I. INTRODUCTION

THE FROZEN NORTHI. INTRODUCTION

THE FROZEN NORTH

The north polar regions lie within the Arctic circle, and at their center is the North Pole. The distance from the circle to the pole is more than fourteen hundred miles. Intense cold and the hardships of ice navigation have made the discovery and exploration of this region very slow and hazardous.

It is believed that Norsemen from Norway and Sweden, after colonizing Iceland, made settlements on the Greenland coast and carried their seal hunting beyond the Arctic circle, far into the polar regions. But in 1347 a plague broke out in Norway, and the people forgot their far-off colonies. For more than a hundred years after this no attempt was made to enter the Arctic circle.

It is a singular fact that the famous voyage of Columbus in 1492, although made toward the south, should have influenced to some extent discovery in the north polar regions. After Columbus had really proved that the earth was round, navigators believed that by sailing westward far enough they might reach the rich lands of India and Cathay (China).

The only route then known from Europe to India was through the Mediterranean Sea. At Constantinople, the cargoes of metals, woods, and pitch were unloaded and senton by caravan to the East, while returning caravans brought silks, dyewoods, spices, perfumes, precious stones, ivory, and pearls, to be shipped from Constantinople.

When the Turks, through whose country the merchants passed, began to realize how valuable the Eastern trade was, they sent bands of robbers to seize the caravans, making traffic by this route more difficult and more dangerous as time went on; so that European merchants tried to find some other way of reaching that part of the world.

Sebastian Cabot.

John and Sebastian Cabot, two English navigators, set out in 1497 to sail westward, but finding their way blocked by the American continent, they returned. In 1498 Sebastian Cabot made a second voyage, with the object of finding a passage north of America which would lead to the Spice Islands and rich Cathay. In this way the long hunt for the northwest passage was begun.

The Cabots did not find the northwest passage; and though many voyages were made in search of it by other navigators during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, nobody met with success. The severe cold, added to the difficulties of a voyage through the ice of ages, prevented further investigation in that direction for some time.

Meanwhile, the Spanish and the Portuguese had been active in seeking for southern routes to the East, and had discovered two,—one around the Cape of Good Hope and one through the Strait of Magellan. They guarded these waterways jealously, and would not allow the ships ofother nations to pass. Thus they succeeded in controlling all the rich Eastern trade, and were growing very wealthy and powerful.

The English and the Dutch, who were also anxious to obtain a share of the rich commerce with the East, saw the importance of finding a northern route to India; consequently they experimented by sailing northeast along the coast of Europe and Asia. The route which they sought was known as the northeast passage.

England sent out the first expedition in 1553, but the severity of the weather prevented the ships from making much progress. Several other vain attempts were made by the English, and then the Dutch took up the work; but they failed, too, and for a time the search for northern passages to the Indies was abandoned.

The Earth on June 21.

The total absence of the sun from the Arctic regions during a large part of each year makes the climate severe and the country desolate. Direct sun rays are necessary to insure warmth, and the regions within the Arctic circle receive at the best only slanting rays.

The Earth on December 21.

In the temperate zones the sun is never exactly overhead. For people who live within the tropics it is overheadtwice every year. At all places along the equator the sun is overhead at noon on the 21st of March. Each day after, it comes overhead at noon at places farther north, until the 21st of June, when it is overhead at the tropic of Cancer. After this the sun appears to turn and go south, and on September 22 it is again overhead at noon at the equator. The sun then continues to move southward each day until December 21, when it is overhead at the tropic of Capricorn. And so it goes back and forth the year round.

While the sun is north of the equator, there is constant day somewhere within the Arctic circle; when the sun is south of the equator, there is constant night somewhere within the Arctic circle. The farther a region is from the equator, the longer are the days and nights at different seasons of the year. At the pole there is a night of six months and a day of six months. The night is sometimes lighted by the moon and sometimes by the aurora borealis.

Daily Motion of the Heavens as seen at the North Pole.

There are but two seasons in the Arctic regions—along, cold winter and a short, dry summer. It is during the summer that the explorers do their work. Throughout the dark winter they can do nothing. Even in the summer, navigators meet with many perils, for Arctic navigation is not an easy matter. Besides the danger that the vessel may be frozen in an ice pack, or crushed between icebergs, the navigator is often blinded by fogs and snows, and has to face unknown tides and currents.

Daily Motion of the Heavens as seen at the Equator.

The vegetation within the Arctic circle is scanty. During the summer the bright, warm sun causes the plants to spring up and grow rapidly. Willows, dwarf birches, and rush grasses are plentiful in some localities. In southern Greenland, and in some sheltered places along its western coast, yellow poppies and dandelions grow. Farther north only mosses and lichens are to be found, and beyond the moss line there is no trace of vegetation.

Nevertheless there are plenty of animals in this land of ice and snow. The polar bear, Arctic fox, blue fox, wolf, ermine, reindeer, and musk ox are plentiful. Seals andwalruses come out of the water upon the ice, during the summer, to enjoy the sun, and thousands of snow buntings, auks, and eider ducks visit the shores of the cold seas to build their nests and catch food. When the summer of three months is over, nearly all outward signs of animal and vegetable life disappear and the entire landscape becomes a dreary, white expanse.

The inhabitants of this cold land are called Eskimos. They find it hard to get a living, and their dwellings are of the rudest and most primitive sort. Many of the tribes move from place to place, building their snow huts wherever game is most plentiful, but never going far inland, because fish forms a large part of their food. The Eskimos do not mind the bitter weather. They are quite accustomed to a temperature of 50° below zero.

Within the Arctic circle are two principal areas of great cold, one in North America and one in Siberia. The mildest winters are at Bering strait and in the Spitzbergen Sea, where there is usually open water. The former is affected by the warm Japan Current and the latter by the Gulf Stream.

We have as yet learned but little about the icy North. Nearly three million square miles of our earth lie within the Arctic circle and are unknown to-day. Much more information must be gained before man can hope to understand the physical laws of this mysterious region.

The Midnight Sun.

For a century and a half after the sailing ships of the sixteenth century had failed to find the northern passages to the East, little was done in the way of Arctic exploration. The whale and cod fishers were the only navigators who ventured into the frozen seas. These fishermen carried on a profitable business in fish and oil. One of them, a Scotch whaler named William Scoresby, succeeded in driving his ship as far north as latitude 81° 12ʹ 42ʺ. He spent all the time that he could spare on this voyage in collecting information about this unknown part of the earth, and on his return to England, he told such wonderful stories that the English people became once more interested in the frozen North.

Accordingly, in 1815, after England’s wars with the United States and France were over, the government offered a reward of £20,000 to any one who would make the northwest passage, and a reward of £5000 to any one who would reach 89° north latitude. This offer of prize money stirred the adventurous blood of seafaring men. In 1818 two expeditions were sent out, and others quickly followed.

The vast area of unexplored space within the Arctic circle stimulated men’s imaginations almost as much as the Western world beyond the Atlantic had done in the days of Columbus. Many a brave sailor was ready to undertake the difficult work. Famous among those who did valuable service was Sir John Franklin.

The Change of Seasons.

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