226 POLAR PROBLEMS 



being expressed about minerals in every part of the earth, always 

 to become less true each year as railways cross deserts and settlements 

 spread over plain and through jungle. 



But even if the land be permanently settled, the Arctic mineral 

 deposits might still be expensive to work because of climatic difficul- 

 ties. Just how much force there is in that objection we do not know. 

 In some cases there will be advantages to compensate for the disad- 

 vantages. Spitsbergen coal mines, for instance, have air temperatures 

 within shafts and tunnels suitable for miners to work at maximum 

 physical energy and cold enough to freeze water and therefore eliminate 

 pumping and drainage problems. On the other hand, the cold pre- 

 vents the dampening of the air in the shafts by steam and thus re- 

 moves the chief protection used in more southerly mines against dust 

 explosions. Accordingly, mining is to that extent more dangerous 

 in Spitsbergen, so to remain till a new safety method is developed 

 against coal dust. 



Any mining done through mud in southerly countries requires not 

 only pumping but heavy timbering. But Arctic mud, being solidi- 

 fied, can be cut like ice, the difficulty . of working it being in some cases 

 more than compensated for by the ability of the walls to stand with- 

 out reinforcement. 



Among the unsolved problems of the Arctic is, then, the inven- 

 tion and development of special mining methods. However, it cannot 

 always be taken for granted that a method suitable in the temperate 

 zone is unsuitable in the Arctic. Take, for instance, hydraulic gold 

 mining. It had been assumed, even by Yukoners themselves, that 

 this could be used around Dawson only in summer, and it was some- 

 thing like twenty years before it was finally tried in the midwinter 

 period, when temperatures run below -50° F. and even -60°, or about 

 as low as they ever get anywhere near the ocean in the Arctic, and 

 almost as low as even the extreme temperatures of the Siberian low- 

 lands. The attempt was an engineering success, but no information 

 is at hand to say if it paid financially. 



With fishing and mining methods, as with all Arctic problems in 

 general, we must remember that the ingenuity of the European mind 

 has been face to face with them only occasionally and only during the 

 last few centuries. Besides, the explorers who have "braved" the 

 Arctic have, in many cases, been either plain sailors or typical sports- 

 men rather than scientists or inventors, and it is not surprising that 

 they have usually concerned themselves with describing difficulties 

 rather than with solving them. Practical men, with careers to make 

 through the success of the industries they develop, are little represented 

 in the Far North even yet, except by scouts and prospectors. In view 

 of that, their successes to date (in gold mining, coal mining, etc.) are 

 more remarkable than their failures. 



