Evening star., 1925-06-19
CHAPTER ".

CHAPTER Nv.
{" ODAY we have arrived. The
final preparations for the
great Arctic flight can now
L begin. The little village of
Ny Aalesund, at the end Of
Kings Bay, consisting of a dozen
wooden shanties and a coal mine. is
mans most northerly habitat.
Beyond us toward the Pole lie only
water. ice and snow, animals and wild
fowl. Even the Esquimeaux, who live
mainly in that portion of Greenland
which lies below the 18th latitude. are
south of us.
1t is AS o'clock in the morning
of April 13 when we reach the mouth
of Kings Bay and push in until halted
by the pack ice. We throw out our
anchor on the solid sheet of white
and come to rest along its edge. Our
position at the moment is the most
northerly of any vessel in the world.
The Hobby is still somewhere be-
hind us-we are surprised and disap-
pointed not to find her already here
while coal boat, also halted on the
edge of the ice. lies just a ships
length southwark.
After breakfast a heavily booted
stranger arrives off our bows and tells
us that the ice stretches solidly 8
miles to shore. The whole vast ex-
panse of it. he says, has formed dur
ing the past two days, when the tenn
perature fell to about 10 degrees below
freezing.
Soon a group of us are following
his footmarks toward the landing
place at Ny Aalesund
For 10 minutes II feels good to
stretch our legs, but after that we find
the going more and more tiresome, for
the ice is soft on top and our feet sink
into 1T an inch or more at each step.
When we reach land, it takes our last
ounce of strength TO Chamber up the
snowy bank and stagger wearily to
the home of the directors of the mining
company. They give us whisky, dry
stockings and slippers, while our
soaked footwear hangs beside the sit
ting room stove.
Michael knutsen and Peter Brandal
are our hosts. Two men with vigor-
Gus bodies and powerful wills, for they
are the men responsible for keeping
alive this northernmost outpost of
man. In 1917 they organized the Kings
Bay Coal Co. and established the set
tlement of Ny Aalesund. Knutsen.
VINO would be taken for an Irishman
any day, learned of the North in one of
It's best settings. He was in the Klon-
dixie gold rush of '9S. when he once
bought eggs at $500 a dozen-gold dust
quotatfon-and knew personally Jack
London's character, saltwater Bill.
Remarkable Coal Fields.
After they have delivered to Roald
Amundsen some mail sent here three
years ago to await his arrival, they
tell us about their town Of Nv AaIe.
sund. The mines produce the finest
q ynrl1 I.
ing due to its wealth of OIL Thrown
INTO a stove, 1t catches fire and burns
like wood. About 100000 tons of it
are taken out of the mines each wear
and shipped south to Norway during
tne summer months. / am shown
ABOUT 90 1000 tons lying in great. snow
covered piles, awaiting shipment.
Inc population of the shanty town.
ABOUT 400 miners with their families.
exist all winter without communica-
ton with the outside world. Pigs are
kept and slaughtered for fresh meat
goats are raised to provide milk for
the children. During the Summer the
steamers bring a supply of stores am
pie to last through the rest of the
year. November, December and Jan
uary must be dismal months in Spitz.
bergen. The nights are "a hours long.
FOR that quarter Of year lights must
The vehicular traffic of the nIace is
maintained by six horses-smalI. shag
gy animals of the Russian type-and
three-mile stretch of railway, the
northernmost in the world, of course.
boasting two antiquated locomotives.
Sitting on Top of the World.
While we wait for the first shore
meal we have had for nearly a week.
knutsen takes a globe from the top
of his bookcase and shows us where
globe, we are but thumbs knuckle
away from the pole. Other known land
lies farther north-Franz Joseph Land.
Northern Greenland and Grantland-
but all uninhabited. Above the seven
tv-ninth latitude, which cuts across
Kings Bay, there is no human life
AS we look at knutsen's globe, we
realize with amused interest that we
are literally "sittin' on top O. the
world
The Island of Spitzbergen, recently
conceded to Norway, was known to
the Vikings as early as 1894. They
called it Svalbard, meaning cold coast
Later Russian fur trappers from
along the shore of the White Sea
sailed here and built huts. Norwe-
gian hunters followed the Russians;
then came the English, the Danes and
finally Dutch whSlers, who used the
island as a base for their whale hunts
in the Polar Sea. The latter named 1t
SpitZbergen, or pointed mountains"
The island has an extent of 25, 900
square miles. It's mountains and
ragged shores maintain a great guam
tity of reindeer. fox and polar bear.
Last year 800 huge white bears were
killed and their skins taken south. In
the encircling ice and water are whale,
walrus and various kinds Of seal.
Gulls, auks and putin use the island
as nesting place, while inland are
many ptarmigan. Only inland is
there any vegetation.
In the evening we return to our
boat, and shortly some one sees smoke
out on the Polar Sea. 1t is d pleas
ant sight and one that stills our wor-
ries and fears, for we know that
smudge is the Hobby. In 20 min
utes 1t has stuck its bows into the ice
alongside of us. It is strange sight
lying there, its deck piled 20 feet high
with the dismembered bodies of two
airplanes and the Grated wings extend
ing fully 10 feet oversize. 1t resem-
bles pack mule.
Since early morning the coal steam