stefansson-wrangel-09-34-057

COLOR--3

Peter Freuchen--" . . .We had our first meeting with pack
ice--always an awe-inspiring experience. The incredible for-
mations, the myriads of changing colors, the musterious
grandeur of the Arctic ice is always a breath-taking sight.
The ice is inscrutable, sometimes smiling and graceful, at
other times displaying a merciless force. Sometimes it is
firm and compact, appearing to be an impenetrable barriet.
With a sudden change of weather or current it may move, and
in a matter of moments completely surround the vessel, no
matter how fast it tries to escape."

Also--"It was a fine day for me when I first saw the faint
purple outline of the horizon to the south, and I knew that
before long the sun would be back. I shall never forget my
joy at the return of color. The prismatic beauty of the
northern lights was so heady that for long minutes I could stand
there and forget even the stinging cold."

Also--"Unless a man has lived apart from human beings
for a long period he does not know what he is saying when
he cries that he wants to get away and be alone with his thoughts
Those thoughts can be extremely sterile and unattractive.
It was heaven just to hear the new man complain about the
weather or the most commonplace events etc"

Also-- " . . .When the young man (an Eskimo) saw her
laugh and chide him for his weakness, he determined to live
no longer with his people; he went inland and became a
qivitoq --a ghost who may never return home--(doubtful--
Greenland)

Also--"At last the nineteenth of October came, the day
when the sun dropped below the horizon for the winter . . .
Oh joy and happiness! Now, at last, the sun is away. Now
comes the winter when we shall hear from the others, and we
ourselves shall go and visit. Now comes the time of
walrus hunting and the seals will be at the blowholes.’’

Also--" It may seem strange to the reader that Knud
Rasmussen and I so constantly occupied our time with travel-
ing in a land where travel is so hazardous. Oerhaps the
principal excuse for our excursions was to break the mono-
tony which moves in like the Arctic’s impenetrable fog."
. . .Salt water ice is always wet and covered with a layer
of moist salt. This eats into the dog’s paws, causing
stubborn sores which are slow to heal.

Also--"Soon I felt a sickening movement, a tug at the run-
ners, and discovered that the left sled runner had cut through
the new ice. When I tried to get off the sled my foot broke
through . . .one is helpless on new ice. I tried to make the
dogs pull ahead, but they could not move the sled. I was lucky
not to have everything, sled and all, vanish etc”