300 Union Bay 



culties of determining the ship's position, the complex reck- 

 oning which involved speed, tide, wind, and drift. 



The reality of this marsh fog brought his stories into strong 

 relief. I could close my ears to traffic, peer into the fog and 

 see my friend's ship plunging into subarctic conditions with 

 a lookout aloft who could glimpse little more than high 

 sheets of spray, with men in the navigating room plotting 

 the course, and with the ship's whistle eternally blowing as a 

 warning to other craft and as a method of detecting and 

 measuring the distance from land. 



It was not the modern method of navigation, my friend 

 said, but it was one which had been followed for centuries. 

 He described the swift currents and narrowness of the fog- 

 filled passages and the tragedy of captains who had grounded 

 their ships after a lifetime of successful navigation. Fog was 

 hated and feared by the men, the owners, and the under- 

 writers. 



Now, he explained, the systems of aerial and sea naviga- 

 tion had been completely changed. By the use of radar and 

 kindred equipment the navigator could pierce the fog and 

 view all the mist-enveloped objects before the ship. Snores, 

 cliffs, ships, icebergs, and islands appeared on the receiving 

 screen and made navigation possible with security. , 



That, I thought as I paddled along, completely changed 

 the character of fog. Night could be illuminated by powerful 

 apparatus so that it approached day in visibility, but fog had 

 been a cloud impenetrable to vision. Ordinary sight would 

 still find it impenetrable, but the proper equipment was now 

 available to reveal the presence and position of fog-sur- 

 rounded objects almost as well as in daylight. 



As I looked about the vision-blocked marsh I thought that 

 some day portable sets might be available so that an indi- 

 vidual who was interested in studying wildlife could peer 

 into the fog and determine how the fog-bound dwellers of 

 the marsh behaved. 



