Nelson Evening Mail. WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 15, 1009. THE STORY OF ARCTIC EXPLORATION.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLIII, Issue XLIII, 15 September 1909, Page 2

Nelson Evening Mail. WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 15, 1009. THE STORY OF ARCTIC EXPLORATION.

TWO CENTURIES OF ENDEA-" .) YOUR. . iAB supplementary to our articlo of Monday last, and to tho cabled information relative to the discovery of the North Pole after nearly two centuries of Arctic voyaging, it m*y be of general .intorest to give » brief review of tho various Polar expedi : tions- that have sot out, and the previous records that havo beon established. Exploration in the far North has been much more extensive than in the far South, chiefly because the Arctic ia much nearer to the great maritime nations, and its waters merge with tlwso which in modern imes have been the principals highways of sea traffic. The onrmercial instinct that led to the rirst great Arctic voyages had tw siinct phases. One was the endeavour to extend the limits of the northern fisheries; and, while Arctic whaling added a vast sum to tli woaltl; of the world, it naturally resulted in the extension of general knowledge of the North Pole region. The other phase was tbo desire tc shorten the water route between the ports of West Europe and the rich Orient by finding a north-west, or a north-eaet, passage .between them. This ambition was a great stimulus to exploration from tho days af Barents, Baffin, and Hudson, near the beginning of the 17th century, until the timo of Sir John Franklin, two hundred years later. • • • • • • The commercial incentives for Polar exploration predominated till far into the nineteenth century, and were strongest in the «?rth, near the seafaring nations, with the *eß«ft that while the unknown area of tbo Arctic regions was only about as extensive as Europe and Russia, that of - the Antarctic regions was double the size of Europe. Bince . th»p, scinetific research has added to the knowledge

j which sailors and fishermen obtained for us; but generally -peaking' attention ia<? .freen more directly, centred upon the A'cfcaretic than the Arctic Cicle, and the recejjf achieve 1 ments of the Shackleton Expedition have cry«tali-e4 tho ambitions of explorers in the direction of. the South Pole. Fully one half of the area of the Axetic belt consists of -well-known land, of which, however, only small portions in Northern Russia, Sweden, Norway, and Alaska are Scattered Eskimo huts dot sthe sea shores of the north east of America, tho Parry Archipelago, and Greenland, and hunting bands of Samoyedes winter in Nova Zembla. The Archipelago of Franz Josef Land, Now Siberia, Spitzbergen,, and Wrangeli Land, in tho Eastern Hemisphere, and all lands to the north of the 79th parallel in the WeMcrn. world, aro uninhabited, and exploration has turned in those directions. » * • • • • Tho six main routes of approach to the unknown Arctic Ocean and its scattered island* aro tbo Nova Zembla, or N.E. Passage; flip Franz Josef, or Barents Sea; the Spitzbergen, or Greenland Sea; Smith Sound; Lancaster Sound, or N.W. Passage; and Behring Strait, After tho discovery of America efforts were made to find the N.E. and N.W. passages to India. Of early English explorers Willoughby .and Chancellor in 1553 opened Archangel Bay, and Willoughby and two of his three Bhdps wero involved in the first great Arctic tragedy. The leader' and 62 .of his men. perished of scurvy -._uring the itirAp-ry Burroughs (1656) and : .Pet'. : (il§B-£; xUscoverOd andi ex"picwrea the- Waigat— a r st*a.it leadjng to the Kara Sea, south of Nova Zembla, Among the early voyages, "the' most - successful'- were those'" if .:•-.■ -yy^yZ 5

"William Barents, a Dutchman, who in 1594 traced tbe coast of Nova Zem-lii north-east to tho Orange Islands in 77deg: north. ,In the following year he failed to pass the Waigat, but in 1596 sailed under Jacob Heemskerck, but parted from him, and rounded the North Cape of Nova Zembla. Barents died, after great privations, while they were re- . turning south, and after they had to abandon their ship; but this last voyage of his was one of the most important of all the journeys to the Arctic frontier, inasmuch as he showed the terrifle pressure of the Polar pack upon tho nonth coast of Nova ZeinMa, and the existence, at least occasionlly, of much open water to tho north, a fact that expedited many voyages to and from Franz Josef Land. Out «6 Chancellor's voyage arose the Muscovy Company, •which was of incalculabe advantage to English commerce. Barents also gave a start to the Dutch whalefishing industry. ••• • • * Russians took up exploration between 1636 and 1648, and determined the separation of Asia from America. A century later there were a score of expeditions, and "the great survey." The North Cape • of Asia was discovered in 1742, and in 1737- j 42 Dmitri Laptieff practically completed the exploration of the Asiatic Polar coastline. More than 100 years later Nordenskjold solved the problem of the ■eircuinnavigation of Asia and Europe, and in 1879 completed without disaster the traversing of the N.E. Passage. The north-east passage was further opened by two Aiistrians-^-C. Weyprecht and J. Payer— -who expttored the Barents Sea. . Their ship, the TegQtthof, drifted northward for a year, and they saw the southern shores of Franz Josef Land in August, im, when the ship was abandoned. Payer, by sledge journeys, explored many of the islands of Franz Josef Land. Much work of a similar character was done by English explorers between 1880 and 1887, including Lpigh Smith and F. <J. Jackson. The American exr' ' plorer, . Wellman, who was unsuccessful in Spitsbergen in 1894, renewed his efforts to reach thp Pole in 189? by way of Franz Josef Land, and about this time E. B. Baldwin, through his discovery of Graham Bel' Laud, extended tha a*chipclago to 65deg. east. 'In 1899 the Due d' Abruzzi reached 82 deg. 4 mm. i north, north-east of Rudolph Island, whiffi bi? assistant, Captain Cagni. r starting for tUp Pole, ranched 86 defr. 34 mm. north, 64 deg. east, the most northerly poimt then attained by man, and 236 statute miles from the Pol>3 — the nearest then reached. ...... In 1893 Nansen made his daring attempt to reach the Pole, nnd to e>-- , plore the vicinity by a drift voyage i of tbe Fram. After his vessel had E drifted almost uninterruptedly until f she readied gC4cg. smin. north, 7P deg. east, and ran a course tp north- • west Spitzbergen, Nanson left h : s ship with Lieutenant Johannossen i* March, 1895, and Bta»tfld'on a sledpc trip to the Pole. 'Fhey travelled as! far as (Mifrg, 4mi". north, 96dep. east, when uuiav-UfSt-Wo ice conditions compelled thorn to rfrtufui and, f travelling south by sledge and kyak they were, after a hazardous journey, [ saved by the Harmsworth- Jack son expedition, near Capo Flora. In th southern p,art of Franz Josef Land The researches o- Nansen proved tho existence of a warm polar basin, and i while the Fram expedition found n-> j • land }» Jhe Polar Ocean, it was prov-! Ed that from .404 -?gs to lOdeps. east j tlime sea- was - of gr_i->t deptl', with rich fauna. Tt had been sur posed previously that tins part of th Polar Sea was shallow. | It remained for an English expedi-tion-^-that $f gir John Franklin — to solve tho problem of .t.h.e N,W, Pas sage, partly through its own efforts f and largely thros*gh relief voyages Sir John Franklin was despatched ? from England witb IWO ships and 129 ', men to make the N.W. Passage. Win , tering in 1845 at Beechy Island : Franklin explored the. adjacent rf gions to 77dog.- north. Sailing south 1 to tho "svpsfof North Somerset aud . Boothia, his -jjipa wero beset, in . September, 184(5, toea/ Jiing William Land, in 70deg. .Sraijj, " north, 98deg. 23min. west, withi? 90 milo , of the known sea off the American continent. The only recovered re , cord found by Hobson of M'Clintock's iparty in 1859 shows that the , ships were abandoned in April, 1848, \ Franklin and 23 others having previously died. i_a_.faiu. Crozier, with 105 men, perished' in an attempt to , reach Fish River. • route via King William JJ3I?„, Todd and Montreal Islands is nnafkpd by gyayps and skeletons. The party practically vanished from human knowledge until Bae, in 1854, and M'Clintock, in 1859. revealed its fate. The search expeditions after Franklin added a grfeat deal .to geographical knowledge, in the exploration of the American Arctic regions from the west coast of Greenland westward. Several expeditions have been in process 4nring more recent years. In July, 1908, Comm^nrjpr Peary, of the VS. Navy, set out on his thii-'d quest of the North Pole, nnd his recont return, and the rival claims of discovery of the Pole by him and Dr Cook, are now ngitating the scientific world. In- the same quarter the Dane, Knud Rasmussen, made a . sledge expedition across Smith's Sound io EJlesmerb Land - in 1907, with the view jrf gfa^ying the pos- , sibilities of a more extended g.xpeflition through the Arctic Archipelago , to tho west, and he returned to Don-

mark in 1908. "Various sledge parties mi-dc th^ir way in 1907 to the north-east coast of Greenland, and one of them, under Rasmusson's former chief, Erichsen, perished in a vain attempt to return; its fate not being ascertained until the next spring. One of the ujygtpries of polar research particularly interesting in view of the developments of aerial navigation is the attempt of Herr Andrea, whe, with two companions, set out in a balloon to reach the Pole. Their fate has never been known. Quite recently again, Wellman's attempt to get to the goa\ failed, a_ was reported by cable, owing to the collapse of part of his equipment, and his expedition had to be abandoned until next soason.