SCHOONER CHANCE 47 



As before they could find no place where we could climb out onto 

 the high land. We decided our best bet was to take the skiff up to 

 the head of the lake and try there. 



One interesting sight was a little waterfall abeam of the schooner 

 which "never did fall down." Half way down the cliff the wind 

 would blow the water to vapor. 



Position At Nachvak 

 Sunday, August i^th <| Weather Cloudy with some rain 



Wind Northeast 



OUR first job was to get the skiff into the lake. We had to carry 

 it half a mile. Terry then got into the stern of it and we pulled 

 it up through the rapids with a long rope. At one time the skiff 

 must have been moving 8 knots through the water. All seven of us 

 (Bob remaining behind) and our packs made quite a load for the 

 little boat but she chugged the 8 miles down the lake in about two 

 hours. In carrying the engine over the rocks the water pipe broke off 

 at the elbow. Luckily there were two threads left and by a bold piece 

 of machining with an old screw driver, she was fixed as good as new. 



At the head of the lake we found a nice brook flowing in which 

 had gradually filled the whole head of the fjord with gravel. On 

 this flat space (i>^ miles long by ^ wide) the vegetation was 

 thick and the caribou tracks even thicker. Woody and Oily with 

 their plant presses (35 lbs.) and blankets and their supporting party 

 (the four oceanographers) carrying a hundred and ten lbs. of food 

 started up the valley. 



We had not gone much over a mile before we made out a place 

 on the right that looked climbable. As we wanted to go north and 

 the valley ran west we decided to give it a try. Then followed three 

 or four hours of the hardest kind of work. At times we could only 

 take fifty steps without stopping. Much of it had to be done on 



