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THE JACKSON-HARMSWORTH EXPEDITION

It was, no doubt, the success which attended Mr Leigh Smith's expedition that first directed the attention of another well-known English explorer, Mr F. G. Jackson, to Franz Josef Land, and led him to think seriously of undertaking an expedition thither, with a view partly to surveying that still almost unknown country and partly to pushing on, if possible, another step towards the Pole.

Mr Jackson first published the plans of his proposed journey in 1892, but, though they were very generally approved by those who were experienced in Arctic research, no one seemed particularly anxious to provide the necessary funds. Accordingly, in 1893, he determined to undertake an expedition to the Yugor Straits, with the double object of exploring Waigatz Island and of testing the equipment which he proposed to use on his voyage to Franz Josef Land. His trip was attended by complete success, and when he had accomplished the task which he had set himself, he determined to extend his journey round the White Sea and through Lapland, in order that he might become conversant with the ways of the Laps as well as with those of the Samoyads, with whom he had been travelling. We may mention incidentally that it was on this journey that he first learnt the value of the hardy Russian ponies which proved of such inestimable service to him on his later expedition.

It was while he was still far from home that he received a telegram conveying the welcome news that Mr Alfred Harmsworth had generously undertaken to provide the funds for the journey to Franz Josef Land of which he hoped such great things. He did not return to England immediately, thinking that the objects of his new expedition would be better served if he were to continue his investigations in Lapland. These completed, he hurried back and instantly set about his preparations for his forthcoming campaign.

The winter passed without incident, and as soon as spring came round they set about trying their sledges and making preparations for their first journey of exploration. This was begun on April 16, and in the course of it Jackson and his two companions, Lieutenant Armitage and Blonkvist, pushed north as far as Back Island, where Nansen and Johansen were destined to build their winter hut four months later. They were prevented from going much further, however, by the fact that their way led them through a mixture of snow and mud, which their ponies were quite unable to negotiate; accordingly there was nothing for them to do but to make their way home to Elmwood House.

Meanwhile Jackson and his companions, having been foiled in their attempt to penetrate far to the north, turned their attention to the vast tract of undiscovered country which lay to the west of them, and they spent the rest of the summer in exploring and mapping out Alexandra Land as far as Cape Mary Harmsworth.

Two serious losses befell them during their second winter at Cape Flora, in that one of their ponies was found hanged in its stable one morning, while another fell sick and died. Otherwise, however, the winter months passed without incident.

The spring was spent in another trip north along the shores of British Channel, during the course of which Jackson and his companions added islands and capes innumerable to the map of Franz Josef Land. Their discoveries, however, though of great geographic value, need not be recorded at length here, and it was not until June 17 that an event occurred of which we must give any detailed account. We leave Mr Jackson to tell the story in his own words.

"Just after dinner," he writes, "Armitage came rushing down to tell me that through his field-glass he could see a man on the floe to the S.S.E. of Cape Flora, about four miles off. I could hardly believe it; such a thing seemed utterly impossible, and thought he had mistaken a walrus on the ice for a man, but having got a glass I could see he was correct. I could also make out somewhat indistinctly a staff or mast, with another man apparently standing near it close to the water's edge. It occurred then to me that it might be one of my own men, although they had all been at dinner a few minutes before, but I, however, found that all were present. I got a gun with all speed, and firing off a shot on the bank to endeavour to arrest the stranger's attention, I started off to meet him coming across the ice.... On our approaching each other, about three miles distant from the land, I saw a tall man on ski with roughly-made clothes and an old felt hat on his head. He was covered with oil and grease, and black from head to foot. I at once concluded from his wearing ski that he was no English sailor, but that he must be a man from some Norwegian walrus sloop who had come to grief and wintered somewhere on Franz Josef Land in very rough circumstances. His hair was very long and dirty, his complexion appeared to be fair, but dirt prevented me from being sure on this point, and his beard was straggly and dirty also. We shook hands heartily, and I expressed the greatest pleasure at seeing him. I inquired if he had a ship. 'No,' he replied, 'my ship is not here'--rather sadly I thought--and then he remarked, in reply to my question, that he had only one companion, who was at the floe edge. It then struck me that his features, in spite of the black grease and long hair and beard, resembled Nansen, whom I had met once in London before he started in 1893, and I exclaimed:--

"'Aren't you Nansen?'

"To which he replied:--

"'Yes, I am Nansen.'

Such, then, was the unexpected meeting between two explorers who were both trying from different directions to solve the problem of the frozen north. It was as well for Nansen and his companion that that meeting took place, for they had to confess that they were hopelessly lost, and small wonder, for Payer's map of the north of Franz Josef Land was quite unrecognisable, while, as their watches had run down, they were unable to discover their longitude. Now, however, their troubles were at an end, and they were saved from the necessity of attempting that awful voyage to Spitzbergen in two frail kayacks, a voyage which must almost inevitably have resulted in their deaths.

Jackson lost no time in taking the two weary travellers back to his hut, where they were refreshed with a good meal and a wash and brush up--the first in which they had been able to indulge for a year. We are told that so begrimed were they after their journey, that the first application of soap and water had almost as little effect upon them as it had upon the historic tramp who washed and washed till he came to a flannel shirt. Time and honest endeavour, however, made their due impression, and Nansen and Johansen were soon able to boast that they cut as respectable figures as any of their companions.

During the ensuing year Jackson continued his exploration of the new land, and his labours were always attended by the happiest results. The sum of them was to prove that it consisted of a cluster of islands, separated from one another by channels in which ran exceedingly rapid currents. These currents, keeping the ice constantly in motion, often made travelling exceedingly difficult, but they ensured open waterways, in which walruses abounded. He further proved that several countries hitherto marked on the maps, such as Gillies and King Oscar Lands, did not exist at all, and made countless scientific observations of the greatest value.

NANSEN AND THE "FRAM"

A careful study of the history of Arctic travel had convinced Nansen that the routes by which most of his predecessors had attempted to reach the North Pole were either impracticable or else beset by such difficulties that he who could overcome them would be fortunate indeed. Vessels attempting to penetrate far to the north had always been stopped by an impenetrable barrier of ice. Travellers trying to make the journey by sledge had found the ice so rough and the movements of the pack so disconcerting, that they had been invariably compelled to turn back before they were very far on their way, while, so far as has yet been discovered, there is no land in a sufficiently northerly latitude to form a suitable base.

The venture was rash almost to the verge of madness, but Nansen and Johansen entered upon it with such spirit and pluck that they succeeded in carrying it through successfully, though not without suffering fearful hardships. High-piled ridges of ice, on the slopes and summits of which the snow never had time to collect, were constantly forming in their path, and over these the men had to drag the sledges while the dogs, who did not care for that kind of amusement, sat down and looked on. To their great disappointment, too, the ice grew worse and worse as they journeyed north, till at last, on April 7, Nansen climbed to the top of the highest point that he could find, and saw nothing but packed, piled-up ice right on to the horizon, looking, as he says, "like a rough sea that had been petrified." Such being the case, he came to the conclusion that it would be folly to continue the struggle, so, having reached lat. 86? 14? N., the farthest point attained up till then, he and Johansen determined to turn south and make for Franz Joseph Land.

Soon after they had started on the return journey they came upon better ice and progressed rather more rapidly. Unfortunately, however, in their anxiety to push on, they occasionally made inordinately long marches, with the result that, when they halted for the night on April 12, more than thirty-six hours had elapsed since they last pitched their tents, and their watches had run down. They were able to make a reasonably good guess at the time, but from that day onward they were never able to obtain their longitude with any certainty.

It was while they were preparing to negotiate an open lead that an incident happened which almost cost Johansen his life. Nansen was busy with his kayack, which he was holding with one hand to prevent it from slipping into the water, when he heard a scuffle behind him, and Johansen's voice cried out, "Take the gun!"

Looking round, he saw that an enormous bear was throwing itself on his companion, who was lying on his back. He tried to seize his gun, which was lying on the fore-deck, but the kayack slipped out of his grasp into the water. "You must look sharp if you want to be in time," said Johansen quite quietly, and Nansen, making a supreme effort, just managed to clutch his gun and shoot the bear before it was on its prey.

They had nothing whatever to do, so for twenty hours out of the twenty-four they remained in bed, which, consisting as it did of huge, hard stones, was not particularly comfortable. Christmas Day they celebrated by turning their shirts inside out. Their clothes, by the way, were always a source of worry, for washing was a problem which they were quite unable to solve. They succeeded in keeping their persons fairly clean, partly by scraping themselves with knives and partly by rubbing in bear's fat and wiping it off with moss; but though they tried the effect of boiling their underclothing and then scraping it with a knife, the plan did not answer very well, and they pined for a cake of soap.

On May 19 they started off once more, and managed to make fairly good progress either on the ice or in open water. They had one or two accidents, one of which might have resulted disastrously, for the kayack which had their provisions and guns on board started off on a voyage on its own account, leaving them on shore. Nansen was obliged to swim after it, and became so exhausted in the struggle with the bitter water that he was only just able to reach it and scramble over the gunwale. Their troubles, however, were now at an end, for, when preparing breakfast one morning, Nansen heard dogs barking. At first he could hardly believe his ears, but the sound came nearer and nearer till at last there could be no doubt about it. Rushing off on his skis to learn the solution of the mystery, he met F. G. Jackson, from whom he received the warmest welcome. As, however, we have described the meeting in the chapter devoted to the Jackson expedition, we need not dwell on it again here.

CONWAY AND ANDR?E

Though Nordenski?ld had succeeded in exploring North-East Land pretty thoroughly, and had shown that it is practically nothing but one large ice-field, for many years very little attention had been given to West Spitzbergen, and up till the end of last century nothing whatever was known about its formation or its geographical features. In 1896, however, the famous mountaineer, Sir Martin Conway, seeking for fresh worlds to conquer, decided to repair thither himself and to elucidate once and for all the mystery that surrounded that part of the world.

Information concerning the nature of the regions over which he proposed to travel was, of course, difficult to obtain. However he read all the literature that existed upon the subject, and having equipped himself with the Nansen sledges and ponies which, he gathered, would be absolutely essential for success, he started off on his travels with a party consisting of Mr E. J. Garwood, his photographer, Dr Gregory, the geologist, Trevor Battye, the ornithologist, and, as artist, his nephew, H. E. Conway.

Leaving three members of his party to prosecute their scientific researches near the coast, Conway and Mr Garwood set off on their journey across the island on June 20. It was not long before they discovered that their sledges and ponies were nothing but a handicap. They had expected, of course, to find the interior covered by a great ice-sheet like that of North-East Land. They actually discovered it to be a land of temperate climate, intersected by green mountains and boggy valleys, which were kept in a condition of perpetual stickiness by the constant rain. In the mud thus formed the ponies were always sinking, and many arduous hours were spent every day in digging or pulling them out.

Conway had meant to make a hurried scamper across the island and back again. He found, however, that the island was in a process of mountain manufacture, and that the ca?ons in which the interior abounded, slowly eating their way into the ridges, were converting them by degrees into isolated peaks. This process he found so interesting that he determined to change his plans, and he accordingly travelled slowly on, over the magnificent Ivory Glacier, down to Fouls Bay, and then back by a route that differed slightly from that of his outward journey.

Sir Martin Conway paid another visit to Spitzbergen in the following year, on which he was again accompanied by Mr Garwood. On this occasion the two explorers occupied themselves chiefly with studying the formation of the glaciers.

As we have just seen, while Conway was making the first crossing of Spitzbergen, Andr?e was waiting for an opportunity to start on the daring but ill-fated Expedition for the discovery of the North Pole, by which his name will always live in the annals of Arctic exploration. Andr?e was a Swedish engineer and an aeronaut of unusual skill and enterprise, and it was the success of his attempt to cross the Baltic in a balloon that led him to think seriously of embarking upon that project which was to cost him his life. The idea was, it must be confessed, exceedingly tempting, and sounded feasible enough. A steady south wind would waft a balloon in a few hours to a point which a traveller over the ice could only reach after weeks of strenuous labour, and Andr?e had every reason to hope that within a very short time of his departure from Spitzbergen he would be hanging suspended over the Pole itself.

The project, though its extreme rashness was not to be denied, commended itself to many, and the aeronaut had little difficulty in obtaining the necessary funds, among those who contributed to them being the King of Sweden, the late Alfred Nobel, and Baron Dickson. The construction of the balloon was entrusted to Lachambre of Paris. The material used was Chinese Pongee silk, cemented together in double, threefold, and fourfold layers, and covered with a coating of special varnish. Its cubical contents were 158,294 feet.

It was to be guided by a sail fitted with guide ropes which would drag along the ground and prevent the balloon from being driven at the full force of the wind. The difference between the velocity of the wind and of the retarded balloon was to be utilised for steering. On trial the plan was found to answer very well.

On May 30 he was back at Danes Island once more with his balloon, which had been undergoing sundry modifications during the winter. The house had fallen somewhat into disrepair, but it was soon put in order, and the inflation of the balloon, which was begun on June 19, was finished at midnight on the 22nd. Everything was now ready for a start, and on Sunday, July 11, Andr?e decided to take advantage of a stiff breeze which had set in from the south. Standing in the car with his two companions, Fraenkel and Strindberg, he gave the orders for the ropes to be cut. The balloon rapidly ascended, to a height of 600 feet, and, after a temporary drop, floated away north over the flat peninsula of Hollaendernaes. It remained visible to those at Danes Island for about an hour. Then it disappeared over the northern horizon, never to be seen again.

Many expeditions were sent out to their rescue, and reports were brought in by natives of shots heard upon the ice and figures seen on the drifting floes. Fishermen, too, said that they had heard cries for help, and that they had seen what looked like a deflated balloon drifting on the sea. But, carefully though these clues were followed, they came to nothing, and it can only be supposed that, descending on some vast ice-field far from human aid, probably somewhere between Spitzbergen, Nova Zembla, and Siberia, the unfortunate men perished miserably of starvation and exposure.

THE LATER VOYAGES OF SVERDRUP AND PEARY

Sverdrup's voyage was unrelieved by any very sensational or exciting incidents, but the work that he did during those four years was admirable. He mapped out the west coast of Ellesmere Land--a most arduous task, as it is broken up by a singularly intricate system of fiords--he discovered three large islands west of that land, he explored North Devon and the northern shores of North Cornwall and Findlay Island, and he proved that land existed north of the Parry Islands, a point on which diverse opinions had hitherto been held. Consequently, though he never reached the northern shores of Greenland for which he had set out, he had no reason to be dissatisfied with the result of his journey.

On December 20, when the winter, that is to say, was at its worst, he started off with six men and thirty dogs on a singularly unattractive journey to Fort Conger. The darkness was intense, the weather was bad and the way lay through most unpleasant places, but they stumbled on over the rough ice as best they could, and on January 6 they succeeded in reaching their destination. Peary, unfortunately, had to pay for his boldness in thus facing the Arctic winter, for he found, on arriving at the Fort, that both his feet were so badly frost-bitten that he was unable to walk, and when the time came to turn he had to be lashed to a sledge and dragged the whole way home. Worse, however, was to come, for the doctor found it necessary to amputate eight of his toes on his arrival at the ship in March, and Peary felt the effects of the operation for a long while afterwards. But he was not the sort of man to give in even to such a disaster as this, and in the early summer he insisted on making another trip to Fort Conger, in spite of the pain that walking over the hummocky ice caused him.

During the latter part of the winter Peary and his whole party left Etah for Fort Conger, which they succeeded in reaching by the end of March. After a few days' rest the commander, with some of his Eskimos, started off on what was to be the great event of the summer--a journey round the north coast of Greenland. The way was exceedingly rough, and days were often spent in the arduous work of hewing a way for the sledges through the rugged ice. Determination, however, made light of the great difficulties, and they pushed gamely on past Lockwood's farthest point and round the north coast of Hazen Land, till, on May 19, Peary's eyes were gladdened by a fleeting glimpse of a mountain of peculiar shape, which he recognised as the peak that he had seen rising proudly to the north when, in 1895, he stood on the ice-cap south of Independence Bay. Unfortunately, a heavy fog came down upon the party, and they were prevented from exploring the rest of the Bay before lack of provisions obliged them to start for home two days later.

"The game is off. My dream of sixteen years is ended. It cleared during the night and we got under way this morning. Deep snow. Two small old floes. Then came another region of old rubble and deep snow. A survey from the top of a pinnacle showed this extended north, east and west as far as could be seen. The two old floes over which we had just come were the only ones in sight. It is impracticable and I gave the order to camp. I have made the best fight I knew; and I believe it has been a good one."

OTHER RECENT EXPEDITIONS--ABRUZZI, WELLMANN AND TOLL

The winter was spent in making such short expeditions as the weather permitted, and it was while he was away on one of these that the Duke had the misfortune to be caught in a snowstorm, during which two of his fingers were so badly frost-bitten, that they had to be amputated. This was particularly unlucky for him, as the wound had not sufficiently healed by the beginning of March to allow him to take part in the great sledge expedition which was to be the chief feature of the voyage. The command was, accordingly, entrusted to Captain Cagni, who started out on the 13th with general instructions to push as far north as he could. During the early part of his journey he was accompanied by two supporting parties, on whose stock of provisions he and his men were to subsist for as long as possible, in order that his own little store might remain intact until he was well on his way. The first of these parties to leave him was that conducted by Lieutenant Quirini, and it was never heard of again. The Duke sent out search parties in every direction, but not a trace of their missing comrades could they find, and it can only be supposed that they either fell down in a crevasse, or were overtaken by a storm, and frozen to death.

In the meanwhile, Cagni and his three companions pushed on northward as rapidly as possible. They found the ice comparatively smooth, and by April 25 they had reached lat. 86? 33?, thus beating Nansen's record by some thirty miles. Unfortunately their provisions began to give out, and they were compelled to beat a hasty retreat. The outward journey had been a comparatively simple matter, but on their homeward way they were beset by all sorts of unexpected difficulties which brought them to the very verge of starvation. The field of ice over which they were travelling was constantly drifting in a westerly direction, carrying them further and further from the bay which they were trying to reach. Leads were always opening ahead of them, which had to be crossed by some means or other, but, though they had kayacks with them, these had been so damaged as that they were hardly seaworthy, while it was often quite impossible to use them amidst the constantly shifting ice. On several occasions Cagni had to cross a channel on a small piece of floe, taking with him a rope by which his companions, with their impedimenta, were towed across on a larger block, while once a short voyage was made on a large sheet of ice which was propelled by means of the sails of the kayacks. Moreover, their provisions were getting very low, and for the last fortnight of their voyage they were obliged to subsist entirely on their dogs. Of the eighty with which they started out on their journey, only six remained when at last they reached the ship.

Undiscouraged by his first experiences, Wellmann started out again in 1898 with a view to completing the exploration of Franz Josef Land. Reaching Cape Flora on July 28, he found Jackson's houses still in perfect condition, and, acting with Sir Alfred Harmsworth's permission, he proceeded to transfer one of them to Cape Tegetthoff, which he proposed to make his headquarters. During the next few months he succeeded in mapping out much of that part of Franz Josef Land which was still unknown, and he would doubtless have accomplished more had he not unfortunately fallen down a small crevasse and injured his leg so severely that he was obliged to order a retreat.

At the present moment Mr Wellmann is considering a plan for reaching the North Pole by airship, in which he hopes to have the co-operation of M. Santos-Dumont.

Profiting by the advance of science and the experiences of their predecessors, Arctic explorers have, of course, reduced the danger of travelling in the frozen regions to a minimum, and it is very rarely that an expedition ends in tragedy. In recent years, indeed, with the exception of Captain Cagni and his party who perished during the Duke of the Abruzzi's expedition, only four men, Baron Toll, F. G. Seeberg, and their two hunters, have lost their lives in the cause of science in the Arctic regions.

M. Brusneff is of opinion that they must have perished on their way across from Bennett Island to New Siberia. Before they could have reached the end of that journey the weather was becoming cold and ice must have been forming upon the sea, making it impossible for them to cross it in their boats. They had only provisions for a fortnight or three weeks, and little prospect of adding to their supplies, while, to make matters worse, they had no warm clothing with them. It is to be feared that the latest victims claimed by the Arctic regions must have suffered severely before death brought them release from their troubles and robbed the world of two of its ablest and most enthusiastic men of science.

So ends the story of Arctic exploration up to the present time. Those who have read these pages cannot fail to have been impressed by the gallantry with which generations of brave men have willingly faced, in the cause of science, the terrible privations and sufferings only to be met with in the frozen North, or to have felt proud of the part which Great Britain has played in solving the secrets of the Polar regions. Yet, dangerous though the service unquestionably is, it is a fact that at no time in the whole of its history has the death-rate among those engaged in it exceeded the average death-rate of the navy, while so immense has been the advance made in the science of Arctic travel during recent years that the risks attending it have now been reduced to a minimum.

Much has been accomplished, but much still remains to be done. There is around the Pole a tract of over two million square miles which have never yet been visited by a human being, and there can be no doubt that if this tract can be made to give up its secrets the world of science will profit immensely. The Pole itself still remains to be conquered, and though it is difficult at present to see how that terribly arduous journey over the rough seas of palaeocrystic ice is to be accomplished, science will doubtless find a way. Of this, at any rate, we may be sure; so long as the Pole retains a single secret, there will not be wanting brave men who will gladly go through any dangers, and suffer any privations, if they can but wrest it from its prison of ice.

INDEX

Adam, 54.

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