APPENDIX II 355 



And this little lake is, I feel sure, one of the dreariest, 

 loneliest, coldest spots on this old globe of ours. It is 

 about fifteen miles long and two miles wide, bounded 

 on the south side and on the north by almost vertical 

 cliffs over 1,500 feet high, and terminated at either end 

 by bleak, blue glaciers. In my four years' experience 

 of silent vastnesses, and lonely distances, in the North, 

 I never felt so submerged in the forsakenness of the 

 Arctic as I did in this prison-like lake-bed. I cannot 

 imagine anything lonelier than this far northern crypt 

 at Arctic midnight when a northern blizzard rages. It 

 would be the best hiding-place on earth, I think; and 

 if Santa Claus needs a safe place convenient to his North 

 Pole home to store his Christmas gifts without fear of 

 thieves, he cannot find a better one than this lake. 

 They would be safe as in a vault. 



At the head of the lake, a narrow canon-like pass 

 between the face of the glacier and the high cliffs af- 

 forded us escape from the prison; but we were forced 

 to prepare a way with our ice-picks, over the debris 

 of blocks broken from the glacier. We worked at this 

 several hours before we were able to get by. Then we 

 entered a canon, of which the cliffs towered sheer above 

 us over 1,000 feet. We sledged along on the frozen 

 stream at the bottom of this canon for several hours; 

 in the dark gloom the air was very cold, and we were 

 anxious to get out onto the slopes above. When at 

 last we came to a fork where a tributary gorge entered, 

 we stopped to consider whether to attempt the tributary 

 or the main canon. E-took-a-shoo reconnoitered the 

 tributary gorge, while Esayoo and I made tea to warm 

 us a little. E-took-a-shoo reported that he felt sure we 

 could easily get out by way of the little gorge. 



