The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1924-01-11
CAPTAINS OF
ADVENTURE
Copyrgnth Rohbal ru Compan
THE CONQUEST OF THE
POLES
A. D. 1911
By ROGER POCOCK

The North Pole is only a point on
the earth's surface, point which in
itself has no length, breadth or height,
neither has it weight nor any sub
stance, being invisible, impalpable, i'm
movable and entirely useless. The
continents of men swing at a thousand
miles an hour round that point, which
has no motion. Beneath il an eternal
ice-field slowly drifts across the I'M
fathomed depths of a sea that knows
no light.
Above, for a night of six months,
the pole star marks the zenith round
which the consultations swing their
endless race; then for six months the
low sun rolls along the skyline on his
level rounds; and each day and night
are one year.
The attempt to reach that point be-
gan in the reign of Henry VIII of Eng
land, when Master John Davis sailed
up the Greenland coast to a big cliff
which he named after his hacker, San
derson's Hope. The cliff Is sheer from
the sea three thousand four hundred
feet high, with one sharp streak of ice
from base to summit. 1t towers above
Upernivik, the most -northerly village
in the world, and is one thousand one
hundred twenty-eight miles from the
Pole
In 1894 Barentz carried the Dutch
flag little farther north but soon
Hudson gave the lead back to Great
Britain, and after that, for two hun
dred seventy-six years the British
flag unchallenged went on from victory
20 victory in the conquest of the
North. At last in 1882 Lieutenant
Greedy of the United States army
beat the British by four miles at
cost of nearly his whole expedition,
which was destroyed by famine. Soon
Doctor Nansen broke the American
record for Norway, to be beaten in
turn by an Italian prince. the Duke
GAbruzzi. But meanwhile Peary, an
American naval officer. had commenced
his wonderful course of twenty-three
years special training; and in 1906
he broke the Italian record. His way
was afoot with dog-trains across the
ice of the Polar sea and he would
have reached the North Pole, but for
wide lanes of open sea, completely
barring the way At two hundred
twenty-seven miles from the Pole he
was forced TO retreat, and camp very
near to death before he won back to
his base camp.
Peary's ship was American to the
last detail of needles and thread, but
the vessel was his own invention, built
for ramming ice-pack. The ships Off
GERS and crew were all Newfound-
landers, trained from boyhood in the
seal fishery of the Labrador iee-pack
They were, alas, British, but that
could not be helped. To make amends
the exploring officers were Americans,
but they were specially trained by
Peary to live and travel as Eskimos,
using the native dress, the dog trains
and the snow houses.
Other explorers had done the same,
but Peary went further, for he hired
the most northerly of the Eskimo
tribes, and from year to year edu-
Gated the pick of the boys, who grew
his orders exactly, and to adopt his
improvements on their native meth
DDS. So he had hunting parties to store
up vast supplies of meat, and skins
of musk-ox, ice-bear, reindeer, fox, seal
and walrus, each for some special need
in the way of clothing He had wom-
en- to make the clothes. He had two
hundred fifty husky dogs, sleds of his
own device, and Eskimo working par
ties under his white officers.
A glance at the map will show how
Greenland, and the islands north of
Canada, reach to within four hundred
miles of the Pole Between is chan
mel leading from Baffin's bay into the
Arctic ocean. The Roosevelt, Peary's
ship, forced passage through that
channel, then turned to the left, creep
ing and lodging between the ice-field
and the coast of Grant Land. Cap
tain Bartlett was in the crow's-nest,
plotting, and Peary, close below him,
chung to the standing rigging while
the ship butted and charged and ham,
mered through the foes. Bartlett
would coax and wheedle, or shout at
the ship to encourage her, RIP 'em,
Teddy! Bite 'em In twoi Go it!
That's fine, my beauty! Now again
Once more!''
Who knows? In the hands of a
great seaman like Bartlett a ship
seems to be living creature, and no
matter what slued the Roosevelt she
had a furious habit of her own, COM
ing to rest with her nose TO the north
for all the world like a compass. Her
way was finally blocked just seventy
five miles short of the most northerly
headland, Cape Columbia, and the
stores had TO be carried there for
the advanced base The winter was
spent in preparation, and on March
first began the dash for the Pole.
No party with dog-trains could pos
sibly carry provisions for return
journey of eight hundred miles If
there had been islands on the route
II would have been the right thing
to use them as advanced bases for a
final rush to the Pole. But there were