THE WORLD'S WONDERS. 591 



from accounts of it that even at a temperature of minus sixty- 

 one degrees hares, lemmings, ptarmigan, snow-birds, snowy 

 owls, polar bears, musk-oxen, and even vegetation exist and 

 thrive. Grinnell Land was quite thoroughly explored. Lake 

 Hazen, of either 600 or 3,700 square miles area (the dispatches 

 are contradictory), was discovered therein. It would be inter- 

 esting to know more of this fresh-water body and its inhabitants, 

 if any. Nordenskjold discovered that late in the summer great 

 rivers, formed of melted ice, with icy beds and banks, make 

 travel in the north impossible without small boats. Lake Hazen 

 is described as being fed by streams from the ice cap of northern 

 Grinnell Land, and emptying into Weyprecht Fiord. It was 

 discovered in April, when some open water was seen. Doubtless 

 in August a much larger-sized lake, fed by innumerable large 

 and swift-flowing rivers, would have been found. This lake, 

 named after General Hazen, is the most northern fresh-water 

 body on the globe, one-fourth the size of Lake Erie. Lving 

 contiguously to it, and parallel with the United States Mountains, 

 were two ranges named after Senator Conger and the late Presi- 



O O 



dent Garfield. The highest land in the latter range, and indeed 

 of all the country north of Disco Bay, was named Arthur Peak. 

 It is 5,000 feet in height. 



On the shores of Lake Hazen the remains of an Esquimau 

 village were found, apparently the most northern habitation 

 attempted by the Esquimaux. Here were evidences of possession 

 by this people of dogs, sledges and iron. It would argue that 

 at no distant period there was a beautiful valley about the lake, 

 with an abundance of vegetation and game. That the rigors of 

 the most northern climate are slowly advancing south is evident 

 in the gradual retreat of the Esquimaux. From this high lati- 

 tude they have been forced several degrees, and that for no lack 

 of game. Add to this the migration of Icelanders to Manitoba, 

 after becoming hereditarily inured to the climate through an 

 ancestry dating back a thousand years. Of late the ice-flow south 

 has been increasing, until in 1884 it exceeded the combined 

 fields of any three years known. The bergs have augmented in 



