NORTH POLE OF THE WINDS 



but for the fact that there are sand hummocks 

 from one to four or more feet in height grouped 

 about low willow shrubs, and the further fact 

 that at the high spring tide this flat is entirely sub- 

 merged. This was then a possible, though hardly 

 a practicable landing place, and one scarcely a 

 mile from the Dory Landing, where at high tide 

 we could deposit the cans of gasoline directly from 

 the dory or the Mullins boat. It was only after 

 considerable search that the one really practicable 

 field was discovered by Potter on a raised clay 

 terrace which in places was covered with boulders 

 and in places also was much gulleyed. We laid 

 out, however, a runway about 1500 feet in length 

 and almost perfectly flat. It was also as hard 

 almost as cement, and at least 20 feet above the 

 highest tide. Since the wind in this fjord depres- 

 sion blows lengthwise, it seems here to be unneces- 

 sary to have a wide field or runways crosswise of 

 the valley. From Dory Landing, the head of boat 

 transportation, it would be necessary to pack the 

 cans of gasoline over a rather difficult trail a dis- 

 tance of about three miles. The distance of the 

 field by trail from Mount Evans station was about 

 eight miles. 



Across a small canyon and about 500 feet to 

 the eastward of this runway there is a possibility 



226 



