North Pole and South Pole

“ Icebergs float much further into the warm sea on this side of the equator before they dissolve. The South Pole is evidently a more thorough refrigerator than the North. Why is this? We shall soon see. We push through pack-ice, and through floes and fields, by lofty bergs, by an island or two covered with penguins, until there lies before us a long range of mountains, nine or ten thousand feet in height, and all clad in eternal snow. That is a portion of the Southern Continent. ”

“ For a short time it remains stationary, then suddenly springs to life. The waves of light drive violently from east to west; the edges assume a deep red and green colour and dance up and down. The rays shoot up more rapidly; they become shorter; all rise together and approach nearer and nearer to the magnetic Pole. It looks as if there were a race among the rays, and that each aspired to reach the Pole first. And now the point is reached, and they shoot out on every side, to the north and the south, to the east and the west. ”

“ I cannot say how glad I felt that my journey through the axis of the earth occurred at that period of the year when the current set from the south to the north. The prospect of safety if I were to be discharged from the south pole, would be slight indeed; but familiarity with the writings of various explorers in the Arctic regions gave me the very natural feeling that I should be in a measure at home in that part of the world. ”

“ In the north was the ever-present barrier of ice, more distant some years than others, but always there to come south and hold the islands in its grip when the fishery was over, and those who came early and those who stayed late saw enough of the wintry landscape to make them doubt if life were possible under such conditions. ”

“ I had better be honest and admit straight out that I have never known any man to be placed in such a diametrically opposite position to the goal of his desires as I was at that moment. The regions around the North Pole — well, yes, the North Pole itself — had attracted me from childhood, and here I was at the South Pole. Can anything more topsy-turvy be imagined? ”

“ Now, if we apply this rule, by turning the north pole of a globe toward us, we readily see at a glance that Greenland, which is known to us, may bear to an unknown Arctic Continent the same relation that South America does to North America, or Africa to Europe. Hence it is perfectly logical to infer, by the great analogy of nature, that an Arctic Continent exists beneath the north pole, extending three and a half to four degrees south from the northern axis of the world. ”

“ The most intrepid discoverers of the Arctic regions - Parry, Penny, Franklin, M'Clure, Dane, and Morton - did not get beyond 83? north latitude, seven degrees from the pole - whereas Australia has several times been crossed from south to north by the bold Stuart; and even Africa, with all its terrors, was traversed by Livingstone from the Bay of Loanga to the mouth of the Zambesi. We are, therefore, nearer to geographical knowledge of the equatorial countries than of the Polar districts."
"Do you think that the Pole itself will ever be reached by man?" inquired Mrs Paulina Barnett. ”

“ The North Pole is supposed to be cool enough for anybody who hates to go to sleep in an overheated bedroom; but it has been shown to be a depression in the earth’s crust filled with ice, and it [Pg 4] therefore does not mount far above sea level, while the South Pole, aside from lacking the sun’s comforting perpendicular rays, reaches besides so high up in the atmospheric layers as to preclude all possibility of the prevalence of hot birds. Cold bottles are about the only means of enjoyment which the tourists, thirsting for amusement, find there at their disposal. ”

“ If we go round the globe, neither in present nor past history will be found this race doing the common out-door labor in any countries lying between the equator and thirty-five degrees north latitude; and the supposition is reasonable that they never will in the ages to come; unless in course of time a radical climatic transformation should take place, driving the south pole thirty degrees over into Asia, and bringing the north pole down thirty degrees nearer the equator. ”

“ It is the point where, as Captain Hall expressed it, there is no north, no east, no west. It is the place where every wind that blows is a south wind. It is a point where all the meridians meet, and there is therefore no longitude. It is one of the two places on the surface of the earth where there is but one night and one day in every year. It is a point from which all the heavenly bodies appear to move in horizontal courses, and the stars never set. It is not to be confused with the magnetic pole, which is situated about 1600 miles south of it, near the mainland of North America. ”

“ The Fram began to drift to the south when it reached the neighbourhood of 66° E. longitude, or to the north of Franz-Josef Land. The latitude was then 85° 55.5′. It is probable, however, that the Fram was now within the direct influence of the drift which constantly passes down the east coast of Greenland, and that the drift to the south was not due to land towards the north or west. More ice is formed in the Polar Sea during the long winter than is melted during the short summer, and the surplus must find an outlet into the warmer water of the south. ”

“ I give this Hint to encourage our South Sea Company, or others, to go upon some Discovery that way, where for ought we know they may find a better Country than any yet discover’d, there being a vast Surface of the Sea from the Equinox to the South Pole, of at least 2000 Leagues in Longitude that has hitherto been little regarded, tho it be agreeable to Reason, that there must be a Body of Land about the South Pole, to counterpoise those vast Countries about the North Pole. ”

“ The average layman will probably consider the first of these conditions, the extreme cold, as the most serious. As a matter of fact, the second is the most vital, and is the one which has caused the discovery of the north pole to drag along through hundreds of years, while the south pole was attained twice within thirteen years after the first sledge-journey in that region. ”

“ The Mystery of the South Pole—Ignored by Early Navigators—An Accidental Dutch Discovery—Captain Cook Sets Sail—Discouraged by the Ice—Turns Back in Despair—A Second Accidental Discovery—Weddell breaks the Barrier—Antarctic Land revealed—British resume the Search.
While the desire to penetrate into the mysteries of the North held the mind of mankind from the earliest times, the very existence of a similar world of ice, at the opposite pole, was undreamed of until a few centuries back. ”

“ Since my origination of that departure, Nansen has crossed Greenland; Conway has crossed Spitzbergen; and if our present idea of conditions in the Antarctic be correct, it is entirely within the possibilities, that the conqueror of the South Pole will achieve success by adopting my methods and equipment.”—Peary in “Northward Over the Great Ice,” 1898, Vol. I, page lvii.
“The North Pole is reached.”
In a flash the news spread over the world. The goal of which so many had dreamed, for which so many had labored and suffered and sacrificed their lives, was attained. ”

“ Every breeze which could possibly blow upon us, no matter from what point of the horizon, must be a south wind. Where we were, one day and one night constituted a year, a hundred such days and nights constituted a century. Had we stood in that spot during the six months of the arctic winter night, we should have seen every star of the northern hemisphere circling the sky at the same distance from the horizon, with Polaris (the North Star) practically in the zenith.
THE RECONNOITERING PARTY AT THE POLE
(On the Sledge are Merely the Instruments, a Tin of Pemmican and a Skin or Two.) ”

“ The constellations never set at the North Pole, their apparent paths (neglecting their own very tiny movements) being in circles, round the Pole; like the sun, they are always south of the North Pole.
7. When standing at the North Pole it is impossible to look in any other direction along the earth's surface but south. To the left or to the right, behind or in front of the person standing at the North Pole the direction is always south. ”

“ The event of human beings standing at the hitherto inaccessible summit of the earth was accomplished, and my work now lay to the south, where four hundred and thirteen nautical miles of ice-floes and possibly open leads still lay between us and the north coast of Grant Land. ”

“ That there is a new world south of the pole is maintained by Science; it is the unalterable belief of the explorers, the hydrographers, the geographers. But what may that world be like? What was it like? Long millions and millions of years before our time the Arctic north was the procreant cradle of ALL LIFE! From it streamed the currents of animal and vegetable creation; it was warm; forests of palms flourished along river and lake-side, and within them roamed the creatures of tropical or semi-tropical climates. ”

“ Thus the South Pole is the cold and watery side, or as we should say in dynamics, the negative and weaker end of the earth's body, while the North Pole on the other hand appears to be the positive and stronger extremity; for, though the centre of the earth's magnetic attraction and magnetic life, accords not mathematically with the northern point, yet it lies at no very great distance from it. In other phenomena of nature, too, the real seat and principle of life will be found, not at the mathematical point, but a little removed from it. ”

“ Looking forward to this certain materialization, it is a source of satisfaction that the two last great physical adventures, the winning of the North Pole and the South Pole,—the feats which clinched and made complete man’s conquest of the globe,—were accomplished without the aid of such modern devices and inventions. ”

“ But the thirst for knowledge and the love of adventure and exploration where no financial reward can be expected is creditable to humanity, and shows that the love of knowledge is sometimes above that of sordid gain. The struggle for two centuries has been to reach the North Pole, and it has been approached as near as 700 miles; but recent reports indicate that conditions are more favorable for reaching the South Pole; and a French expedition outfitted this year for the North Pole have changed their destination to the South Pole. One or both poles are likely to be discovered in a few years. ”

“ Theoretically it is convenient to define the Polar Regions as those areas that lie round about the North Pole and round about the South Pole, within the Arctic and Antarctic Circles, which are defined by being those circles of latitude where the sun on midwinter-day does not rise and where on midsummer-day it does not set. ”

“ "Now when I was a little chap I had a passion for maps. I would look for hours at South America, or Africa, or Australia, and lose myself in all the glories of exploration. At that time there were many blank spaces on the earth, and when I saw one that looked particularly inviting on a map (but they all look that) I would put my finger on it and say, 'When I grow up I will go there.' The North Pole was one of these places, I remember. Well, I haven't been there yet, and shall not try now. The glamour's off. ”

“ The Arctic and Antarctic regions have always exercised a peculiar fascination over the human mind. Until now every attempt to reach the North Pole has failed, and the South has proved even more inaccessible. ”

“ Had the expedition been delayed on the return until May or June, the theodolite would then have been of value in determining position and variation of the compass.
The method of taking meridian observations with a sextant and an artificial horizon on a polar sledge journey is as follows: if there is any wind, a semi-circular wind-guard of snow blocks, two tiers high, is put up, opening to the south. If there is no wind, this is not necessary. ”

“ All the while as he went about the country holding his little exhibits of the tip of the planet we could not help wishing, many of us who were in the Audience, that this man who sat there before us, the man who had the Thing in his hand, who had collected the North Pole, would not notice us, would snub us if need be a little, and would leave these people, these millions of people, with their heads up and go quietly on to the South Pole and collect that. ”

“ The north pole, we see, will be a somewhat more powerful lever than the south for working the globe to a straight position, but we may be sure that the latter, in connection with the former, will be able to hold up its end. ”

“ Wegener’s reconstruction of the geography of this period places the south pole a little to the south-east of South Africa, surrounded by a great continent composed of the junction of Africa, South America, Antarctica, Australia, and an extended Deccan added to by smoothing out the folds of the Himalayas. This great circumpolar continent he considers to have been the site of an immense ice-cap. The North Pole lay in the Pacific Ocean, so that almost all the remaining land areas enjoyed temperate or tropical climates. ”

“ The amount of credit due to a man who starts to find one thing and lights upon another has always been a contentious matter, and this expedition afforded an extreme case for such speculations. The plan was to go east-north-east, the wintering places being undetermined, though they might be Cape Chelyuskin, the New Siberian Islands, or any land that might be discovered; and a return to Europe through Bering Strait lay among the possibilities of the venture, as an endeavour was to be made to reach the coast of Siberia in boats and penetrate south down one of the large rivers of 65Northern Asia. ”