The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-05-18

the sleeping bag is too thin or too thick.
IL ii is too long or too short or If it has
any one OF a dozen faults. it makes life
torture. Some prefer a ''one-man bag"
others a bag for three. Now l like a
s'three-man bag." but 1 want TO select my
bed-felIows carefully, and / also want 10
select my position in the bag. When three
men are slipped into a bag. like fingers into
a glove. there is not much room for discus
sion. Such men must not have bristles
which can be rubbed the wrong way. for
there s. nothing worse than sulphurous Ian
guage in a sleeping bag. IL does not matter
how charming a companion a man may be
ordinarily, ne is a different sort OF crea-
ture in bag; and then. too. men have
such different ways when asleep
COLD NOT THE WORST TRIAL.
1t is the general belief that polar explor-
srs suffer mostly by reason Of the intense
cold. and that success or failure is due 10
the powers OF enduring low temperature,
but this is far from the truth True. there
are snow and ice everywhere in evidence.
Snow falls during the summer we'll
during the winter. For this. however, we
are prepared; suitable garments and expert
ence so fit the body that we do not really
suffer much more from the effects of cold
we avoid the Iife-reducing heat of the home
summer.
still I do not mean to infer that the cold
IS ever forgotten. The conditions are such
dhat 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 degrees into an icy air of minus
Of
110 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 crystals
of boar frost; beautiful little things, but
they do not seem pretty at all to the pos
sessor, for he is constantly 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 zones
until he has his face bejeweled with icicles.
Owing 10 the natural laws of radiation the
extremities lose their heat first The care
less traveller constantly suffers from cold
hands and feet and even a careful adept
Noses his fingers or toes with remarkable
ease. We start out on a mission. travelling
over the icy waste of white wilderness, and
dor a time all are happy, comfortable and
cortented After A few hours we become
thirsty. but well know that there is
nothing to quench our thirst. for though
there is water everywhere. it is frozen.
later we become hungry, but we must de-
lay satisfying the pangs until our destina-
fion is reached.
We plod on and on over the weary SHOWS
until find camping place. Then we
pitch camp: but now one has a singing
feeling in his toes; after time this
sshes and is replaced by loss of sensation
In "A large part Of the foot. The boot is re-
moved and through the many thicknesses
of hose the thing feels like something for
eign. one stocking after another is
cautiously taken Oft. but still there is
woody touch TO the foot. When the last
stocking is stripped down the foot is found
white and glossy like porcelain. a more
careful 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 afford 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 fTigid explorers hard. 1t is the hope
iessness Of the unirna ginable isolation from
the accustomed walks of life Perhaps it is
Enbecoming to the supposed austerity of
explorers To admit 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 romance
which are unCOnsciously part of our daily
entertainment After being locked in the
ice and forced to endure its awful monot-
ony for a few months, what would one not
give for a letter, or a word from home,
from mother or sisters, or other mems
sisters? Ordinarily men do not know what
st is which makes life enjoyable. but he
who aims To reach the north pole will
uuickly 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.
1 might go on and recite a hundred other
lessons which so To make up the schooling
Of. and desperation of. the pole-seekers. but
j must hasten TO record the comforts. These
are few. but they exist to him who seeks
them. For here is the world nearest 10 its
NOulIlul NudIdtltis Illt ulONluS crust OF
the earth with which we drift the hardy
simple life. and even the sky. all suggest a
period of the earth i'm its infancy long be-
fore the advent of man. 1t is this strange
simplicity. this other-wOrld air of terres-
trial youth. which makes the polar regions
so fascinating TO natuTe-lOvinS man.
Everything about is new, yet old; every
sight 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 its strangeness, becomes
written page 10 be added to the future
annals of science. There are a hundred
things which. in this way, daily present
new aspects and urge the mind out OF its
lethargy of mOnotony into a state of fasci-
nation.
1t is this fresh interest in the unknown
which makes life tolerable We all like to
ponder over the days of our youth; those
OF an inquiring turn of mind love 10 reflect
upon the youthful days of the earth; and
looking at the polar world. a whole. it
bears a close relation TO what it must have
been when man first came TO it. Life under