THE POLAR WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 187, 11 September 1909, Page 2

THE POLAR WAR.

ECLIPSING ALL OTHER TOPICS A CAMPAIGN OK VITUPERATION. WHO IS "NAILED"? PEAKY ALLEGED TO BE A COLOSSAL FAKER GRAVE CHARGES. By Gable.—Press Association.—Copyriga Received 10. 10.40 p.m. New York, Sepember 10. The Polar war is eclipsing all other topics in America,' where the partisans of Commander Peary and Dr. Cook are engaging in a campaign of vituperation. Mr. Osbora, secretary of the Arctic Club of America, threatens that when Commander Peary sets foot in Ne-v York he will have affidavits and facts published stamping Commander Peary as the most colossal faker that America ever produced. He alleges that he has on affidavit proving that Commander Peary opened Dr. Cook's trunk and read his observations and opened a letter | addressed to Mrs. Cook.

DENMARK DECORATES DR COOK THE TWO ESQUIMAUX TO BE SENT FOE. TO BE EXAMINED BY UNBIASSED JUDGES. Received 10. 10.40 p.m. Copenhagen, September 10. The Copenhagen University conferred the doctor degree upon Dr. Cook. There was a brilliant and representative gathering, including the Crown Prince and other members of the. Koyal Family, Otto Svcrdrup, of Fram fame, Ministers for Instruction and Commerce, and Die United States Minister. Dr. Cook etated that he intended to send for and fetch the two GrecnlandfiTß who accompanied him on his journey *o the Pole in order to have them examined by unbiassed judges.

PEARY'S ALLEGATIONS. TJR.. COOK'S REJOINDER. London, September 0. Dr. Cook states that lie will not dograde himself to answer Commander Peary's allegations, and that his denial will not be forthcoming until the accusation is based on scientfic data. He is willing himself to lay his observations before a council of scientists of all naI tic™. I Esquimaux wero not nomads, and <vere not Peary's nor his property. Dr. Cook says ho paid them ten-fold what they asked. 1 MESSAGE TO PRESIDENT TAFT THE POLE PLACED AIT HIS DISPOSAL. Newi York, September 9. Commander Peary telegraphed to President Taft:—"l have the honor to place the North Pole at your disposal." 'President Taft replied: "Thanks for the interesting and generous offer. J do no know exactly what to do with it. I congratulate you sincerely."

A BRITISH CLAIM. London, September 0. Home and Canadian papers arc already claiming the North Polo under oil boundary arrangements. THE NORTH POLE. THE WORTH OF IT. SCIENTIFIC IMPORTANCE OF THE RESEARCH. PROFESSOR DAVID'S VIEWS. "If the North Pole has really been discovered," said Professor David, when interviewed at Sydney on Friday last, after the receipt of news of Dr. Cook's achievement, "and if there is land near it, the discovery will have considerable scientific value. In the first place, the geographical poles are in tEeory great distinguishing centres of the earth's atmosphere. At the poles, according to theory, Ehe air which has arrived there by a path high overhead from the Equator, descends to earth, "and then blows back Equatorwards. The poles are* hubs of the atmospheric universe, ai well as 'being the axles of the earth's rotation. "No one has yet been near enough to the North Pole to find whether there is any truth in the theory.' So our scientists' first questions would be as t J the atmospheric preesuro and humidity and the direction and speed of the -air currents in the different zones passed through on the way to the Pole. The answers to these questions would help in determining the question of atmospheric circulation, and woiffil be a most important contribution to meteorology. They would ultimately help towards accuracy in weather-forecasting. WARMER AIR AT THE POLES.

"It would be most interesting to knov the actual temperature at the Pole Many scientists have held that the pole are not necessarily the coldest parts o the earth. The temperature thore woiili be raised, they think, by the rapid de scent of the air carried up from thi Equator still keeping some of its hcaf beveral romances based on this thcor have shown the climate at the Polo i mild enough for all sorts of plants am animab and man. But it is citremel unlikely that the temperature would b much higher flan that of latitudes : little further south." Professor David explained that thi peat polar air vortex might bo aboa ono hundred miles across. But it won' be over the Pole itself. That would onh happen, said Professor David, if all lb' land and water were distributed evenli along the parallels of latitude. Which of course, th'ey are not. "The upper atmosphere probably doei carry a good deal of heat with it fron Uio Equator, at leas? to the Soutl role, Professor David went on; "be cause during violent blizzards, when the atmospheric circulation is much acceler. ated there is always a good rise in temperature The Shackfeton expedition found that from ten to twcnty.four hours a%r the wind began to blow the temperature would rise 30 or 40 de CT ces Fahrenheit. Part of this rise would bo due to latent heat set free when the moisture of tho air from the Equa or was converted into .snow on reaching the Pole. But the rise would be due in the main to the warmth of the air itself LAND POSSIBILITIES. "Again, if there is land at the To r its geological formation would be inter-' esting. In Greenland, and near it, there A» n* ,-T d tOBsU * ,laata w»Wi aZ r„^ w -! s onco temperate there. In thacarhoniferous period—thit is, a little before the Newcastle and Bulh coal measures were formed-thero was plenty of vegetation far within the Aictie circle. And associated with these coal measures are great masses of li™ stone, which show that the seas w™ c warm. For instance, at SpiUbeS there an.seams of very good coal rS the beach. Whalers and steam vaebtl visit them sometimes, though ttevhavn . never been worked commS%. . I was coming back from Lyttclton I met 1 a couple of young fellows who ha. i coaled their yacht from these seams i Spitsbergen only the year before Fossil remains of animals or plant' found atywhere near the Pole," he went en, "would be of intense scicn ifi c X «ear Disko Island, and on flm nnrti. west coast of Greenland, "fold basalls containing iron. The E*Sn", mL? make k - niTOs ' These basalts might crop up again further north OCEAN CURRENTS. NortA 1 * dis " of land at the North Pole would have an important iWngon the Arctic Ocean current,, deduce the laws which regulate olimatc, iwtading snowfall and rainfall.' "Besides, tho discovery of olait nr animal fossils near the Pole migU affect the W-jolar theory of tho tywlopaetf

of life. According to this tbtory lift commenced on Both poles of tie enrtk at once, and spread Equatorwards, Tin assumption is that the earth wa* at oae time too hot about the Equator for Ufa * to exist. The polea would be the firtt "■' spots lo cool, and life would ariie there." "Lieutenant Peary may have also reached Pole." Professor David concluded. "In Antarctica we fully expected that he would have reached It between May aad July of this year. Shackleton was particularly anxious to get to the South Pole for that reason."

A WORD FOE DR. COOK. INTERVIEW WITH ANOTHER ARCTIC TRAVELLER. Captain Rallier du Baty, who was a member of the first Charcot Expedition to the Antarctic, has personal knowledge of Dr. Cook through M. de Gerlache, the Belgian explorer, with whom Dr. Cook served in the Antarctic, M. de Gerlache spoke to him in the highest terms of Dr. Cook, and he is inclined to lend absolute credence to anything said by Dr. Cook. Captain du Baty, interviewed at Melbourne, considered that whatever glory Dr. Gook had achieved, much of it belonged to lieutenant Peary, who made seventeen attempt* along the same route. Dr. Cook served under Lieutenant Peary. Captain du Baty reeently performed a marvellojs | journey in a 40-ton ketch from Fraii-e to Kerguelen Islands, theace to MelI bourne.

Asked about Dr. Cook having been deceived by mirages, Captain du'Baty explained that they are of frequent occurrence in the Polar regions. "8o extraordinary are the errors of light," > said, "that the most curious mistakes are made. One day off Graham'* Land we thought w« saw-a big house, tad it seemed to be miles away. It was bat a box which had been blown away from the Francais, the vessel in which the Charcot Expedition sailed, and it was only about fifty yards off. Captain da Baty, still referring to mirages, .said that sometimes they made an object look much further off than it really 11. "Dr. Cook," said Captain, dn Baty, "referred to daily astronomical observations. We did the same in the Antarctic,' usually choosing midday for the task. The ordinary theodolite is used, with an artificial horizon." Captain dn Baty spoke feelingly of Dr. Cook's Information about the extreme cold which he experienced, "It was bad enough,'' he said, "off Graham's Land, where, dur. ing the winter, the ordinary temperature is 40deg. centigrade below teioj and this has led to a somewhat illcouraging remark by our French savant, M, Levasseur, who describes the temperature as the lowest that has beta registered. I am of opinion that a lower temperature baa been registered in Siberia, and, moreover, it has always been understood that lower temperatures exist than is the case in the dose neighborhood of the Pole. We suffered enough with 40deg. centigrade below , zero, and the cold which Dr. Cook experienced must have been terrible, as* pecially so with a strong wind. Is cam weather we did not feel the extreme cold nearly as badly aa when it blew hard. Where Dr. Cook was lucky was to have his eskimos with him. "

"Our dogs were hardly any goed la us in the Antarctic, because we could \, ■never learn to drive them properly. One * Eskimo can drive a team of twenty ''* dogs. Dr. Cook talks of having been r ' astonished to find land ice. This to easily distinguishable, because it is entrusted with stenes hence the term 'land ice.'"

Asked to explain what Dr. Conk meant by describing blowholes in the ice as the last signs of solid sarth, Da Baty said that the explanation wu simple. "The blowholes," ho stated, "in made by the seals for respiratory purnoses. Wo made holes in the ice to catch fish, and sometimes we »were antprised to sec the head of a great big seal pushing up through the hole. It was easier for the seals to use our holes than to make them themselves. Their '" usual way of making holes is to UH their teeth. This is how Eskimos catch *' seals. They make holes fn the iee, and ' directly the seal puts in an appearance, off goes the harpoon. The holes made by the seals are a sure sign of land being near, as seals as a rule do i«i wander very far from shore." It was mentioned td Captain du Baty that some of the places described by Dr. Cook could not be found in any of the maps that were available. "IWs W n ot astonishing," he explained, "because two explorers —Peary and Sverdroep —1» ccntly coined a number of new names, and these do not appear as vet on »ut map." • In May of lOoWieNew York Trfbune, in reporting the Interaationnl jolar Congress at Brussels, said! "The fact was disclosed that an American was preparing to. undertake an expedition to the South Pole in 1910 upon plans worked out by Lieutenant Peary The latter, however, is not to take part m the expedition. . . The identity of the American who i« to make the voyage Jims not been revealed." The American referred to must bt> of course. Dr. Cook. '