The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1902-06-04

your companions. IL tne Wlnu OlOWS
hard 1t always carries needle-like crys-
tails of ice, and this drives down your
back with an unpleasurable ease. IL the
camp Is pitched in some nook out Of the
wind, you are quickly buried under
drift Of snow. If the sleeping-bag is too
| thin or too thick, IL 1t Is too long or too
| short, or II 1t has any one OF dozen
| faults, It makes life a torture. Some
prefer a 'one-man bag" others bag
| for three. Now, I like "three-man
| bag but I want to select my bed-fel-
lows carefully, and I also want to se-
lect my position in the bag. When
three men are slipped into a bag, like
fingers into a glove. there is not much
room for discussion. Such men must
not have bristles which can be rubbed
the wrong way, for there Is nothing
worse than sulphurous language in
sleeping-bag. 1t does not matter how
charming a companion man may be
ordinarily, he is a different sort Of Il
creature in bag; and then, too, men
have such different ways when asleep.
COLD NOT WORST DISCOMFORT.
1t Is the general belief that polar en-
plorers suffer mostly by reason of the
intense cold, and that success or fall
ure is due to the powers Of endur-
ing low temperatures, but this Is far
from the truth. True, there are snow
and ice everywhere In evidence. Snow
falls during the summer as we'll as
during the winter. For this, however.
we are prepared: suitable garments
and experience so fit the body that we
do not really suffer much more from
the effects of cold than does a New
Yorker in winter: and we avoid the
life-reducing heat Of the home sum
mer.
Still, do not mean to infer that the
cold is ever forgotten. The conditions
are such that the absence of heat is
constantly brought to mind. When we
start out from our comfortable rooms
at headquarters we emerge from an
agreeable temperature of seventy de-
gres into an icy air Of minus forty de-
grees. which makes difference of one
hundred and ten degrees of cold within
ten seconds. This causes the breath
to come in jets Of steam, and soon the
whiskers, the eyebrows and every
fragment of hair and FUR about the
face are covered with icicles and cgys-
tails of hoar frost; beautiful little
things, but they do not seem pretty at
all to the possessor, for he is constant
ly brushing them off, pulling out
punches of hair and blowing out warm
phrases. One never learns the real
trouble of the life Of the frigid zone
until he has his face bejeweied with
icicles.
Owing to the natural laws of radia-
ton the extremities lose their heat
first. The careless traveller constant
ly suffers from cold hands and feet,
and ever a careful adept loses his fin
gers or toes with remarkable ease. We
start out on mission, travelling over
the icy waste of white wilderness, and
for a time all are happy, comfortable
and contented. After a few hours we
become thirsty, but we well know that
there Is nothing to quench our thirst,
for, though there is water everywhere,
1t is frozen. Later, we become hum
cry, but we must delay satisfying the
pangs until our destination is reached.
We plod on and on over the weary
SHOWS until we find camping place.
Then we pitch camp; but now one has
a stinging feeling in his toes; after a
time this vanishes and is replaced by
loss of sensation In a large part of the
foot. The boot Is removed and through
the many thiclsnesses Of hose the thing
feels like something foreign. One stock
ing after another is cautiously taken
off, but still thefe is woody touch to
the foot. WheH the last stocking Is
stripped down the foot is found white
and glossy, like porcelain. A more care
full examination reveals the fact that
one or two toes are missing, and then
the sock is shaken for the missing bits
before an effort is made to restore the
circulation Of the icy tissues. But an
explorer must learn to rise above such
little discomforts. He who cannot af-
ford to lose strips of his skin, or parts
of his hands and feet, is not worthy to
be counted among the braves who seek
the poles.
DEPRESSION OF TERRIBLE LONE
Illness.
No! 1t Is not the cold which makes
the life of frigid explorers hard. 1t is
the hopelessness of the unimaginable
isolation from the accustomed walks Of
life. Perhaps 1t is unbecoming to the
supposed austerity Of explorers to adj
init that the withdrawal of the little
home and social incidents Of life are
the causes Of the greatest discomfort,
but this Is nevertheless the fact. One
misses most the little touches of ROM
ance which are unconsciously part of
our daily entertainment After being
locked in the ice and forced to endure
its awful monotony for few months,
what would one not give for letter.
or word from home, from mother or
sisters, or other mems sisters? Ordi-
narily men do not know what it Is |
which makes life enjoyable. but he who
aims to reach the North Pole will
quickly learn he suffers not from the |
cold or hunger, but from the little |
nothings of home and social life which |
are far out of reach.
might go on and recite a hundred |
other lessons which go to make up the |
schooling of, and desperation of, the
pole-seekers, but must hasten to rec
ord the comforts. These are few, but |
they exist to him who seeks them. |
For here Is the world nearest to it's |
youthful character. The moving crust |
of the earth, with which we drift, the
hardy, simple life, and even the sky,
all suggest period of the earth In its |
infancy long before the advent of man.
1t Is this strange simplicity. this other
world air of terrestrial youth, which
makes the polar regions SO fascinating
to nature-loving man. Everything
about is simple, yet clothed in mystery;
every phenomenon. like a shy maiden,
is attractive but difficult of access.
Every point Of attraction which at
first bewilders US by it's strangeness.