Volume 4, 1951 - The Arctic Circle - Home

Onoe olear of this new stra1t the voyage down the
sound was not too d1ff1oult, and early morning saw us nearly
half the distanoe to Cape Airy. Inside a little river, not
far from Stanley Head, whioh flowed 1nto an unnamed bay, we
finally anohored the oanoe and oamped. This 11ttle stream
drained a number of lakes on a low foreland fronting a
higher hill.
At last we were fa1rly oonfident that we would
manage to o1role the Island without mishap, and at th1s
stage we still had 60 gallons of gasoline, enough for )00
miles, and at least 60 days food. Thus, if time had permitted"
it would have been ent1rely feasible t.ohave reaohed
our minor goal, Bathurst Island, where we had 1ntended to
examine the very large anticline which plunges west from
Goodsir Inlet.
Early morning found Thorsteinson at his favourite
occupation, examining the hills through f1eld-glasses.
This time he was a little luok1er than usual, for a few
miles to the west he saw a large herd of musk oxen peacefully
grazing on the low lying land near the lakes. Th1s,
of course, to Thorsteinson, was the cl1max of the journey,
and aIl of us took the opportunity to take a large number
of photographs of the herd.
These musk oxen were extremely tame, like every
other animal we had so far encountered, and allowed us to
approach several times to within ten feet. However, one
old bull, who up to this time had patiently manoeuvered
his charges against this novel menace, finally took
umbrage and charged the writer while he was lying on the
ground attempting to obtain a photograph of the herd
against the skye By good fortune l was able to roll
olear of the animal and in the end both of us stood
breathing heavily and eyeing eaoh other about five feet
apart. The animal finally backed into the herd but not
before a couple of excellent exposures were obtained.
As we turned to leave, the oldest bull threw out
the two younger bulls as flank guards and the whole herd
galloped away at a speed which we considered to be at
least 15 to 20 miles an hour. It is quite oertain that
had any of the party realized that these animaIs were so
tleet not one of us would have dared to come w1thin 100
yards of the herd.