Daily Kennebec journal., 1901-12-21

| WIN niue IlOatlnc creatures. Sculllng
along like miniature Jelly fish. white al
along them squirm countless thou
sands of annelids. fiat sea-worms that
| !eminG You OF the eCc,.eS Of or sun
mer ponds. Upon these .ceti not only
whales, but vast swarms of smelt-lik.
candle fish. white fish, and hosts OF
| Others. All summer long, great ilock-
of wild fowl of lf-hundred varie-
ties fatten on these sea squirmers un-
I'll they are too plump to rise from the
water and fall an easy prey to the
| Eskimo hunter.
| 1t Is proba Bile that the very pole has
| its few weeks Of warm summer. during
| which. if there is a land area. gras
grows and flowers bloom. Certainly
| this is true of the most northern shores
OF our continent far within the Arctic
circle. One may see. off shore. a
hundred beluga. white whales. rolling
along through the sea in porpoise- like
plunges. advancing. flashing under the
sun. like foam-crested tidal wave
while fiocks of diving and splashing
wild fowl dot the sea. sometimes clear
to the brink of the eternal ice. On the
cliffs one will find innumerable lovely
wild-f!owers blooming in waving grass.
with butterflies and bumblebees among
them, the snow-bunting nesting. the
ground-squirrel burrowing and breed
ing. ptarmigan. snipe. plovei. and
many other birds hunted by the white
fox. the red. blue, and black fox. the
weasel, marten and mink while the
wof and great snowy owl hunt them
all. One will also find there the
fossils that prove that the frigid land
Was once an Eden of tropical luXuIi
ance. where Adam and Eve may have
roamed and loved. But the frost came
swiftly. for the maStoGon and mann
moth were frozen in by it before their
flesh had. in some instances, time to
decay from the bones. and the
Eskimos VIII tell you that now and
then i'll the spring frcshcts tho still
undecayed bodies are washed out and
the natives so fortunate as To discover
them fed their dogs on the flesh. Why
should not the scientific man ti,l il
TIE Arctic a glamour that draws him
thither with irresistible fol,Hr Trir
Ultima Thule is fun of things n.y.: and
strange which he may classify. study
and reduce to TIE ecstasy of cxa";
knowledge
But when all is said and done. the
Arctic impulse is more than this and is
bred in something different. 1t reaches
many a man only through the narrative
of some other. Yet even at this long
distance il leases us. sends out s!en6c,
tondrils that twine about the imag agirI-
ton and literally draw US northward il
our dreams. There is an atmosphere
there that subtly Woos the stranger. 1t
was this subtle breath that drew
.AnIree to his death in the mysterious
mists This il was that led Peary and
Nansen to first st their faces toward
the pole.
But once having tasted the strange
delights Of the region. once having
Ieei ed into the face of its aWesome
mysteries. no man may escape its
nccromancy. Ever the mirage hovers
above it. and makes the goal seem
but a step beyond. then WithdraWs it
into the mists Of mystery. One may.
watch q wolf there, lopng along the
shore 4 half mile away. Put it is not
= wolf. The glamour Of the Arctic
l.ft5 it. lengtheni it upward till it is Il
ltritabIr giraffr. 1t lopts now on =
rcal l-GrIy cloud that raises il above
the :srav sand Of tn. beach Then the
cloud VaniShes and its feet are again
on the sands but it is now a behemoth;
and as YOU call your comrades attcn-
ton to it the monstrOSity Shrinks
again and bounds over the hill, merely
d fox after all But was ii a fox? Was
il not some strange animal from the
undiscovered country about the pole?
NJ ,re than one whaling captain of long
experience in these seas will tell you
of coming to anchor under we'll
known headand only to have it mock
him by gliding away into distance 50
far removed that it was necessary TO 90
to the masthead To locate IT, IN"
mirage had brought it In him for
moment only to Withdraw il again.
perhaps even farther than it really
was in actual fact. Under the half
year day the mirage and mist wreath.
and through the half-year night the
dancing Splendor Of the aurora. make
NJ the glamour that holds the explorer
erchaincd within the enchanted
region. happy. when away. only in the
expectation of returning. Tn" man
caught by this n"cromancy never eS-
canes. When e ears the north a
coIljny' e won't ever 'eed aught else.
Thus Pcary MANNED by froSt-bite ami
growing old in service trampS its SpongN
tundra in summer. and iimps. trudE's
over it's hergs in winter happy that h''
is il, the far North. although kindred ann
friends. wife and children. comfort ana
home wait him thousand miles "
southwartl Thus Sverdrup. hrav"d death
in the Nansen expedition, and now braves
II aeairi in one of his own. Thus sprin~
i'm SCORES of Young men who cast Comfoi:
ana civilization aside ANA plunG" INTO I'M
tantaiizng mystery. vanish ioT yeats,
and If they come back at all. bring scant
remnants Of information that are OF uS''
mainly to others who wish to follow IN
their footsteps. Til" bones Of thosa Wh"
rnrr not back whitcn in a hundred ic'
caves Such spirits nave III them tht'
passion that l[ipling kl1e" 50 wei whtH
he wrote:
I'VE have fed our sea Tor u thousand
y"ars
And she calls u4. stll unf"d.
Though there's never Il wave ot al hcf
waves
I;,It marks our English dead.
The true Arctic impulse at its best il
mot measured in the desire IL pos" or :"
make money Its boundaries are not IN
snring fret nor the desire for Scientiilc
knowjc,l.re nor in all th"S" con!bintd
II is cicarest defined in the haunting De
sir. that thrills some men 70 Ptnttrat"
,h. mysterious. to fathom the unknown
vet even in rhes. we fail u max IN
knowledge of il fully ours fhere IS NOR:
,,.hfn1 IL than al a. these. IT Is as II