ARCTIC WASTES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22166, 20 July 1935, Page 10

ARCTIC WASTES

IjjTHE WINTEB AT ETAH |l SETTING OF THE SUN if LONG PERIOD OF ECLIPSE 11 SLEDGING BY MOONLIGHT II ' BY DR. NOEL HUMPHREYS jf'J (Copyright) No. H. "'J In this article Dr. Humphreys gives •")'! Hetail9 of the doings of the Ellesmere i'if j Land Expedition, in the early pnrt |(S of the las.t Arctic winter. Sledging i|S activities and the control and feeding 41 of the dogs, figure largely in the nairra'l I tive. . *.i'| Winter was setting in. Since Sepj||tember 21 ifc Lad been often cold ijlsenough for motal to stick to one's Mhands. On. October 26 we saw, for the ij&ast time, snow buntings, and on the Iffnext day the last wheat-ear. By Octoi l ;fiber 15 it was necessary to have lights ||burning all day. On October 24 the Ij'jkun set for ,us for the last time in i|L934. Wo lowered the flag for the last | (time to the tune of "Mad Dogs and j!| :Englishmen" on the gramophone and | ]the howling of nearly a hundred I' |huskies. |f 8 Wo have only once seen the aurora 1 [from Etah, very faintly, on December if?. During our expeditions by boat we yfinoticed a phenomenon which none of ||us can explain: the drops of water Ijgfrom our oars formed pearl-like globules lljjwhich blew about for some seconds |||on the surface of the water. As other fipeople have noticed in Polar regions, Ijfin very cold weather candles burn in Slit ill air with a lace-like collar of wax up above the rim. ll® Before the sea froze over, each tide •Igleft a layer of ice on the foreshore, |&'hich, shining through the water at Whigh tide, gave the sea a very striking, shining, green-blue margin. Walking on fresh sea ice, one's footsteps are often phosphorescent, and this is some indication of the newness of the ice. We occasionally observed that the moon on rising appeared to have a crimson border. [■' Getting the Dogs Under Control Once the fiord was firmly frozen over, our activities narrowed down to sledging. When the moon is visible it is always light enough for this, owing gto the reflection from the ice and snow, fland even when there is no moon it is ||gnever so dark as on an overcast |finight in Eng'and. We each had a team gland sledge, but it took us much time 111 and patience ■' before we could con||trol our dogs. We got practice, howclover, by fetching ice from the glacier If or by bringing back walrus meat from II?a cache.

! The dogs took up considerable time ! at first: we had to cut up frozen meat, [disentangle their lines, prevent them ifrom slipping their harness, stop lights, land catch -them when they got lgose. Having the dogs under our individual attention, we were able to see that ;each had its proper share of food and we soon got them into good condition. Since first, sorting the dogs out we have lost eight: six were accidentally poisoned, one could not be got fit and had to be shot, and one died from some wasting disease. Sledges and the Teams

We now have 47 dogs among six people. It had been our intention that each member, as well asi each Eskimo, should drive a sledge. But it would seem that about 15 dogs per sledge is the most economic number, and with this idea and allowing for a small further mortality we have only enough dogs for three sledges. We could have bought other dogs, at Robertson Bay, but we have little more than enough food for our present dogs, and it is not possible to buy dog food at Robertson Bay or Thule, the only inhabited places which can be reached at this time of the year from Etah. By having three instead of six sledges among six people, our range is, of course, reduced, though not in proportion, as two people can handle a sledge more quickly over rough ice. The loss of range, in time or distance, is that which would, with six sledges, have been covered before the contents of three sledges had been used up, so that the sledges themselves could be abandoned. In order to meet this difficulty, caused initially by shortage of dog food, and also to meet the much more serious setback due to being forced by the ice conditions to winter as far south as Etah, it will be necessary to relay food north, perhaps twice, before we start our final journey. Terrific Winds

Etah is, on the whole, an unsuitable place for winter quarters. The almost continuous and terrific winds make sledging at times impossible. More serious is the absence of game. Walrus do not now visit the fiord and there are few seal. On land large game has long ago bden exterminated. The ice on the fiord is cut off from other sea ice by the open water, which comes up to the cliffs both north and south of the entrance to the fiord. Owing to the high winds little snow stays on the land. We have thus been unable to sledge to better hunting grounds, and our sledging activities have until now been practically restricted to the area of the fiord. A useful trip was made by land on November 27, when Moore, Haig-Thomas, Nookapinguaq and Nuatuk sledged to Cairn Point to retrieve what might be possible of the kit left there on September 15. Most of it was recovered, but I the sleeping bags had been damaged by foxes, and some of the equipment could not be found, being covered by sea ica. They returned on November 29. Two Hours in a Blizzard On November 1 an attempt was made by Stallworthy, the two Eskimou, and the writer to reach Robertson Bay by the icecap. 'Brother John Glacier was free from snow, and with the assistance of the rest of the expedition, including the Eskimo women, steps were cut in the glacier and the sledges dragged up, partly by man-power and partly by the dogs. The sledge party then went on over the icecap, and the rest of the expedition returned. After about two hours in a blizzard the Eskimos considered that the conditions made the journey impossible, and the attempt was abandoned. A second attempt by the same party was made on November 3. We remained in an igloo storm-bound on the icecap until the 7th, when the bliaizard somewhat abated, but the Eskimos were unwilling to continue tho journey, and we returned. .