The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1918-09-19

drift IN a sOutherly direction OH
the coast of Greenland, often
forming an impossible barrier to
the mariner bound for Polar Seas.
The call of the North is resistless.
There is magic in the frozen, glis-
tening seas. thevast expanseof bleak
promontories and islands. sounds
and inlets. The North Star, shin
ing with more peculiar brilliance
in the Polar regions than elsewhere,
is lodestar to lure and guide to
ever greater effort. The fantastic
pictures of the mirage are always
reckoning to the adventuresome
and holding out fair promises to
those that follow. The midnight
sun, its inspiring face aglow for
months without ceasing, and the
ever wonderful Aurora spreading
it's luminous shafts in the deep
clearness of the long wintry night
all of these make among Polar
travellers a kinship that is peculiar
to the call of the North. The
mystery. the silence of the wild
broken only occasionally by the
barking of dogs or the shouts of
the Eskimo drivers in the crisp,
clear atmosphere, the possible rare
mineral treasures, these, too. make
the call ring in mans adventurous
heart.
Admiral Peary responded to it
when he started out on his voyage
to discover the North Pole; Nansen
obeyed the call when he sailed for
''Fartherest North; Macmillan
felt the spell when he conducted an
expedition northward bound to
search for Crocker-Land; Stefans-
son prompted by the spirit renewed
his travels in the Arctic, and
Knud Rasmussen started from Etah
last year, and is now following
hazardous trail, the great Green
land ice cap, where autumn is brief
and winter comes soon.
1t was the kinship in the call of
the North that made the two ex-
plorers, who have just started on
their new Arctic adventure. friends
in minute. By chance Captain
Bernier and Captain Amundsen
met last spring on transatlantic
liner coming to the United States.
Both explorers entertain similar
theories regarding the currents
drifting toward the North Pole.
For more than twenty years Cap
tain Bernier has contended that an
open sea route leads to the Pole.
The Bernier drift passes near the
route followed by the ill-fated
Jeanette Expedition, which was
outftted by the late James Gordon
Bennett and commanded by Lieu
tenant George W. De Long. The
jeanette was crushed in the ice,
and her commander persisted.
According to Captain Bernier' 8
old theory the drifts of the cur
rents would take a ship through
the open sea to the Pole. He still
advocates this theory. An old
Polar map of the Captains illus
trates the Bernier drift. On this
curious map the explorer has
drawn number of lines indicating
what he calls the ''Artic pie" He
has divided it into sections, in
Guiding the territory owned by the
United States, which extends from
Alaska, Canada, Greenland. Rus
STA. Siberia, Denmark. and Norway
and Sweden. and Spitzbergen, east
of the Greenland Sea, all forming
a portion of this unique CONNECTION
the Arctic pie. The Arctic pie
also includes No Mans Land, for
there is No Mans Land in North
ern seas. The division indicated
by the lines drawn from the Pole
in pie shape" to every country
represents certain rights and privil-
eyes for hunting and fishing within
the Polar circle. It remains to be