ARCTIC FALLACIES

Evening Star, Issue 20135, 27 March 1929, Page 13

ARCTIC FALLACIES

DR STEFAHSSON MAKES GDRREGTIONS SNOW HOUSES AND FROST BiTE PERSPIRING Is EAlt THE POLE. How hot it was I The men stopped, mopped their laces, and moved sluggishly on, Avtshing that they had not worn such heavy clothes. They complained bitterly of the heat; and when these men, used to tho warmth of sunny Italy, so complained wo may bo sure that it was hot indeed. Nor was this along tho equator, or even in tho torrid zone. It was in the Arctic. Tho men were Italians, searching for their compatriots and friends who had been on board the Ttalia, General Nobile’s ill-fated North Pole dirigible. The reactions of this party to Arctic heat arc vouched for by no less an authority than Vilhjalmur Stefansson, the explorer, and are presented in an interview by John T. Brady in the Boston ‘ Post,’ along with other such “ myth-shattering ” assertions as that few Eskimos have over seen a snowhouse. Said Dr Stefausson further of Arctic heat, according to Mr Brady; “ Since the North Pole, which is mathematically only as big as a pin point, is theoretically the spot farthest ;tway from the equator, the public mind, in its desire for heroes, has assumed on the basis of the old Greek • temperature laws, that it must necessarily be the coldest and most inaccessible place ou earth. And it has also been assumed for the same reason that bitter cold winds blow' away from it in all directions, making it all the harder lor man to read). “ But- all these assumptions are untrue. It is never as cold at- tbe North Pole ns it is in several places in the United States. In Havre, Montana, for example, a temperature of G 3 below zero or lOOdeg below freezing lias been recorded, yet scholars agree that at the North Pole the temperature could never bo more than GO below zero. “ And as for being the most difficult spot to reach, it so happens that because ot tho iuilueiice of the Gulf Stream it is not- in the centre of the ice pack, and this centre is twice as hard to reach. In August it is only -lUO miles from the edge of the ieo to the North Pole, but it is SOU miles to the centre of the ice pack, which is called the Polo of Inaccessibility. ‘‘Sitting under an awning at the North Polo on July 4 you would lind the temperature about tho same as it 'is here in this room, but if you wore sitting in the glare of the sun you would find it uncomfortably hot.” 11 1 sometimes say, jocularly,” the explorer remarked, grinning, to his interviewer, “ that tho reason why we have a higher percentage of myths and misconceptions about the Ear North than wo have about any other region of tho globe is that it is the traditional homo of Hanta Claus, and as he is purely an imaginary figure, people like to sot him olf in imaginary and romantic suriwundlngs.” Quoting further: “ But 1 think seriously that tho real reason for tbe persistence of these erroneous conceptions of tho Arctic is that tho public lias a subconscious desire to worship heroes and heroism, and a groat device for satisfying this tiesire is to conjure a region ot such terrible aspect that any man who goes there must be hailed as a hero, and ahvays regarded as such. “ Naturally, Arctic explorers, perhaps not always to deceive, have been hesitant about enlightening the public as to tile real conditions in the far north, because they have realised that if they tried to shatter age-long romantic legends and traditions most people would refuse to believe the truth aiid would even resent it as an insult to their intelligence. Most people think they know a lot about tho Arctic, and if you suggest that their knowledge is based on error you touch them on a sore spot. Even though you give them a most convincing evidence that their cherished romantic beliefs have no basis in fact, they are reluctant to part with them. ‘‘Therefore it is very difficult to correct many wrong but popular impressions about oil-drinking Eskimos, shivering in foul, ill-vcntila,tcd snow houses, because of unbearable temperatures. ‘‘Moreover, these mistaken ideas about tho Arctic have been ingrained in our thought for 2,000 years, most of them having been handed down to us from the ancient Greeks. ‘‘They know' the earth was a sphere GOO years before Christ, and divided the earth into five zones—the temperate zone, where it was never too hot nor ton cold 1 the torrid zone, which was always so hot that no living thing could exist there ; and tho frigid zones at the extreme north and smith, which were pictured as permanently frozen regions ‘ where life is as impossible because of freezing as it is in the torrid zone because of the burning.’' “This law of temperature as evolved bv the Greeks was beautiful, simple, symmetrical, and logical, but wrong, as the public knows if it stops to think, llowevei, most people are intellectually lazy, and they still persist in believing tho old Greek proposition that there is no heat, but intense cold, at the North Bole, without giving a thought -to the fact that tin’s may apply in winter but not in summer. “Prince Henry, the Portuguese patron of early navigators, gets most of tho credit for cooling off the burning done, and every work on meteorology of college grade now' tells yon that the highest temperatures registered by thermometers in the shade are not recorded in the torrid zone at all, but in tiie temperate 1 zones. “ Probably the highest in-llic-sliado records so far taken are those of Death Valley, California, about 900 miles north of the northern edge of the torrid zone—l 36 degrees—and almost certainly the highest temperatures that can be recorded in Africa arc in the Sahara. Desert, also north of the tropics. “ All exceptions to the Greek law of temperature distribution, other than altitude, were explained in the Middle Ages, and down to our own day, as an inroad of conditions from one zone into the territory of another. “ New Yorkers, for example, still speak of the sunstroke waves as coming from the equator, even on occasions when the Press reports few or no deaths south of Washington, and the weather bureau reports that Boston is hotter than Richmond. Those who think about it at all probably suppose that tho heat arrives by sonic special conveyance through the ffpper atmosphere. Ami by similar acceptance of theory and lack of reasoning, cold waves are still spoken of as coming from the North Pole. “ Now, as a matter of fact, the sun delivers, at the North Polo, in the vicinity of July 4, approximately the same amount of heat per twenty-four hours as it doss on every .square mile , on the earth’s surface from the equator to the pole. If you study the reports of w'ea.ther bureau stations lo-

catod on flat land and protected from the influence of ocean breezes and currents, for instance, yon v.'ill find that in midsummer the maximum temperature averages about the sumo all the ivay north to well within the Arctic Circle. “ From Fort Yukon, in Alaska, which is in the Arctic Chicle, the United States Weather Bureau has reported temperatures ranging as high as 100 degrees in the shade, which is hard y what you would expect if lamiliar only with the temperature distribution laws of the Greeks.”

Then 1)r Stefansson digresses for a moment from misconceptions of the Arctic to explain the origin of the false notion, that the best treatment for frost-bite is to rub snow on the affected part. Says the explorer: — “ One of the principles of magic which used to be universally believed in the more superstitious ages: ‘Similia, similibns, cmantui,’ or ‘like is cured by like.’ “And one particular application of tiio principle of sympathetic magic is still prevalent in New Fngland. J refer to the idea, of treating frost-bite with snow, which is a relic of remote antiquity. “ Though, most people fail to realise it, the temperature of snow on any day is the same as the air. Now suppose a man in the Arctic gets Ids nose frozen. The temperature of the frozen part will be about two degrees below freezing, but the temperature of the snow on the ground is likely to lie 70 degrees below freezing, and it is obvious what the application of a substance that cold to a frozen nose would only freeze it all the more. We know that a drop of liquid air falling on the face will freeze, the spot whore it strikes, and liquid air is not a great deal colder than 70 degrees below freezing.” Dr Stefansson admitted that snow produces an amesthctic effect in cases of frost-bite, but claims it should never be used until it is heated to the temperature of ice cream, and then it should he applied in a warm room. The Eskimo applies his warm hand to the 'frozen part instead, he said: “ There are two medical theories as to the best method of treating frostbite,” lie explained, “ one of which holds that water only a little warmer than the frozen part should be applied to it at first, while the other advocates the application of water as hot as it can bo borne without scalding. The Montreal doctor who advocates the hot water claims that the quicker the frozen part is thawed out the less the destruction of tissue and danger of gangrene.” The popular notion that Eskimos drink oil by tlic gallon strikes Dr Stclansson as being most amusing, and be declares that the only foundation tor this is Hint they sometimes dip their food in oil and use it as gravy, much as we use it on salads. They never use it to fry food in, however, as we do. In fact, lie states that lie knows of no primitive people- in North America who eat any fried food. _ . Deferring to the idea that all Eskimos live, in snow houses, Dr fStciaussoii says that 25 per cent, of them do, but more than 50 per cent, of them have never heard of' a snow house, unless they have attended a white man s school, and wouldn’t believe that such a thing existed. This is not hard to realise in view of the fact that some groups of Eskimos are -1,000 miles apart, and isolated from one anotiicr by icefields which they cannot cross. Calling attention to the fact that our school geographies usually pictured snow houses in districts of the Arctic where very few of them exist, we are told, Dr Stefansson declares that in Greenland, for instance, there were over Id,ooo Eskimos by the last census, hut less than -’3OO of them had ever seen a .snow house. Beading on : They arc known as Arctic Highlanders, and Boss tells ns that when he discovered them in 1880, they thought themselves the only people on earth, and well they might, tor Greenland is large enough to be called a continent. “For in Greenland there is nothing green to grow,” was the lorlorn last line of a familiar kindergarten ditty that lias been sung by millions of little Americans, but accordiim to Dr Stefansson, cattle and snoop-raising has been practised in Greenland for decades, and that means hay, and hay means green meadows. “ There never has been a snow bouse in all Alaska,” he declared, “ and while it’s so romantic, and more interesting' to think of Eskimos living in such habitations, it’s that much less true. To say that Eskimos live in snow houses is like saying that Americans live in a/lobo houses.” Dr Stefansson also shattered another Arctic myth, started by the Greek scholars, which has persisted until the present day. It is the i.dea that there are six months of daylight- and six months of perpetual night each year in the far North." Three fundamental laws of nature, the great diameter of the sun as compared with the earth, the law of refraction, and the law that produces twilight between a, condition of light, and darkness, make such a phenomenon impossible, ho asserted. “Even at the extremest North, the North Polo itself,” he pointed out, “ the Arctic night is limited to a period of four and one-half mouths, as against seven and one-half months ct daylight.” Asked about the idea that there is a/ semi-tropical island in the A relic, made so by hot springs or a volcano, and peopled by an unknown race of people. Dr Stefansson laughed heartily. “ That’s another tiling that keeps cropping up every now and then,” he said, “ and the Greeks started it. They believed that away up north beyond a certain range of mountains there was a sort of paradise -which they called the land of the ‘Plyperboi'anes ’ or ‘ people north of the North Wind.’

‘'And just as" among Iho Greeks it was nut the little trihe of Spartans that killed weak and deformed children, so the prneti.se of putting newborn babies outdoors to freeze is confined to a very small group of Eskimos. But the practise does exist among hands of caribou hunters who often have to move rapidly from 'place to place in order to get the meat which means life or death to them. However, it is never done after the child is two or three da vs old.

“Generally speaking, the Eskimos are fonder of children than we are, and when parents feel that they cannot support a newly-born baby in addition to their other children, somebody else is usually eager to adopt it. So cases of infanticide arc very rare. “ As a general ride the Eskimos are also very kind to their old people. I know a man who was well dressed and cared for at fifty, though he had been stone blind since he was six years old, and had no relatives. He led a much pleasanter existence than if he had been a pauper in Massachusetts. “ Where a band of hunters has to be mobile and make long daily marches in search of game, it sometimes happens, however, that an old man or old woman will drop behind during the afternoon, and " is not missed until a halt is railed by the lender to make camp for the night. The missing one is expected to turn up later during the night, but if be or she doesn’t, everybody realises what has happened and they press.on.”