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Northern People, Northern Knowledge - 
The Story Of The Canadian Arctic Expedition 1913 - 1918
New Lands: Explorations of the Northern Party
 

 

1917


Storkersen's Camp, Version I

Peddie Point, Melville Island. "In midsummer sometime coal was found in considerable aboundance in a talus in a river bed.... At first several days were spent picking up loose coal, but later a vein four or five inches thick was discovered in an accessible place, and the rest eight tons was obtained here by the use of pick axes we carry for making roads through ice pressure ridges. About three tons of this coal was packed to the winter camp, which is on the south side of the same river half way up the valley slope a mile and a half inland and some three miles down stream from the coal.... When the cold weather came on in august a house was built. The main part is about 12 x14 ft. with a raised sleeping platform 12 x 10 at one end and a sleeping alcove 8 x 6 at the door end. The roof is of two thicknesses of muskox hides, about forty hides in all, the hair side out on the inner cover, the hair side in on the outer cover with greased seams, so that the roof is rain proof and practically cold proof." (Stefansson MSS 98, 4:34 "The Summer Work in Melville Island")

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CMC CD2002-1014-001

Storkerson's deserted snow house and cache, Liddon Gulf, Melville Island, N.W.T. April 13, 1916 (the first photo of Melville Island). GHW 51140. Source: Canadian Museum of Civilization


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CMC CD96-656-018

Outcrop of sandstone, Liddon Gulf; snow-covered hillside, dog team, sled, and snowhouses at base, Melville Island, N.W.T. April 13, 1916. GHW 51146. Source: Canadian Museum of Civilization


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