The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-01-13
POLAR POSSIBILITIES.
DR. COOK, THE EXPLORER, DIS
CUsSEs THE CHANCES OF
REACHING THE POLES.


REACHING THE POLES.
Arctic Exploration should Attain Its
Goal by the Old Method OF Dog
SledGes-rhe Problem Is One of
Food and transportation, Purely.
Small Chance of Reaching the
south Pole, Which Is at the Sum-
init of a Mountainous Continent
Frozen Deep Beneath Vast DepOs-
ties OF Ice-Almost Nothing Is
Known of This Region, but 1t Is
Probably Broken Up Into Sharp
Ridges Beset With PeriIOus Grew
asses-A Sea of Pack Ice Fences IL
On-DesirabiIIty of Reaching the
Magnetic POIcE-The Northern One.
Once Attained Has Probably SAnce
Moved-TO Reach the south Mag
netic Pole VIII BE "a Difficult Jour
ney, but a Practicable One-It Has
Never Been Located.
Copyright 1901. by F. A. Cook.
New York, Jan. flowing to the failure
of the efforts of past ages we are likely
to conclude that the North Pole is not
accessible; but no expedition has ever
turned back because Of unsurtnountabl
barrier. or because of the impossibility
of marching farther. The real difficulty
is not the cold or the imped1ments of
travelling over rough ice, 1t is the unim-
aginable hardship of carrying food, fuel
and bedding for a journey that is certain
to require five or six months.
The man who aims to reach the pole
need not necessarily be one who has great
muscular development or unusual powers
of enduring, cold, nor need he be an ex-
perienced pedestrian. His success or his
failure will be measured by his ability to
carry supplies. and by his power to adapt
himself TO the other-wo conditions of
life, which obtain in such an undertake
ing. The beautiful success of Lieut..
Peary, DIR. Nansen and Prince Luigi with
dog sledges, with old and tried methods,
and the unfortunate failure of Wellman
and Jackson with their many newly in
vented articles of equipment, clearly prove
that we must work along the lines of the
Odd efforts. The pole is in no danger of
being captured by the sudden bound of an
up-to-date invention. We must walk to
1t with our luggage.
How the North Pole May BE Attained
1t is possible to push to the S0th par
allel, or very close to 1t, with a supply
ship. In some longitudes a vessel could
force her way further, in others not
quite so far, but 10 degrees is, in a gen
eral way, the dinstance to be covered
on foot over rough sea-ice, by an eXplor-
ing party. Allowing for the many GER
tain detours and the return journey this
distance will figure up to not less than
2,100 geographical miles. No men, It
matters not how adept they have be-
come or how perfect their equipment, are
likely to average more than II miles
daily The surface of the ice is such
hat there are many days when the party
will exhaust all it's strength in advanc-
ing two or three miles; and then there
are the storms, the many soul-racking
tempests which often make active work
impossible for several successive days.
When the ice is smooth and the weather
favorable 1t will at times\ be easy to
cover from 20 to 30 miles daily, but an
average of u miles for all kinds of going
is a maximum. Since the distance is 2,10L
miles it would require nearly six months
to make the journey to the pole ano
back again.
Men who have been in the polar. re-
gions know that 1t is possible to spend
six months camping on ice and subsist'
ing on the simplest foods. 1t is true thai
with this kind of life there is considerable
risk of sudden heart or kidney disease
and there IS always the possibility OF
scurvy and a fatal kind of anaemia
Health, success and even life depends
upon the quality and the amount of food
fuel and clothing, and ample experience
has shown that it is impossible to carry
a sufficient supply of these for a period
OF six months.
That which constitutes possibility for
man with mis- present means to reach the
pole is the reasonable certainty of push
ing an advance station beyond the SOD de
gree of latitude. To this, then, may be
added another hope which it is always
reasonable to entertain; that of securing
some game en- route. From the S0th to
the 84th parallel, over the more difficult
ice of the outer fringe of the pack, there
is a good prospect of securing bears, seals
and birds, both on the poleward and on
the homeward Journey. This probability
Of securing game may be reckoned as oe-
ing equal to another supply station at
the 84th parallel. We thus have but SIX
degrees to cover in which we cannot eX-
meet 20 augment the food supply, This