On the northern tip of Canada's most northern island, the tenth largest island in the world, lies one of Earth's last great wilderness domains. Lying just 800 kilometres from the North Pole and 25 kilometres from Greenland, our second largest national park offers spectacular mountain scenery, huge glaciers, deeply incised fiords, and ice shelves extending far into the sea. Lake Hazen, the largest lake within the Arctic Circle, offers a unique opportunity to observe the wildlife and vegetation in the fragile environment of a polar oasis. First inhabited some 4 000 years ago by a small group of Palaeo-Eskimos who very probably arrived in Alaska from Siberia much earlier, Ellesmere Island is an important archeological site connected with the first humans in the region. In the late 19th century, European and American explorers began to arrive in wooden ships to fight often-tragic battles against cold, fear, and the months of darkness and isolation of the frigid arctic winter.