The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1909-09-10
DR.. COOKS GRAPHIC STORY
OF NORTH POLES DISCOVERY
BY DOCTOR FREDERICK A. COOK.

II. OOOA.
snowhouses, eating dried beef and tai
low and drinking hot tea, some animal
comforts were occasionally to be gained.
/ For several days the sight of land was
lost and overcast skies prevented an
accurate determination of our position.
On March 80 the horizon was partly
cleared of its smoky agitation, and over
the western mist was discovered new
land.
The observations gave our position as
latitude 84 degrees no minutes AZ sec
onds, longitude Sc degrees no minutes
36 seconds.
The urgent need of rapid advance on
our main mission did not permit a de-
tour to explore the coast.
Here were seen the last signs of solid
earth. Beyond there was nothing
stable, and even on scaling ice peaks
nothing was noted to mark the terrestrial
polar solidity.
We advanced steadily over the mo-
notony of a moving sea Of ice.
We now found ourselves beyond the
range of all life. Neither the footprints
of bears nor the blowholes of seals were
detected Even the microscopic crea-
lures of the deep were no longer under
us.
The maddening influence of the shift
ing desert of frost became almost unen-
durable in the daily routine. The sur
face of the pack offered less and less
trouble. The weather improved, but
still there remained light, life-sapping
wind which drove despair to it's lowest
recess.
Under the lash of duty, however, in
terest was forced, while the merciless
drive of extreme cold enforced physical
action.
Thus, day after day, the weary legs
were spread over big distances.
The incidents and the positions were
recorded, but the adventure was prompt
ly forgotten in the mental bleach of the
next days effort.
SUNBURN AND FROST SAME DAY.
The night of April was made nota-
BILE by the swing of the sun at midnight
over the northern ice.
Sunburns and frostbites were now re-
corded on the same day, but the double
days of glitter infused quite an incen
tive into our life of shivers.
Observations on April placed our
camp at latitude sc degrees SO seconds,
longitude "a degrees seconds.
In spite of what seemed long march
es, we had advanced but little more
than 100 miles in nine days.
Much of our hard work was lost in
circuitous twists around troublesome
pressure lines and high, irregular fields
of very old ice.
The drift, too, was driving eastward
with sufficient force to give some anx-
iety, though we still were equal to about
fifteen miles daily.
The extended march and the long
hours of travel with which fortune had |
favored us earlier no longer were pos
sible.
We were now about 200 miles from
the pole and the sled loads we're reduced.
One dog after another had gone into the
stomach of his hungry survivors until
the teams were reduced considerably,
but there seemed to remain a sufficient
balance of man and brute to push along
into the heart of the mystery to which
we had set ourselves.
Beyond the eighty-sixth parallel the
ice fields became more extensive and
heavier, the crevices fewer and less
with little or no crushed |
ice thrown up as barriers.
From the eighty-seventh to the eighty
eighth, much to our surprise, was the
indication of land ice.
For two days we travelled over ice
which resembled a glacial surface. The
usual sea ice lines of demarcation were
absent and there were no hummocks
or deep crevices.
NO SIGN OF LAND OR SEA.
There was, however, no percepdble