Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1910-12-17
DR.. Cook BlameS
North Pole Fake
TOMental Stress.

lInpO5SQ exile VI OIle year. Ia SOoh
win arrive from Europe probably on
next Wednesday. The doctor has con-
fesscd that he did not know whether he
reached the North Pole or not and in
tomorrow's issue Of Hampton's Mag
azine. he tells Of the mental and
physical stress he labored under on
his journey northward Dr. Cook,
speaking of the trip over the ice, says:
There was little in the white waste
about me to occupy nay attention.
Sometimes a spot on the horizon, or
the twist of q dogs tail would fasci-
nate me and hold my attention for
many minutes.
During this time, from the early
days of our journey, as l want to
show, everything centered about the
idea of the Pole. Then. to bewilder one,
to set one laughing with silly amuse-
ment or to fill one with sense Of awe
there early began q procession of mi
RACES and optical Illusions. The mental
effect I find it difficult to analyze
Sometimes these exaggerated trans
formations had the effect of bringing
far off objects apparently near to US.
This often caused confusion in esti-
mating distances
Just after Heibergland had become
a dull haze behind US, these fantastic
unrcalties of the North began t. man
ifest themselves most. Peaks OF snow
were transformed in volcanoes, belcil-
ing smoke out Of the pearly mist.
rose marvellous ordeals, with fairy
castles; huge creatures mis-shapen
and grotesque wreathed along the no.
rizon. The spectral denizens of the
North accompanied us during the en-
tire journey and when tagging CT brain
and sapned of bodily strength I felt my
mind swimming in sea of half-con-
seriousness. they filled me almost with
| horror. impressine me as the monsters
one sees in a nightmare.
"Traveling in wind that seems to
! petrify the flesh, the temperature MI
nus as degrees or even minus SO de-
grees. F.; the lashes of our eyes froze
| together as we winked and when we
rubbed them and drew apart the lids.
| the icycles broke the tender s'sin. Our
breath froZe on our faces. Often we
had to uncover our hands and apply
| the warm palms to the face before it
was POSSIBLE TO see.
| when I recall the many hair
breadth escapes from death, the haz-
! ards we took, and feel again that prvs-
ical and mental suffering, I wonder
wehther any living man would do this
were he premeditating a line
That I Gid travel upward Of $500
miles in some direction. even rly enc
mics credit
| whether went directly north or
/ was diverted at times does not. can
| net. change the facts Of nv experience
| We We're comnelled on our journey tC
| go in various directions to find war
| We made wide detours, at other times
| we had to retreat and find new PAS
| sages. Perhaps. in so doing. I did be-
come confused and over-estimated my
| progress. If that is SO, it is q fact
neither / nor anyone can settle now.
| Wherever l went. maintain it was
northwar6. and I did reach a spot
| which I believed to be the Pole.
zone day as very like another. Be
yond the SD parallel life was devoid
| of any pleasure. The intense objective
| impressions OF cold and hunger as
sailing the body rob the mind of in
| SEPARATION and exhliration.
"At times it was impossible to per-
|
at,ng unearthly WEAKNESS, filed the
brain with fag. When perspiration
oozed from our pores it froze in tho
garments and the warmer portions of
our bodies were fronged with snow.
| Daily unremiltingly this was our ag-
ony.
"My boys had the advantage Of
sleep. I envied them. Anyone vino has
| suffered from insomnia may be able in
| a small degree to gauge nv condition
when sleep became impossible. To
reach the end of my journey became
| the haunting, ever present soading
| thought of my wakeful existence.
"At the end of the polar night, late
| in February, up to the sleep Of April
| :, estimated by various systems Of
reckoning that we had covered a dis
lance which placed me somewhat over
200 miles from my goal. The sun, be-
cause of clouded skies. had not been
visible before. but now it was seen
for the first time at midnight, and it
assumed strange shape; I have de-
scribed it as a vase of blue fire. from
which rose luminous flowers. / have
spoken of the distorted faces which
leered at us over the horizon. Some
times in our northward progress these
faces laughed, again they scowled
what the actual confgurations were
do not know.
Despite physical lassitudc and
suffering which made 1t painful to
move, l took observations in a reg
ular, mechanical way. The much-a-
do since made about such proofs
never at that time occurred to me or
seemed possible. Although I had gone
on other expeditions, and mad per
formed scientific work, such a feat
as this always meant to me the sat
isfaction Of q spiritual hunger rather
than a trophy to be laid before geo
graphers, who never stepped out of
the protected circle of their home en-
vironment.
II never expected that my accom-
plisnmcnt of the pole. Ii l did that
would be Regarded rs Al thing of great
Importance to science, which it is not.
Il want to be honest in this; and
right here | say that any ohserva-
tons | took We're taken. first of all
for my own satisfaction. to check
our line of march. The constant
travelling over miles of ice and the