September 9, 1909] 



NATURE 



507 



have been on and around 90° — the North Pole." 

 The return march was then begun. Instead of 

 being carried by an easterly drift to the Green- 

 land coast, the little party found themselves 

 some distance west of Axel Heiberg- Land. Con- 

 tinuing- south to Jones Sound, they wint(?red in primi- 

 tive fashion at Cape Sparbo, on the coast of North 

 Devon, and subsequently made their way across to 

 the Greenland coast, whence Dr. Cook obtained a 

 passage to Copenhagen on board a Danish Govern- 

 ment steamer. 



Not so much the fact that Dr. Cook was unaccom- 

 panied by anv white companion, as certain surprising 

 features in the above story make it advisable to await 

 the examination of Dr. Cook's instruments and 

 journal of observations before his claim to have 

 reached the pole is definitely admitted. Cape Hub- 

 bard, from which Dr. Cook pushed out into the Polar 

 Ocean, is situated in about latitude 81° 15' N., i.e. 

 525 geographical or rather more than 600 statute 

 miles from the pole. To have covered this in thirty- 

 five days Dr. Cook must have advanced northwards 

 at an average rate of seventeen statute miles a day, 

 making no allowance for deviations from a due north 

 and south line. An even greater rate of travel was 

 maintained for a longer period of time by Lieutenant 

 Mecham on a sledge journey among the islands of 

 Arctic Canada during the long series of the Franklin 

 search expeditions. Nothing like such a rate of pro- 

 gression northwards has, however, been achieved by 

 any previous traveller over the ice of the open polar 

 sea. Nor is it correct to say, as Dr. Cook is reported 

 to have said, that he was able to rely on more favour- 

 able conditions because he travelled earlier in the 

 year than previous explorers. Dr. Nansen and 

 Lieutenant Johansen left the From in about 84° 

 north on March 14, 1895, and reached their farthest 

 north in latitude 86° 5' north on April 8, their 

 average daily northing being thus about six miles. 

 Captain Cagni, of the Duke of the Abruzzi's expedi- 

 tion, left the winter quarters of the Stella Pohire in 

 Teplitz Bay, Franz Josef Land, latitude 81° 47' north, 

 on March 11, 1900, and reached his farthest north in 

 latitude 86° ;^;^' on April 25, his average daily northing 

 having been about seven miles. In 1906 Commander 

 Peary pushed out over the polar ice from the northern 

 coast of Grant Land, just south of the 83rd parallel, on 

 March 6, and reached his farthest north in latitude 

 87° 6' on April 21, his average daily northing having 

 been about six miles. 



From these records it will be seen that bv travelling 

 northwards over the Polar Ocean at the rate of seven- 

 teen miles a day, Dr. Cook has far surpassed the most 

 strenuous efforts of his predecessors. All the ex- 

 plorers mentioned were capable of, and did on occa- 

 sion perform, journeys of twenty and more miles a 

 day. But in advancing northward thev all found 

 themselves greatly delayed by open lanes of water and 

 pressure ridges in the ice. Dr. Cook savs very little 

 about any difficulties, of this nature, although he does 

 on one occasion mention that " much of our hard 

 work was lost in circuitous twists around trouble- 

 some pressure lines and high irregular fields of very 

 old ice. The drift, too, was driving eastward with 

 sufficient force to give some anxiet\'." If the con- 

 ditions he encountered throughout his march were 

 similar to those experienced bv previous travellers over 

 'he Polar Ocean, it is astounding that he should have 

 been able to travel so much faster than they. 



Of course, conditions vary in different seasons and 

 along different routes, and Dr. Cook may have been 

 exceptionally favoured. There is no need to doubt 

 his good faith, but for confirmation of his calculations 

 it will be necessary to await the examination of his 

 records. The precision with which he reports his 



NO. 2080, VOL. 81] 



position on April 21 would seem to show that he 

 scarcely appreciates the difliculty of securing exact 

 observations under the conditions as regards refrac- 

 tion, &c., which prevail near the pole. 



However this may be, and whatever the precise 

 point attained by Dr. Cook, there seems little doubt 

 that he made an extended journey over the polar 

 ice; but scientific research was not Dr. Cook's object, 

 and his journey can possess little scientific value. He 

 carried no sounding apparatus, and has brought back 

 only the vaguest information about the new lands to 

 the north-west of Greenland. The land which he did 







North Polar Map. Dr. Cook's route is shown by broken lines. Commander 

 Peary's route is not indicated, because the details are not yet available. 



sight, indeed, was probably the land which Peary 

 sighted in 1906, or some extension thereof. Further 

 north, there is a suggestion that the party travelled 

 over glacial ice, but Dr. Cook has nothing definite to 

 report which indicates the existence near the pole of 

 anything but the ice-covered Polar Ocean. Some 

 points have still to be cleared up. In more than one 

 report Dr. Cook is credited with stating that the 

 land he sighted after leaving Axel Heiberg Land 

 abounds with game; yet he did not come within 

 several miles of the land, and, according to the Times, 

 met with no game beyond Heiberg Island. If Dr. 

 Cook reached the pole, he has given a remarkable 

 illustration of pluck and endurance, but his journey 

 seems likely to have a minimum of scientific value, 

 and there is still room where he has been for a well- 

 equipped scientific research expedition to do excellent 

 work in studying the geographical problems of the 



