Arctic Exploration.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 23, 5 June 1902, Page 18

Arctic Exploration.

Whatever may be the value of the narrative that tells of the discovery of the remains of the Andree expedition in search of the North Pole, the melancholy certainty is now inevitable that the intrepid aeronaut and his companions have perished, and have added their names to the long list of those who have failed. The first recorded attempt to reach the North Pole was made by Bardson in 1349, and since that date no fewer than 37 expeditions have set out. Nansen'a attempt in 1893 was the one whioh attained the point nearest to the coveted goal, but since that attempt Peary, the Duke

of Abruzzi, and now Andree have sought to place tbeir feet upon the northern axis of the globe. Nansen once said, when questioned as co the motive for planting the standard of discovery on the deasiderated spot, that his sole desire was not to see a pendulum beating at au angle of 90 degrees, and this quasi Boientiflo remark produced a multitude of conjectures as to its meaning. It is a fact that a pendulum beats in the same plane always in relation to the centre of the earth. If it were possible, then, to suspend a pendulum right over the axis of the earth, it wonld be found that when the earth had completed half a revolution the pendulum would beat at a right angle to a line drawn upon the surface. This waa what Nansen meant, but the sight would be merely the gratification of an idle ouriosity. The discovery and exaot location of the North Pole mean more than this. The use of Polar exploration is not that it promises any immediate return of foodi or gold, or land, but that it adds to the sum of human knowledge' Observations on terrestrial magnetism have enabled aoientifio men to make progress in working out the laws whioh govern the move* ments of the magnetic pole and the ohanges of magnetism whioh affect the compass of every Bhip that ploughs the deep. Polar observations are enabling men to compare and test the theories about the origin of weather changes, and are thus aiding towards the determination of the true laws of storm and cold waves, whioh knowledge may in time be worth millions of poundß to the world. Polar observations have also added much to the knowledge of the life of plants and animals under extreme conditions. It is also found that bacterial life, such as that from which most diseases are derived, does not and perhaps cannot, exist in the polar regions ; bo that Nansen suggested that this region may be the future sanatorium of the human life.