The search for the North Pole = or, Life in the great white world. A complete and connected story of Arctic explorations, superbly illustrated from real scenes. Replete with anecdote, incident, thrilling adventure, and intensely interesting information. The book with a purpose consecrated to further polar investigation

Front matter

Glass Q^G&Q-.

Photo by Root, Chicago.

THE SEARCH

Contents

CHAPTER I.— To Our Readers and Friends.— Defense of Polar Explorations. — Loss of Life in Arctic Exploration. — Means of Equipping Expeditions. — Mission of This Book. — ^Acknowledgments 11-31

CHAPTER II.— Early Norse, English, and Dutch Voyages: Ericson.— Northeast and Northwest Passages. — Frobisher. — Drake. — Barents. — Barents' Death. — Slaughter of Arctic Game. — Conflicts with Eskimos. — Sad Fate of Hudson.— Search for Hudson.— Discovery of Baffin's Bay. — Noble Fellows: Captain James and Companions. — Origin of the Hudson's Bay Company 32-66

CHAPTER III.— Russian Arctic Voyages: — Private Adventurers. — Peter the Great's Patronage. — Vitus Bering. — The Greatest Geographical Enterprise Ever Undertaken ■ 67-85

Chapter I. To Our Readers And Friends

A thoughtful and kindly consideration of the following introductory lines is earnestly requested of every person before whose eyes they may appear. Such a course will explain the motive which has prompted the author in trusting one more book to the tender mercies of an indulgent public. The writer's interest, not merely from theory but from the more practical school of experience, in the matter of exploration and travel, has prompted him to arrange a book "after his own heart" — on the subject of Arctic research. If the reader feels as does the author the importance, the sublimity, of continued effort in the conquest of the Great White World, it is believed that this volume will not be an unwelcome companion of its possessor. Its purpose, its plan, its scope, will appear presently.

Know you, kind friend and reader, that men of science are agreed that definite knowledge of the Pole and its region will be of great value to the world?

Ex-Judge Charles P. Daly, president of the American Geographical Society, once made an address at one of the meetings, in which he said:

"Why should we try to reach the North Pole? Why send out costly expeditions involving peril to life and property, when we all know that the approach to the Arctic Zone is surrounded by insurmountable barriers? If it involved nothing more than the feat of reaching the Pole, it would be very difficult to answer such questions; but the general answer to them is that there is no portion of the globe where observations in respect to scientific matters affecting the whole globe (every part of it) are so important as in the polar basin and its vicinity. The tremendous forces which are there at work and w^hich are the cause of the difficulty of exploration and observation are physical phenomena which it is most important to observe and study. They have to do with the winds, the ocean currents, magnetic influences, and numerous questions of the most practical nature in their application and in the results to which they lead. The amount of knowledge in the world which has been discovered by accident is small in proportion to that which has been the result of previous investigation. In the polar region will be found the key to unlock those mysteries in respect to the 'laws of mag- " netism. All knoAv that magnetism is a polar force; that it directs the needle which guides the seaman upon and around the earth. But it is only the scientific man that knows the insurmountable difficulties that beset investigation of its laws and how important to the world is a thorough knowledge of those laws.

"The best answer ever given to the query, 'Well, what is the use of these expeditions?' was that given by Franklin, w^hen asked one day as regards his discovery of electricity, 'What is the use of j^our discovery?' Franklin's reply was this: 'What is the use of a child? Make use of it.' The most ordinary things in our present civilization owe their origin to what in their day was scientific information, and they are due to the close observation and patient labors of men who could not have predicted the great results that followed their researches."

In the scholarly language of Lieutenant N. F. Maury, of the United States Navy:

"Voyages of discovery, with their fascinations and their charms, have led many a noble champion both into the torrid and frigid zones; and, notwithstanding tlie liardships, sufferings and disasters to wliicli Northern parties have found themselves exposed, seafaring men, as science has advanced, have looked with deeper and deeper longings toward the mystic circles of the polar regions. There icebergs are framed and glaciers launched. There the tides have their cradle, the whales their nursery. There the winds complete their circuits and the currents of the sea their rounds in the wonderful system of oceanic circulation. There the Aurora Borealis is lighted up and the trembling needle brought to rest; and there, too, in the mazes of that mystic circle, terrestrial forces of occult power and of vast influence upon the well-being of man are continually at play. Within the Arctic Circle is the pole of the winds and the poles of the cold, the pole of the earth and of the magnet. It is a circle of mysteries, and the desire to enter it, to explore its untrodden wastes and secret chambers, and to study its physical aspects, has grown into a longing. Noble daring has made Arctic ice and waters classic ground. It is no feverish excitement nor vain ambition that leads man there. It is a higher feeling, a holier motive — a desire to look into the works of creation, to comprehend the economy of our planet — and to grow wiser and better by the knowledge.

"The expeditions which have been sent to explore unknown sea-s have contributed largely to the extent of human knowledge, and they have added renown to nations, and lustre to diadems. Navies are not all for war. Peace has its conquests, science its glories; and no navy can boast of brighter chaplets than those which have been gathered in the fields of geographical exploration and physical research." Mr. Henry Grinnell, at a meeting of the American Geographical Society of New York, summarized the commercial results of Northern exploration as follows:

"1. Sir H. Gilbert's discovery of the cod fisheries of Newfoundland. 2. From Davis' discoveries the great whale fisheries of the West. .3. From the discoveries of Hudson (who also discovered and sailed into our North River, which now bears his name, while on an Arctic voyage), Hudson's Bay, and the operations of the great fur companies. 4. Sir John Boss; the whale fishery of the north and northwest of Baffin's Baj. 5. Captain Parry; whale fishery of Lancaster Sound, Barrow Strait, and Prince Regent Inlet. 6. Admiral Beechy; whale fishery of Bering Straits, in which, in the space of two years, the whalers of Nantucket and New Bedford obtained cargoes from which it is said they have realized eight millions of dollars."

A further illustration is to be found in the rapidly developing resources of Alaska, since the purchase of which, from Ilussia, in ISGT, the United States has annually received over 1300,000 in revenue from the sealeries alone.

In the foregoing paragraphs we have purposely anticipated the oft-repeated question,

"OP WHAT USE IS ARCTIC EXPLORATION, ANYWAY?"

The answers in the language of Lieutenant Maury and Mr. Grinnell should forever silence the tongue of idle objection. As reasonably might one argue against the "use" of spending vast sums of money in studying the worlds now rushing through space millions of miles remote from our little world; or in otherwise promoting the interests of pure science. Well indeed it is for the moral and intellectual well-being of mankind that all are not engaged in the mad rush for wealth, for the mere sake of being considered the possessors — not users — ^of so many thousands! Sublime indeed it is that one gives money, another talent, another prime years, and even another, life — ail that something may be contributed to the sum of human knowledge. Franklin, Kane, Grinnell, Hall, Greely, Lick, Vanderbilt, Rockefeller — all these illustrate the sublimity of man as a public benefactor. No sane person will now question the "use" to which such men put the beneficent portion of their wealth, whether of money or of talent. Without just such contributions as they individually made how many of them would to-day be known beyond a tombstone inscription? Of those dead, not one!

The following editorial from the brilliant pen of Noble Prentis, soldier, traveler, journalist, is of interest here:

"THE STORY OF ARCTIC EXPLORATION.

"There was an interesting meeting of the Royal Geographical Society in London on Monday evening. The society, we may well suppose, is composed of men in the decline of years, and the 'object of the meeting' was to keep in mind and memory a long-ago event, the sailing away in May, 1845, of the expedition of Sir John Franklin, which nevermore returned.

"Among the old men present was Admiral Sir Francis McClintock, who commanded the 'Intrepid,' one of the five vessels which set out in 1852 in search of the lost Sir John and his company, and as he spoke of the experience of the searchers he alluded to the help extended by the Americans as forming a tie that had drawn kindred nations together. President Markham, of the society, sjDoke especially of the act of Henry Grinnell, an American, in fitting out an expedition in 1853, and finally our own Minister, Mr. Bayard, spoke of both Americans and Englishmen who had emulated each other in pressing toward the pole; Greely and Kane and Peary, and Franklin, Ross and McClintock, rivals in bravery and endurance and determination.

"The meeting of these elderly gentlemen in a quiet room, talking over the old explorations and the heroes, for the most part gone, afforded a striking history and picture of man's determination to solve the problems of the North. At first bold navigators were led on by the hope of finding a northwest passage to the Pacific and the 'Golden East,' but that idea was dropped as impracticable, after Franklin and all his men had perished; then came expeditions in search of Franklin, and then more expeditions to be followed by more 'searches,' and finally effort narrowed down to what may be called the modern expedition, purely scientific in its character, which aims to settle the question of the open Polar sea. The old plan of sending many vessels, fully manned and equipped, as those of Parry and Franklin, Belcher and the others, is no longer attempted. Yet men may be said to push on by twos and threes to the mysterious pole. Not again will a whole ship's company be sacrificed as was Franklin's, who was lost in his third journey, but on any day of the year, it may be said, little companies of men are ready to volunteer for the North.

f'The story of Arctic explorations is, that earth nor sky nor ocean can have a terror that will be allowed to baffle man's fixed and intense desire to know. He is determined to tear from the heart of this world its every secret, and no wave so tumultuous and no cloud so black, and no ice gulf so wide, but he will make his way. Amid all the loss and distress, and cold and hunger, and frightful danger and awful death, man has, year by year, worked at the solution of the problem of the North. How since Franklin's time has the map grown! Gulfs, capes, islands, continents have been traced. The blank space around the end of the earth grows smaller; perhaps the man lives who, solitary and alone, shall stand where never man stood before, to say: 'This is the Pole.' "

Again, let us cite that incontrovertible Arctic authority. General A. W. Greely, and quote his admirable address on the

SCOPE AND VALUE OF ARCTIC EXPLORATIONS,

delivered before the Sixth International Geographical Congress, held at London, in July, 1895:

"In a brief twenty minutes one can touch only in a desultory way on this great topic that engages the thought and attention of so many famous members of the Geographical Congress, yet a somewhat general outline of the scope and value of Arctic exploration may not be amiss.

"This, however, is neither time nor place to present in detail those phases of Arctic exploration that appeal so strongly to the popular fancy. If one would gain an adequate idea of the true aspects of such voyaging, he must turn to the original journals, penned in the great White North by brave men whose 'purpose held to sail bejond the sunset.'

More Dangerous than Arctic Exploration.

Accident on the Matterhorn, August, 1893.

"We pressed up close to the rock, when the two shot past us. They were tied together. Seller passed close to us * * * Biener flew out against the blue sky, and the rope was stretched tightly between them."

Sir John Franklin.

Dr. Hayes.

Lieut. Schwatka.

Mr. Bonsall.

Dr. Kane.

Capt. Hall.

Lieut. De Long.

(See Chanters VI., XL, XVJ., XXV., XXVIII.. XXX., XXXI., XXXII., XXXIV. Ibee <_,uaptLr= v i., .vi., xXXV II.. cand XXXIX.)

"In these volumes will be found tales of ships beset not only months, but years; of ice packs and ice fields of extent, thickness, and mass so enormous that description conveys no just idea; of boat journeys where constant watchfulness alone prevented instant death by drifting bergs or commingling ice floes; of land marches when exhausted humanity staggered along, leaving traces of blood on snow or rock; of sledge journeys over chaotic masses of ice, when humble heroes, straining at the drag-ropes, struggled on because the failure of one compromised the safety of all; of solitude and monotony, terrible in the weeks of constant polar sunlight, but almost unsettling the reason in the months of continuous Arctic darkness; of silence awful at all times, but made j^et more startling by astounding phenomena that appeal noiselessly to the eye; of darkness so continuous and intense that the unsettled mind is driven to wonder whether the ordinary course of nature will bring back the sun, or whether the world has been cast out of its orbit in the planetary universe into new conditions; of cold so intense that any exposure is followed by instant freezing; of monotonous surroundings that threaten with time to unsettle the reason; of de]Drivations wasting the body, and so impairing the mind; of failure in all things, not only of food, fuel, clothing, and shelter, for Arctic service foreshadows such contingencies, but the bitter failure of plans and aspirations, which brings almost inevitable despair in its train.

"Failure of all things, did I say? Nay; failure, be it admitted, of all the physical accessories of conceived and accomplished action, but not failure in the higher and more essential attributes — not of the mental and moral qualities that are the foundation of fortitude, fidelity, and honor. Failure in this latter respect has been so rare in Arctic service as to justly make such offender a byword and scorn to his fellowlaborers and successors.

"Patience, courage, fortitude, foresight, self-reliance, helpfulness — these grand characteristics of developed humanity everywhere, but which we are inclined to claim as special endowments of the Caucasian race — find ample expression in the detailed history of Arctic exploration. If one seeks to learn to what extent man's determination and effort dominate even the most adverse environment, the simple narratives of Arctic exploration will not fail to furnish striking examples.

"There is a widespread impression that all Arctic vo^-ages have been made for practically the same general purpose, whereas polar research has passed through three distinctive phases: First, for strictly commercial purposes in connection with trade to the Indies; second, for advancement of geographical knowledge, and, third, for scientific investigations connected with physical sciences.

"Commercial interests dictated the grand series of voyages wherein England, competing with Spain from the period of the ventures of the Cabots to the discoveries of Baffin, sought for a short route to the Indies, across the pole or b^^ a northwest passage. As the futility of efforts by these routes became more or less apparent, and as the naval strength of Spain and Portugal ensured their continued monoftol}^ of the growing and valuable trade of the Orient, the attention of England was turned in sheer desperation to the northeast passage as possibly offering a competing route. While this quest proved impracticable for the sailing ships of the sixteenth centur}', yet its prosecution inured to the great financial advantage of England through the establishment thereby of intimate and exclusive commercial relations with the growing and hitherto inaccessible empire of Russia.

"The renewal of the true spirit of geographical exploration in the early part of the present centur}^ gave rise to a series of unparalleled voyages in search of the northwest passage, which resulted in the most splendid geographical achievements of the century. These voyages were not splendid alone from the definite results attained, nor from the almost superhuman efforts that ensured success, but also from the lofty spirit of endeavor and adventure that inspired the actors. The men who strove therein were lured hj no hope of gain, influenced by no spirit of conquest, but were moved solely by the belief that man should know even the most desolate regions of his abiding place, the earth, and the determination that the Anglo-Saxon should do his part.

"Franklin said: 'Arctic discovery has been fostered from motives as disinterested as they are enlightened; not from any prospect of immediate benefit, but from a steady view to the acquirement of useful knowledge and the extension of the bounds of science, and its contributions to natural history and science have excited a general interest. The loss of life in the prosecution of these discoveries does not exceed the average deaths in the same population at home.' Parry adds: 'Such enterprises, so disinterested as Well as useful in their object, do honor even when they fail. They cannot but excite the admiration of every liberal mind.'

"Of Chancellor's voyage to the northeast Milton said : 'The discovery of Russia by the Northern Ocean * * * might have seemed an enterprise almost heroic if any higher end than excessive love of gain and trafftc had animated the design.' Modern critics except from dispraise the gallant men who in this century have given thjeir lives from no sordid motive, and so merit Milton's full praise.

"If not all, certainly some of these arctics have been animated with the noble thought of the poet:

'And this gray spirit yearning in desire To follow knowledge like a shining star Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.'

"Suffice it is to say, for geographic research, that it has remained for the nineteenth century, with its wealth of industrial inventions and store of indomitable energy, to make the northwest and northeast passages, to outline the northern coast of America, and to discover the archipelagoes and islands situated poleward from the three continents of the northern hemisphere.

"Hudson's voyage to the Greenland sea, in 1607, was of vast industrial and commercial importance, for his discovery and reports of the incredible number of walruses and whales that frequented these seas gave rise to the Spitzbergen whale fishery.

"The voyage of Poole for walruses and exploration, in 1610, was followed by the establishment of the whale fishery by Edge in the following year. Enterprising Holland sent its ships in 1613, later bringing in its train whalers from Bremen, France, and other maritime centers. The whale fishery, as the most important of Arctic industries, from which Holland alone drew from the Spitzbergen seas in one hundred and ten years, 1679-1778, products valued at about |90,000,000, merits at least our brief attention.

"Grad writes: 'The Dutch sailors saw in Spitzbergen waters great whales in immense numbers, whose catch would be a source of apparently inexhaustible riches. For two centuries fleets of whalers frequented its seas. The rush to the gold-beariug placers of California and the mines of Australia afforded in our day the onl}'^ examples at all comparable to the host of men attracted by the northern fisher3^'

"Scoresby says: 'In a short time (whaling) proved the most lucrative and the most important branch of national commerce which had ever been offered to man.' This emphatic statement is devoid of exaggeration in the slightest degree. Scoresby gives, year by year, the products of the Dutch whale fishery in the Arctic seas from 1668 to 1778, which aggregate in value over |100,000,000. When it is known that Scoresby himself caught in thirty voyages fish to the value of 11,000,000, it will not be considered extravagant to place the products of the British whale fishery at |250,000,000. Starbuck gives the product of the American whale fishery from 1801 to 1877 as |332,000,000, making the aggregate of three nations — America, England, and Holland — more than 1680,000,000. How far this amount should be increased on account of seal, walrus, and other strictly Arctic sea game need not be considered, but Norwegian and Kussian fishers have successfully exploited these sources for the past century.

"The visit of Liakoff to the New Siberian Islands added eventually a wealth of fossil ivory to Siberian trade that was only second in value to the extraordinary stock of furs that grew out of the explorations of the Arctic valley of the Kolima by Kussian hunters. From Hudson's voyage to the bay of his name are attributable the initiation and development of the extremely valuable fur trade of the Hudson Bay Company. Bering failed to outline the definite geographic relations of the contiguous shores of Asia and America, but his voyages directly resulted in the very extensive sea and land fur trade which has proved so profitable through a century and a half.

"Altogether it may be assumed that in a little over two centuries the Arctic regions have furnished to the civilized world products aggregating twelve hundred millions of dollars in value.

"Nor should it be inferred that commercial ends, scientific knowledge, or the glory of effort crystallized in accomplishment have alone turned man to the polar regions. The altruistic spirit of Egede lavished its wealth of effort in the turning of the Greenland Eskimo to Christianity and civilization, and it enkindled the flame of Christian endeavor that Crantz and the Moravian brethren kept alive during the critical phases of Greenland's history. As Cowper says:

'See Germany send forth

Her sons to pour it on the farthest north.

Fired with a zeal peculiar, they defy

The rage a.nd rigor of a polar sky

And plant successfully sweet Sharon's rose

On icy plains and in eternal snows.'

"In recent days Great Bjitain has had its Duncan, France its Petitot, and the United States its Jackson, whose evangelizing labors, acting through the more successful method — that of inculcating civilization and helpfulness — are a part of the glory of this time. The residence of Holm among the East Greenland natives and of Peary with the Etah Eskimos have, it is to be hoped, not been fruitless along these lines, and should stimulate human sympath}^ for these dwellers on the northern edge of the world. Every lover of mankind will rejoice that Denmark, with the Christian solicitude that has always marked its policy towaTds the Greenlanders, has extended its unprofitable trade relations to East Greenland and established a missionary station at Angmagsalik for the benefit of the natives. May we not hope that some religious association may likewise plant the seeds of civilization and Christianity among the Cape York Eskimos?

"There is neither intent nor time to eulogize worthily the deeds of living Arctic men, nor even to stimulate the eager rising youth who shall outdo all that has gone before; rather would this brief word add a leaf of laurel to the crowned dead whose Arctic fame forms part of each nation's historic heritage — hallowed for the past, priceless for the present, indispensable for successful futurity,

"Shall I name the soldiers or sailors, the explorers or scientists, the trader or the whaler? Rather all, since science knows neither station nor profession, neither dialect nor nationality.

"In the roll-call of the dead, Austria-Hungary answers with Weyprecht, whose greatest fame will ever be associated with the establishment of the international polar stations.

"Denmark follows, equally at home in American, Asiatic, or European waters, through Munk and Hamke, Jan Mayen and Vitus Bering.

"Then France with De la Croyere, Pages, Blosseville, Fabre, Gaimard, Marmier, Martins, and Bellot, the last a name ever grateful to English ears.

"Germany has generously loaned her talent to insure success wherever sound and important scientific work is to be done. Baer, Bessell, Petermann, and Steller are worthy successors to Frederick Martens, of the seventeenth century — men and work of which any nation may be proud.

"Holland, in Barents, Na}^, Tetgales, Bip, and Heemskerck, presents a roll of honor well in keeping with the notable work of the thousands of Dutch whalers that exploited the Spitzbergen seas.

"The Italian contingent, from the Zeni of the fourteenth century through the Cabots to Bove of our own day, maintain here, as elsewhere, their geographic standing.

"Norwegian Othere set in the ninth century the pioneer standard of Arctic exploration, w^hich later, combined with the labor of exploiting the northern seas, has Mattilas, Carlsen, Tobiesen, and a score of others as worthy successors.

"Russia finds the Arctic problem a domestic question, and from the time of Peter the Great to to-day has done an amount of work not generally appreciated or known. The Laptieffs and Deshneff, Tchirikof, and Liakoff, Anjou and Wrangell, Kotzebue and Liltke, Pachtussof, Krusenstern and Zivolka, stand forth in the annals of the world.

"In Iledenstrom and Torrell, Sweden finds examples that have borne such abundant fruit in the late active labors of her enthusiastic sons.

"Once it was said that the almighty- dollar was the object and end of American endeavor, but when American treasurenot by the millions but hj the billions — was poured out and lives by the hundreds of thousands were joj^fully given for an idea, the men of the new world rose to a higher place in Euroi)ean estimation.

"A fellow-townsman of mine was a petty officer under Sir John Franklin, and among the hundreds engaged in the Franklin search none had a more altruistic and generous spirit than the American Elisha Kent Kane. Hayes left no danger undared to reach his 'Open Polar Sea,' Rodgers dared all, in Arctic ice as in the War for the Union. De Long and Ambler knew how to die, but not how to desert a helpless comrade. Hall followed the Arctic sledge to his very death. Lockw^ood, whose personal toil and suffering accomplished the farthest north and set the goal beyond which some more fortunate rival will soon pass, met with fortitude and sweetness the harsh fate which debarred the world from placing its laurel wreath save on his grave.

"I can scarcely say aught of British effort in a field that has been peculiarly England's for the past three centuries. And how, among her innumerable Arctic dead, shall I single out representatives, worthy examplers of British courage and effort? Like Macbeth's kings, the line stretches out to crack of doom.

''Great were the daring navigators of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries — Chancellor and Davis and Frobisher, Hudson and Wajmouth, B^dot and Baffin; but were they greater than in their way were Cook, Hearne, and Mackenzie in the eighteenth?

"And when we come to their worthj^ compeers of this century, there is barel}' room for the names of these daring spirits. Here is Britain's unequaled roll:

"Austin, Back, Beeche}^, Buchan, Clavering, Collinson, Crozier, Forsyth, Goodsir, Inglefield, Kellett, Kennedy, Lefro}^, Lyon, McClure, Maguire, Mecham, Moore, the immortal Nelson, Osborn, Penny, Pim, Rae, Richardson, James C. Boss, John Ross, Sabine, Saunders, Scoresby, father and son; Simpson, and Stewart.

"Close communion in spirit and thought with their recorded labors for many years has made for me manj^ friends among the great Arctic dead, and so particularly segregates in my mind, from this alphabetical list, the twin Arctic compeers, Franklin and Parry, as facile princeps in this great company.

"But the histor}' of these men is inextricably interwoven with the wonderful development of the British Empire, and their deeds forever abide to the glory of the English-speaking race.

"And of the Arctic dead of Europe, Asia, and America, from the earliest Othere of Norway and the Zeni of Italy to the latest fallen in Sweden, Nordenskiold the younger, promising son of his distinguished father, there may well be quoted the words of an American soldier:

'On Fame's eternal camping ground

Their silent tents are spread, And Glory guards with solemn round

The bivouac of the dead.'

"8torm-stayed and ice-beset no longer, their dust awaits the change and fate ordained by God's eternal laws.

^'The end they sought, the work they wrought, the courage and devotion they showed, should stand as ideals and patterns for the men of the future in the accomplishment of the great Arctic work which it shall be their good fortune to undertake.

"But now we look again to England to retake its former place in Arctic research. Shall we look in vain? I believe not.

"Let her remember that the beginning of the end will have come for the ever-extending and ever-developing British power when this insular people would ever consent, for any sum in pounds and pence, that the Arctic relics of Greenwich should be scattered, or that there should ever be removed from Westminster Abbey, rich with its clustering memories and gathered treasures of a thousand years, the tribute of genius to heroism, of England's poet laureate to its Arctic dead.

"Well has it been for Britain that hundreds of its youth have imbibed together learning and patriotism, love of the beautiful and admiration for glorj^, while translating into classic verse these immortal words :

'Not here. The white north has thy bones, and thou,