THE POLAR ENIGMA

North Otago Times, Volume CVII, Issue 17164, 22 March 1927, Page 4

THE POLAR ENIGMA

Has any man ever reached the j North Pole? The questioh is ; prompted by the release in New i York of Dr Cook, the earliest I claimant, who has been serving a ! sentence of imprisonment in con- ! nection with fraudulent company i ; promoting. Ever since Sir Phillip | Gihbs, then a struggling journalist, | suc'ceeded in discrediting Cook's j story, Cook has been regarded as j an impostor, and Peary has been I looked on as the real discoverer of j 'he Pole. But Amundsen, who visit- | ?d Cook in prison in 1923, and ailked over old tirties together, elecirified the world not fifteen months ;jgo by declaring that Dr Cook'r; •dory of the discovery of the Pole \vas just as plausible as Peary's, and he deplored the weight given to die testimony of the Eskimos, ori which Cook was discredited. Stefansson has been inclined to credit reary's data, but Greeley, the noted Arctic explorer, declares that nei- ' ther Cook nor Peary ever reached ihe Pole. Amundsen, however, ■ speaks with authority. With five j other men he flew to latitude 87.40, | but when his two parties became separated they could not join up • for four days, though within sight ; of one another, "owing to the con- ; tipuah opening of the new leads in •' the ice." It was over such a sea, described by both Peary and Ellsworth as "infernal," that Peary claimed to have done fifty-seven miles a day for eight days, while Ellsworth did half a mile a day for four "days. Peary, who could do no more than eight miles a day with his expedition at the start, accelerated to iifty-seven miles a day on the "infernal" Polar ice. This fact, coupled with Peary's silence regarding the Pole on his return from his final dash. has never been ex-. I plained. No man has proved ' his claim to the discovery of the North Pole. Byrd claimed to have circled the Pole, but Amundsen flew over it from Spitzbergen to Alaska. Cook can hardly revive his claim, and therefore this great feat, like the climbing of Mt. Everest, has still to be accomplished.