DISCOVERY 



91 



back a large number of reliable soundings, and once 

 and for all removed the so-called " Keenan Land " 

 from the map. Incidentally Stefansson and Storkersen 

 made one verv notable discovery, namely, that it is 

 possible to " live on the land " even on the drifting 

 pack-ice — at least in the Beaufort Sea area. 



One other expedition on to the polar pack deserves 

 mention, namely MacMillan's journey in 1914 to try 

 to find " Crocker Land " ; he travelled at a sur- 

 prisingly good rate over the ice, and very soon proved 

 that there was no " Crocker Land." Then, probably 

 owing to dog trouble, he turned back, when to all 

 appearance he had a clear field either to go right ahead, 

 or else, by turning in a more northerly direction, to 

 verif}' or disprove the existence of Dr. Cook's " Bradley 

 Land " in 84"-85' N. 



Neither soundings nor the drift of ships, nor the 

 reports of tra\-ellers on the pack-ice, show evidence 

 against possible land north-west of the Parry Archi- 

 pelago. On the whole the balance of evidence, particu- 

 larly the big feeding-ground necessary to supply the ice 

 carried by the Greenland Current, suggests that the 

 land, if present, is not of very large size. Like many 

 another problem, the onlj^ practicable method of 

 solution is to " Go and see." This is what Amundsen 

 is doing at the present time : for he hopes to drift 

 across the Polar Basin in the same way as the Fram, 

 but in higher latitudes, that is to say nearer the Pole. 

 In the last telegram recei\ed (dated August 1920) he was 

 forging into the pack north of Bering Strait, but with a 

 crew of only four men all told. Should he get well 

 within the Karlitk-J eannette track, the chances are 

 that he will finally drift very close to the Pole itself. 

 Ships have indeed sailed as far north in this quarter 

 as approximately 74° N. It is much more likely, 

 however, that he will be caught in the ice and start 

 drifting before a really high latitude is reached. In 

 that event new geographical results will only be 

 obtainable if he leaves his ship, a course the small size 

 of his crew is likely to prevent him from adopting, 

 unless the ship is crushed and he has to leave it perforce. 

 If the latter situation should arise, it is to be hoped that 

 he will be able to sledge across to Grant Land (where a 

 depot of provisions has been laid for him) either via the 

 Pole itself or \'ia " Bradley Land. " Of the two j ourneys 

 the latter is the more desirable from the geographical 

 point of view. The existence or non-existence of 

 "Bradley Land" is the touchstone for testing Dr. 

 Cook's claims to have reached the North Pole. If land 

 does not exist, his case is demolished for ever. A photo- 

 graph of what is undoubtedly high mountainous land 

 is given in Dr. Cook's book and is labelled " Bradley 

 Land " ; and the letterpress is equally unambiguous. 

 Judgment on Cook should therefore be reser\ed till 

 his statements have been coni^rmed or refuted. 



It may be said, perhaps, that the search for new land 

 north of the Beaufort Sea might well be held over until 

 Amundsen returns. This is not so ; Amundsen's 

 track cannot pass anv'\vhere near the one likelj' area 

 where the edge of the continental shelf is neither known 

 nor to be inferred with any certainty. The chances of 

 making a successful attack may be considered as good. 

 Ships have reached both Banks Island and Melville 

 Island, though neither of these is quite near enough to 

 the final objective. An effort should be made to reach 

 Prince Patrick Island in a motor sloop of 50-100 tons ; 

 Winter Harbour on Melville Island was not difficult to 

 reach from Baffin Bay a century ago under sail alone ; 

 surely ships of to-day can better that record ? If the 

 sloop gets held up, a whaleboat or cutter should be 

 able to reach and establish a base even on Prince 

 Patrick Island. The latter is the ideal jumping-off 

 ground for a sledge journey north-westwards for 

 400-500 miles, a journey which will either result in the 

 location of new land or settle finally the last important 

 Arctic problem. 



LITER.VTURE 

 Dchong, The Voyageof the" Jeannelle." 1883. (KcganPaul, 365.) 

 Nansen, Farthest North. Two vols., 1897. (Constable, 42s.) 

 B^rtiett, The Last Voyage of the" Karluk." 1916. (Small, May- 



nard, Boston, S2.50.) 

 MacMillan, Four Years in the White North. (Harper & Bros., 



New York and London.) 

 Stefansson, "Solving the Problem of the Arctic" in Harper's 



Magazine, igig. 

 Storkersen, " Eisjht Months Adrift in the Arctic " in Maclean's 



Maga-!»e, Toronto, 1920. 



Maritime Wireless 



By Lieut. -Col. G. G. Grawley, M.I.E.E. 



The first, and still by far the most important, appli- 

 cation of wireless signalling was for communication 

 with ships : in fact, even yet there are no regulations 

 governing international wireless working except those 

 contained in the International Radiotelegraph Con- 

 vention of 1912, which deals only with ship com- 

 munications. 



So far as these communications are concerned, the 

 wireless telephone is in no greater use to-day than 

 it was nine years ago; but in the case of aircraft it 

 forms the principal means of communication with 

 the ground, and between the aircraft themselves. 

 This is largely due to the fact that most aircraft can 

 ill afford to carry a trained telegraphist to do work 

 which can be done, though on a more limited scale, 

 by the pilot himself making use of a wireless telephone. 



