The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1922-05-17
TRAVEL HARD IN
ARCTIC waters
Region About North Pole Is One
of Most Inaccessible
Places in the World.
COVERED WITH FLOES OF ICE
Makes Footing of Explorers Danger.
GUS in Dash NorthWard-Gulf
Stream Helps by Opening Up
Occasional Passages.

''~fo ~ FNf
Occasional Passages.
misunderstanding top of the world.
the region around the North pole.
which is constantly Turing adyentur-
spirits through the frozen Arctic
waters and now daring ambitious pi.
lots of airplanes, vies with Mount Ev-
crest for being the most inaccessible
place in the world says n bulletin of
the National Geographic society from
its Washington headquarters.
"Where Siberia, Alaska, northern
Canada, Greenland and Arctic Russia
dodge hither and yon on the Arctic cir
Gle they practically inclose a great
area of ocean more or less crowned
with ice. Greenland's most northern
area, Peary Land. and Grant Land.
which lies to the west, push themselves
III nearest the pole.
Why Polar Travel Is Hard.
eff, from Cape Columbia, on the
northern shore of Grant Land, the Are
tic ocean would freeze over III a solid,
SliitotH DlOth uullllS lHt IlOIllllS Vi
dead winter, intrepid explorers could
probably push their dog sleds over to
the pole with less difficulty and danger.
The area of the ocean, instead, is cov-
red with innumerable foes or cakes
II ice. These surge back and forth,
,ucking up and piling upon each other
until they form ridges so or 60 feet
Ugh. which crack and break with the
urrent of the water and the velocity of
he winds.
Though there is always water pres
mt, the lanes between the ice blocks
are not wide enough for ships to sail
through, but they often make it inn
possible for men walking or making
their way by dog sled to get back to
safety after they have left their boats.
This condition is encountered even in
midwinter months when the tempera-
sure runs to 90 and 60 degrees below
zero. Stefansson says that these strips
Of open water are more serious than
the deepest masses of the softest snow
or the most craggy and slippery ice
ridges
Gulf Stream Helps Explorers.
The Gulf stream, however, whose
agic breath brings heat and life to
egions which would otherwise be cold
and barren, thaws out some of the ice
in the northern Atlantic where 1t
merges with the Arctic ocean, thus
permitting boats in the waters of
Greenland and the Scandinavian coun-
is possible on the Pacific side. Polar
explorers have taken advantage of
this fact by pushing northward- on this
side rather than In the vicinity of
Boring strait.
"Peary, when he overcame almost
insurmountable difficulties in pushing
out over this more han six hundred
miles of floating icebergs, marked out
a route which future explorers can
follow, as well as established the fact
that determination and enthusiasm.
combined with a knowledge of the
problems of the undertaking, can con
quer most, if not all, of the difficulties
attendant upon exploring the worlds
geographical features.
In the area through which Peary
pushed he found much Of interest.
From the southern coast of Greenland.
where the willow and birch trees grow
only from - inches to three feet, and
the mOsses more than a foot high, he
skirted the western coast of this coun-
try through Davis strait and Baflin
bay to Etah, an Eskimo village on
Smith sound in Greenland. He knew,
as other explorers knew before him,
that a current frequently ran in that
series of straits between northwestern
Greenland and those great islands Of
Arctic America known as Ellesmere
Land, Grinnell Land and Grant Land,
which might enable him to push his
latitude SO degrees, the point of land
nearest the North pole. Due to the
knowledge and skill Of the party, their
vessel reached its destination, which
was the farthest northward that any
ship has ever steamed.
what Grecly found.
ITO the west along his route lay
Grlnnell Land, the interior of which
Gen. A. w. Greedy explored and report
ed that he found there fertile valleys,
a beautiful lake and abundant animal
life. Grant Land lies still farther to
the north. Robson channel. the last
stretch before he reached the Arctic
ocean proper, separating Grant Land
from Hall Land on the northern shore
of Greenland, is Just a few miles
longer than the Dardanelles.
THE famous Northeast passage,
through which hansen was able to
drift in the Fran to within less than
five degrees of the pole, extends from
the New Siberian islands, off the
northern coast of Siberia, owe to the
sea. Whalers have been
able to explore every sound and inlet
along the western coast of Spitz-
bergen, and eve plant summer colo
Ries there, due to the influence of the
Gt{.f stream, but no polar explorers
hayM attempted to 90 much farther
north IN the arctic ocean from these
islands, because # tire fact that tlle
main ice pack drifts south just NORTH
= g~,s4.I.w,.V 50