The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1907-01-15
STRUGGLE FOR THE ARCTIC.
Canada and the United States May
Conflict Over New Lands.

st. Johns IN. F. Cor. Chicago News.
Peary's great feat in carrying the Stars
and Stripes nearer to the pole than any
previous explorer may overshadow anoth-
er result of his work in the arctic regions
the exploration and annexation of lands
there for his native country. During the
past twenty-five years Greedy and Peary
have eharted, deimited and claimed for
the United States Grieg Land, Buchanan
Bay and Strait, FIT. Gonger, Cape Wash
ington, Lincoln Bay Grinnell Land, Grant
Land, Mckinley Sea, Roosevelt Land
Hazel Land Independence Bay and Peary
Sound. Peary has not yet announced
what title he will give to his most recent
discovery, the area 100 miles west of
;. previously surveyed and mapped out dur
ing the past spring after his return from
his great poleward dash.
West of Peary the remotest regions
have been viewed and mapped by Amund-
sen. the Norwegian, who has accom-
plished the northwest passage and who
has claimed for his country all the pre-
viously UNEMPLOYED areas which came
within his ken. Canada now claims no
land from Baffin Bay in the Atlantic,
Lancaster Sound its northwestern eX-
tension; the Franklin Territory. compris-
ing the islands north of Hudson Bay,
which We're discovered by old-time Brit
lsh explorers; the scattered islands eX-
tending along past her Manitoban and
Yukon Territories to Barrow Strait,
which gives access to Barrow Strait and
Beaufort Sea, that washes the northern
shore of Alaska. Thus from the North
Atlantic TO the North Pacific beyond this
stretch of territory there is an immense
extent of this segment of the Arctic Cir
Gle which Canada is unable to claim by
right of discovery and the American or
Norwegian title to which she will find
it difficult to dispute in the light of the
principle of discovery justifying owner
ship, which has always ruled with regard
to lands in remote and unsettled portions
Of the globe.
Canada is endeavoring to retain all she
can within the above-described area,
which she calls Franklin Territory, and
she has had in these waters all the last
summer the steamer Arctic, one of her
government cruisers, under the command
of Captain Bermer, the well-known
French Canadian shipmaster, who has
been for years advocating a polar eXpe-
dition under Canadian auspices, but has
never been successful in securing suf-
fcient funds. The Arctic herself was
formerly the Gauss, which conveyed the
German expedition under Professor Dry
salsli in quest of the South Pole and was
sold to Canada on her return from Ant
arctic waters.
THE Arctice sailed from Quebec in July
If this year and in August was the first
ship to cross Baffin Bay, owing to the
usually long continuance of the Arctice
Ice pack there, which defied all efforts of
he Scotch whalers from Dundee to reach
their accustomed hunting grounds. The
Arctic went north 300 miles through Lam
caster Sound discovered and annexed
twelve new islands there, and was only
deferred from further progress by an inn
passable ice barrier. Next season an
other attempt will be made to reach an
extreme northing, but meanwhile she has
gone into winter quarters at Ponds Inlet,
BafYin Land, so as TO be ready to make a
lash into untraversed waters so soon rs