Volume 4, 1951 - The Arctic Circle - Home

The third flight, on November l, followed the same
route to Resolute Bay except that the turning point was
farther north, off the mouth of Ommanney Bay. From Resolute
we flew straight back to Churchill. Cloud distribution and
flight track were however sufficiently different to avoid a
monotonous repetition of the observations of the previous
flight. King VJîlliam Island was again mostly obscured but
we had a good view of the north coast, just west of Cape
Felix. At this time the coastline, which is flat and
featureless, was quite easily visible, and so was the tide
crack between the smooth fast ice and the pack. It was not
hard to believe, hovlever, that later in the year, when there
is more snow, the coast itself might be very hard to distinguish
and the ice-edge be taken for the coastline. This is
of course a well-known difficulty with low-lying arctic
coastlines in vJinter and is responsible. for many of the inaccurate
outlines which are only now being removed from the
maps.
The southwest coast of Prince of \!ualesIsland is also
low-lying and featureless in outline. On the D.S.A.F.
Aeronautical Chart (1946) it is impossible to identify any
features except Cape Swinburne. The new National Topographic
8-mile sheet of the southern part of the island is a very
great improvement. On this map the whole tip of the island
is placed about 35 minutes farther east. This position is
undoubtedly more accurate but it would seem that it still
may not be correct, as it does not tie in with our time of
crossing the coastline on either flight.
The icein Ommanney Bay VilaS solid and quite rough
and ridgy. The Rawlinson ~;lountainsto the southwest of the
mouth of the bay made a good landmark. Though apparently
not very high they stood out weIl in contrast to the low
land behind them and the sea ice in front. The edge of the
bay ice was clearly marked, running in a line from Minto Head
to the Hay Islands. The ice immediately to seaward of it was
newer and smoother looking, but farther out there was an
agglomeration of very rough, old-looking floes which must
have been floating around for s8veral seasons. A large lead,
partly open, was seen just before the turning point.
The sun was setting as we took off from ResDlute, with
a fine pair of sundogs for company. As we approached Somerset
Island the little round Limestone Island made a very good landmark,
visible from a long way off because of its dark vertical
cliffs and flat snow-covered top, like a cake with frosting on