Sir Clements R. Markham

“ He lighted Hudson into his strait, as Luke Fox truly said. He lighted Baffin into his bay. He lighted Hans Egede to the scene of his Greenland labours. He did more. His true-hearted devotion to the cause of Arctic discovery, his patient scientific research, his loyalty to his employers, his dauntless courage and enthusiasm, his care for the welfare of his men, form an example which has been a beacon light to the best Arctic explorers for all time. ”

“ In the whole range of polar history there is no greater name than that of Robert Falcon Scott. A life of devotion to duty, latterly of devotion to scientific discovery, was closed by a heroic and glorious death. A man with rare gifts both of head and heart, those gifts were nobly used through life, and were never more prominent than in his last fatal march and in the hour of death. ”

“ The history of the first period of Arctic discovery was thus closed in mystery. Vigdis, daughter of Greenland, seems to speak to us across the centuries. Her people achieved a great work:—the coast of Finmarken to the White Sea discovered; then Iceland, and finally the whole west coast of Greenland from Cape Farewell to Smith Sound, Baffin Land, Labrador, and Newfoundland. We see in the qualities of these Norsemen all that is required for the completion of the great work—energy, indomitable perseverance, and dauntless courage combined with practical enthusiasm. ”

“ A discharging glacier, on reaching the sea, has a thickness of at least a thousand feet. It continues to slide along the bottom until it reaches a point where the depth of the water has sufficient buoyant force to lift it. Still it continues its course. The action of the tides gives rise to fissures in the enormous mass, and at length the foremost part is broken off, and drifts away as an iceberg. ”

“ Never has any polar expedition returned with so great a harvest of results. The discoveries alone were remarkable—the entirely new land of King Edward VII, the nature of the ice on the barrier, the great Victorian range of mountains, the volcanic region of Ross and the smaller islands, the glaciers and the remarkable phenomenon of their recession, the great Antarctic ice-cap over which Captain Scott and two companions travelled for 200 miles, the discovery of the position of the south magnetic pole, and the lines of deep sea soundings with serial temperatures and dredgings. ”

“ But between the Parry Archipelago and the Siberian shelf there is the vast area in and to the north of the Beaufort Sea, to which I have just referred and of which we know almost nothing. Our knowledge of the Arctic regions will remain incomplete until this area has been discovered and explored.
When we now look back on the history of Arctic enterprise from the earliest times it is impossible not to be struck with the high qualities it brought so frequently to light, and the fine record of courage and endurance it presents for our admiration. ”

“ In the early days of the fishery the making off was always done on shore. The jaw-bones, 25 feet long, were brought home to make posts and arches for gateways: still to be seen in the country round Hull and even further afield.
It will be seen that the catching of a whale was not the mere harpooning with the attendant danger and excitement, but that it entailed a long and very hard day’s work, with incessant labour and the exercise of much skill and intelligence. It was a splendid nursery for our seamen, combined with the dangers of ice navigation and the constant need for a bright look-out. ”

“ Although the English occupy the first place in Arctic discovery, yet it was begun and was completed by Scandinavians—by Erik the Red and Fridtjof Nansen.
In the history of mankind since the Christian era, the annals of Arctic discovery occupy a very glorious place. They run like a bright silver thread through the darker tales of war and crime, for the most part showing the nobler side of the qualities of our race. ”

“ Peary commenced the first of his three attempts to reach the North Pole in 1896, when he reported having been to 85° N., travelling from the north coast of Ellesmere Island. His plan was to hire the sledges and dogs of the Arctic Highlanders and to get the natives to drive, so that the white man merely has to walk alongside. The Danes have always travelled in this way; indeed it is a necessity when the white man has no companion or only one or two, and nothing could be better for journeys along the Greenland coast or over the inland ice. ”

“ We see the group of New Siberian Islands rising from it, with their mammoth ivory and cliffs of fossil wood. We then contemplate the land masses of Novaya Zemlya, Franz Josef Land, and Spitsbergen rising from the Barentsz and Kara Seas, with the marvellous tale they tell of the former condition of the region in recent geological times. Next, on the further side of the great southerly ice-stream, is the continental mass of Greenland, with its glaciation only surpassed in grandeur and extent by the Antarctic ice-cap. ”

“ The Russians have taken no inconspicuous part in Arctic discovery. If we look at a map of 130 years ago, such an one as is used to illustrate the book of Daines Barrington or Scoresby’s Arctic Regions, we shall see the whole continuous coast line delineated in the Siberian quadrant, while in the American quadrant there is nothing beyond Icy Cape but the mouths of the Coppermine and Mackenzie rivers. Moreover, in the achievement of their discoveries, the Russians often had to overcome even greater dangers and hardships than their fellow explorers in the other quadrants. ”

“ In Greenland the Eskimos passed the winter in iglus or stone houses, the floors of which are sunk some feet below the surface of the ground. In summer they lived in skin tents, while their property was moved from one hunting encampment to another in their umiaks or women’s boats, which are 30 feet long by 5 wide and 21⁄2 deep, flat-bottomed, and made of seal-skins stretched on a frame. The kayak or hunter’s canoe is the triumph of Eskimo art. ”

“ When a ship is forcibly pressed by ice floes on both sides she is said to be nipped, and she is beset when closely surrounded by ice. To bore is to enter the ice under press of sail or steam and to force a way through by separating the masses. Sallying is causing a ship to roll by making the men run in a body from side to side, to relieve her from adhesion of young ice.
An ice foot along a coast line is caused by the accumulation of the autumn snow-fall, as it drifts to the beach, being met by sea-water with a temperature just below the freezing point of fresh water. ”

“ Sometimes there is a passage right through an iceberg. But it is when a line of icebergs is refracted on the horizon that the polar scenery is converted into a11 veritable fairy land. Some are raised up into lofty pillars. Again a whole chain of them will assume the appearance of a long bridge or aqueduct, and as quickly change into a succession of beautiful palaces and temples of dazzling whiteness, metamorphosed by the fantastic wand of Nature. When the ice breaks up in summer, the current takes many of the icebergs into the Atlantic. ”

“ In no other part of the Arctic or Antarctic regions have observations been taken in one place for so long a time. But they are needed on other spots all round Antarctica.
There are many true lovers of geographical exploration for its own sake in the present generation, who look upon achievement as its own reward. We may, therefore, hope that the great work initiated by the Societies with such splendid results will be renewed by successors to Scott and Wilson, and that they will again and again raise the standard of duty and useful, if perilous, achievement. ”

“ A stream is a drifting line of drift ice. A tongue is a projecting point of ice, under water. A calf is a mass of loose ice lying under a floe near its margin, and, when disengaged from that position, rising with violence to the surface. Brash ice consists of fragments and nodules, the wreck of other kinds of ice, and sludge is the term applied to smaller pieces, generally saturated by the sea.
A bright white line on the horizon, seen over an ice-field, and denoting more ice, is known as the ice-blink. Over land or large masses of ice it generally has a yellowish tinge. ”

“ This western coast of Spitsbergen, first made known by Henry Hudson, is well described by Scoresby. He tells us how its cliffs rise by steep acclivities from the very margin of the ocean to a stupendous height, the masses of purest snow contrasting with the protruding dark-coloured rocks. The valleys, opening towards the coast, terminate inland with a transverse line of ice-field showing an unbroken surface for many leagues in extent. On the southern part of the coast there are isolated mountains with conical or ridged summits, occasionally terminating in sharp peaks. ”

“ Nelson’s continued friendship for, and correspondence with, his old captain show that his Arctic work was not forgotten in after life. It is this phase of exploration that has the highest importance. Great as are the commercial advantages obtained from Arctic discovery, and still greater as are its scientific results, the most important of all are its uses as a nursery for our seamen, as a school for our future Nelsons, and as affording the best opportunities for distinction to young naval officers in time of peace. ”

“ The sea to the south of Franz Josef Land, between Spitsbergen and Novaya Zemlya, has received the name of the Barentsz Sea. Its greatest depth is 230 fathoms, and over the greater part of the area the depth is not more than 100 fathoms. The ice is always kept well out of sight of the European coast by the Atlantic current, and when the line of the pack is met with in about 74° N., it is found to be sufficiently loose for navigation northwards during some part of the summer, the general drift being to the westward, but varying with the winds. ”

“ Before we begin to follow the achievements of the great Polar worthies, it seems desirable to take a brief survey of the dwellers on the threshold of the Arctic regions; for here are races who have for ages found homes along the European, Siberian, and American coasts of the Polar Ocean and in Greenland.
To begin with the Spitsbergen quadrant; the northern coast of Norway, now known as Finmarken, and the Kola peninsula face the Polar Sea, but, owing to the warm current from the south, this coast has its bays and inlets clear of ice throughout the year. ”

“ There is something very fascinating in considering the analogy between the Ross and Weddell Seas and their shores on opposite sides of Antarctica. The Victorian Mountains on one side match the Graham Land mountains on the other. The interest is increased by the probability that they form one chain, and by the discovery that there are volcanic rocks peculiar to the Andes which have been found in Graham Land. Then there are the enormous icebergs in both seas pointing to the need for the further study of the wonderful ice-cap which conceals so much of Antarctica from our knowledge. ”

“ It used to be thought that ice could only be formed in creeks and inlets of the coast. It is now known that young ice forms on the surface of the open sea, and thickens into dense masses, where it is not disturbed by waves. Young ice then is the thin film first formed on the surface of the sea, when the temperature is sufficiently low in the autumn. When it becomes rather thicker it is called bay ice. In a ruffled sea the pieces of bay ice strike each other on every side, becoming rounded and having the edges turned up. ”

“ Sometimes masses of ice under-run each other, and the result is a thickness of 20 to 50 and even 100 feet.
A field is an expanse of ice of such extent that its termination is not bounded by the horizon. A floe is the same as a field except that its whole extent can be seen. Floe bergs, occurring on the northern shores of the polar ocean, are large masses of sea ice, broken off from ancient floes of great thickness, and forced upon the shore. Ground ice is formed on rivers or shallow inlets while the sea, as a whole, remains unfrozen. Land ice or the land floe is ice attached to the land. ”

“ The Antarctic continent is covered with an ice-cap, which along some coasts is buttressed by ice cliffs terminating in the sea, and on coasts facing east is bordered with lofty mountains through which glaciers have forced their way. Throughout the Antarctic regions there is evidence of much more extensive glaciation in former ages. The glaciers are for the most part receding, although there are proofs that some are still moving down to the sea. But there are fixed masses of ice on the sea coast, in the form of cliffs: tongues which could not have been deposited or fed by existing glaciers. ”

“ The long and glorious story of Arctic discovery is drawing to a close. Two unknown areas of unequal importance remain. One is the extensive region now known as Baffin Island, which needs thorough exploration, and will doubtless receive it from the Dominion Government in due time. The other is the part known as the Beaufort Sea, a much more extensive unknown area from Prince Patrick and Baring or Banks Islands westwards to the Liakhov Island between the 70th and 80th parallels of North Latitude, and indeed much further to the north. ”

“ It is a monumental work, entailing an incredible amount of careful research, and the materials are put together and presented with the skill and judgment of a master hand. In his deeply interesting introduction, Nansen answers the question “What were they seeking in the ice and cold,” by a quotation from the old Norse chronicle, the King’s Mirror:—
If you wish to know what men seek in this land, or why men journey thither in so great danger of their lives, then it is the threefold nature of man that draws him thither. ”

“ Wrangell was much struck by the wonderful skill displayed by the sledge drivers in finding their way by the wave-like ridges of snow formed by the wind. These, formed on the level sea ice by any wind of long continuance, are called sastrugi in Siberia. The ridges always indicate the quarter from which the prevailing winds blow. The inhabitants of the tundras often travel over several hundred miles with no other guide than these sastrugi. They know by experience at what angle they must cross the greater and lesser waves of snow in order to arrive at their destination, and they never err. ”

“ On the 18th September, 1875, Lieutenant Weyprecht, the colleague of Lieutenant Payer when Franz Josef Land was discovered, delivered an address to a meeting of German savants at Gratz in which he urged that, in the greed for discovery, scientific research was often neglected. The object of Arctic expeditions, he said, should be a nobler one than mapping and naming ice-bound coasts, or reaching a higher latitude than a predecessor. The North Pole, he held, had no greater significance for science than any other point in the higher latitudes. ”