ukchee land of Siberia in Asia. How he
praises the accuracy of poor {194} Bering's work along this coast:
Bering, whose name had been a target for ridicule and contempt from the
time of his death; whose death was declared a blunder; whose voyage was
considered a failure; whose charts had been rejected and distorted by
the learned men of the world.

[Illustration: The Ice Islands.]

From the Chukchee villages of Asia, Cook sailed back to the American
coast, passing north of Bering Straits directly in mid-channel. It is
an odd thing, while very little ice-drift is met in Bering Sea, you
have no sooner passed north of the straits than a white world surrounds
you. Fog, ice, ice, fog--endlessly, with palisades of ice twelve feet
high, east and west, far as the eye can see! The crew amuse themselves
alternately gathering driftwood for fuel, and hunting {195} walrus over
the ice. It is in the North Pacific that the walrus attains its great
size--nine feet in length, broader across its back than any animal
known to the civilized world. These piebald yellow monsters lay
wallowing in herds of hundreds on the ice-fields. At the edge lay
always one on the watch; and no matter how dense the fog, these walrus
herds on the ice, braying and roaring till the surf shook, acted as a
fog-horn to Cook's ships, and kept them from being jammed in the
ice-drift. Soon two-thirds of the furs got at Nootka had spoiled of
rain-rot. The vessels were iced like ghost ships. Tack back and
forward as they might, no passage opened through the ice. Suddenly
Cook found himself in shoal water, on a lee shore, long and low and
shelving, with the ice drifting on his ships. He called the place Icy
Cape. It was their farthest point north; and the third week of August
they were compelled to scud south to escape the ice. Backing away
toward Asia, he reached the North Cape there. It was almost September.
In accordance with the secret instructions, Cook turned south to winter
at the Sandwich Islands, passing Serdze Kamen, where Bering had turned
back in 1728, East Cape on the Straits of Bering just opposite the
American Prince of Wales, and St. Lawrence islands where the ships
anchored.

Norton Sound was explored on the way back; and October saw Cook down at
Oonalaska, where Ledyard was sent overland across the island to conduct
the {196} Russian traders to the English ships. Three Russians came to
visit Cook. One averred that he had been with