A VENTURE INTO FORBIDDEN WATERS
On the morning following that of the day of fishing the _Seamew_ was
skirting a wild-looking coast, against the bald headlands of which the
huge blue billows of the Pacific thundered with a ceaseless roar. The
scene was one of awful grandeur and desolation, though not of utter
solitude, for though no sign of human life was visible, sea-lions
disported in the tumultuous breakers, huge whales rolled lazily on the
long swells, and myriads of sea-fowl circled with harsh cries above the
precipitous rocks. Above all towered the symmetrical snow-capped peak
of a lofty mountain, from the summit of which a thin banner of smoke
trailed to leeward. It was Shishaldin, the most beautiful peak of all
the Aleutian Islands, and as it was the first volcano Phil Ryder had
ever seen, he gazed upon it with delight and wonder. The forbidding
coast they were skirting, and which was Phil’s first bit of Alaska,
was the south side of the island of Oonimak, one of the largest of the
entire Aleutian chain, and also the only one of any size absolutely
without inhabitants.
After a while the schooner reached the western extremity of this
inhospitable island, and turning into the broad channel of the Oonimak
Pass, was soon breasting the green waters of Bering Sea. Here her
course was again altered, so that she now followed the northern coast
of the island, and was headed towards its upper or eastern end. This
shore was much less abrupt than the other, and broad levels of mossy
tundra broken by foot-hills stretched away to the mountains that had
risen so sheer from the Pacific side.
At length towards evening anchor was dropped in a small, well-sheltered
bay at the extreme eastern end of the island, and Captain Duff caused
himself to be rowed ashore. In a short time he returned, and to the
surprise of all hands informed his crew that he wished his cargo of
seal-skins broken out at once and transferred to a place on shore that
he would point out.
So actively was this job of night-work carried forward, that before
morning every seal-skin had been taken from the schooner, carried
ashore, and safely salted away in a kench constructed within the ruins
of an old stone hut. This was but one of a number still standing, which
showed that at some previous time Oonimak Island had supported at least
one populous village.
This mysterious proceeding having been carried out to Captain Duff’s
satisfaction, and only a scanty cargo of salted cod-fish left in
his vessel’s hold, her anchor was again lifted, and she was headed
northward into the fog-hidden regions of Bering Sea. In these forbidden
waters any vessel was liable at any time to be overhauled by some
American revenue-cutter or British man-of-war, and subjected to an
examination. If seal-skins were found on board she was seized and sent
to some distant port, from which there was no chance of escape, and
where her crew were detained as prisoners until such time as their case
might be tried before the proper authorities.
The strange proceeding of the _Seamew’s_ master in discharging his
cargo on a desolate island, carefully concealing it there, and then
venturing into the forbidden waters, drew forth many eager and curious
comments from his crew, all of whom wondered what the next act on the
programme would be. None, however, dared question the schooner’s
autocrat, for, as though well aware of their desire to do so, he became
more of a bully than ever, and so roared and bellowed and snarled at
every one and everything as to make all hands anxious to keep as far
from him as possible.
None discussed the situation more earnestly than did Phil and Serge
whenever they could get together beyond the captain’s range of
observation, for they were well aware that every mile of progress in
this new direction found them just so much farther away from Sitka, as
well as from the track of vessels bound for that port.
“I tell you what it is, old man,” Phil remarked, on one of these
occasions, “while I don’t know where we are bound or when we will get
there, it seems to me that shipping on board this schooner was a mighty
poor move on my part. I might have known that I would never get to
Sitka this way, if I had only stopped to think. But I didn’t, and I
don’t suppose I ever shall until it is too late for thinking to do any
good.”
“What worries me most,” responded Serge, “is that it was I who proposed
the plan.”
“Now don’t you fret about that. You only did what you thought was for
the best, and, after all, I don’t know but it is just as well that I
came on this cruise. I should have been certain to get into some other
scrape equally bad, if not worse, if I hadn’t. Why, when I recall that
one of the only two nights I ever spent in Victoria was passed in a
police-station, I tremble to think what might have happened if I had
been left there for two whole weeks. I should really be enjoying this
trip, too, if it wasn’t for thinking of my poor father. He surely must
be in a state of mind by this time. At any rate, I am seeing something
of Alaska, or rather of its fogs and waters, and that is what I came
out West for, you know.”
“Yes,” said Serge, anxious to encourage this brighter view of the
situation, “and you are making a splendid reputation for yourself as a
seal-hunter. Why, after this trip, if you want it, you can get a job
any time at the very highest rates going. I tell you what! If I could
only shoot as you can, I should feel fixed for life.”
“But I sha’n’t ever want any such job again,” replied Phil. “To tell
the truth, I am getting awfully sick of this killing business. It was
exciting at first, but the keeping it up day after day is horrid. One
might as well turn butcher at once, and be done with it.”
“Oh!” said Serge, with a puzzled air, as though this sentiment were
beyond his comprehension. “If you look at it that way――”
“Well, I do!” interrupted Phil, “and I hope I shall never be called
upon to shoot another seal.”
The reason why Serge was unable to regard the business of killing
animals, whose skins represented money, in the same light that Phil
did was because of the vastly different surroundings amid which he had
been brought up. The most important industries of the great territory
that claimed him as a son are hunting, fur-trading, and fishing. In
fact, these and a little mining were the only business pursuits of
which he had known anything until he started on his long voyage to the
Atlantic coast. Thus from his earliest childhood he had been brought up
to believe that fur-bearing animals were to be killed wherever found,
and to regard a successful hunter with the same respect that Phil would
accord to a successful banker or lawyer.
Thus we find individuals, communities, and even nations, regarding the
same things from entirely different points of view according as they
have been educated. Each honestly believes himself or itself to be
in the right, and that all others must be wrong. In this manner arise
differences of opinion that sometimes lead to strife. Wherefore let
us try to look at all things from our neighbor’s point of view before
concluding to differ with him concerning them.
The foregoing paragraph is a sermon, and though it is a very tiny one,
it ought to apologize for intruding itself into a story. I am afraid,
though, that, like many other sermons we are all acquainted with, it is
so puffed up with its own conceit that it will do nothing of the kind.
So while Phil Ryder had arrived at the conclusion that the business of
killing seals was one that no self-respecting hunter who also claimed
to be a sportsman could follow, Serge Belcofsky regarded it as a most
eminently respectable occupation, in which opinions both lads were
right.
In the meantime, while these discussions were going on in forecastle
and on deck, the _Seamew_ flew northward for a day and a night. It was
generally believed that she was in search of some new fishing-ground,
for, as all hands knew, Bering Sea is one of the best-stocked
fish-preserves in the world, and contains a supply of food fishes
sufficient for the feeding of all the people in the world.
It is one of the very foggiest places in the world also, being even
more foggy than the Bay of Fundy, and for the same reason, which is
warm water and cold air. As the warm waters of the Gulf Stream enter
the Bay of Fundy, so the warm waters of the great Japan current enter
Bering Sea. In both places they meet waves of cold arctic air, by which
evaporation is condensed into fog. If the air were as warm as or warmer
than the water there would be no fog, as is the case in the tropics;
but when warm water and cold air meet fog is the result.
The steam that we see issuing from the spout of a teakettle as it sits
on top of a stove is nothing more nor less than fog. It is the vapor
rising from the hot water in the kettle condensed by the much cooler
air outside. If the outer air were as hot as that inside the kettle we
would see no steam, though the invisible vapor would be passing from
the spout just the same. To prove this it is only necessary to set the
teakettle in the oven.
Thus Bering Sea is always foggy during the summer months, when its
waters are warmer than its air, and that is one reason why the
fur-seal, who dearly loves cool wet weather and foggy days, finds in it
a congenial home and makes it his summer resort. Another reason is that
these waters so abound in fish that form the seal’s chief food, and to
procure which he thinks nothing of swimming one hundred or more miles
in a day from his rookeries on the Pribyloff Islands.
Although seals can exist for a long time without food, they must eat
sooner or later. So the mother seal, having stayed on one of the
islands with her pup until she is very hungry, will leave him gorged
with milk sufficient to nourish him during her absence, and set forth
on long fishing expeditions that may extend over two or even three
days. When she returns she finds her own little one amid thousands of
others that look exactly like him, just as surely as a human mother
would select her own baby from a roomful. So anxious is the mother
that her pup shall have enough food to make him grow into a strong,
beautiful holluschickie that she will nurse none but him. Thus if she
did not return from her long journey in search of food he would surely
die of starvation, as all the other seal-mothers would be too busy
supplying the wants of their own little ones to care for him.