THE ARCTIC AS AN AIR ROUTE OF THE FUTURE 



211 



If you get into trouble, you would rather 

 that it happened in daylight than in dark- 

 ness. 



In stories of sea tragedies, the stop- 

 page of the engines, the failure of the light 

 plants, and the plunging of the whole ship 

 into inky darkness are often the most ter- 

 rifying features. Just when a crisis brings 

 the need of swift and pertinent action, 

 every effort is thwarted because no man 

 can see what to do or what others are 

 doing. Under the perpetual sun of the 

 polar summer, we shall always be free 

 from at least this attribute of southern 

 tragedy. 



ICF-FLOLS AS LIFE-RAFTS 



On the polar route, although the sur- 

 face of the sea may not be more than 

 half covered by substantial cakes of ice, 

 there would be a reasonable certainty of 

 landing on one of them. Were there a 

 forced landing in open water, it would 

 presumably not be more than a few miles 

 from the nearest ice-floe, which could be 

 reached by such life-rafts or other devices 

 as a dirigible would naturally carry on a 

 transatlantic voyage in southern latitudes. 

 Thus, the presence of stable ice-floes in 

 the polar ocean is the fourth great advan- 

 tage of this route. 



The temperature on the ice-floes in 

 summer is usually warm enough for com- 

 fort, when one is dressed in spring or fall 

 (medium) clothing; occasionally it is un- 

 comfortably warm. This latter fact will 

 not seem at all surprising to mountaineers 

 who have suffered from the summer sun 

 on the slopes of snow-clad mountains. 



It may be said that it would not be any 

 fun to be forced to land on an ice cake ; 

 but it would be a great deal more fun 

 than having to land among tumbling and 

 breaking seas in the mid-Atlantic. 



One effect of scattered floes is that 

 even in a gale there are no heavy seas. 

 Indeed, if the ice is abundant, no swell 

 is noticeable in the heaviest gale, and the 

 waves on the patches of open water are 

 only such as one may find on a pond or a 

 small lake. 



If S. O. S. calls containing, as they 

 always do, position as to latitude and 

 longitude are sent out while the dirigible 

 or plane is descending to the ice or imme- 

 diately after the landing, the party would 



have days or weeks, and even months, for 

 opportunities of rescue. 



Some of the enthusiastic advocates of 

 air travel say that we shall eventually have 

 in mid- Atlantic huge rafts — floating 

 islands, in effect — that will be rescue sta- 

 tions for aircraft in distress. While that 

 device may not be impractical, it will at 

 least be difficult and expensive. 



On the polar route, Nature has already 

 provided a sprinkling of rafts far greater 

 in number and far more stable than any 

 such artificial rafts can ever be. 



If not a fifth great advantage, at least 

 a contributory merit of the polar route 

 will be "The Midnight Sun" and kindred 

 marvels, which can be exploited from the 

 tourist point of view by the air liners of 

 the future no less than they are by the 

 tourist boats of today. 



The transpolar route will become more 

 important decade by decade. In Siberia 

 we have as yet only one great trunk rail- 

 way. It does, however, tap and make ac- 

 cessible many of the mighty rivers that 

 flow north, and there are great steamers 

 on these rivers that make the Arctic 

 locally accessible. 



The Trans-Siberian Railway runs in 

 large part through the wheat belt of Asia, 

 and the potential cereal belt extends far 

 north of it. We shall, accordingly, have 

 eventually the development of other great 

 east and west railways and of many spurs 

 running north and south. Tomsk, Ya- 

 kutsk, Irkutsk, and the rest of the cities 

 we have heard of, and many of which we 

 have never heard, will be growing into 

 Chicagos and Winnipegs and Calgarys. 



CENTERS OF POPULATION WILL M0V2 

 NORTHWARD 



The centers of civilized population in 

 Siberia and in Canada alike will be con- 

 tinually moving north, and, there will be 

 more and more occasion for the use of the 

 polar route. 



To people little acquainted with the 

 Arctic, as most of us are, and misin- 

 formed, as nearly all of us are, there ap- 

 pear to be many arguments against the 

 polar route. Few of these rest on any 

 reality. Indeed, where we imagine posi- 

 tive difficulties, there may be positive ad- 

 vantages. Take, for instance, the matter 

 of summer temperature. 



