The River Falls times. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1894-1933, 1911-05-25

| bergen, which has had a permanent
population of $4,000 souls, lies 300
miles farther north than this I'M
charted coast which Philip Cayley saw
before him
But the great ice cap which covers
the top of the world is irregular in
shape, and just here, northward from
Alaska, it juts its impenetrable bar
rier far down into the Arctic sea.
Rogers, Collinson and the Inflated De-
Long-they all had tried to penetrate
this barrier, and had been turned
back
Cayley wheeled sharply up into the
wind, and scared aloft to a height of,
perhaps, a quarter Of mile. Then,
with a long, flashing, shimmering
sweep, he descended, in the arc of a
great circle, and hung, poised, over
the land itself and behind the jutting
shoulder of the mountain.
The land was a narrow-necked pc
ninsula. Mountain and cliff prevented
him from seeing the immediate coast
on the other side of it; but out little
way to sea he was amazed to discover
open water, and the smoke-like vapor
that he saw rising over the cliffhead
made it evident that the opening ex-
tended nearly, if not quite, to the
very lands edge. It was utterly un.
expected, for the side of the PENN
sula which he had approached was
ice-locked for miles.
He would have lowered again
above the rocky ridge which shut off
his view, and gone to investigate this
phenomenon at closer range, had
he not, just then, got the shock of an
other surprise, greater than the dis
covery of land itself.
The little valley which he hung
poised above was sheltered by a second
ridge of rocky, ice-capped hills to the
north, and, except for streaks, denot-
ing creyices, here and there, was quite
free from ice and snow. There were
bright patches of green upon it, ev
identity some bit of Towering northern
grass, and it was flecked here and
there with bright bits of color, yellow
frage. Hugging the base of the noun
tain on the opposite side of the valley,
then notching the cliff and grinding
down TO sea at the other side of it
was great white glacier all the
whittier, and colder, and more dazzling
for its contrast with the brown noun
tain-side and the green-clad valley.
er side, were great broad yellow
patches, which he would have thought
were poppy field, but for the impos-
sibility of their growing in such a
place. No vegetable growth was pos
sible, he would have thought, against
that clean-cut. almost vertical, rocky
face. And yet, what else could have
given it that blazing yellow color?
Some day he was to learn the answer
to that question
But the thing that caught his eye
now. that made him start and draw in
a little involuntary gasp of wonder,
was the sight of a little clump of
black dots moving slowly, almost i'm
from this distance, across
the lace OF the glacier. He blinked his
eyes. as if he suspected them of play
ing him false. Unless they had played
him false, these tiny dots were men.
All of the party, but one man, were
dressed exactly alike, in hooded bear
skin shirts and breeches, and boots
of what he guessed was walrus hide. |
They moved along with the peculiar |
wary shuttle of men accustomed, by
long habit, to the footing and to the
heavy combining garb they wore. So
far as he could see they were I'M
armed
The other man was strikingly diff
ferent. He appeared to be clad much
as Cayley was himself, in leather,
rather than in untanned hide. He
seemed slighter, sprightlier. and in