THE POLAR ROUTE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 61, 9 September 1937, Page 24

THE POLAR ROUTE

PLANS OF RUSSIANS

MAGNETIC OBSERVATIONS

That the Russians have a far-reach-ing programme of exploration and research to be carried out at the North Pole has been made plain enough in the dispatches that have come from Moscow, says the "New York Times." But details have been lacking. By piecing together scraps of information supplied by Tass (Telegraph Agency .of the U.S.S.R.) it is possible to present at .least a sketch. .. Professor Otto Schmidt has ' decided that I: D. Papanin, E. T. Krenkel, P. P. Shirshov, and E. N. Fedorov are to remain in the north for a year and make a thorough scientific study of the Arctic. A: station has been set up on the ice. No secret has been made of the fact that a regular aviation service is to be established across the Pole between Moscow and American cities. If a magnetic map of the North were available—a map which would indicate the variations of the compass needle—it would be possible to fly over the Arctic to America without the aid of the sun. Hence the presence t)f Fedorov at- the Pole. It is he who will make the magnetic observations and correlate them with the aurora—that shimmering, crackling curtain of light which has. some connection with solar activity and terrestrial magnetism. REGULAR WEATHER REPORTS. Transpolar aviators will also need good weather reports. This means a regular ■ meteorological service. Even now. the Russians are sending reports on polar weather four times a day to Moscow. ' ' '. ' The weather observations will help not only aviators but the whole North and weather men all over the world. Despite the books published by famous explorers of the past, very little is known - about Arctic weather. An organisation is needed —a series of stations equipped with the best recording instruments. The Russians will create it. With adequate reports from the Arctic it will be possible to forecast the weather not only in the entire frigid zone but even in temperate latitudes. Our weather is made in the Arctic. It was Nansen who discovered that Atlantic and Arctic waters are interchanged by currents. But under what conditions? Mr. Shirshov, hydrologist and hydrobiologist, will seek the ans-

wer.' As.he and his companions drift about soundings will te taken, and samples of water will be brought up everjr two hours', analysed for salt and other chemicals, and the temperature determined. It is significant that a buoy thrown overboard five years ago in the Arctic by the icebreaker Sibiryakov was recently found in the Bay ,' of Biscay. Evidently the buoy drifted into the Arctic basin north of Franz Josef. Land. The. east. Greenland! current carried it to the southern extremity of Greenland. There it was caught by the Labrador current and svvepit to Newfoundland. Here the Atlantic current picked it up and crin-veyedittothe-Bay of Biscay. In-five years 8083 miles were travelled. WRITINGS ABOUT THE ARCTIC. A collection of documents and articles about the North Pole will soon make its appearance. It will not be confined to the work of Soviet scientists and explorers. The diaries of Amundsen, Peary, and others will also be included. . Tho publication office of the Administration of the Northern Sea Route has issued the fourth volume of Amundsen's flights in the Arctic. He was a pioneer in Arctic flying. ■ Even before Professor Schmidt, and his companions reached the Pole the Russians had gathered much material about drifting ice and life in the Arctic. This immense amount of information is to be published periodically. The Chief Administration of the Northern Sea Route is now preparing an "Ice Manual" for 1936—0ne of a series to summarise the observations of many stations. At Leningrad a special hall devoted to Profes-.or Schmidt's flight to the Pole is t(> be opened in the Arctic Museum. The institution already has enough exhibits to tell the story of exploration chronologically. These go back to Pytheas (326^ 8.C.), who planned to sail into "the mysterious land of the midnight sun," and are to end with the latest expedition. In addition, the wealth and variety of Arctic fauna will be displayed—polar bears, white foxes, ermines, seals, walruses, sea-lions, and fish—as well as mineral resources. Since science must have a social value to good Marxists the Soviet Government has not stopped hej.e. The nationalities of the North are as of such importance as timber, gold, and pelts. So the museum has on display newspapers and magazines, scientific books, and stories in languages of the Arctic. Some of these works, as might be expected, are translations from Lenin, Stalin, Pushkin, Lermontov, Tolstoy, land Gorky., They are not sporadic publications, but typical reading matter to be found in many a public library in the Far North. Lastly, there is an exhibition of the arts and crafts of the North to drive home the creative ability of tribes upon whom city dwellers are apt to look down.