PHOTOGRAPHY IN THE FAR NORTH 



and rivulets, stayed my progress, narrow passages which 

 the others had passed I sat upon and crossed on hands and 

 knees, looking downward a hundred feet or more into bot- 

 tomless pits on my left and right. Nothing but ice all 

 around, save here and there a strip of gravel and large 

 boulders, lateral moraines, one or two mountain peaks 

 showing above the ice — all these features were photo- 

 graphed; not, as one would think, under adverse circttm- 



CROSSING A CREVICE 



stances, but on the contrary, under a clear blue sky, a 

 brilliant sun playing upon the wonderful waste of ice, 

 making beautiful reflections and refractions of the rays of 

 light. 



No dust of any kind is in the atmosphere; it is pure, 

 clear air. It is easy to make good pictures under these 

 conditions, if you study your light. The great difficulty 

 is near the seashore, where with ordinary plates or films, 

 proper exposure is next to an impossibility. 



The rocks are of a color which, like the color of grass, 

 will absorb rays of light, while the water, the ice, the sky, 



237 



