The oil-drilling rig and its surrounding shacks lay dim in the dawnlike light of Arctic high noon one day last week. Suddenly the direct rays of the sun, unseen for more than a month, spilled over the bleak horizon and splashed against the top of the 127-ft. derrick. Getting a nod of assent from the driller, Eskimo Roughneck Elijah Allen, 22, darted to the derrick ladder and scampered up the frosted rungs. As he neared the top, he turned his happy moonface into the thin yellow light and yelled a piercing greeting.
The sun's tentative heralding of distant spring was...
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