ARCTIC FALLACIES.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXIII, Issue 3075, 5 November 1929, Page 6

ARCTIC FALLACIES.

HEAT AT THE POLE. How hot it was! The men stopped, mopped their faces, and moved sluggishly on, wishing that they had not worn, such heavy clothes. They complained bitterly of the heat; and -when these men, used to the warmth of sunny Italy, so complained, we may be sure that it was hot indeed. Nor was this along the equator, or even in the torrid zone. It was in the Arctic. The men were Italians, searching for their compatriots and friends who had been on board the Italia, General Nobile's ill-fated North Pole dirigible. The reactions of this party to Arctic heat are vouched for by no no less an authority than Viljhalmur Stefansson, the explorer, and are presented in an interview by John T. Brady in the Boston Post, together with other such "myth-shattering" assertions as that few Eskimaux have ever seen a snow house. Said Dr. Stefansson further of Arctic heat, according to Mr Brady:— BIG AS A PIN POINT. "Since the North Plole, which is mathematically only as big as a pin point, is theoretically the spot farthest away from the equator, the public mind, in its desire for heroes, has assumed on the basis of the old Greek temperature laws that it must necessarily be the coldest and most inacessible place on earth. And it has also been assumed for the same reason that bitterly oo'ld winds blow away from it in all directions, making it all the harder for men to reach. "But all these assumptions are untrue. It is never as cold at the North Pole as it is in several places in the United States. In Havre, Montana, for example, a temperature of 68 degrees below zero, or 100 degrees below freezing ,has been recorded; yet scholars agree that at the North Pole the temperature could never be more than 60 degrees below zero. "And as for being the most difficult spot tlo reach, it so happens that because of the influence of the Gulf Stream it is not in the centre of the ice pack, and this centre is twice as hard to reach. In August it is only 400 miles from the head of the ice to the North Pole, but it is 800 miles to the centre of the ice pack, which is called the Pole of Inaccessibility. "Sitting under the awning at the North Pole on 4th July you would find the temperature about the same as it is here in this room, but if you were sitting in the glare of the sun you would find it comfortably hot. "I sometimes say, jocularly," the explorer remarked, grinning, to his interviewer, "that the reason why we have a higher percentage of myths and misconceptions about the Far North than we have about any other region of the globe is that it is the traditional- home of Santa Olaus, and as he is purely an imaginary figure people like to set him off in ima©inary and romantic surroundings." Quoting further: "But I think seriously that the real reason for the persistence of these erroneous conceptions of the Arctic is that the public has a subconscious desire to worship heroes and heroism, and a great device for satisfying this desire is to conjure a region of such terrible aspect! that any man who goes there must be hailed as a hero, and always regarded as such. WHERE IGNORANCE IS BLISS. "Naturally, Arctic explorers, perhaps not always to deceive, have been hesitant about enlightening the public as to the real conditions of the Far North, because they have realised that if they tried to shatter age-long romantic legends and traditions most people would rtefuse to believe the truth and would even resent it as an insult to their intelligence. Most people think they know a lot abotfu the Arctic, and if you suggest that their knowledge is based on error you touch them on a sore spot. Even though you give them most convincing} evidence that their cherished romantic beliefs have no basis in fact, they are reluctant to part with them. "Therefore it is very difficult to correct many wrong but popular impressions about oil-drinking) Eskimos shivering in foul ill-ventilated snowhouses because of unbearable temperatures. "Moreover, those mistaken ideas of the Arctic have been ingrained in our thoughts for 2000 years, most of them having been handed down to us from the ancient Greeks. "They knew the earth was a sphere 500 years before Ohrist, and divided the earth into four zones.—the temperate zone, where it was never too hot in the torrid zone because of the was always so hot that no living thing could exist there; and the frigid zones at the extreme north and south, which were pictured as permanently frozen regions, because life was as impossible because of freezing; as it was foi the "torrid 4me because of the burning. HEAT 'AT THE POLE. "This law of temperature as evolved by the Greeks was beautiful, simple, symmetrical, and logical, but wrong as the public knows if it stops to think. However, most people are in-, telleotually lazy, and they still persist in believing the old Greek proposition that there is no heat, but intense cold, at the North Pole, without giving a thought to the fact that this may apply in winter butt not in summer. "Now, as a matter of fact, the sun delivers at the North Pole, in the vicinity of 4th July, approximately the same amount of heat per 24 hours as it does on every square mile of the earth's surface from the equator to the Pole."

For the weary brain-worker tnere ore worse ways of spending a welcome "night-off" than by the fireside, with pipe and book. But the tobacco for such occasions should be something that can be smoked with enjoyment for three or four hours at a stretch without biting the tongue or other unj pleasant consequences. Where is. such tobacco to be found? Why right here in New Zealand 1 And it owes its excellence largely to being toasted That's why the flavour is so good and the aroma so fine. And that is why, also, it contains so little nicotine, excess of which does all the harm when smoking proves injurious. Imported tobaccos contain five or six per cent of nicotine; toasted tobaccos hardly any. And these are the only toasted tobaccos. They are the purest, most innocuous, and most delightful of all! Exclusively manufactured by the National Tobacco Company, Ltd. (pioneers of the N.Z. tobacco industry), they appeal to all smokers. Popular brands: Riverhead Gold (mild and mellow); Cavendish (the famous sporting mixture); Navy Cut No.lo (.dark and full-flavoured). \oV)