Northward over the great ice : a narrative of life and work along the shores and upon the interior ice-cap of northern Greenland in the years 1886 and 1891-1897, with a description of the little tribe of Smith Sound Eskimos, the most northerly human beings in the world, and an account of the discovery and bringing home of the Saviksue or great Cape York meteorites . art of the valley,most of the surface wascovered with ice, formedafter the February rain-storm, and in places thebed of the valley torrentshowed that there hadbeen a considerablestream runningf thereduring the storm. On the ice-cap
Northward over the great ice : a narrative of life and work along the shores and upon the interior ice-cap of northern Greenland in the years 1886 and 1891-1897, with a description of the little tribe of Smith Sound Eskimos, the most northerly human beings in the world, and an account of the discovery and bringing home of the Saviksue or great Cape York meteorites . art of the valley,most of the surface wascovered with ice, formedafter the February rain-storm, and in places thebed of the valley torrentshowed that there hadbeen a considerablestream runningf thereduring the storm. On the ice-cap a freshbreeze was blowing, andthough the sun was shin-ing brightly, and therewas blue sky overhead,all the upper part of McCormick Bay was hidden bylead-coloured cumulus clouds, and Inglefield Gulf layinvisible behind a dazzling white mist. I took off mysnow-shoes, the surface being so hard that my feetmade no impression on it, and walked along brisklyover the marble pavement. Every inequality had beenformed by south-east winds ; and it seemed to me thaton the ice-cap proper the wind must blow almost in-variably from a direction between south and east. On the top of the first swell of the ice-cap, at anelevation of about 3000 feet, I was surprised to findcoarse, granular ice similar in appearance to places onthe bay where the wind had scoured the snow THE WIDOW NUIKINGWAH. Preparing for the Ice-Cap Campaign 233 Beyond this there was hard snow again. At an eleva-tion of 3825 feet, I surmounted the second sweh andhad before me, apparently, an extensive level, althoughthe snow-drift may have been deceptive. Here I took my lunch, seated upon the snow, withmy back to the wind ; and although it was blowing agale, and the air was thick with drifting snow, whilethe swinging thermometer read — 32° F., I ate my lunchdeliberately and in comfort. So much for reindeerclothing. Had I been clad in woollens I could nothave remained quiet an instant. Turning back and scudding before
Size: 1593px × 1569px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjecteskimos, bookyear1898
