TRAPPERS 43 



mainland was completely frozen. Here and 

 there little islands broke the white surface of 

 the ice. An immense glacier, strangely like 

 some immobilised cloud, sloped from an ele- 

 vated valley down into the bay. To the west 

 and south wide plains extended, covered with 

 swamps and rivulets. Finally, there were the 

 steep slopes of Mount Saddle, whose snow- 

 covered summit sparkled in the sun like some 

 enormous glazed dome. Sixty miles away to 

 the south-west, distorted by a mirage, appeared 

 Cape Hold With Hope. The air in these regions 

 is so pure that one is able clearly to distinguish 

 objects an incredible distance away. 



As regards the sea, the outlook was not 

 reassuring. As far as one could see there was 

 nothing but unbroken ice extending to the 

 skyline in semicircular form. This barrier of 

 impenetrable ice was an adamantine wall 

 enclosing the ice-free lake we had navigated. 

 It shut us off completely from the outer world, 

 and, search as I might, I could find no trace 

 of an opening or canal similar to those which 

 had given us passage-way farther north. It 

 was beautiful, but none the less a prison 

 wall. I estimated that this ice-field, extending 

 from Shannon Island to Cape Hold With Hope, 

 was at least eighty miles long and from twenty to 



