Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1922-08-29
IN THE FROZEN NORTH
SieIanSSon Recognized as Creates
Of Explorers.
POLAR RESOURCES SUSTAIN life
Born in Canada of lcelandie Parents,
After a Little Experience he slazeo
New Paths Into Unknown Lands.


Dearborn Independent.
To-day we add another to. the long
list of polar explorers, both north ana
south, whom our society has weicom-
ed and to whom our members nave
listened with absorbing interest"
The speaker was Admiral Peary, the
man whose name probably will be as
sociated with polar exploration for as
long as history endures. The occas-
ion was the presentation OF the Hup-
bard Gold Medal, the highest honor In
the. gift of the National Geographic
Society, to another renowned polar
explorer-Vilhjalmur Stefansson.
Among other things Admiral Peary
said:
"What Stefansson stands for is this:
he has grasped the meaning of polar
work and has pursued his task in the
Arctic regions section by section. He
has profited by experience piled upon
experience until he knows how to face
and overcome every problem Of the
North. His method is to take the
white mans brains and intelligence
and the white mans persistence and
will power into the Arctic and sup
plement these forces with the wood
craft, or, should say, poiarcraft, Of
the Eskimo-=the ability to live off the
land itself, the ability to use every
=, one of the few possibilities of those
frozen regions-and concentrate on his
work"
= Perhaps it is because Stefansson is
: an anthropologist, and first. approached
the Arctic through the study of its peo-
4 ple, that he has come to understand the
ways of the polar regions so we'll. After
postgraduate course at Harvard, and
two summers spent in archaeological re-
+ search in Iceland, Stefansson's first
visit to the Esllimos was in 1906, when
he went north to act as ethnologist
! with the Leffingwell- Mikkelsen Arctic
expedition. While ostensbly attached
; to that expedition, he never actually
became a member Of it.
The Lesson he Learned.
AS Stefansson doubted that the party
would reach it's destination because he
believed it's ship, the Duchess of Bed
ford, to be not, properly equipped to
cope successfully with Ice conditions
along the Arctic coast, 1t was arrang-
n cd that he should proceed overland by
3 way of Edmonton and down the Mack
fenzie river to meet the expedition at
t.Herschel Island-if the Duchess of
Bedford should eventually reach there.
lille felt that should his predictions
prove correct ne need not lose any
time, but could devote his mention i'm
mediately to study of the little
Eskimos. His surmise proved correct.
The Dutchess, of Bedford met adverse
ice conditions and was overtaken by
winter at Flax IN Island, on the north
cost Of Alaska, some distance west OF
Herschel Island.
In the meantime, Stefansson had
reached Herschel Island. His equip
ment was on board ship, so he found
north of the polar circle, with a sum-
mer suit of clothing, a camera, some
notebooks, a rifle and about 200
rounds of ammunition facing an Arc
tic winter, where my only shelter
iwould have to be the roof of some
hcspitable Eskimo house. But this
was, just what he wanted. He wished
to study the Eskimos at first hand
and wisely concluded tha, there was
no better way to do so han by liv-
ing with them as a member of the
native community. This Stefansson
did. He found "the people were
agreeable"
1t was really this winters expert
ence that laid the foundations of his
later procedure in the North. He
realized that these people were born,
lived as little children and grew to
manhood and old age under climatic
conditions which were pOpularly be-
lieved by the world tnat he had re-
Gently left as particularly hostile to
human Efe; and that they obtained
fuel for heat and light, as well as
food, from the resources of the coun-
try.
If with primitive weapons the Eski-
mos were able to obtain sufficient
food principally seals and caribou) to
maintain themselves, why should not
white men equipped with rifles do
equally well at least? He could see
no reason why they could not. Pre-
vious observers had approached the
North with fixed prcconceptions con-
cerning the fundamental hostility Of
climatic conditions in the Arctic-and
they generally found there that which
they went to seek. Steransson sought
to understand the North; and, sue
ceeding, discovered many OF the "tel
rors" Of the Arctic regions to be
myths.
Much difference of opinion existed
up to that time between various polar
explorers as TO whether certain parts
of the mainland of North America east
Of ha