542 THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



clearly his Findlay Land. It appeared to be six or seven hundred 

 feet high and one or two hundred feet higher than the larger island 

 to the west where we were now spending the summer. The most 

 easterly island is undoubtedly his Paterson Island. I did not 

 visit it but feel sure that it is about three hundred feet high and 

 less than three miles in diameter. The middle island where I 

 killed the seven bulls is even smaller and not much more than half 

 US high. It was probably not seen by Osborn at all or was taken 

 for a low eastward extension from Findlay Island. Findlay Island 

 is ten or twelve miles in diameter, a fertile island with beautiful 

 green slopes covered with grass or with lichens and moss, accord- 

 ing to the abundance of moisture and the character of the soil. 

 Between it and Third Land is a little island scarcely more than a 

 sandbar. Caribou crossing by way of it appeared to wade most 

 of the time, so that the channel is here mainly shallow although 

 there may be deep places. If so, they are probably near the 

 Findlay Island shore. 



Third Land (which I have since named Lougheed Island) 

 proved in most respects a delightful summer resort. There was 

 not a single mosquito. The country was rolling hills, well covered 

 with vegetation, although eight or ten miles to the northwest was a 

 considerable area of very sticky, wet clay, and with every stream 

 heavily impregnated with some chemical that made the water un- 

 drinkable if you were afraid to drink it^ and disagreeable in any 

 event. The island's length is about forty-five miles, its main axis 

 running a little west of north, its average diameter perhaps twelve 

 miles. One wolf appeared soon after our landing but he must have 

 left the island. Absence of wolves and mosquitoes, together with 

 an abundance of vegetation made the caribou the fattest for the 

 season that I have seen anywhere. There were perhaps three 

 hundred of them on the island, which was many times more than we 

 needed. 



The only difficulty was fuel. Of every resinous plant known 

 to me as good fuel not one was found. Neither did we find willows. 

 I made experiments with moss and with dried mushrooms. They 

 would not burn, probably because we did not have a long enough 

 time to dry them between the frequent rains. A few seals were 

 out on the ice but the chance of getting them was small, for they 

 would surely have heard a man splashing in the deep water even 

 though he might have had will power to wriggle in auktok style 

 across ice patches and the shallower channels. Then there was 

 the continual threat that the ice might move. The movement we 



