xx Alaska

sub-call! As far as the world's end, strange fascinating lands beckon us,

fittest rebel and their exotic splendors, come with us as we head for port of call! By the magic of imagination, we take you now to the American land of the midnight sun, up above 5440, where gargantuan mountains cast their austere shadows over the gently laughing waters of inlets and coals, which jealously by with the beauty of Norway's fjords,

where giant icebergs are dwarfed to insignificance by the majesty of their mother glaciers, where the spell of the Yukon and the trail of gold transformed men into animals, where the tendifert fell by the wayside to watch his stronger brother plunge on to success and fortune.

This is the land of paradoxes. This is our port of call. This is Alaska. It is the year 1741. Catherine, Empress of all the rushes, sits upon the throne of her murdered husband. Before her stands a strange, hard-busaged assortment of men.

A grizzled cossack, a Danish sea captain, a Russian navigator, a German naturalist. I know that, sir, no longer lives. What matters, sir? Why have nothing been done about this exploration which you commanded? Well, Captain Bering?

Your Majesty, something has been done. Well? We have decided it is a useless and cool-hardy expedition. You have decided. by whom were you empowered to make such a decision? Why have you made it? After all your majesty we have nothing but the word of Vostef, this cossack in his companions.

They tell us they sighted birds, that strange driftwood appeared on the beach of northern Saipan. I am not. I command you, Captain Beaton bearing to set sail immediately. As soon as the party can be fitted out in the boat prepared. No, Two bolts, and you, Captain Jericoff, you shall command the second one.