FIFTY DEGREES BELOW ZERO.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14250, 22 December 1909, Page 4 (Supplement)

FIFTY DEGREES BELOW ZERO.

CHRISTMAS AMONG THE POLAR ICE-FIELDS. " The most enjoyable Christmases of my life," Dr. Nansen once said, " have been spent among Arctic snows and ice. With the thermometer at 50 degrees there is a glorious sense, of physical well-being and an exhilaration, almost intoxication, •of spirits such as are unknown in lower latitudes." One of the merriest of these Arctic Christmases was that of 1893, which Nansen and his gallant comrades spent in latitude 79 degrees 11m., surrounded by a desolate waste of ice and in a temperature 40 degrees below . zero. Christmas Day was a day of uproarious gaiety, crowned by a meal tit to set before any king, though it lacked the turkey and plum pudding of civilised climes. The menu contained such tempting , items as ox-tail soup, fish pudding, with, melted butter and , potatoes, roasted reindeer, with peas, French beans, and raspberry- jam; cloudberries, with plenty of cream; cake, and marzipan,

washed down by copious draughts of bock beer.

But amid all this feasting and revelry the explorers never forgot those they had left so far behind;' and their sentiments were expressed by the poet of the party in the following lines, the intention •. of which, 'it must be admitted, was better than its expression: —

When the ship's path ii stopped by fathom-thick ice, And winter's white covering is spread, When we're quite given up to the power of the

stream, • Oh 'tis then that so often of home, we must

dream. We wish them all joy at this sweet Christmastide, Health and happiness for the next year; Ourselves, patience to wait; 'twill bring 'us to the Pole, And home the next spring, never fear!"

But the poet was no prophet, for the following Christmas found him and his fellows still cut off from the world among the Polar ice-caps, and with a more, restricted larder. Still they were able >to make merry and to drink the health of distant friends in an excellent brew from, the Arctic grape, the cloudberry— vintage which they christ-

Their . Christmas dinner was limited to cakes, of home-made excellence, -"poor man's pastry," staghorn pastry, macaroons, and honey-cakes, followed by coffee, Russian cigarettes, and another bowl of cloudberry punch. Before Nansen saw his home again he had to pass still another Christmas "almost within nodding distance of the North Pole." The Fram had been left behind, and his headquarters were a small hut, surrounded by a dreary stretch of ice. He kept the festival, we are told, by washing in a quarter of a cup of warm water, using a discarded garment as sponge and towel. In place of the Christmas dinner was a modest supper of " fiskegratin," a compound 01 powdered fisli and maize-meal, with train-oil as a substitute for butter; and for dessert, 'tread fried in train oil. And yet this sordid meal, under the most dispiriting conditions, was a high festival of mirth and enjoyment! Dr. Kane, the famous American explorer, records one Christmas spent under very remarkable conditions, at a temperature 78 degrees below freezing-point, or I degrees below the freezing-point of mercury. The crowning feature of the Christmas-festivi-ties was a farce acted by the ship's crew, ened "Polar champagne, 83rd degree."

of Which he 'following• account o. ,I The « ships thermometer, outside *E*!M 46 degrees; inside, the audience andlL* : by aid of lungs, lamps,' and j as high as— degrees, only b& ? below freezing-point, " The cotijden&l was so excessive that we could Wei, I the,performers; they walked in a dcL**. 1 vapour. Any extra vehemence of S • i was accompanied by. .volume!'6&SX Their hands steamed. . When aa e Xj. Thespian took off his coat it cmotfd R dish of potatoes. ( i lse * | How intense such cold as this 5« ■■J.' show n by • the * evidence • of. other 1 Sir Leopold McClintock,. for bow, while fledging over the ice at a' tfl ' perature of -48 degrees, a Bailor £" tioiisly lock off Inn mittens, with thi> ' suit that his hands immediately frdiP-'n' plunging 0110 of . them into a basin of,r» ( .. n the water was frozen solid, and it'WgS' mately necessary to chop the hand off ■ Even at a much higher temper'iture ik experience is alarming. 'Thus ■©* "It says:—"At -25 degrees the : Wusfi and . under-lip form pendulous beadf 5 ' dangling ice. Put out your tongue anVi 1 instantly freezes to this icy crustiL „ !i' a rapid effort and some- hand 'aid'witnlj required to liberate it. Your' chin W trick of freezing to your upper jaw JV biting aid of your beard. .My eyog'w ' often been so glued as to show that T ' a wink was unsafe." , a I

Lieutenant Peary and his wife spent a particularly bright and happy,. Christmas among'the Esquimaux during his, North Greenland expedition, 17 years ago. . "Although," he says,-"our resources did not permit us to make Christmastime a particularly brilliant event,' there w'ere > genial warmth and light, kindly' feeling, and merry-making at Red Cliff House."

As a matter of , fact, the gallant lieutenant had little cause to complain of lack of larder resources, for his Christinas dinner was calculated to pleass the taste of most epicures. There were'' salmon add Arctic hare;'.and venison,' with* cranbtt'pf sauce, green peas, , tomatoes, and .corn. Plum pudding followed, with brandy sauce; apricot pie, pears, and candies; with codetails galore, and stiuterno, for toast-drink-ing. . The explorer who could not make merry under such gastronomic condition! must indeed.be'hard to please, /

How pathetically , different was. that terrible Christmas spent by Greelyl in 1883! The promised relief ships had failed to arrive, and • Greely and his comrades were reduced to the verge of starvation 'in f theit winter quarters. Many of the brave fellow succumbed to hunger and privation long be-

fore Christmas dawned, and) ' of->- . . vivors. Lieutenant Loekwood.wr e journal on December 21 " Now • vjL. rV ous. sun commenced to return, and -u j day gets lighter and brings him near • • , is an augurv that we shall vet pull t ' . ? all right. By-a great effort I was able to Rave an ounce of bread and two ouu . .. butter for Christmas. I shall make* ?T' e ous effort to abstain from eating it then." , .j. Sir John Franklin was little more, fa™* nate on his expedition in 1819. ChvistmS found him wintering among the Cmpl , wvans; the cold was so intense that » . tea froze in the tin pots before .there ;*«» time to drink it; and a mixture • and water " became quite thick by conge'v, tion." As for provisions, they were, scarce that the dogs were reduced to a a'" of burnt leather. ■ 'J