, as if their desires were not to be realized,
for landing at Nome is a difficult matter.

Nome is on the south shore of that part of Alaska known as Seward
Peninsula, and it has no harbour. It is on the open seacoast and catches
all the fierce storms that sweep northward over Bering Sea. Generally
seacoast towns are built in certain spots because there is a harbour,
but Nome was not really built, it "jes' growed," for, when gold was
found there, the miners sat down to gather the harvest, caring nothing
about a harbour.

Ships cannot go within a mile of land, and passengers have to go ashore
in small lighters. Sometimes when they arrive they cannot go ashore at
all, but have to wait several days, taking refuge behind a small island
ten miles away, lest they drag their anchors and be dashed to pieces on
the shore.

There had been a tremendous storm at Nome the day before Ted arrived, and
landing was more difficult than usual, but, impatient as the boys were,
at last it seemed safe to venture, and the party left the steamer to be
put on a rough barge, flat-bottomed and stout, which was hauled by cable
to shore until it grounded on the sands. They were then put in a sort of
wooden cage, let down by chains from a huge wooden beam, and swung round
in the air like the unloading cranes of a great city, over the surf to a
high platform on the land.

"Well, this is a new way to land," cried Ted, who had been rather quiet
during the performance, and his father thought a trifle frightened. "It's
a sort of a balloon ascension, isn't it?"

"It must be rather hard for the miners, who have been waiting weeks for
their mail, when the boat can't land her bags at all," said Mr. Strong.
"That sometimes happens. From November to May, Nome is cut off from the
world by snow and ice. The only news they receive is by the monthly mail
when it comes.

"Over at Kronstadt the Russians have ice-breaking boats which keep the
Baltic clear enough of ice for navigation, and plow their way through ice
fourteen feet thick for two hundred miles. The Nome miners are very
anxious for the government to try this ice-boat service at Nome."

"Why did people settle here in such a forlorn place?" asked Ted, as they
made their way to the town, which they found anything but civilized. "I
like the Indian houses on the island better than this."

"Your island is more picturesque," said Mr. Strong, "but people came here
for what they could get.

"In 1898 gol