CHAPTER VIII

Ice Conditions of the Summer of 1905.

Thereport by the whalers of the ice conditions of the summer of 1905 is of interest to Arctic navigators. They say that the ice that drove into Behring’s sea from the north-east and prevented their exit left that part of the ocean almost free of ice, a very unusual thing; and one of the captains is reported to have said that he was strongly tempted to set sail for the pole, as in his experience of twenty or twenty-five years he had never seen what seemed so good an opportunity of winning fame by such a venture. But on consideration he decided to stick to his commission which was to capture whales and not the Pole. That these reports are correct is borne out by the fact that Captain Amundsen, who has since discovered the South Pole, was exploring along the north-east coast, in 1905, finding open water to the west set sail inthat direction, and to his surprise soon found himself in the company of these whalers near the mouth of the Mackenzie. He was compelled to go into winter quarters, and laid up with them at Herschel Island till the summer of my visit when he succeeded in getting out through Behring’s Strait, being the first to make the entire north-west passage. During the previous winter he made an overland journey out to the Yukon and returned again to his ship, theGjoa.

The following season he succeeded along with the whalers in navigating Behring’s Strait into the Pacific and thence proceeded around Cape Horn and back to Denmark.

Strange to say that after so many attempts to make the north-west passage it was accomplished at last quite unexpectedly. Captain Amundsen’s Mission into these Arctic waters was made for the purpose of locating the position of the magnetic pole. He succeeded in this and found it where Ross had located it many years before.

The arrival of theWrigleywas hailed with great rejoicing by the people of the village, but the arrival of the “Permits,”accompanied also by the article permitted rather demoralised the community during my few days’ sojourn there, but I was informed that the limited supply brought in had been exhausted before I left, and that for the next twelve months McPherson would be a model prohibition town.

The Indian thinks not of the morrow and certainly obeys the injunction not to lay up treasures on earth whatever provisions he may make for his future home.

TheWrigleywas to remain only a couple of days at this post and then start back on her return trip, and the time had not arrived when I had to decide whether I would return with her or find my way back to civilisation by a different route. I chose the latter, fully realising that in one sense my journey was only now commencing, and as I watched her disappear from sight and walked alone up the bank at midnight the weirdness of the situation seemed all at once to dawn vividly upon me. The sun just a few degrees below the horizon cast its after-glow all over the northern sky. The old familiar polestar barely discernible hung high in the Arctic heavens, while other stars unfamiliarto me lay low along the northern horizon. I was now here alone, and certainly in a strange land. Turning to the south I could not help reflecting on the vastness of the wilderness, made up of mountains and plain, of forest, lake and river that lay between this lonely village and the settlements of this Dominion 2000 miles away, occupying a mere fringe along the southern border of our possessions.

FORT MCPHERSON

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