Life in the Arctic Regions

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVI, Issue 15, 16 April 1908, Page 13

Life in the Arctic Regions

Some idea of the conditions under which _the .members of the Antarctic, expedition have to live may be - inferred from the vivid account of the daily life' experienced in the Arctic regions by Mr. F. G. Jackson, who brought JNansen back to civilisation. Mr. Jackson aiid his six companions spent three years in a hut twenty feet long by twenty feet wide, and only sevenfeet high, nev,er seeing any other being nor hearing ,a scrap of neiws. The worst .enemies t they had to contend with were this want of fresh comipanionship and, _the perpetual darkness in winter. Four months of solid! night every year has a depressing effect,- not only on the spirits but on the appetite, and it a lso interferes with one's sleep. Morning, noon, and "night become unrecognisable, merged into one endless &loom, and but for the welcome monthly advent of the moon, • they lived in a darkness the dreariness of which is indescribable. To Jkeep -their selves in health- during this time af darkness the explorers always took a regular daily walk. This, « unless there was a moon, was taken round and round a circle on the ice floe, marked with, small Hags, where they stumbled over the rough, hummocky ice, through the mist and driving snow, two or: -three hours each day. Occasionally a bear hunt gave a little diversion. Two or three' dogs, .which " showed some aptitude 'for bear-hunting, v were "allowed to run loose <liuring the winter, and one dog, ' Nimrod,' was tied to a rough- kennel just outside the hut. These dogs would get on the track of a bear on the floe and set up a tremendous barking, • Nirriod-' taking up tt>e chorus, thus letting, the men know what was" going on. Mr. Jackscn ' and a companion then turned out withtheir rifles, and, guided by the incessant barking of the dogs, stumbled through the mist and darkness till Mr. Bruin was located with his attendant yelping dogs. Getting to within about ten y a rds of their quarry, the hunters shot together while the attention" of the bear was taken up by the dogs, and --poor Mr. Bear rolled ~over dead. One of the men then returned to the hut to bring out a sledge party to haul him in, and bear steaks would appear on the dinner table for the next week of. so.