CHAPTER XVI 



Terrors and Mysteries of the Polar Regions 



THE search for the Poles, the daring venture into the realm 

 of eternal ice, has long been looked upon as the acme of 

 romantic adventure. Terrors surround it and marvels loom 

 up in its frozen depths; terrors which have only slowly been dis- 

 pelled; marvels which had held men's minds captive for ages and 

 are only now being replaced by new-found facts. 



Hardihood and indomitable courage must be the possession of 

 those who dare the perils of this long mysterious realm, and it is 

 only by the exercise of these qualities that it has, step by step, been 

 added to the world of the known, the last great exploits in this field, 

 which have gone far to unlock the secrets of the vast white world, 

 being those of Peary, Cook and Shackleton. 



Full of pluck and daring are all the records of Polar explora- 

 tion, and, in addition to that attraction, there is something else 

 about the subject which fascinates and holds the imagination. 

 There has long been a mystery about the cold, white, silent region ; 

 the mystery of an unsolved problem, the mystery which clings to 

 the few spots on the workT'S surface where the foot of adventurous 

 man has never trodden. Everywhere else man has gone; every- 

 where else men have subdued Nature and wrested her close-kept 

 secrets from her ; everywhere save the Poles, and almost as we write 

 man has conquered one of these and closely approached the other. 

 The mystery of the past is becoming a mystery no more. 



It is no modern idea, this search for the North Pole. King 

 Alfred the Great is credited with having sent expeditions towards 

 it, and long before his day men had sailed as far as they could to 



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