Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-01
TRAVERSINC OF BLEAK
ARCTIC LANDS EASIER
Writer Tells of Sensations I'm Travelling
Through Areas of the
NOrthIand.

mine. was to give them 70 Father
Falaize. Luckily, had met Mr.. Ale
bright, an agricultural specialist who
had studied the far northern sof, and
was able TO write q screed about how
TO get the seeds to grow. DO hope
that Arctic garden will be made.
The Far North Is imperions, and ne
one ever makes plan without the exc
pectation that It may be quashed. !
was TO 60 from Coppermine to Water.
ways, Alberta. II had returned the
way I had come, allowing for the neces-
sary delays, the trip would have taken
me four or i've weeks. But, lifting my
eyes from an Eskimo tent, I saw
descending D Consolidated Mining &
Smelters airplane. It was serviced by
Kenneth Dewar and his mechanic,
Robert NeYin. Dewar Is another pilot
who win not talk about himself, but
achievements Of the Consolidated
Smelters. But he, too, has done some
outstanding flying, and was also one
Of the pilots chosen to search for the
lost MacAlpine party. He took me TO
MacMurray In two days-nying time.
10 hours.
Only Hardest Survive.
Flying with these lads over Great
chain of lakes and bush leading to
Great Slave Lake; and then above
Great Slave River, Athabasca Lake and
Athabasca River. pondered over this
implacable land had left, and realized
that only the hardest can survive.
Meeting conditions far more severe
than any homesteader or pioneer in
other parts Of the world, men there
must rely on themselves TO keep life
1 L. hats AvRA ID hat
minds.
Except for the yearly mail and q
chance letter or newspaper carried in
by airplane, the radio Is their main
contact with the world outside. Their
home, instead Of being their friend,
| only too often Is their enemy. Even
in the mild, sunny Summer the brood
| ing silence of the North gives one o
fear Of this powerful mystery that We
call Nature, forever strange, often ter
rible, but somehow always beautiful.
storms when the huge waves charge
| furiously on the shores OF the lake.
But 1t is in Winter, when the light
| goes, that the Far North bares her
teeth. Beauty there is-the whiteness
Of immense, trackless SHOWS, rearing
drifts, strange in shape; the blazing
and changing Aurora, mountains OF ice
in the sea under the serene moon and
stars, everywhere q silence that to .
lover Of peace Is faultless.
But the beauty Is Swallowed by the
long Arctic night. The silence be-
comes ominous, presaging storm. The
moon and the stars are hidden and
the snow falls, at first lightly and then
dropping like q wall. Over the long,
mournful wailing Of the shivering husky
dogs screams the wind, swinging tear
ing billiards before It. Day after day
of such storm passes in maddening
monotony. When the storm is over
there remains q cold blue-white vast
ness with landmarks obliterated, snow
that hardens like cement and is as
rough as sand. and sense that Winter
and darkness have only begun to show
their power.
Men who live through these Winters
often grow to hate the North, yet they
find 1t has an unbeatable hold On
them. They go outside" vowing that
they never win return, and yet Q few
months sees them back in the old
thra1ldom. II. .s.,
The North challenges such men and
captures their imagination-pe perhaps be-
cause of the ever-present danger, per-
haps because Of the sense OF freedom
there, and perhaps because 70 conquer
] it, even in a slight degree, not only
gives q man sense Of power but adds
to his spiritual stature.