POLAR GEOGRAPHY BROWN 365 



SETTLEMENT OF POLAR LANDS 



During recent years territorial claims have been made to all parts 

 of Arctic regions that were not formerly subject to sovereignty, 

 and even in the Antarctic great dependencies have appeared. This 

 is an expression of the growing belief that polar regions are not 

 merely desert wastes but have some economic resources of value to 

 man. 



Fur and oil first brought Arctic regions into the areas of com- 

 merce. The advance by sea, as with the explorer searching for a 

 sea route to the east, was naturally by the two gulfs of warmth 

 into Davis Strait and the Barents Sea. The most approachable 

 Arctic lands were first exploited and first devastated by hunter and 

 trapper. Thus Greenland and Spitsbergen have suffered first. The 

 land approaches were naturally where continental land projects 

 farthest north, Canada and Siberia. Those routes led to a later 

 advance of the trapper, but to as ruthless an exploitation when once 

 it began. Hunting can not last; it is rapidly failing. Modern 

 weapons are too effective, and already the Eskimo are suffering 

 after a brief period of prosperity. But since the market for furs 

 will continue and even grow, and since the best furs will always be 

 Arctic winter skins, the demand must be met by breeding fur ani- 

 mals. Climate exercises a rigorous control on the commercial value 

 of the furs, a control from which there is no escape. Under wise 

 game laws the Arctic lands and seas may produce a steady crop of 

 furs, but the new form of exploitation will be rather an aspect of 

 stock raising than of hunting. Even the hunting of sea mammals 

 will suffer eclipse as the civilization of machines advances. The 

 whaler has now deserted most Arctic seas, the sealers are fewer, and 

 the walrus hunter has nearly exterminated his pre}'. The addition 

 of motor power to sloops has enabled the Arctic hunter to extend 

 his area of operations by penetrating the pack farther than sail 

 would admit. Arctic animal life has suffered as a result — as for 

 instance, the inroads on Spitsbergen reindeer in their relative safe 

 sanctuaries on the north and east. 



Of all Arctic animals, at least of those that have a commercial 

 value at present, the polar bear will endure longest, not because he 

 is least desired, but because he is a sea mammal who lives in the 

 inner fastnesses of the polar pack and can be hunted only on its 

 fringes. 



Exhaustion of game leads to a decrease in the number of hunters. 

 As far as this decrease concerns temporary hunters from the south, 

 it may lead to a slow revival in resources; but as regards the per- 

 manent inhabitants of Arctic America, the Eskimo, it has serious 

 effects. Their standard of living is reduced, want appears, and their 



