Volume 8, 1955 - The Arctic Circle - Home

VOL. VIII NO.4THE ARCTIC CIRCULAR78ReferencesBailey, A. M. 1948. IBirds of arctic Alaska'. Colorado Mus. Nat.Hist. Fop. Ser. No.8, 317 pp.Bent, A.C. 19Z1. 'Life histories of North American gulls andterns, Order Longipennes l • U.S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 113,345 pp.Rand, A.L. 194Z. "Larus kumlieni and its allies". Can. Field­Nat. Vol. 56, pp. lZ3 -6.Salomonsen, F. 1950-1. 'The birds of Greenland'. Copenhagen,608 pp.A second trip to King William Island. By Faul F. CooperIn August 1955 the writer, accompanied by his wife and son,Paul F. Cooper, Jr., made a second flight to King William Islandwith Charlie Weber of Arctic Vlings (for an account of the 1954 trip,see Circular, Vol. 8, No.1, pp. 8-11). It was planned, if possible,to set up camp on the northwest coast of the island, somewherebetween Wall Bay and Cape Felix, and to search that area forrelics of the Franklin expedition. Unfortunately, bad weather sohandicapped us everywhere that in the end the trip turned out to bemore notable for what was not accomplished than for what was.We left Churchill on the afternoon of August 13. Owing tobad flying conditions and ice in the harbour at Gjoa Haven, it wasthe morning of the 15th before we could come in to that post. Thenext day, accompanied by Father Henry, we flew up the east coastof King William to Cape Felix, then started down the west coast,hoping to find a place to land. Fog, however, soon enshrouded us,leaving nO choice but to continue southward to where it was clearand come down on a lake just north of Cape Jane Franklin, about amile inland from where Crozier and his men camped afterabandoning the Erebus and Terror in April 1848. Here bad weathersoon closed in, grounding our party for four days and three nightsand vividly calling to mind M'Clintock's experience on that part ofthe island, where "the air was almost constantly loaded withchilling fogs." On the morning of the 19th, taking advantage of aclear spell, Charlie Weber and my son flew back up to Cape Felix,only to be driven away again by fog. This ended all efforts to reach