2 02 The National Geographic Magazine 



region) . The extent of ice-fields rarely 

 exceeds three miles, and as the vessel 

 can make three miles an hour under 

 water and can remain fifteen hours, he 

 believes there will be no difficulty in 

 swimming from opening to opening of 

 the ice-fields. The possibility of meet- 

 ing reefs of rock rising toward the sur- 

 face or of sand banks he considers so 

 slight as to be disregarded. . 



If after proceeding six hours under 

 water the vessel finds no opening it will 

 rise to the ice and search for a thin spot, 

 and if blasting cannot effect an outlet 

 there will be plenty of time to return to 

 the last opening. 



WORK IN THE ARCTICS IN 1901 



NOT since the years of the Franklin 

 search expeditions has there been 

 such activity directed toward the north 

 and south polar regions as during the 

 present year. Not less than eight expe- 

 ditions are now in the far north or are 

 planning for active work in Greenland, 

 Spitzbergen, and Franz Josef Ivand, and 

 of these, five — Baldwin, Peary, Sverdr up, 

 Bernier, and Anschiitz-Kampfe — are 

 aiming for the North Pole. 



Peary passed his third consecutive 

 winter in the vicinity of Smith Sound, 

 and is now probably sledding toward 

 the Pole. In July the Peary Arctic 

 Club of Brooklyn will dispatch for the 

 third time a relief ship to carry him sup- 

 plies and to bring him back if he this 

 year reaches his goal. If unsuccessful 

 he remains another year. Peary is not 

 yet informed that the Duke of Abruzzi 

 last year eclipsed Nansen's record. Mrs. 

 Peary, with her little daughter, went 

 north in the Peary relief ship of 1900, 

 hoping to join her husband. 



Sverdrup^s plans for this summer are 

 a mystery, as they were in 1900. He 

 is probably pegging away in northeast- 

 ern Greenland. He also has passed his 

 third consecutive winter in the far north, 

 but no vessel has taken him supplies in 



the meantime, and probably he will be 

 obliged to return in September. 



Baldwin inaugurates the most impor- 

 tant arctic expedition of the year. The 

 primary object of the Baldwin-Zeigler 

 party is avowedly to get to the Pole. 

 Scientific work is secondary, but the 

 equipment of the party is so complete 

 that much valuable data will undoubt- 

 edly be obtained. Prof. J. Howard Gore,' 

 the well-known physicist of Columbian 

 University, accompanies Mr. Baldwin 

 as far as Franz Josef Land, where he 

 will spend the summer in work, and 

 return on the second ship, the Fi'idtjoJ. 

 The names of the scientific men who 

 will remain permanently with the part}^ 

 have not yet been announced. 



Mr. Baldwin intends to make some in- 

 teresting experiments in the matter of 

 food. He is taking a quantity of desic- 

 cated potatoes ; also quantities of ' ' fruit 

 bricks," with which the Department of 

 Agriculture has experimented so suc- 

 cessfully. Bushels of strawberries, rasp- 

 berries, etc. , can thus be compressed into 

 solid form and retain their freshness 

 until used months later. Four hundred 

 picked Siberian dogs will be taken, 

 which is four times as many as the Duke 

 of Abruzzi had with him and twelve 

 times the number Nansen took. The 

 bottoms of the kyaks and sled-runners, 

 which were constructed in Norway, are 

 lined with German silver, which Mr. 

 Baldwin believes will afford the best pro- 

 tection against water and ice. 



The Amerika and Fridtjof w\\\ steam 

 north together as far as the ice permits, 

 when the stores of the Fridtj of y^ill be 

 transferred to the Amerika and to a. con- 

 venient point on Franz Josef I^and, and' 

 the smaller ship returns to Tromso. 



A Russian Party, on a vessel of the 

 type of the ice-breaking Ermak, will 

 push northward as fa;r as the powerful 

 vessel can crush its way. A large staff 

 of scientists will conduct observations 

 during the trip, as the main purpose of 

 the expedition is scientific. The Ermak, 



