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Chubb Crater - Part 9 of 12

The National Geographic Magazine, Vol. C1, No.1, January, 1952
Solving the Riddle of Chubb Crater
By V. Ben Meen - Director, Royal Ontario Museum of Geology and
Mineralogy


Wind Blows Good

As yet we had no data on the size of the area the anomaly covered, as
well as a number of other things it was important to know. It was hard
to contemplate going back tomorrow without all we wanted.
Then bad weather intervened overnight to give us more time. For once we
were grateful for a storm.
That next morning sleet squalls chased snow squalls down Museum Lake,
sometimes blotting out all visibility. No amphibian could come in
through that kind of weather! The squalls continued all day.
Occasionally the sun intervened brightly and dried things up, but
wind-lashed Museum Lake was much too rough for a landing.
The boys went scrambling back to the crater at an early hour, but I had
to remain behind. The radio required constant monitoring in case the
expected inquiry on weather conditions came in from our amphibian.
To borrow an expression from World War II slang, I "sweated out" those
hours at the transceiver, and for two good reasons. One was that I
wanted news of the plane. The second was that the radio showed we were
in the midst of a magnetic storm which would play havoc with
magnetometer readings on that all-important portion of the east rim.
Radio reception could not have been worse.
About 5 o'clock the magnetic storm passed and reception became
crystal-clear. Soon Fort McKenzie came on the air to announce:
"The Canso is here!"
That was the first information I had of the whereabouts of the big
flying boat, which had been delayed 24 hours in attempting to reach
Museum Lake Monday, as previously scheduled. I chatted with Captain
Allard across the 350 miles and promised to provide him with weather
reports in the morning for the last leg of his flight to our camp.
Then came the climax of the day and the entire expedition.
At 9 o'clock Keefe and Cowan staggered into camp, almost spent with
fatigue. Their happy faces told the story.


Best wishes,

Bernd

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