Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1932-09-25

| Special Dispatch to The Star.
EDMONTON, Alberta, September "a
| (N.ANA.) After struggling $50 miles
on frozen feet through an Arctic bliz-
zard after cutting three of his toes of
with razor by the Pickering light Of
blubber lamp, after having been caught
with no food, in the Arctic night, miles
| out at sea on shifting ice fioes--Na-
poleon Nap" Verville, 32-year-old Ed
montonian, is back in this city.
| Apart from Verville's grim struggle
for life, the trip resulted in gaining
of valuable scientific data. He found
that Eskimos are on Melville Island,
disproving the government theory that
| Banks Land was the edge OF settlement
of the Nomads of the North. He found
the musk-ox where they have retreated
| back from the ravageS of the wolves.
He found five new islands.
For more than year Verville saw
no white face but that of his 2l-year-
old companion, Alex Sandy" Austin,
/ and for weeks on end both ate moth
Ing but raw meat Of seals and caribou.
First white man to touch Melville
Island since Stefansson's 1915 expedi-
ton of exploration, Verville also was
| the only white man ever to see the lit
tie Summer Arctic flowers blooming on
the north coast of Banks Land.
But it was wolves that was his chief
discovery For nearly five months he
and his companion were never out OF
sight of packs of the huge Arctic wolves
and twice they attacked him.
There are hundreds of wolves" he
said, as he lay on a cot in University
| Hospital. where he is having surgical
| attention to the bones left bare by his
emergency operation. They'd wait just
out of bullet range-they were always
| there"
Brothers Are Heroes.
Verville is the brother of the two
trappers, Joe and Noel Verville, who
! played heroic parts in the long-drawn
| hunt for Albert Johnson, mad Arctic
! trapper.
The story OF his trip of exploration
follows:
II had been up at Aklavik in 1929,
and in the Fall Of that year in my As
Langton Bay and then to Boothe
Island. I had been planning the trip
| for some time. The Government men
| said there were no Eskimos on Mel
vile Island-I thought there were, and
I wanted to prove 1t for myself, and
I wanted to explore Banks Land and
Melville Island.
Austin was on Selwood Bay. In the
Spring of 1881 I ran over there IN the
Dora. On July Is, 1881, we set out
on our trip. We ran first to Baillie
Island, reaching there August 2. On
the schooner we had a 16-foot canoe,
4 tents, l toboggan, 2 sleds, l8 dogs,
IS gallons of gasoline, 8 gallons Of
coal oil.
LAS We went along we intended to
check harbors and game and find out
how correct the maps were. For food
we took Is pounds of flour, IS pounds
of beans, 10 pounds of sugar and 10
pounds of tea-and the main thing
was $50 rounds Of 5000 ammunition.
The going wasn't bad until we got
fioe-ice all around the west coast of
heavy and we could hold straight
course. We kept on going night and
day for eight days while the light was
good. Then, at Norway Island, We
struck heavy going. The ice was COM
ing in and 1t was a struggle all the
way.
I'VE found several unmapped islands
along the shore, and II was on one Of
these that we lost the boat.
island, and there was big foe touch
ing it cornerways We thought there
might be channel through, and headed
| in. AS we got in between the foe and
the island, the foe started to swing in
and to crowd us over 1t just scooped
under us and picked the boat up and
carried us right over the island. Sandy
was going to jump, but I yelled to
him to hang on. When we were pushed
over the island, the boat slid of, but
the cabin was crushed and the bot
tom sprung.
The motor was still running, and
when we hit the water I Just let in the
clutch and pulled her up on the shore
I'VE took all our stuff out and pulled
! our boat up as far as we could. The
boats still there. We called that har-
Dor Dora Harbor after that
I'VE stayed on the island until the
| LIST of October. We ripped boards out
] Of the Dora for framework for tent.
| The dogs swan over.
| 1T hadn't frozen hard enough for
! sledS yet SO We moved up about 10
miles south Of Prince Alfred Cape. We
| stayed there until october 16, but we d
! go out on Prince Alfred Cape once in a
while to see how the ice was. It was
while was up there that the Arctic ice
| pack came in.
The ice never leaves the north and
west coast of Banks Land The old ice
was about 3 feet thick, guess. when
the Arctic pack came 1t just sheared
| through it like knife through butter.
Its terrible sight-the pressure
must be enormous. You'll be watching
a level field when suddenly it will
buckle up and throw chunks Of ice Is
or 80 feet thick up in the air like
pebbles.
Lived in Snow Houses.
when the ice was solid enough to
travel on, we set out. We threw our
tent away of Cape Gifford-it was too
much trouble getting it loaded. After
| that we lived in snow houses every
night.
"I'd never had to build them before,
and it took me three days to get the
hang of it. Then I learned to build
them spirally right UP to where I drop.
ped in the keystone block. We could
build an 8-foot house feet inches
high in half an hour. Sandy would cut
the blocks with the snowknife and I'd
build.
1.-THE snowknife has about 1A-irch
al