Volume 4, 1951 - The Arctic Circle - Home

forme The terrain was completely snow-covered and almost
aIl the lakes were frozen, though still fairly clear of
snow. Map reading was therefore easy in aIl areas where
the maps were good, which on this flight was more than half
of the way. As we approached Great Slave Lake an increasing
amount of open water was observed, mostly in rivers and lakes
with a strong through current, but occasionally in lakes with
no apparent major outlet. Great Slave Lake was completely
open, and no ice was seen even in the narrow channels of the
East Arro, or along the shore.
The second flight, on October 29, was from Churchill
to Resolute Bay via the magnetic pole, and then, after refuelling,
north to Stor Island in Eureka Sound and back to
Churchill. Visibility was zero until Baker Lake was reached,
where clouds cleared to reveal a sroooth solid sheet of ice
much of which was blown bare of snow.
vie crossed the coast at Sherman Inlet, and from here
on ice conditions were not only the most interesting but
almost the only subject of observation, as the islands were
largely obscured by cloud. ln Victoria Strait and M'Clintock
Channel the ice was solid and heavy and covered vrith snow.
Gnly a few leads, most of them refrozen, broke the uniformity.
This ice looked old and was very much ridged, many of the
ridges having a worn-down, eroded look.
A considerable amount of haze and cloud prevented us
from seeing very much of Prince of Wales Island. Bellot Cliff
at its northeast corner made quite a striking landmark. The
ice in Barrow Strait presented a very different appearance
from that seen farther south, consisting of a jumble of ice
pans of different sizes, shapes, and general appearance,
which were cemented into a more or less solid sheet by young
ice. Leads were corumon, some of them open, some frozen over
or in process of freezing.
After leaving Resolute it rapidly became dark and
little further observation was possible. On the vJay back to
Churchill an unexpected change of wind blew the aircraft off
course. However, it did not take the dozen or so navigators
on board very long to figure out that it was the aircraft and
not the stars that was in the wrong place, and suitable corrective
action was taken. A display of aurora was visible in the
west as we flew down the west coast of Hudson Bay.