The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1910-12-16

~NAos
the practical man-and who finally to
himself, If to no other, is satisfied
that he has accomplished his desire
My conviction may be beyond the
bounds of reason. Sometimes now |
feel that it is. Again l do not. / do
not know. Moreover and especially
since | have viewed men from a Pc
culiarly suspicious, though unenviable
angle, of late, l have been impress
ed with the instability, the illogical
ity OF all human reason
/, AS an illustration of the peculiar
effect the far north has on one, Ut.
Cook says that after leaylng Heiberg
Land, the fantastic unrealities OF the
north began to manifest themselves
most. Peaks of snow were transform
ed into volcanoes, belching smoke;
out of the pearly mist rose marve-
lous cities with fairy castles; huge
creatures, misshapen and grotesque,
writhed along the horizon. These
spectral denizens of the north accom-
panied us during the entire journey
and whom tagged OF brain and sapped
of bodily strength, ! felt my mind
swimming In a sea of half-conscious-
ness, they flied me almost with ter
ror, impressing me as the monsters
one sees in a nightmare.
Cook explains his mental condition
partially by his inability to sleep.
ANY one who Las suffered from in
somnia,' he says, may be able in a
small degree to gause my condition
when sleep became impossible. To
reach the end of my journey became
the haunting, ever present, goading
thought of my wal1eful existence.
Il never expected that my aocoE-
plishment of the pole, If did it.,
would be regarded as thing of great
importance to science, which it is not.
want to be honest in this and right
here ! say that any observations |
took were taken first of all for my
own satisfaction, to check out the
line or march They corroborated
my growing consciousness of sue
cess. The constant travelling over
miles of ice and the enduring of pain
engendered in my mind conviction
which no figures could have evoked.
At the time, however, | did not
doubt my figures. The thought of in
accuracy never occurred to me. True
was mentally disposed to credit
favorable reckoning. Were my obser-
vs. ations Incorrect? 1t is quite pos
sible. Analysing them and the condi-
tions, physical and mental, under
which they were taken, l do not
know, can never tell ultimately
The thing that convinced DR.. Cook
and his Eskimos that he reached the
role was the fact that they attained
point where their shadows at noon
and midnight were of equal length.
'.At noon, he says, "the shadow rep
resented in its length the altitude of
the sun, about II degrees. At six
O'Clock it was the same. AT midnight
It was the same. At six O'Clock in the
morning it was the same. Let us, for
the sake of argument, grant that all
our instrumental observations are
wrong. Here is a condition of things
in which ! still believe the eye with
out instrumental assistance places
the sun at about the same height for
every hour of the day and night
DR.. Cook described how his two
Eskimos played with the shadow cir
cles. Here then. Tie doctor concludes.
Il felt was an important observation
placing me with fair accuracy at the
pole, and unlike all other observa-
tions, it was not based on that i'm
possible dream of absolutely accurate
time 1t is known that after long fast
ing, spiritual frances and hallucina-
tions of the religious ascetic, my
mind, starved by impoverished blood
and shaken with faintness reeled. My
thought that | was here, on the very
rpex of the world circling an un-
known mystery, where no man had
ever stood, was intoyication.