THE ARCTIC'S GRIP

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 112, 14 May 1934, Page 7

THE ARCTIC'S GRIP

WHAT EXPLORERS MUST DO

ESKIMO TECHNIQUE

; c The Arctic is like a beast of prey. ;-Every few years it-takes toil of human life, crushing it in its awful grip) writes D. Michcll Pierce, the explorer; in-the'"-Daily Express." One hundred 'and ono Russians, women and a child: among them, are fighting it, marooned,on an ice-floe in the Bering Sea. Last September their ship, the Chcliuskia, engaged on a Soviet scientific cxpecfitioh, became locked in the ice on iis way back from Wrangel Island. There, was nothing those on board could do but; sit tight through the dread winter mouths in the hope th«t "assistance would reach them before the ship broke up. Now news has come through" that the ice has crushed her and she has foundered, one of the men being killed by a crashing beam. All the others on board have been driven on to the ice with their stores, tents, ' and wireless outfit—their one link'with civilisation An that, devastating waste. They .have a small aeroplane, but it cannot take off from rough ice. ORelief; aeroplanes havo been waiting at Providence Bay all the winter, but it has not been possible. to use them. Thjey will be. used only in a-last, desperate, despairing dash if those on the floie are in danger of death from" starvation, j ,' I'know thisgrim Arctic. I spent nine years there', from 1924 to 1932, working in- boats of all kinds, fighting all sorts . of. conditions of ice and weather. l nog, r storms, blizzards, a temperature which drops to 60 degrees below ; zero, ice which may bend under you or close in and throttle you, inexact charts and maps to work by, or none at all—that "is the Arctic,' a region which can break hearts as well as ships and make you feel, sometimes, that there is no way out of it onco you are in. ' One of the supply ships in which, I served, the Bayehimo, was subsequently wrecked in the ice. I have been temporarily locked in the ico myself, and it is no pleasant experience. You are trapped; the' Arctic has laid its cold maw on you. If the ship breaks up you take to the ice with; sleds and dog teams—supposing you've- got them on board—and try to trek to the mainland. - MANY HAZARDS. . <^But you must know- something of Eskimo technique if you are going to survive under these conditions. You must know how to build a snow-house and how to drive a team and get the best.out of it. . ■ : Tides may cause the ice to crack and open under your snow-house,, putting you in a panic. The long trek over tho ice is full of hazards, apart from tho question of food. At times the ice "will sink or tilt under you, giving you an all-gone feeling. At others you will have to leap across a lead of freezing water, dragging the leader dog with you and hoping the others—and the sled, with your priceless possession's to stave off cold and starvation —will follow without coming to "grief. If the; sled sinks you must stand by and cut the dogs free. Or you may just save it by pushing a tent pole under tho runners and bullyin'' it to safety. ■ ' ' - -. ■~ ■ I had; an experience of this near Elhce, 'White Bear Point, when establishing a post., One ruse, when you want your dogs' to pull like mad, is to send ahead one of the party who pretends to be chopping up food for them. Nothing- can keep- them back then. There are griiit stories of pluck: and endurance in the annals of this Arctic * • j Ih^al3 the' Karluek, a Canadian Arctic Expedition ship with 25 on board, drifted 1000 miles before she was wrecked in the ice; Eight of the party perished on a 60-miles trek across the ice. to Wrangel Island; three more were lost there from scurvy or starvation. The skipper was Captain E. A. Bartlett, who accompanied Peary almost- to the Pole.- Bartlett and another man trekked 100 miles to the mainland, and then, another 700 to the wireless station at Emma Harbour, with a dog team. ' BEAR MEAT. -■ ': V c Many ships responded to. the call for' assistance, and the main party, who had spent "all summer .in. the island,-were! rescued/in the autumn., . ■'. ■ ' ; D_eath overtook two or three natives, fleeing.from authority, who set out to trek .70 miles across the Bering Straits from Siberia to Alaska. Only one reached shore; the other two were drowned. Peary,. above all, showed what could be done in-the matter of Arctic travel on his journey to and from. the Pole. His achievement represented a perfection, of the art of travelling on ice, and he lost only one man, whe fell through when crpssingi a newly frozen lead on the way back. Ho had mastered the Eskimo technique. , I have little do,ubt, myself, that I couia travel all round the region where the Cheliuskm party is marooned,.hunt for my food, build snow-houses for refuge in the Eskimo mariner, and come thrpjigh safely in the end. Snowhouses are better than tents—though you have to know how to build them; the'Siberian'natives do not. -In a-sealing camp'2o miles offshore -from the. Berry Eiyer* I lived on seal and bear meat for some time, and was iio"_ worse for the adventure. .It is mainly a' matter of resource—and experience.'; One must know the Arctic, and it'takes a good deal of knowing. , Despite the odds against them—the ' presence of women is a physical handicap, though perhaps an inspiration in other ways—there is reason to hope that the Cheliuskin party mil survive their terrible ordeal.