Many pious pilgrims visit Medina, now the terminus of a railway, before going on to Mecca. This is another of the sacred cities of Islam, since it is the scene of Muhammad's labors after his hegira from Mecca; it also contains his tomb. Formerly no unbeliever was permitted to traverse the streets of Medina or look upon the tomb of the great prophet, but tourists are now allowed within the gates. The city is enclosed by a wall forty feet high which is flanked with thirty towers. Two of its four gates are massive structures with double towers. Like Mecca, Medina is supported chiefly by pilgrims.



CHAPTER X

THE SAHARA

An expanse of land as large as the main body of the United States stretches across the northern part of Africa. From the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea, and from the foot of the Atlas Mountains to the Sudan, it is a weird panorama of rock waste—level, rugged, shingly, and mountainous, according to locality. In places only it is penetrated by large and permanently flowing streams. On the eastern borderland the Nile pours a mighty flood, winding a sinuous passage along its self-made flood-plain, the Egypt of history. In the west the Niger has forced its way into the confines of the desert and then, as if rebuffed, turns its course southward.

This great domain of the simoom has every diversity of surface. The higher summits of the Tarso Mountains are eight thousand feet above sea level; the Shott, a chain of salt lakes south of the Atlas Mountains, are about one hundred feet below sea level. The depression in which these lakes is situated probably was once the head of the Gulf of Sidra; but the never-ceasing winds have partly filled the depression, cutting off the head of the gulf in the same manner that wind-blown sands severed what is now Imperial Valley from the Gulf of California. Around the briny lakes are marshes of quicksands, and woe betide the luckless traveller who strays to the one side or the other of the beaten trails. Unless help is at hand, life will have neither joys nor troubles for him after a few brief minutes of struggle.

The Sahara proper begins at the south slope of the Atlas Mountains. Where there are no Atlas Mountains, it begins almost at the Mediterranean's edge. In the valleys of the Atlas and along the Mediterranean coast there is a strip of fertile land, wide here, narrow there, that produces grain and fruit. The Arabs call it the Tell. "Beyond the Tell is Sah-ra," or the Sahara. This is the name which the Arabs apply to the archipelago of fertile spots, or oases. Beyond the zone of oases is the desert. One becomes instantly and painfully aware that it is a desert on leaving the last oasis. Go a thousand miles southward, eastward, or westward from Tripoli, and one encounters but a single thing—an ocean of orange-colored rock waste, the Guebla of the Arabs.



The desert is a desert for want of water only. There is no lack of nutrition in the soil, nor is there anything in surface or temperature that makes a desert unproductive. Temperature and winds reach great extremes in fierceness, however. The temperature of the air in the noonday sun will often exceed one hundred and forty-five degrees; it may reach one hundred and fifty-five degrees. In the shade it frequently climbs to one hundred and thirty degrees in the vicinity of the tropics. Unless one is at a considerable altitude there is not much relief at night, though the thermometer may drop to ninety degrees. Farther north, however, and at an altitude of five thousand feet or more, the temperature of the night is even more cruel than that of the day. Immediately after sunset a sharp chill becomes perceptible. At first it is a welcome relief from the intolerable heat. By nine o'clock it begins to cut like a stiletto, and at midnight the water suspended in shallow dishes clinks into ice. The drivers burrow deep into the sand and wrap woollen baracans about them; the camels shiver and even blubber like whipped bullies.

The air is so dry, however, that the extreme heat of day is by no means insupportable. Sunstroke is almost unknown, and even the tragedy of perishing for want of water is very rare; for the caravan drivers know just where to find water, and there are many hidden watering places that are known to the crafty Tuaregs and Bedouins. Many of the watering places are wells that have been sunk in various localities along the caravan trails. The intense heat, great depth of rock waste, and dry air are not favorable to the above-ground flow of rivers. But nearly every river has an underground flow that is pretty likely to exist all the year round.

One may follow a stream of considerable volume down the southern slope of the Atlas Mountains. The volume of water grows less and less until at last it apparently disappears. Not all is lost by evaporation, however; possibly the greater part sinks into the porous rock waste. And the rock waste?—perhaps it may be twenty, fifty, or one hundred and fifty feet deep. At all events, the water sinks until it reaches bed rock or clay through which it cannot pass. Then it flows along what may once have been an above-ground channel until fierce winds and cloud-bursts buried it deep.

But the half-savage dwellers of the desert know just where to tap these underground reservoirs and streams; even the dumb animals know instinctively where to look for water. It is merely a question of instinct coupled with experience, and the animal's judgment is about as good as the man's. When one finds the spot, it is necessary only to dig. The water may be two feet below the surface or it may be ten feet. When the moist sand is reached the task is half over. A foot or two more and the hole begins to fill. The water is hot, brackish, and repulsive to the taste, but it is water—and in the desert, water is water!

The simoom is also an institution of the desert. The simoom is unmistakably a wind, and surely no one who has not had the experience can appreciate it. Even the West India hurricanes or the typhoons of the China Sea are more kindly. They have plenty of destructive energy, it is true, but the simoom has all this and much else besides. It comes not without warning, but the warning and the wind are not far apart. The approach of the simoom is a dense black cloud of whirling and seething fine dust. As it strikes one, the choking, suffocating blast of hot air and dust overcomes everything that has life. The caravan men and the animals as well turn their backs to the wind and lie down with faces close to the ground. In a minute or two the full strength of the blast is on and the simoom is picking up not only the fine rock waste, but the coarser fragments as well, and is hurling them along at Empire State Express velocity. One might as well try to face a hail of leaden bullets. It is a cruel blast that neither animal nor human being can withstand. The camels crouch with their heads pointing away from the wind and nostrils close to the ground; their drivers lie prone with faces in little hollows scooped in the sand.

Perhaps the full blast of the simoom may last an hour—perhaps two or even three hours. In lighter strain it may continue a whole day. When, finally, it ceases the air is thick with fine dust; one can see scarcely a rod away. Sun and sky are hidden, and the blackness of a tornado or of a London fog prevails. The fine dust floating in the air may not settle for several days. Perhaps a week afterward there may be a haze that partly obscures the sun. The dust, finer than the finest flour, pervades everything in the desert. One's clothing is full of it; one's hair becomes harsh and matted; the skin becomes rough, cracks and peels; the eyes are inflamed; mouth, lips, and nostrils are swollen. But the great bodily discomfort resulting from the simoom does not last forever; it gives place to bodily irritation of some other sort, which is indeed a grateful change merely because it is a change.

The sand dunes of the Sahara are interesting to those who are not compelled to travel among them, but to the unfortunates who traverse them they are almost heart-breaking. Imagine oneself standing on an elevation a few hundred feet higher than the surrounding country. There is but one landscape—waves upon waves of the loose rock waste, for convenience called sand, as far as the eye can reach. Sometimes the waves are in long windrows, but oftener they are short and choppy like the surface waves of midocean.

Unlike the ocean waves, in which only the form moves forward, while the water composing it moves up and down only, the sand dune and the material of which it is composed are both moving in the direction of the wind. A breeze even of five or six miles an hour will keep the lighter surface dust moving freely, while a twelve-mile wind will not only sweep along much larger particles but it also carries more of them. And just as the surface, or "skin," friction forms waves at the surface of water, it also piles the desert sand in wave-like dunes.

The loose bits of rock waste are carried along, up the windward slope of the dune until they roll over its crest, where, no longer impelled by the wind, they come to rest. Thus, the crest, built forward by new material constantly added, is advancing. Valleys are filled; old stream channels are obliterated; and the inequalities of the surface are levelled off until the whole landscape is one of shifting, drifting sand.

Notwithstanding all these drawbacks, the Sahara and the arid lands southward to the Sudan are by no means destitute of life and wealth. It is an almost universal custom to speak of the barren condition of the desert. The contrary is the truth; there is no soil elsewhere so fertile and productive. It is vastly superior even to the soil of the lands reclaimed from the bottom of the North Sea.

Water is the magic wand that makes the sands of the Sahara bring forth crops that are marvellous both in quantity and quality. No fruit grown elsewhere in the world can compare with that grown on desert lands, and the French engineers are planning the means whereby water may be obtained. Surface water that is available to irrigate the wastes of the Sahara does not exist. The level of the Nile is so far below the surface on both sides of its own flood-plain that its waters cannot be used for the reclamation of any part of the Libyan Desert, and the same is practically true of the Niger, which barely more than touches the borders of the Sahara. The few wadys, or "dry washes," are destitute of water except when a cloud-burst may fill them; but this happens at intervals of years only.

The engineer takes into his confidence a caravan driver—perhaps an Arab, possibly a Berber, but quite as likely a slave. And the long experience has taught the caravan man where to find the precious water. The engineer then brings his science into play and drives an artesian well. The well thus driven may be a "gusher," but for most of them pumps are required to raise the water to the surface. The best well, however, furnishes water enough to irrigate but a very small area. Indeed, all the lands of the Sahara together irrigated by artesian wells would make an area scarcely larger than the State of Delaware, and all the water thus obtained would not supply New York City!

Nevertheless, the water obtained by artesian wells has proved a great blessing to the dwellers of the desert. If the water is found along one or another of the numerous caravan routes, an increase in caravan commerce is apt to result, for along many routes the volume of caravan commerce depends very largely on the number of wells. The location of artesian wells has also led to the opening of trade along new routes as well, for wherever water can be found there will be camels to drink it.

The date palm is essentially a plant of the desert, or, rather, of the oasis. Nowhere else does it grow in such profusion as in northern Africa. The number of productive trees there is estimated to be anywhere from ten million to twenty million, though the estimate is but little better than a guess. At its full growth the date palm is a most beautiful object. Usually the feathered tops of the trees are the only foliage to relieve the harsh landscape. Like the bamboo, every part of the tree is used. The leaves may be made into fans, or shredded and woven into mats. The wood is used in making the framework of buildings, and the waste material is very handy as fuel. A refreshing fermented drink and a most vile liquor are prepared from the juice. But the fruit, when properly prepared, is the chief food of many thousands of men and beasts. Even the stones, or "pits," of the dried fruit are useful; those which are not sent to Italy to be used for adulterating coffee are made into an "oil-meal" for fodder.

Esparto grass, called "alfa" or "halfa" by the Arabs, is another unique product of the Sahara. In spite of its name, it is not a grass but a flowering plant whose stalk has a tough fibre useful in making cordage and paper. When the plant turns brown and has become dry to the root, the esparto picker gets busy.

By four o'clock in the morning he is at work, his heavy woollen baracan, or blanket, wrapped tightly about him, for the air is not only chilly but almost freezing cold. By sunrise the chill begins to disappear, and a few brief moments is the only interval between piercing chill and midsummer heat. The baracan is quickly shed and the fez, if the picker is rich enough to possess one, is discarded for an esparto hat with rim of mammoth proportions. Esparto grass sandals protect his feet.

Almost all the animal life of the Sahara is deadly, and the esparto grass picker is constantly facing danger. The clump of esparto, into the bottom of which he must reach to cut the mature stalks, is quite likely to be the lair of a poisonous viper; and if the reptile sinks its fangs into the flesh of the unfortunate picker, long weeks of suffering and disability—perhaps death—are in store for him. Between the bite of a rattler and that of an esparto viper there is little to choose.

The scorpion is another peril to the esparto picker. The great rock-scorpion of the Sahara is about as ugly as the centipede of Arizona and Mexico; in size it is also about as large—from six to ten inches in length. Its sting, too, is about as dangerous as the fangs of the rattler. But the esparto picker has a method of heroic treatment for both the bite of the viper and the sting of the scorpion. He squats calmly upon the sand while a brother picker cuts out the flesh that has been pierced. If he survives the twenty-four hours following, he is pretty likely to pull through. If not—well, the vultures know when and where to look.

The esparto grass is delivered to the nearest local market compressed in bales of five or six hundred weight, held together by a coarse netting of esparto weave, and shipped to Europe. Nearly all of it goes to Great Britain. There it is shredded and made into cordage, coarse cloth, or paper.

But the esparto has a rival so far as its use in making paper is concerned. The wood pulp of Norway and the United States is slowly displacing it, and in time esparto will be but little used except for making cordage or gunny cloth. Already the French Government is having troubles of its own in providing employment for the esparto pickers, but it is not likely that such a useful plant will be discarded; on the contrary, its use is likely to increase in the future.

The camel is the institution upon which the commerce of the desert depends. A more awkward, ungainly beast can hardly be imagined—a shambling collection of humps, bumps, knobs, protruding joints, and sprawling legs seemingly attached to a head and neck in the near foreground. But that shambling gait will carry a load three times as heavy as the stoutest pack mule can bear, and it will carry it twice as far in a day.

A horse or a mule must be fed twice a day, but a camel will worry along for a week at a time with nothing more substantial than its cud. Horses and mules cannot traverse regions where the watering places are more than twelve hours apart, unless water be carried in storage; but the camel is its own storage reservoir, and can carry a supply sufficient to last for ten days.

At the end of his week of fasting the hump of the camel has shrunken to a fraction of its former size. When the animal has a few days of feeding the hump grows to its former proportions again. Indeed, the hump is merely a mass of nutrition ready to be formed into flesh and blood.



Within the paunch of the animal and surrounding its stomach are great numbers of cells capable of holding seven or eight gallons of water. When the camel drinks copiously these cells become filled and afterward slowly give up the water as the stomach requires. It may be truly said that the camel is a camel because of the desert and not in spite of it.

The sparse population of the Sahara—Arabs, Berbers, and negroes—are dependent upon the camel, for until the railway shall traverse the Sahara the camel will be practically the only means of transportation. The camel's flesh furnishes about the only meat consumed by the dwellers of the desert, for ordinary cattle can live only in a few localities along the desert border lands.

The native people of the desert are mainly of the race to which the Arabs also belong, although there are many Arabs and negroes. The Tuaregs and Bedouin Arabs are the best known. The Tuaregs are thought to be the descendants of the Berbers and of the same race as the Carthaginians, whom the Romans many times defeated but never conquered. They have whiter skins than the Arabs and in appearance are perhaps the finest peoples of Africa. They are also the most ferocious and blood-thirsty villains on the face of the earth. Many of them live in the white-walled cities such as Ghadames, Kand, and Timbuktu—all large centres of population.

Their government is well organized. Each of the larger tribes is governed by a sultan, and in each there are several castes—a sort of nobility of unmixed Tuareg blood being at the head and negro slaves at the lower end of the social ladder. The families of the highest caste are usually well-to-do, and both the men and the women are taught to read and write. The garments usually worn by a Tuareg man consist of white trousers, a gray tunic with white sleeves, sandals of ornamented leather, and a white turban. When away from home the Tuareg covers the lower half of the face by a cloth mask.

The usual occupation of the Tuaregs is twofold—to guard caravans or to rob them. The average Tuareg is perfectly indifferent as to which he does. A caravan from the Sudan enters, we will say, Kano. The garfla sheik pack master, or superintendent, goes at once to the financial agent of the sultan and pays the usual liken, or tariff charges. Then he goes to the sultan himself and incidentally leaves in his possession a generous money present. Then, if he desires, he may hire half a dozen or more guards.

The hiring of these will insure the caravan against theft or robbery on the part of the predatory bands living at Kano. The guards will also faithfully defend the caravan in case of attack by Bedouin Arabs. On the other hand, should the garfla sheik forget the present to the sultan, or neglect to hire guards, those same Tuaregs would be the first to attack and loot the caravan.

The Bedouin Arab is the chief trial of the caravans. He is always a foe to them; and although he ostensibly herds camels and horses, his real occupation is robbery and pillage. For days nomadic Arabs will follow a caravan, keeping always out of sight. Most likely a band of a dozen or more mounted on swift horses will survey the caravan from a distance at which they are not likely to be discovered. Then they make their way ahead of it to some point where a dune or a gully will conceal them. Then, just as the end of the caravan drags by, there is a sudden sortie and a rattling musket fire. And before the guards can gather to the defence half a dozen camels are cut out of the train, a driver or two is shot down or pierced with assegais, and both the robbers and their loot are beyond the reach of the guards.

But perhaps the greatest value of the desert is its effect upon the climate of Europe. Hot winds blow from the Sahara in all directions; the northerly winds, crossing the Mediterranean, are not only tempered thereby, but the desert blasts tempered and filled with moisture finally reach the southern slopes of Europe, where they convert the nutrition of the soil into bountiful crops of corn, wine, and oil.

The conquest of the great African desert is already in sight, and the railway will be its master. The Cape to Cairo line is no longer a vision of the future; the ends of its two parts are rapidly shortening the interval that separates them and they are almost in sight of each other. When the lines that are projected from the Mediterranean coast shall have traversed the stronghold of the Tuaregs to penetrate the wealth of the Sudan and the Kongo, the Sahara will have become merely an incident.



CHAPTER XI

POLAR REGIONS—THE CONQUEST OF THE ARCTIC

Excepting the arctic and the antarctic regions, with their fortifications of eternal ice and snow, intrepid explorers have made known nearly every part of the world. There Giant Frost guards his frozen secrets and defies man to wrest them from him. Many a hero has perished in endeavoring to solve the Sphinx-like riddle of northern lands and seas. Many a gallant ship has found its grave in northern ice-clad waters. Yet there has never been a lack of adventurous spirits to continue the work.

But one after another the strongholds of nature have gradually yielded to persistent attacks. Especially is this true of the arctic regions, of which not more than two million square miles of sea and land remain to be explored.

Buffeted by adverse winds and floating ice-fields, venturous explorers have drawn nearer and nearer to the north pole. Again and again, the attack has been renewed, until, after half a lifetime, Robert E. Peary, an officer of the United States navy, made a brilliant dash and planted the national ensign at the pole.

The story of arctic exploration and discovery is filled with interest. It is pathetic, tragical, and calculated to awaken the deepest emotions. Nevertheless, it is enlivened by brilliant exploits, deeds of daring, and acts of heroism.

For many years the search for a northern passage to India in the furtherance of commerce was the chief incentive to arctic exploration. Even more than a century before Columbus discovered America, two Venetian brothers named Zeno sought a northwest passage to the Orient, believing that the difficulties in navigating it would be offset by the shortening of the route.

The success achieved by Spain during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in discovery, conquest, and colonization incited England to find a northwest passage, in the hope that such a route, by shortening the distance to the East Indies, would extend her commerce.

After the discovery of the mainland of North America, Sebastian Cabot, under the patronage of Henry VII, planned a voyage to the north pole, thinking that would be the best route to ancient Cathay. He proceeded only as far as Davis Strait; then, becoming discouraged by the immense fields of ice, he turned the prow of his vessel homeward.

Soon afterward the Muscovy Company of London sent out an exploring expedition with instructions to find a northwest passage. This expedition, taking a different route from its predecessors, reached Nova Zembla. But the ice-fields forced the vessel back to the shores of Lapland, and the ship was never spoken of again. Years afterward the ship's company were found frozen in death.

Next in importance came the renowned Frobisher, a strong advocate of a northwest route. He made three voyages to the Arctic Ocean, the last two being under the patronage of Queen Elizabeth. Frobisher believed that fabulously rich fields of gold existed in the north, and his expedition was organized for the purpose of discovering them. His search for precious metals was fruitless, but he added much to the world's knowledge of polar regions, and he has been remembered in the strait that bears his name.

The Muscovy Company again sent out an exploring vessel, this time under the able navigator Henry Hudson, with orders to go "direct to the north pole." He did his best to carry out his instructions and, sailing along the northern shore of Spitzbergen, reached latitude 81 deg. 30' north. Finding the route utterly impracticable, he returned home. In all, Hudson sailed on four voyages of discovery, twice in the employ of English companies and twice in the employ of the Dutch East India Company.

In one of his voyages under the Dutch, after advancing as far north as he deemed prudent, he turned southward and cruised along the Atlantic coast. Entering New York Bay, he proceeded up the broad river that now bears his name, believing at first that he had found the coveted short route to India. Soon he was undeceived, for as he went farther up he found the seeming passage to be merely a large river. He gave his employers such a glowing account of the valley of the Hudson River that the merchants of Holland sent out ships to establish trading posts along the river and to trade with the Indians.

On his fourth voyage, while seeking a passage northwest, he discovered the strait and the bay both of which bear his name. Desiring to continue his explorations the next year, he sailed westward on the bay and wintered on the island of Southampton. In the spring he again tried to find the long-wished-for passage.

The long, cold winter and lack of suitable food told heavily on his men. They became badly demoralized and declared that they would not remain longer in such an inhospitable region. When Hudson insisted, the men mutinied. Seizing their commander, they placed him with his son and five sailors in an open boat and sailed away. After this cruel act of the mutineers, no trace of Hudson or those who were with him was ever found. But Hudson's fame will never die. Historians will ever laud his achievements, and his name is indelibly inscribed on the map of the world. The ringleader of the mutineers with five of his companions was afterward killed by the natives, and several of the others starved to death. The rest of the crew succeeded in getting the ship back to England; there they were tried, found guilty of mutiny, and sent to prison.

In 1616 the intrepid William Baffin took up the search. He penetrated the bay bearing his name and explored the passages of water westward to the mouth of Lancaster Sound.

Later the Russians became interested in exploration. Among the explorers Captain Veit Bering of the Russian navy was the most eminent. In the early part of the eighteenth century Bering was commanded by Peter the Great to take up the search for the long-sought passage. He explored the northeastern coast of Asia as far north as sixty-seven degrees latitude, discovering a fact hitherto unknown, that North America is separated from Asia by a narrow passage of water containing small islands. The passage received the name Bering Strait from its discoverer, and the same name was bestowed upon the sea leading to it.

About ten years afterward Bering determined to explore the northwest coast of North America. He landed twice upon the coast, but, being driven back by violent storms, was at length wrecked on an island, where he died. His crew, though suffering terrible hardships, lived through the winter. With the coming of spring, however, they rigged a craft from the stranded vessel in which a few survivors reached the coast of Asia.

In 1743 the British Government offered a reward of twenty thousand pounds for the discovery of a northwest passage by the way of Hudson Bay. Thirty-three years afterward a like reward was offered for the actual discovery of the north pole and the same amount for the exploration of any navigable passage. The sum of five thousand pounds was also offered to any one who should approach within one degree of the north pole. These standing rewards greatly stimulated arctic exploration.

Of the many voyages of exploration that followed, Sir John Franklin's last expedition was the most tragical. This expedition was fitted out by the British Government with the necessary supplies and scientific instruments for a three years' cruise. Two stanch vessels, the Erebus and the Terror, both of which had been previously employed in antarctic exploration, were selected to stem the ice-fields of the north, and a tender with extra supplies accompanied them as far as Davis Strait. The vessels were last seen in Lancaster Sound moored to an iceberg, where they were spoken to by a whaling ship homeward bound.

Three years having passed and no tidings having been received from the expedition, all England became extremely anxious concerning the safety of the explorers. The British Government then sent out two vessels to seek Franklin, but no trace of the missing commander or his men was found.

The government then redoubled its exertions, supplemented by private parties, and in 1850 no less than twelve vessels were vigorously searching the arctic lands and waters for their lost brothers. Lady Franklin spent her fortune in endeavoring to find trace of her noble husband.

The heart of humanity was touched with the deepest sympathy and moved by the noblest motives. The United States Government, aided also by private citizens, fitted out vessels to continue the search. At one time ten of the searching vessels met in the Arctic. The results of these expeditions were meagre in securing trace of the lost ones, but they greatly enriched our knowledge of northern lands and seas.

Not until five years after the Erebus and Terror left England was trace of the explorers found. Near the head of Franklin Strait, off the shore of King William Land, evidence of an encampment of some of the men was discovered, and at Beechey Island, near by, carpenters' tools, empty meat cans, and the graves of three of the men threw more light on the mystery of the ill-starred expedition. A few years later, at Victory Point, Lieutenant Hobson found a record of the death of Franklin, the date being July 11, 1847.

Charles F. Hall, a native of New Hampshire, but long a resident of Ohio, who had been a reader of arctic literature, became deeply interested in the search for Sir John Franklin. Obtaining financial aid from different sources, he made four voyages to the arctic, the first being devoted to searching for Franklin's men and in solving the mystery of their disappearance. His third voyage was the most fruitful one in securing results. Hall believed that the Eskimos knew more about the lost explorers than they were willing to tell, and that if he could but gain their confidence he could extract from them the story. In furtherance of his plan, he resolved on his third voyage to live with them several years. In 1864 he started on this voyage north. On his arrival in the arctic he sought out the natives and made himself one of them, adopting their mode of life and food.

He spent five years living and travelling with them. Having won them over, he obtained the story of the ill-fated explorers. He learned that one of Franklin's vessels had actually made the northwest passage to O'Reily Island, southwest of King William Land. Five men remained on board alive, but the vessel was abandoned by the crew. The next spring the Eskimos found it in good condition frozen fast in the ice.

The skeletons of Franklin's men were found scattered over King William Land, where they had perished one after another from starvation and cold. Some had engaged in conflict with the natives in endeavoring to secure food, but being weak from hunger were unsuccessful. Of the one hundred and five men who accompanied Franklin not one was ever found alive.

During the year 1850 the problem of the northwest passage was solved by Captains M'Clure, Collinson, and Killet. South of Melville Island, M'Clure, who had sailed through Bering Strait, met the ship of Killet which had come through Lancaster Sound. M'Clure, having wintered near the connecting waters, had really established the existence of the passage by observation before the meeting. Twenty days later Collinson came up in his ship. Finding the problem of the northwest passage solved, he turned to the southeast and completed the passage in another direction.

It thus became evident that so far as commercial purposes were concerned a northwest passage was impracticable and that further northern exploration must be considered in the light of scientific and geographic value only.

Hall's labors did not cease with his discovery of the Franklin expedition. He became an enthusiast concerning the arctic and seemed to enjoy its weird icy scenery and attendant perilous excitement. Believing that he could reach the north pole if he had a properly equipped expedition, he planned a fourth voyage and appealed to Congress for assistance.

A generous appropriation was made by Congress, and on July 3, 1871, the expedition set sail from New London, Conn., carrying a full crew and several scientists. The vessel, which was named the Polaris, touched at several places on the western coast of Greenland to secure additional dogs and skins suitable for arctic clothing, and then steamed north as far as seemed safe, to establish winter quarters preparatory to making a dash for the pole in the spring.

The vessel passed through Robeson Channel into the polar ocean, reaching 82 deg. 11', then the highest point ever reached by a ship. Not finding a good harbor, Hall sailed south about fifty miles. He anchored near the Greenland shore to the lee of a stranded iceberg. Building material for a house and part of the stores were removed to the land in case anything happened to the ship. Then the ship was banked up with snow and part of the deck was covered with canvas to keep out the cold.

The weather being propitious, Captain Hall thought best to take a sledge journey to find the lay of the country. He ordered the dogs to be well fed, and accompanied by two other sledges advanced northward about fifty miles, making side trips to take observations. At the end of two weeks he returned seemingly perfectly well, but in a few hours complained of illness. Thirteen days afterward he died. The date of his death was November 8, 1871, just a little more than four months from the time he left the port of New London buoyant with hope.

The command of the expedition now devolved on Captain Buddington, a man of dissipated habits and lacking in discipline. During the winter and spring severe storms crashed the ice-pack against the sides of the vessel, causing it to leak. In the meantime exploring parties were sent out with sledges and boats, gathering not a little knowledge concerning the west coast of Greenland. Then the vessel began to leak badly, and Captain Buddington ordered all hands on board for return home.

Great fields of ice still covered the sea, and it was with extreme difficulty that the vessel made its way through them southward. A severe gale damaged the vessel still more, and as it seemed certain that it could not float much longer, preparations to abandon it and to move at once to the ice-floe were made.

At the dead of night, in the face of a fierce gale, a part of the ship's company and stores were transferred to the ice. Then the heaving billows broke the vessel loose from the floe, separating the men on the ice from those on the vessel. With eighteen companions Captain Tyson lived on the ice-floe which moved southward, breaking off piece after piece, for a period of six and one-half months, suffering incredible hardships from cold, hunger, and constant fear. Finally, they were sighted off the Labrador coast by the ship Tigress and rescued in a starving condition. The story of this ice-floe journey of one thousand three hundred miles is one of the most thrilling in maritime annals. Fortunately, there were two Eskimos on the ice-floe skilled in the capture of seals, else the entire company would have starved to death, since but a small portion of the provisions had been transferred to the floe when the vessel parted from it. The devices for sustaining their lives during the journey form interesting reading. Strange to relate, no one was seriously ill and no deaths occurred during this remarkable ice voyage.

After drifting a while the Polaris was purposely beached on the Greenland shore and the stores placed on land, where a house was built in which to spend the second winter. In the spring two boats were constructed in which the company started southward along the coast, where they were finally picked up by a whaling vessel.

The conquest of the northeast passage was not achieved until the latter part of the century. In 1878 Baron Nordenskjold, a Swedish explorer commanding the Vega, entered the Arctic and sailed eastward along the Russian and Siberian coast. Nordenskjold was the first navigator to double Cape Chelyuskin, the northern cape of Asia. The Vega reached Bering Strait where she was nipped by the ice-pack. In the following spring she reached Japan in safety.

In 1879-80 Lieutenant Frederick Schwatka set out on an overland expedition northwestward for Hudson Bay, to gather knowledge concerning the great Arctic Plain of North America. Schwatka's was probably the longest sledge journey ever made up to that time. With a small party of men, his dog sledges covered a distance of three thousand miles. Schwatka found the skeletons of several members of Sir John Franklin's party. These he buried on King William Land.



In 1881 the De Long expedition, in the steam cruiser Jeannette, met disaster off the Siberian coast. The Jeannette was sunk and her officers and crew in three boats abandoned her. One boat was never heard of afterward. De Long and his party starved in the delta swamps of the Lena River. Chief Engineer Melville and his party were rescued in the Lena River.

In 1881 also the International Polar Conference attempted to establish a chain of stations around the pole as far north as possible. The United States and several of the European nations were represented in the organization. Two expeditions were sent out by the United States; one at Point Barrow, under Lieutenant Ray, the other at Lady Franklin Bay, opposite the Greenland coast, in latitude 81 deg. 40'. The latter was in charge of Lieutenant, now General Greely. In a sledge journey along the north coast of Greenland, Lockwood and Brainard reached the latitude of 83 deg. 24'. The observations of Greely and Ray added not a little knowledge concerning the meteorology and tides of the arctic regions. The sledge journey of Lockwood and Brainard practically established the fact that Greenland is an island.

Of all attempts to reach the pole, the most daring was that adopted by S. A. Andree, a Swedish explorer. Andree had been to the polar regions before, and being something of an aeronaut, believed that he could reach or pass over the pole in a balloon. In carrying out his plan he had constructed a monster balloon capable of floating in the air thirty days, due allowance being made for the daily escape of gas by permeation through the envelope. This balloon, with necessary accessories, was shipped to Danes Island, one of the Spitzbergen group. Everything being ready July 11, 1897, Andree set forth on his perilous trip accompanied by two companions. The balloon carried a load of about five tons, including food, clothing, ballast, scientific instruments, and men.

On being let loose the balloon arose six hundred feet, and then descended to the surface of the sea owing to the entanglement of the guide ropes and ballast lines. Three heavy guide ropes nine hundred feet long were used, to which were attached eight ballast lines two hundred and fifty feet long. The ropes were cut and ballast was thrown out, when the balloon again rose and the wind bore it away over a mountainous island one thousand five hundred feet high. In an hour it had passed below the northeastern horizon. Three message buoys were dropped on the day of Andree's departure, reporting fine weather, all well, and altitude eight hundred and twenty feet; from that time on no traces of the daring unfortunates have ever been found.

Fridtjof Nansen, who had spent some time in the exploration of Greenland, had also reached the conclusion that a polar current sweeps across the Arctic Ocean from Bering Sea to the north coast of Greenland. He therefore set out with a picked crew in a small steamship, the Fram,1893, entering the Arctic at Bering Strait. After the Fram had been caught in the ice-pack, Nansen and his companion, Johansen, started toward the north pole with dog sledges. They reached latitude 86 deg. 14'; finding that the ice was drifting southward, they made for Franz Josef Land, where they spent the winter, and then started for Spitzbergen. On their way they were found by members of the Jackson-Harmsworth expedition, by whom they were rescued. The Fram also returned safely. The existence of the polar current was not established.

In 1900 Captain Cagui, a member of the Abruzzi Polar Expedition, starting from Franz Josef Land, made a dash across the ice toward the pole. He succeeded in reaching latitude 86 deg. 34', the nearest approach to the pole up to that time.

Only a few years afterward, 1905-6, Amundsen, in the steamer Gjoa, found a more southerly northwest passage from King William Land than that followed by Collinson. It was comparatively free from ice. Amundsen was the first to penetrate the northwest passage in a continuous voyage. The result showed plainly that as a commercial route the northwest passage was out of the question.

The man who finally succeeded in reaching the pole is the intrepid arctic explorer, Robert E. Peary, of the United States navy. In the first record-breaking trip Peary started in July, 1905. Sailing through Davis Strait, Baffin Bay, Smith Sound, and Robeson Channel to Grant Island, which lies west of the northern part of Greenland, he went into winter quarters at Cape Sheridan.

In the early spring, when the daylight was an hour long, Peary set out for the north pole over the ice-clad ocean with sledges drawn by dogs. Delayed by storms and open water in some places, he succeeded after incredible hardships and suffering in reaching 87 deg. 6', the highest point up to that time reached by man, a distance only two hundred miles from the north pole.

In previous trips Peary had crossed the northern part of Greenland twice at the risk of his life, each time bringing much knowledge of the north coast of Greenland. During one of his voyages Peary brought home three meteorites. The largest, weighing more than thirty-six tons, is now in the Museum of Natural History of New York City. These are among the largest meteorites ever found, and it is an interesting fact that so many were found in Greenland.[1]

Peary's last and successful trip began when the steamship Roosevelt, commanded by Captain Bartlett, sailed out of New York harbor, July 6, 1908. The vessel traversed Baffin Bay and reached Cape York August 1. At Etah, an Eskimo settlement, three weeks were consumed in storing supplies and selecting Eskimo guides and purchasing dog-trains. The Roosevelt then proceeded northward through the narrow strait that separates Greenland from Grant Land. The party went into winter quarters near Cape Sheridan at the head of the strait. The winter was spent in exploration and in preparation for the sledge journey. The necessary supplies for the journey were carried to Cape Columbia, the northerly point of Grant Land. The sledge party started northward from Cape Columbia February 28—seven members of the expedition, seventeen Eskimos, and nineteen sledges.



When the expedition reached latitude eighty-eight degrees, Captain Bartlett and Professor Marvin, with most of the Eskimo guides, were ordered back; Peary with his companion, Hensen, and several Eskimos started on the final dash. Fortunately the ice was smooth, and but few breaks, or "leads," were encountered. It was not difficult to make twenty-five miles or more a day during several days of the journey. At last a temporary break in the clouds gave Peary an opportunity for observation, which showed his latitude to be 89 deg. 57'. Ten miles more were made, and another observation showed that the party had actually gone several miles beyond the pole.

A cairn of ice blocks and snow bearing the American flag was erected approximately at the pole, April 7, 1909, and the party started on the return trip. There being a plain trail and smooth ice, the return trip was made in about half the time required for the outward trip. The reserve party was joined at Cape Columbia, and all hands returned to the Roosevelt, which was at anchor near Cape Sheridan. The only fatality of the expedition was the death of Professor Marvin, who was accidentally drowned while on his return to Cape Columbia.

The open polar sea which had been observed by Kane and several other explorers was closed by ice at the time of Peary's dash; indeed, the entire route lay over ice and snow that apparently was several years old. After leaving Cape Columbia no land sky was seen anywhere about the horizon. A single sounding was made about five miles from the pole, but no bottom was found at fifteen hundred feet, the length of the sounding wire.

For his services Peary received the medal of the Royal Geographical Society, and an admiral's commission from the United States Government.

In spite of the desolation that pervades polar regions, the resources are considerable and have attracted much commercial activity. For many years whale oil was about the only illuminating oil used by most of the world, and the chief supply was obtained from the whales slaughtered in north polar regions.

Holland sent whaling ships to the arctic as early as 1613, and for two centuries whaling fleets of different nations frequented these seas. During the early part of the seventeenth century—the most profitable period—upward of three hundred Dutch ships and fifteen thousand men annually visited Spitzbergen. It is estimated that in two centuries America, England, and Holland obtained from the arctic regions products amounting to one thousand million dollars, the greatest items by far being whale oil and whalebone. Great quantities of fossil ivory have been obtained from the New Siberian Island, the very soil of which seems in great part to be made up of the bones and tusks of the extinct mammoth.

Much valuable scientific information has been gained by meteorological and magnetic observations. The north magnetic pole, toward which the north-seeking end of the compass needle points, has been located on the west side of Boothia Peninsula. At this place the dipping needle stands vertical. It must be borne in mind that the north pole of the earth and the north magnetic pole are two entirely different points. As a matter of fact, if the mariner be in the arctic waters north of Boothia Peninsula his compass points south.

The arctic currents have been carefully studied with valuable results, and it has been found that the drift of the polar ice-floe is constantly to the eastward. Snow-white arctic reindeer in considerable numbers have been recently found; and Peary found seals within two hundred miles of the north pole. The Greenland seal seems to enjoy seas filled with ice, spending part of the time in the water and part on the ice-floe.



It is now known that Greenland is an ice-capped island very sparsely inhabited along the coast by Eskimos. A few hundred of these hardy people live along the Greenland coast from Cape York up to latitude seventy-eight degrees, cut off by the surrounding ice-cap from the rest of the world. They are the most northern known inhabitants.

Peary found the northern coast of Greenland well stocked with both animal and vegetable life. Bears, wolves, hares, and musk oxen were seen in considerable numbers.

A most important fact discovered by Hall was that the most northerly part of Greenland is comparatively free from ice, the largest known area of bare ground of that continent. This fact accounts for the profusion of animal and vegetable life existing there.

One of the most interesting of land animals found in the north is the musk ox. When fully grown and in good condition this animal weighs five hundred pounds and upward. When the musk oxen are attacked by wolves or dogs they form themselves into a circle with their heads on the outside and conceal their calves under their bodies. Their hair, being long, reaches nearly to the ground and forms a curtain which completely conceals the calves from view. Their food is moss and lichens which grow on the rocks. This they obtain by scraping away the snow with their sharp hoofs. The flesh of the musk ox, though musk-like in flavor, is not repulsive to the taste, and several explorers have been saved from starving by using the flesh for food.

The chief obstacles to arctic exploration are the long winter night, during which all must remain idle, and the necessity for carrying all provisions. No one who has not wintered beyond the arctic circle can have a realization of the influence on the nerves of continual darkness for months, an influence that has driven many men insane. Combine the darkness with the weird scenery and the fierce storms that prevail during the long winter, and it requires a strong will and abiding faith not to be seriously influenced. The extreme cold is not hard to endure if one clothes himself in the manner of the Eskimos.

Provisions and supplies must be carried by dog sledges, and the management of the dog teams is very difficult for those who have not been trained to the work. Shetland ponies have been tried as draught animals. Captain Evelyn Baldwin was the first to use them in polar exploration; others have used them, but less successfully.

Good coal is found in abundance on many of the islands of the arctic. Its outcroppings are found on Disco Island, west of Greenland, and excellent coal is found in many places in Spitzbergen, where at the present time two companies are mining it, one American and the other English.

Spitzbergen is sometimes called No Man's Land, since Norway and Sweden have not been able to agree in regard to its possession. Lately the islands of this archipelago have become favorite resorts for summer excursionists who can here have the arctic scenery and experiences with but very few discomforts. Ptarmigan, geese, ducks, and many other kinds of birds are found on these islands. Large quantities of eider-down have been obtained annually from this section, but the rapid destruction of the ducks by hunters has lessened the industry and will probably annihilate it. There being no law to regulate hunting, sportsmen wantonly kill the wild animals, especially the reindeer and bears, in great numbers.

We owe much to dogs in arctic explorations. It would have been impossible to penetrate to the interior of arctic lands or to traverse the frozen seas but for the services of the faithful dogs trained to draw sledges. Many of these animals have suffered from overwork and have perished from starvation; others have been sacrificed for food in dire extremities to preserve the lives of their masters. Surely arctic service has proved as destructive to the poor dogs as to men.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: Isolated masses of native iron are usually of meteoric origin, but to determine whether or not the native iron fell from the sky a portion of the surface is ground off and polished; then the polished surface is etched with acid. If crystalline lines are plainly brought out, there can be no doubt of its being of meteoric origin.

The following excerpt from the American Museum Meteoric Guide will make the matter clear: "The iron of meteorites is always alloyed with from six to twenty per cent of nickel. This 'nickel-iron,' as it is commonly called, is usually crystalline in texture, and when it is cut, polished, and 'etched' a beautiful net-work of lines is brought out, indicating plates which lie in positions determined by the crystalline character of the mass. This net-work of lines constitutes what are called the Widmannstattian figures, from the name of their discoverer. When these figures are strongly developed the meteoric origin of the iron cannot be questioned, but their absence does not necessarily disprove such an origin. Native iron of terrestrial origin is extremely rare."]



CHAPTER XII

POLAR REGIONS—ANTARCTICA

A continent twice the size of the United States lies sleeping beneath a mantle of snow and ice at the south pole. No vegetation save a few mosses and lichens exists anywhere on this vast expanse. No four-footed animals rove over it; no human beings inhabit it.

Hundreds of thousands of square miles of pack-ice, glaciers, and ice-walls jealously guard it on all sides. On one side, for a distance of five hundred miles, extends a great ice barrier whose perpendicular ice-wall is from thirty to three hundred feet in height. Behind this wall are vast ice-fields, and beyond these immense plateaus of ice having an elevation of six thousand to twelve thousand feet where fierce winds and a biting cold prevail. On these elevated plains the thermometer stands in the middle of summer sometimes as low as forty degrees below zero.

Great fields of ice and huge icebergs cover the sea in all directions and in winter extend far beyond the antarctic circle. In these regions the ice forming on the surface of the ocean attains a thickness varying from five to seventeen feet. Long ranges of snow-clad and ice-mailed mountains are found with ermined peaks towering from ten thousand to fifteen thousand feet in height.

A long winter night, with its intense darkness relieved at times by the light of the moon and brilliant chromatic displays of the aurora australis, succeeds a day of perpetual sunshine. All these are on such a scale of sublimity that no pen can adequately describe nor brush portray them. Nowhere else on the face of the globe does there exist such a wide expanse of utter desolation. Yet an undefined attraction lures bold men to fathom the mysteries of these forbidding regions. Dating from 1772, many exploring expeditions have visited the south polar regions in the interests of science.

The compass is the mariner's guide across the trackless ocean, and it is essential to find out everything possible about that mysterious agent, magnetism, which directs the compass needle by its attractive force. The earth itself is a huge magnet with positive and negative poles. The poised needle of the compass maintains its relative position because of the magnetic poles of the earth, one located in the north polar regions, on the western side of the peninsula of Boothia, and the other in the south polar regions, on Victoria Land. Except in a few localities the compass needle does not point due north and south—that is, toward the real poles of the earth, but toward the magnetic poles. And these magnetic poles are ever shifting, as is shown by the changing direction of the compass needle, which year by year increases or decreases its deviation from true north and south.

It is necessary to chart the variations of the magnetic needle for the use of the navigator. To observe the deviations and to locate the south magnetic pole have been the chief objects of south polar expeditions for several years, geographical information being of secondary importance.

The marine life of the south polar regions is abundant. In the latter part of the eighteenth century ships sailing in the regions north of the antarctic circle discovered whales and fur-bearing seals. Soon sealers and whalers of different nations began to frequent the prolific new regions. Then various European nations and the United States sent out exploring expeditions to the south polar regions to gather scientific and geographical information as well as to assist the charting of coasts and the determination of magnetic variations.

On account of their uninhabitability, their difficulty of access, and their unknown commercial value, the antarctic lands have claimed far less attention than the north polar regions. The famous explorer, Captain James Cook of the royal navy, was commissioned by the British Government to undertake various exploring expeditions, and in carrying out his instructions he made several voyages to the antarctic. In 1773, with his two vessels, Resolution and Adventure, he crossed the antarctic circle—so far as is known, the first time that it had been crossed by a human being. He continued farther southward, but finding an alarming increase of pack-ice and icebergs, he soon retreated north. In January of the following year he succeeded after a third trial in reaching latitude 71 deg. 10' south, the farthest south attained during the century.



In 1839 an expedition was sent out by the United States Government under Captain Charles Wilkes. The exploring squadron consisted of five ships and more than four hundred officers and men, scientists, and crews. Wilkes was the first to discover the so-called mainland of the antarctic continent, in January, 1840. He then followed along this unknown coast-line amid icebergs, fogs, and storms for over fifteen hundred miles, taking such observations as were possible. For his polar achievements in discovery and exploration he was awarded a gold medal by the Royal Geographical Society. Considering that he was supplied with improperly equipped ships, he certainly accomplished wonders.

The British Government, realizing the necessity for better magnetic charts of the south polar regions, and urged by the scientific societies of England, sent out a second expedition to the antarctic under the command of Sir James Ross. The expedition sailed from England in the fall of 1839 in the Erebus and Terror, both of which were subsequently lost in the unfortunate Franklin expedition.[2] On this voyage Ross made many discoveries, the most important of which was Victoria Land. On this land is the south magnetic pole toward which the south-seeking end of the needle always points. Ross greatly desired to plant at the south magnetic pole the flag that had been displayed at the north magnetic pole in 1831, but he was unfortunately caught in the pack-ice and compelled to abandon the attempt.

Two volcanic mountains were discovered on an island near Victoria Land. These mountains Ross named Erebus and Terror from the two ships in which he sailed. The former, thirteen thousand feet in height, was in violent eruption, and the latter, ten thousand feet high, was quiescent.

An expedition which has accomplished very great results in antarctic research was sent out under Captain Robert F. Scott of the British navy in the vessel Discovery. Through the influence of the Royal Geographical Society this expedition was admirably financed, the English Government and private parties contributing four hundred and fifty thousand dollars toward its equipment.

The Discovery left Cowes, England, in the summer of 1901, and, after making a series of magnetic observations south of Australia, steered for the south polar regions. Pack-ice was met almost at the antarctic circle, but Scott gradually worked the vessel through the pack and reached the base of Mount Terror where he landed a party. Then with the remainder of his men he coasted eastward along the great ice barrier for five hundred miles. It was found that the barrier had receded thirty miles since its front was examined by Ross in 1841 and that its front is wearing away at the rate of one-half mile a year. A captive balloon was used in making investigations of the ice front. If the unfortunate case of Andree be excepted, it was the first time that the balloon was used in polar research.

The vessel remained in a safe harbor near Mounts Terror and Erebus, where it lay frozen in for two winters. Every precaution was taken to insure the safety of the land party in case the ice should break up and force the ship out of the harbor. Suitable huts were erected on shore and a portion of the provisions was landed. Magnetic observations and other scientific work were carried on daily.

During the warmer season of the year many journeys were made into the interior. In order to be able to advance as far as possible, sledge journeys were made along a selected route to establish provision depots. This being done, Captain Scott with two companions and nineteen sledge dogs started for a protracted journey into the interior. They travelled three hundred and fifty miles inland over the great ice-field but did not even then reach the end of it. Then, having lost most of the dogs, and the provisions being low, the party set out on their return to the ship.

The few remaining dogs being disabled, the men were obliged to haul the sledges. Having suffered great hardships, the party reached the vessel after an absence of three months.

On this journey a long range of mountains with many high peaks was discovered. The highest peak, fifteen thousand one hundred feet, was named Mount Markham. The latitude reached was 82 deg. 17' south, being the farthest distance south attained. On a subsequent journey a plateau of nine thousand feet elevation was reached, where the evenness of the ice surface for miles seemed scarcely broken. The length of this journey was three hundred miles.

At the end of the second winter two relief ships appeared at the edge of the ice with orders that Captain Scott should return home at once. The Discovery was still sealed up in the harbor with solid ice from twelve to seventeen feet thick, and it was a problem how to free the vessel. The solid ice extended out more than six miles from the harbor.

The crews set resolutely to work making holes in the ice in a direct line from the imprisoned vessel to the open water. In these holes powerful explosives were placed which cracked the ice. This labor consumed some nine days. Then the great ocean swells broke up the ice, freeing the vessel. The Discovery forthwith sailed for England by way of Cape Horn, arriving home in September, having gathered much valuable information during her sojourn in the south polar regions.

Although practically no vegetable life has been found in these regions, an abundance of animal life exists in or contiguous to the sea, dependent on shrimps, fish, and such other life as the sea affords. Seals, penguins, petrels, cormorants, and gulls are found in considerable numbers. In fact, no persons tarrying in these regions need starve for lack of food, such as it is.



During the two years spent by the Discovery in the south polar ice, seals and penguins formed staple articles of the diet of the men. Though the flesh of both of these creatures has a strong and peculiar flavor, it was found to be an agreeable change from pemican and other preserved material. So vigorous were the men's appetites, stimulated by the excessive cold, that when they labored hard sometimes seven meals were served daily.

Because of the thick layer of fat covering their bodies, penguins were used as fuel when the coal began to give out. Penguins are strange, interesting sea fowls having an inquisitive and fearless nature. At one of the rocky shore rookeries millions of these grotesque birds were seen.

The type of penguin found here is a very handsome bird, decked out in rather gay colors, having a jet black head, bluish-gray back and wings, a yellow breast and bright spot of orange on the neck, and an orange-colored lower bill. As though proud of his multicolored dress he walks with slow and majestic step. His height is about four feet and his average weight eighty-five pounds. He makes free use of his voice which is loud and shrill. Whenever a group of penguins see an object that excites their curiosity they will stand around it in a circle and gaze at it intently. Lieutenant Shackleton had a graphophone as a part of his equipment, and whenever it was used, during the season when penguins were about, they used to gather around the instrument by the hundreds, seeming to be quite as much interested as his human listeners.

When all other birds flee at the approach of the antarctic winter the eccentric penguin defies the cold and hatches its single egg in the dead of winter, with the thermometer ranging from eighteen to seventy degrees below zero. It does this by carrying the egg between its legs, resting it on the back of the foot while a fold of heavily feathered loose skin completely covers it up.

After the chick is hatched it takes the place of the egg and is carried around in this queer receptacle. When the chick wants food it utters a cry. Thereupon the parent bends its neck down, and the little one thrusts its head into the parental mouth to help itself to regurgitated food. The adult fowls of both sexes are fond of nursing the chickens and frequently quarrel over the possession of the little ones, often with fatal results to the younglings. Over half of the chicks die or are killed by kindness.

The expedition to the antarctic commanded by Lieutenant Ernest Shackleton must always be considered one of the most important among those fitted out for the work of polar research. Shackleton had been a member of the Scott expedition and therefore was well acquainted with the character of the work. The members of the staff, about twenty-five in number, were selected with great care, and the results of the expedition demonstrated Lieutenant Shackleton's wisdom.

The Nimrod, a wooden steamship built for seal hunting, was purchased and equipped for the expedition. She was a small vessel, scarcely more than one hundred feet in length. Her foremast carried square sails; her main and mizzen masts were schooner-rigged. Under steam her speed did not exceed six knots. The equipment included a generous outfit of scientific instruments, a supply of dogs and sledges, ten Manchurian or "Shetland" ponies, and a gasoline motor-car. The vessel was equipped at Cowes, England, but made her final start from Lyttleton, New Zealand, New Year's Day, 1908. In order to save her supply of coal for future use she was towed to the antarctic circle.

The following winter months, May to September, were spent on Ross Island, near the winter quarters of the Discovery, in McMurdo Bay, about thirty degrees south of New Zealand. This bay, or sound, forms a curve in the shore line of Victoria Land, the coast of which is the best known part of the antarctic regions. Up to the present time it is the most accessible entrance to south circumpolar regions known; it is also the most convenient location for winter quarters, being only two thousand miles from New Zealand.

In the following March a party of six—David, Mawson, Mackay, Adams, Marshall, and Brocklehurst—prepared for the ascent of Mount Erebus, the volcano, then active, discovered by Ross and named after one of his ships. The crater rim was only a few miles distant, and during the first three days the party could be seen from the camp by means of a powerful telescope—tiny black specks struggling up the ice-clad slopes. Three craters were discovered, the youngest and highest of which was found to be thirteen thousand three hundred and fifty feet above sea level.[3] During the ascent the party nearly perished in a gale which blew their tents into tatters. The crater rampart was finally reached, however, and a number of excellent photographs were made.

During the entire stay at Ross Island the steam column from the crater furnished the means whereby the direction of the upper currents of air might be instantly noted, and the condition of activity did not differ materially from that observed in Stromboli. When the barometer was low the steam column was heavier and denser; the glow of light was also brighter. With a high barometer, on the contrary, the conditions were reversed, the steam column was insignificant and the glow was scarcely visible. As a rule, the ascending column of steam was projected three thousand feet or more before it was caught by the upper air current. Measurements showed the principal crater to be half a mile in diameter and nine hundred feet deep. Great deposits of sulphur and pumice were observed.

In the last week of October a party composed of Shackleton, Adams, Marshall, and Wild started on the trip to discover the south pole. The journey to the point farthest south occupied seventy-three days. After a few days out from the winter quarters no bare rock was seen—the landscape being one of ice and snow.

Shackleton's journal of January 8 notes the fierce gales blowing at the rate of seventy or eighty miles an hour, while the temperature had dropped to "seventy-two degrees of frost." "We are short of fuel," he writes, "and at this high altitude, eleven thousand six hundred feet, it is hard to keep any warmth in our bodies between the scanty meals. We have nothing to read now, having left behind our little books to save weight, and it is dreary work lying in the tent with nothing to read, and too cold to write much in the diary."

"It (January 9, 1909) is our last day outward. We have shot our bolt and the tale of latitude is 88 deg. 23' south. We hoisted her majesty's flag, and the other Union Jack afterward, and took possession of the plateau in the name of his majesty. While the Union Jack blew out stiffly in the icy gale that cut us to the bone we looked south with powerful glasses, but could see nothing but the dead white snow-plain. There was no break in the plateau as it extended toward the pole, and we felt sure that the goal we have failed to reach lies on this plain. We stayed only a few minutes, and then taking the queen's flag, and eating our scanty meal as we went, hurried back and reached our camp about 3 P. M. Whatever regrets may be, we have done our best." On their return journey the party killed the two surviving ponies for food.

Early in October, 1908, a party consisting of David, Mawson, and Mackay started on their journey to locate the south magnetic pole. Like the journey of the southern party, it was a trip of hardship, intense cold, and physical suffering. On January 16, 1909, partly by experiment and partly by calculation, the point of vertical position of the needle was found in latitude 72 deg. 25' south, longitude 155 deg. 16' east. The position found by Professor David was very close to that obtained by Scott of the Discovery expedition and about forty miles from that which Ross calculated in 1841. In the interval of nearly seventy years, it is safe to assume that the position of the south magnetic pole has shifted forty miles.

In spite of the knowledge obtained in other directions, Shackleton frankly admits that the secret of the great ice barrier cannot be learned until the structure and trend of the mountain ranges which seem to form its edge are traced. The investigations showed, however, that it is composed of densely packed snow. It was found that at least one part of the ice barrier is receding, and that Balloon Bight, noted by Captain Scott, had disappeared in consequence of the recession. Not the least important part of the exploration was the discovery of forty-five miles of coast. Shackleton also was able to strengthen the opinion that Emerald, Nimrod, and Dougherty Islands do not exist.

The hardy Shetland and Manchurian ponies, first used by Evelyn Baldwin, proved a valuable equipment in polar research. Shackleton's gasoline motor-car and Scott's captive balloon were of considerable but limited use.

During 1910 and 1911 three different nations—England, Norway, and Japan—were represented by expeditions in south polar regions. The Norwegian expedition under Captain Roald Amundsen was especially equipped for quick travel, having eight sledges and more than one hundred trained dogs.

The expedition made its way to the head of Ross Sea, a large bay of the Antarctic plateau, nearly due south of New Zealand. The camp there was made the base of supplies. Depots for provisions were first established in latitudes 80 deg., 81 deg., and 82 deg.

A start for the pole was made September 8 with eight men, seven sledges, and ninety dogs. The weather was too severe for the dogs, however, and the party returned to camp. By the middle of October summer weather had set in, and on the 20th of the month five men, four sledges, and fifty-two dogs started on the poleward trip. Three days later they reached and passed the first depot; on the 31st the second depot was reached; and on November 5 the sledges reached the third depot in latitude 82 deg. Additional supplies were thereafter cached, in depots about one degree apart, to be used on the return trip. Snow cairns were built at frequent intervals to mark the trail. The last cache of supplies was left at latitude 85 deg.

From this point the way was a steep and difficult climbing over the range, or barrier, that had proved so difficult for Shackleton. Peaks in height from ten thousand to fifteen thousand feet loomed up on every side, and glacier surfaces proved to be the easiest paths.

When a height of nine thousand feet had been reached the rugged upraise opened out into a nearly level plateau. On December 10 observations showed latitude 89 deg., and on the 14th of the month the party reached latitude 90 deg. and achieved the conquest of the South Pole. The Norwegian flag was planted, and after three days spent in checking observations the party returned in safety. The expedition returned by way of Tasmania. The vessel employed was the Fram, the small steamship used by Nansen.

Captain Scott, who commanded the Discovery in the expedition of 1901, went with the men in his command to Ross Sea and made his head-quarters near the head of that body of water. He at once sent out exploring parties, one of which started for the pole. According to reports made in April, 1912, he had accomplished a great deal of work in surveys and geological research, probably more than all that of his predecessors.

The same reports brought also word that the Japanese expedition under Lieutenant Shirase had surveyed a considerable extent of the Antarctic coast.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 2: In April, 1831, Ross had the honor of fixing the location of the north magnetic pole on the Boothia Peninsula in latitude 70 deg. 5' north and longitude 96 deg. 46' west.]

[Footnote 3: According to the observations of Ross its altitude was twelve thousand three hundred and sixty-seven feet. Inasmuch as a change in altitude results from each eruption, both determinations may be correct. The admiralty charts give twelve thousand nine hundred and twenty-two feet, the determination of the expedition of 1901.]



CHAPTER XIII

ICELAND, THE MAID OF THE NORTH

Several thousand years ago a mighty conflict occurred between the sea and the subterranean forces in the north Atlantic five hundred miles northwest of Scotland. A violent earthquake rent the rocks of the ocean bed, and through the broken floor there issued tremendous floods of molten lava. The great conflict manifested itself in explosions of steam, gigantic streams of red-hot lava, frothy pumice, and volcanic ashes. For miles around the water of the sea was seething and boiling.

After awhile the turbulence of the fiery mass was subdued and it stood congealed in the varied forms of rugged peaks, contorted ridges, and deep valleys, subsequently to be seamed and further distorted by earthquakes and piled higher by further volcanic outbursts. A new island had been born.

Ages rolled on; vegetation appeared as the volcanic rock disintegrated; crystal lakes were formed and rivers, fed by frequent rains and melting snows, flowed to the sea. This comparatively new island is Iceland. The book of nature here is open; the print is clear; and the language is so plain that he who can read may learn the story.

The internal fires of the earth seem to have taken their final great stand in this far-off northern land and have waged a titanic battle to the death, as may be seen in many places. In the northern part of the island one may find acres of burning sulphur beds, small geysers, and mud caldrons, all of which attest to the slowly dying volcanic forces beneath. Although a comparative calm now exists, an exciting cause may at any time awaken the slumbering volcanoes and again renew the work of destruction.

Fossilized forests are found, but of trees different from those now existing. Climate and vegetation materially changed as century succeeded century.

The written history of Iceland begins about the year 860, when a viking living on the Faroe Islands who was on his way home from Norway, being driven far northward of his course, came to an unknown coast. Climbing a high rock and looking around, he beheld no signs of life; before he could return to his ship, however, a sudden storm came on, covering the ground with a mantle of snow. From the latter circumstance he named the country Snowland.

Four years after a Swedish master-mariner was driven by stress of storm to this same land, and, building a house, spent the winter there. During the following summer he sailed around the land, demonstrating that it was an island, and called it after his own name, Gardar's Island. On his return home he gave such a favorable account of the island that a famous Norwegian viking named Floki determined to seek it and to take possession. Having gathered his family and followers, and taking on board some live stock, he set sail for the unknown land by way of the Faroe Islands.

The compass had not then been invented, but knowing that ravens by instinct seek the nearest land when freed on the ocean, he provided himself with three of these birds to serve as guides.

He remained awhile at the Faroe Islands and then boldly sailed northward. When he was several days out he uncaged one of the ravens, which immediately took its flight back to the Faroe Islands. Later, he set free a second bird. This one, after hovering high in the air for some time, seemed bewildered and returned to the ship. Still later, the third raven was set free, which at once flew northward. By pursuing the course taken by the last bird, Floki soon reached the desired land.

The winter that followed was very severe. Deep snows covered hill, rock, and valley, and ice blockaded the fiord. Floki had neglected to harvest the wild grass, and as a result his cattle died. Disheartened by his losses, he returned to his native land, naming the island which he abandoned Iceland.

A few years later another Norse rover, who had slain an enemy and was threatened with vengeance by the relatives of the victim, took refuge on the island where he spent a year. He liked the country so well that he returned home and induced his retainers to accompany him back to his safe retreat. Approaching the land, he threw into the sea the sacred columns which his vessel bore, so that he might learn the will of the gods where to land and found a colony. A violent storm arising, the pillars drifted out of sight, so he sought the nearest harbor and there he established a temporary camp.

Three years afterward the pillars were found on the desolate shore of a lava stream on the west side of the island. Near by was a rivulet from whose bed a spring gushed forth emitting clouds of steam. Thither the colony removed and the present capital, Reykjavik, was founded. The name Reykjavik means "smoking bay." Other vikings followed and selected such parts of the island as they considered best.

Harold, the king of Norway at this time, determined to curb the rebellious spirit of the chiefs under him. So, many of the sturdy Norsemen, chafing under his arbitrary rule, collected such of their property as they could carry and, putting it on board their stanch vessels, sailed away to the land of refuge.

At this period of history nearly all nations considered that might made right; but no class of plunderers excelled the Norsemen, who were wont to make periodical raids on the various seaport cities and towns of Europe. They swooped upon them, pillaging and killing the inhabitants, and then fled in their swift vessels with booty and captives before they could be intercepted. The audacity of the Norse vikings knew no bounds. They pillaged Paris, Bordeaux, Orleans, and nearly every other city of France accessible by water. Their hands fell heavily on the coasts of Spain and the British Isles.



At one time a band of these fearless sea-robbers made their lairs in the Shetland and Orkney Islands and even plundered the coast of Norway, the abode of their kinsmen. Their conduct so exasperated Harold that he determined to destroy the freebooters of the Orkneys root and branch. Gathering a large fleet, he relentlessly pursued the raiders up every bay and inlet. Leaving the ships, he chased them among the rocky islands and the sinuous fiords. When they were overtaken the pursuers showed them no mercy. A few escaped, and, stealing away under the cover of darkness, the hunted sea-robbers fled in their ships to Iceland.

All the while the tide of immigration was augmented by the migrations of disaffected nobles from Norway. This naked volcanic island had more attraction for them than their own country where freedom was denied them.

Sixty years after the first settlement fifty thousand people had made their homes in Iceland. The inhabited parts were along the coast, in the river valleys, and in the vicinity of the fiords, rarely extending farther than fifty miles inland.

In order to better maintain rights and settle disputes, in 930 the chiefs or nobles established an aristocratic republic and adopted a constitution. The republic existed four hundred years. Many just laws were enacted, some of which England was glad to borrow. The legislative meetings were held in Thingvalla, a picturesque valley thirty-five miles east of Reykjavik. This valley was formed by the sinking of a lava area of fifty square miles. In the middle of the valley, flanked by two huge jagged walls of lava, is a triangular floor of lava like a large flatiron having separating chasms meeting at the apex. Here the Althing, or general assembly, met annually to make laws and settle disputes. Toward the south the valley slopes gently to Thingvalla Vatn, a beautiful sheet of water of crystal clearness ten miles long and five miles wide, having in some places a depth of a thousand feet. The scenery here is one of rugged beauty and surpassing grandeur. Hard by, a river comes tumbling over its rocky bed, then calmly pours its icy water into the placid lake. No spot is better suited to inspire freedom of thought and lofty imagination than this primitive meeting-place of a legislative assembly.

Eventually, Iceland became subject to Norway and afterward a colony of Denmark, which it remains to-day. Self-government and the re-establishment of the old Parliament at Reykjavik was granted by Denmark in 1874.

Iceland is not only out of debt but has the snug sum of one million crowns in its exchequer. It is an ideal place for the woman's rights advocates, since women here have the right to vote and do not change their names when they marry.

Although the island contains forty thousand square miles, five-sixths of it is uninhabitable. The present population is eight thousand.

It may with truth be called naked because it is only partly clothed with vegetation; moreover, such vegetation as exists is scanty and confined chiefly to the river valleys and their slopes. In the interior are large desert areas covered with lava and shifting sand. This desolate expanse is frequently diversified by extensive jokulls, or elevated ice-fields, one of which occupies four thousand square miles.

Strange as it may seem, the winters in the inhabited sections are not so severe as those of New England, owing to the modifying influence of the warm southwesterly wind and the mild temperature of the surrounding waters. The summers are cool, owing to the nearness of the arctic ice-fields. In the interior on the table-land one is apt to encounter snowstorms even in August.

The only wild animal is the fox, of which there are two varieties, the white and the blue. These animals probably drifted on the ice from Greenland. They are hunted not only for their skins but also because they attack the sheep.

The domestic animals are horses, cattle, sheep, dogs, and cats. The horses and cattle are small. The ewes, instead of the cows, are milked. Iceland ponies are famous for their hardiness and are sure-footed. Large numbers of them are exported to England for service in the coal-mines. There they are condemned to hard labor for life in the dark galleries.

Iceland ranks second among the geyser regions of the world, Yellowstone Park being first. The boiling springs and geysers are not confined to one locality but are scattered widely over the island. The most prominent are east of Reykjavik.

According to its area probably no other part of the world except the island of Java has so many volcanoes. More than one hundred craters and cinder cones have been counted, many of which have been active within the historical period of the island. The most destructive volcanic eruption took place in June, 1783. The spring had opened auspiciously; the cattle, sheep, and horses were cropping the juicy young grass; and the air was balmier than usual. In the latter part of May a bluish smoke accompanied by earthquakes began to spread over the land. As time passed the earthquake shocks increased in violence. The surface of the earth heaved like the ground swell of the ocean after a storm; the atmosphere became filled with choking vapors and blinding smoke; the sun was darkened and the low rumbling sounds became heavy peals of thunder. Presently two mighty streams of lava, one of which was fifteen miles wide and one hundred feet deep, came pouring down the sides of Skaptar Jokull. The lava floods filled up the valleys, quenched rivers, and spread destruction over the adjacent country. The intense heat blasted the vegetation far and wide. Nine thousand people and fifty thousand head of live stock were the result of the death harvest.



Iceland is well watered, having many streams, all of which are rapid, for the greater part flowing over beds of lava and quicksand. In some of the wider fords stakes have been set so that the traveller may not get lost in crossing them on horseback during a dense fog. In the summer the frequent rains make travelling very unpleasant unless one is suitably equipped with water-proof garments. In the Hvita, or White River, is the celebrated Gullfoss—literally, "goldfall"—a fall that rivals Niagara in the height of its two cataracts.

A few garden vegetables excepted, little or no agriculture is attempted; the chief dependence of the people is the rearing of sheep, cattle, and horses, fishing, and the collecting of eider-down. The streams are filled with excellent fish, including the salmon; off the coast are codfishing grounds equal to, if not surpassing, those of Newfoundland.

The most valuable mineral is sulphur, the supply of which appears to be inexhaustible. The chief exports are wool, oil, fish, horses, eider-down, knit goods, sulphur, and Iceland moss.

Transparent calcite, a mineral commonly called "Iceland spar," is found, one mine of which furnishes an excellent quality. It is highly prized by mineralogists on account of its double refractive qualities. If a piece of this mineral be placed over a word, the letters forming it will appear double. Iceland spar is used chiefly in the optical instrument known as the polariscope.

Eider-down consists of the soft, fine feathers growing on the breast of the eider-duck, great numbers of which frequent the coast and lakes of Iceland. This duck is wild except at the nesting season; then it is as tame as the domestic fowl and makes its nest not only around and on top of the buildings but frequently inside them. A heavy fine is imposed on any one killing a duck at this season.

When about to lay, the duck carefully lines her nest with down plucked from her breast. Then people remove it from the nest and the duck pulls more down from her breast to replace that taken. This process is repeated several times. When the duck has stripped her own breast the drake comes to the rescue and furnishes down from his. A certain number of the eggs are also taken. These, though inferior to those of the swan, are esteemed a great delicacy. Swans also are killed on many of the lakes.

Iceland is the resort of the fishing fleets of several nations; the value of the annual catch averages about ten million dollars. Much of the catch consists of food fish, but many are caught for the oil.

The only trees found growing on the island are birch and ash, and they seldom exceed ten feet in height. A few juniper bushes and willows are found here and there.

In the remote and isolated sections most of the dwellings are built of blocks of lava laid one upon another, making a wall six feet thick. Upon these are placed rafters made from ribs of whales, drift-wood, or anything else that will answer the purpose. The roof is then covered with grass and turf. In the hamlets many of the houses are constructed of imported lumber, there being no trees of sufficient size on the island for building purposes.

The inhabitants are very hospitable and every house is open to the traveller. They live in a simple manner, drink sour whey and milk, eat rancid butter, fish, mutton, and occasionally the lichens called Iceland moss. When well cooked, the last named is quite palatable. It is also a sovereign remedy for bronchial ailments.

Notwithstanding their many privations, the people are loyal to their country and lovingly call it "The Maid of the North." They lead pastoral lives and their customs are much like those of the Homeric age. Story-telling is much appreciated by all classes. There are wandering minstrels who gain their livelihood by going from house to house to recite the stories in prose and poetry which they have learned by heart. Spindle and distaff are used in spinning the wool into yarn, which is then knit or woven into cloth on a hand loom.

Education is universal, and no child of twelve years can be found who is unable to read or write. The families are so isolated that there are few schools outside of the capital; but the parents diligently teach their children whatever they themselves have learned.

During the long winter evenings one member of the family reads aloud while the others are busily at work, the men making nets and ropes, or removing the wool from the sheepskins, the women embroidering, sewing, or using spindle and distaff.

In no other country of Europe are so many books and papers published in proportion to the population as in Iceland. On the average one hundred books are issued annually from Icelandic presses. Several excellent newspapers and periodicals are also published.

Every Icelander to-day knows perfectly the sagas, the legendary stories that commemorate heroes and heroic deeds and which are so dear to his heart. It is not uncommon to find an Icelander who is well versed in the ancient classics or one who can speak several languages. They are well acquainted with the writings of Milton and Shakespeare, which have been translated into their own language. During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries Iceland produced a literature equal to that of any other nation in Europe within the same period.



CHAPTER XIV

GREENLAND

The history of Greenland really begins about the year 986 A. D., when Eric the Red, a chieftain who had been banished from Iceland, landed on the island with some of his followers and made it his permanent residence. At different times these hardy and daring seamen made expeditions to the eastern coast of North America, and sailed as far south as Chesapeake Bay. They attempted to found a colony on the east coast at a point thought to be on the coast of New Jersey but, after contending with the savages for some time, deemed it best to abandon the project and to return to their Greenland home. The location at which they attempted their colony is by no means certain.



All this island, a half million square miles in area, except a small part of the southern coast line and a larger area in the north, is covered by an immense glacier. And this field of ice, like a huge piece of plastic wax, is constantly moving from the interior down toward the sea. As it approaches the ocean it divides into branches which flow down the numerous fiords and valleys into the sea. As the fronts of the branch glaciers are pushed out into the water their ends are broken off by the buoyancy of the water. These glacial-born masses then float away as icebergs, carrying with them on their southward journeys the rock waste—moraine detritus it is called—gathered by the parent glaciers.

When these floating leviathans are off the coast of Newfoundland, they encounter the waters of the Gulf Stream, melt, and scatter their debris of stony matter over a large area of the ocean bed. This process, having gone on for thousands of years, has shoaled the ocean in certain parts, forming the so-called Banks of Newfoundland.

A gelatinous slime filled with minute animal life forms on the bottom of the ocean in the arctic; the cold currents flowing south carry some of it along with them, and much of it is lodged on the stony bottoms of these banks. Fish, especially the cod, are fond of this gelatinous substance, and throng thither at certain seasons of the year in countless numbers to feed upon it.

One ignorant of the currents of the ocean might be puzzled at times in observing that an iceberg floats southward at the same time that pieces of wood are floating northward, both apparently acted upon by the same current. This may be explained by recalling that warm water is lighter than cold and hence is found as the upper layer when a cold and a warm current are flowing in different directions, one upon the other. It should be borne in mind that seven-eighths of the floating iceberg is under water, leaving but one-eighth above the surface. The Gulf Stream drift spreads out as it travels northward, and, being much shallower than the arctic currents, carries floating objects northward on the surface, while the deeper and more powerful arctic currents force the huge masses of ice southward.

When the warm air over the Gulf Stream comes in contact with the floating ice it is chilled, and the moisture which it holds is condensed into fog. The fogs in turn, which are off the Newfoundland coast, being in the line of steamship communication between Europe and America, are a constant menace to navigation. The near presence of ice is usually detected by a greater chilliness in the air. In order to avoid collisions with one another, and also with icebergs, a ship constantly sounds its sirens and fog horns as warnings while in the fog belt. The signal of another steamship is a warning of the one; the answering echo announces the nearness of the other.



The high interior of Greenland, about ten thousand feet in altitude, is thought to result largely from the accumulation of ages of snow and ice, only a part of which melts or moves oceanward to form glaciers. No other part of the world is such an absolute desert as the greater part of this island. Animal and vegetable life are wholly absent.

The colony which was planted in Greenland by Eric the Red, and subsequently augmented by other Norsemen, continued to prosper for four hundred years. At the end of that period there were about two hundred villages, twelve parishes, and two monasteries. These, however, disappeared. The hostility of the Eskimos in part accounts for their extinction, but an encroachment of ice from the north, which encompassed the southern part of the island, is thought to have been also a factor. The fact that foreign trade with Greenland was forbidden by the mother country may account in part for the gradual disappearance of the colony. At all events, intercourse with Europe seems to have been cut off. This condition continued for upward of two centuries, and when intercourse with the mother country was again possible there was no Greenland colony. Perhaps the finding of "white" Eskimo in Victoria Land may explain this disappearance.