THE ARCTIC AS AN AIR ROUTE OF THE FUTURE 



217 



Ibase stations, where petroleum and food 

 and rescue aircraft, corresponding to the 

 coast guard vessels of today, will be kept 

 in constant readiness. 



HOW BASES CAN BE SUPPLIED WITH PUEL 

 AND POOD 



These base stations will be supplied by 

 railways, by ocean steamers, or by river 

 steamers. A glance at the map of the 

 polar air routes shows that they require 

 few long jumps between places that are 

 now reached with fair regularity by ocean 

 or river steamers. 



How accessible are many of the seem- 

 ingly remote fur-trading outposts of arc- 

 tic Canada and Siberia few of us realize. 



It would take only about 25 days to 

 make the journey to-day from New York 

 to the mouth of the Mackenzie, 200 miles 

 north of the Arctic Circle in Canada, and 

 regular railway and steamboat tickets 

 •could be bought, if not in New York, at 

 least in Winnipeg or Edmonton. 



Under normal peace-time conditions a 

 similar surprise would await those who 

 desired to reach the north coast of Siberia 

 "by journeying in steamers from the 

 Trans-Siberian Railway down one or an- 

 other of the great north-flowing Asiatic 

 rivers. 



It goes without saying that where the 

 air route touches the north of Norway or 

 the north Pacific coast of Asia the prob- 

 lem of supply is even simpler. 



The islands that dot the polar ocean 

 will obviously become important relay 

 stations on the various transpolar routes. 



It may be said about them in general 

 and about the north coasts of Asia and 

 America that they are now far more easily 

 accessible by steamer than the public real- 

 izes. This accessibility will be doubled 

 Dy improvements in our ice ships and by 

 the increase of skill and decrease of fear 

 on the part of our sailors. It will be 

 doubled again by the location at difficult 

 points of wireless stations to give captains 

 advance news of ice conditions and by 

 pilot airplanes to pick out ice-free routes 

 that ships may follow. 



STRATEGIC POINTS EASY OP ACCESS 



It will be so easy for ships to supply 

 the strategic points in the polar regions 

 that few of the polar airways will have 



to be far diverted from the theoretically 

 preferred short routes to seek out-of-the- 

 way places to get petroleum or other sup- 

 plies. 



As the cereal belts of middle Canada 

 and middle Siberia are increasingly culti- 

 vated, great cities will grow up nearer 

 and nearer the Arctic. We have their be- 

 ginning already. Thirty years ago Ed- 

 monton, for instance, was a village sup- 

 posed to be too far north ever to become 

 anything but what it was, a fur-trading 

 post ; today it is a city of 60,000 inhabit- 

 ants. The oil fields of the lower Mac- 

 kenzie, where the Standard Oil Company 

 has extensive operations, and the copper 

 district north of Great Bear Lake already 

 hold a definite promise as commercial 

 centers. 



It may be of little beyond academic 

 interest this year that the air route from 

 the northern railway terminus on the 

 Athabasca River north of Edmonton to 

 Archangel, in northern Russia, is only 

 3,946 miles; but as the railway continues 

 to push its way northward through 

 Canada this route between railheads on 

 opposite continents will gain in impor- 

 tance as it becomes shorter and as the 

 communities that depend upon it grow. 



PEASIBPE ROUTES PROM CANADA TO RUSSIA 



Steamers have been running to the 

 mouth of the Mackenzie for several dec- 

 ades already. The journey from the 

 present railhead to the mouth of the 

 Mackenzie can even now be made in 

 fifteen days. It is significant, therefore, 

 that from the mouth of the Mackenzie 

 the air route by which one may pene- 

 trate the interior of northeastern Siberia 

 through the great rivers of the Kolyma 

 system is only 1,541 miles by way of 

 Point Barrow and Wrangel Island, and 

 that the longest hop, from, Point Barrow 

 to Wrangel Island, is only about 450 

 miles. 



By branching off at Wrangel, you can 

 reach the mouth of the Lena, one of the 

 world's greatest rivers, in a total distance 

 from the Mackenzie's mouth of 2,208 

 miles and with the longest single hop, 

 from Wrangel Island to Holy Cape, of 

 about 750 miles. 



An air route without any jumps longer 

 than 555 miles lies from the mouth of the 

 Mackenzie by way of Prince Patrick 



