Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1923-11-21
HOT IN THE ARCTIC,
FAMOUS EXPLORER SAYS
Less Snowfall in Polar Region
Than Here, StefanssOn Tells.

Popular ideas of the polar and arc
! tic regions as places of perpetual
snow and ice and extreme cold were
contradicted by Vilhjalmur Stefans-
son, famous arctic explorer, in his adj
/ dress before the Wisconsin Teachers
4 association convention at Milwaukee.
The ideas of the polar regions taught
in school textbooks were declared
false and public opinion on the sub
| iect was said to be based on the mis-
cellaneous INSTRUMENTATION that we
call American education"
While the winters in the polar re-
gons are long and cold the tempera-
ture goes no lower, the explorer SAID,
than it does in Canada and the Dako-
| tas. While the summers are short 1T
gets as hot in the arctic region as IL
does in the United States. Only the
mountains are covered with ice and
! snow, as they are in the tropics, while
prairies covered with grass and flow
ers are found as far north as there Is
| land
Finds Own Errors.
Mentioning that he had been
teacher, the speaker said that OF 1O
! things he once thought about the
north pole, at least nine were wrong.
! 81 used to believe that the polar re-
! gion was the hardest place to reach
and the coolest spot; that it was dis
! tressingly cold. covered with snow
and ice all the year and that the only
vegetation was MOSES and lichenS,"
! Mr.. Stefansson said "The most wide
| ly read work of fiction is the school
! geography, although the school his
| tory and physiology are a close sec
ond and third.
THE north pole is easier to reach
than many other places. 1t is not
equally surrounded by ice in all di-
rections. This is due to the effect OF
the gulf stream. In approaching the
pole from the Atlantic the explorer
is stopped by ice 400 miles from the
pole, while from the Pacific he is
stopped 1000 miles from the pole.
Thus the hardest place to reach in the
polar region is 400 miles south of the
pole in the direction of Alaska"
Iceland Like Milwaukee.
"The north pole is in the ocean, 400
miles from land" said the explorer
During the winter there is four feet
of ice on top of four miles of water oil
a temperature of about 30 degrees
InlS Ice DIGdhS up Wu6uSNSl CAC w 1hu
blows and the water warns the air
Sixty degrees below is believed to pc
the coolest. On the north coast Of
Alaska and Canada the coolest record
ed is "a degrees below zero. Donald
Mcmillan found AZ degrees below zero
the coolest in four winters on north
Greenland In Canada and North Da-
kota 54 degrees below have been re-
~ TpiOYl flNlO an
the north shore of Canada or Alaska.
eve children went to school all
winter in North Dakota in such tenn
peratures and did not know we were
heroes. Since then l have become a
hero by encountering the same tenn
perature in the Arctic regions. Being
a hero depends on the advertising you
get.
"The weather bureau record at the
Fort Yukon station shows summer
temperatures of 80 degrees in the
shade and higher. Most years 1t
reaches 95 degrees and occasionally
100. 1t is distressingly hot in the low
lands in the Arctic. | was a typhoid
patient in the hospital at Fort Yukon
one June when it was 81 degrees and
all the patients who could be moved
were taken IuJO C1G CGlLd4 DCCcIuoC VI
the heat.
Little Nixup in Pay.
1--WE pay school teachers to teach
that it is always cold above the Arc
tic circle and we pay the weather bu-
re2u to report temperatures of from
80 to 95 degrees in the shade in that
same region. In the interests of econ
omy we should stop paying one OF
them" The speaker also referred to
the fact that in crowd addressed by
the late President Harding at Fair
| banks, Alaska, three hearers collapsed
from the heat and that trip beyond
the Arctic circle was abandoned be-
cause of the intense heat.
''The average snowfall in the polar
regions is about one-quarter what it Is
! in Wisconsin" he continued. 1T
comes in September and goes in May.
This snow is light and dry and drifts
badly. There is no land anywhere i'll
the polar region that is not bare OF
snow in the summer. In Greenland
the mountains are covered with Ice
and snow and there is a heavy snow
fall At the north end, which is low,
there are vast prairies covered in the
summer with grass and flowers, but
terflies and insects abound, and ami
mails Craze on the pastures. There
are 100 different kinds of flowers
found, dandelion and goldenrod being
abundant This is on the north coast
of the most northerly land known and
is one of the greatest grazing areas IN
the world"
Another Myth Believed.
Referring to the story of the ostrich
sticking its head in the sand when it
desires to hide, Mr.. Stefansson said
this story was first written by Herodo-
tus about 1900 years ago and had
been handed down and believed ever
since, although untrue, the same as
the popular beliefs about the polar re-
gisn. "Once accepted, a thing con-
tinues to be universally believed not
withstanding testimony to the con-
trary," he said.
The raising of reindeer in the
northern regions was advocated by
Stefansson, who said large quantities