The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-08-27
COAL FIELDS OF
ARCTIC. REGIONS
OF SLIGHT VALUE
May Be OF Use Later IL Avail
! able Properties Become
Exhausted

New York, Aug. 27.-Whiie coal re-
sources in remote and difficult locah-
ties are of very slight value at the
present time, owing to the availability
Of much greater resources near large
centers of population the coal fields
Of the Arctic may have great poten-
tial value for the future should the
present stock of easily available coal
become exhausted. This statement
was made by DR.. Isaiah Bowman, di-
rector of the American Geographical
society, >in discussing the significance
of the discoveries made in the North
by Donald B. Macmillan, as reorted
FIN MacIillan's recent report.
Mr.. Macmillan speaks said DR..
Bowman, "of the large game resources
in the several localities he visited,
and Particularly on Ellesmere Island.
While this undoubtedly has a high
Importance for future explorers; or
for preliminary surveys of the re-
sources of the region such game is a
poor reliance in the case of general
| industrial development The most inn
portant possible resources is the coal,
which he mentioned as occurring all
through Ellesmere Island But this
| coal has less interest to industry than
| it has to geological science, for the
matter Of the deposition of the coal
and the light it throws upon the cli-
mate of the past are; of great interest
to geographers and biologists. These
facts are also in line with what has
been known of Greenland for many
years, that it at one time had a mild
climate quite different from the rig
orous Arctic conditions that are found
there today.
'fMacMilEan's determinations Of lat
itude and longitude are especially i'm
portant. On Captain lBernier's map of
1909 North Cornwall and Finley Land
are represented in only their southern
portions On the map Of the Arctic
region published. by the American
Museum of Natural History and the
American Geographical society in 1912
still later explorations are shown, but
they represent only meager reports
and distant sights and the geogr9ph-
ical position of a. number of impor-
tant land masses must now be cor
rected.
.tF'or example, Macmillan speaks Of
a large island to the east of the
Amund Ringnes Land in latitude IS
degrees 18 minutes. If this observa-
ton is CORRECTLY reported the position
Of Amund Ringnes Land Is either in
correctly shown on previous maps or
extends much farther south than has
previously been supposed. In any fu-
ture explorations of the region, or.
should there ltbe any economic devel-
opment Of it, the exact position of
important islands and capes must be
represented on our maps.
THE war has practically stopped all
the more expensive explorations that
had been planned before its begin.
ming. Shackleton has just recently
returned and there is no exploring ex-
petition in the Antarctic at the pres
emit time. With the return of the
Croker Land expedition there will be
but one exploring party in the North
son, and it is expected at Ottawa that
he will return during the early au-
tumn months. With his return there
will be no exploring party in the
North. "
There are several projected expe-
ditfons, one of which has been noted
in the press a number of times during
the past year. that of Captain Roald
Amnndsen, who had planned to go
north from Behring Straits and to re-
main in the Arctic for at least five
years with stanch, well equipped
ship which might fbe expected to sur
vive. and directed for portions of the
Arctic not hitherto explored. He
hoped by this means, and through
drift with the ice, to make known the
extent of the large blank between
Alaska and the Pole, the borders Of
which We're reached by Stefansson in
1916 and which the Macmillan .expe-
dition searched for as the supposed
Cracker land -