Slowly it dawned on him that they had pitched camp on top of their own garbage dump behind their base at Baker Lake. His knife struck something and he pulled out an empty tin can, then another and another. As the Eskimo started a small stove for heat the Mountie dug info the floor for chunks of clean snow to melt down for tea. When a blinding blizzard closed in on them they pushed on for a time, but knowing it was foolhardy to chance getting off the trail they built a snowhouse in which Than the veteran Mountie and his Eskimo guide who headed their dog team back toward Baker Lake, on the tundra, after visiting some outlying villages. No two men knew their way around the trackless wastes better
And they choked in helpless delight when one fellow who had been dreaming for days about having a good glass of milk, dumped a pound of the powdered stuff into a gallon of water, shoved the bowl under the new beater and cautiously turned it on “low.” At full speed the beater sucked the stuff out of the bowl and hurled it like a white wave all over the room. Popping, exploded toast skyward to shatter on the ceiling. The pair sipped the first sweet reward for a hard night’s work when the souped-up toaster, instead of And they installed both items in the kitchen just in time for breakfast. Then they sat up the rest of the night rewiring the three-speed mixer to run at full speed when set at low.
They sat up half the night taking the toaster apart and installing one of the heavier generator springs in place of the spring intended to make the toaster tick. Then they uncovered a set of springs ordered as spare parts for a small electrical generator and temptation was born. The two men detailed to unpack the next planeload of supplies were pleased to note both gadgets had arrived. During the early days at Eureka, farthest north of all the meteorological stations, the little band of weather pioneers had been looking forward to the arrival of two mechanical aids to gracious living a pop-up toaster and an electric mixer. The secret of survival in the far north is being able to improvise, and Arctic dwellers will go to any lengths for a laugh.
The Fairbanks operator, puzzled over the location they gave, took a careful bearing on their radio signal-then dispatched the rescue plane to one of Greenland’s icy mountains half a continent away. One American aircrew became lost on a flight home to the States, finally force-landed out of gas on what they thought was an Alaskan glacier, and wired Fairbanks for help. THE BLEAK and characterless Arctic terrain can play hilarious spoofs on travelers, providing they live to laugh about it.