JOURNEY INTO SILENCE: An Arctic Adventure North of Norway

by Jack Denton Scott ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 1975

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. A food buff, Scott also writes with elan about shipboard dishes (see below). 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. A sudden headache was explained to him by a sailor: ""You are a polluted man. . . . The air is so pure, that until you get used to it, it is like taking too much aquavit too fast. There has been no one breathing here. . . no disease, no smog, no industry, no automobiles, so you probably are taking in really fresh air for the first time since you were born."" Goal-oriented 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.

Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1975

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Reader's Digest--dist. by T.Y. Crowell

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1975

Categories: NONFICTION