Public-domain ebook
Language: en371 downloads on Project Gutenberg
Subjects
In: The Mentor·Adventure·Travel Writing
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #49811.
The opening · free to read
It is nearly four hundred years (1526) since the first recorded expedition went forth to seek the North Pole under the initiative of England.
Trade, the great prize of the commerce of the opulent East, land lust, and the spirit of adventure in turn played their part as incentives for the earlier expeditions. It seems to be generally accepted that nothing had a more powerful influence on the work than England’s determination to have a trade route of her own to the riches of the East, independent of the southern routes controlled by Spain and Portugal. It was this determination that made the terms Northeast Passage and Northwest Passage historic, and brought about years of search that, though latterly scientific, have been largely the acme of adventure and sentiment.
_Dog sledges used by Peary on his expedition to the North Pole._]
From the misty date of Pytheas (325 B.C.) down through the succeeding centuries, the record of polar exploration contains much of interest, of mystery, of superstition, followed by some of the grandest epics, most heroic efforts and sacrifices, and somberest catastrophes and tragedies in all the wide field of exploration. Briton and Scandinavian, Teuton and Latin, Slav and Magyar, and American, have entered the lists and struggled for the prize.
_Peary’s ship, in which he sailed to discover the North Pole._]
In the earlier years of this long record occurred the strange voyages of the Zeni, and Eric the Red, Icelandic outlaw, with his discovery and colonization of Greenland,--strange stories of hot springs in that far country, with which the monks warmed their monastery and cooked their food; a tribute of walrus tusks toward the expenses of the Crusades; tales of the rich green pastures, and herds of grazing cattle, of these colonists, and later their mysterious and complete disappearance, leaving only a scattered ruin here and there to show that they ever existed.
The first, from 1526, the time of the first North Polar expedition by England, to about 1853, the close of Great Britain’s Franklin search expeditions. In this period the preponderance of British efforts over those of all other nations combined was so great as almost to obscure them and make this period preëminently British.
In this period British navigators essayed every route to the polar regions, attempted the Northeast and Northwest Passages again and again, and wrote some of the most brilliant pages of Great Britain’s history over the names of Hudson, Davis, Baffin, Ross, Parry, Franklin, McClintock, and others.
The second period covers from about 1850 to 1895, In this period other nations--the United States, Germany, Austria, Sweden, and Norway--showed equal activity with Great Britain, and the names of Kane, Hayes, Hall, Lockwood, Brainard (United States), Nares and Markham (Great Britain), Koldewey and Weyprecht (Germany), Payer (Austria), Nordenskjöld (Sweden), and others were written indelibly into Arctic history. In this period the record of farthest north which had been held by Great Britain was wrested from her in 1882 by Lockwood and Brainard of the United States.
The third period is from 1895 to date. In this period, while other valuable work was being done,--as Amundsen’s navigation of the Northwest Passage, Sverdrup’s extensive discoveries in the North American archipelago, Erichsen’s completion of the last gap in the north Greenland coast line,--three men, Nansen, Abruzzi, and Peary, each having for his object the attainment of the North Pole, pushed in succession far beyond the farthest of their predecessors, penetrating the inmost regions of the north, and the last named attaining the Pole which had been the prize of centuries.
Briefly summarized, from 1526 to 1882 Great Britain held the palm of nearest approach to the Pole, slowly pushing the record up till Markham reached 83° 20´ north latitude. Then the lead came to the United States with Lockwood and Brainard’s 83° 24´. In 1895 Norway went to the front in a great leap in Nansen’s 86° 14´, and in 1900 Italy grasped the blue ribbon with Abruzzi’s 86° 33´. In 1906 the United States took the lead again with Peary’s 87° 6´, and finally closed the record with his attainment of the Pole on April 6 and 7, 1909.
The exploration of the Antarctic regions dates back much less far than that of the Arctic. In 1772 Captain James Cook first crossed the Antarctic Circle and penetrated the Antarctic regions. After him came the Russian Bellingshausen in 1819, who discovered the first land within the Antarctic Circle. Then came Weddell the British sealer, who in 1823 pushed his sailing ship south into the great bight southeast of Cape Horn, named after him Weddell Sea, to 74° 15´ south latitude, 241 miles beyond Cook’s record, and not exceeded in that region until the last year. At Weddell’s farthest no land or field ice was to be seen, and only three icebergs were in sight.
In 1839-1841 occurred the important voyage of Sir James Ross. Ross a few years before had located the North Magnetic Pole. He was now in command of the Erebus and Terror, two ships that a few years later were to bear the Franklin expedition to its fate near the same North Magnetic Pole. Ross discovered South Victoria Land, directly south of New Zealand, with its long stretch of southerly trending savage coast line from Cape Adare to 78° 10´ south latitude, where he found an active volcano, Mt. Erebus. From here Ross followed the edge of the great ice barrier some three hundred miles to the eastward. The great indentation in the Antarctic continent thus discovered and navigated by Ross, and named after him Ross Sea, has since been the base of operations from which the South Pole was twice attained.
_Photograph taken at the “Top of the World.”_]
“FARTHEST SOUTH”
After Ross came various minor expeditions contributing to the knowledge of the Antarctic regions, and in the 1890’s began a renaissance of Antarctic interest and exploration. In 1892, 1893, 1894 Scottish, German, and Norwegian whalers reconnoitered the Antarctic seas of Ross and Weddell in search of new whaling grounds, and in 1894 the first landing was made upon the Antarctic continent by some members of Bull’s Norwegian crew; in 1895 Newmayer introduced in the sixth Geographical Congress in London a resolution upon the importance of Antarctic exploration; and in the years following there was an international attack upon the problem by Belgium, Great Britain, Germany, Scotland, Sweden, and France. In 1898, for the first time in the history of Antarctic exploration, an expedition (the Belgian under Commander de Gerlache), passed a winter within the Antarctic Circle beset in the ice; and a year later, in 1899, a British expedition under Borchgrevink passed a winter on the Antarctic continent itself, and made at Cape Adare, in Ross Sea, the first attempt at land exploration.
In 1901-1902 a German expedition under Drygalski determined a new part of the coast of the Antarctic continent south of Africa, and three others, under Bruce of Scotland, Nordenskjöld of Sweden, and Charcot of France, made valuable discoveries in Weddell Sea, and the regions southeast, south, and southwest of Cape Horn. In 1901-1903 Scott of Great Britain, selecting the Ross Sea region discovered by Ross sixty years before as his base, effected the first serious land exploration of the Antarctic continent. In a magnificent sledge journey he covered three hundred and eighty miles due south, reaching a point within four hundred and thirty-seven miles of the South Pole. Following Scott, his lieutenant, Shackleton, in 1908-09, using essentially the same base and route as Scott, made an even more brilliant journey, and reached a point within ninety-seven miles of the Pole, January 9, 1909. At that time this was the “farthest south” record.
The successes of Scott and Shackleton still further stimulated interest in the Antarctic problem, and in 1910 and 1911 Great Britain, Norway, Germany, Australia, and Japan sent expeditions into the field; the United States unfortunately, as in the past, being unrepresented. Four of these expeditions--the Japanese, Australian, Norwegian, and British--selected the Ross Sea region south of New Zealand and Australia for their work; while the German expedition selected the Weddell Sea region southeast of Cape Horn, the most promising of all points of attack upon the Antarctic continent. All these expeditions have now returned. The Japanese expedition explored an unknown section of the coast of King Edward VII Land east of Ross Sea, the Australian expedition explored a long stretch of Wilkes Land west of Ross Sea, the German expedition made new discoveries in Weddell Sea, reaching a point farther south than ever before attained in that region; while Amundsen’s Norwegian expedition, from its base in the southeast angle of Ross Sea, attained the South Pole, December 14 to 17, 1911, and Scott’s British expedition, from its base in the southwest angle of Ross Sea, attained it a month later, January 18, 1912, Scott and his four companions dying of cold and starvation on the return.
The record of Antarctic exploration from 1772 to date may be divided into two periods; the first from 1772 to 1898 and 1899, a period of summer voyages only, the work carried on entirely by ships, with no land or sledge work, and no attempt to winter in that region. During this period, though other nations, notably the United States and France, took part in the work, the work of Great Britain was so pronouncedly preponderant as to more than equal all the others combined. The second period is from 1899 to date, and is the period of overland exploration with sledges. In this period, as in the last period of Arctic exploration, three men, Scott, Shackleton, and Amundsen, each having for his object the attainment of the South Pole, pushed so far beyond all predecessors as to be in a class by themselves, two of them, Amundsen and Scott, actually reaching the Pole.
After the foregoing condensed résumé of Arctic and Antarctic exploration and discovery, I feel sure the reader will be interested in noting some of the striking contrasts between the two Poles and their surroundings. These contrasts are as great as the Poles are far apart. The North Pole is situated in an ocean of some fifteen hundred miles’ diameter, surrounded by land. The South Pole is situated in a continent of some twenty-five hundred miles’ diameter, surrounded by water. At the North Pole, Peary stood upon the frozen surface of an ocean more than two miles in depth. At the South Pole, Amundsen and Scott stood upon the surface of a great elevated snow plateau more than two miles above sea level. The lands that surround the North Polar Ocean have comparatively abundant life, musk oxen, reindeer, polar bears, wolves, foxes, arctic hares, ermines, and lemmings, together with insects and flowers, being found less than five hundred miles from the Pole. On the great South Polar continent no form of animal life is found.
Permanent human life exists within some seven hundred miles of the North Pole; none is found within twenty-three hundred miles of the South Pole. The history of Arctic exploration goes back nearly four hundred years. The history of Antarctic efforts covers one hundred and forty years. The record of Arctic exploration is studded with crushed and foundering ships, and the deaths of hundreds of brave men. The record of Antarctic exploration shows the loss of but one ship, and the death of a dozen men.
The book keeps going
Reading is free forever. Sign up and watch scenes appear while you read.
Scenes Storieta drew for other classics.
New illustrated classics
Once or twice a month: the latest books to get full character casts, scene art, and free comic editions. No account needed.
