Evening star., 1938-07-26
OF STARS,
MEN AND ATOMS
Notebook of Science Prosress
in Field, Laboratory
and Study.
By THOMAS r. HENRY.

IN Field, Laboratory
and Study.
By THOMAS R. HENRY.
Ones dreams drift northward these
hot summer days. They float like
clouds above the fragrant pines and
the spruces and the blue lakes and over
the birches and tamaraks and dwarf
willows that lay beyond. They are
waited perhaps by an ancient nostalgia
into the mysterious lands beyond the
circle, the great islands Of winter in
whose desolate interiors no man has
set foot.
Their very names on maps Of North
America used to facinate us-Ellesmere
Land, Baffin Land, Sverdrup Land,
Devon Land. They lived with the ex-
ploits of the explorer heroes Of the past
of Baffin and Frobisher and Hendrick
Hudson, of James Ross and Sir John
Franklin, of Elisha Kent Kane and
those who followed his footsteps. They
were lands Of faerie-of Ice palaces, and
hidden green pastures, strange beasts
and strange men. Once, we learned
later. they may have been the actual
Garden of Eden-the places from which,
during a warmer climate when dense
forests stretched far toward the Pole,
came the radiation Of animals and
plants which now cover the habitable
world
The Department Of the Interior of
the Canadian government, which owns
these lands, has no such fanciful ideas
about them. They are pretty worthless
real estate for men who think in terms
of crops and minerals to be had at
profit. The Dominion's geologists and
geographers have set down about all
that is known about them in a re-
Gently issued bulletin and the greatest
comfort comes from the fact that they
still are pretty much unknown. They
have not yet entirely disproved that
there may be left little remnants of the
old Eden-dormant seeds Of q new life
radiation.
These islands are, for the most part.
rough, elevated lands and very ancient.
They are covered with bare rocks a
half billion years old. Largest Of all
Is Baf1in Land, more mountainous than
most. It includes more than zoe, 900
square miles, very little Of which ever
has been seen either by white man or
Eskimo. although explorers have mapped
the general topography. Toward the
west the land rises quickly from the sea
to an elevation of about 1000 feet. when
1t becomes great interior table land.
In the south there are mountains rising
to heights OF 5000 feet and to the north
OF Cumberland Sound, on the eastern
side OF the island, there are a. few peaks
which may have elevations as great as
1000 feet. Little but the shoreline has
been accurately explored or surveyed.
The dark hostile mountains keep their
secrets. But the western shoreline for
the most part is low and the western
interior Of the northern part of the is
land Is country Of rough plains and
rolling hills interspersed with numerous
lakes. 1t Is great pasture for caribou
for 1t is covered thinly with verdure
during the brief summer.
Ellesmere Land covers more than IS.
GOO square miles, or about As large as
England and Scotland combined. It's
northern end reaches to within 500
miles Of the North Pole. For nearly
500 miles it Is separated from Green
land only by a narrow strait, in some
places not more than 10 miles wide.
The general elevation of its interior is
approximately 1000 feet and very few
men, or animals either, ever have ven
tured more than few miles away from
the sea. In the north there are high
mountains. Along the western side of
the great island, however. there are low,
vegetation covered plains extending
from the seashore many miles inland.
These also afford pasture for large herds
OF caribou and musk OK. About the
same picture is given for Devon Land
with an area Of about 10000 square
miles. There are mountains in its in
terror rising to heights Of 5000 feet.
1t Is fortunate for all OF us, by the
way, that these low northern mountains
are not few hundred miles southwark.
They might have made much of the
Eastern United States a desert.
Best known Of all the lands of the
Eastern Arctic are the Parry Islands,
lying to the west Of Ellesmere and Devon
Lands. They were among the last to be
discovered, but were searched intensively
for traces Of the illfated last expedition
of Sir John Franklin. Their shorelines
are very broken, the land rising from
the sea In cliffs from 400 to TOO feet
high. The general elevation of the in
terror is under 1000 feet, but the inland
plateau is broken by deep ravines which
stretch for miles and render travel
difficult.
The only inhabitants of the lands
are Eskimos and a few white traders
and policemen who stay close to the
shore. There is no temptation, except
idle curiosity to 60 where even the musk
OK and the caribou do not go and where,
despite our nostalgia waited dreams,
there is doubtless very little to be found
to pay for the certain hardship and
danger. So, for a long time to come,
these will remain waste lands, together
with interior Greenland and the great
continent around the South Pole.
They are like battered, broken cradles
OF life thrown in the trash heap now
for life is through with them and the
forms they once sheltered have gone
far from the old home. Only the wind
soaring birds come back in the sum-
mers to congregate in unbelievable num-
bers in the interior lakes. When they
are gone the mysterious lands settle
back to 10 months Of lifelessness and
silence broken only by the winds. the
cracking of the ice, and the music of
the northern lights which the Eskimos