LIFE AT THE POLES.*
COMMANDER PEARY started on his latest expedition to the North Pole on July 26th, 1905. One might suppose that this was somewhat late in the year for a beginning, as the summer would be on the wane. But the real effort of the under- taking, the Polar journey itself, has to be made at a time which necessitates a previous wintering at some convenient spot—if any spot can be called convenient—in the Arctic region. Commander Peary achieved his nearest in the expedition of 1902 on April 21st, and it was on the very same day in 1906 that he neached his "furthest North." He improved 84° 17' into 870 6', a gain of more than two hundred miles. The same gain repeated will accomplish the task.
The winter of 1905-6 had been spent at Cape Sheridan, a place which may be generally described as being on the northern shore of Grant Land, and more particularly as lying on the western side of the channel which is known by the successive names of Smith's Sound, Kane Basin, Kennedy Channel, and Robinson Channel. Cape Sheridan was reached on September 5th. "At 7 a.m. the Roosevelt, racing with the incoming pack, was driven through a narrow stream of ice and fairly hurled into a niche in the face of the ice-foot under the extremity of Cape Sheridan and made fast. The ice was packed heavily against the point of the cape, and grinding past it. Before our lines were made fast the ice had closed in upon us and the open water behind us was rapidly disappear- ing." The situation does not seem intrinsically desirable ; but it was, in fact, what the explorer had desired, and bad with some courage declared to be possible. "A suitable ship" was one of the stipulated conditions ; and this he bad. We wonder as we read bow the earlier Arctic navigators accom- plished what they did without the motive-power of steam. "I kept both watches of firemen on," writes Commander Peary • (1) Nearest the Pole. By R. E. Peary, U.S.N. London : Hutchinson and Co. 121s. net.]—(23 The South Polar Tones. 2 vols. London Smith, Elder, and Co. [f6 62. net.]
in describing the crisis of the effort which brought the Roosevelt to Cape Sheridan, "and routed out the chief engineer ahead of his watch because it was evident that we must get through now. In a few minutes the Roosevelt was in the thick of it, throbbing like a motor, the black smoke pouring from her stack, and successfully forced her way through."
The sojourn at Cape Sheridan lasted up to February 19th. The time was not spent in enforced idleness, or even in the simulated activity with which it has been usual to cheat the long Arctic night. A number of settlements had been made in the interior. From these came periodical sledge-parties bringing loads of musk-ox meat. "There was constantly something to talk of and something to look forward to." There were the preparations for the spring sledge journey ; and, less agreeable distractions, anxieties about the ship, which was necessarily in more or less danger, and about other matters. The great trouble of this time was the mortality among the dogs. Eighty died before the cause was discovered in the whale meat which had been provided for their food. At one time it seemed that they would be reduced below the number indispens- able for the sledge journey. The start for the Pole was made on February 19th-23rd from the ship, and on February 28th and following days there were five parties setting off separately from Cape Hecla, which lies some forty miles north of the winter quarters. The story of the journey must be read at length to be appreciated. No extracts can do justice to it. The great hindrances were a long delay when the weather was tine, and a gale which blew from the Pole for six days con- tinuously—" unprecedented" our traveller calls it—but there is always something of the kind in Arctic voyaging. When the gale abated rapid progress was made. In one march of ten hours thirty miles were accomplished ; the Eskimos esti- mated it at forty. But the stock of provisions was growing low, and the dogs were dying off, sometimes being killed to feed their fellows,—almost as shocking a thing to read of as cannibalism. The highest points of earlier explorers had been passed, the Duke of Abruzzi's being the furthest. The temptation to make a last desperate rush was resisted, the Stars and Stripes was hoisted, and then the party turned back "in the deepest fit of the blues," says Commander Peary, "that I experienced during the entire expedition." How strange it is to reflect that all this effort began with the attempt to discover a North- West Passage which was to make an easier route for the riches of the East!
The record of Antarctic exploration is wholly free from any motive that is not disinterested. Its latest effort—as far, at least, as British enterprise is concerned—has an appropriate memorial in these stately and costly volumes. In view of the necessity of finding some distraction for the Polar winter—eight days longer in the Antarctic than in the Arctic region, because the earth being in aphelion moves more slowly—it was resolved to start the South Polar Times. In 1902 five numbers—April to August—were pub- lished; in 1903 three appeared, the May and July numbers being omitted. The Times was typewritten, and the eight numbers are now reproduced in facsimile, with many quite admirable illustrations. The contributors numbered nineteen in all, seven of whom were officers, five men of science, including the doctor, and seven members of the crew. The first paper is by Captain Armitage, second in com- mand, and relates an Arctic experience, a sledge journey in the spring of 1897, ending in a vow that these regions should see him no more. Why he should have "gone to the other extreme," so to speak, it is difficult to see, unless, indeed, there is a voice in these desolate regions, this terra domibus negate, which insists on being listened to. Not long after we come to another equally surprising statement, an A.B. telling his readers that be had determined to join the expedition because his lungs were weak and his physician had recommended a change of air. In starting a new consumption sanatorium in these parts there would be the advantage of getting as much land as was wanted at a very cheap rate. The third number contains an interesting account of an experiment with a captive balloon. The idea was to rise above the Barrier and get a wide view of what- ever that great obstacle might conceal. The transport of the gas was a serious matter. This was put highly compressed into cylinders ten feet long and as many inches in diameter. Each contained five hundred cubic feet of gas, and sixteen should have sufficed for a balloon of eight thousand feet capacity. But the low temperature necessitated the use of nineteen, and another, in the opinion of the engineer, who writes the account, would have improved matters. The balloon rose seven hundred feet, but no land could be seen, even with the help of a powerful glass. The fact is that there is not much of any kind to be seen in these regions. The atmosphere shows, indeed, the aurora, the halo, whether of the sun or of the moon, and the corona. A curious, and as yet unexplained, phenomenon is that a blizzard from the South brings with it a rise in temperature. The sea abounds in life; there is a modest list of birds, but there is little else. There was, it is true, an imported flora. Various vegetables were grown with success. Mustard-and-cress was planted on flannel, and this was set to float on a liquid which contained potassium, nitrate, salt, and other ingredients necessary for plant life. Other seeds were sown, some in soil, others in a nutritive solution, and placed under the ward-room skylights, and in time gave, on occasion, a valuable addition to the fare. Dr. Koettlitz, who relates the experiments, thinks that mustard-and-cress is best adapted to the purpose. For the general story of the expedition the reader will, of course, go to Captain Scott's admirable narrative. But the South Polar Times well fulfils its function of showing us an interior of life resolutely cheerful under conditions which made such a temper anything but easy to maintain:
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