f 



117 Arctic adventures the search continued 



Bob brought her down neatly, and with a sigh of relief we 

 taxied into calm water and anchored. Later, when it was obvious 

 that we would have to stay down until the weather lifted, we 

 lowered the wheels, moved in close to shore, and ran long ropes 

 in to some trees on the bank. Although it was rocky and unin- 

 viting we had no choice. After checking our maps we decided that 

 we were down in the entrance to Hunter Bay, Great Bear Lake, 

 having landed first in Western Channel inside of Achook Island. 

 The Indians, probably Dogribs, were nowhere in sight and we 

 estimated that their camp must be nearly 10 miles away on an- 

 other bay. 



Toward evening the wind dropped off and veered to the south- 

 west. Fog set in, and with it a steady, drizzling rain. We were 

 short of rations but still had some tea, Scotch oatmeal, and pilot 

 biscuits. Bob, the imperturbable angler, tried one of his chrome 

 spoons off a big rock at the tip of the island and landed two good- 

 sized trout. When we had eaten, we lay down inside the airplane 

 on top of our duffle. Our mutual feeling was that it could have 

 been much worse. 



Around midnight the wind shifted to the northeast and blew a 

 gale. With this shift in wind direction we were now on the exposed 

 face of the island and in real trouble. The aircraft was being 

 pounded on the rocky shore and there was no way that we could 

 move. In fact, there was only one thing that could be done. Jump- 

 ing into the waist-deep, icy water, each of us grabbed hold of a 

 wingtip and held her off as best we could. The rain was heavy now 

 and stung our wet hides. We were soon blue with cold and 

 thoroughly miserable. Even an hour of this would have been bad, 

 but we had to hang on for the next sixteen hours! There was no 

 chance for any sort of relief and no opportunity to eat or even 

 smoke. All we could do was hang on, numb with exhaustion and 

 cold. 



At three-thirty the next afternoon the wind dropped slightly. 

 The aircraft had taken some severe pounding but was far from 

 being wrecked. An hour later the wind backed up, counterclock- 

 wise, into the northwest, giving us the protection of the north 

 tip of the island. What a relief! We managed to cook some oat- 



