IJC 



DISCOVEHY 



repair tlic ravages that war has created, for, needless 

 ti) remark, the optophone is being used to offer some 

 consolation and relief to those officers who have lost 

 their sight in their country's service. 



Further information on this subject may be obtained from 

 Pamphlet 236, issued gratis, in May 1920, by Messrs. Barr & 

 Stroud, Ltd., Annicsland, Glasgow. 



Problems of Arctic 

 Discovery 



R. N. Riidmose Brown, D.Sc. 



The attainment of the North Pole in 1909 by the late 

 Admiral Peary has not, as some people idly suppose, 

 put a check on Arctic exploration or in any way 

 lessened the desirability of its continuance. The result 

 of that fine feat of organisation and endurance has been 

 to turn exploration into less sensational and so perhaps 

 less popular channels, but at no period since the date 

 of Peary's success have the Arctic regions been de- 

 serted by explorers. Canadians, Americans, Danes, 

 Norwegians, and Russians have done a remarkable 

 amount of successful work during the last decade, 

 and now Sir Ernest Shacklcton proposes to use his 

 long Antarctic experience in the solution of certain 

 Arctic problems. 



During the years 1908 to 1918, V. Stefansson and his 

 staff were busy exploring the western islands of the 

 Canadian Arctic Archipelago, discovering several new 

 ones and amplifying and correcting earlier charts. 

 Americans under D. Macmillan from a base at Etah 

 in north-western Greenland, from 1913 to 1917, did 

 much work in Ellesmere Land, touching on Stefansson's 

 sphere in the south-west. Erichscn, Mikkclscn, Ras- 

 mussen, Koch, and other Danes have continued the 

 fine record of Danish explorers in Greenland, and almost 

 completed the mapping of the coasts of that island. 

 Russians have most successfully re-explored the north 

 coasts of Siberia and adjacent islands, making consider- 

 able changes in the map and accomplishing, in Vilkitski's 

 voyage in 1914-15, the second traverse of the North- 

 East passage and the first on record from east to west. 

 Lastly, to mention only the outstanding achievements, 

 Roald Amundsen, the Norwegian discoverer of the 

 South Pole and the first navigator of the North-West 

 passage, made the North-East passage in 1918-20 and 

 arrived safely in Alaska, only to leave again for the 

 north to emulate with his vessel, the Maud, Nanscn's 

 drift in the Fram, hoping to pass across the heart of 

 the Arctic Ocean. 



While scientific research in geology, meteorology, 

 magnetism, oceanography, and other sciences is the 

 most fruitful aspect of exploration, it must be remem- 

 bered that no modern expedition, properly staffed and 

 equipped, ignores these sides of its work, even if its 

 main task is to p>enctrate the areas which are still 

 blanks on the map. The scientific results of an ex- 

 pedition are the most important, but they fire the 

 imagination less than the discovery of new lands, and 

 after all, eager as the explorer is to probe the problems 

 of his special science, the lure of the imknown and the 

 spirit of adventure are the prime motives that send 

 him to his quest. Those of us who have been fortunate 

 enough to take part in such work know quite well 

 that adventure pure and simple, and not scientific 

 curiosity, led us first to polar regions. On a recent 

 occasion Sir Ernest Shackleton very truly said : " One 

 goes out mainly for the adventure of it, and to hide one- 

 self behind the cloak of science is not quite honest." 



It might appear that, in view of the expeditions men- 

 tioned above and the work of the previous century, 

 there is little discovery to be done in Arctic seas, even 

 if a great deal of careful exploration is required. But 

 that is not the case, and fortunately for the adventurous 

 spirits who find their fascination in polar regions, there 

 are still certain areas of the Arctic Ocean which may 

 hold hidden islands, and in any case afford ample 

 difficulties for the ambitious explorer who seeks to 

 traverse them. 



\\'ith the exception of the Fram and the Maud, all 

 exploration of the Arctic Ocean has been conducted 

 by advances more or less successful from ships or 

 land bases. The aim generally was to have a land base 

 as far north as possible, and hence Spitsbergen, easily 

 accessible, Greenland, and even Franz Josef Land, were 

 favourite starting-points. It was by using Cape 

 Columbia in Grant Land, almost the most northerly 

 land known, as a base from which to make a dash of 

 826 miles to the Pole and back that Peary achieved 

 success. Attempts of this nature, previously all 

 directed to the Pole itself, left on one side the Arctic 

 Ocean north of Alaska and eastern Siberia through 

 180° of longitude. No land is known in a high latitude 

 on that side of the Arctic Ocean. There are other 

 contributory reasons for the neglect of this area. It 

 is inaccessible to ships except by Bering Strait or the 

 difficult and uncertain North-East passage, and in con- 

 sequence Ues far distant from the enterprising exploring 

 nations of the Atlantic sea-board, circumstances that 

 are now modified to some extent by the opening of the 

 Panama Canal. Furthermore, the narrow and shallow 

 Bering Strait, by excluding the wanner waters of the 

 Pacific, results in the ice-bound sea extending much 

 farther south on the Siberian and Alaskan than on the 

 European and .\tlantic sides of the Arctic Ocean. 



