supply. The remains of mammoths are so abundant that, as Gratacap
says, 'the northern islands of Siberia seem built up of crowded
bones.' Another scientific writer, speaking of the islands of New
Siberia, northward of the mouth of the River Lena, uses this
language: 'Large quantities of ivory are dug out of the ground
every year. Indeed, some of the islands are believed to be
nothing but an accumulation of drift-timber and the bodies of
mammoths and other antediluvian animals frozen together.' From
this we may infer that, during the years that have elapsed since
the Russian conquest of Siberia, useful tusks from more than
twenty thousand mammoths have been collected."

But now for the story of Olaf Jansen. I give it in detail, as set
down by himself in manuscript, and woven into the tale, just as
he placed them, are certain quotations from recent works on
Arctic exploration, showing how carefully the old Norseman
compared with his own experiences those of other voyagers to the
frozen North. Thus wrote the disciple of Odin and Thor:



PART TWO

OLAF JANSEN'S STORY

MY name is Olaf Jansen. I am a Norwegian, although I was born in
the little seafaring Russian town of Uleaborg, on the eastern
coast of the Gulf of Bothnia, the northern arm of the Baltic Sea.

My parents were on a fishing cruise in the Gulf of Bothnia, and