Wealth of the World's Waste Places and Oceania Part 13

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 compa.s.s 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 compa.s.s needle by its attractive force. The earth itself is a huge magnet with positive and negative poles. The poised needle of the compa.s.s 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 compa.s.s 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 compa.s.s 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 a.s.sist 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 lat.i.tude 71 10' south, the farthest south attained during the century.

[Ill.u.s.tration: An antarctic summer scene]

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 sh.o.r.e 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 lat.i.tude reached was 82 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The penguin defies the cold]

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 appet.i.tes, 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 sh.o.r.e 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 s.e.xes 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 sh.o.r.e 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 circ.u.mpolar 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 princ.i.p.al 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 alt.i.tude, 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 lat.i.tude is 88 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 gla.s.ses, 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 lat.i.tude 72 25' south, longitude 155 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 a.s.sume 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 j.a.pan--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 lat.i.tudes 80, 81, and 82.

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 pa.s.sed the first depot; on the 31st the second depot was reached; and on November 5 the sledges reached the third depot in lat.i.tude 82. 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 lat.i.tude 85.

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 lat.i.tude 89, and on the 14th of the month the party reached lat.i.tude 90 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 j.a.panese expedition under Lieutenant Shirase had surveyed a considerable extent of the Antarctic coast.