Evening star., 1943-01-10
Mysterious Lond Of
Ice and Snow
BIZ Frederic J. Hasktn.

yentured on to the Greenland icecap
agree that there is no silence like the
stiffness that often befalls the worlds
largest block of ice. In every direction,
as far as the eye can see, spreads the
blue-white inland ice, which covers more
than 95 per cent of the island. There
are great gusts and storms that sweep
over the whole area but the lull between
these gusts and gales is so pronounced
that the only thing an explorer can
hear is the thud of his heart. One ad-
venturer into this vast sea of ice relates,
in recently published data on his trip,
that when lull comes it is like standing
on the surface of the dead moon. mil
lion. years devoid of life. and waiting
for single vagrant meteor to break the
SPELL,
Greenland is the largest island of the
North American continent. even recog-
nized as the largest in the world by
geographers who do not consider Aus
traha an island. 1t is a great pear
shaped mass 1,500 miles long and ap-
proximately 900 miles broad across its
upper bulge, and regarded as the classic
example of the glacial age. Except for
its rocky fringes and the southern tip,
the island is buried in ice. The depth
of this mammoth frost formation Is not
known, but along the coast 2000-foot
cliffs are literally dwarfed by the Ice
dome rising up behind them more than
5000 feet into the sky.
On the narrow land-fringe skirting
Greenland the Eskimos dwell in scat
tered groups, while in the far south OF
the island there are a few Danes who
have gained a foothold on the rocky
strip between the high icecap and the
Arctic Sea. The food of these lonely
dwellers comes only from the sea or the
| adjacent cliffs.
But while the appalling and inde-
scribable silence often falls upon broad
| expanses of Greenlands icecap, the re-
| verse also happens in the extreme. Many
are the mornings when an explorer
| aWakens to a strange sound. 1t is the
| low hiss of flying snow-scud. Myriad
| particles of granular snow flee over the
| ice before the oncoming gale. The wind
| rises, not in gusts, but with a ruthless
steadiness of purpose. A gray snow
| smoke rises knee-high from the ice.
The swift passage of the snow stream
| Is not raucous as a gale speaks through
| shrouds, nor intermittent as wind over
broken land. Roughly it presses down
upon men and dogs until their legs bend.
1t searches with cold, prying fingers for
holes in clothing for eye-sockets, nos
trils and ears, leaving no doubt of it's
| brutality. And as the gale increases in
volume and power and severity an even
| finer powder of snow crystals fills the
air. while light is polarized to strange
lurid hlankness. Because there are no
shadows in the icecap storm traveller
stumbles over every unevenness. Woe
betide him who falls into a crevice at
such time! Unfortunately, many have,
only to be lost forever
1t was this battle of snow and ice that
Admiral Robert Edwin Peary and his
men fought for almost 10 years in order
to find the North Pole by way Of the
Greenland icecap. At that time. in
the '90s, none knew that the ice-buried
land stopped short of the earth's north
ern axis. Peary had learned to drive
dogs and to build snow igloos, to exist
on blubber and raw meat, to hunt with
out firearms, sleep sitting up without
sleeping bag and to burrow into a drift
when taken unawares by raging bliz-
| zard.
But all Pearys knowledge did not
| protect him from fearful hardships on
the worlds mammoth icecap. He crossed
the north end Of Greenland twice, over
the inland ice, driving his own sledges
and with no help save that of his ten
! derfoot companions. Eskimos helped
the explorer up the first glacier then
| deserted him in terror at the prospect
Of invading the great unknown interior.
An icecap blizzard often goes on for
weeks without a break. When the end
of the storm finally comes the explorer
goes outside his hut and listens, but
hears no sound. Silence reigns again,
| enthroned in It's icy kingdom two miles
| above the sea. The sun goes to the land
! OF green trees an infinite distance away,
while the dark sky sheds the last vestige
| Of its clouds and its black void emerges.
| Millions of stars sparkle from horizon
to zenith, and the Milky Way hangs like
| creamy scarf across the summit of the
| dome. The planets are exceedingly
bright and look as large as lanterns.
| The North Star, marking the nearby
| Pole, wrinkles almost overhead, shin
| Ing beacon for the axis around which
| the consultations wind
Suddenly a banner unfurls across the
| heavens. 1t is yellowish white at first,
| then shows weave of delicate tints-
| green, lilac, blue, pink and orange. The
| colored streamers curl and straighten in
| slow tempo like the waving fronds Of
seaweed deep in tropical waters Pres
emily, through the banner strikes a
| brighter beam, like that of distant but
| powerful searchlight. This seems to be
| divine signal of dismissal, for when
| its rays reach halfway to the horizon
| the whole aurora fades as suddenly as
| 1t came.
AT this juncture comes the greatest
| miracle of the polar light, ghostly and
bewitching. Low down on the edge Of
| the icy disk on which the explorer seems
| to stand there appears faint glow like
| phosphorescence in southern sea.
| There is Frightening and the stars
fade, the ice becomes tinged with pale
| light, and suddenly a splash of bril-
| lance bursts above the ice edge. .
But the period of peace and beauty