RUSSIANS’ VISIT TO THE NORTH POLE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 77, 1 April 1938, Page 3

RUSSIANS’ VISIT TO THE NORTH POLE

Varied Rich Vegetable and Animal Life Exists in the Arctic Circle and the Suggestion is Made that \ Health Resorts and Pleasure Cruises Might \ be Made There

W E vVould be happy, reader, if you would spend an evening with us in spirit, writes M. E. a member of the Soviet expedition to the Arctic, in the Moscow News. That this may be ifesy for you, we will give you our exact addnkss. Follow eastern coast of Greenland, turn at one of the \ orth-eastern capes towards the ice, and proceq tor about '25 miles—that is where you will f i • This drifting ice floe can no longer be :L d .he most northern floe on the earth’s sphei-, i ‘ r we have left the northern part of Greenland behind us. Our camp can be seen from a distance of about 30 yards. Fyodorov's ice-built observatory sparkles like a precious tone. Around the tent is a wide pasageway. It is not particularly pleasant here during a snowstorm. The fine snow penetrates even the thickest clothing. Some distance behind us lies a snowdrift, and farther off there is a level stretch of snow. The sound of our steps over the firm, crisp snow and the remarks that any of us make about the snowdrifts we encounter are audible over a great distance. Our tent is like a cake that has lots of icing on it. One lone currant sticks up out of it—the black insulator of the antenna. The rubber door with its fur lining is difficult to open. It is held in place by lengths of rubber which are fastened to the stays of the tent. By the way, we must stop calling our residence a tent. It is a real, solid house of which only the roof is made of fabric. We have become so accustomed to our quarters lhat we even find them spacious. Each of us has mastered his “catechism” of rules to observe when getting dressed. I. for instance, guard against the following: when sitting up in your bag, don’t bump your head against the corner of the table; when putting on your shirt, don’t upset the inkwell and Shirshov’s bottles; when you stand up, look out for the sharp screws in the roof; while putting on you trousers, don't kick the lamp over with your i. • t , qr knock shirshov’s “desk” out . ' ith yoi ' ... . - ?ne transrn -.ting station’s table is to of the entrance. Beneath it are the batteries and instruments. At the left of the entrance, a box hangs on the wall which we proudly call

our “buffet.” On the floor arc Shirshov's boxes with samples of water, and on them—several soot-covered pots containing a simple dinner. The chronometers are also located there. Two rows of cots take up the wall space from end to end. A worn-out portfolio hangs from a string at the foot of Shirshov’s bed. Here are preserved the secrets of the North Pole. For us it means a half-year of tense living, many hours of difficult physical work. We’d rather lose our heads than that little old portfolio. Between the beds is a shaky table used as a laboratory. A piece of tin is suspended above the table to protect the roof from the lamp. It is my duty to cover this piece of tin with frozen sausages. We have outdone the Moscow Gastronom (delicatessen store) for we have hot sausages at any time of the day. During the day the lamps are in the middle of the room and we arrange ourselves around them like fire-worshippers. The small amount of wall space that is free is covered with weapons, flash lights, bundles of books. Our “pharmaceutical department” is a small box hanging lopsidedly from a cord. The walls turn to a silvery white as they become covered with hoar-frost; the lamps burn dimly, but the strong, tiny group is aglow irt its work, is full of the joy of life, and happy. Contrary to previous belief there is varied and rich life in the region of the Pole. In July we observed a noticeable growth of vegetable plankton in the upper layers of the sea, and Shirshov caught many varieties of grubs, worms, and other living things. A peculiar manifestation of life was the yellowish-red colouring of the snow on one of the floes. This interesting phenomenon occurs widely in all northern seas. The red colouring is given to the ice by the unicellular microscopic seaweeds which seL'le on it. A sea otter appeared in a fisure near the North LP'-is. .tpeant that there were JA'Caty of large crabs and possibly . , small fish in the fissure. Various birds have visitea ■ the camp, and even a female bear with cubs dropped in. Apparently certain polar basin birds reach the polar zone in their migratory flights; some could be carried to the region, by strong winds. Here in the fissures they find

plenty of food, which makes it possible for them to keep alive far from their usual haunts. The route followed by the bears is more problematic, but the fact that they appear at the Pole shows that not only plankton but also fish and seals, which form the main food of white bears, live in the fissures. The huge area that lies inside the Arctic Circle is being rapidly colonised. Alaska is beginning to yield oil in addition to gold. Tr.e Yukon gold fields alone have yielded about £40,000,000. Furs are another source of Arche wealth and bring about £6,900,000 a year. Some of the most astonishing developments of Arctic lands has been through the growing of special wheats capable of reaching maturity very quickly. Although for the most part of the year the land on the fringes of the Arctic Circle is quite unsuitable for cultivation, in the summer the very long hours of sunshine make it possible for a crop to be sown, grown, and harvested in three months, and wheat and other cereals are now being raised on land which, fifty years ago. would have been considered unfit for habitation, much less for farming. At the North Pole itself there are no possibilities of mineral wealth for there is no land under the ice, but the lands fringing the ice are rich in minerals. The coal in Siberia alone is estimated to be sufficient to supply the demands of the world for many centuries, and tin, nickel, lead, and platinum are other materials that have been discovered. Their exploitation will proceed faster with the development of air-trans-port and the exhaustion of other more accessible sources. There is one other aspect of the poles that might be considered, and that is their utilisation as “health resorts.” It may sound absurd to suggest that we shall take health • cruises to land which a century ago could be visited only with extreme discomfort and danger, but the fact that polar air is absolutely clean and free from bacteria suggests that sanatoria in those . “gions might be of great value. This year Russia'Wganised the first regular pleasure service to the Are« 4 ig. and in a few years we may finu pleasure cities springing up inside the Arctic Circle, complete wif2? cinemas, hotels, and sunbathing beaches.