IS HE NORTH POLE WORTH REACHING?

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVIII, Issue 81916, 18 January 1907, Page 4

IS HE NORTH POLE WORTH REACHING?

When the North role is reached what will be the gain to the world for all the hardship endured and all Hie money spent? Curiously, the discovery of the Pole itself is not cX petted to yield anything but fame to tile discoverer. -Many tnink that the Pole itself is a very dillereni place from the sur rounding laud and sea. But of course it is so like the territory a 1 round that only by means of scientilic instruments can the discoverers know when they have rcachyd the long sotiL-ht spot. What has been learned already of the Arctic regions is, there fore, nearly all that there is to learn. In the reign oi Queen Elizabeth, ad venturous' men risked li.eir lives in the far north for purely commercial reasons. It was thought that seawater does not freeze at any great distance from the land, and the'hope was held that a ship which could force its way through the North-west pas sage would find an open -oe,. Thi'oui'i: this sea they believed they could slu. past the Pole, aud so reach Cathay.

We know that still s,a-\vatcr freezes at a temperature, four or live d'-grces. befow the freezing point oi fresh water. Still, it mav be lliut '...ann currents from the south keep the temperature of the Polar water:, aianr free/.in e ' point. The chance-, are that tee surface of the extreme north of the earth is one solid nuus ol In the latter end of the sixteenth eentury that attempt to pierce the Xorth-"east parage I>v the mevcliaiii adventurers led to the opening of a valuable trade with Northern l'ussia iiy way of the White Sea. Eater on the famous Hudson, ami r:.-> successors. Folic,-l,v. l'oole aim Edge, tried to reach and pass the L'ole They failed lamentably, but the fam • •us Spitzb-.-rgau lisherie, were e-lab ■'.ished. Tlie' -veai Hudson* Jiay Company was a'so founded. 'J lie explorer l;,:,is brought to light. ii"ariy a hundred year, ago, the vain a I)!.- wiia'e lUiicrv grounds in Ba Ilia's Cay. Tim position of the North Magnetic Pole-a malter of gnat interest to scleniisis—was fixed ill the Veilr ISDo but Hi fee belief is held that this magnetic pel" is a shifting one there is still room for discoverv. We have long known that there can l,e no trade route bv ivnv of the l'ole. .•:f. Mi; Scott Keltic s'trs that the lauds and seas that lie to tile north of the Arctic; Circle are knovfn in the niain undines. The groat object before all explorers, therefore, is the everlasting fame thev wil'. achieve ley being tiie iirst to sei f, rt on til,' top of the earth. TE- .-trueele to r ad, the Pole has become international. A man who co,, thre.ac.li a Polar oxp-diliun i- lit io fae.. am- darker, ami the ol the l'ole would be worth its cost ii it did nothing more than keep alive th" spirit of enterprise and iliirijisr. It will be interesting and usid'nl. too. to settle the qu-stion of the Hag netic l'ole. We may possibly learn something of the past hi-tory'of the human race, for it is not improbable that this frigid region was once the home of men. And perlians a great deposit of gold or silver will he found and the discoverers come home worth millions of punds.