PATER'S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2309, 2 June 1898, Page 51

PATER'S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

Greenland.

When Nansen published his book, "The Firpt Crossing of Greenland," I gave you a pretty fair idea of its contents. Though Nansen showed great tenacity of purpose and that marvellous endurance which again came prominently to the front in his Farthest North expedition, and though he did cross Greenland, yet the gains to science and the geographical information gathered were of j no great value, and the crossing took place in a far lower latitude than he had intanded.

But though there is bub little apparent profit to ba got in exploring Greenland, ib nevertheless continues to be an attraction for Arctic explorers, and especially for Lieutenant Peary, U.S.A., who has been exploring this ice-bound mass more or less since 1886. In 1392 he discovered that it was an island, and later he found thraeremarkable aerolites, which he has named the Cape York meteors. The largest weighs about 90 tons, and all of them have been taken away to adorn the National Museum of the United States. The Eskimo have a legend tha* .these three metallic masses represent an Eskimo woman and her tent and dog, she for some impropriety having been thrown out of heaven and havirg landed in that inhospitable region. . '

la his expeditions , Peavy made great use of the Eskimos, and by his kindness to them has made them faithful followers. He has, in his years of intercourse, provided them with the means of fishing and of catching the reindeer. They now live in comparative luxury, and are actually increasing ia numbers. He has taken a census of them ; knows every man, woman, and child, their name?, relationship to one another ; has traced them back to their great-grand-parents ; has gathered up their legends — has, in short, made a complete study of them. The result is, as Peary says : " They know me as a friend, they have confidence in me, and would travel with me and starve with me if necessary."

Now all this travel in Greenland and this Eskimo study has been done with an object. He intends to reaoh the North Pole, with Greenland as a base and Eskimos as his companions. In the meantime he has become the greatest glacier traveller in the world, and far and away the greatest dogsledge traveller either as regards rapidity or distance.

But it isn't abont his proposed fxpedition to the Pole that I intend to write to-day — that will come likely in a week or two ; ifc is his description of Greenland as given bsfore j the Geographical Society that I am goiog tod give you, though in a very much condensed j form. - \

Greenland is simply a ribbon five to 25 miles wine (though occasionally broadening to 60 or 80), made np of mountains and valleys and deep branching fiords — a ribbon surrounded by the Arctic Sea playground of icebergs and pack-ice, and in turn surrounding and supporting, like a Titan dam, the great ice cap beneath trhioh the interior |s covered. Presumably the country ia saoun-

tainous, like Switzerland, but; the accuma lated precipitation of ages, in i latitude and longitude where it is practical!^ correct to say it never rains and snow doesn'6 melfc, has at last buried the highest of these mountain summits hundreds aad perhaps thousands of feet deep in snow and ice. So the interior is now, as Nansen proved, an elevated, unbroken plateau 'of snow lifted from five to eight and even ten thousand feet above the level of the ssa. It is an Arctic Sahara, in comparison with which the African Sahara is insignificant, for on this frozen plateau occurs no form of life, animal or vegetable ; no fragment of reck, no grain of sand is visible. The traveller crosses its frozen wastes, and sees but three things : the infinite expanse of the frozen plain, the infinite dome of the cold blue sky, and the cold white sun — nothing but these. He knows, too, that the highest mountain summit lies from one to five thousand feet below, covered by the mighty blanket of snow he is traversing.

Tlie Lantern as an Educator.

When reading Peary's description of Greenland and bis plans for further invading the realms of the Ice King, I couldn't help envying the members of the Geographical Society. There they meet In London, and see face to face the foremost travellers and explorers. In rapid succession Stanley, Nansen, Peary, Sven He'din (he has just spent fonr years in Central Asia), fresh from fields of conquest, have related to the members their marvellous experiences. But, better even, they have been able to fully illustrate their lectures by lantern slides. What an amount cf information can be conveyed by a picture, especially if it be accompanied by a short, lucid dse^nption. Bat if lantern work makes a lecture so much more interesting and attractive for adults, how much more so would it be if used in our State (public) schools. In many public and national schools at Home (public = our high schools and national = our public) the lantern is looked upon as an indispensable part of the educational apparatus. The New South Wales Government has a nnmber of slides which teachera can make use of free of cost ; and in "the Melbourne University, I am told, there is an operator at the disposal of lecturers and professors. Oar New Zealand Government has Eets for use for the Maori schools : why not for the public schools 1 In Invercargill one of the schools, I believe, has a few sets, but not nearly sufficient for effective teaching. Dr Don, of Waifcaki High School, used the lantern in his university clasß, and no doubt does so in his present position. But lantern teaching ;'b too expensive a work for an individual teacher or even a single district to take np. How wcuid it do if the New Zealand Government supplied a fear thousands to each educational district I—or,1 — or, failing that, why not ask each Educatioa Board to get a supply for its own schools ? What; happy object lessons little folk would have 1 Then there are beautiful sets to illustrate fairy tales,, poem*, &c. Wouldn't showing; these quicken the desire for reading ? We. all know what a' holp it is to history or x geography teaching to have a few illustrative pictures. I should very much like to see something done in the way suggested. ' i There is one thing lam pleased to notice : 2>he lantern is now l&rgely used ior lectureillustrating — much more so than formerly, and at the same tima its use to show very j inartistic comic pictures and second-rate temperance tales is decreasing. That is as it should be. Vulgarity isn't amusement ; nor do repulsive pictures educate.