderful people, the
Chukchis, and many more highly civil
lied folk must take their hats of to
them, especially when it comes to the
question of riSking their lives, their
goods and enduring all sorts Of dangers
and discomforts to help neighbor in
trouble.
The entire crew and passengers of
the schooner stood grouped on the
deck, watching the two bulky but active
figures jumping the irregular lodges
and small creyasses, and climbing