THE CLOSING OF THE STATION 



cept those which lie close to its border, and for 

 the most part it is almost as flat as a ball-room 

 floor. Along the route from Mount Evans east- 

 ward to Angmagssalik the ice plateau has a maxi- 

 mum altitude of between eight and nine thousand 

 feet, and it should be quite possible for the avi- 

 ator to navigate safely by the use of his altimeter. 

 Away from the margin the snow is so smooth as 

 to be in most cases without shadow, and so the 

 aviator's distance above the surface would be dif- 

 ficult to gauge in the usual way. 



The hop from Northwest River in Labrador to 

 Mount Evans, Greenland, is from 900 to 1000 

 miles in length according to the route followed. 

 From Mount Evans after crossing the ice-cap and 

 passing Angmagssalik the course is taken to Reyk- 

 javik in Iceland, a distance of something less than 

 900 miles. Reykjavik has already several times 

 been used as a seaplane base for trans-Atlantic 

 flights and has already been considered for the 

 terminus of an extension of the German airplane 

 network. Angmagssalik now has a long-wave 

 radio station to report the passage of a plane, and 

 the place can easily be supplied with gasoline, 

 since it has steamer connection with Copenhagen 

 once each year, usually in August or September. 

 Its harbor is, however, closed from the sea by ice 



363 



