The Ordway new era., 1914-01-23
LATEST ADDITION ~, * S2n. ~ y
TO ARCTIC NAP & sss5ES Ss1
T HAS often required in
polar exploration. as In
many other phases Of hui
man activity. that the so
called last word Is not
the final one. When the
remarkable series of arc

"a
tic expeditions came. to
an end, after years of fruitless search
for the long-lost Sir John Franklin.
the feet commander. Sir Edward
Belcher. write "The Last of the Arc
tic Voyages"
No one was more surprised than
Belcher when McClintock's search In
the Fox was initiated, and the final
record was made Of Franklin's death
and Of the discoveries of his ship
mates. And then followed that line
OF heroic American explorations
which opened up the wondrous wa
terways Of the West Greenland coast
and thus unbarred the hitherto closed
gates to the verv pole
In years Just passed. when the STIR
ring dispatch came announcing that
Perry had reached the north geo.
graphic pole. the acme of his ambi-
uous struggles Of quarter OF CEN
tury, the word went round that arc
tic exploration was at an end.
Even that virile and indomitabie
descendant OF the Morse Vikings.
Road Amundsen, was deferred from
that arctic voyage on which he had
already started. Turning the prov Of
the Fran, from Bering strait he sailed
southwark. and. scaling high antarc-
tic peaks with Norwegian ski and dog
drawn sledges, attempted the south
geographic pole.
When the year 1912 opened there
was noted o widespread recurrence Of
popular interest in arctic fields of
research, SO that there were no less
than six expeditions Initiated. ex-
cluding those Of Russia. The Dane.
Koch. and the Swiss. de Quarvain.
crossed the Greenland icecap at diff
ferent points. The German Schroeder
Strauz, found disaster and death in
North SDitzbergen. Meanwhile s the
Canadian, Stefansson, planned to
reach the hypothetical continent long
forecast by Americans. The Ameri-
can. Mcmillan. sought definitely to
outline Crocker Land. The French.
man, Prayer. re-explored that Franz
Josef Land which his father was first
to traverse. Amundsen now starts via
Bering strait to drift northwest.
ward with the ice foes OF the Sibe-
rian ocean. These all represent what
may be called foreign and idealistic
exploration. as compared with the
Russian expeditions, which are do
mestic and economic.
Before describing the discoveries of
Lieutenant Wilkitzky, the Russian, 1t
will be well to set forth foreign in
vasions into the Siberian ocean near
est to Nicholas Second Land First
In 10 tha
commanded by De Long, which drift
ed northwesterly from Bering strait
until the Jeanette was crushed w
the ice.
Nansen followed In the Fran. adopt
ing De Longs plan. The drift of the
Fran was a practical continuation of
that of the Jeanette, though no land
was seen, and the ship passed into
deep water about $50 miles to the
north of the new Siberian islands.
The most important addition to the
photography OF the Siberian ocean,
time and means considered. was made
by Capt. Edward H. Johanesen. in the
sailing schooner Nordland. Leaving
Cape. Mouritius, Nova Zembia, he
found the ocean ice-free, so that he
crossed to Cape Taimur. near Cape
Chelyurskin. On August 16, 1878, he
discovered In n degrees AZ minutes
north latitude. SO degrees east longi-
tude, an island named Eisamkeit
(Lonely island), scarcely more than
100 miles to the west of Nicholas Sec
ond Land.
Most interesting were the expert
ences Of Byron A. E. Won Nordensk-
jold, the grestest. all phases Of action
and of knowledge considered. of arc
tic explorers. In his unique voyage.
the circumnavigating or Asia. he
reached on August 10, 1878. the north
which he determined to be inf77 de-
grees SO minutes north latitude 103
degrees II minutes east longitude AS
he was the first known visitor to the
cape since its discovery by Chelyus-
kin by sledge journey in 1742. its
surroundings were carefully noted
Nordensjold sent his supporting
steamer, the Lena, seaward to dredge
She was stopped by heavy and very
close ice in about II degrees As min
utes north, some 75 miles south of
Nicholas Second Land. to which she
made the nearest approach hitherto
on record.
The discovery Of Nicholas Second
Land is simply an incident in the eco
nomic development OF the Russian en-
pire The general public is unaware
OF the astounding potential resources
Of arctic Russia. Its areas extends
half way around the world-through
n