The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-09-07

For 400 years science and adventure
have thrown themselves vainly against
the ice barriers and the ice foes which
prevented them from attaining their
object, and the Arctic seas are strewn
with the wrecks of the vessels and the
desolate ice plains are covered with the
bodies of the men sacrificed in the
quest.
The search for the north pole at the
earliest recorded periods appears to be
mingled with an attempt to solve the
northwest passage in the interest of
commerce. In fact. down to Sir John
Franklin's day that seemed to be the
chief object of these adventurous navi-
gators.
The Inflated expedition of Sir Hugh
Willoughby, 1858; Richard Chancellor,
1854, and Sir Martin Frobisher 1878,
were all animated by the commercial
tie or no part in them. They were all
accompanied by large loss of life and
even thus early in recorded expeditions
did the stern northland begin to collect
its tribute of human lives.
Among recorded explorations John
Davis, the Welshman. appears at the
head of the list. for in 1887 that in
trepid navigator reached 70 degrees Il
minutes before he fell back before what
seemed to him a hopeless task. This
was after he had cruised in Arctic
waters for over two years. Twenty
eight years later, Capt. baffin, whose
name is always linked with Arctic
chimes, reached n degrees and As min
Utes when he, too. turned away before
the ice barrier between GrInnen Land
and Greenland. Disease and cold had
decimated his crew and he said the
northwest passage was impossible.
Nothing stopped Them.
These navigators who had been back
ed by private capital searching for gain.
wrote accounts of their voyages that
were enough to daunt the hardest of
and not the loss of money and ships
were sufficient to deter others from
making similar attempts
These men had attempted to gain
their point from the western hem
isphere, but while they were doing
this others had tried the same thing
from the esatern hemisphere. Par
ticularly Admiral Barents and Capt.
Hoemskerck and the noted Henry
Hudson. Barents in 1894 had reach
ed II degrees. when ice foes turned
him back, and Hoemskerck two years
later reached 70 degrees and 40 min
utes. Hudsons farthest north was
made in 1907, at so degrees and 23
minutes.
For more than 100 years after this
the Arctic circle smiled grimly, for no
one with any success attempted to
penetrate its vaStness.
But with the beginning of the
nineteenth century the fever again
broke forth and the English as usual
were the most adventurous. Bold
and able easmen like Ross and Parry,
Sir John Franklin and Scorsby at
lacked the ice pack, some from the
eastern and some from the western
hemisphere, with varying results.
Ross in 1927 cut a new notch when he
reached 81 degrees and As minutes.
Parry in the same year reached 81
degrees and As minutes
New Lands and Waters.
Parry. an experienced navigator.
who already had accompanied other
explorers, discovered a number of new
lands and waters which he named
and claimed for the British throne.
His farthest north was attained after
more than ten years of exploration in
Arctic waters. He was knighted and
otherwise rewarded by the English
government for his achievements.
Sir John Franklin. of whose ex-