The winter previous to my visit, viz., that of 1905–6 was a particularly cold one. The thermometer went as low as sixty-eight degrees below zero, Fahrenheit, and added to this there was a great deal of wind, but, not having had an opportunity of experiencing a winter in those latitudes, I shall leave to others the task of describing it.

In Captain McClintock’s narrative “The Voyage of the Fox in Arctic Seas” there is found incidentally a most graphic word picture of an Arctic winter night. It will be remembered that Captain McClintock commanded the expedition sent out by Lady Franklin in 1857, in search of her husband, Sir John Franklin. The author makes no attempt at anything more than giving the occurrences as they took place from day to day, as recorded in his diary, but one paragraph headed “Burial in the Pack” is given in words that paint the scene in colours that remain in the mind of the reader, and I shall quote a couple of extracts which read as follows:

December 4, 1857.—“I have just returned on board from the performance of the most solemn duty a commander can be called upon to fulfil. A funeral at sea is always peculiarly impressive; but this evening as we gathered around the sad remains of poor Scott, reposing under a Union Jack, and read the burial service by the light of lanterns, the effect could not fail to awaken serious emotions.

The greater part of the church service was read on board, under shelter of the housing; the body was then placed upon a sledge, and drawn by the messmates of the deceased to a distance from the ship, where a hole through the ice had been cut; it was then ‘committed to the deep,’ and the service completed. What a scene it was; I shall never forget it. The Lonely Fox, almost buried in snow, completely isolated from the habitable world, her colours half-mast with the bell mournfully tolling; our little procession slowly marching over the rough surface of the frozen deep, guided by lanterns and direction posts amid the dreary darkness of an Arctic winter; the deathlike stillness around, the intense cold, and the threatening aspect of a murky overcast sky; and all this heightened by one of those strange lunar phenomena which are but seldom seen even here, a complete halo encircling the moon, through which passed a horizontal band of pale light that encompassed the heavens; above the moon appeared the segments of two other halos, and there were also mock moons or para-selenæ to the number of six. The misty atmosphere lent a very ghastly hue to this singular display, which lasted for rather more than an hour.

Scarcely had the burial service been completed, when our poor dogs, discovering that the ship was deserted, set up a most dismal unearthly moaning, continuing it until we returned on board. Coming to us from a distance across the ice, at such a solemn moment, this most strange and mournful sound was both startling and impressive.”

Again on the eleventh he says: “Position 74 degrees, 31 N 68·21 W. Calm, clear weather, pleasant for exercise, but steadily cold; thermometer varies between twenty and thirty degrees below zero. At noon the blush of dawn tints the southern horizon, to the north the sky remains inky blue, whilst overhead it is bright and clear, the stars shining, and the pole star near the zenith very distinct. Although there is a light north wind, thin mackerel clouds are passing from south to north and the temperature has risen ten degrees.”

What a contrast to this a few months’ time will bring when the king of the universe has again appeared in constant view, dispelling all the darkness and bringing warmth in his rays. Then the wild fowl will come up in myriads from the south to build their nests and rear their young in rivers, creeks and pools in this boreal land. Then too, the Esquimaux will lay aside the snow sled for the kaiak. The tent will take the place of the iglo and his period of real enjoyment will have begun.

These are, no doubt, the conditions that appeal to him as ideal and which no other latitude could afford, and so it is that he prefers his home to that of any other.

SECTION II
SOIL

I have already made frequent reference to the soil conditions as observed on my line of travel. Of course I had little opportunity of forming more than a general idea. Before any accurate report can be given on this subject it will be necessary for the Government to have an exploration survey made by men competent to give an authoritative opinion. For many years I have been impressed with the idea that Canada has failed to realise what it is losing year after year from its lack of information of its unoccupied areas.