POLAR GEOGRAPHY BROWN 359 



Arctic coast of Siberia ,in the years immediately before the Great 

 War. But, though an ice breaker can deal with ice several feet in 

 thickness, it can not dispose of that ice; if the pack is close the ice 

 breaker will sooner or later become beset and helpless and at the 

 mercy of pressure due to wind and current. Even a powerful ice 

 breaker could be crushed by such enormous pressure. Only a ship 

 that rises is safe. For keeping harbors open and smashing new ice 

 the modern ice breaker is valuable, but it has no place in serious 

 polar exploration. 



The polar pack ice is still the most formidable obstacle that the 

 •explorer has to face. It may provide a laborious but uncertain road 

 for sledging, but because of its drift before current and wind it is 

 always dangerous to vessels, except those built on lines that defy 

 -crushing. Such a ship can drift in safety with the moving pack, 

 but seldom can retain its freedom of action. Man to-day is little 

 better able to penetrate heavy pack than he was 300 years ago. The 

 ice-infested seas are still barred to commerce and the only advance 

 that has been made is in a knowledge of the position and drift of the 

 ice, so that navigation of the edge of the pack is relatively safe. 



And now another method of advance has been tried. The baffling 

 pack ice can be avoided by progress through the air. Air transit in 

 the Arctic is not new ; as long ago as 1897, S. Andree made a hazard- 

 ous and fatal attempt, but in those days the aeronaut could do no 

 more than drift, and Andree unfortunately drifted to destruction. 

 In recent years the airplane has appeared in the Arctic, and Amund- 

 sen and Nobile have used the airship. It was inevitable that avia- 

 tion should be tried in high latitudes, if for no other reason than its 

 spectacular daring, but so far its success has not been marked. That, 

 however, does not necessarily imply that aviation is never to be a 

 serious help in polar exploration. Amundsen's flight in the Norge 

 gave a probable confirmation of what had already been deduced from 

 indirect evidence. He found no land where none was expected. He 

 saw nothing but ice-covered sea. Moreover, a rapid flight over snow- 

 covered land, even if the eye could distinguish that surface from 

 ice-covered sea, would tell little of importance. Byrd's flight to the 

 pole and back was of even less value to exploration, for on his track 

 there was no possibility of land. The kind of exploration that is 

 now required entails patient observation and accurate measurement. 

 A quick-moving machine can not help in this, and there is always 

 the probability of mist to hamper the value and imperil the success 

 of aviation in the polar summer. Amundsen himself admits that 

 owing to " a tremendous sea of fog, in some places of extraordinary 

 density " in the Beaufort Sea, he may have passed over islands of 

 low altitude without seeing them, so that on the only part of its 



