JOURNEY INTO SILENCE: An Arctic Adventure North of Norway

Traveling north of Norway and into the Arctic, globetrotter Scott believes the journey is as important as the goal. His goal was to breach a lake which had not been seen in twelve years--on an island hidden behind a massive glacier--and to penetrate a landscape of transcendent purity. Along the way, by boat, he logged everything of interest to a naturalist--birds, beasts, fish, the weather, the sea, even surveying the Norwegian sailors guiding him. His most exciting moments came when he crossed the fabulous boil where the icy water of the Arctic Ocean spurts into the North Atlantic Drift current, and when he entered the crystal silence of the lost lake. Goaloriented readers will wonder at first why Scott takes so long to get to the lake, which doesn't appear until the final pages. But the voyage through the ice-crucible is necessary for the final impact, when, like Yeats, Scott hears it lapping in the deep heart's core.