The Nome nugget., 1921-04-23


 mains to him. although ,he was born fn Manitoui, shows cles4ey in his eyes arsd general bL,ndness, but he has 6 keen sense of humor and is bril-, liant conversatiomallst
 "The North pole is compar.,tiveIy easy to reach" said Mir. Stefa nsson. "l have never tried to get there. be ca use if Is not q. good policy for polar explorers to overlap in thei1. work, but the true pole of inaccessihdlity is pos sibly 400 miles Sbuth of the pole. in the direction of Bering Sea, in that iesinn which is yet uncxplpred.' It was into this region, Mr. Stef- ,.,sssonI continued. that he intended to mer or the summer fullowmg. if his health was good. For this lecture tour." he said. lis a great de;ll h:ardea, on me thsln any amount of trelding over Arctic wastes" The area to he triLvcrscd includes about l.OG0.O square miles north of Alaska and -:s; of the islands already discovered he tween the pole ;md the Rc,ine straits. about north latitude 73-90.
 The explorer does not propose to usc airplanes on this trip. In fact, al- though the ilirplane has been suggest s.l ccsJ ,,,I ,S, t,, use in Arctic and sub Arctic explora ton expcd itions Mr. Stcfanssom does not consider them pr;.ctical.
 While it is a general belief that the Arctic is all frozen, tilds is not true and tlt4Te is plenty of open water fcr q ssrlplane to l:lnd on, but the ice formation is distributed in this in thu form of chunks and irregular blocks. which cannot Ice seen from above. Cortlct with tIese in landing and rising would be almost unavoid- able"
 (>m. wondered how ii was that NT~. StefanSson ever cldne tn be an explor- ar, but he robbed the idea of all sug gecst;nn of romance, inherited adven- turous spirit from Viking ancestors. etn., by stttfng simply that he was asked to head am cxplora ton party in 1904, when he was an instructor at Harvard, because he lE,d read .book" Knowledge of ESiluiInns. "1There are on |ly :thout a. dozen men fin the world whn have a real knowIedge of the FSdshnns." lle said mndestly, and it appears that the rest were all old, or Sortauhttng. so they chose me-
 Tt is surprising the ignorance that exists about Arctic cnmlitinns." hc con tinuad. 'T,enpls believe that the Arc tir expluaer finds q, taertain fascination ahuIt tiisGnrnfo,t and danger, but the truth # that he goes again because he Mixes it. and is always ready ta go again.
 This is irrespective. also, of ma tiDnalty. for a. negro or Italian. once anclinnaled. 1ikess ii too. and one of my Lest men. who is remaining in the Arc- tic now. fs a n:ltfve of Samua.' ALr. Stefanssum, backed by power fui Interests, is now working on a. proposition which. it it succeeds. will convert all of Csnada into a fool pro ductng aresir-tlr1t is tire production of meat for exput and home consump- tinn from native animals.
 T b<rfeve.' he said. that one of the most important ideals hefure the c;,- natlhan people is to develop not grapes from thorns. nnr figs from thistles. nor to raise sub -tropic animals in a sub Arctic climate. but to develop what we have for what it may bring us." If MT. Stefansson's scheme works out, although he admits it will | take unlimited capital. which will not I bring returns for a matter of ten years