454 



The National Geographic Magazine 



sledges. The disintegrating polar pack 

 was constantly shifting, while its alterna- 

 tions of rubble, open water, young ice, 

 and pressure ridges made travel slow and 

 arduous in the extreme. 



Strong gales not only kept them storm- 

 bound, but still further broke up the pack. 

 Leads became frequent and wider, old 

 floes broke up, and the moving ice-pack, 

 crushing together with a sound of heavy 

 surf, made the situation most dangerous. 



One lead was closed up by a huge press- 

 ure-ridge about 90 feet high. At the 

 farthest, observations gave 84° 17' N., 

 70° W. ; magnetic variation, 99° W. 



This notable northing, made from a 

 base 300 miles south of the Alert, over 

 Markham's route, exceeded his latitude 

 by 57 miles. Peary surpassed the north- 

 ing of Lockwood on Hazen Land by 53 

 miles, and so attained the highest latitude 

 reached in the Western Hemisphere. 



MAP OF THE NORTH POLAR REGIONS 



THE Map of the North Polar Re- 

 gions which is published as a 

 supplement to this number was 

 prepared by the Editor of the National 

 Geographic Magazine to accompany the 

 Scientific Report of the Zeigler Polar 

 Expedition of 1903-1905. Through the 

 courtesy of Mr W. S. Champ, executor 

 for the late Mr Zeigler, and of Mr An- 

 thony Fiala, leader of the expedition, the 

 plates of the map were placed at the dis- 

 posal of the National Geographic So- 

 ciety. 



It has been the Editor's object to make 

 a chart that would be historical as well as 

 geographical. For instance, with the 

 Franz Josef Land Insert is given a list of 

 the principal explore;^ s of the archipelago, 

 while the more notable expeditions to the 

 Smith Sound Region are printed with 

 the Smith Sound Insert. 



Peary's principal journeys are listed, 

 the International Circumpolar stations of 

 1881-1883 are given, and the routes of 

 the principal polar explorers shown. The 

 coloring of the coast-line is intended to 

 show as closely as possible the nation- 

 ality of the first explorer. 



The conjectural drift is also given of a 

 cask which was dropped overboard from 

 a whaler near Point Barrow in the sum- 

 mer of 1899 and picked up on the north 

 coast of Iceland six years later. This 

 cask was one of a large number which 

 were specially constructed by the Geo- 

 graphical Society of Philadelphia on 



plans of Admiral George W. Melville, 

 U. S. Navy, and Mr Henry G. Bryant, 

 of Philadelphia, and which were placed 

 on ice-floes north of Bering Strait in 

 1899-1901. Only this one cask has been 

 recovered on the other side of the Polar 

 Ocean. In its remarkable voyage it 

 probably drifted 4,000 miles. 



The probable drift of the alleged relics 

 of the Jeanette, 1881-1884, is also shown. 

 These relics, it will be remembered, were 

 several broken biscuit boxes and lists of 

 stores, said to have been written in the 

 handwriting of Lieutenant De Long, 

 and abandoned when the Jeanette sunk, 

 in 1 88 1. They were washed ashore on 

 the southeast coast of Greenland three 

 years later, where they were found by 

 some Eskimo, who turned them over to 

 a Danish officer. 



Another interesting illustration of the 

 powerful currents in the polar area is 

 given by the track of the Hansa's crew in 

 1 869- 1 870. The Hansa was one of the 

 two vessels of the second German North 

 Polar Expedition of 1869. The ship was 

 crushed in the ice off Liverpool coast, 

 and the crew compelled to camp on the 

 ice-floe. They remained for 200 days, 

 living on an iceberg, which meanwhile 

 drifted 1,000 miles along the east coast 

 of Greenland. They had managed to 

 preserve a lifeboat, and when spring re- 

 turned, after their terrible experience of 

 the winter, spent in total darkness and 

 drifting to and fro at the mercy of the 



