20, THE SUBARCTIC EXPEDITION 



IN EQUATORIAL Africa we had studied the energy-con- 

 trolling organs of 220 animals, comprising 77 species. In 

 order to contrast the influence of tropical heat with the 

 influence of arctic cold on the size of the brain, the heart, 

 the blood volume, and the thyroid gland, we next collected 

 animals in the subarctic. 



On our way north we noted a gradual decrease of wheat, 

 of trees, and of human endeavor. As the wheat and the trees 

 grew scarcer, the days grew longer, the air cooler, until 

 finally we reached the land of tundra and muskeg, where, 

 throughout the year, the earth remains frozen for a short 

 distance below the surface. 



Perched on high rocks, holding the fort at the point, now 

 called Churchill Harbor, where the broad Churchill River 

 empties into Hudson Bay, with a beach where the tides 

 leisurely rise and fall about 10 feet, was Churchill. Enor- 

 mous, lichen-covered granite rocks rose at the water's edge, 

 black crowberries, red, bitter-tasting buffalo berries, blue- 

 berries, and cranberries growing in their crevices. 



The pebbly beach was devoid of shells, of seaweeds, and 

 of sea life; but arctic terns perched on the rocks near the 

 shore, and the bellies of the white whales glistened as the 

 great animals tumbled and turned in the water. 



Two trappers, a white man and a half-breed, stood 

 with their dogs waiting to push off, their canoes, well 

 filled with supplies. Where were they going? Two hundred 

 miles north to stay through the long winter in the solitude, 

 in the ice and snow, with nothing save caribou, foxes, the 

 aurora borealis, and endless night about them. Except for 

 man, the husky dogs, the animals to be trapped or to be 

 eaten, and the aurora borealis, all is negativity on the land, 

 for these are the only forms of energy in the silent night of 

 snow and ice and cold and wind. 



