Science: On Lake La Berge

Last spring Skipper Wheeler of the river packet Casca made a strange etching on the frozen surface of Lake La Berge, Yukon. With an old broom and buckets of refuse oil mixed with lampblack he drew a line 40 ft. wide across a 29-mi. stretch of the lake's surface.

In a physics book Skipper Wheeler had read that black absorbs sun rays, holds heat. His black strip, he reasoned, would hold the small heat of the feeble spring sunshine, melt the ice earlier.

In one month his 29-mi. black ribbon cut down into the ice one foot. It continued to melt the ice away and the Casca sailed out some 30 days earlier than usual through a nicely defined channel.

At White Horse, last week, 100 barrels of old crankcase oil and 1,000 Ib. of lampblack were unloaded for Capt. Wheeler. This year he has a tractor and a pressure spray to paint with.